What does our winter training look like?

We have been spoiled by incredible weather lately. For the past week we have enjoyed tempertures in the 60's for our highs! Although a few rain showers to navigate through, our "winter" training has been more like spring training. 

Nearing the end of our second month of our 2020 training, much of our training lately has been focused on strength, resilience, endurance and neuromuscular firing. Although many of the sessions are intense, this is only because they stress different physiological systems. There's no "speed" work as it's just way too early to be focusing on getting faster. More so, without a solid foundation of strength, it's difficult to adapt properly to intensity and volume. Seeing that it's only the end of December, it's important to keep everything in perspective when it comes to training. I feel strong, healthy and resilient but not fast or fit. I have training sessions when I feel fresh and energetic but most of the time, I'm carrying around a bit of fatigue from one training session to the next. A carefully designed training plan has the right mix of recovery and training to safely adapt to training stress while maintaining consistency with training. This is the tough part of the year when you just have to embrace the grind - no matter the weather or how you feel, you have to show up and just give your best for the day. 

I've really enjoyed feeling challenged lately and I welcome each training session as an opportunity to explore my abilities. Some workouts are physically challenging and some are mentally tough. As I mentioned before, no workout is too hard or too long but in the big picture of the season, I am still building fitness and adapting to different training stressors. However, the theme for the training right now is strength and neuromuscular firing.

Here are a few of my recent training sessions from this past week (delicious scones and croissants may have been consumed after the Thurs pool training session): 

Tues trainer bike (2:10): 

WU:
10 min + 5 min + 5 min (starting at Z1 and finishing at upper Z2) 

MS: 2 rounds

3 x (3 min Z3, 1 min Z4+ and 100+ rpm, 1 min EZ) 

4 x ( 2 min Z4+ and 100+ rpm, 1 min EZ) 

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13 min sweet spot choice cadence

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5 min EZ spin 

Repeat MS one more time

PS: 

Power descending intervals:

1 min Very Strong Z5

2 min Strong Z4+

3 min Strong Z4

3 min Moderate Z3

CD: 

8 min Z1/Z2

3 min Z1

Followed by a 38 minute hilly run - all smooth and form focused. 

Thurs AM swim (4700)

WU:
500 warm-up

MS:
4x400
#1-2: Snorkel, band, buoy.
#3: Buoy, band
#4: Paddles
All w/ 20 sec rest
---
4x300 no toys, descend 1 - 4
All w/ 15 sec rest
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4x200 w/ buoy, paddles,
descend 1 - 4
All w/ 10 sec rest
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4x100 no toys
All best effort w/ 30 sec rest!
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CD as needed

Yumming over this delicious potato, lentil and vegetable coconut curry stew that we enjoyed on Thursday evening.

Wed AM run (1:35)
The first half on rolling hills, then on the flat trail). 
WU:
45 min best EZ pace (walks as needed)

MS:
4 x (30 sec fast / 90 sec EZ )
---
4 x (2.5 min uptempo (Z3+) w/ 30 sec EZ jog/walk)

PS:
15 min top end of aerobic range (Z2/Z3)
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15 min best EZ pace

We have been trying to get as much sleep as possible, which is about 8-9.5 hours a night. 

On Thursday evening, our athlete Ericka made the long drive down to us from up North to spend three days training with us. Ericka is a super strong and fast athlete and we have enjoyed coaching her over the past few years - seeing her develop her skills, push her boundaries and get more in-tune with her amazing body. Although we called this a mini training camp, we didn't do anything extreme for this phase of the season. It was a great mix of strength and endurance with a bit of neuromuscular firing to keep the brain communicating with the nerves/muscles. 

Campy LOVES when Ericka is in town. Ericka has special dietary needs (no gluten, diary, eggs) but Campy doesn't complain as she always shares her food with him. 

This is how I like to fuel up for a long ride - semi-homemade pizza (fresh store-bought pizza dough). One pizza was veggies and marinara and cheese and the other was kale pesto (vegan) with mozarella. I served my pizza with tempeh for protein.

The mini training camp was as follows:
Friday AM
~1 hour run (I did a treadmill run + weighted vest hill walking and Ericka and Karel ran outside on the hills)

Friday mid day
4000 yard swim - a mix of 100's on a tight interval and smooth swimming w/ buoy and paddles between.

Friday late afternoon 
2 hour endurance ride
(I have been riding my road bike outside since October as my Ventum just received a new paint job and I can't wait to get it back out on the road!)

Saturday AM
4:15 ride - including the Saluda Grade and Green River cove loop with a million switchbacks and lots of climbing/descending). ~6000 feet of elevation gain.
20 min brick run

Sunday AM
~1:25 run (in the rain) w/ a main set of powerful hill running (2 rounds of 15/30/45 sec) followed by a steady run around lake Furman ~10 min) and then one more set of hill running and a steady run around the lake. ~15 min warm-up and cool down.

Sunday afternoon 
3200 yard swim - upper body strength work swim (lots of band and paddle work)

Although it was a solid week of training, no one workout destroyed me. Each day I found myself craving a bit more and wondering what my body could do the next day. Plus, it's always fun to train with others - especially when each person has his/her own strengths/weaknesess. 

Here are some pics from our weekend ride and run. 

Thank you body for being so awesome! 

If you are interested in our style of training, we have updated all of our training plans for 2020!!
All of our training plans are now available on our website.

CHECK OUT OUR TRAINING PLANS HERE.