IMMT Training Week 1: This Is The Beginning

I have yet to write a line and I hate these recaps already. Whose idea was it anyway? I have no patience for repetitive stuff and I'm rather lazy when it comes to crunching numbers. So what the hell am I gonna write? If there is something worthy to say, I will, if not... sorry dudes. I can't make shit up. 

Now, if you really, really want to see workout details, I log all my workouts in Runkeeper. No secrets. Knock yourselves out! I am also on Daily Mile, Trainer Road, Garmin Connect, Strava and Training Peaks, so there is more than enough information about my workouts if you're curious.

Also, with regards to publishing, I have time to blog roughly once or twice a week and if I wait for Monday, I may as well forget about it. Some weeks I will post recaps on Saturday, other weeks I will post on Sunday. I may skip some weeks because I don't feel like it. It's my blog and I can do whatever I want with it. Got it? Ok, so where were we? Let's try this.

Swim
Despite the fact that I'm still waiting for the "official" schedule from coach starting on February 1st, I got some feedback about the intensity of my current workouts. I was told that all my swims should be "hard" because I'm taking it easy in the other 2 sports. So on Tuesday I was told to go to the pool for a set of 10x200m pretty much all out (on 4:45). No pull buoy! Say whaaaat?

The graph was so pretty, I had to share. The times are nothing out of extraordinary, I am still a slow poke, but it's funny to see my descent into Hell. By the end of the workout, my arms were feeling like noodles ready to fall off.

To top it off, on Thursday I went to the masters swim (with the tri club) and this is what I had to do:

Warmup:
100m free + 200m drills + 200m pull/paddles
Main set:
2x50m fast on 1:10
100m pull/paddles
4x50m fast on 1:15
100m pull/paddles
6x50m fast on 1:20
100m free
14x25 (1 fast, 1 easy, 2 fast, 1 easy, 3 fast, 1 easy, 4 fast, 1 easy)
Cooldown:
100m any stroke

It was BRUTAL!
I may go for another swim tomorrow, or I may not. My limbs are still deciding.

Bike
The highlight of the week was my return to Trainer Road workouts.

Giraud on Thursday

Nice and easy with a few intervals to get the heart going. I tried to keep a good cadence and not fall asleep.

Mont Gosford on Saturday

This one was a sweatfest. Four long tempo intervals. Thankfully I was watching the movie "This Is The End" and I was going WTF !!!??!?!!?? way too often to notice my own struggle or lack thereof, surprisingly to say the least. I did not change my FTP since last year and it seems that I didn't lose much fitness since, which is rather encouraging. I don't feel that I'm ready to take it to the next level though... I am being careful, especially with the muscle pain that I feel in my glutes right now.

Run
So far this week, only one treadmill run, but longer than last week. I ran for 35min on Tuesday and did a little "ladder" because 5x7min in the spur of the moment seemed the right thing to do. Plus, the guy beside me was running at 5.5mph, so I felt that a little lesson was in order, just in case... you never know when you get to race and beat a VP.

7min @ 5.6mph
7min @ 5.8mph
7min @ 6mph
7min @ 5.8mph
7min @5.6mph
All with 1% incline

I have no idea who he was, by the way. But I kicked his butt.

Tomorrow will be my first race of the year and I'm still on the fence about running it. It's my first time running an 8k distance so it'll be an automatic PR, but given the low temperatures (-24C with the windchill OMG), I may end up being very miserable out there. My asthma has been awful this winter and I already had to use my inhaler 3 times a day just from walking from the house to the car and into the office. My colleagues tell me that I have an old smoker's cough. Yikes! And have I mentioned my Raynaud's? How many layers will I need to wear? I can't let the cold get to me or I'll turn pasty white from inside out. So anyway, I guess I'll swing it. If I run it I'll most likely sport a balaclava over my face to save me from coughing to near death. I can't wait to see the race pictures, haha.

In a nutshell
This week will be almost identical in volume as the last, but I bumped the intensity a notch with longer and harder workouts, and possibly a race. I am being careful about my hips, hamstrings and IT bands. I did my physio strength workouts twice this week (I should have done them every day!) and also started some planks (3x1min on Fri). I tried to roll, stretch, ice as often as I remembered and hopefully it'll be enough to keep me from relapsing into injury. Tomorrow's race, if I decide to participate, will be slow and I don't expect to break any records. Overall, I've been feeling good and I don't want to spoil the progress. I won't call it a comeback yet... but I'm getting darn close.

