STATS:
Swimming: 9,800yds in 3 sessions
Cycling: 300 mi in 4 sessions
Running: 26 mi in 4 sessions
Maintenance: 30 mins
Total: 24.4 hrs
Ave Weight: 166 lbs

GOALS FOR LAST WEEK:
My main focus for last week was to keep my volume up and intensity down for one more week but I was pretty smoked after the long weekend in the mountains so I decided to take some rest early.

* Continue to be patient and keep everything under LT minus 15 bpm (150 bpm bike & 160 bpm run).
* Continue to focus on nutrition.  Need to drop 5-7 lbs by Clearwater in November.
* Two strength sessions.
* Swim 14K, Bike 320 mi, Run 30 mi

RECAP:
The long weekend in the mountains was just what I needed but it left me feeling more tired than I thought it would on Tuesday.  After some evaluation and realizing that I dug pretty deep I decided to take Tuesday completely off and take a 4 day recovery block last week instead of waiting until this week.  I was lethargic and unmotivated from Tuesday through Friday and finally felt good again on Saturday and Sunday.  I dug the hole for 3 days and then filled it back in for 4 days.  On Saturday I was able to ride well during my 100 miler and Sunday came back with another 60 easy on the bike and later ran 12 miles with the last 9 between 6:00-6:30 pace on grass.  This was my first run since my break where it felt easy again to run low 6 min pace.  After making the adjustment due to excessive fatigue I think the week was a success.  I allowed my body the time to adapt to my big training over the 3 day weekend and then got back at it on Saturday.

GOALS FOR NEXT WEEK:
I plan to keep my volume up in the 22-25 hr range this week while adding some very easy workouts that are basically just intro to real workouts.  They are designed to get my run turnover going and give my bike legs a very little taste of 70.3 effort.  I plan to swim with Tim's group M, T, T, F and solo easy on W.  This should be a big swim week for me.  I plan to move my HR cap up to LT minus 10 beats for everything aside from my scheduled workouts.  I need to get my run going so I plan to increase the run volume a little this week and lower my bike slightly.

* Continue to be patient and keep everything under LT minus 10 bpm (155 bpm bike & 165 bpm run).
* Continue to focus on nutrition.  Need to drop 5-7 lbs by Clearwater in November.
* Two strength sessions.
* Swim 18K, Bike 260 mi, Run 40 mi

KEY SESSIONS:
* Tuesday Run: 6 X 30s hills w/ 2 mins recovery.  This is just an intro to getting my legs turning over quicker and building a little leg strength.  Hills don't seem to take a recovery toll on me so I tend to like them better than running 150s or 200s at the same pace on flat ground.
* Thursday Bike: 2 X 15 mins steady (LT - 10 bpm) w/ 10 mins recovery.  I've decided to shift my LT HRs down 5 bpm for this progression because I felt they were a bit tough for me to reach in the early part of the season.  It's probably about time for me to test again but I think I'm pretty dialed in.  So my new LTHRs are 165 bpm on the bike and 175 bpm on the run.  I'd rather err on the low side anyway.  This workout will be an intro to 70.3 effort.
* Weekend: Get in some decent volume......100 mi bike + 6 mi run on Saturday and 60 mi bike + 10 mi run on Sunday.  Continuing to build my solid foundation out for another few weeks.

THOUGHTS:
I don't know that there is any better way to boost cycling fitness than a few days of riding the toughest course you can find in the mountains.  After taking some rest I am feeling pretty strong and holding a very big gear feels pretty easy.  I feel like my legs are now in a better place than my cardio which is usually not the case for me. 

Aside from training, everything is going great and there are some pretty excited changes coming up.  I'll be posting about them in the very near future.