Friday, March 15, 2024

10 WEEKS IN!

 Hard to believe we are almost 20% of the way through 2024!  

Last week was unusual as Judy and I spent it in Turks and Caicos and then Naples, Florida enjoying a nice vacation.  Training wise, this led to some nice outdoor swimming, both in a pool and in open water--a real nice change of pace and this led to a 9,000 yard Swim week--my highest of the year.  I was able to string 8 swim days in a row and 11 out of 12.  Not long sessions yet, but the frequency is really helping With my technique and my 100 times are now starting to drop into the low 1:50s on my longer swim sets.  Not fast by any stretch of the imagination, but heading in the right direction.

My bike volume was low as I eased back a bit during this past week--214.5 miles, the second lowest week this year.  My run/walk was also similarly cur back a bit and came in at 23 miles.

The biggest change last week was no gym time and consequently no PT/weights for week 10.  

Here is a summary of how the first 10 weeks have unfolded:


The table above is conditionally formatted and the larger weeks in each column are shaded towards green and smaller weeks shaded towards red.

I started introducing some high Z2/lowZ3 running into what has predominately been walking as I begin to explore how far I can evolve my run with my new knee--more on that next week!


Thursday, March 7, 2024

Week 9/February/Busy Building Base

 A bit belated but here is what happened last week (week 9), which was spent mostly in Minnesota:

Swim: 5,050 yards

Bike: 224 miles

Walk/Run: 32.6 miles

Other: 3 hours

Total Time: 27:55

Minny limited my swim/PT to 0 hours from Monday-Thursday.  When I returned to DE I jammed in 3 pretty big days (5:28/4:40/6:04).  That last day, Sunday the 3rd was my first 6+ hour training day of 2024.

January and February look like this:

Swim: Jan: 17,500 yards;  Feb: 21,100 yards.  Beginning to ramp swim now.  Plan is to get to 30,000 yards or so in March.  My basic, overarching objective, swim-volume wise is to be able to comfortably handle 10,000+ yards/week by the time I pivot to predominately open-water swimming, which is usually around Memorial Day.  It doesn't seem like a big jump in February, but on a per day basis, Feb was up 29% vs. Jan.  Also compared to last year (post knee replacement) I'm way further ahead swim wise....

Bike: Jan: 1,046 miles;  Feb: 944 miles.  This is effectively the same volume/day (33.7 vs. 33.5 miles/day).  Last year I wasn't even able to tolerate biking until February so way ahead this year.  

RunWalk: Jan: 82.6 miles;  Feb: 100.2 miles.  Beginning to get my volume up where I want it to be.  Last year at this time I could only handle about 10 miles/week.  I plan to pivot to a bit more running as March rolls on by.

PT: Jan: 20:30;  Feb: 17:40. As I discussed in the previous post, I continue to invest a lot of time into flexibility/strength training--both months had a 5-day period in Minnesota where I couldn't do so.  Basically, most days I invest 1 hour or so into this Build Back project.

Total Time: Jan: 114:44; Feb: 111:46.  Pretty similar: 3:44/day in Jan and 3:51/day in Feb.

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All of this effort is predominately Zone 1--well below my Aerobic Threshold.  I clearly have a big Aerobic engine at this point as when I ride 17mph or so, my HR remains around 90bpm.  In March, I plan to climb up into Zone 2 for a portion of my training and try to get my speed up and then hopefully see my HR settle back down into relatively low numbers after the initial stress of introducing a bit more intensity.

Onwards and upwards!

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Week 8/Back to Minny/The Build Back Project

Well, this morning finds me at the airport and heading back to Minnesota for the 5th time since last May.  Going to try help my brother sort out some of his medical issues.

From a training perspective it means a short day today and limited training resources for Mon-Thurs of the week coming up.  I'll walk (in what looks to be some pretty cold weather) and ride at a community rec center about 10 miles from our cabin.

The net of it will be a bit of a "rest" week next week, which arguably I could benefit from given my recent training load.  This past week, the 8th of the year, was probably the first week this year where I didn't have to travel for some or most of the week.  As a consequence, I put up the highest weekly totals (so far, this year) for my swim, PT/weights and total training time and my second biggest bike week:

Swim: 8,100 yards

Bike: 252 miles

Walk/Run: 20.4 miles

PT/Weights: 6:20

Total Training Time: 30:30

Admittedly, 30+ hours is considerably more training than I need/should do but I must admit I do feel very strong and with the very modest intensity of my training, I seem to be able to handle the volume I've been throwing at myself. 7 of the 8 weeks this year (and the last 6 in a row) have had at least 26 hours of training.

Now a big part of this is my Build Back Project.  This really started last October, when I came to the conclusion that my continuing post knee replacement limitations on my left leg were (at 10 months post-op) more a function of what happened to the leg before the surgery, rather than the surgery itself.  Over the 25+ years I've struggled with a deteriorating knee joint, my left leg atrophied and tightness and imbalances developed as a function of the mis-aligned nature of my knee joint--the later increasingly severe over the last 5-8 years.

