Big Volume Week and Moving Forward

I had the opportunity to spend all of last week in Nashville. My job is flexible in that I occasional telework which allows me to spend extended periods of time with Jess and provides me the chance to get out of the office a bit more. When I telework, I don't keep rigid hours. I pick things up, move around the schedule and work often at unique times so long as still put in 40 hours during the week. It also allows me to be a little more liberal with training.

My goal for the week was to increase training nearly 100%. I planned to cut back intensity, just focus on quality volume and see what the body thinks. In the past three months, I have only approached the 10 hour mark in training twice. It seems that I am able to train (and produce) on a solid 8 hours a week so long as the intensity is high. And normally, I am good with this. As intensity goes up, I need to recover more, namely in the form of sleep. So I don't typically double up on many days.

For the big volume week, my goal was to aim for 15 hours of training....like I said, nearly double. I really wanted to see how my body responded. I know I need to run more so I put a heavy emphasis on increasing my mileage (note--this is generally not recommended for athletes however, after years of running, I know when to can a run if my body is revolting). The second emphasis was cycling. And as usual, I totally shirked the swim--but I have plans for it another week.

I didn't quite hit my goal for the week. I landed at 13.3 hours. I still feel a strong sense of accomplishment. Last week happened to be the hottest of the year and it certainly took a toll on me. I was beat after easy workouts. In fact, my runs on Monday and Tuesday were the hardest. I quickly made the adjustment to run first thing in the morning. I was up at 5:30 and out the door. On Saturday, I started riding by 6:15.

Totals for the week:

Swimming: 45 minutes and 2200 yards. I missed my other swim when I left my keys in Jess' car.

Cycling: 8.1 hours or 161 miles. That is a big week by non-Ironman standards. One ride was cut short when a storm caught me for the third time. And my ride on Sunday was the only workout of the week that was below standard. It was extremely hot and I was fatigued and under nurished.

Running: 4.2 hours or 31 miles. I am thrilled about this. I have pushed my mileage above 30 in well over a year and only on a few occasions that weren't IM race week. I ran 6 of the 7 days last week. I ran twice on Tuesday, a long run on Thursday and bricked Saturday. I failed to brick after Sunday's ride but ran once I returned to Atlanta. Call that determination.

More importantly, I felt really good. Yes, I was tired and took Monday off. But I jumped by in on Tuesday and didn't feel like I missed a beat. I am spending this week training less and recovering. But I am still stressing the body with some intensity. Then I start my first build toward AG Nationals. I hope to consistently run 25+ miles a week. That is what I need.