A New Hope, er, T-pace

I've recently taken to watching Star Wars during my trainer rides, specifically Star Wars IV: A New Hope. I am captivated by the Battle of Yavin sequence, when the Rebel fleet attempts to destroy the Death Star. It's fast-paced, which is helpful for trainer rides that go over an hour. I mention T-pace because in my most recent 800y time trial, I set a landmark PR and have a new training pace, almost 5 seconds per 100y faster than my previous time. That definitely is in large part thanks to swimming with Michelle, Dirk and the masters practices. Basically, yards equal success! Also, since I've been running more for miles than speed, I've come to enjoy running more and feel better as a whole. I hope to keep up the 40-50 mile per week average I've been doing.

This is a little late due to being pretty busy at work... and looking for videos of Red Squadron:

Monday, Dec. 6 - Monday, Dec. 13 (6 swims, 6 rides, 6 runs)

Swimming: 19,800 yards

Tuesday -- Endurance swim at GISC w/ Michelle. Main set of 2x300 (1:20/100y pace, :15 RI), 4x50 (drill/build, :15 RI), 2x250 (1:20/100y pace, :15 RI), 4x50 (drill/build, :15 RI), 2x200 (1:20/100y, :15 RI), 200 kick, 2950y total. Swam alone at GISC around lunchtime, putting in 6x500 to give me 6000y total for the day.

Thursday -- TIME TRIAL! Michelle and I split the lane to add some competitive fire to the TT. It didn't start out well for me... my goggles filled up with water about 75y in, so I had to stop briefly at the 100 to empty them, losing about 5 seconds. However, after that it was SMOOTH swimming. I kept a constant pace and didn't feel tired until the last 50y, where inexplicably I forgot to sprint to the finish. Not at all sure why I forgot, but I hit the wall in 10:22, 1:17/100y average! That is a PR for me. Most importantly, I could have kept going at that pace... I was tired, but not done, totaling 1600y with warmup and cooldown. Another promising sign for the coming months! Michelle averaged about 1:41/100y, down from 1:45/100y a little over a month before. Huge improvements for both of us! In the afternoon I did 2000y of long pull sets for recovery.

Friday -- Recovery swim @ GISC w/ Michelle. Just swam long, easy sets with a 10x100 set (on 1:45) thrown on at the end, totaling 3200y.

Saturday -- CUBU masters swim @ AU w/ Dirk. The coach didn't show up so we had to alternate coaching with other swimmers. Put in 4x300 among other easier sets, with one of the 300s in 3:45, which Dirk proclaims is the fastest swum between us. Take that, Beastman! 3000y total.

Sunday -- Endurance swim @ GISC w/ Dirk. This was near the end of a long weekend and we agreed to take it easy on this swim. Main "set" was 4x300 around 1:20/100y pace, but I can't remember anything else we did. Still totaled 4000y.

Biking: 110 miles

Monday -- ILT on the trainer. 8 minutes on each leg in 30-second intervals. Felt fine, averaging around 180 watts per leg.

Wednesday -- Easy spin on the trainer, 45 minutes. Didn't want to do anything tough before Thursday's swim TT.

Thursday -- Easy spin on the trainer, 35 minutes. Was tired from the TT and a long day of swimming, so took it easy.

Friday -- Spin-ups on the trainer, 45 minutes total over 7 sets of spin-ups. Unfortunately I lost my Powertap info, so no power data!

Saturday -- Columbia ride with Dirk. We rode the Columbia course after a 30 minute jog, and I forgot how tough the course is! Inexplicably, I agreed to do it a second time... I got about 13k into the second go-round and decided to turn back. Too tough of a course to "just do" when you're not in the best bike shape, not to mention "just doing" it twice! Still, totaled 40 miles on a tough course, 213 watt average.

Sunday -- Long trainer ride w/ Dirk. We took it (er, I did, at least) easy on this ride after the Columbia challenge. Totaled 26 miles over 90 minutes, 145 watt average.

Running: 40 miles

Monday -- Trail run w/ tha boys. 8 miles.

Tuesday -- Solo run in neighborhood. 5 miles.

Wednesday -- Easy run around the track. 8 miles.

Saturday -- Columbia course run w/ Dirk. Took it easy with long bike ride ahead. Ran first and last 2 miles of the course. 4 miles.

Sunday -- Solo trail run. 6 miles.

Monday -- Trail run w/ tha boys. Ran some long hills. 9 miles.

