Author: [email protected]

Training Day #33

Luckily, today I have the day off of work/school! So my wife, Maggie, planned a date to go kayaking down the Cape Fear River in North Carolina. My daughter still has school today, so it is perfect to have some alone time while enjoying the Great Outdoors. On my original schedule, I had a rest day today. However, I’m used this as my bike ride that is scheduled for tomorrow.

Of course, I didn’t charge my Garmin watch last night. So it died about 17 minutes after we started. But I was able to start Strava on my phone to get the rest of it. About 30 minutes was unaccounted for due to my lag in getting my Strava started. It has been a few years since we have been kayaking due to living in the desert for the last six years. So there were some lessons learned. First, wear sandals or water shoes. Of course, I took some old shoes but should have worn my Chocos. Second, the night before, pack my camelback and supplies (i.e., sunscreen) to ensure a fluid transition from the car to the river!

Key Takeaways:

  1. Wear sandals or water shoes!
  2. Pack a kayaking bag of essentials the night prior!

Watch Activity:

Elapsed Time Moving Time Distance Average Speed Max Speed Elevation Gain Calories Burned
00:18:54
hours
00:18:09
hours
0.66
mi.
2.17
mph
4.03
mph
0.00
ft.
71
kcal

 

Phone Activity:

Elapsed Time Moving Time Distance Average Speed Max Speed Elevation Gain
01:03:47
hours
00:59:04
hours
2.43
mi.
2.47
mph
5.82
mph
0.00
ft.

Training Day #31

I got made a personal record today! I swam a total of 1250 yards! While it wasn’t continuous 1250 yards, it is the most I have swum in a single session. I began this session with a 200 yard warm-up with a mixture of kicking and freestyle drills. For the main portion of the workout, I completed three continuous laps for 300 yards. Similar to the training on Monday, but 100 yards short. I did feel the difference, and it was pretty nice. I have been working on my lap turns for the last two weeks, improving my times drastically. I have no more wasted energy by grabbing and pushing off the side.

Overall, I felt that is workout was an excellent addition to my routine. I did end this session a bit early again due to my class schedule and procrastinating on my homework. Some lessons are hard to learn!

Key Takeaways:

  1. DO YOUR CLASSWORK BEFORE YOUR NEXT WORKOUT!!!
  2. Continue to make 1% improvements! They add up over time!!

Training Statistics:

Elapsed Time Moving Time Distance Average Speed Max Speed Elevation Gain Calories Burned
00:39:47
hours
00:28:56
hours
0.71
mi.
2:32
min/100m
0:10
min/100m
0.00
ft.
252
kcal

Training Day #29

Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming! What do we do? WE SWIM!

Every time I go swimming this song always comes to mind. Thanks, Disney! This week starts out with a nice swim routine. The focus of the workout is to continue to built distance through constant laps. I started with 100 yard of warm up strokes. I used paddles to improve my form and build a little strength in my pool for 50 yards. Then I used the kickboard for 50 yards to work on my kick. I still have trouble doing two things at once, but I’m getting better.

The main part of the workout was 400 yards of continuous laps. This really stretched my endurance and performance on this distance. This is kind of dishearting because I will have to go twice this distance for the upcoming race. Speed is not my friend just slow and steady. I did this for two repetitions and had about 90 rest in-between each set. I ended this workout without one set of the 400 yards due to running a little late to the gym and having homework to do before class. So I ended my workout with a 200 yard freestyle cool down.

Overall, I felt pretty good for this workout. It just pushed my limits for swim endurance, which is great!

Key Takeaways:

  1. Do your homework the night before! Don’t procrastinate!
  2. Swimming is about slow and steady for endurance.

Training Statistics:

Elapsed Time Moving Time Distance Average Speed Max Speed Elevation Gain Calories Burned
00:36:26
hours
00:24:29
hours
0.62
mi.
2:26
min/100m
0:10
min/100m
0.00
ft.
220
kcal

Training Day #28

Bike!!!!

Today is a bike day! The schedule has an easy bike ride for today. It is a HR Zone workout, but I just used it as a normal bike day not pushing to hard. Just getting more comfortable on the bike. Total time for the cycling totaled to around 60 minutes. For this ride, I looked on Strava for some route recommendations since I’m still new to the area. I found a 15.76 mile route that should take me about 60 minutes to compete with an average 15 mph speed.

The overall ride was great! It felt good and I left in the morning to beat the summer heat. See I’m learning my from lessons! I decided to take the route counter clockwise and this was the best decision. There was a few hills, but I seemed to mostly go down the larger hills and climb the smaller ones. I’ll keep this in mind for hill workouts. The only key takeway is the same from my other bike rides. My bike needs to be tuned before my race in October. I reached out to two local bike shops. One had a three month waiting period (larger shop) and the other smaller shop was accepting bikes now for a week turn around. My bike is scheduled to be dropped of around the 10th!!!

