Road to the Ironman #17 – January 21, 2010

Improvement.

Making small changes in ones training makes for some big improvements in results. Just about a week ago my legs were shot, dead, tired and it made for some miserable training days. I recently went back to using a heart-rate monitor and thus the change. I am Iike many triathletes going all out all the time, push the pain and feeling exhausted. Having a heart-rate monitor reminds me to focus on heart rate zones, therefore preventing me from going all out all the time. Now my “mileage” may have gone dwon a bit, because I have to walk instead of run until I get my heart rate down, but I am actually burning more calories and being more rested when my training session is done. Legs feel better, more important mentally I am more focused and overall happier.

My bike example is I shoot out really fast and try to hold the speed as long as I can, but somewhere in the session the mph goes down and I am finishing slow around 14mph. Watching my heart rate I stayed consistant throughout the ride and finished with an average close to 19 mph.

Improvement.

Tomorrow is a run and weights.

Running totals:

Running miles treadmill: 49.55 miles

Running hours treadmill: 7:20

Running miles outside: 0

Running hours outside: 0

Biking miles: 110 miles

Biking hours: 5:50 hours

Spinning hours: 4 hrs.

Swimming laps (25 yard pool) : 586 laps

Swimming distance: 15,150 yards

Swimming hours: 5:00 hours

Weight lifting hours: 4 hours

Stair Master miles: 7.41

Stair Master hours: 1:00 hour