#118 - Mother Nature's punching bag

It's almost gotten to the point where I find myself wondering "what'd we ever do to you?".  I honestly can't remember this many accumulating snow storms all in one season (it's snowing as I type) - I mean, this is Northwestern NJ, where we have actual seasons most years.....but it's not exactly known for its powdery winters - it's just not wonderful for training purposes. But, maybe it makes us all a little tougher.  Maybe.

After putting the blog on hold last week so I could watch the Seahawks, um, dismantle the Broncos (ouch!), I decided I'd sit down to take a look at my training data and see where things stood.

Last week was my final "up" week of the 4-week training set, with this past week being my "down" week.  The stats were not where I wanted them to be, but not terrible.

• My swim distance is steadily climbing w/o any hint of cranky shoulders (although my pace still has a way to go).
• My cycling miles are creeping up and my steady-state power is up about 20% since my last test......and, maybe the best news, I feel like I finally might be settling into a few weeks that can help me boost those miles up where they need to be.
• On the run my pace is at or ahead of where it should be, but my legs are still not all the way "hardened" to the task.  Last weekend I did 2 hours on the bike trainer and followed that up with a steep 20K run and by the final mile my left knee and left foot were both barking some.

Overall I'm feeling decent about the progress so far. The last four weeks have been decent, but not as consistent as I'd love.  Of course, being able to run outdoors more consistently would sure help.....but I can't really say that's it - my focus this last block has been to bring the swimming meters up, which means letting the running miles drop some.

This next four weeks will be an important block as I need to keep increasing my body's resilience to the training stress (which means more volume), but also because this will be a test of whether or not I can get to that next level of consistency that I so badly need.  Hovering around the 10 hour per week mark is good - but I really need to be getting up to the 15 hour mark or more.....that starts tomorrow.

We're sorry mother nature...please call off the dogs.

Mike E.