Miranda's Triathlon Blog: Arizona Training Camp Day 9, 10 and 11

You may have been wondering...what has Miranda been doing these past 3 days? Has she been slacking off? Did she give in to tacos and tequila and stop training? Do not worry - I promise you that hasn't been the case.

Swimming has been going very well. I have continued to swim with the University of Arizona Masters group this past week. Monday we had an aerobic workout of 4700 yards as I mentioned in the Day 8 post and Wednesday was a speed workout of about 3700 yards. However, my speed and aerobic pace seem to be quite similar when I am tired. Nonetheless, I think I was able to have a bit of speed over a distance of 12.5 to 25 yards, which was a big part of the workout on Wednesday...so that was OK. Today I swam on my own at the Golf Course pool...I did a lot of technique, easy swimming and some swim specific core work. My new favourite core strengthening exercise involve swimming freestyle with the pull buoy around your ankles (use a band tied around both so that the pull buoy doesn't slip off during flip turns). In the past 4 days I think I have completed 11,600 yards in just 3hrs.

Cycling has been a bit of a struggle this week, but I am pushing through. Tuesday (Day 9) I completed a set of 7x1' all out on the computrainer. The plus of this workout was that this week I didn't feel like puking and I pushed higher power than last week so that was a good sign! The rest of the cycling has been mostly aerobic, outdoors, on the TT bike. I climbed Mount Lemmon at a controlled effort on Tuesday and then toured the Saguaro National Park during my 4hr ride on Wednesday. Today I did 5x10' intervals at race pace on the TT bike within a 95km ride. Although, today race pace seemed like VO2max pace! I even cried during the last interval :( So there I was on Sabino Canyon Road, bouncing over top of potholes, crying, sweating and still trying to stay focused on maintaining the appropriate power. And guess what? I ended up being 3 Watts above race pace for that interval. Emotional Miranda can still be tough!

Running is going well...I say that because I am still able to run at this point. If all continues to go well (meaning I stay injury free), I think I am on pace for record mileage this week. However, when I crammed for the Marathon in 2009 I think I did 3x 25-30km runs in a week, so maybe not (obviously that was before I had a coach, I don't recommend that type of training, ever!). Tuesday was just an easy 30' run off the bike, Wednesday I finished off a 6hr day with a 13.1km run and today was 4km at 4'/km pace right after my 95km ride. So...total run mileage for the week is at 46km with a 6km run tomorrow and a 28km run on Saturday. Hopefully I make it.

Alright...that pretty much sums up training for the past 3 days! Off to bed!

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