Week in Review (May 5-11, 2014)

Welcome to my Week In Review for the second week of May 2014.  In these posts I will be reviewing my training, as well as giving a look back at neat or interesting things that happened during my week.    

Swim:
I started the week out this week with some quality time in the lake.  I met up with the Rocky Top Multisport Club for their first open water group swim of the year.  If you read my race recap on the Hammer Sprint Tri, you'll remember that I had a rough time on the swim.  I feel like I'm at a point where the swim distance is not an issue.  The longest race I have on the books right now is the XTerra at 1200m and I've been comfortable at that distance in the pool for quite some time but open water is still my monster in the closet.  I got in roughly a mile (I say roughly because I forgot my Garmin at home and, therefore, have no data from this swim) and felt really good for most of it.  I had some slight anxiety as my lap took me farther away from the shore but I just concentrated on counting my strokes and sighting straight at the buoy every 2 to 3 strokes and got myself calmed back down and in a rhythm to finish strong.

I took Tuesday and Thursday mornings off from swim this week.  I had some longer bike rides on the calendar for Tuesday and Thursday nights and I felt like fatigue was taking it's toll on my attitude so I opted for some sleep and rest to try and get myself back on track.

Bike:
This was big week on the bike for me.  I've been fighting a nagging pain in my left ankle for a little bit and therefore have been taking time off from running.  This has allowed me to really enjoy some time on my bikes.  I got a ride in this week on all three bikes.  Tuesday night I met a friend of mine at the Urban Wilderness Trails in South Knoxville for a fast paced loop around (most of) the XTerra course.  We got in 11.1 miles, climbed 904ft in a little over an hour at an avg. speed of 9.1mph.

Thursday night I linked up with the Knoxville Bicycle Company for their weekly road ride.  I stayed comfortable in the "A" group the whole ride and finished the night with 29.05 miles in 1:30:24 at an average speed of 19.3 with 1,450 ft of elevation gain.

My new-to-me TT bike.  A 2002 Giant TCR Aero.

With rain in the forecast for Saturday, my plans for a long mountain bike ride were a wash.  Actually, my doing anything Saturday was a wash.  I got a message from a friend who wanted to ride on Sunday morning so I opted for that instead.  We decided on riding the Rev 3 Olympic course.  Earlier in the week I picked up a new-to-me TT bike and used this as a shakedown ride.  I really felt the effects of the longer cranks and taller gears on the bigger climbs, but on the flats and rollers this thing is FAST.  While climbing on this bike takes real effort, I feel it will pay dividends in the end.  I can't wait to get some more workouts in on this thing.  Final ride totaled at 23.3 miles with some green way detours.  Average speed was 17.8 mph with 1,085 ft of climbing.

Run:

Hoka One One Conquest

This week was a rest week for me on the run.  As I mentioned earlier, I've been fighting some ankle pain over the last few weeks and wanted to try and rest it a bit.

 That being said, my new Hoka One One Conquests came in Friday!  I'm planning on adding some run back in next week so stay tuned for that as well as a review of the new Hokas once I get some miles logged!



Final Thoughts:
There you have it.  All in all a pretty good week.  I'm in the final stretch before my next race.  XTerra Knoxville is 3 weeks away and I'm feeling pretty strong.  My open water swim is improving (although there is still a lot of work to do).  I'm also hoping to get some more brick days in over the next few weeks if my ankle holds.

Weekly Totals: Swim - apprx. 1650m,  Bike - 64mi, Run - 0mi (resting ankle injury).