TRAINING LOG through July 16

Training log -- from June 16, 2008 to July 16, 2008:

Week of June 16: swim,M, W, Sat: minimum 2/3 mile each day, 1 mile Sat (full hour of drills): I'm re-creating my swimming stroke, so these workouts are frustrating, but are designed to make the swim (which scares me) less energy-sapping.
Bike: T: short (10 mi.), medium intensity; Th: longer bike (18? mi.) with team members -- Fun!
Run: W: 3.1 mi.; Fri: 3.5 miles, easy pace
Week of June 23:
S: M: 1200 yd, working on bi-lateral breathing; set of interval 50 yd. sprints; W: More intervals; F: a.m.: intervals 50,50, 50, 50, 100, 100, 50, 50, 50, 50 (20 sec. rest in between); p.m.: 1250 yd. continuous; S: one mile continuous
B: T: 10 miles, with intervals (1 minute full out, 30 sec. rest, repeat for 10 miles); Th: 16 mi hills
R: M: 4.5 mi, easy, paced, easy; S: 5 miles, level; negative splits; time: 44:30

Week of June 30 (I decided to do day by day, instead of event by event)
M: "rest" day; weight training 35 min.
T: 6 mi run, a.m.; swim "class", 8-9pm
W: "brick" workout: 8.2 mile bike, immediate 1.5mile run
Th: a.m.: 1000 swim workout: 250yd warmup, 2x50, 25,50, 100,100,50,25 yd., 20 sec. rest between distances, 250+ yd. cooldown; p.m.: group bike: 18 mi.
F: 4.5 mile hill run (cross-country course) with daughter Katie (she's fast)
S, 7/5:As part of my prep for sprint distance triathlons, I do a mid-effort test tri eight days before the race. Well Mossman (a sprint distance triathlon in Norwalk) is July 13 so today was test day. Because of my unfounded but real trepidation about the swim part of Nations Tri, I chose to do a mile swim as the first leg of the test tri, rather than half a mile (sprint distance). So there I was (with my wonderful wife Nancy guarding my bike on shore) swimming in LI Sound (in a bit of drizzling rain) at East Haven beach , and it was great. Did an un-measured mile in 37 minutes, biked 14, and then decided to cut the run to 1.5 miles (with the dog, 5 month old lab mix, Libby) because I did 6 miles yesterday. The swim was very encouraging. I never really tired, I survived 3 small jellyfish to the face (ouch, but just a stinging/tingling, not real pain), and half was against the current. I felt great coming up the beach to my bike. A decent test for the Potomac, I guess.
This week I throttle down training to rest for the Mossman, but I'll be at swim class (I confess that I did not maintain form for the whole swim, but I am certain that what our great coaches have already taught me helped with both efficiency and confidence.)
Sun: cross-cross-training: 90 minute hike at Sleeping Giant State Park with Nancy & Libby.

Week of July 7:
Mon: rest day; walked the dog;
T: 7 mile easy bike; 40 min. weight training ; swim class -1150 yds
W: 5k run, low heart rate; comfortable. Looking forward to Sunday.
Th: 12 mi bike, zone 1-2
F: day off; tired; race day Sunday
S: 20 min bike, 15 min swim in LISound (no jellyfish!)
Sun: Mossman Sprint Triathlon: time: 1h:23min. (3 minutes faster than last year, and a new personal best) horrible transition #1: I just could not get my wetsuit off my left leg (where the timing chip is wrapped around my ankle - lost at least a minute). Timing chip malfunctioned, so I may not have split times. We'll see tomorrow, when the final results are posted).

Week of July 9
M: a true off day - rest
T: lake swim, Trumbull, ~1.4 miles; gorgeous way to start a day (6:15a.m.);
W: 4 mile interval (1 min. sprint, 1 min. rest) run in morning; 25 mi. bike in evening;