Time to come back to regular reporting – writing – recapping. I´m a lazy bastard when it comes to keeping notes but I remember well that keeping track of progress and thoughts over the week really helped me tremendously to identify my strengths and weaknesses better. As a bonus I now finally have enough data to compare my workouts with session from a year ago and see where I´ve made improvements.

Last week was pretty tough and I felt the fatigue mounting. Accordingly this week already tapered slightly in terms of TSS and duration, although depending on the run this afternoon I might catch up with last week still. The bike week was the hardest so far, so bad that I did not add an extra workout like in the weeks before. The reason is accumulated fatigue and the intensity of the workouts ramping up before going into recovery next week.That said, I completed all prescribed workouts on target power. Yesterday was 90 minutes with 5 by 9 minutes over – under (1 min 95% FTP – 2 min 105% FTP * 3). It was tough but I managed. There is a learning curve to clearing the burn in your legs. Your initial response to your quads lighting up is usually to back off and clear the burn, but it turns out when your tough you can also clear that burn gradually. It takes experience, discipline and a very precise feel for your body, but it works. A year ago I didn’t even use TrainerRoad but rather just started using a turbo at all. And I hated it. I remember the first workouts without plan being painful, boring and ineffective. I remember hammering on the trainer and putting it in 2/9 difficulty and backing off after a few minutes. Today, it is set to 5/9 and I still get to ride the big chainring during harder intervals. It will be interesting to see the difference come February when I´ll have actual power data to compare.

I only ran once this week. I kinda wanted to squeeze in a tempo session, but the weather didn´t allow it. the times I had time it was snowing and dark outside, and after almost breaking my ankle already once this winter I just gave in and hit the trainer instead. The long run however was nice. It came out a full half marathon at a leisurely 5:45 pace. Nothing worth noting, I was very comfortable over the distance and didn’t need any fuel – something that has been difficult of me in the past. But so everything was great and I reached my minimum goal of 20k per week.

Swimming on the other hand was pretty neat this week. I TT´ed 1.9k to have some reference and came in at 35:23 with a few short breaks to drain water from my goggles. That is 3 minutes faster than a year ago and I have just begun my winter block.

Next weeks base workouts

• TrainerRoad Pettit 60 min
• TrainerRoad Bald Knob 60 min
• TrainerRoad Brasstown 90 min
• Longish run (>15k) in Nice, France on the Ironman course
• Swim workout focusing on technique – long and complete strokes
• Swim workout medium intense intervals

Bonus workouts

• 1k interval runs @3:55 pace
• Core strength