Scratch the last post

(No worries PPC, I am not talking about scratching the “not doing Branson 70.3”. Poor PPC, I am sure I always give her a small heart attack when I mention IM or HIM and future or plan in one sentence.)

I said that 11 quality kilometers in two days did not affect me in any negative way. However, it seems that it is not true after all. I am a zombie in water now. I did not swim on Wednesday and then swam on Th in the morning and I was able to hold sub 2min pace for first 4or5 200s and then I died and finished the  last 5 getting slower and slower and ended with 2:15 pace or something like that. The same was true for Th afternoon when it felt like I was swimming backwards and I cut the workout short at 2k hoping to make up the volume today morning. However, when I was not able to hold 2min pace for more than 2 100s this morning I knew that something was up. So I hit only 16k for this week. (But I did 18k last week, so it kind of evens out. Ok, I know that I am giving volume too much attention here, but I have a volume goal for swimming right now, so I can obsess about it).

I think that it was indeed those 11k combined on Mon and Tue. Or maybe 17k/week is little too much for me. I can swim that much but I am not able to hold faster paces after 12-13k of swimming for a week. Plus I always “push” reset on Sunday and start from zero, however I sometimes swim on Sat and Sun too so there is no rest between weeks. For example when I said I swam 11k in two days on Mon and Tue it was proceeded by 18k I swam the week before without any days off in between. Makes sense?

Anyway, I think that I am going to continue with 17k until the end of July, so two more weeks, to see whether I will adjust and will be able to do more quality workouts and then I decide whether it makes more sense to go back to 15k.

On a bright note, running is going awesome! At the beginning of June I started doing workouts and I was dying. I was not able to hold 4min pace for 1k intervals, I had to walk some in my 3min breaks. Simply dying. People probably did not believe that and therefore my 20:20ish 5k was slower than they expected but I swear it is true. (I mean PPC when I say people, because nobody else really cares:)) I was dying during those workouts! However now 4min pace is a breeze and I can jog all my rest intervals. I had a good workout on Wednesday (800, 1600, 3k, 800 with 2min job between): 800s at 3:55 are easy and 4:10ish pace for 3k felt like a nice tempo run (It was little faster than planned but that’s what you get when I am not on track and cannot check on my pace every 200m. Which is however good because road races are not done on a track. Obviously.). I do not bend over my knees gasping for oxygen after each interval and 2min jog (I can jog the whole recovery now) inbetween is enough rest. So yes, I am getting there!

Ok, I am off to a shopping spree in Paris. Because I need new shoes. Because you  know, I buy all my shoes in Paris. I am THAT person. And that's the true story!
I will also try to get a picture of Mark Cavendish while I am there.