Monthly summary – May
Here’s May:
Swim: 24,212 yards
Cycling (outdoors): 254.9 miles
Cycling (indoors): 7:30 (hours)
Run: 84.6 miles
Strength Training: 0 hours
Approximate monthly total training time: 40:18 (hours)
Weight: 164.5 pounds. I’m about three pounds down from last month and 5.5 since my March summary – not bad and those few pounds will probably help my cycling and running speed, but I don’t want to lose any more. Looking in the mirror (and at my shirts) I can see that most of the weight I’ve lost is in my upper body – not lifting has shrunk my shoulders, chest and arms.
May was a really low volume month – during each of the last few months I’ve trained about 25% more (52 hours in March and 54 in April). Going back over the month in my head though, I can see why – I ended April with that monster bike week (4+ hours on the trainer during the week and 186 miles on the road over the weekend) and started May with an easy week. Then, week two was a relatively hard week, but week three was my taper for the Harryman Half and last week was an easy recovery week. This week is back to pretty high volume. I had six (!) days off in May, which is more than I had off in March and April combined (one day in March and three in April). The “0” hours strength isn’t entirely correct – I haven’t had any formally scheduled strength training (and won’t until after the race), but I’m still trying to do some push-ups, core work and step-ups a couple times a week – probably no more than 20-30 minutes a week – but I’m not recording it like the other training.
Thankfully, once again, I didn’t have any forced time off and, with the exception of one missed swim this week, I hit my training goals each week.
The biggest thing this month though was the Harryman Half. In abysmal conditions and on a really tough course, I had a great race and came off it feeling very confident in my progress towards Lake Placid, which is now less than eight weeks away. I’m happy with the base that I built over the winter and am ready for these weeks of “final” preparation.
Bike – May 29
Time: 1:00
Average heart rate: 116
Indoor ride
Run – May 29
Distance: 3.6 miles
Time: 30 minutes
Average heart rate: 138
Course: East Village
Conditions: Beautiful, clear night
Run – May 30
Distance: 10 miles
Time: 1:16
Average heart rate: 157
Course: West Side Highway
Conditions: Sunny, hot, a little humid
Swim – May 31
Distance: 3,250 yards
Time: 1:10