In any event, I decided last October to begin specifically rebuilding my left leg and I took what I had learned when I was in post-op rehab and began working on strengthening (especially) my left leg and working very hard to increase its range of motion.  I also began working on a comprehensive weight-lifting/stretching routine that I really increased starting in January.  I put 20+ hours in the gym in January doing this focused rehab/strength work-outs and have continued aggressively into February.  This week, as I noted above, I went above 6 hours of this work.

I really think it's been a big success so far.  My range of motion on my left leg is probably 95% of my right at this point and I've greatly narrowed the relative strength differences between my two legs.  I look forward to measuring my actual L/R power output on my bike next month but am hoping to get my left to to 45-48% of my total power output (vs. 35% pre-surgery).  if I'm able to do this I should be a noticeably stronger/faster cyclist this year!

I just had my physical and over the last 2.5 years I've lost 1.5 pounds of muscle mass.  I was surprised by this as I know I've gained strength and added mass over the last 8 weeks--I can see it visually, in my left leg and my upper body and see the results as far as the weight/reps of the various weights I'm pushing.  I'm also up to 700+ sit-ups/week and 100+ push-ups.  I imagine my muscle mass loss prior to Build Back was actually a bit bigger than recorded here and is a reflection of the toll that the tail-end of my bad knee and then the replacement surgery placed on my body.  One the plus side, my body fat is now nearing 10% again so I actually feel reasonably fit from a body composition perspective--still need to work on high end speed of course.

Anyways, I do feel excellent, much stronger and more flexible than I've been in quite some time.  I do plan on continuing this Build Back Project through the end of May.  By then I would hope to have replaced my lost muscle mass and also dropped another few pounds to set me up for a robust athletic summer of swimming, biking, walking and running as well a bunch of fun races doing the same!

But for the week ahead, probably a good time to throttle back a bit....

Onwards and upwards!

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

weeks 6/7

 Very busy here with work and life admin stuff so going to update weeks 6 and 7 in this post.  these two weeks were very similar and kinda fit my current "business as usual":

                                Week 6                Week 7

Swim yds                 4,500                    5,500

Bike miles                  237                       224

Run/Walk miles         20.8                     24.6

PT/Weights time        5:10                     4:10

Total Train time        26:53                   26:54


Through the 1st 7 weeks here are my weekly averages in 2024:

Swim            4,357 yards

Bike:             234.6 miles

Run/Walk       20.4 miles

PT/Weights    4:32

Total time       26:20


Chugging along with lower intensity base building!


Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Week 5

 I continue to generate pretty big training volume:

Swim: 6,000 yards

Bike: 246 miles

Run/Walk: 23.3 miles

PT/Weights: 4:05

Total Training Time: 27:58

This turns out to be high points in the Swim and Run/Walk for 2024 so far (albeit just 5 weeks) and the second largest training time for a week....


Next week I'll update you on my Build it Back Better project (no this isn't a Biden thing)....

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

2024-Week 4; January; and don't fire me coach!

 Well, week 4 did not turn out to be a recovery week....this despite being on the road for 4 of the 7 days (road trip to/from Cleveland and two-days in NYC).  My body seemed fine with the volume and I ended up doing more than I had originally intended--if I had coach, I'd be in big trouble if this is what I did with a recovery week:

Swim: 4,000 yards

Bike: 249 miles

Run/Walk: 16.1 miles

Weights/PT: 5:40

Total Time: 26:33

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Today also ended January and it definitely turned out to be a big foundation month:

Swim: 17,500 yards

Bike: 1,046 miles 

Walk/Run: 82.6 miles

Weights/PT: 20:30

Total Time: 114:44

In comparison, last year I did: 17,000 yards; 142 miles bike, 27 miles walk/run , 5:50 PT and total time of 31:48.  

No surprises that I did a lot more this year as last year January was just my 2nd recovery month post knee replacement.  But the delta between this year and last shows just how much further along I am at the beginning of this year that last.


Bodes well for 2024--onwards and upwards!

Monday, January 22, 2024

2024-Week 3

 Originally, I was supposed to travel on Tuesday/Wednesday for work and then again Saturday/Sunday to take Jen's dog to her place in Cleveland.  Both of these trips were delayed due to two separate winter snow storms.  As it turns out, I'll be driving to Cleveland and back tomorrow and Wednesday and the work meeting is likely moved to next week.  However, due to this schedule change, I ended up having a bigger training week this week than I had originally anticipated:


Swim : 5,500 yards

Bike: 256 miles

Run/Walk: 19.7 Miles

PT/Weights: 5:15

Total Training Time: 28:40 


So we are only three weeks in but all five of these metrics represent high points for 2024 and are very solid, frankly, Ironman-level training loads.  I also begin to add some intensity in my swim and bike.  As the week wore on I definitely felt this week's (and prior weeks') volume.  My guess is I pare this back a fair bit this week with both the Cleveland trip and a need to recover/absorb my ytd training....all good so far!