New PB, racing almost done

Dear reader,

I've cut about 30 seconds off my 5km PB, I learned how to swim proper, and I've safely increased my swimming and running weekly volume to great effect. I am racing in about 2 weeks and then I'm taking a couple weeks off.

Swimming:

I decided that this winter (and fall I guess) I would dedicate myself to improving in the pool. The game plan was essentially to increase my volume, spend most of the fall and winter increasing my max speed, then continuing through the standard build parts of the year getting faster at middle distance stuff. I think my best 800m time ever was around 1:35/100m and my fastest ever 100m was about 1:30. In the past couple weeks I've gone from about 3-4km/week up to 11.5km in my biggest week. I would like to make 10ish/week the norm but I'm not foolish, I'm not going to just jump into that kind of distance. Therefore during my last 3-week build I started at about 5, then 7ish and hit 11.5, took an easy week and am starting over at about 7. This block I may try and build to 12-15. We'll see. Regardless, the most interesting and rewarding part of this swimming thing came 2 weeks ago. At a big 5k practice coached by friend Alex Vanderlinden, he noticed my right arm was way too close to my body during the pull. He told me to pull a little wider and POW, huge difference right away. Lately I've been enjoying 100 splits in the ballpark of 1:25-1:30 with very little trouble. Weird how a simple technique change can help so much.

Biking:

I bike to work every day and occasionally do an endurance workout. Nothing noteworthy really. During my rest week I did a CP20 test (critical power) to ballpark my FTP (functional threshold power). Surprisingly I managed 270W over 20 minutes giving an estimated FTP of about 250W. Not super high but good all things considred.

Running:

I really want to be up to 50km/week comfortably but I'm not quite there yet. I will generally hit one week at 50km per block, with the other two around 35-45. As long as I'm still improving and not getting injured... Which brings me to my last run test. I decided I would run a straight 5k to test my current fitness and to decide which event I wanted to race at the end of the month. I decided I would try to hold a sub-17 pace with 16:40 being the fastest I would allow my pace to go (thanks, gps watch). I did this at home in the Sault around my neighborhood. There is a 2.7km loop I like that starts at my house and then my block is exactly 1km so I set to do the loop + my block 2.3 times. I had the benefit of a little tailwind at the beginning and my pace was about 3:15. Woah. It didn't even feel that bad. The last half was pretty tough though. However I managed to keep my pace to 3:21/km for a positive-split 16:44. That made me very happy. That also convinced me that it's time to update all my other PBs this year. I mean, I've cracked my 20k bike time, 5k run... Might as well hit the 10k run and 800m swim right? Right. So the next run performance will be October 28th in Springbank Park for the Halloween Haunting. What's better is that the UWO tri club will be there as well as my parents. I'm not sure when my parents saw me compete last, but I'm always excited to show off for them. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll crack the top 10!

Sincerely,
Adam "Volume isn't everything... but it might as well be" Fortais