2010 Race Schedule

It isn't a good idea to train without knowing why, right? Well, I've settled (loosely) on a race schedule for 2010. My plan is to structure my training so that I have my first peak for the Mountain Championships in July. I'll relax a week after that, and then re-establish my base and peak again for the US Championships in September. It is a little bit of a longer season than I've done in the past, but so far I'm feeling really motivated, and my fitness is coming around earlier than it did last year.

I just finished up my first week of the 2nd block of base training (base 2 in Joe Friel's training bible). This week was scheduled to be 8,000 yards of swimming, 6 hours of biking and 2 hours of running. I hit all of the bike workouts, and all of the run workouts. I didn't manage to get one of the swims in this week though, leaving my volume a little short there. I also had 2 strength training sessions. On the bike there were 2 days of tempo work. Running had 1 day. Swimming had a little bit higher intensity with 7x200 yard repeats at race pace one day, and another day of lots of pulling, both of which left me pretty shelled afterwards. All of the run sessions felt good, especially my long run this weekend. I think the half marathon training has set me up really well with both good endurance and more speed than I've had in the past. Even today's 2 mile run after the 2 hour ride in the pain cave felt pretty good.

Next week is 15 hours of total training. Bike volume goes up to a little over 7 hours, running is around 3 hours or 21-22 miles depending on the terrain, and swimming is around 9000 yards. 3 strength sessions are also scheduled. It will be a challenge to make it all happen, as my schedule with work will be a bit tougher due to some quarterly meetings that will make their way into the evenings and earlier into the mornings. After missing my swim last week, I need to nail everything this week.

That is all for now - Jaime and I are about to make some shepherd's pie for dinner, since today's weather calls for some warm comfort food.

Train hard, train safe

Nick