8/4 to 8/10 recap

I've been a little lazy with my training journal, so I'm going to do a recap of last week.

I put in 13 hours of training last week, which was my most ever for one week. The key workouts went very well - most of which came later in the week. I think Thursday through Sunday I put in 10 of those 13 hours!

Thursday - Long run - 1 hour 40 minutes
- I ran this at Fort Yargo on the trails and it's always a tough workout, usually a little more than I bargain for. Trail running is to road running as mountain biking is to road biking, you work twice as hard to only end up going slower due to the terrain. The humidity was very high so water and electrolyte losses were up. I ran with a bottle full of Accelerade and it seemed to work pretty well. I think it makes the biggest difference in the last 1/3 of a long workout, I just feel less drained when I take in fluids, carbs, and electrolytes during any workout that approaches the 2 hour mark.

Friday - Long bike - 3 hour 15 minutes
- The weather for this ride was fantastic. I was accompanied by Mark. We made our way out of Lawrenceville headed toward Winder where we made a large loop behind Winder, heading back to L'ville. The pace was moderate to easy averaging 17.3 mph but I felt strong. I did a nice job of packing a lot of food for the day, including a post ride snack to eat on the way to the pool for my swim. I think that helps a lot as far as recovering from one day to the next.

Sunday - Brick (Ride 2 hours 45 minutes, run 30 minutes)
- I started this workout from work at 7 AM because I had to be at work by 10:45. The bike ride was pretty solid but I could feel all of the hours I had put in that week in my legs. With this being said, I was still able to average 19mph on an up and down route. I think I could have done a better job of spreading my nutrition over the course of the ride - I don't think I ate for the first hour. The run was exciting because I discovered a greenway not a half mile from work that I could run too. Using my new Garmin Forerunner 50 I was able to get mile splits and HR for this part of the workout. The data is helpful and one thing always seems to get me, I always go out to fast on the run. I need to start working on building the run coming off the bike. I'll have 13.1 miles to pick up up at South Carolina so whats the rush?

One observation I've made this week is that I'm recovering relatively quickly from the 3+ hour workouts that used to wreck me for the entire day. I only did a handful of workouts over 3 hours before White Lake and I think that may have hurt me toward the end of the race, my body was simply way outside it's limits. The more 3 to 4 hour efforts I put in, the easier they seem.