R/R week must have worked

First day back after R/R week, not counting a difficult ski on Saturday that went down as unscheduled cross-training. I felt great during today's workouts.

Swam intervals at lunch and hit some good times. 200 warmup. 2x100 @1:20 and 1:23 on 2:00, then 4x50 @ 40-42 on 1:00, then 8x25 @ 20 on :30. This gets my heart rate going pretty high for a swim, averaging around 140-144. I then swam another 2x100 at a tired race pace and came in on 1:30 and 1:32, which is probably what I would have swam for the last half of a 1500yd race, so that works for me at this stage of the game. 15x1:30=22:30 if my math is right. If I was to throw in some adrenaline and a wetsuit, I might come in at 21:30, which is 1:30 off my goal. I'm usually too optimistic on my times, though.

Then I ran the 10k TT after work. This is the workout that I blew off on Friday because of weather. Today turned out to be pretty nice; cool but nice. Sunny and 40 w/ just a bit of wind. As I stepped off, I was expecting to do my 5.3 mile course hard, but then I remembered I blew off the 10kTT on Friday and decided to go for it today since it was so nice. I came it at 50:29 for 6.6 miles, which is 7:39/mile. I'll take that at this stage of the game, especially when I could still feel the affects of the backcountry ski from Saturday (it turned out to be a 2000ft climb in exactly 60 minutes! and it was about 20mins of downhill prior to the up). I'm very happy with this effort because this course has some big and long hills in it, with one that starts at the 4 mile mark just when I'm beginning to get tired and feel sorry for myself during races; for me, this adds a positive mental aspect to race day because I normally won't have the big hill start at the 4 mile mark...running is 90% pain management once you get decent form. I also kept a run cadence of 80-84 for the entire run, including uphill and downhill, which is a bit of improvement from last summer when I was averaging 78-82. In a perfect world, I'd get it up to about 84-86, and I have six weeks to get there before my first race.

I mention the race cadence because I'm really beginning to buy into the fast cadence over long strides theory. I finished this "race" and didn't feel incredibly tired, although I put forth a 100% effort. Yes, I was tired at the end, but I didn't want to immediately drop dead. After a minute of recovery, my heart rate was back down to about 124 (averaged 162 w/ peak of 177).

Now I get to see how I bike tomorrow and if I can string together a full week of workouts. That's the real challenge. My consistency is lacking. I hit only about 80% of my planned hours. I normally plan about 13-14 hours and hit 10-12. In self-defense, the weather has a lot to do with it, and if I forget about a meeting during the week , then that's one more workout that doesn't happen.