29th week of the 2011 season

153

The week started promising but it has slipped from my hands. It was an adaptation week and even though it was hard to follow.

This week actually started on Monday. A friend of mine just gave me great news. And they were not as great as the fact that he decided to tell me. Since then I have not been able to reply much back. I want to. It is something I have always wanted to. But I just don’t have the time to do that. But the question is, if I don’t find the time did I really want this as much as I thought or it is not as important anymore?

On Tuesday, I started with a longer swim that I had expected and then, after work, I had a short bike ride and a short run. The bike ride on the trainer was fairly good but the run was too fast. I know it is short and I might feel fresh after a day off but I will need to take a closer look to those runs. Even though the time lapse between the ride and the run is not very big it is not considered a transition.

On Wednesday I went to the pool in the morning and then afterwards I went to work. In the afternoon I had a brick session of 45 minutes bike ride and then 15 minutes running. The run was awesome. I was feeling fresh and extremely fast and indeed I was going fast.

On Thursday I had my group run. I did not realize the run was supposed to be a 75minutes run and I only did 60. Part of the problem was that I left late from work and then I stopped to talk to someone. During the run we were going very slow but at the end someone decided to start an attack and I followed along. I hadn’t been running that fast for that long in quite a few time, I took the lead very early and I pretty much controlled the attack. I kept increasing the speed a little bit at a time and I was almost caught until the final sprint. I was worried because I mostly train endurance and training speed is not what I usually do. Although I did not want to lose I knew I was going to win it, but this sprint does not show what would’ve happened in a race where I don’t think they could handle my pace for 9 and a half kilometers to start the sprint.

On Friday I resumed my swim in the morning and I did a late evening bike ride. It was too late of a bike ride because I had to go get my new wheel which is going to help me to mount and dismount from the trainer.

On Saturday I started work early so I could go for my 3h bike ride and 15minutes run. I started at 6 so I could be out of there by 15h. For the first time I put my bike in my new car and we went to work. While riding I was feeling fairly fast but the figures show that I was not as fast as I thought I was going. That was a little disappointing. Then I went to watch Barça beat ManU in the final of the Champions League with some friends and by midnight I went to sleep.

On Sunday I was tired but I had planned a swim test and I was asked to go to work, so I started work at 4 am so I could go to the pool to do the test. Amazing speed in the test, I dropped 5 seconds from my previous T-pace. I was super excited about that. It means that I am improving my swim. Then I went for a 30 minutes run, fairly easy this time. In the afternoon I went back to work for a little bit.

What is bothering me lately is my bike leg. My swim is improving very fast. My run has always been fairly good. But my bike ride is giving me headaches. Even though at this point I probably have more strength on the bike than running, because of the very long rides; I would trust better myself achieving my goals in the marathon than in the bike. I hope I will see more improvement in the near future.

Also work has been taking me a lot of time, this week I probably worked more than 70 hours. Is it worth it? I hope so, but you can never be sure. So far I am playing the give a lot and wait for the return. It is better to wait for it than willing to have it right away. I hope the reward will come.

Also I am very happy because I am a big Barça fan. I am not very superstitious but I like to keep my routines and for this final I broke one. Nevertheless, it does not matter who you watch the games with. The game is played far away and they don’t care, don’t know your routines. What it was surprising me though is that I had worked all morning, I trained in the afternoon and I did not think much about it. I was not very nervous, was it because I knew we had a good team and I knew they would give their best?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfCZsktqq7Q

28th week of the 2011 season

153

Too much working no working out this week. At least this is what happen the 1^st half of the wee.

I was supposed to start big on Tuesday but instead I barely had the will and power to swim. It was a good swim but starting at 6 in the morning and leaving work at 6 in the afternoon when the next day you have to be there by 6.30 does not leave you a lot of energy to do much. And it even gets worse when you have to clean everything, cook for the next day, feed yourself and sleep. There were moments where it was hard to choose. Also I started a little mad with myself because I wanted to start running but that meant to get up at 3.45 in the morning and start running at 4. I did get up that early but I it was too dark and I decided to go back to sleep, the inside fight lasted 30mintues, that was the time that I needed to fall sleep again.

