critical volume

If you look at my training log this week you will find it to be very light. I mean very light. This has been due to a number of factors including:

1) schedule at home and work has been tough. Alex had a scout outing where he paraded on field before the Brewer Game Mon night; Alex had baseball Tues night and I was head coach (normal coach on vacation), Becky had dinner with friends Weds night etc etc.
2) I have been a little run down and burned out this week; combination of lots of training last weekend and crazy personal and business life. Also, I am not getting the sleep and nutrition I need.
3) I am taking it easy in preparation for the next 9 days.

There is a great article re: one man's philosophy for reaching your potential at IM distance traithlons. You can find it at www.qt2systems.com under the training concepts area titled "critical volume". It sets forth what this guy believes is a training week that needs to be achieved once during the build phase in order to race to your potential. His example includes some big numbers:
1) 12,660 yards of swimming
2) 450 miles of biking
3) 60 miles of running
All in one week time.

The next 9 days (sat-sun the 29th) will be my critical volume time. I will put in more training (hopefully) than any other 9 day period of my life. I don't expect to reach his numbers but I will/should get close with all/some. And I will take 2 extra days to do it.

This may not be the brightest thing in the world to do and I will evaluate it and change as I go through. But the timing is right for some big training both because of where I am in the schedule (this gives me a chance to back off for a week after to absorb the training and still have a couple more strong weeks before taper) and because my circumstances dictate it. Becky and the kids will be gone most of Sun and all next Tues (up to Oshkosh Sun and camping Tues) so out of the 9 days (I am taking off work Tues) I have 5 that have some large chunks of time.

The risk of injury/burnout or illness is high here so I have to be careful. Again, some would suggest big training block like this are not necessary and/or should be avoided. I mostly agree but need to try this one time to see what it does for/to me.

Lots of sleep, good nutrition and down time will be necessary. I plan to do a small number (3-4) of long swims, and good number of mostly long rides and a high number of very short runs (risk of injury is greatest here and I need to minimize this risk and re-evaluate after each short run).

I don't have specific mileage goals especially for the run. 60 miles is way too much. But I am going to push a little farther than usual and see what happens. All this will be done at very easy efforts.

Stay tuned......