Olivia Joins the Team

Back from Albuquerque. Birthday celebrated, green chile consumed, friends dispatched back to their respective lives. Good trip.

This week was about getting back to normal — and normal, it turns out, has a new member.

Olivia came on the midweek runs this week. Rhodesian Ridgebacks were bred to hunt lions in southern Africa. They are not built for slow Zone 2 jogs with a 58-year-old anesthesiologist. And yet she was perfect. Settled right into the pace, didn't pull, seemed genuinely pleased to have a job. We've been taking her to wineries and brew pubs around Seattle this week too — she handled both with the same quiet dignity. Olivia, it turns out, is excellent company whether you're running or drinking.

She has no idea a half Ironman is involved. Probably better that way.

The week's numbers are worth sitting with for a minute. 625 TSS. 8.6 hours. Five training days. That's the biggest week of this entire rebuild by a meaningful margin — nearly double last week's output coming off the birthday trip. Saturday was the anchor session: 3.1 hours, 266 TSS, average HR 116. Controlled and sustained. The kind of long ride the schedule has been asking for.

The long ride Sunday didn't happen — some things don't, and the week was big enough that it didn't matter. The body had already done the work.

Sleep was the casualty. Monday coming back from Albuquerque was a 4.1-hour night, which showed up in Tuesday's session more as background noise than real impairment. The midweek days in Albuquerque with friends cost some sleep too — 5.7 hours Wednesday. The HRV strap wasn't happening consistently this week, so those numbers are out. The sleep data tells the recovery story honestly enough on its own.

Ten weeks of data now, and something worth noting. The TSS trend since the build began: 326, 468, 453, 406, 537, 462, 347, 108, 318, 625. The recovery week sits in there right where it should, and the bounce out of it has been real. The aerobic base that felt fragile back in early March is starting to feel like something you can actually lean on.

There's eighteen weeks to Ironman 70.3 Washington. The build is no longer theoretical.

Olivia will be running more of it with me. She doesn't know that yet either.

Onwards.

Weekly metrics: 5 training days · 8.6 hours · 625 TSS · Avg sleep 6.5 hrs · Avg HR 117 · Saturday: 266 TSS, 3.1 hrsvs. last week: 5 training days · 6.2 hours · 318 TSSTen-week TSS trend: 326 → 468 → 453 → 406 → 537 → 462 → 347 → 108 → 318 → 625