The De Facto Training Schedule

Inside the Sweat Lodge

As you can imagine, joining the Triathlon Club at my YMCA has colored my entire training schedule. In fact, it has largely taken over, and I have noticed in the last month or so of training with these guys a routine that I have fallen into. It's been great for me, because not only do these guys motivate me to work harder than I normally would, but I also have a bit of long-missing structure to my exercise routine.

I also have been successful so far in maintaining my running streak, which stands at 431 days today.

Sunday
7:15AM - Tri Club run. One of the members of the club puts together a route. We meet at Market Basket in Franklin Lakes, NJ. The route has ranged from 6 miles to 9 miles, and it's getting a little longer each week. I think tomorrow we're doing 10 miles with hills.

Monday
Lunch - I take this as my recovery-from-aerobic-exercise day. I do a mile or two running, nice and easy, usually on the treadmill, and then lift weights for 30 minutes to an hour.

Tuesday
6-7AM or Lunch (or both) - Run on my own, 4 to 6 miles.
6PM - 1-hr Masters Swim at the YMCA. This was suggested by the guy who runs the Tri Club there. For $7.50, I get an hour in the pool, with a coach who corrects mistakes in my form (of which there are many. Swimming is hard!) This is great because the class to coach ratio was 2:1 this week!

Wednesday 
(odd weeks)
6-7AM - Run on my own, 3-4 miles
Lunch - 40-minute Boot Camp Group Class at work. This is often the toughest workout of the week!!
(even weeks)
6-7AM or Lunch (or both) - Run on my own, 4-6 miles.

Thursday 
(ALL weeks)
5:30AM - 75-90-minute "Lake House" Spin session - we bring our own bikes and trainers, and go through a spin workout, lead by YMCA staff.
7:40AM - After spin I drive straight to work, and run on the treadmill for 20 minutes until I have to shower and, um.. work.
(even weeks)
Lunch: 30-minute Boot Camp Group Class.

Friday
5:30AM - 1-hour YMCA Tri Club Swim session. Again, a coach is there to correct form, but unlike the Masters Swim coaching session, it's sometimes a 25:1 class to coach ratio. So the coaching is still valuable, but the real value in this workout is camaraderie.
6:40AM - A bunch of us go right to the gym there at the YMCA and run on treadmills for an hour or so. I usually do 4-5 miles on this run.

Saturday
5:30AM - 2-hour "Sweat Lodge"Spin Session - we pack our bikes and trainers in the two-car garage of one of our tri club members, and we follow a workout generously provided by a top age-grouper who is acquainted with our club. This or Boot Camp is always the toughest workout of the week.
Later that day - I run, usually really short just to keep the streak alive. Today I ran immediately after the (really tough) 2-hour spin session.

Totals
7 days of running - 30 miles, 5 hours or so
2 days of swimming - 2 hours
2 days of biking - 3.5 hours
1 day of weights - 30 minutes

So that was my schedule for February and March will look really similar. I expect that as the weather improves and the light returns, things will change. We'll probably bike outside instead of on the trainer, there will be open-water swimming, and track workouts.

And yes, I am missing long runs. This will be a factor at Umstead. I have to count on the residual training effect of 150 miles at ATY + 11 hours/week of training to compensate. I will probably be walking most of the second 50. Mike Henze pointed out on the ultra list that when he does a month of walking at 11 minutes per mile, then walking 15 minutes per mile in a race doesn't feel very hard. To that end March I also am going to add a few hours of walking per week, and perhaps replace some running miles with walking, and I'm going to try to keep it either 5MPH or faster, or 5% or steeper.