70.3 week 4 training: Training Through & Lookin' Swine

Week four of training was a good week.  For the first time I made a workout on 6 of 7 days as scheduled.  I did fudge them a little bit towards the end of the week, because on Sunday I had a race scheduled.  It was a little stressful to consider how to train through the race (versus taper and rest), because I didn't want to be too gassed for the race, but I also didn't really want to miss any big training sessions).  So, here's how it broke down:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: bike 45 min with 8 x 1 minute hard efforts (I went 46:25min)
Wednesday: swim 1000m with 6 x 50m sprints/run 4.5mi
Thursday: bike 40min plus 8 hard minutes
Friday: swim 1000m/run 4.5mi
Saturday: swim 1400m/run 4.5 mi (scheduled to run 9mi)
Sunday: bike 45 min/10 min transition run (scheduled to bike 35mi with 10 min transition run) & Flying Pig relay where I ran 7mi that morning

I had some of my best swim times this week, and can now swim 300m at a time without a 20sec rest!  Up from 200m last week.  I am trying to go longer each time without resting, and I am definitely feeling more comfortable all the time in the water, in the pool that is.

Still frustrating has been biking in the gale force winds.  It's hard to enjoy being out there because sometimes the wind is so strong it slows me to around 10mph and just feels like pedaling against a wall.  It's so annoying and just relentless for long stretches on the country roads with no wind break.  I hope that once spring passes and summer weather comes on, this eases up a little.

My hip feels better, and also worse.  The pain is more intense, but less chronic.  Does that make sense?  I keep icing it and stretching it, and hoping for a miracle.

And, finally....it was also race week!  I met up with 3 friends this weekend to run the Flying Pig Marathon Relay.  Out of 160 teams, we placed 5th!  I felt very strong on my leg, but noticed that my arms felt very tired (probably related to the 1400m I swam the day before), and so at the end of my section, when my legs were tiring, I couldn't rely on my arms as much to help me finish.  Another good practice session for 70.3, no doubt.  After a long day of swimming and biking, I doubt my arms will be much good at the end of 13.1 miles either.  This also proved to me that I need to keep trying to fit in some strength training to help fight that muscle fatigue.

I was high off our good showing at the relay, and had a hard time convincing myself to get on my bike for a little bit, but I'm glad I did, even for just a short ride.  My legs were like lead marshmallows when I hopped off and did a 10 minute run at the end...oy, the life of a triathlete...

Looking forward to a rest day today!