Direction & Permission

I have been wanting to post something since Saturday, but have not been able to find the time. Today, I will carve some because I have been learning some things…

TRAINING

Overall, my training is going well…

• A 7-mile run on Saturday in humidity so think it was like running through warm bath water. Dropped 2 min off my total time compared to my previous fastest.
• A 49-mile ride on Sunday with Trey & Glenn. My feet started to cramp and hurt at around mile 40, but after a 5 min break, they were fine. (There has been some discomfort since then, though)
• On Monday, after a 400 yd warm-up, I swam 2000 yds straight, then some cool-down. It is really cool to be able to do this, especially since I started swimming again in July and had trouble with 50 yd sets. I have done this yardage before, but woke up sore Tuesday…probably cumulative from the weekend.
• Ran 6-miles Tuesday in zone 2, keeping ~10:30 min/mile. For the first time, felt like this distance was no problem.
• Cycled 17 miles on Wednesday at 18.7 mph, keeping my HR as close to LT as possible – sort of a race pace ride. The goal was to criss-cross from zone 5a to the bottom of zone 4 and back for 20 minutes. I have this habit of leaving without making sure what my zones are (I don’t have them memorized), so I thought I would just try to keep it up to my LT for 20 min.
• Swam a total of 2100 yds this morning, pushing through a feeling of fatigue and working with the kick board and especially keeping my kick strong and consistent during my workout. A lesson I applied this morning was from yesterday – don’t be lazy, be consistent. I noticed an overall ease in my stroke as my kick stayed consistent.
• I ran 3 miles at lunch, a zone 1 run. Although I spent 2/3 of the time in zone 2, I took it really easy and my HR was 144, which is the low end of my zone 2. It was nice to have no agenda except to finish 30 min of running with no worries about pace

DIRECTION & PERMISSION

First of all, the direction is coming from my training plan and I really appreciate that. I am not on a team or have a coach or can even afford a coach. The plan from this book is keeping me on track and I am definitely seeing results.

Secondly, I realized today that monitoring HR is the equivalent of giving permission to either increase pace (like Tuesday’s speed cycling) or take it easy (today’s recovery run). It was actually fun to have NO goal but keeping my HR low. Actually the goal was to recover, but it is an anti-ego goal…

Is permission the right word? Does that make sense? The dictionary says: “authorization granted to do something; formal consent.” Formal consent? I just follow the plan…it gives me permission to take it easy (and banish ego)…when it says anaerobic, I monitor HR not necessarily speed…