Monday, December 8, 2008

Week 1 training Summary

So week 1 is in the books. Overall an OK week. Weather is colder this year making training a bit more difficult. I prefer to train outdoors as much as possible, especially on the run. I would say unofficially it has been about 10 degrees below average. Upcoming week will start off a little warmer but rain is in the forecast for mid week.
Managed to get all my training sessions in, always a week 1 goal, but had to cut a strength session a little short and one swim a little short due to some scheduling. Sunday's long ride was the coldest ride I have ever done (38 degrees 15 mph wind not including wind chill from riding). Simply put it was miserable. It was 5 hours after my ride before I could put my right hand in water any warmer than luke warm without it feeling like it was on fire. I first noticed this when I got in the shower after my ride. I checked the water temp with that hand and it felt warm so I jumped in the shower and YIKES, the water was ice cold, yet my right (not my left) hand thought it was hot. Couldn't put my right hand under the water at all once the shower warmed up. I have had this before, but always on my feet, never my hand and certainly not just one hand. Even as I am typing this the next morning my right hand is considerably colder than my left, weird.

Training totals for the week were:

Bike:
7h 17m - 135 Mi
Run:
4h 30m 07s - 38.29 Mi
Swim:
1h 06m - 3750 Yd
Strength:
2h 25m

Overall assessment for the week: My bike fitness is in the dumper.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

November Recap

November training totals were:

Bike 387.21 Miles in 20H 9M 15S
Run 107.23 Miles in 12H 54M 31s
Swim 15,424 Yds in 4H 10M 24S
Strength 11H 5M

Certainly pitiful, but hey I"m not officially "training".

The Science behind endurance sports is simply amazing to me. I was doing some reading on expected race pace for running and came across the following, which uses a test data to determine your VDOT. A VDOT is determined by using standard values for running economy and by having a timed Performance over at least one running distance, a fitness ("VDOT") value can be assigned to you for training and race-prediction purposes. This VDOT value is then used to predict your running time during triathlon. Obviously your running times during a triathlon will be slower than during just a straight running race. Interestingly enough my VDOT predicted my 3:30 Ironman marathon time. This is significant for me because I was quite disappointed with my marathon time, looking for 10-12 minutes lower. Maybe I shouldn't have expected that faster time. Here are the tables: My VDOT is 55 (at least right now....will be at least 56 for this coming year) :)