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.