February Training Summary

Here's a summary of time spent training in February 2010. As I pointed out in the January summary, I don't actually train by the month--I train by the week. A new week begins on Monday, even if the month changes, and ends on the following Sunday. This is not my creation as this is the way most training plans work. February 2010 worked out so that the first day of February was a Monday and the last day of the month was a Sunday. As a result, February gave me 4 weeks of training. In the future, I may have to go with the last 4 weeks of training or break it down by period (Base 2, Base 3, Build 1, etc). Anyway....

Here are the stats for February 2010:

TOTAL Training Time: 30.0 hours (Feb 1 - Feb 28, 2010)

SWIMMING - Hours: 5.75 (Yards: 15,625, Long swim: 1700 yds)

CYCLING (all indoor) - Hours: 11.0 hours [Miles: 190; Long ride: 1 hour 33 minutes (27.4 miles)]

RUNNING* - Hours: 7 [Miles: 46.33, Long Run/jog: 6.44 miles (50 min)]

STRENGTH** - Hours: 6.25

AVERAGE Training Hours per week: 7.5

TESTING:

• FTHR, Feb 13
• two Aerobic TT Tests (cycling), Feb 6 & 20
• 1 mile swim in 31:22, Feb 12

* includes indoor/treadmill & outside
**includes weights & phys therapy exercise time

The first week of March (1st thru 7th) was the final week of Base 1 training. This week, March 8-14, is a much needed R&R week. I can tell I have a lot of accumulated fatigue. I am getting symptoms that I start to get when I am on the verge of, or in the midst of, the dreaded 'overtraining'. My heart rate takes a little longer to recover, I am sometime short of breath for no reason, and my resting HR (when lying on the floor, flat, and totally relaxed) has been a few beats higher over the last week or so. Most of all, I am confusing being tired with being lazy and unmotivated to train. Since I know that may be a psychological factor, I push on. Many of the other signs you don't want to push thru. That being said, this R&R week will be very low volume--around 5.5 hours of training. On Saturday, if I rest and recover well this week, I will have my motivation back and should be able to put in another FTHR test this Saturday, May.