SwimTraining

This week was pretty similar to last week in terms of the amount of workout time of just under 8 hours.

The most frustrating part of my training is the swimming. I just don’t feel as though I’m getting any better. For a change, I’m going to try using the Total Immersion swimming methodology for this week.  I had bought the video course on Udemy a while back when it was on sale and I just picked up a couple books on the program.  I decided that for this week, I’m not going to focus on swimming laps, but instead, I’m just going to focus on the skills from the program to see if it can help with my sinking legs.  I’m 90% sure that is the source of all my current issues.

 

Goals for the Week: I don’t expect any changes to my running and cycling.  Swimming wil be to simply do the Total Immersion skills and then perhaps go to the pool one day towards the end of the week to see if I can see ay difference

During the course of this week, I have managed to complete the half-Ironman distances….it just took me the whole week.  I swam for 2,000m, rode for 73 miles, and ran for 13 miles.  Ok, I was short 0.1 miles!

This week I got a new toy, a Tacx Vortex smart trainer.  I did one ride on it on Saturday using Zwift.  It wasn’t bad.  The Zwift course had more hills than I’m accustomed to.  Over the course of 10 miles, I climbed 497′.  Compare that to today’s 40 mile ride where I climbed 694′ and today’s ride was abnormally bumpy as I had to go over 3 highway overpasses.  I much prefer riding outdoors even though it’s by myself, but the trainer+Zwift will be an acceptable alternative when it’s raining and when winter comes around.

My running continues to be ok.  I still haven’t managed 3 days of 5 miles, but I’ll get there.  I’m just really happy that my Achilles isn’t causing any issues.

My swimming continues to improve slowly, but my Thursday swim was especially satisfying.  For the first time, I felt strong.  I still had to rest between laps, but I didn’t have that sucking air feeling.

My workouts for the week:

 

Goals for Next Week:  I would love to get to running 5 miles for the 3 running days.  I don’t expect to increase my swimming and I’ll be focusing on swimming 500m each day. I just need to work on reducing the rest between laps.  On the bike, I don’t expect to increase my mileage or time, but I will consider trying to a FTP test. I should be ending the week with between 7 and 8 hours of workout time.

This week wasn’t bad.  My running went reasonably well with two 5-mile days.  Wednesday was a bit sucky and I only ran 3 miles that day.

This was the second week of my advanced swimming class.  I didn’t actually take part in any of the class and I simply swam laps on my own.  The great things is that I swam 500m each of the days.  The 4th class day was cancelled due to weather.  I can tell I am progressing in my swimming and although I can only swim 25m at a time, the amount of break I need between laps is less.  I can’t wait until that break is non-existent.

The bike went well, but for the second week in a row, I didn’t do a long ride on the weekend.  It was raining the entire weekend and I found a one hour gap where I can ride without the rain, but the road was wet so I went slower than normal.  I bought a bike trainer that will arrive this coming week so Iwill no longer have any weather excuse!

 

Goals for Next Week: I’m traveling this coming week so I wouldn’t have the 25m pool to swim in.  I’ll be swimming in in the hotel pool.  So, instead of worrying about distance, I’ll be aiming to do 15 mins of swim each of my swim days.  I’ll be on the indoor gym bike so I’ll go for 1 hour while traveling.  I’ll be back home for the weekend and shoot for a 40-45 mile bike ride.  I may do that on Zwift to try it out.  Running would be three 5-mile days