Training woes...

The last few months have been an up and down roller coaster for me with training. My off season plan has left me focusing on running and swimming primarily with little to no biking. I have steadily increased my run volume week over week leading up to my first race, the Shamrock Half Marathon which is next weekend. I peaked my running two weeks ago with a week volume of 22 miles and a long run of 11 miles. I'm not sure how this is going to net out with my race day performance but my goal for the race is 1:45 which would net me at an 8 min/mile pace. I've been training at between 8:00 to 8:30 for my longer runs and between 7:30 to 7:45 for my shorter runs. The chart below depicts my volume and rate of volume increase week over week since Jan 1. I've used the advise of my "coach" Jason and have stuck to a plan he suggested to me which allowed me to increase volume roughly 10% week over week. My primary focus during this training plan was on longer runs. Even if I missed a shorter run here or there I made sure that each week I had one 8+ mile run on the books.

The one thing you might notice in this chart is that there is a large gap between 3/3 and 3/10. Last week I spent the week in Ireland and made the decision to not worry about running. Well this decision was not hard to make at all except when I returned I came down with a nasty head cold and now I am very worried that I might loose my legs and endurance for next weekends race. I hope to get out this weekend for a slow pace long run to the tune of 8 - 10 miles in order to get my legs beneath me again.

Beyond running, my swimming had been steadily increasing and improving prior to leaving for Ireland and getting sick. I hope to continue this effort once I am feeling 100% again and my biking efforts will begin to quickly elevate to 100+ mile weeks! Here is a year-to-date volume recap of my training efforts for the off season:

Swim: 36,000 yards (20.5 miles)
Bike: 75 miles
Run: 142 miles