Catching Up Post #1 of 3: Training Load

 Let's roll the tape back to the last week of April, which is Week 17 of 2024.  Here is how my training volume has unfolded and I'll provide some background as to what's going on:

Week   Swim   Bike   Run  PT  Time

 17     10,000    260    24  5:50 31:31

 18       6,500    217    27  4:45 33:04

 19       6,500    223    23  3:50 26:13

 20       5,600    110    15  3:55 16:15

 21          0        120    28  0:00 15:13

So week 17, on Sunday 4/28 was my first 5k of the season.  Obviously, too high a training load, both generally and certainly in the week of my first race (albeit, a 5k).  None-the-less, I had a good race (for me), running 28:53 and hitting one of my post knee replacement objectives (sub 30-min 5k).

Week 18 was not intended to be a big week but it ended up the biggest of the year so far and also, its been a long time (if ever) since I last did back-to-back 30+ hour weeks! Week 18 also included a couple of days hiking in Shenandoah, which inflated the time vs the miles....

It finally occurred to me that I needed to cut back and give my body a break after 18 weeks of averaging 4+ hours of training a day.  I honestly tried to do this in week 19 but still piled up 26+ hours of training.

With a Triathlon at the end of week 20 I finally gave myself a stern lecture and dialed way back.  I report on the Race in the next post.

Week 21 saw a relocation to the shore and a lot of house work there.  This, plus sub-60 degree water, led challenges getting into the water.  Further on Wednesday we were thrown a curve-ball when my brother Dave swerved to miss a squirrel and lost control of his car leading to many serious fractures and an uncertain recovery.  So after navigating a number of balls that we had up in the air, I'm now on my way to Minnesota for what will likely be a week or so.  Not-sure what that means swim-wise as its still pretty cold up that far north.  Training will continue to be a bit hit or miss as Dave is in a hospital about 2 hours from the cabin  and I'll also need to help my mom.

Lastly, I ran a second 5k on Sunday 5/26, which I'll also update on in a subsequent post.