Feeling Amazing
I have been feeling really, really great this week. It seems like I’m gaining speed, strength, and endurance all at the same time. I’m going to bed tired but am getting incredibly restful sleeps and feeling refreshed and rejuvenized each morning for another day of training. It’s been several years since I’ve felt this good about my all-around triathlon training, not to mention this early in the season.
The greatest risk will be the switch from primarily endurance and aerobic training to some more race specific training in a few weeks. To mitigate that risk, I may transition into the faster training a bit more slowly. That will ensure my bones, ligaments, tendons can withstand the additional force. I’ve already started to do some strides a couple times when running and some shorter, quicker efforts in the swim. The high school next to where I live has an astroturf football field, and I’ve used it a couple of times for barefoot strides. Running barefoot helps to strengthen the foot and astroturf must be one of the most ideal sufaces - as soft as grass but with much less risk of twisting an ankle.
Training since Monday has been great. I did another 2:30 ride on Thursday, 21,500y of swimming Monday-Wednesday, and one of my longest runs in the past 8 months - all of 55:00 (around 8 miles). I haven’t felt any pain when running, but I think my sesamoid bones are a little tender, so I’m being careful. Saturday and Sunday should be a little lighter in terms of training. 1:00 bike and strength training on Saturday, a 35:00 run on Sunday, and around 6500m of swimming spread out over the two days. Next week will largely be a repeat of this week except that I’ll be doing a little more of everything (around 2:00 more total).
Filed under: Training
