Week 51: Review

As mentioned in the last post, we got our first real shot of winter this week so that's largely governed my activities this week. On Wednesday we got a dumping of snow and rain, which combined with cold winds pretty much covered everything in ice and slush. As such, things were pretty messy for our group run and we only managed to get about 5 miles in (8.2km to be exact). As a lot of the sidewalks hadn't been cleared yet, we stuck to the local subdivision around the Running Room store where we could safely run on the road surface. It took a somewhat convoluted route and a lot of repetition to get that distance in, but we somehow managed ;)

On Thursday things were still pretty messy, so I pushed that run back to Friday to give the crews more time to clear things up and spread salt. I headed out in the morning and did my planned session, including the speedwork. Unfortunately, it was bitterly cold (-7C ambient, with windchills at -20C) so I had to wear a neck warmer over my face. For normal running that isn't a huge problem, but for intervals the restriction in air intake was a bit of a challenge and limited how quickly I could go. Either way, I fought through and had to improvise my route a bit to work around uncleared segments - calling it a day a 6 miles, about 1 short of my plan.

I also got my first session in on the indoor trainer that afternoon. I was supposed to have a session on Wednesday, but as I was cleaning everything up I noticed that the front of one of my cleats was broken. It still clipped in okay, so I have no idea how long it was that way. Regardless, I was a bit concerned it would potentially cause some problems so I held off and brought them in for replacement the next day (cleats are a wear item and have to be replaced periodically). Either way, it's going to take some work in getting used to sitting in the same place for a while so I ended up calling it at 30K.

On Sunday I managed to get another 30K in on the bike, after deciding to put off my long run due to freezing rain in the morning. Fortunately, the temperatures rose that afternoon and between that and the rain a lot of the ice got cleaned up. When I headed out this morning there were still a lot of icy patches thanks to sub-freezing temperatures overnight, but it was a lot better than it looked the day before. I did have to slow down in a few places, and even walk across a few bridges thanks to ice, however overall it didn't have too much of an effect on my performance.

Week 51 Totals:
Running: 59.8km (37.1mi)
Walking: 1.5km (0.9mi)
Cycling: 60.0km (37.3mi)
Swimming: 8.7km (5.4mi)
Total: 130.0km (80.8mi)

Year to Date:
Running: 2,550.8km (1,585.0mi)
Walking: 227.0km (141.1mi)
Cycling: 3,978.5km (2,472.1mi)
Swimming: 158.1km (98.2mi)
Total: 6,914.4km (4,296.4mi)

Looking forward, I'm going to have to work my way back up to the long rides on the indoor trainer. I got used to doing them last season, so it's just a matter of conditioning my mind to take it again ;) For the time being, I'll scale back my plans and probably try to get more short sessions in per week. As I get more comfortable about it, I'll try to expand one or two of them slowly and get myself into a rhythm.

Aside from that, the running and swimming will generally stay the same here. Naturally, the running is a bit at the mercy of the elements, but I'll do whatever I can to get in the planned mileage. I hate the treadmill even more than the trainer, so it's generally not an option except for extremely bad conditions (preferably for the shorter runs). I've never managed to get more than 4 miles in on that thing, and I'm hoping to never have to try going past that if I have any say on the matter ;)

Tentative Schedule:
Mon 16mi LSD*
Tue 2.5mi Swim, 7mi Recovery
Wed 30K Ride, 6mi Recovery
Thurs 2.5mi Swim, 7mi GA w/10x100m
Fri 30K Ride
Sat 4mi Recovery, 30k Ride
Sun 16mi (25.7K) LSD, 10K Ride
* Counted towards this week's mileage, as it was simply postponed from yesterday.