I have a natural talent for running and other athletics and she saw that in me I guess. It has been a great decision. In the month that she has been coaching me, I have yet to repeat a similar workout outside the long runs and bike rides.
My swim (used to range at 2000 to 2500 yards) are now minimum of 3000 and getting into 4000. I thought I could never swim that much, but I am making it. Last week was my longest yardage total of about 11,000! Sounds crazy, but it is a lot for me and I am seeing the improvements in the endurance.
The bike has improved. Michelle immediately pointed out that my bike training should be about 50% of my weekly volume. Prior to working with her I was shooting for about 33%. I also wasn't incorporating long bikes on a weekly basis. That has all changed and I feel that I have improved and my it shows on my longer bikes.
On the run side, I am starting to go very fast (more than I though I would). I have brought my mid zone 2 run HR pas to 145 bpm or so at 7 min miles. That is very fast! Last Friday, I did a 70 mile bike followed by a 6 mile brick run and came off doing 6:30 - 6:36 miles at the top of zone 2 and a few into zone 3! Incredible that I could do that. One of the weirdest things lately has been getting used to this faster pace and having a low heart rate.
The other thing that I have been experimenting with is nutrition. I referring to both daily and race day nutrition. On the daily nutrition, I bought Matt Fitzgerald's book Racing Weight, 2nd Edition. This book is like a bible to me. Since starting to follow the daily steps on nutrition, I have seen my performance, recovery, and overall health improve. One of the things I took for granted, was my carb intake. Since reading and re-reading this book, I have almost doubled my daily card intake. This has mad a huge difference.
The other nutrition aspect has been race day nutrition. I had been experimenting in the past with gels and bars on the ride. As many know, this can be tricky. Thus, I ordered some Infinit Nutrition a few weeks ago and am loving this stuff. The consultation was quick and easy and the formula came custom for me. Many triathletes swear by liquid nutrition and I am a believer now. It's so easy to drink every 10 minutes and know that my nutrition is coming in. I throw a salt tab from Energy Lab every 20 minutes to make sure I hit my hourly electrolyte need (per Michelle's race planning worksheets). I feel great during rides and feel good on the run.
Back to the title of the post, I am doing my 1st half marathon this weekend here in The Woodlands. I can't wait and I'm pumped. This will be a good test for the Galveston 70.3 in April. I hope I can deliver per my training results.
I'll update that later.
