SBR Utopia - OPEN (Page 64)

Amazing how that goes.

Pretty good training week for me.  Got 10 miles in Tuesday, good run Thursday, Saturday afternoon I rode 40 outside - had been too long, we had some wind to deal with and my legs were trashed.  Sunday I managed a short open water swim.  I know some of you saw my post in TT about my open water swim anxiety.  I used to love OW until my first panic attack last spring.  Doing that same race in April so I really need to work through this.  I did a 300ish yard loop three times.  The first time around 150 yards I stopped, the anxiety was there. I bobbed in the water for a bit but recognized my breathing was fine so WHY am I stopping?  I swam the rest.  The second time that anxious feeling pops up a little earlier but I say to myself 'what if you just keep swimming, as slow and easy as you want, just stay horizontal and keep moving'. It got better.  The third loop was good, didn't even think about stopping.  This did reinforce I need to work on my sighting though.

The reason was kind of two-fold.  The big one is that I've never done any of the Sufferfest rides until this week....so when I opened it up and started riding, I didn't really realize that there wasn't much of a warm-up to go with it until a minute later when they wanted me near FTP!

Second reason is that I was a bit short on time.... I knew that the two rides together was nearing on 90 minute , and I typically only have an hour to spare in the morning.  I did see that yesterday, so I got up at 3:40am, rather than my normal 4am wake-up call. 

My warmup was my 40 min strength training right before hand.  Ouch.  I had a lot of trouble with the first workout.  Second one was still hard but better

I saw your post and wanted to post a link but it slipped by me (note particularly the meditation/visualization part). Glad you held your water and the 3rd loop went well.

Open Water Swimming: M.A.P.S. to Get Ready

That's great. So much of this is mental. You handled it well.

Stronger

Not especially a Clarkson fan, but this was playing during my last few minutes of trainer sprints this weekend. Maybe it's appropriate for you, too. :-)

Then a low of 23 and snow/ice the day after tomorrow. Why can't it just be 50/60s here for a while?

on the strange weather front, looking at snow coming down right now...

Thanks Byr... I mean Ben. (It's a good thing you do not work where i do coz something like that would stick like glue)

1) Bike is fine.. scratched the edge of the seat though

1) There must have been a million damm cars. It's the second busiest intersection in our city. I felt so bad@ZZ on my new bike.. that totally smashed my ego. 

I ran this morning and felt fine, which is cool, so assuming nothing big deal. Thanks :=)

Getting up at 5:30 is not wimpy. Pretty awesome I'd say!

Hardly wimpy!

My way of knowing if my early am swim was good or not is whether or not I sit at my desk at work for the first 2 hours feeling like a zombie.  

Yes, awesome.

Mean SOB (think it's Shane - right?).

Yup!

5' and 20' bike tests for me this week!

Just to prove it's not always rainbows and unicorns...  It was overcast and a little damp when we left the Redondo coffee shop for Saturday's ride.... was pouring rain by the time we reached the Manhattan coffee shop 25 minutes later.

Got 1:00 on the road, chased inside to do 2:00 on the trainer.

Sunday had a nice hilly 8 mile run (with two sub 8:00 miles - yip!), then 3700 swim in the afternoon.  For some reason I asked my coach to give me a Sunday swim third day.  It was a killer, and put me on the coach.  Recovering today

Wow - that's not like any coach I know! (jk)

I know the time vs distance debate has probably been covered...but it has recently reared it's ugly head in my training plan. I typically go by distance because I'm slow (not bothered by being slow - just realistic) and I figured for my confidence, I needed to know that I could cover the distance. This is all fine and good when training for shorter races - but I've got a marathon on the calendar right now...it doesn't seem like the smartest thing to run the full distance a couple of weeks out from the race. Rusty recommended flipping to time (have the long runs be at least 2:30 - 3:00)...but at my paces - that's only around 18 miles on a fast day for me. Is that enough?

And to re-iterate what Kim said earlier - it is hard being slow training for a marathon...that's a significant chunk of time (especially if you are going by distance). I've got a 5:10:5:10:5:15 week which equates to about 10 hours of running. (as I'm typing this, I'm doing the math for the 7:14:7:14:7:21 week...crap).

Any advise? Recommendations? What should the longest run be by distance/time and why?

Yanti - you rock...your goal is getting to the starting line at IMNZ...you've already missed the ER to IM timeline - so you should be good to go - right?

x

Ahhh, the time vs. distance dilemma.

I think it comes down to what works for you. As you have probably heard, there isn't anything magical about 20 miles or two and a half hours per se. 

I think what Kim said about training through the week to support the long run is really important. The more you can put in during the week, reducing the percentage of  overall weekly volume your long run is, is more important than exactly how long (time or distance) you should go. 

Additionally, it's important that your long run isn't wiping you out and setting you off on the wrong foot for the rest of your week. So, it kind of works both ways and it's all about finding that balance.

Finally, structure your weeks so you build your volume for about 3 weeks and then step back for a week and collect yourself, then back to building. Most stock programs are structured this way. 

Run:18h 38m 13s  - 100.89 Mi

oh yeah!  Got the last few miles in the snow as well.  Been a while since I've had a 100 mile month

Glad I got a short run and swim in today...it might be a while before I do it again. I went to meet with the surgeon at the dermatologists, just for a consult, ended up hobbling out with 6 stitches in the side of my foot. They are pretty confident that they removed the dangerous mole and got the clear margins, however the wound is pretty big and will need some time to heal. 

The good news is that my "mole" was reviewed by 3 separate pathologists and sent to the Univ of San Fransisco before they came up with a diagnosis, at least I got my money's worth out of my high deductible! I also just got Netflix and my hubby connected our computer to the TV so I can catch up on some TV in my spare time that i am not training!

The bad news is that I have to stay off the foot and I planned a big family dinner/birthday party for my son this evening, and now I have to call in sick tomorrow to work. Luckily I prepped the dinner yesterday and baked an awesome cake last night! 

Nice work, congrats!!

Awesome!!!! That is great! Are you still second guessing doing a marathon?