Key Takeaways:

  1. Bike routes matter for workouts!
  2. Tune your bike! At least every year!!!

Elapsed Time Moving Time Distance Average Speed Max Speed Elevation Gain Calories Burned
01:07:52
hours
01:07:52
hours
15.76
mi.
13.94
mph
30.20
mph
632.22
ft.
795
kcal

Training Day #26

Today is a run day! My plan calls it a “Test Run” day. By test run it mean running at a higher heart rate zone for 2 to 3 minutes. The higher heart rate (HR) zones will be Zone 2 and Zone 3, which are 60% to 69% and 70% to 79% respectively. For the past few weeks, I have been getting a feeling that my HR setting have been a bit off. When I have started my run, especially today, I have been getting HR Zones that are above what I feel like I am doing. For example, when I started my run today my watch was saying that I was in HR Zone 2 instead of 1. So this test run exercise was not going to be accurate. So I just ran it like a normal run day.

When I got some free time, I did some research in my Garmin watch settings to see if I could change or modify my Hear Rate settings. I found on the Garmin Connect website that I could change the calculation type. So I changed it from Percent of Max Heart Rate (most common) to Percent of Heart Rate Reserve. This change uses HRmax – HRrest to determine a HRreserve. This came closer to my actual HR zones that I normally see in my workouts. Only time will tell to see if this works any better.

Sorry for the rant,  but I figured I would share what I have found through a bit of research. Just remember that is not a guide and all exercise advice should be consulted with your doctor. 

Key Takeaways:

  1. Change your HR Zones to make sure it is tailored to you!
  2. If something doesn’t seem right, try to figure it out!
Elapsed Time Moving Time Distance Average Speed Max Speed Elevation Gain Calories Burned
00:13:58
hours
00:13:44
hours
1.23
mi.
11:10
min/mile
7:53
min/mile
71.85
ft.
151
kcal

Training Day #25

REST DAY!!!!!

According to my training plan today is a rest day. So instead of making the same mistake twice with Training Day #23, I have decided to actually take this day off. My normal routine for rest days is to really take it easy and reset myself. Some people like to do stretching however, I don’t feel it is necessary at the moment. I’m sure my intentions will change as the intensity of my workouts continue to increase.

See you tomorrow for a nice run!

 

Training Day #24

Yet another swim day! Todays’ swim workout was very similar to Monday’s workout. The planned training was “Tech Swim.” The routine started with a mixed swim of 200 meters to get warmed up. I began with the basic freestyle swim with no paddles for 50 meters. Then I moved into sidestrokes (apple pickers) for 25 meters on each side. I then grabbed a kickboard and practice kicking for 50 meters. I use a freestyle stroke now and then to keep me moving at a little quicker pace. I am plodding when it comes to just using the kickboard. After the kickboard, I did about 50 meters of the freestyle swim and focused on kick rhythm.

After the warm-up, I did the “Tech” part of the routine. First, I swam two 25 meter laps at a fast pace with a 30-second rest in between each 25-meter lap. Then I swam one 75 meter lap at a quick but consistent rate. At the end of the last lap, I rested for one minute before starting over.  This was one repetition that I completed three times.

The second part of the workout was a 150-meter freestyle swim. The main focus was to swim continuously for the duration. I took this opportunity to practice the underwater flip turns. The purpose of this is to help stop wasted energy from stopping at the side of the pool to turn and push off again. The first time flip turn was terrible. I got disoriented for a second and a lot of water when right up my nose. It was uncomfortable! However, as I continue to practice, the better I got! Minor improvements are all that matters!

Overall, it was a good workout! Every day I spend in the pool, the more confident I am. Tomorrow is a rest day!!

Key Learning Points:

  1. Focusing on the kick rapidly increased my speed!
  2. Water will go up your nose during a flip turn if you don’t breathe out!
Elapsed Time Moving Time Distance Average Speed Max Speed Elevation Gain Calories Burned
00:32:11
hours
00:20:39
hours
0.55
mi.
2:19
min/100m
0:48
min/100m
0.00
ft.
196
kcal

Training Day #23

Today was a scheduled rest day for my training plan. The rest days are for very light exercise, like a jog or walk. Since I was feeling pretty good, I decided to go on a light run. However, my laziness was defeating my motivation to run this morning.  I started my run around 10:00 land the heat for the day was setting in. I started the run feeling pretty good.  I was going at a slow jogging pace and tried to maintain.

However, about 2.5 kilometers into the run, I started to feel pretty bad. It felt like my heart was going to explode. Since I wasn’t feeling well, I decided to walk the last quarter mile. Upon reflecting during my walk home, I contribute this feeling to a little bit of dehydration and the hot temperature. Hopefully, I’ll take this lesson to heart next time I feel like taking a lazy morning.

Key Learning Points:

  1. Continue to stay hydrated throughout the week to improve performance
  2. Don’t be lazy! Go run in the morning cool!
Elapsed Time Moving Time Distance Average Speed Max Speed Elevation Gain Calories Burned
00:26:37
hours
00:26:22
hours
2.27
mi.
11:36
min/mile
6:42
min/mile
59.38
ft.
289
kcal