Once I got home from skiing, and started going to real work again, I felt I had made a couple of breakthroughs. Not just slow incremental progress, but a step increase in intensity. My triathlon training did not have the same sudden jump, but I did do some testing (as part of my regular training program) so I could gauge my status relative to last year.
And the news is good. I am following the same run program as last year. My workouts, which include both treadmill sprints and outdoor efforts, are being done at the same speed and distance in 2011 as 2011. Woo-hoo! My strongest triathlon discipline, running, has shown absolutely NO ill effects from getting slammed into the back of a pick-up truck head first. Which makes some sense I guess; my legs weren’t affected except for two mysterious chunks of skin gouged out of my right thigh.
My bike test is harder to compare. The program I’m doing is different in detail from last year, so I can’t really compare exact workouts. But the ones I can compare show me going last year at 5-10% higher wattage at a 5-10% higher heart rate. Which means I was willing to make myself work harder last year than I’ve done so far this year.
The test itself is also a bit hard to compare. Both tests were done on the same machine, in the same way, but with different power meters. As best as I can figure, compare the readings of the two meters for the same workout, my current power meter reads 4% higher than the one I used last year. Since my tests both had the exact same wattage number, that means I’m 4% below where I was this time last year in my cycling strength. Not so woo-hoo, but getting there. If I can just raise my effort level to where I was last year, I should lose little if anything. Next test in 2 weeks; between then and now, I will pump up the volume on the workouts even more, to see if I can get the boost I need.
And swimming … well, there is a lot of room for improvement there, and I do not have faith I can get back to where I was before, at least not in the foreseeable future. For now, I’m just concentrating in very slowly increasing my volume, and working just hard enough so I don’t break the remaining muscles I have left in my arms. Time wise, I think I’m about 10-12% slower than I was last August. But I’m not really focusing too much on time, just on getting a little longer and stronger every time I swim, 3 times a week.
I think I’ve gone from swimming being my best sport in triathlon, the one I needed to work the least on, to being my worst, the one I need to work the most on. It’s a big up-ender for me, and makes me want to quit or cry or both at least once every time I go swimming. But I will take the Woody Allen approach: 90% of success will be just showing up. Add the yards, and the minutes, and even if I have to swim twice as much as I used to, that will be about the same as most people usually do in triathlon training. I will have to get used to being normal, and not exceptional. Character building.
Anyway, last Saturday was my 6 month anniversary, and all in all I think I’ve come along fairly well: skiing, working, biking, running, and swimming. Now I just have to get out and RACE AGAIN!!! I hope to try a 5K next Saturday. Another scary prospect.
Good deal Al. Robin