Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Day 19: Into the Lucy Archives

Webb: We have a big week of training planned - 12 hrs. That meant two scheduled hours after work on Monday.  That also means no comments from Elle on today's blog. She is "busy" working on other "projects." Whatever. She'll learn soon enough that blogging is the fourth discipline of triathlon.

THE RUN WORKOUT
Purpose: Medium intensity intervals
w/u - 5:00 in HR zone 1
main- 45:00 of intervals as 1:00 on, :30 off, 2:00 on, :30 off, 2:00 on, 5:00 recovery. Each "on" segment was in HR zone 3.
total- 50:00

What a great night for a run. The Charles and the skyline at magic hour and just after in early Spring and Fall can be head-shakingly beautiful. My favorite time is when it is dark enough to trigger the lamp posts along the path but still plenty of light from the setting sun. It feels like you have captured the exact moment of transition, the tipping point from day to night and Winter to Spring, and slowed it down.

As for the actual workout. I liked it. It was great. The medium intensity intervals are going to help us develop our base fitness while also maximizing our ability to get faster at lower heart rates. I'm looking forward to more.

THE SWIM WORKOUT: Broken 200s
w/u - 300 swim, 200 hypoxic set w/ pull-buoy, 200 kick
drill - 450 as 6x75 catch-up (25 drill/50 swim); followed by 50 easy swim
main- 800 as 4 x 200 (:30). Each 200 is 150 at TPace followed by :10 rest, then 50 build-to-sprint.
c/d - 100 swim
total - 2100m

The plan was to run for an hour and swim for an hour. The run was cut short since I stayed at the office later than expected and we wanted to get to the pool in-time. The concern was public transportation. Normally we drive to the pool. It takes us 30:00 from the time we get in the car to our toes touching the water. Tonight was going to be a bus night. Who knows how long that could take? Turns out on this particular occasion, 25:00.

This is a good workout. It is definitely time to get back to hypoxic sets. Tonight's set was 200 as 4x50 swum continuously (no breaks). The first 50 breathe every 3rd stroke, the second every 5th stroke, the third every 7th stroke and then finally the fourth 50 every 9th ... just kidding, you return to breathing every 3rd stroke.

I also like broken 200s. There is a debate in the triathlon-swimming community on the value of short, fast sets. We don't know enough or have enough experience to have an opinion. I'll say this though. That :10 rest between the 150 and 50 feels insufficient. Pushing through the final 50 certainly feels like you are adapting and getting faster. And I'll say this, Coach Lucy has done more for my swimming than anyone else.

For the first 18 days of "30 for 30," I have planned out our pool workouts a week at a time. I did not do that this time. There I was on the pool deck flipping through my Coach Lucy workouts from two years ago. I finally decided on the workout, leaving 55:00 to get it done. I can live with missing 15:00 of a scheduled 2 hour day. We shouldn't try to make up lost time, but 15:00? We may just have try.

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