A Week of My Training Life

Last year, I wrote up a training week from April and it seemed pretty popular here on Slowtwitch. So, I thought I’d make a tradition of that. Below is another log of all my training from April 10th – 16th . Similar to last year, I’m just coming out of the most consistent training I’ll probably have all year. April is the last big training push before we really get into racing and all the travel and time zone changes that come with it.

The log below is a Monday to Sunday, because that’s how I frame my weeks. This particular weekly structure is one that I’ve followed for a number of weeks straight, but the specifics of the workouts are always changing. I rarely repeat workouts exactly. With this structure, Monday is my “easy” day, followed by a lot of work Tuesday and Wednesday, an easier Thursday, and hard sessions Friday through Sunday. I really like how I feel with that weekly flow. Wednesday’s longer run and ride together would definitely be my favorite training day of the week.

April 10-16
Totals: 22:50 hrs + 2 hrs strength
Swim: 19,000 meters, short course meter pool
Bike: 12:15 hrs (182 miles)
Run: 4:48 hrs (35 miles)

Monday
Swim: 4000 meters, main set: 2x (8×100 high aerobic @1:25, 100 easy @2:40)
*notes: I swam the 100s in 1:18-1:19, basically the goal here is to go as quick as I can while keeping my breathing relaxed.

Strength: I went for an initial assessment with a new strength coach. I’ve never used a strength coach before and it’s something I’m really excited to try out.

Tuesday
Swim: 4000 meters, main set: 8×50 fast @1:00, 200 easy, 8×50 fast @1:00, 400 easy, 6×100 steady/strong @1:30

*notes: I joined some other athletes for this speed workout. I swam the 50s in :34 and the 100s in 1:16.

Bike: 2hr20m, main set: 6x 30 seconds hard seated/90 seconds recovery, then 3×15 minute hills/descend for recovery

*notes: I averaged 300 watts for the 30 seconds and averaged 218 watts for the 15 min climbs. Honestly, I definitely didn’t do the best job with this workout. Even though I’m giving you my watts here, I actually do most of my training based on heart rate and pay little attention to power in the moment. However, on this day my heart rate monitor broke, so I was guessing at the effort level I was supposed to hit. Also it was randomly super hot outside.

Run: 40min, easy

Wednesday
Run: 87 min, 3×24 min easy run/1 min walk, 12x 20 second stride/40 second walk
*notes: Drove to start this run and ran on a nice dirt path followed by diagonals on a turf field for the strides. I’m channeling Kat Matthews words that the run/walk “is not weak, it’s disciplined” because after an issue this winter I am STILL taking occasional walk breaks on runs.

Bike: 2hr45m, base miles
*notes: I wrote on strava, “it’s fine my legs only hurt for 2 hours of a 2:45 ride”. I was pretty tired for this, but also weirdly enjoy steady cruising on tired legs.

Thursday
Swim: 3500 meters, main set: 3×600 low aerobic, rest 1 minute, #1 with sighting, #2 pick-up every 5th 25, #3 pull

Strength: solo session in the gym

Bike: 1hr45m, super easy riding a mountain bike on some chill dirt paths

Friday
Swim: 4500 meters, main set: 4x (4×50 fast @:50, 100 easy @2:20), 3x (5×100 high aerobic @1:30, 100 easy @2:00)
*notes: My usual Friday swim partner was out of town racing, so I did this one on my own. I swam the 50s in :34-:35 and most of the 100s in 1:17.

Run: 40 min, easy, ran home from the pool directly after swimming

Bike: 90 min, easy
*notes: This was supposed to be a 2 hour ride, but the weather was bad and I thought I could spin around outside on a mountain bike instead of setting up the trainer. In the end it started snowing on me.

Saturday
Run: 40 min, easy

Bike: 3hr45m, base miles with friends, but with 15x 10 seconds sprint/ 50 seconds recovery early in the ride.

Sunday
Run: 75 min, main set: 6x 4 minutes strong/ 1 minute recovery
*notes: I averaged 5:55/mile pace on these. I think I might be the last person in the world who still does many run workouts in normal training shoes, in this case Hoka Cliftons. I ran around
the well-named “toilet bowl loop” in Boulder which is relatively flat.

Swim: 3000 meters, very easy choice swim, I joined a friend for her warm up and then continued to do my own easy swimming.

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