It’s that time of year. Training volume is building, fatigue sets in, and you start wondering, “How did I manage all this last summer?”
After a couple weeks at the races, I was excited to get in my first real big training week of the year. This is what it looks like:

My mantras this week were, “I’m tired” and “Training is fun!” “Especially the long rides!” With our pretty fun winter trainer purgatory plan, I sometimes forget how much I miss the long training rides outdoors. This weekend’s ride was glorious. In the coming week, the plan is to rest and cut back on the running to let a little irritation in my left knee heal up.
Weekly Total: March 16-22, 2009

So, the 14hr weekly total is looking pretty good. Alas, I have no GPS system so my total distance data is lacking. Yes, I’m jealous of your cool gismo – No, I’m not paying $500 bucks to get me one. Back to the week, I was particularly pleased to complete the whole training plan with no skipped workouts. The next challenge is adding gym workouts back into the training mix. Coach – take note, I just figured out how to add my own items to the training plan on workoutlog. Athlete is mucking with the program – whoot whoot [chuckle]! School’s almost out too, which means the schedule will take another shake-up.

What a crazy week!  As I look back and reflect, the highlights were getting my big work project done.  And getting it done well.  Unfortunately that meant no workouts Monday – Wednesday.  I probably should have done a better job at communicating with my coach about this event… but really it got to the point where I was barely getting the minimum tasks required to survive done.

By the end of the week, I was back on track with workouts however I wasn’t really feeling 100% recovered until Sunday afternoon.  By Sunday, I started thinking about the marathon next weekend.  I’m excited about the event.  It’s going to be fun, and I’m poised to have a good run.  I’d like to have the type of race that people say, “Wow, you did so well!”.  It’s interesting because I don’t really have a set goal pace or time.  I’m a bit at loss for what to expect.  I’ve only done two marathons in the past.  One was at IronMan (where I ran/walked 4:21) and the other was in Honolulu (where I walked* 4:52).  So technically, this is my first running marathon.  I think that means that I’m out to set a Personal Best.  Yeah, that’s my goal!  I’m going to go out there with the goal of setting a personal best.

*In case you didn’t know, I used to be a competitive racewalker who spent 10+ years competing and coaching at National/International level.  The Honolulu marathon was a very cool experience for me.  I placed 2nd overall in the racewalk division… and even cooler was that I went on the trip as a Coach for the Arthritis Society.  As part of that summer I designed and coached a marathon training program for the group, and then travelled with them to do the marathon.  It was pretty much my best summer job, ever.  After I finished my race, I lay down under a palm tree to have a snooze.  After my snooze, I watched my group of athletes (all regular folks walking their first marathon) finish the race between 6-8hrs.  I cried multiple times.  It was a moving experience watching these people transform their lives and finish something they never thought they could do.  Especially since I spent the whole summer with them training, coaching, and getting to know them.

Anyways back to the weekly totals, pretty small – and no intensity, since I was feeling overworked and sick.  But looking ahead, it’s going to be a good week.

I’ve been preparing an intense teaching project. I do this every year at mid-February… and every year it almost kills me. I worked all weekend, including Valentines and Feb 15th – Torbin and my 9th anniversary. Every year, I need to ask for a “Christmas in July” pass for our anniversary because of this same teaching project. As well, it was the first weekend of sunshine … and I was indoors working. It must be worth it, right? Right?

Looking back at the week, and considering that I’ve lost count of how many hours I worked this week it’s not surprising that I was sick by Sunday. As well, my weekly training totals are pitiful. Next week, I expect even lower.

Seems obvious, doesn’t it?!  The highlight of this week has to be Bronwyn convincing Teresa and I that we should put our legs in the ocean.  The water was beautifully clear, but really really cold.  I lasted 4 min 38 seconds – and we looked hilarious.  Kit’s beach was full of Kit’s beach-ers and we were bundled in toques, sweatshirts, jackets, and bikini bottoms.  It was awesome.  I think I heard a “What the Hell?” from one of our spectators.  Even though my toes throbbed with cold pain, I do have to admit that my legs felt better (or rather didn’t feel at all) at the post-run ocean ice bath.  3500m in the pool plus a 2hr run does call for drastic recovery measures… but I still think Bronwyn’s crazy.  A 13hr week is not too shabby.  I am finding Friday’s tough (with the late work night on Thursday) but we’ll see how that progresses as I get fitter.

	Type	This Week	Last Week	This Month	Last Month	This Year
	Bike Run Stretch Swim	00:45 01:00	112.0 km 04:41 9.5 km 03:35 01:00 8600.0 m 03:50	112.0 km 08:11 52.9 km 08:17 03:00 16400.0 m 07:20		112.0 km 08:11 52.9 km 08:17 03:00 16400.0 m 07:20
	Total Duration	01:45	13:06	26:48	00:00	26:48

My first week back to a real training routine, and it was crazy fog.  Not in my head, but the weather.  Vancouver never gets fog, but this week we’ve been in the clouds.  Literally.  As for me, and the first real week back, I managed fine.  I was tired on Thursday but that’s to be expected after some quality workouts on Tuesday-Wednesday.  I’m now logging my workouts on a new system called workout log, and this is how it presents the stats.  It should be fun to watch the yearly stats grow.

	Type	This Week	Last Week	This Month	Last Month	This Year
	Bike Run Stretch Swim		02:45 32.3 km 03:17 01:00 4700.0 m 02:00	02:45 43.4 km 04:42 01:00 7800.0 m 03:30		02:45 43.4 km 04:42 01:00 7800.0 m 03:30
	Total Duration	00:00	09:02	11:57	00:00	11:57