Time

"Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend." - Theophrastus

I'm doing my best to follow the training plan outlined in Joe Friel's "The Triathlete's Training Bible". The plan is for a half-ironman triathlon, which I hope to compete in during 2010. As I've mentioned before, I'm currently in the Base Phase of the training plan. This phase involves high volumes of training at low intensity (HR zone 2). The problem with high volumes is that they take something I can't find more of...time.

As I finished up week 1 on the Base Phase last week I looked at my total training for the week. It was 7h21m. My training plan called for 10 hours...hummm. So looking ahead the next couple of weeks consist of 12 hours (this week) and 13.5 hours (next week). So step 1 is to eliminate the majority of the weight lifting. Step 2 was to plan out my week in a way that would allow me to get two disciplines in almost every day. Step 3 was to create about another 30-45min each day. The only way to do this is to roll back the alarm clock to 4:45am. Knowing how important sleep is, this isn't ideal, but I'm not going to cut into my family time in the evenings...and I can't cut back the hours at work.

So most days I will have to get up at 4:45am instead of 5:00am or 5:30am. I'll re-evaluate after this week. Hopefully I won't be falling asleep at work!!

TODAY'S WORKOUT:
1:14:10 of running in Zone 2. Covered 9.06 miles for a pace of 8:11 min/mile. Legs were a little tight for the first 2 miles or so, but then I settled into a nice pace. I never let my HR get above 162, in fact, several times it was getting too low (going into zone 1). When this happened, I just increased the pace a little to get back into my aerobic endurance zone.

3 x 480yd in the pool with 1min rest between
Times were 9:25, 9:34, 9:28 for a total time of 34:25 (including rest)
Felt good to get in the water and loosen the legs up after two days of long rides and runs.