I am using an integration of Matt Fitzgerald's Training Plan guide (HIM Level 8), in combination with two good friends that give me plenty of swim consulting, bike coaching, and a half-marathon plan that was getting me in check for DC and Atlantic City this weekend. I love planning and lists so I have been having fun tweaking the schedule.
Swimming
This is one area I have been playing with recently. We all know from my race reports that I am not a good swimmer and end up in the back of the pack all the time. I used to say "I just learned" but after 5 years it's time to hang that hat up and get down to business. I decided I needed to spend more quality time in the pool. I am using the Swim workouts in a binder and supplemented with some swims from there in lieu of the boring Training Plan guide swims...Last year, I swam about 2400-2500m per swim (3xweek) compared to this year 2800-3200 (3-4xweek) and FINALLY noticed the difference this past week when I did a time trial and saw a 10 second difference in my 100s from 6 months ago! To me that is significant and I am assuming it is from more swimming and TRX and strength training. Still have lots of work to do, but when I see a change it means something is working.
Biking
I have been biking 4 times a week. I feel like there is a difference but of course, you never know until the race, so all I keep thinking is I can't wait to do Red Bank Olympic in May to see where I am at. I plan on getting myself to Frenchtown, NJ in a couple weeks for some long hill rides and there is a 75 mile hill ride in Bucks County earlier in May to get me "remotely" prepared for this....
Having friends that want to ride is good too, okay 1 friend, Yasi, that is riding with me...
Running
I feel like it's improving, I have felt better and stronger on my runs, especially after doing DC last week, I got in another 20+ miles last week and am tapering a little on the running so I can do Atlantic City 1/2 marathon this week.
So here is just a snapshot of my life this past week using my new obsession of instagram - most of this is food...
 |
| Best Almond butter with some green tea |
 |
| Perfect Power breakfast - poached eggs, garlic, bok choy and mushrooms with tamari |
 |
| Tilapia over peppers, mushrooms and chard |
 |
| Italian Family Dinner - Why I love being Italian |
 |
| family dinner also equals lemoncello and strawberries |
 |
| me and the pup cuddling |
 |
| Yasi and I's trainer party -perfect set up |
 |
| I stole this from Yasi - such a great capture of Sunday Yoga |
Nice improvement with the swimming! I give you a lot of credit, I haven't really ever tried to swim laps. It's hard. Frenchtown & Bucks County must be so pretty for bike rides (if you can focus on the scenery and not the hills). There are some crazy hard core cyclists out here who bike the canyon roads. I give them major credit for pedaling up those hills and for having the balls to share the road with cars when there are no shoulders and no guard rails with scary drop offs.
ReplyDeleteLemoncello is amazing. We had a bottle last summer but it didn't last long!