Hi folks--sorry for the longish radio silence. Very busy times in the Christofferson family with graduations, new homes, family reunions, extended friends' visits, etc. and lots of work on our beach home and for my "job". Beginning to emerge from that period now and looking forward to a "return to normal" summer training schedule.
The prioritization of a bunch of personal stuff led to a pretty significant decline in what was a pretty high level of training prior to May/early June. This is documented below.
First off, May was my lightest training month so far in 2022 (April volumes in parentheses for context):
Swim: 25,562 yards (52,150)
Bike: 945 miles (1,404)
Run: 47 miles (30)
Time: 76 hours (111 hours)
So in terms of total training time, May was down about 32% from April, with the biggest decline coming on the swim--part of this is that in can be challenging to get a lot of swim volume in May as I mostly transition to open water swimming, and the open water can be pretty cold here in May--it's been especially cold this year, really only reaching 60 degrees by the later part of May.
Not surprising to be able to see this slow down in the Trailing 4-week and Cumulative volume charts below. First for the swim. Note how in all 4 years, beginning around week 19 (which is May) I have trouble getting a lot of swim volume in. However, the fall-off in 2022, is especially steep:
You can see how my 2022 weekly swim volume (green) has fallen by about 2/3rds over the last 4-5 weeks. The early 2022 swim focus still leads me with cumulatively more swim yards this year than the prior three years but the recent reduction is pretty significant and relevant.
I can see this slow down reflected in my swim times as I seem to be stuck around 1:50/100 for my open water swims as of late and I would have expected to be down nearer to 1:40/100. Obviously, I need to get my swim volume back up over 10k/week and work hard to bring my times down. The good news is next week we are starting my regular open water swims with my local crew and so this shouldn't be difficult to achieve.
Turning to the bike:
You can see a similar story on the bike, although not as pronounced. I had been mostly in the 300-350 mile/week range but this has recently dropped by about 100 miles/week. You can see the uptick in the last couple of weeks as my schedule has begun to clear a bit. The good news is just about all of my volume now is outside on my TT bike, and my experience is such that this drives acceleration in my fitness build.
In contrast to my swim, I seem to be pretty strong on my bike right now. I had a good first race in mid-May and I did my first 100+ mile ride this week and clocked 5:26 for 100 miles, which is quite good for me for the middle of June. Last year, for context, my first 100+ miler was on 6/29 and it took me 5:46 so my guess is I'm maybe 3-4 weeks ahead of where I was last year.
For the run:
My run is going against the prevailing trend in 2022 in that I just really can't train very much given the state of my knee and ironically, I actually had my biggest month in May (which is different than having a big month in May). I continue to track 2021 run volume but I with decidedly more hike/trek/walk vs. actual running....not pretty!
Finally: my total training time charts:
These reflect what the three sports charts show. My weekly training volume dropped from around 25 hours/week to in the 15-20 hours/week range over the latest period.
Anyways, I hope to get back to the pre-May levels over the next 6 weeks as I am now full-on in my Ironman build at this point.
Racing wise, I had to bail on Eagleman, mostly due to life obligations--I just couldn't get away for the 3 days or so necessary to make it happen. In its place I had planned to race a double on this Father's Day weekend, but some interesting developments during yesterday's race means I'm not racing on this Sunday morning--more on this shortly but I will say, I ultimately had a satisfying race yesterday.
