Week 5: Review

The back was much better this week, although I played it cautiously as I didn't want to re-injure it again and loose even more time. I basically stuck with four runs this week (two four milers and two six milers) and kept the pace comfortable. As with last week, my HR was a bit higher than normal for this level of perceived effort, although it is starting to fall again as I get back into my routine.

I restarted my swimming on Thursday, doing a 3250m swim (composed of 750 and 1000m sets) followed by 300m worth of drills and 15 minutes of treading water. As with last week, to keep the impact off I made sure not to touch the walls and simply reversed direction when I got to the end of a length. That slows things down a bit, and makes it a bit more tiring, however it's a better simulation of open water swimming and is much easier on the body.

I also managed to get down to the bike shop to get my rear tube replaced and my new equipment (aerobars and Garmin Edge 705) installed. I also got a second saddle and seat post head so that I could switch back and forth between fitted road and triathlon positions. My Bike was explicitly designed to function in both positions, and uses a reversible seat post head to allow a quick switch between an effective 73 and 76 degree seat tube angle. This allowed me to use full-length aerobars on the bike, and have a proper position when using them - especially important with the distances that I'm looking at doing. To get used to it, I'm planning on primarily riding in the aero position while I'm on the trainer.

Due to the new position and the fact that I haven't been on the bike in a couple of weeks, I started off with a short (10K) and easy (31.8km/h, ~256w) ride on Friday. The new fit is still going to take a bit of getting used to, as it radically changes the muscle groups that are being used (more quads, less hamstrings), but it worked quite well and that shouldn't be a huge problem. I was expecting my power to go down slightly due to this, but instead I found the opposite - when I went down on the aerobars I was able to squeeze out an extra 20-30w. That was a pleasant surprise, and it will be interesting to see how that progresses as I actually train those muscles.

Week 5 Totals:
Running: 32.2km (20.0mi)
Walking: 2.8km (1.7mi)
Cycling: 10.0km (6.2mi)
Swimming: 3.6km (2.2mi)
Total: 48.6km (30.2mi)

Year to Date:
Running: 163.0km (101.3mi)
Walking: 20.2km (12.6mi)
Cycling: 10.0km (6.2mi)
Swimming: 19.3km (12.0mi)
Total: 212.5km (132.0mi)

The plan is to begin boosting mileage this week to work my way back up to where I was. Due to the time off on the bike, that will likely take a bit longer, however as I don't have any impending races in that sport that's not a huge thing. The swimming should be good to go back to my normal schedule, however I'll likely keep the pace in check to be safe.


Either way, I'll have to keep this short as I've got to head downstairs to watch the Superbowl. Rigged up a new antenna a little while ago (both free and much better HD picture quality than cable or satellite), so unlike previous years I'll be able to pull in the feed from Buffalo rather than having to watch the Canadian channels (which strip out the good advertisements) ;)