Quality Volume Week

Well that was one of the most solid weeks without any racing in it that I think I have done so far.  Last major week over 20 hours and it is now time to start cutting the weekly volume I think (maybe a little higher this week, yet to be decided).  Just between Saturday and Sunday I was able to rack up about 17,000 feet of vertical between the bike and run.  I even got in a harder track workout with Bob during the week and a kick ass trainer ride on Wednesday from James.  Needless to say I am pretty tired this Monday morning and today will be an easy day.

So why such a big weekend?  Well earlier in the year I was talking to Andy about some of the training that he did during the buildup to his two Leadman finishes and he brought up an idea that he and Lucho talked about but never did.  Between the 50 race and the 100 race do a day where you would run 3 hours, bike 3 hours, run 3 hours, and then bike 3 hours giving a total of 12 hours for the day split between the 2 sports and calling it 3-3-3-3 workout.  Of course Andy's point was that this was not proven and maybe a bit much.  So pondering this idea I first thought that I would do a 2-2-2-2 workout cutting the volume down but still getting in a solid day.  Then I decided that I would just break it up over the weekend and still get the total volume of work.  Got more bike time than running time but that is OK.

Here is how it played out.

Saturday: 

Bike 3:41:00 - 44 miles with 6,000ft of vertical - link for route
Nice long ride up Golden Gate Canyon on some new routes I have not done yet. Mountain Base Road had grades of 20% so some solid vertical work going up that bad boy.

Run 1:46:00 - 8 miles with 3,000ft of vertical - link for route
Run up and down Bear Peak while the wife was hiking with her best friend. Really surprised how good I felt considering the 90 degrees and riding all morning. Big vertical day and little dehydrated from the heat of the day.

Sunday: 

Run 1:50:00 - 13 miles with 1,700ft of vertical -link for route
Part #1 of today's training.  One lap up and down Lookout Mt on the road. Getting in some vertical but more runnable vertical than yesterday.  Started out pretty stiff from yesterday but loosened up as I got going.

Bike 3:35:00 - 41 miles with 5,500ft of vertical - link for route
Part #2 of today's training. Laps for 3 plus hours on the MTB on the road of Lookout just racking up vertical and making sure I get over 40 miles. Nice to be able to only have to carry one bottle and just refill each lap from the cooler in the car. Got pretty hot but dealt with it fine, Tailwind proved once again to work very well on the bike for me.

Run 48:00 - 4.6 miles with 1,200ft of vertical - link for route
Part #3 of today's training.  Run up the trail on Lookout Mt to the top of Mount Zion to add some more running mileage and vertical.  Started really rough but was fine about 1.5 miles into it.  Got caught in a down pour on the way down and it felt great after being 90 degrees most of the day.

Called it a day after this one, a thunderstorm moved in and the wife called wondering when I was coming home. Figured that was enough for the past 2 days. That gave me 85 miles with 11,500ft of vertical on the bike and 25.6 miles with 5,400ft of vertical running in 2 days.  I will take that.  Hopefully this weekend will be the nail in the coffin as they say for the longer days of training.  With that weekend along with the track workout with Bob I did on Tuesday which was 800,800,1600,800,800 all at sub 6 minute pace and a super hard trainer ride from James on Wednesday it was a very solid week.  Feeling pretty good about it all right now, just have to make sure I don't F it up the last 3 weeks.