training lately.

Dream big, work hard, stay focused, and surround yourself with good people.

The new year is in full swing, and along with it, training. BIG goals this year, and I couldn’t be happier to be already plugging along toward them. Nothing crazy (yet), but instead that steady rhythm, that hum that sets the pace for the day and for the week. 

Before I dive into training lately, here’s a quick look back at 2015 (tallied from the elaborate training spreadsheet Nick created): 

Swim: 400,820 yards
Bike: 4,478 miles
Run: 1,389 miles 
Total (including yoga + strength): 611 hours

Six hundred eleven hours. What does that even mean?! Broken down that’s 25.5 days of swimbikerun in 2015. Whoa. Looking at it that way really brings it into focus – and, sounds a little daunting. But, like any big task – whether it’s training for an ironman or remodeling your house – breaking it down into pieces keeps it manageable. Focus on one interval, one workout, one day at a time, and boom… it adds up into something bigger. They say 10,000 hours is the magic mastery number… looks like I have a ways to go… 🙂 

swim

After talking about it forever, I finally pulled the trigger and did it – joined a masters swim team. Why did that take me so long?! I’ve been at Hopkins Masters since Thanksgiving, trying to not drown keep up in lane three. In all seriousness, though, masters has been a big leap outside my comfort zone. Swimming was the sport that held me back for years from starting triathlon (because eyebrows); it’s also been the one that’s taken the longest to get comfortable with. I have no issues being hypoxic while biking or running, but in the pool… terrifying. Slowly but surely getting over and being ok with that – and, pretty happy about the 100 pace I’ve been hitting that only a few months ago was laughable (for me). All the bags I pile in my car on masters mornings, though… yikes. And, never mind the frozen suit + towel after sitting in my car at work all day…! 

bike 

I want to ride on Zwift, but I’ve only gotten as far as downloading it onto my laptop. There’s something just so satisfying about good ol’ fashioned trainer rides! Plus, I stare at a computer all day at work, so doing it while biking when I get home from work is the last thing I want to do. Never say never, I know, but for now, it’s just me, my Kinetic and Girl Talk. 

To gauge where my cycling’s at, I did my first FTP test (since August) two weeks ago. The five-minute test… whoa. I forgot just how painfully awful that one is. As in I-wanna-pass-out painful, especially the last 30 seconds. The 20-minute test… give me this one over the five-minute one any day (though I started it a bit too conservatively this go-round). 

And, while both were a smidge below my last tests (on August 26 for the five-minute one, and May 27 for the 20-minute one), I’m ok with where I’m at. It’s January… which means my FTP shouldn’t be higher than where it was when I was in peak shape right before IMCdA or IMWI. And, honestly, given how little interval work I’ve done since regular training resumed in November, I’m kinda surprised where it’s at. That said, there’s work to do – and, I couldn’t be more excited to do it. 

run

Running has been slow and steady. Nothing fancy here, just consistency – as in running six or seven days a week at an easy pace (8:50-9:00 / mile) to build a strong foundation (slow is the new fast, duh). If we’re connected on Strava, you see I repeatedly run the same route. The definition of insanity for some, but I do it for a couple reasons. One, it’s almost always cleared by the city, so I don’t have to worry about giant snowbanks or ice. Two, it’s well lit and where I feel safest running during the dark winter months. And, three, it’s easy in that I don’t have to think hard about planning my routes, which frees up space in my brain as well as the energy to think about other things. A time hack for me for sure. 

Happy swimbikerunning, friends!