WEEKS 5 & 6 AND BRICKS

While still being manageable, the past two weeks brought an increase in training hours and some serious high intensity workouts.  Totals for the weeks were 6 hrs swimming, 5.5 hrs running, 8 hrs biking and 3 hrs strength training.  By far the most gnarly workout was a 90 min run.  It's not the time that is a problem.  I have been routinely running a 2hr weekend run for years.  The problem was the phrase "1 mile at maximum effort with a 5 min recovery followed by 10 200m repeats all out". UGH.  I love to run.  I hate to run fast.  I haven't done speedwork for awhile so I knew this was gonna hurt.  After a 20 min warmup run I took off at my maximum sustainable pace. 8 minutes and 15 sec later I hit a mile.  Not the fastest mile I have ever run but not bad for this give me distance not speed runner.  I was however convinced at this point that I would drop dead any minute.  My heart rate topped out at 175.  I haven't seen it that high in quite a few years.  My avg HR on most runs hovers between 150-156.  I was hauling ass.....my ass.  My 5 min recovery turned into 10 because I still couldn't breathe normally and my heart was still trying to beat itself out of my chest.  By the way recovery here does NOT mean stop and put your feet up.  It means keep on running...just slower.  The 200m repeats were just as nasty. That is about 1/8th of a mile.  SO I pretty much run as fast as I can for around 58 secs then jog back to the start and do it over again 10 times.  By the 5th one the recovery period just isn't enough so you never really fully recover before it is time to take off again.  This brings on that build up of lactic acid and the risk of my legs falling off.  Thankfully that didn't happen.  All of the nastiness above took a little under an hour so I still had 30 more minutes of running to do. There was also a 90 min bike a few days later that featured 3x10 min intervals at 95% of my FTP.  OUCH.  And for good measure we ended the week today with a brick.  A brick is a workout consisting of two different sports done one right after the other.  Usually either a swim/bike or a

No...not these kinds of bricks

bike/run.  The bike/run is the hardest because after spinning in circles for hours and hours your legs aren't quite sure what to do when you all the sudden put weight on them and start pounding the pavement.  They are all confused and punish you by feeling like stiff wooden posts attached to your hips that don't want to go anywhere.  Not a pleasant feeling but these types of workouts help you get used to the feeling and teach you how to make it go away quicker.  Today's brick was a 2hr bike immediately followed by a 30 min run.  While bricks are pretty straightforward in warmer weather when you are riding outside they are a little more labor intensive when the theremometer says this

Yep...it was a balmy 16.9 degrees outside with a windchill of 1.  Yes ONE!!!!  So wearing this outfit on the bike was not going to cut it outside.  A complete wardrobe

I am little concerned about how large my ass look here.  Objects in the mirror may seem bigger than they are.  I hope

change was in order here.  After sweating to death inside for two hours I changed as fast as possible into the outfit below and took off into the 1 degree air.  I was actually hot

after about five minutes but was still very glad I only had to run for a half hr.  Mission accomplished.  Brick completed.  Week 6 completed.  Bring on week 7.  PS  Did anyone notice the foam roller, tennis ball and stick on the floor!!!!!