Sometimes you have to be creative to get your workouts in...

Last big week before IM 70.3 Kansas...
And it was the largest volume week yet, which is good and bad.

Good that I hit pretty much all of my workouts and peaked with volume and intensity for my per-competitive phase for 70.3 Kansas.

Bad in the fact that this will be a smaller week in the grand scheme of things for IM Lake Tahoe.

After an intense bike-run-bike-run-bike session Friday, I was spent.  Then, I hit a cross-fit type of workout with Em on Saturday, and then a high Z2 3 hour ride Sunday.  Sunday was toast after that.  Luckily all that was on the docket was a casual driveway gathering in the cul-de-sac and then bed.

I was and am still feeling the week.  It's time to keep intensity and back off of the volume.  Keep recovery time short while maintaining the fitness level.


The numbers.
This is the week I had been looking for.  It was a delicate game of balancing kids, work, house responsibilities and time management in general.

Some of the intense runs (no, not the GI type of runs, get real) came from dawning a weight vest and running to pick up the kids from daycare.  It's a 4.5 mile round trip, but it's always windy and running with a double stroller, even when empty, is a pain.  It's a tough workout even at slow speed.  Add a headwind and 90 pounds of kids, and you have an high heart rate blood pumping run in 40 minutes.  Great afternoon jam session.  I highly recommend it.  If you don't have access to kids and a stroller, use a tire tied to your waist and run sprints.  Then, you might feel the pain.

At least a couple of people enjoyed the run.

Here's the run down:
Cycling - 115 miles
Running - 25.5 miles
Swimming - 3.91 miles
Total Time - 13:57 hours
Total Miles - 144 miles

Don't misread that.  These weren't miles and time just to train.  The objective is to train to race, not train to train.  Every workout had a specific goal and reason.  Sometimes they didn't get done in the order I would have preferred, but it fit within my schedule as best it could without disrupting my family and other obligations.

Don't get me wrong, I could have spent more time like one guy rode 72ish miles and another rode over 90 yesterday training for the same event.  That's great if you have the time, and they will probably kill me on the bike.  But, if properly structured, the workout time could be much less with greater results.

More miles don't always equal better results.

But then there's the point that they love to ride and the events are inconsequential compared to the satisfaction they get from going out for long rides.  Far be it from me to discourage a good suffer fest on the bike.

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend and kept the real reason for the holiday in perspective.  Tomorrow, we get back to it.