Muskoka 70.3 build: week 4

I think spring is finally here!

Gotta be a good mood now. The weather is warm, there's bikes all over the roads, and soon we'll be open water swimming again. Can't wait!

What happened last week:

Monday: rest
Tuesday: 1650m swim; TR Spencer (VO2s, 1 hour)
Wednesday: 2000m swim
Thursday: TR Avalanche Spire (over/unders, 1:15); 1300m swim
Friday: 7k run; TR Petit (aerobic, 1 hour)
Saturday: 52k ride outside
Sunday: 12k run

So, three big things to talk about this week.

1) The run. I saw my new physiotherapist on Tuesday and it turns out the tight hamstring is a different than usual manifestation of sciatica. That dates back to my very first pregnancy (an overall miserable experience, although the resulting kid is pretty awesome). 11 years later it likes to pop up every few months, be a literal pain in the ass for a week, then go away again. He thinks we can improve that situation a bit, so I'll have a few more sessions while we try and get my lower back to stop being such a cranky bitch.

more quality time with these guys on the schedule, too

Since it is only two weeks after Around the Bay, it seemed sensible to keep the running minimal this week. By yesterday's 'long' run it was feeling about 98% back to normal, but still not quite there. So I'm going to keep things easy and on the shorter side this week and pretty much take the run one day at a time. No hurry - I clearly have solid run fitness, and there's no need to push it right now.

Just happy to be out in the sun, only wearing one layer.

2) The bike. I rode outside on Saturday. It was glorious. I think the bike started to cry when I put her back on the trainer.

My friend Danielle looking spiffy in her Iron Canucks kit climbing Snake for the first time. I had no idea she'd never done that climb when I planned the route!

3) The swim!! So Thursday I got some swim coaching from a member of the club, Lara. It was so great. As I suspected, my catch isn't right. She had me swim with finger paddles (cool!) and do some drills (6 kick switch; 1 lap slow, 1 lap fast), but mostly gave me two pieces of advice which I think are going to make a significant difference. First, she helped me figure out just what exactly my hands are supposed to be doing on the catch. I'm not quite getting it right most of the time, but I can feel such a huge difference when I do manage to nail it. Now I'm definitely chasing that feeling of properly 'grabbing' the water!

The second thing was to engage my lats more. Just thinking about that seems to have made my pull more powerful, in the one swim I've managed to fit in since our session. That was actually today, which means this should go in next week's blog, but whatever, this was an exciting moment for me:

WHAT!!!

Unfortunately due to life stuff I wasn't able to get to the pool over the weekend and apply any of this new knowledge, but there was no way around that. Well, technically I did go to the pool, but it was for family swim with the kids, where I multitasked by teaching them how to do underwater somersaults and practiced flip turns at the same time. No guarantee I actually try and do a flip turn at lane swim any time soon, but theoretically I think I could. Maybe. Probably without giving myself a concussion or drowning.

On tap for this week:

Monday: 1800m swim (done!)
Tuesday: TR (VO2 max); maybe evening swim
Wednesday: easy run
Thursday: TR (tempo); swim
Friday: easy run; TR (aerobic)
Saturday: long bike ride + maybe short brick run
Sunday: long easy run (15k?); swim

Really excited for swimming this week (!!) and of course to get the bike back on the road!