All set

Finally...
I have the quarq. I have the Garmin. I have them installed on my bikes. I'm ready to ride outside with power.

And yet I find myself in the middle of a rest week. A much needed rest week i might add.

As I mentioned last week, I have been really tired for key workouts. I should qualify that and say...my legs specifically have been really tired. Mind and most of my body are fine. But my legs were shot. Some adjustments were required.

I don't have a final plan in place, but I have some ideas.

First off I would like to maintain running 6 days per week. However I am going to eliminate one of my medium runs and turn it into a short recovery run. Every week moving forward I will have 2 key run workouts. A long run and a medium run. Both should feel peppy with recover runs in the middle.
The key here is to run within myself. This specifically means running with in prescribed paces as to not push beyond my limits. I've had the opportunity to use the garmin a few times now, it appears to be an ideal tool for this.

I will have 2 key bike workouts also. I will have a long ride which will be at prescribed wattages based on my FTP. And I will maintain at least one interval ride per week. My biggest concern here is ensuring my rides outside are quality. I may need to start my rides away from my house. Unfortunately there are a lot of stop signs and higher traffic areas before I get to a good place to ride. This makes it challenging to hold any pace for more than 5 minutes or so. This is typically an issue during the week. Once I get my powermeter outside I'll have to look at the power results and what I can maintain.
My interval ride will almost always be indoors. This will be during the week. So that only leaves a couple rides to worry about. If one of those rides is recovery...it won't matter. that leaves one ride during the week I need to find an alternative for. perhaps a group ride will be in order.

So here is what I am thinking:

Sunday
-Long Ride - Time varies 2:00-4:00
-Recovery Run - :30

Monday
-Swim - :45
-Medium Run - 1:00

Tuesday
-Recovery Run - :30
-Interval Ride - 1:30
(Some days the run will be in the morning, others it will follow the ride)

Wednesday
-Swim - :45
-Recovery Run - :30

Thursday
-Long Run - 1:30

Friday
-Swim - :45
-Moderate ride - 1:30-2:00

Saturday
-Swim - 1:30 Masters class
-Recovery Run - :30

To some this will still look like 14 workouts. But I will remove some workouts during different weeks. The recovery ride on Wednesday is somewhat optional. The saturday Swim is also somewhat optional as it is the masters swim class. I may replace it with a ride occassionally. It will depend on my focus for that week.

For some reason I really feel attached to running 6 days per week. Even if the runs are short runs, I feel like that frequency has really helped me. Perhaps I will remove a run completely in the future, but I'd like to try this first as running is still my weakest even. Although...if I can run a 40-42min 10k in a race, it may not be that weak any more.

So anyway, that is my current plan. The main thing I have to focus on now is to focus on the purpose of my workouts instead of burning calories. I am at 200lbs and the remaining 5-10 will fall off naturally if I simply watch my diet. But if I want to improve AND recover properly I need to listen to my body and rest where appropriate.
That means focusing on my 2 key runs and my 2 key bike rides.
Frankly I am not worried about my swim. I've bumped my yardage over the last two weeks and am already as fast, if not faster than I was at the end of last season. The shoulder feels good so long as I stretch it out and ice it properly.

Being that this is a rest week, it is also time to do some baseline testing.
Saturday was a pretty tough day with a 60min run and a 90min swim. Sunday we had plans so I rode inside for 45 minutes and ran for 30 minutes.
Yesterday I swam a little bit and took the afternoon off.
My plan for today is to do my FTP test with both the computrainer and quarq. But we'll see how I feel. I really beat myself up the last several weeks and my legs still feel a bit worn down. I'm not sure if that's my imagination or if I need a little more rest. We'll see how I am doing once I hop on the bike.
If I feel good and complete the test today I plan to do my swim threshold testing tomorrow morning and then do the run test on Thursday or Saturday.
I have really dialed it back this week and plan to train 8 hours or possibly even less. I want to make sure I am ready for the push to the season.
If the bike isn't showing me the love I plan to take my road bike outside. I have the garmin and would like to see how the course looks on the maps.
if that happens my first test will be the swim test tomorrow. I'll probably to my bike test tomrrow or Thursday and then the run test on saturday.

I really want to do the run test on a track. We'll see if I can get into Hart park on a Saturday at 6:45-7am or so. If not, I'll find a reasonably flat area around here. I am going to try to keep it flat in order to get my pacing steadier for the entire duration.

I am really hoping to hit about 1:10 for the swim test. 10x100's with 10s rest.
I'd like to bump my FTP to a solid 320. I'm not sure this will happen as I have not put in as much hard riding as I did over the winter. And Ideally for a flat run I'd like to be well under 7min/mile. possibly 6:45's or under. If my legs are rested and am on a track, I think I can do that. We'll see.