Wednesday pretty much happened the same as the day before except that I knew it was too late to start putting some workout in the morning. I did not behave well on Tuesday and I just had to carry with it for the rest of the week.

On Thursday I started work very early as well. As always I had an appointment to jog with friends. So as soon as I left work I check the time, oh no! it is too late to fit everything in!!! So I decided to swim 1500m straight, nonstop, I needed to build some confidence. The plan had been changed from a 1hish on the pool to 1500m nonstop descending every 500m and so I did. First 500m, where I believe I swam extra 50 9m46s, 35s above a normal warm up. Second 500s 8m 16s I was getting faster and last 500s I did it in 8m6s, I couldn’t believe it it was my fastest 1500m ever by more than 2minutes and going very slow at the beginning so I was pumped, then I decided to run fast, I went from Tennis d’Aro to Sta Cristina’s Carrilet station and back, 10km and I did it in 38m. I was just 30s slower than my best ever, and I am not even feeling fast yet. I was excited. Then I went for a slower run with friends.

On Friday I needed to swim and ride the bike but I just had energy for one thing and I chose swimming. I feel ashamed for this. I was getting to Saturday and I even had not had a bike ride in the whole week, but I was too tired, I had worked around 60h this week.

On Saturday I did the long bike ride as scheduled but this time I changed my route I decided to go as close to Cadaqués as I could and I managed to get to Roses in 5h30m round trip. It was quite windy, I had over 4l of sports drinks, 11 gels and at some points I was feeling very tired. But then I changed to run for 15m and in seemed like I was fresh again, I pulled up a pretty good run and even at night I was not feeling as tired as I used to. That felt good.

On Sunday morning I made it to the pool and then to run. I was actually surprised how well I was swimming and running. I guess I recovered well. I averaged 4m8s/km which I did not expect to go that fast. In the afternoon I went to play some pitch and putt. I wanted to play only 9 holes but my friends induced me to play 18 and my legs were fine. Also I probably did my best round ever and it was the second one, only +5, which meant 5 fours and 4 3s.

All I know this week is that I had to work a lot of time, I had to choose between training, eating or sleeping, I could only do 2 of them. And I know deep down I had a lot of fun even though I was mad to myself the first two days because I was not disciplined enough.

A lot of things go through my head when I trained but every day I have new things to think and to go through. Sometimes it is an old friend of mine, other times it is work, other times it is calculating the splits and some other time just calculating intake while training. And even though I train many hours and it is not easy I am happy doing all these. It is hard to stay focus all the time but so far I have not had too many distractions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGJ2RPIAui4&feature=related

27th week of the 2011 season

153

This week has been a roller coaster. I started the week with very low motivation, going through very high moments to go back to normal motivation, were I had to skip several sessions.

I started on Tuesday with a swim session based on force. I did not start the week with the good attitude. I was not feeling too ready to train, I wanted to train but I was feeling sleepy. It is true that I had to do some staff on Monday and I did not get much sleep but my mind was not in the pool with me. In the afternoon I had to go to a job interview in Barcelona and I did not have time to train.

On Wednesday I wasn’t feeling fresh either. I was tired from the drive from the day before and I got up early again to go to the swim. This time I worked on muscular endurance. In the afternoon I could not train again because I had to go see the car that my parents bought for me.

By Thursday I started to feel a little better. I had many doubts about how the end of the week would look like. Should I reschedule the week after missing 4 sessions out of 6? Should I continue with the normal strategy? In the end I chose to keep on with the planned sessions. So in the afternoon I went for the long run, I ran for 20minutes not too fast and then I decided to go quite fast for nearly 20 minutes, it was higher than tempo, even though I felt some calf discomfort I did not slow down. Then I went to run with a friend for 45minutes, we were running to a nice comfortable pace, it is something that I really need because otherwise I tend to go to fast and he helps me slow down and train better and wiser.

On Friday I started with some anaerobic endurance swimming. I was feeling pumped. I was training hard again, I rejoined my schedule, the weekend was around the corner, my mind was sitting next to me, I started to feel strong again. Then in the afternoon we went to buy my new car and I jumped on the trainer. I had to start late and I finished later. It was not the best session ever, a lot of distractions.

