98 Days to Go! (Touch the Sky) + Short Power Build - Mid-Vol - Week 3 (Peak) + 80 Day Obsession Week 12 (Peak)
3/4/19 - M - OFF
3/5/19 - T - 80DO-D69-AAA + Bashful+6 (90 min; 113 TSS)
3/6/19 - W - 80DO-D70-Cardio Flow + 40 min Run @ Easy
3/7/19 - R - 80DO-D71-Legs + Mitchell (75 min; 100 TSS)
3/8/19 - F - 80DO-D72-Total Body Core + 40 min Run @ Easy (w/ strides)
3/9/19 - Sa - Junction (90 min; 107 TSS) + 80DO-D73-Cardio Core + 40 min Run @ Easy
3/10/19 - Su - Tallac+3 (120 min; 135 TSS) + 80DO-D74-Booty
Total Run Miles - 13.6 miles
Total Run Tim - 2:04 hours
Total Run TSS - 129 TSS
Total Biking Time - 6:15 hours
Total Biking TSS - 455 TSS
Total 80DO Time - 5:12 hours
Total 80DO TSS - 113 TSS
Total Training Time - 13:32 hours
Total TSS - 697 TSS (PR)
Monday
18 days of working out in a row. Finally a day off. The Disney trip threw a wrench into the training plan, but things have finally all reset since then. But one thing I could tell is that my body is responding well to the training. Normally during periods of high adaptation for me, my HR plummets during the day. If it's high, then the stress is high. If it's super low, then my body is adapting and getting stronger. During Monday my HR got as low as 37 mid-day with long stretches in the low 40s.
Tuesday
Here we are at the end of Phase 3 of 80DO! AAA was 2 x 15 and do all three sets within a series before moving on to the next set.
Series 1: Czech Press, Front Raise, Slider Windshield Wipers, Side Lunge Hold
Series 2: Bridge Pull Over, Camel Bicep Curl, Weighted Twisted Roll Down, Marching Bridge
Series 3: Bridge Bilateral Press, Tricep Kickback in Lunge, Weighted Knee Drops, Curtsy Lunge Pulse
Prior to the bike workout, the HR was again trending low at around low 40s when I wasn't actually moving around. But post-bike workout the HR jumped back up in the high 50s/60s.
The bike workout was 3 sets of 5x90-second intervals at 122% FTP followed by 25 minutes of Endurance work at 65% FTP. Recoveries between intervals are 1 minute long and recoveries between sets of intervals are 8 minutes long. So this week was just a slightly higher FTP (122 vs 120) than last week. Looks like the workout was doable without adjustments.
Wednesday
80DO workout Phase 3 Cardio Flow was 4 reps progressing though all the moves and then an entire run through 8 times. This one has been wearing on me. It just seems so tedious. Already decided that when Ironman level training starts at 80DO workouts replace swim workouts, that Cardio Flow will end up on the cutting room floor.
An easy 40 min run. So this week marked a bump up in duration from the last two weeks at 30 min, to now 40 min. I focused on HR for this one and held the average at 133 for a pace of 9:27 min/mile.
Thursday
80DO Leg workout. Again, 2 x 15 and do all three sets within a series before moving on to the next set. Got some 20 pound weights and was excited to start using them in all the workouts.
Series 1: Side to Side Squat, Alt. Weighted Squat Jump, Figure 4 Squat
Series 2: Slider Side Lunge, Half Skater Lunge Jump, Low Rocking Side Lunge
Series 3: Slide Front Diagonal Lunge, Split Squat Jump, Buddah Squat
Series 4: Sumo Double Slide-in, Sumo Cross Jump, Goblet Sumo Squat
Another fun bike workout of six 5.5-minute sets of VO2max repeats where you'll ride for 15-25 seconds at 125% FTP and then "float" for 15-30 seconds at 88% FTP. 3 minutes of recovery separate each set. So the weekly progression of this workout took the total set time of VO2max from 4.5 min, to 5 min, to this week's 5.5 min. Another successful workout.
Friday
80DO Total Body Core workout. Again a 2x15 and do all three sets within a series before moving on to the next set.
