I’m back at it this week. I finished up my recovery week and now I’m diving into base 2! I’m excited for this, it means I’m a block of training fitter, I’m getting into bigger workouts, and I’m closer to race season!!
Part of recovery week was some testing, as I’ve talked a little about. My recovery week worked, almost, like a mini-taper for some short training races. The first half of the week I had short low intensity workouts and at the end of the week I had some short high intensity workouts to gauge the fitness I gained. Not to brag or anything (Haha) but I gained some solid fitness! Go figure, my first structured block of training for tris and I drop my swimming pace and I raised my functional threshold on the bike! That is so exciting.
I’m excited to finally lower my t-pace for swimming but I new that would happen and will continue to happen. Swimming was always in my wheel-house so I know I can keep bringing that down. I wasn’t so sure about the bike. It’s not like I didn’t think I was getting faster, I just don’t know how fast I can be, or how long it will take me to get there. I’ve never done this before.
Well, my FTP or functional threshold pace, went up substantially from my testing at the end of December. I really improved over the past month and a half and I’m really pumped to see what more I can do. I mean, you do make the biggest gains when you first start something but with what I just did I really think I can raise my FTP a bit more during my second and third base phases. I really think I’m a much better cyclist than I originally thought!
This is a very good thing because the races I’m most interested in racing right now take some serious legs on the bike portions. I’ll need that power to hold back a good deal of those naturally gifted runners! Speaking of my running, my test for that was sub-optimal but I couldn’t do much about that. Nasty weather and crazy wind reeked havoc on my HR and pace. I know my running is in a good enough place right now though. I can absolutely use improvement but I would rather focus those gains on my cycling right now.
Which is where I will continue through into this second base phase. I’ll be hitting some of my highest numbers yet in training, like 20+ hour week! That will most certainly be tough but I’m looking forward to the challenge. I start this week with almost 16 hours of training, many of which I’m starting to see with hills. This base phase will really start to emphasize my strength and endurance, beyond the basic endurance foundation I build in my first base phase. I like to think of this this second base phase as a second layer of spackle on some new drywall. I’ll have one more layer then I can sand, put a first coat on, a second coat on, and that finishing coat… Ironman lake placid!
Today is a good day to watch paint dry!
Part of recovery week was some testing, as I’ve talked a little about. My recovery week worked, almost, like a mini-taper for some short training races. The first half of the week I had short low intensity workouts and at the end of the week I had some short high intensity workouts to gauge the fitness I gained. Not to brag or anything (Haha) but I gained some solid fitness! Go figure, my first structured block of training for tris and I drop my swimming pace and I raised my functional threshold on the bike! That is so exciting.
I’m excited to finally lower my t-pace for swimming but I new that would happen and will continue to happen. Swimming was always in my wheel-house so I know I can keep bringing that down. I wasn’t so sure about the bike. It’s not like I didn’t think I was getting faster, I just don’t know how fast I can be, or how long it will take me to get there. I’ve never done this before.
Well, my FTP or functional threshold pace, went up substantially from my testing at the end of December. I really improved over the past month and a half and I’m really pumped to see what more I can do. I mean, you do make the biggest gains when you first start something but with what I just did I really think I can raise my FTP a bit more during my second and third base phases. I really think I’m a much better cyclist than I originally thought!
This is a very good thing because the races I’m most interested in racing right now take some serious legs on the bike portions. I’ll need that power to hold back a good deal of those naturally gifted runners! Speaking of my running, my test for that was sub-optimal but I couldn’t do much about that. Nasty weather and crazy wind reeked havoc on my HR and pace. I know my running is in a good enough place right now though. I can absolutely use improvement but I would rather focus those gains on my cycling right now.
Which is where I will continue through into this second base phase. I’ll be hitting some of my highest numbers yet in training, like 20+ hour week! That will most certainly be tough but I’m looking forward to the challenge. I start this week with almost 16 hours of training, many of which I’m starting to see with hills. This base phase will really start to emphasize my strength and endurance, beyond the basic endurance foundation I build in my first base phase. I like to think of this this second base phase as a second layer of spackle on some new drywall. I’ll have one more layer then I can sand, put a first coat on, a second coat on, and that finishing coat… Ironman lake placid!
Today is a good day to watch paint dry!
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