Swimming. I’ve essentially been doing the same thing
week after week, year after year. The
volume and intervals change a bit depending on where I am in the season, but I
hit a plateau and it has gotten frustrating.
The 50x50 on 1’ sprint challenge was good to shake things up a little,
but not good enough. Post-pregnancy, I
basically returned to the same old thing.
I did threshold sets twice/week of different distances, but short
recoveries (100s, 200s, and 300s are the most common). And then I do a speed set of either 50s or
100s once/ week as well. If I get crazy,
I may do a ladder for something different.
But my speed hasn’t continued to improve and the workouts have become
mundane.
I am now one of those people using
the workouts out of a binder at the end of my swim lane. And you know what – I LOVE it! It’s the change I’ve needed. So for the month of May I have been sticking
100% to these workouts and then I’ll do a repeat of the test set I did at the
beginning of the month to see how far I’ve come. I can already tell you that I’ve been
noticing improvement. These workouts are
based on your pace that is established by an initial test set, and then pushes
you to hit that pace (and sometimes faster!) at different points in the
workout. It also frequently has short,
fast sprints at the end of a workout as well.
These tough workouts have pushed me in all new ways. It has left me exhausted and has even kicked
my butt when I couldn’t reach sub-pace one of the days. I have swum intervals faster than what I
thought I could in a workout, and while I’m sticking to 3 days/week for a
while, it has increased my volume of each swim as well. Sometimes you have to play mental games to
get through it, but afterwards you feel like you have reached a higher level of
swimming. I finally feel stronger and
faster in the water, and I hope it shows on race day!
 |
| Best. Ride. Ever. |
Biking. I used to do a lot of the same repetitive
sets (much like with swimming), but I’ve been mixing it up a lot more this past
winter and spring. I have new favorite
workouts that push me in all new ways. I
was settling before. Being that I train
with power, I know what watts I need to be pushing for different sets. I have been completing tougher sets this year
and I’m excited to see what kind of watts I will be able to put out at races. I also had some adjustments done to my fit on
the bike, and I could immediately tell a difference in my speed - thank you Mel's Trading Post! On top of all that, I also am now riding my
7.5 Series Trek Speed Concept and I am BLOWN AWAY by the amazing speed that
machine has! Even on a super windy day,
I have been able to blast through the miles.
I am better positioned, riding a faster bike, and have been turning out
higher quality workouts. A fast training ride has been around 20mph, and last
year I was racing around 22.5mph. My
last training ride I averaged 23mph! (Granted,
I was hammering for the vast majority of it, but still.) To say the least, I’m
just a little excited to see what I can do this season… (And now I better be
able to bike at least that fast in races!)
So if you’re
stuck in a rut or have hit a plateau in your training or racing, don’t be afraid
to shake things up! Some crazy things
might just happen.
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