With July making its debut, we are about half-way through 2024 (49.7% if you are measuring with days vs. months). Here is a summary of my training volume to date as well as a general grade I've given my self for each of the activities so far in 2024:
SWIM Grade: C-
My general volume goal was to get where I'm easily hitting 10k/week by July. While, I don't feel that's a problem for me to do now, the reality is that my actual monthly volume has been quite a bit below that. I was on track through April but with a lot of travel/life obligations (and cold water) my volume fell off quite a bit in May and only marginally recovered in June.
Beyond that, I'm quite a bit slower this year than I expected to be. I've only had one triathlon and no swim races so my actual race data is limited but that race in May was about 20 sec/100yds slower than I've typically been at this point in the season. I can also see that in my group swims (which are finally starting to ramp up) that I am relatively slower than my training partners so I know that one race was likely not a fluke--It's clear I'm slow so far this year.
I believe the causes are 1. lack of volume; 2. lack of intensity; 3. age; 4. mechanics(?). I'm trying to address the first two (swam 3200 yds yesterday) and hope to see some improvement over the next couple of months, but I wouldn't be surprised to see this as a problem for the balance of 2024. If it continues to be slow, I'll plan to put a focus on swimming in early 2025.
In the meantime, I give myself a C- grade on my swim. Not very good at all but still good enough to get the job done in my only triathlon to date....
BIKE Grade: B-
I'm generally targeting about 1,000 miles/month but have fallen short over the last two months. The weeklong trip to Minnesota to help my mom and brother really impacted May. June bounced back a bit but not nearly as much as I'd like.
I'm riding pretty well despite this lack of volume and I had a solid bike split in my only triathlon of the year to date. I need to work harder on my bike, perhaps a bit more emphasis on intensity vs volume so the above volumes are not necessarily that bad.
Work to do and improvements to make. I give myself a grade of B- for the year to date.
RUN/WALK Grade: A
The most encouraging development of 2024 has been the progress of my run. I'm now 18+ months out from my TKR and feel like my knee has settled into the "new normal". My original goals for the year were to try to get to the point where I could run 2-3 times/week 2-3 miles at a time and have that be a very doable, enjoyable experience and then from a competition pov I wanted to break 30 minutes again for 5k.
I've been sub 29-minutes in my two open 5ks and I did a sub 31 for a 5k in my only triathlon of the season. More importantly, I'm now running a couple of times a weekend the last few times these have been 4-4.25 miles, which I cruise relatively easily at a low 10 minutes/mile pace. I feel really good when I run and I have zero leg/knee issues--glorious!!!!
It may seem illogical that I'm giving myself an A grade for the element of the triathlon that I'm least competitive in but relative to my expectations at the beginning of the year, I'm way ahead of where I thought I would be. The hard work I did in PT from October '23 through April this year is really paying off! In fact, I still seem to be improving week to week, which at the age of 67, is not something I expected to experience again!
Note: most of my run/walk mileage continues to be walking/trekking as my biggest run week so far is just 8 miles. I've had in the back of my head a soft ceiling of 10 miles running a week, which seems like the right course for me to take now.
PT/WEIGHTS Grade: A
I'm also giving myself an A for my PT/weight work that really extends back to October. Basically for about 7 months I've averaged about 20 hours/month devoted to this and it has really paid dividends! My range of motion and flexibility for my new left knee is every bit as good as my original one on the right.
At this point, the rehab phase of my recovery is now officially over. You can see the big fall-off in time I'm devoting to this training, especially in June. Going forward, at least for the summer, I'd expect this metric to settle in around 5 hours/month.
TOTAL TRAINING TIME: Grade: A-
I'm giving myself an A- for my training time investment. The softness in swim and bike volume is the reason it's not an outright A. Frankly, I was probably training too much through April as 120+ hours/month is probably too much for a 67-year old. I remember thinking in April that I was at risk for developing serious over-training symptoms.
However, with training in the low-mid 90 hours the last two months, my body feels like it can readily absorb this load and that its high enough to keep me in the kind of fitness I want to maintain at this stage of my life. I'd also note, that a big part of the fall-off in May/June is the roll back of my PT time.
I'm expecting a little more swim/bike time going forward and will continue too aim for 110-120 miles of run/walk per month and my guess is my training time the next couple of months will come in around 100 hours/month.
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All in all, I'm very pleased with how the season is unfolding. After no racing in June, July will bring 3-4 races with 2 triathlons and 1 swim race already teed up. Onwards and upwards!
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