Hooray for chlorine

I swam the most this week that I ever have in one week. No wonder I always smell chlorine wherever I go. Good thing chlorine has a... er... bearable smell. But back to the yardage... it was a lot. Some days I felt really good, some days I felt like a sponge. But even when I felt spongy, I was able to put in some good times. That has me getting pretty confident about my swimming! I finally feel like I'm back in good bike shape after a couple weeks of drill rides and zone 2 rides. Now I can finally get to work on starting to get some speed back, or at least establish a good tempo pace. I also got in 35 miles running, which isn't bad. I'm excited to just run easy. I've had enough of fast running for a while.

Saturday, Nov. 27 - Sunday, Dec. 5 (9 swims, 5 rides, 4 runs)

SWIMMING: 27,946 yards

Saturday -- Endurance swim @ Wilson w/ Dirk. 50m pool. Main set of 2x400, 3x300, 3x200, 3x100 (neg. split first two, pull third), 4046y total. This was really tough and I was tired going into it. Paces were around 1:27/100m, which is pretty decent for me. Dirk was stronger on this day though.

Sunday -- @ GISC w/ Lucas McCollum and Michelle. Main set of 5x200 (on 3:00, 1:20/100y pace), 1x300 neg. split, 5x100 (on 1:30, 1:15/100y pace), 16x25 (on :30, 1:00/100y pace!), 3200y total. This was one of my best practices. Splitting the lane with Lucas helped. Fast triathlete, that I was able to keep up with him means he's either out of shape or I am really improving!

Monday -- CUBU Masters @ Prep w/ Dirk. Main set of 2x(2x300, 2x100, 2x50, 2x25, 1:20/100y pace), 6x75 kick (easy-fast-easy), 5x100 (on 1:40), 2x100 (on 1:30), 4000y total. I felt pretty bad in this swim. Went out too fast in the first part of the set and paid for it!

Tuesday -- Solo @ GISC. Main set of 3x(200 pull, 3x50 descend), 1x800(odds easy, evens build, finished just under 11:30), 3500y total. Did this during lunch break. Felt better than Monday, but I took it easy for half of the workout. The 800 was pleasantly comfortable and fast, for half of it being easy.

Wednesday -- Solo @ GISC. Main set of 8x400 pull, 3200y total. Simple! I just wanted to FLUSH OUT THE JUNK!

Thursday -- Solo @ GISC. Main set of 12x50 (dist./stroke odds, build evens), 5x(150, 100, 50, 1:20/100y pace), 4000y total. Another solo swim... thanks to a fanged deer that nearly killed Michelle. Swimming alone is tough but I did fine the past 3 days. Felt good!

Friday -- Force swim @ GISC w/ a scabby Michelle. Main set of 2x300 pull, 6x50 fast, 2x300 pull, 6x50 fast, 2x300 pull, 3600y total. The fast 50s were around 1:12/100y pace for each. Good to have Michelle back.

Saturday -- Snapple clinic @ W&L pool. Mainly drills, around 1200y total. Later in PM, swam @ GISC, 5x300 pull to get some yards in, 2700y on the day. I learned a few important but easily applicable improvements from Chip Berry, who had the fastest swim split at Nation's a couple years ago.

Sunday -- Muscular endurance @ GISC w/ Lucas and Michelle. Main set of 6x100 (:20 RI, 1:15/100y pace), 6x75 (:20 RI, 1:13/100y pace), 6x50 (: 20 RI, 1:10/100y pace), 6x25 (:20 RI, 1:00/100y pace), 3200y total. This was an AWESOME swim! Splitting the lane with Lucas again helped. We were able to really pick up the pace in each interval. 1:15 felt really good... felt tempo-like!

BIKING: ~100 miles total

Saturday -- Hilly 22.5 mile ride w/ Dirk on his Beach Drive hill loop. It was very cold and windy, and was pretty darn tired from ILT the day before and the swim at Wilson prior to this. Averaged 190 watts.

Monday -- ILT on the trainer, 9 minutes on each leg. Day off on from cycling on Sunday helped, I felt better.

Wednesday -- 15-mile zone 2 ride on the trainer. Felt average. 166 watt average.

Friday -- 15-mile zone 2 ride on the trainer. Same as Wednesday. 165 watt average.

Sunday -- 36-mile zone 1-2 recovery ride on the trainer. Felt a little weak for the first hour, was able to pick it up for the second half. 162 watt average.

Running: 35 miles

Wednesday -- 8 mile run on the Wootton track. I can't say I took it easy, averaged around 6:30/mile for 6 miles.

Friday -- 6 mile easy run around neighborhood trails after my trainer ride.

Saturday -- 15 mile trail run with Scott and Steve. Run ended up being quite a bit longer than planned, but it felt just fine. Only issue was my right hip which began to ache a little with all the hill climbing.

Sunday -- 6 mile easy run after my long trainer ride around neighborhood trails.