Saturday morning, I got up and after doing everything my guests needed from me I went for the long bike ride. My legs weren’t fresh from the day before and this time I was riding solo. It did not look like there was much wind and I rode pretty fast for going alone but on my way back, after a while I had to face the wind. I was getting too distracted, it was because I had been on the bike for a long time and my energy reserves were low. I managed to finish the ride and then I bricked into a 15 minutes run, not a bad run considering all I had suffered on the bike.

On Sunday I went for an endurance swim. I felt pretty good during the swim even though it was harder than I had expected. Then I went for a run, 30minutes of good pace to loosen up and then I started to do some 5 times 1 minute very fast, 2 minutes easy to finish up with 15 minutes at an easy pace until I got bored and I started to go under 4minutes per kilometer, too fast on an easy day, but I guess this is my new pace.

While I was going to the interview I felt like I was doing something wrong. I felt like I was cheating. It hasn’t been long since I started my job and I like it, don’t get me wrong but I wanted to know what they wanted to offer me. What I don’t know is what I’ll do if they take me. My job started being fun but right now I am working too many hours and that is not the problem, I don’t have anything else to do but training, so I have no problems working many hours but seriously, do I have to receive a message from my boss while I am at a family dinner? Do you have to give me bad news at that moment? It is not that someone died it was only that we would fail some test, so what…

The decision will be hard. Now I live on my own, most of the time I am free to train and do the schedule that I want, I can leave from home on the weekends and good roads are at doorstep. If I move I will need to find new roads, new pool, new everything. I am not sure. I have just been given a car, what would I do with it if I move?

For some reason I did not start the week with low motivation due to the news that I got from the north to the south. My low motivation was due to something different I believe it was due because I just couldn’t do what I wanted to do. It was sort of a surprise what I read but who cares anymore. My life is driven by triathlon. It is driven by a race that I have not even signed in, will I do it? Not sure. I don’t know if I’ll be ready to do what I wanted to do.

My goal is high but I know I have been able to accomplish most of my dreams; it has always taken me longer than I wanted but I finally have been able to achieve them. There is a big one now and it will be hard to achieve it. Not too many people have been able to do that, I hope I’ll be one of them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPk7g98jDoY

26th week of the 2011 season

153

After and easier week the real work has begun. I have been able to start understanding the meaning of keep easy days easy and keep hard days hard. I used to do this mistake where I used to take easy days harder and hard days easier.

I started to work out on Tuesday morning with some force swimming session, it involved a lot of pull buoy time. Then after work I jumped on the bike to do some force training as well and while Barça was playing Real Madrid in the second match of the semifinals of the Champions League I went to run because that was part of the schedule. I did some hill running. Even though there was not much time between the bike and the run I would not consider a brick session.

On Wednesday, I woke up with very stiff calves from the night before. I was used to run but I wasn’t used to such hard training. Endurance training is not as important anymore and I have started to put harder work. In the morning I had scheduled a speed skills workout, it was going to be long but not as demanding as other sessions. Then in the afternoon I had a brick workout. I worked out for two hours with only 15minutes running, but it is good to start doing some bricks and some more running even though it is short it is good to put some mileage on them.

By Thursday, I knew it was going to be tough, my legs weren’t feeling good yet but I had to keep going. The morning swim was very hard. I felt I was going fast but it was not enough, it was one of the few days that I timed my laps. Then in the afternoon I went for a run on my own first and then I joined some friends. It was very good to meet with them and they helped me a lot. They made me go slower so I was able to work on some endurance. I tend to train too fast sometimes and they helped me to anchor me down.

On Friday I was pretty tired and fortunately for me I had a long easy swim. In the afternoon I had to take a little nap before the speed skills workout on the bike.

