Wednesday run/bike

The battle for this week is definitely between the huge mental appetite for training and the commonsensical awareness that this needs to be a light/recovery week--these cold symptoms just will not go away, it is annoying!

(It isn't just me, everyone round here seems to have had more or less the same thing--it is characterized by its lingering nature...)

So I was pondering the training priorities, and I realized I needed some mental readjustment. The bike remains very high priority, but I think I need to pay more attention to running again, to make up for having rather neglected it. It's fine to run only twice when running fitness is high, but I need to build back up with some easy miles if I really want to be in good shape for long runs. This is a question of preventing injury rather than worrying about speed--if I want a longer run at the weekend, it needs to be balanced by appropriate mid-week mileage.

So: priority for this week and next, on run and bike, is to build in frequency before going for long sessions. Especially for the run, I need to let the soft tissues ease back into absorbing stress! And this fits with general need for rest and recovery. Nothing speedy for another week and a half--if I make it through the end of next week, I've got a week of spring break where I can really sleep a lot and try and get things fully back in good train, in life and in training...

Even though I know it is both mentally and physiologically more useful to do bike-run than run-bike, it was not in human nature to resist the chance for a real actual outside run this afternoon, sunny and high 40s and really beautiful! I just did four very easy miles, and then the 30-minute recovery/technique bike workout afterwards. I am having pangs for not having had something more intense, but I know this is really more suitable for this week, I had to stop several times on the run to blow nose/clear out lungs, it is irksome!

4 miles/avg HR 148/10:42 pace
32 mins. bike (high-cadence and one-legged drills)/avg HR 127

I must take my bike in for a tune-up, it has gotten terribly creaky! And the computer hasn't worked for quite a while--annoying not to have cadence, and of course it is nice to have speeds also. Here's the adjusted schedule for the next week and a half (and yes, I know I am really spending more hours swimming than is sensible for my schedule, three times a week will be more suitable than four--I'm coming up on a season where there are a lot of evening work commitments, though, so I think I'll be missing some of those swims anyway, I'm going to keep 'em all on the schedule for now and just swim them easy as needed, or substitute a straight swim or sets of freestyle for pacing if I feel in need of something more relaxing).

(Will skip one or two of these workouts as needed for purpose of recuperation and/or work.)

Thurs. am: 90 min. bike; pm: swim
Fri. am: run 5; pm: swim
Sat. am: 90 min. bike; pm: swim (and take bike to the shop!)
Sun. pm: run 7-8
Mon. am: gym
Tues. am: run 5 (schedule conflict knocks out evening swimming)
Wed. pm: 90 min. bike
Thurs. pm: run 5, swim

And then I will do the next block of weeks as a real training schedule, with suitable run buildup for late March 10K and late April half-marathon and sensible integration of as much cycling as possible...