Monthly Summary – November
Here’s November:
Swim: 10,850 yards
Cycling (outdoors): 0 miles
Cycling (indoors): 1:50 (hours)
Run: 115.80 miles
Strength Training/Yoga: 4 sessions
Approximate monthly total training/racing time: 27.5 hours
Weight: 168 pounds. A few pound increase since last month and about back to where I was in September.
I’m pretty amazed when I look at the above statistics. My first thought was that November was my lightest training month since I’ve been formally keeping track. So I checked. It wasn’t. August was, by a few hours. That makes sense: I had just finished the Ironman, was trying to recover from the race and all those 40-50 training months and we took the trip to Alaska. The low volume this month makes sense because, except for one long running day in the beginning of the month and the JFK 50 itself, November was mostly tapering, racing and then recovery. I can’t believe that I didn’t get outside on the bike a single time. That’s too bad, but I’ll have plenty of time to make up for lost time on the bike over the coming months. The extended forecast does not look so good – it looks like winter is just about really here – so I might be re-acquainting myself with the trainer in a big way!
Last month I was worried about losing my swim speed (relative “speed”, that is!) and technique because I haven’t been spending much time in the pool since the Ironman. Yesterday, though, I did my first 1,000 yard time trial since April. In April, after a winter and spring of serious swim training, I knocked out 1,000 yards in 15:34 (1:33.4/100 yards). I was very pleased with that effort, especially since I’d improved a fair amount over my previous time trials. Going into yesterday’s swim, I was a little nervous – not nervous like I couldn’t do it or it would be too hard, but nervous that I would swim the 1,000 and be disappointed that I’d regressed too much since the summer. I decided that I would swim “all out” and push myself hard for as long as I could; if I pushed too hard and died before the end, so what? I would have learned about my current limits and tried again next week. I quickly checked my watch after the first 100 and saw 1:29 (after the flip turn), which I knew was too fast, even if I did want to push myself. I settled into a pace in the low 1:30’s, which was still a strong effort, but a sustainable one. The first 500-600 went great; I was swimming fast and my form felt good. I was counting strokes every few lengths and was generally in the 16-17 strokes per length range, which is about normal for me. Around 600 yards, it became much more of an effort – my form starting slipping, my stroke count was up and it felt like I was muscling my way through the water. But I made it: 15:37. Just three seconds off my April time – and that on swimming just about once a week. I know that my form (especially once I’m a little tired) is a bit limiter and even though I can muscle through 1,000 yards, 1,500 or 1,800 or 2.4 miles is a totally different story. But that’s what the next eight months are for. Compared to last year, I’ll be starting this base building season from a much stronger point. One worry though – one reason for the time trials is to set my pacing for time being. With a “T-pace” of 1:34/100, did I just totally screw myself??? I guess I’ll find out the first time I have to put that pace to work in training!
My back is still bothering me a little – it’s not getting worse, but it’s also not getting any better, even with nearly two weeks of recovery without running. I want to get a better idea of what the problem is – then I can decide how to treat it. So I finally made an appointment with a sports med doctor. My appointment is Monday. We’ll see. After I figure out what’s going on and what I need to do to make it better, I’ll start working with John to figure out the plan for the next few months. I’ve got my race schedule pretty much set, I just have to put the steps in place to get me there in shape!
Strength – November 28
Swim – November 29
Distance: 2,200 yards
Time: 45 minutes
1,000 Time Trial: 15:37 (1:33.7/100)