Week 11

After this weekends great half marathon performance I figured as part of my Week 11 recap I might share some some insight as to how I have improved my performance. I’ve left certain things out of my blog in the previous weeks, but for the last 4 weeks I’ve been doing 1 track session a week. Each week was a little different, but it mostly consisted up to about 12 – 200 meter repeats with a 200 meter jog between or up to 10 – 400 meter repeats with a 2 minute rest between each one. I think I can safely say this paid great dividends in greatly improving my times.

This past week consisted of one running speed work session and then two short runs, run at a 6:30 pace. I also was able to get outside twice last week on the bike, which was great. The downside to it was that by the time I got home from work I was limited because of daylight, but I managed some great hill repeats one day and one steady ride. Swimming consisted of a Time Trial on Friday of 1,650 yards, which I was able to complete in 24:16, which I’m not sure if that’s great or not. If I compare it to my last Swim Time Trial back in Week 6, I was only 2 seconds slower at the half mile mark, which isn’t to bad. Week 6 was a 1,000 yard time trial that I completed in 14:42. I think I was slower this time around only because I stopped lifting twice a week and have been focusing on just training, but from the looks of it I may have to start lifting again just to keep my muscle base up for the swimming.

All and all I can’t complain with a great break through performance in the Half Marathon this past Sunday. Here are the totals for Week 11:

• Swim - 6,424 yards (3.65 miles)
• Bike - 90 minutes
• Run - 22.14 miles

Year to Date Totals:

• Swim - 62,902 yards (35.74 miles)
• Bike - 1,230 minutes
• Run - 202.14 miles