Spring [Winter Part 2] Break Training
Spring Break!!!! Every year my club takes a week off from structured training to allow time for the kids still in school to vacation and get ready for the last push towards race season. For us “adults” it is just another week of work and on your own workouts.
The last time I posted a week’s worth of training I was a sad, injured athlete. Good news – I’m healed! The long recovery is finally over and I am back to running without any limitations! I was slightly [extremely] worried that after my running hiatus I would be slow and out of shape. Thanks to the many hours spent in the pool, gym and on the bike my running legs have come back fairly quickly – just in time for the last big push towards my first race in May.
On the flip side, winter weather and the daily grind of waking up, training, going to work, leaving work, training and then going to bed has begun to take its toll on me. I’m ready for warmer weather and the changes it brings. At the end of the month I will be travelling to St. George for a training camp and then spending the summer racing around Western Canada - more on that later.
In the meantime, here is a recap of this past week’s training:
MONDAY
Swim: 7am – 8am (3100m)
2 x (200 free, 100 IM, 100 drill)
4 x (2 x 100 drill, 100 free, 100 kick, 100 back)
*First 2 rounds @ 2:00, second 2 rounds @ 1:45 with fins
*Drills = SAKB, Aussie, LADP, gomez
300 easy
Monday’s swim was technique focused. For the past month I’ve been experiencing at bit of a plateau in my swimming. Last week it went sharply downhill - I barely made it through the workouts and struggled to make the pace times. It is always super frustrating when you put in so much time and effort and start to slide backwards. After feeling sorry for myself and complaining to my coach/friends I had a tough love conversation with myself. Going into this week my goal was to maintain a positive attitude during the sets and not let my technique become sloppy.
Eric and Chris joined me for this workout – early morning swims are much better with companions – especially ones that are faster than you and can push you. I felt pretty good during the whole workout.
9am-5pm: Work
Run: 5:30pm (42min, 6km)
Drills – 3 x 50m each (ankling, high knees, alternating butt kicks, alternating high knees, falling starts)
30min easy run
I was supposed to do this workout on Sunday but ended up spending the entire morning playing squash so I pushed this workout to Monday. My mom and pup joined me and it was a super chill, fun run along the Bow River pathway. Miss Sadie really wanted to catch herself a goose.
Strength: 7pm
3 x 6 clean pull @ 65lb
2 x 8 push press @ 65lb
2 x 4 O/H squat @ 65lb
2 x 4 front squat @ 75lb
3 x 10 box jump @ 20’’
3 x 20 bodyweight squat
New strength routine!!! This was the first week of my building power strength routine. I just finished a three week maximal strength effort – super heavy squats – and it was slowly killing me. As this was the first day I kept it pretty light and focused on technique.
TUESDAY
Swim: 6am-7:30am (3600m)
300 as 50free/50back/50back
6 x 75 as 25kick/25swim/25kick @ 1:30
12 x 25 as 3 fast/1 easy @ 40
3 x (12 x 25 @ 25 (4 start speed, 8 race pace), 3 x 100 race pace @ 1:35, 100 easy back)
400 pull steady
300 easy
A classic speed set. As an athlete that specializes in longer distances I don’t particularly fancy sprinting – but this is one of my favored workouts. I was joined by Ella, Eric, Chris, Soph, Sara, Charlotte, and Janine – aka my suffercrew. For the 25s I held around 16-18’’ for start speed and 18’’ for race pace. For the 100s I was going 1:17-1:20. Nothing spectacular but considering last week I was barely able to go sub 1:30 I’ll take it.
Bike: 8am-9:30am
10’ warm up
5 x 30’’ big ring strong / 30’’ recovery
2’ easy
12 x 20’’ high cadence (100-120rpm) / 40’’ recovery
5’ easy
4 x 7’ aerobic tempo / 3’ easy spin
12 x 20’’ high cadence (100-120rpm) / 40’’ recovery
4’ cool down
I decided to get this spin over with as soon as I got home from swimming as I wanted to get in maximal recovery time before my run workout at 4pm. My legs felt good and I was able to get into a nice rhythm for the tempo efforts.
7min tempo intervals:
200W, 88rpm, 138bpm / 209W, 90rpm, 143bpm / 206W, 90rpm, 145bpm / 211W, 90rpm, 146bpm
Run: 4pm (1hr, 10.6km)
10’ easy jog followed by dynamic stretching
10 x 400m race pace + 200m easy jog recovery
5 strides
10’ easy jog
I met up with Ella and Soph for this workout. I was a little apprehensive going into this workout as this was the first time running with my teammates post injury. I wasn’t sure how my knee would hold up or if I would be even able to keep up. Well my knee felt perfect and I was able to keep up and even help push the pace on a couple of the intervals. I was pretty stoked. The wind was ridiculous so the splits ended up being a little wonky.
10 x 400m = 1:33, 1:33, 1:33, 1:35, 1:35, 1:35, 1:44, 1:38, 1:41, 1:42
WEDNESDAY
Swim: 6:45am-8:30am (4300m)
400 choice / 300 pull / 200 kick / 100 build
16 x 50 as 25 drill / 25 free @ 70
3 x 10’ continuous (1st – swim, 2nd – pull, 3rd – pull + paddles)
300 easy
I convinced Eric to join me for this long aerobic workout. Our conversation right before starting the 3 x 10 minutes: Me “I’ll just go behind you.” Eric “I was thinking we could start on opposite sides.” Me “So I’ll just tuck in right behind you.”
I ended up drafting for all three efforts (thanks Eric!) and we ended up completing 700m for the first one and 750m for the last two – a solid pace.
