Sunday, March 27, 2011

Panhandle Week

Monday Rest Day

Tuesday Travel to Lubbock; visited Texas Tech campus; saw the Texas winds make the sky “red” with sand and dirt

Wednesday 35 min treadmill run (included 16x30” intervals at VO2Max) at Amarillo hotel; flew back and attended school event until 9pm

Thursday Day off

Friday 40 min. Fartlek Run (6x30” at VO2Max)

Saturday 2 hour bike ride on the trainer; used my Ironman Wisconsin training ride video and listened to TedTalks. Jenn and I took the kids to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2. Good movie. The kids read the books and then we take them to see the movies.

Sunday 1:05 hours long run; Going for a 2100 m swim in a few minutes while my family does the grocery shopping. 

Took a couple of days off this week due to work. It allowed me to concentrate on my running and I could really tell the difference on today’s long run. It took me the first 30 minutes to warm up after yesterday’s long ride but the last 35 minutes were strong. I negative split my run by nearly 3 minutes…and I was running against the wind much of the way back.

I made a promise to myself before the training year began to keep things flexible and basic. If I feel abnormally tired or I’ve had a long day/night of work (as I did Wednesday this week, then I’ll choose a rest day rather than training on the following day. On the “basic” side, I don’t wear a foot pod or heart rate monitor and I don’t use a cadence or mileage reader on the bike. I do everything based on feel. The result so far is that I’ve taken off at least a full minute off my best 5k and have increased my bike strength exponentially (this has been a result of doing much more big gear work than in the past.).

I have had a little back pain after my long rides and runs, so I know I need to get back to some core training. I plan to add that back in this coming week. 

In closing, I want to give my congrats to Dino and his bride and Claude and his bride on their runs this week. It’s motivating to know my TTT mates are toeing the line in beginning their 2011 training and race year. I’m also excited to hear from Jeremy and Ashley this week confirming their upcoming visit to Austin in April. Will be fun to spend a few days with my brothers.

You guys inspire me! Thank you!

Kia Kaha!

3 comments:

CBacon said...

man...big week big results...the approach to training is great and like the approach...

Schmidty said...

Karl, I think you have this training thing figured out. For the most part non of us are ever making the cover of SI, or LAVA, or some other fitness mag. We train, diet, and race because it is part of a lfestyle that we enjoy. But we also love our work, and especially our families. I love getting the big training and race reports to motivate me, but I also need your family movie commentary. Thats what keeps it real, so after Cole read your post he said...."we have to go see Diary of a Wimpy Kid II". Keep up the hard work!!

DinoBravo said...

nice balance :)