Feb 23 – March 1: Steady as she goes

Total: 15 hrs 40 min
Swim: 8700 meters
Bike: 7 hrs 12 min
Run: 3 hrs 50 min
Strength: 2 hrs 15 min

As mentioned last week, there wasn’t tremendous volume this week but I did have some welcomed variety. Swimming was very low with only 3 sessions (including one short recovery swim) because of travel and the other disciplines were par for the course. The highlights had to be 1) riding in the upstate and 2) double run day. The terrain, roads conditions, and scenery all add up to an unmatched experience for cyclist in South Carolina. I had a few invitations to come back and take on some of the legendary climbs and rides in the area and definitely plan on taking up the offers.

Next week will be another week of steady work. Nothing legendary in terms of volume … just getting the work done as the coach would say. Running seems to be exceptionally low for a week without a race (although there is another double run day), but I’ll trust Jonathan’s judgment and stick to the plan, however I curious so I’ll ask about it to get understanding. Swimming also seems low with 2 of the 4 sessions at only 2km … I’ll ask about this as well. As you probably notice, if left to my own devices I train too hard too fast and jeopardize consistency and sometimes end up nursing injuries. It’s hard to hold back as I feel fairly fit, strong and motivated at the moment!

I had my second quarter body comp this morning which kept the theme of “steady” going. Not much change going on here:

	3/02/09	1/09/09	5/23/08	1/21/08
Height (in)	71	71	71	71
Weight (lb)	159	161	159	160
Waist (in)	29.5	29.7	30	30.3
Hip (in)	36	36.7	36	36.5
Waist/Hip Ratio	.82	.81	.83	.83
Blood Pressure	N/A	118/82	126/82	122/73
Resting HR	N/A	48	-	52
Max HR	N/A	186	187	187
Body Fat %	8.1	7.8	8.7	8.9
Fat Weight (lb)	12.88	12.56	13.83	14.24
Lean Weight (lb)	146.12	148.44	145.17	145.76
BMI	22.2	22.5	22.2	22.3

My lean weight has gone down (meaning I have lost some bulk muscle) as has my overall weight – both of which are good, however, my bf % has gone up slightly. There is a margin of error in these tests; however the trend doesn’t seem unreasonable. In all honesty my diet has been pretty bad lately. Not that I’m eating fried foods or things like this, but it is my weakness for chocolate that I believe has kept my bf % from dropping along with my weight and extra muscle mass. When I say I have a weakness for chocolate I don’t mean a piece or two a day I’m mean the equivalent of several candy bars per day (although I don’t *usually* eat the bar variety). So the time has come with the season fast approaching to go old school … one rule of thumb I have found … if you want to lean down you have to go to bed hungry. No more refined anything for a while!

In other exciting news I’ve begun making preparations for the upcoming season such as refining my position on the bike a little by narrowing and lowering my frontal area slightly. The other thing that I’ve had the pleasure of working on is the process of “toughening” my feet in preparation to race sockless. Look close to the swoosh and you can see what soaked through as a result of this morning’s 30 minute run …



Train well!