Ouch.

(My newly re-built Waterford. I can't get my camera to focus - time to read the instructions, I guess.)

Let's start with Saturday: four hours of biking + 1 hour running + 1 hour swimming.

After 1:30 of warming up with a HR around 125-130 bpm, it was time for a terrifying main set of 2:30 at 150 bpm with a cadence of 75-80 in the aerobars. After an hour and a half, nearly all of which was spent in the aerobars, my legs were getting pretty exhausted. I did a split on the HR monitor to check my average HR for the first 1:30, and it was 147 bpm. Close, but no cigar.

For the next hour I had to rotate among positions, switching between standing, seated, and in the bars every couple of minutes. I couldn't keep my HR high because I couldn't push the necessary gear. I suffered for the last hour, toughing it out for an average HR of 143 during that time.

Immediately after getting of the bike and changing, it was out the door for 1:00 of running. Holding 7:00/mile for the first half wasn't too tough, though my HR was around 160 bpm (probably 7-8 bpm higher than when fresh for that pace).

After the run, I was beat. Stacey, having also done the bike and run, and I both fell asleep after eating a recovery meal. Even after napping, our bodies were still visibly working hard to recover - I could see Stacey breathing deeply just sitting on the couch. The feeling was similar to how one feels after a long race.

For hour number six (6! - tying my longest training day every), Stacey and I headed up to the pool. I didn't get in the whole yardage (meterage?), but did get in a full hour. To keep Stacey happy, I said we'd stop when we hit one hour, regardless of yardage. We probably got in 2300m of mostly drills.

I had Stacey capture some video of my swim technique. Here I am swimming 5:45 into the workout:

(The camera lens fogged up during the "shooting" and most of the captured videos are too blurry to see. One of these days I will capture some videos trying slight tweaks to my stroke to see how things look compared to how they feel.)

My feet are dragging pretty lowly. I *think* that is a result of them being too tired to kick. However, I have noticed that I feel like I'm swimming uphill for the first few laps immediately after I remove a pull buoy. I'll keep working on making sure I feel my heels break the surface to ensure they're high enough.

Sunday:

4 hours riding + an hour swimming. My legs were feeling okay during the ride, which is better than I expected. I kept the effort moderate, and my HR varied between 120-130. I ended up averaging 125 bpm for the whole ride, and I think I was pushing the same gear as I could push last year at 140 bpm (though we'll see when I get out on the road).

I completed every meter of Sunday's swim. A tiring weekend, all in all. 11 hours.

Monday:

1 hour running in the morning (main sets: 10 min at each of 150, 155 and 160 bpm) + 1 hour running in the evening (cap: 125 bpm). In the morning, it took a while to get the soreness out of my legs. During the 150 bpm set, my HR was staying at 146 and would move no higher. However, my HR monitor needs a new battery and has been slightly on the fritz, so I'm not sure that that reading was acccurate. Once it moved from 146 bpm, the monitor was all over the place. It's accuracy improved when I began to sweat a bit more, so I think for sets 2 and 3 the reading was accurate. I was able to hang around 155 and 160 bpm for the latter sets. By the end of the run, I felt better than at the start.

In the evening, I ran with Stacey and chatted during the run. I kept my HR under the cap (well, for the most part - it may have hit the high 120's on an occasion or two when Stacey was playing Haile Gebrselassie).

I'm ready for Tuesday's swim and (easy looking) bike.