Monday April 9 to Sunday April 15

Monday:

CT: 
15 minute warmup, 5 min: 30 sec hard, 30 sec easy; 10 minutes of single leg training; 5 min build to zone 4, 5 minutes zone 2-3; 30 minutes build to zone 4 and hold; 5 min ez spin; 4 minutes single leg training;
Felt well-rested, strong; average 204 watts for overall workout and maintain about 250 watts for 30 minute main set.
Took MAP before training; that might have helped, but probably being rested helped the most;

Time:  one hour 25 minutes;  total miles:  26; 

Run:  Easy effort;  4.34 miles;  41 minutes;  9:32 pace;

Tuesday:

Master Swim:  9 50s - with paddle and buoys, with paddles, without; Main set: 300, 2 x150, 3 x100, 6 x 50; 4 x 50; total yards: 1850 plus warmup and cooldown;   2000 yards;  60 minutes;

Wednesday:

CT:  Same workout as Monday; took it slightly easier and averaged 194 watts on main set; different course;
 1 hour 25 minutes;   27 miles;

Run:  My left hamstring tightened a little after 2 minute effort so I took it easier on the "hard" segments;
5.05 miles;  50 minutes;  9:52 pace;

Thursday:

Swim:  warmup: 200 yards; 800, 4x200 with 100 smooth, 50 pull 50 fast, 8 x100 descending 1-4 and 5-8; times: 2:05, 2:01, 1:58, 1:55; 2:01, 1:58, 1:50, 1:45; total yards: 2600;
Things I try to think about when swimming: Keeping glide arm long and not returning too quickly; trying to keep it light; trying to keep head down; when I get in a rhythm, it doesn't seem like I am kicking very much; sort of 1,2...3; I think I sort of pause as I glide;

total time:  60 minutes;

Friday: 

Long run:  14.07 miles;  2 hour 9 minutes; 9:10 pace;
Same course as last Friday, but added an extra mile loop for warmup;

Saturday:

Outdoors ride in Madison:

It was a challenging ride. My objective was to not run of out energy and ended up dragging to the finish line. More or less achieved that. The second to last hill, really kicked my ass. I was spent by the time I hit the top. And slipped to the back of our foursome.
It was a good group for me to ride with. It is interesting to see how on many of the hills I would power past the girls early on the effort - mostly because I feel like I had to hit the hill going faster than they do - I can't crawl like they do - but by the peak they were sometimes passing me.
Amy who doesn't put out great wattage (at least not on the CT) is very efficient. She stays in aero and maintains a steady pace and in the end while she was still strong.

As I assess my riding - I am clearly the least efficient and least skilled of the group. In Ct all my effort goes into the "perfromance" but in a real ride I'm losing ground through lack of biking skill (or confidence). For instance every time we stop and then start I'm slow out of the gate, getting clicked in and back on the road. That hasn't really hurt me in the race mode since pretty much I only have do it once.
I feel pretty good about the hills in general. I shifted into the small front ring before I hit the hill and I tried to hit it going as fast as I could. I then shifted through the gears until I ran out.
It seemed like usually about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way to the top I would stand up - I found that more comfortable than sitting. Nobody else in the group did that, and they all did fine on the hills, so I could probably use some tutorial on how to attack the hill.

It was definitely a good workout - I can see why you wanted us to truck all the way to Madison. However I will say that it is harder for me to ride for 3 hours and then jump on a bike and ride.

Nutrition: before the ride I had carbo pro and recovite and a peanut butter english muffin; of course that was 3 hours before we rode.

A half hour before we started I took 4 MAPs. At the stop between the first and second loop I took 4 more. I think they definitely make a difference.

On the ride I consume about 50 oz. of gator-carbo pro (diluted by 50% water) that should have come out to about 600 calories; maybe a little more; I had 2 cliff bars - 400 cals. and 2 cliff shots - 66 cals. At the break I also had one of those chocolate bars that you provided - probably 200 calories?

 Total cals: 1266; we were riding for about 5.5 hrs so at 300 calories per hour that would be about 1650 calories. Did I get enough?

I was getting really sick of the sweet gatorade. Maybe if I cut it with more water, just use it as carbo pro vehicle I would dislike it less?

I probably drank about 40 oz of water - but I would have consumed a lot more fluids on a hot day obvious. Is it important to have the electrolyes? Or given my high sweat rate, does it matter?
Sunday:  off