Weekly Review- Karl

Congrats to Claude and Dino on a great Medical Center 10K. Congrats to Bighead on his outstanding doctor's visit. Keep up the hard work! Congrats to my niece Lexie on completing the Monster Triathlon. She'll be kicking her uncle's butt in no time!

Monday 4 mile run; 9:19 avg pace; 144 avg heart rate
Tuesday Strength training (a set of 8 exercises from Inside Triathlon mag meant to strengthen upper and lower body for swimming, biking, and running)
Wednesday Speed run workout (6:39 max pace; 191 max heart rate)
Thursday Strength training set
Friday Jason Mraz concert at Stubbs (margaritas, Tex Mex dinner, several Shiners and Tecates)
Saturday Rest
Sunday 13.77 mile long run (9:49 avg pace; 6:59 max pace; 149 avg heart rate; 177 max heart rate)

Had a good week. Staying fairly lax on nutrition. If it looks good and I want it, I'm eating it...in moderation. I plan to keep it that way through the holiday season and into the early new year. I haven't gained any weight (still at 163), but I'm sure my BMI is probably going up). :-)
My speed workout this week was a killer. Started at 8 mph and worked my way up to 8.5 mph. By the time I finished, I could barely hold myself on the treadmill. It was GREAT...when it was over!
The workouts must be working, though. My long run today was really easy. I picked up the pace for the final 5k and even though I ran a much hillier course and ran 10 more minutes than last week, my average and max heart rate were both lower. That's exactly what I'm hoping to do, so I'm optimistic that the training is on track.
I'm a bit perplexed on how I can cut back my training over the winter and not lose a lot of the gains I've made this year. I'm guessing I do that through shorter, harder workouts, but that's just my hypothesis. If I can continue doing three workouts a week and see gains, then I'll be thrilled. I will do some research on that over the next week and report my findings on the blog. If you guys have any thoughts or research I can read, please share it.
Kia Kaha!