On Saturday I had scheduled a group ride with two friends. We would meet half way, then I would take them home and then I would finish my workout. Since I was going to have a 4h long bike ride I took 4 large bottles with me. Also the week before I had changed the set up of my bike for one that is a little more aggressive but there is a problem, it is harder to climb. Supposedly I am faster on flat and downhill but I suffer a lot climbing. So we started the first climb and they took so much time from me that I could just not see them anymore. Well I was easily carrying about 4kg more plus a more aggressive set up. Then after the climbs I was following them fairly easy. When I came back home I put my runners fast and I left the house for a 15 minutes run. I was very fast and for the first time I was feeling pretty good after the bike ride. I average 4minutes per kilometer. I know it was a very short run but it was pretty fast. After that I had lunch and I played some paddle tennis with friends.

On Sunday I wanted to run the Girona’s half marathon but they ran out of bibs so I could not race, instead I went to the swimming pool for some technique work for about 45minutes and then I went for a run. The run was a 45 minutes one, the first 15minutes were solid, then I would sprint for 30 seconds and I would rest for 1 minute to run solid again the last 15 minutes. I would say that it was very intense and I was lucky to keep it under the hour.

Also this week I was worried because I was supposed to work on the weekend but luckily for me they did not have everything ready at work for me to work so I was able to rest over the weekend and have some fun with friends, playing paddle tennis, going out a little bit and having lunch with some of them.

Having lunch with some friends with kids made me realized that it will take me long to have some kids on my own. They are stressful and tiring. So no rush for the moment, anyway I don’t have what it takes to have them.

At the moment I don’t have much time to think on anything but work and training so I have put much thought about the past. I just know I would not like to do as many mistakes as I did. And Having a friend younger than me telling me that he is old enough to end games with his girlfriend made me realize that I won’t have one any time soon. I don’t have time to worry about my own problems, how should I find time to worry about our problems and her problems as well?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si88vCt06s4

25th week of the 2011 season

153

This week was suppose to be easy and it was fairly easy in the amount of hours but for some reason I could not keep myself tight enough and I made it harder tan what it was supposed to be. Also I was able to try some new changes and I moved in to another place, now I live somehow on my own.

This week pretty much started on Tuesday like always but I would like to mention first the improvement I did towards my goal on Monday, I moved in alone, so now I just have to be lucky enough to keep focused.

So I started on Tuesday with a light bike at my new place and then I went to work. In the afternoon I went to my new swimming pool for a swim and 30 minutes run afterwards. The run was supposed to be easy and even though it is hilly I ended up running under 4minutes per kilometer, too fast.

On Wednesday, I did a swim-bike-ride, but it was very easy. I started with the swim in the morning and then I went to work. In the afternoon 45minutes on the bike followed by a brick of 15 minutes, again I ran faster than what I should’ve done this week, I guess.

Thursday I only had to run for 75minutes and I almost missed it because of work. I left work at 8pm or later, I came home, I dressed up for running, it was raining but I wanted to run and so I did. I finally ran for the allotted time in an easy pace.

Friday was different, I woke up very early but this time was to go to work instead of the swimming pool. I was supposed to work until midday and I ended up working till the end. Afterwards I went to the pool. After swimming I took my first nap in a month or so. Then I jumped on the bike where for the second time this week I made some changes to the height of my seat. It is supposed to be more efficient but it is not as comfortable so I will lower it a little bit.

On windy Saturday I went for the bike ride. Awful sensations, windy; also the seat was too high and I did not feel well in aero position. Although I enjoyed seeing 3 more people in TT bikes, not very common. I transitioned to run and I did not run bad although I am not comfortable running after the bike, and it used to be something that I enjoyed a lot because I could easily change from cycling to running.

On Sunday I did my second swim test since I started this training plan. The test was slightly better that I could’ve thought but I am not happy enough with it. Anyway afterwards I went for a 30 minutes run and once again I needed someone to help me with the pace. I can’t hold it back, I started well at first but then I started to go faster and I ended up running the last km in about 3 minutes 50 seconds, way faster than the 4minutes 15 seconds desired.

Living alone is good but I don’t really know how good it is. It has its good and bad. What it used to be done; now has to be done and what it used to be simple now it can be complicated. Although what it could be a pain in the ass, now might be very easy. We will see how it goes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDzNAxpOaYo