Good 'check up'

Trying to buy and sell a house is draining. Never thought it would take so much out of Anne and I. It has. Throw a good old cold and you have a non-optimal window of time per IMF prep.

With that being said, I threw down a Critical Power (CP20) test this AM to see where my legs were w/ weeks to go before IMF. The legs certainly were not happy/potent/steady...but I got the kind of data I was looking for. Below is a snapshot:

From this test I am looking to dial in on power range for IMF that will range from 200 to 240. Average power for this test was 340 at an average HR of 154. This was on tired legs so I am looking FWD to a 'rested legs' scenario at Panama City. It will be fun to see where this range will equate to speed on the bike.

For the past 4 to 6 weeks I have been putting much less time into training per this 'current season of life'. When it is all said and done I will have an average of about 5 hrs per week. I am not concerned about the low volume at all. The time I am devoting to training is very high quality and very intensive in nature.

Being transparent here...I want to see how the intensive training done for IML will set me up for IMF.

Looking FWD to toeing the line in November and and seeing what happens to the body with this minimalist approach. I have taken it to the extreme here, but feel more then ready for race day.

Other points:

Swim - doing no more then 10 to 15 min in the water at a time (2x/wk). Focusing specifically on back, fly, and breast. It is hard to beat the stress these strokes put on the kinetic chain.

Run, etc - doing a long run per week of 13 to 15 miles at faster then IM goal pace. Also utilizing 800s coupled with intensive 5 to 10 min sessions on the Tacx (280 to 300+ watts)

Cross Training - thatching and aerating the lawn. I only wish this could be done 8 to 15 times in a year. Was sore for 8 days post thatching my front lawn at 4 AM. It was awesome. The moon was full, the stars were glistening, and it was quite as quite could get. I laid into that lawn of mine. Icing on the cake was renting that aerator and mutilating the lawn. Seeing those plugs of sod/grass being discharged fueled my fire. Did my neighboors lawn to up the 'training load'. If you ever want your lawn thached and aerated let Coach L know in advance. I am all over it.

Have a great week folks and enjoy the rain. My lawn certainly is ;)

LL out