Series 1: Surrender to Shoulder Press, Quad Ped Crawl, Burpee Sliders
Series 2: Bent Over Row Tap Back, Squat Tabletop Row, Saw on Sliders
Series 3: Modified 1/2 Turkish Push-up, Side Reach Push-up, V Crunch to Scissor Crunch
Series 4: Runner's Lunge Curl, Static Sumo Hammer Curl, Slider Crawl Out
Series 5: Tricep Push up w/ knee tuck, Squat Hold Kickbacks, Weighted Windmills
Another easy run day. I decided to add in some slightly longer duration strides just to see where that pure power is sitting right now. I also decided to run the first few miles purely by effort. Felt like it was an EB/LR effort and the HR agrees (around 136). The pace was very stable using GAP (grade adjusted pace) as one would expect when honing in on effort instead of normal pace (8:46, 8:42, 8:44 min/mile). The strides were nice to run as well. Went with the NB 1440s for the first time to see how they felt fast. Looks like I ran around 25 sec strides and the pace was around a 5:50-6:00 min/mile. I'd say this felt like mile pace. So everything seems to be lining up at the moment. I've decided to do a mile test at the conclusion of this 8 week easy period just to get an initial pace assessment before the real HM training begins. I'll be interested to see if it ends up around a 6 min/mile.
Saturday
So last week was the first time I had done Bike+80DO+Run in the same day. But today would mark the first time I attempted to do them all consecutively with minimal break between.
You know you're in for it when the workout starts by saying, "This is a BRUTAL workout. You should be fully rested before attempting this. Do NOT be discouraged if you can't complete this or need to adjust. This will push you to the limit." Well... can't say I'm fully rested, so this should be fun! Junction is a combination workout consisting of 2 sets of 3x5-minute racewinners which each begin with a 15-second sprint at 150% FTP followed by 4 minutes at 95% FTP. Active recoveries between racewinners are 1 minute long and recoveries after each set of racewinners are 5 minutes long. The second half of the workout is comprised of 3x8 minutes of microbursts where you'll alternate between 15 seconds at 150% FTP and 15 seconds at 40% FTP. Active recoveries between microburst sets last a little over 3 minutes each. They didn't lie... this was a very very challenging workout and it pushed me very hard. I made it up to the 2nd set of sprints before I had to adjust the %FTP down to 95%. So allowed the workout to let up just a tiny touch. But I did survive the workout.
Right after the bike it was time for 80DO Cardio Core workout. A series of cardio HIIT moves and then a core move. Man following that bike workout up with this 80DO session was brutal.
But I wasn't finished yet. The weather was scheduled to take a turn for the worst (ice/rain/wind/cold) which made a late afternoon run a bad idea. So that meant I couldn't save the run for later. So I quickly threw on some running clothes and was out the door 5 min after the 80DO workout ended. Being covered in sweat didn't make a cold run easy. Just kept the effort very easy. Never felt like a struggle at all and was barely ever breathing. HR was 140 average and pace 9:15 min/mile. A bit of a divergence from other runs recently, but given the other two workouts immediately proceeding it, I wasn't surprised. Felt easy. The effort was solid as well with GAP at 9:25, 9:04, 9:07, and 9:01.
This workout registered a 177 on TSS which is only 2nd to a 19 mile Hybrid training run (14 mile LR + 5 mile M Tempo) from Sep 2017. Now there's certainly an argument as to whether a combined TSS from bike+strength+run is even a viable measurement, but even from just a calorie standpoint this set of workouts registers pretty highly on the scale of overall stress. It was the first workout since I've returned to training in November where I finished the workout and said to myself, "Yea, I just did something hard." So we're headed in the right direction.
My left knee was bothering me in the late afternoon, but I think it was just me being lazy in the remainder of the day and not moving much. So it just got stiff on me.
Sunday
The knee was not an issue.
Thankfully no warnings before this bike workout. Just a heads-up, this is tough, but because of where it lies in relation it's a workout you'll recover from quickly. Tallac +3 is 5x15-minute efforts spent in the Sweet Spot, 88-94% FTP, with 7-minute recoveries between intervals. After running some calculations on Saturday, I knew I would be trending very closely to the -30 limit for "Form" and overtraining if I completed the Sunday workouts in full. Hemmed and hawed a few times during the bike workout whether to drop an interval. But alas, I decided just to do it in full with no adjustments. I survived it. A nice challenge coming off yesterday.
80DO Booty was a 2x15 and do all three sets within a series before moving on to the next set.
Series 1: Side Squat Hop Hold, Kneeling Lateral Crawl to Half Surrender, Single-Leg Hamstring Slide
Series 2: Single Leg Runner's Jump w/ Weight, Single-Leg Hinge, Slider Reversal Lunge Pulse
Series 3: Narrow Squat Rock, Front Lunge/Side Lunge, Side Lunge to Curtsy
That was a push to the current limit. That Booty workout kicked my booty. But I did survive it. And it looks like I ended up juuuuust under the -30 guideline with a -29.6. I got up high enough just to "touch the sky." Perfect timing for a recovery week. Per the guidelines the up weeks should be around 20-30 weekly TSS higher than current and the recovery weeks should be about 10 weekly TSS lower than current. So I adjusted next week to slightly lower to allow enough recovery (and hopefully adaptations!).
Also, with the end of Phase 3 of 80DO comes another measurement day: