Tuesday, Nov 1

Nov brings in for me 4 more weeks of the Endurance Nation OS.  This will finish up my first 8 weeks, test out my FTP and vDOT, and then put me into the VO2 Max portion of the workouts.  Talk about some hard ass workouts but with some sweet gains.  On the bike portion after a 10-15 min workouts with do 2.5/2.5 at 120% of our last tested FTP and the runs are intervals.  This block is only 6 weeks cause it is easy to injure yourself here and so damn hard. 

Since I am a career Firefighter/Paramedic we work 24 hour shift and then are off for 48 hours.  Well I work 7 more shifts and then I am on vacation till Jan 2, 2012.  I save all my vacations dates up and take them in a huge block.  I am able to train, go late season muzzle loading for deer, and best of all soak up some rays and fun in our second home Negril, Jamaica with the best friends eva.  Usually we leave not to long after the first fallen snow and then come back to a nice winter blizzard.  The older I get the more I am disliking the snow and cold. 

Training is making progress for me.  I have been staying outside on the bike as much as I can.  Today it is to be in the mid 70's so will be outside for sure.  The bike workout today is as hard as they get.  It is 60 minutes.  10-15 min warm up then 2x20 min FTP (remember these are at 100%) with 4 min of rest in between them.  Followed by a 40 min Easy paced run.  I am doing this workout this evening at 1700 hours with 3 other training partners.  Hopefully all three make it cause we push each other to the limits and makes it a little more fun.  Doing these by yourself is a mind fuck!!!!  20 times worse if it is in the pain cave on the trainer. 

I feel I have made leaps and bounds of progress since the bicycle accident on 8/27/11.  I am now able to run over 20 miles and the pace is almost back to where it was pre-crash.  Still not able to fully flex the left knee or stretch it back without pain but in time the surgeon has assured me.  The quad strength is close to where it was pre crash.  Calf strenght has surpassed pre crash. 

Well this am brings in the gun workout.....biceps and triceps followed by some stroke drills and progression drills in the pool.  Starting to actually enjoy being back in the water.  The local tri club is swimming on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturdays which is good for me cause I have other workouts on all of these days.  Meaning when I swim with the crew I loose focus of my stroke and technique and my goal this off season is to burn the new technique and stroke into my head.  I need both mental and muscle memory and fast.  Looking to drop my 1000 yard TT by 30 seconds come time to flip into my Ironman plan on 2/13/12.  Last it was 15:40 and I would like for it to be around 15:10 which put me at around 1:19-1:20/100 yards.