IM Canada: Week 3 – Chen’s version (i.e., Blank slate... sing it, TayTay)

Posted by Chen

This week was interesting on the swimming front. I was all excited to get in the pool now that I knew what proper swimming form looked like, and I even saw some success during my Monday morning swim, but unfortunately, that’s where my excitement in the pool ended.

Practicing my new drills made me feel generally uncomfortable in the water as I re-figured things out and tried to undo some of my bad habits. Practicing my new breathing techniques also caused me to miss several breaths and drink a lot of chlorinated water during others, returning me back to the land of panic, freak outs, and dread. It basically felt like I needed to forget everything I'd been working on and just start with a completely blank slate.

I was determined to get back to the point of comfort while still keeping good form, so I went to the pool every single work day this week. I definitely felt better by Friday’s swim (with the exception of some sore shoulders and arms, thanks to it being my 8^th day of swimming in a row), though I’m not sure if it was because I was getting better at this new form or if I was reverting back to old habits. TBD, but my plan is to continue to swim at least 4 days a week until I feel calm in the water again. Once that happens, I will likely reduce my swimming to 3 days a week and add a run and/or bike to the mix.

My weekday cycling sessions were pretty standard, but my 50-miler today involved a lovely ride with Paige along Route 1 from Montara Beach (south of Pacifica) to just past Pescadero and back. With the exception of the first mile or so (next time, we’ll just park a bit further south), the shoulder was generally wide enough for safe riding, and there were plenty of other cyclists out.

It was a beautiful day, and the views were stunning – rolling green hills, bright yellow flowers, a clear blue sky, and a deep blue ocean with sparkling white waves (why yes, we ARE ridiculously spoiled living in the Bay Area). Given that the route had considerably less climbing than the Easy Bay routes we’ve been doing, I tried to instead push the pace a bit, especially towards the end where I tried to keep my pace above 17mph for the last 10 miles. I averaged 15.8mph overall, which was pretty good for me. I definitely want to do this ride again and explore even further south!

Running was generally successful this week, starting with a track session that included 10x400m, followed by a tempo mile. After a seriously lackluster 800m workout two weeks ago, I was happy to see that that 800m-crap session was likely just a result of doing an interval trainer ride the day before.

Figuring out how to sequence my workouts properly has been a bit of a challenge so far, but I think I’m slowly getting the hang of it. Generally speaking, my weekly sequence will look something like:

• Monday: Easy ride
• Tuesday: Swim and either track or tempo run
• Wednesday: Swim and interval ride
• Thursday: Swim and easy run
• Friday: Swim
• Saturday: Long ride
• Sunday: Long run

Because I’m trying to avoid running or biking two days in a row, and because I want Friday to be a leg-free day in preparation for the weekend long stuff, I basically have to sequence my hard run and hard ride on back-to-back days. I’ve decided that it’s much easier for me to handle a hard bike after a hard run, rather than the other way around, and thus, this weekly plan was born.

Finally, yesterday, Rachel, Sandi and I joined the Oakland Marathon training group for their final practice run before the race in three weeks. Rachel and I were both a little concerned about how the 20-miler would pan out given how tired our legs felt from the week of training, but luckily, everything went just fine, and we got to enjoy some beautiful weather along the way.

We then went to TrueBurger, where I proceeded to eat back everything I’d just burned off, because that’s my general mode of operation.

Cheeseburger, garlic fries, whole dill pickles, and half a vanilla/coffee milkshake

I’m very much looking forward to this upcoming cutback week, which will conclude with my 32^nd birthday on Sunday! I’m not a big birthday person, but I’m sure I’ll find a way to celebrate with a bottle of wine… or three.

IM Canada Week 3 Recap:

Monday: 

• AM: Swimming 2500 yards practicing Total Immersion (TI) drills (average pace of 1:46/100yd), including my fastest continuous 500 to-date (8:43)
• Immediately followed by easy cycling (stationary bike): 65 minutes

Tuesday: 

• AM: Swimming 3300 yards; combo of swim & pull, again focusing on TI drills (average pace of 1:48/100yd)
• PM: Track: 10x400 in 1:34, 1:34, 1:35, 1:35, 1:33, 1:36, 1:35, 1:37, 1:36, 1:35; 1 tempo mile in 7:09; 8.1 miles total (~7:40 average pace)

Wednesday: 

• AM: Swimming 2100 yards; combo of swim & pull, again focusing on TI drills (average pace of 1:47/100yd)
• Immediately followed by resistance intervals on the stationary bike: 65 minutes

Thursday: 

• AM: Swimming 4100 yards, including my favorite swim/pull ladder (average pace of 1:49/100yd)
• PM: General aerobic run in Golden Gate Park: 7.5 miles (~8:09 average pace)

Friday: 

• AM: Swimming 2500 yards; combo of swim & pull, again focusing on TI drills (average pace of 1:49/100yd)

Saturday: 

• AM: Oakland Marathon practice run: 20 miles (~8:43 average pace)

Sunday: 

• AM: Long ride along Route 1: 50.05 miles (15.8mph), 2691ft gain