I’m not sure if it was Tuesday’s training or the 4000+ meters of this workout but afterwards I was wiped. I’m not entirely sure how I was able to get through work without falling asleep standing up.
9am-5pm: Work
Strength: 5:30pm
2 x 8 clean pull @ 65lb
2 x 8 hang clean @ 65lb
2 x 6 power clean @ 75lb
2 x 6 split jerk @ 75lb
3 x 4 clean and jerk @ 75lb
3 x 20 bodyweight squat
Clean and jerk day! I focused on my technique and kept the weight on the lighter side.
Bike: 7pm
45’ recovery spin maintaining a high cadence (96rpm, 131W)
I was instructed to keep my cadence high so I had to sacrifice power. I’m more of a keep the cadence on the lower side and grind it out kind of athlete.
THURSDAY
Swim: 6am-7:30am (3200m)
400 choice, 300 kick/back, 200 drill/swim, 100 build
600 pull steady
3x200 pull + paddles @ 3
6x100 paddles strong @ 1:35
400 easy
Today was a classic strength swim. My arms and back were smoked going into it. I was joined by Eric, Chris, Janine, Charlotte and Soph. I attempted to keep up with the boys but my body was wrecked (I kept a positive attitude though – so ya me). It turned into us going on the same pace times but me getting a lot less rest. I descended the 200s from 2:50 to 2:45 and then averaged 1:20 for the 100s.
9am-5pm: Work
Run: 5:30pm (40min, 7km)
30’ easy run followed by 5 x 60’’ pick ups + 30’’ recovery
My legs felt like garbage, it was super cold outside and I was tired/cranky – so I had my mom come with me to make sure I actually finished the workout. The 30 minutes were rough. The first pick up was a disaster, the second one was a little better, and then the last three finally felt ok.
1min pick ups = 4:14/km, 4:01/km, 3:53/km, 3:53/km, 3:52/km
FRIDAY
Swim: 7am-8:30am (3500m)
800 warm up
2 x (12 x 50 @ 55 (3 seconds faster than race pace per 100m) + 50 easy back)
16 x 50 (25 fast / 25 easy) @ 60
600 easy
I ended up joining Eric for his swim at Repsol. I was scheduled to complete an easy recovery swim but Eric had a race pace specific workout – we ended up doing the harder workout (what is with triathletes always willingly doing the harder workout). My goal for this season is to swim a 21 minute 1500m, which works out to 1:24/100m. The goal of the workout was to swim the 50s at a pace 3ish seconds faster per 100m (40ish seconds per 50 for me). I ended up going 38-39 for the first set 37-38 for the second set. I was quite pleased with how this workout went.
10:30am-7pm: Work
Strength: 7:30pm
2 x 8 drop snatch @ 55lb
2 x 10 O/H squat with dowel, 1x6 O/H squat @ 65lb
5 x 2 snatch @ 75lb
3 x 20 bodyweight squat
Getting home after 7pm on a Friday and knowing you have to get in a workout is rough. Knowing that is was a snatch workout made it much more exciting. I hadn’t done a legit snatch workout for almost a year so I kept it pretty conservative and made sure my technique was solid.
SATURDAY
9am-5pm: Work
Bike: 5:30pm (1hr)
20’ aerobic
2 x (30’’ surge + 2’ easy)
5’ aerobic
2 x (30’’ surge + 2’ easy)
5’ aerobic
2 x (30’’ surge + 2’ easy)
10’ easy
An easier spin!! I was pretty pooped after work so having a shorter spin was quite exciting for my tuckered out legs.
Surges = 262W, 281W, 269W, 288W, 256W, 274W
Swim: 9pm-10pm (3300m)
250 swim / 250 pull / 250 kick/swim / 250 drill/swim
12 x 25 single arm drill
6x50 kick descend
12 x 25 as 20m fast
2 x 500 fartlek (100strong/100steady, 75/75, 50/50, 25/25) first = swim, second = pull
400 easy
I was supposed to do this workout on Sunday but decided to get it over with tonight as I have Church, a long run, and family supper tomorrow. Plus if you go to Repsol in the last 90 minutes they cut the admission fee in half – and I love a good deal.
Mistake #1: deciding to eat supper an hour before swimming.
Mistake #2: deciding to eat an extremely large supper.
I went into this workout feeling like a chubby panda. I’m surprised my bathing suit even fit over my bloated belly. Despite being at least 10lb heavier than normal, I was able to pull off a solid swim. I finished both 500s in 7minutes.
SUNDAY
Run: 11am (1hr, 11.9km)
1hr hilly run
I was supposed to do either a treadmill hill workout or run outside on a hilly route. I was extremely nervous to test out my knee on hills for an hour – so I kept it safe and stuck to the Bow River pathway. Plus I wasn’t sure how icy the trails would be on the hillier, more shaded trails in the city as apparently summer isn’t happening this year. I also refuse to run on treadmills.
This was my longest run post injury and it felt great! I ended up going a lot faster than I intended to and even did a negative split.
KM splits: 5:17, 5:08, 5:08, 5:01, 5:06, 5:05, 5:06, 4:58, 5:00, 4:56, 4:55, 4:15 (900m)
Post run consisted of a lot of food, a 2 hour nap and then more food. Overall - a pretty successful week of training.
MY TOP 10 SONGS OF THE WEEK
1) Particles – Nothing But Thieves
2) Hellfire – Courtney Barns
3) Sinners – Courtney Barns
4) No Limits – G Eazy
5) Lost Cause – Black Pistol Fire
6) Shots – Imagine Dragons
7) I’m Not Made By Design – Nothing But Thieves
8) Thought Contagion – Muse
9) Blue Jeans – Courtney Barns
10) A Dangerous Night – Thirty Seconds to Mars