Last year I finished 3rd in my age group at Rev3 Williamsburg. Using that as motivation, this year I want to win my age group. What follows is a weekly look at my journey towards that goal.
Starting in November of 2021 I started working on my perceived weaknesses. My biggest obstacle is I am recovering from knee surgery. I started off running slowly, but regularly. After several weeks of steady running I gave myself a run test. I was nervous, not so much about the results but more so about the perceived stress on my knee. I started conservatively at an 8:06 pace per mile, I didn't feel stressed so I dropped the pace 5 seconds per mile. The last mile I ran at 7:49 per mile and then ran the last tenth of a mile at whatever I had left. My final time was 24:48, a 7:57 pace. So that's the benchmark for the first run test, which comes in week 2 of training. I am planning on16 weeks of training for this race, so let's talk about how week 1 went.
Off to a Good Start
I planned a little over 7 hours of training for week 1. Mostly base training, zone 1 and 2 work to start builiding endurance and not put to much stress on my kness too soon. I often tell my athletes consistency is the key to improvement so my main goal was to practice what I preach to the nth degree. Normally 80 - 90 % of completed workouts will make me happy, but since I have loftly goals I was shooting for 100% in week 1. I was concerned bad weather would interrupt some of my running so I invested in a Sole F63 treadmill. I caught it on sale and I have been generally pleased with its performance so far. If I have one gripe about it, the fan it comes with is ABSOLUTELY USELESS! I can hear it, but I can't feel anything! It's like a gnat is blowing on you, and that is being generous. They really could have left the fan out. On the flipside, the bluetooth speakers are actually pretty nice. Another nice feature is the treadmill paired effortless with Zwift, that really helps take some of the boredom out of being on the treadmill. Right on cue the weather cooperated (or didn't depeneding on your point of view) and I found myself building my run fitness indoors for 2 out of 3 runs. I completed ALMOST all of week 1 training, I missed out on about 20 minutes of my strength training due to an overlapping commitment. I made up for that with some extra yoga sessions. I finished the week tired but happy. So week 1 is in the books, Grade A.
Off and Running to Week 2
Week 2 started today with a relatively easy swim. This week is going to be interesting because it's TEST WEEK! FTP test, run test and swim test! I will check in with you guys next week.
Happy training!
Coach Rob