Riri vs Treadmill

I have been thinking a lot about this post and how to phrase it, literally. This year, working on the treadmill has been very depressing for me and not only because I'm claustrophobic and I feel that I cannot breathe indoors without a fan blowing air in my face, but also because it made me discover my limits and as a result it feel like a huge failure. I know that I should not be so hard on myself, but what can I do, I am very competitive, especially with myself and I want to see results and I want to see them now, dammit!

My coach has been trying to make me work harder and faster, so I can improve my running speed. Maybe the method is not good for me, or the numbers are not appropriate to my current fitness level, or I am just a big wimp, but every time I've been trying to do these interval workouts on the treadmill I have been crashing hard, especially inside my head. I even cried like a baby a few times. Exhibit A, the last Tempo intervals workout geekery:

I was supposed to do the following: 5 min @ 6mph, 5 min @ 8mph, 5 min @ 5mph, 5 min @ 8mph, 5 min @ 5mph, 5 min @ 8mph, 5 min @ 5mph cooldown.

As usual, I could not complete all 3 "hard" intervals at 8mph, I could only run for 3 minutes in the last one. If you look at my heart rate, it is always close to max (192bpm) during those intervals and my cadence ends up above 200 strides per minute. I am way up there in Zone "Off the charts", when I should probably be in high Zone 4. I think I should not even run for more than a minute or two in that zone anyway. Yes, no?

By the way, here are my heart zones:

Note that my max HR is 194. When I run at 6.5mph, my heart rate is already in Zone 5. See last night's "relaxed" run on the treadmill again, Exhibit B:

Here I did 6 min @ 6mph, 25 min @ 6.5mph and 5 min cooldown at 6mph again. For almost the entire interval at 6.5mph, I was above 170bpm, with a cadence of 186. When I run "slowly" at 5mph, I usually run at a cadence of 180 strides per minute, so unlike other people who are training hard to reach this number, I am already there out of habit (and forefoot strike, methinks). Or short legs. Did I mention that I am 5'3"? But then, Mirinda Carfrae is also 5'3" and she runs a 2h53 marathon. Or Nicole, she kicks my ass with an average of 5:52min/km pace in training and is shorter by what... 3 inches? Seriously girl, how do you do it??

And since I'm comparing myself to everyone else (can't help it, sorry), here's the same type of workout, done by hubbs, with an average page of 4:30min/km, nonetheless. Because he can.

For crying out loud, he's making these look way too easy!!

So, back to my so called failures, am I pushing too hard, too soon? Am I killing myself with these intervals? I feel defeated, that's for sure. I don't know where to go from here, I know that I hit a limit, but should I push through and HTFU or accept it and dial down a bit? Coach is going to make me start hill repeats next, but my inquiring mind still wants to understand what is the limiting factor for me here, or rather what I should improve to go over this hump. I think that I should lengthen my stride so I don't go as high as 200 strides per minute (and once I get there, the heart should also slow down and magically I will be able to hold that pace... wishful thinking is a powerful thing). All this looks like madness to me right now. I wonder how the pros do it. Rinny, where are you when I need you? Bottom line: I am scared and I wish someone would tell me "you're going to be ok". Maybe this IS what it takes to get faster afterall...

*cries*

(Going back to crawling in a fetal position and cuddling with my heating blankie)

UPDATE: I came across this excellent post on Training Peaks Blog: How to Get Faster with Interval Training. I found it very informative and it answered most of my questions on the subject. An excerpt is below:

The timing of your efforts is very important. If the efforts are too long, lactic acid will accumulate, VO2 max is stressed too much and you will be forced to slow down or not be able to complete the workout as planned due to undue fatigue. If they are too short, the total time at the optimal intensity is condensed and gains are reduced. Keep in mind that the goal is not to go as fast as possible for the work portion but rather to accumulate time at the desired pace. By completing these efforts at the correct intensity, namely 80-95% of VO2max, you will begin to notice significant performance improvement.

I think I know where to go from here: dial down the top speed and work on bringing the cadence down. Sounds like a plan.