Happy Thanksgiving!

Never did I think...

NEVER DID I THINK I would do 10k in the pool again after last winter. Let alone again this year. Well, a friend who swims masters in town told me that he and a group of swimmers were going to swim 10k this weekend. Since I am doing a swim focus, I was in. Following the workout, we had a potluck and some GOOD FOOD!

Instead of a boring 100x100 or something like that, everyone brought a 2k workout and then we picked sets to swim out of "a hat." Here was the resulting 10k workout. All intervals were 1:15 per 100 SCY + 10sec or faster. So 100's were on 1:25, 200's on 2:40, 300's on 3:55, 400's on 5:10, etc....

1200 mixed warm-up

Set #1 400, 2x200, 400p, 2x200p, 400

200 ez

Set #2 4 x (4x25,2x100), 3x100, 2x150, 2x200

200ez

Set #3 400, 3x100, 300, 3x100, 200, 3x100, 200

200 ez

Set #4 400, 300, 200, 100, 300, 200, 100, 200, 100, 100

200 ez

The brunch after included eggs, fruit, polenta, ham, muffins, milk, chili and there were even a few beers scattered around the table!

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On a related note, the swim block is going well. Week one was about 26,000 yards and this week was just over 32,000 yards. I will do 3 days hard and then recover for 4 days over Turkey Day. Then repeat the pattern of (2.5weeks hard, a few days easy) 2 more times before I head to Clermont...

Enjoy your turkey!

BB

This shoe may look familiar to some folks...or maybe not if you have never run in the Asics DS Trainer line. Anyway, this is next year's shoe(DS Trainer 13) that I have ordered from the UK. It should be here in a week and about 2 months before it is released in the US. The DS Trainer 12 seemed like a step down to me, Asics changed the overall "feel" of the shoe. It went from a shoe that felt like a racing shoes, so somewhat of a heavy trainer. The 2008 DS Trainer 13 is said to have a lot of the characteristics that were present in the older versions of the shoe. We will see and I will report my thoughts after a few k's in 'em.

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In other news, I have decided that swimming makes you the most hungry out of any of the multisport disciplines. I have also decided that it is necessary to eat mass quantities of CHO all the time to swim fast.

I will be getting a few lessons in the pool this week, in an attempt to gain some more free speed.

Hope all is well....Christmas lights are going up and the Starbuck's cups have turned red, must mean that it is going to get cold here soon!

More soon,

BB

Can I grow gills?

I just wanted to post a quick update today. I am back to training, as of about 3 weeks ago and things are going well. I am slowly building my running, as I want to be careful that I am nothing below 100% come the new year.

I have a few focuses until then:

#1 I will be attempting to grow gills :) Well, maybe not...but I will be swimming like a swimmer until January. I will post some of the more notable sessions as I complete them. I am shooting to be able to hold 1:08 per 100y over a 1k TT.

#2 Boosting my FTP on the bike. My first field test gave me a NP of 338w for a 20min TT... My goal is to see if I can hit 350w by January.

#3 Build run volume through frequency. Nothing hard and nothing crazy long. Just consistent, steady running.

I hope everyone else is doing well and enjoying their Holiday's...if you are in Madison area, don't forget about my upcoming seminars at the Trek Bicycle Stores. The topics will include off season training mistakes and making the most out of training through the busy holiday season. We will have A LOT of free food and shwag. There will also be a raffle with over $1000 in prizes!

Dates:

- Tuesday, Nov 27 at 6pm, Trek Store East
- Thursday, Nov 29 at 6pm, Trek Store West.

Hope to see you there.