posted by Lee@Tri*Inspired*Life on Ironman

Monday:

AM – I planned the week to not have a training session Monday morning.  The weekend was very tiring, so I thought it was a good idea to not plan a session first thing.  I think that was a good idea (at the time AND in hindsight)!

PM – 3200-yard swim – This was a true test for me as the first training session of the week.  It was the longest swim of my training plan so far, plus my last swim was a challenging session, mentally and physically.  That set was 4×10 minute steady swim and this set was 5×10 minute steady swim (with 1-minute rest intervals).  Well, I ended up being very pleased with my workout.  I was able to hold the pace for 5 sets of 500 and average less than 2:00/pace (1:59/pace woo hoo!!) for the 2500 yards.  My sets timed out at 9:56, 9:58, 10:02, 9:56, 9:57.

Tuesday:

AM – 60-minute bike trainer workout with hill repeats.  The main set included three hill repeats at 10 minutes each in length with a combination of seated and standing climbs.  This (or a variation of) has become a fairly regular workout in the plan.  It is a good one and I certainly need to work the hills frequently to prepare for the notorious hills of Lake Placid!

PM – “Steady” run on the treadmill – 45 minutes at a pace faster that target race pace, but slower than tempo.  I completed 5.32 miles at 8:28 pace.  I maintained a pace a bit faster than planned and felt good on this run.

Wednesday:

AM – 55-minutes on the bike trainer.  This is another session that has become a fairly regular workout in the plan.  It is an intense session with the focus on multiple sets of “max effort” for varying periods of time.  This is always a tiring workout, but this one seemed to leave me feeling a bit more worn out than the others.

PM – 2500-yard swim – The main set included 6×100 at moderate tempo with 15 seconds rest and 6×200 at moderate tempo with 20 seconds rest.  I was pleased with my swim and happy to maintain a 1:54 pace for the 1800 main set, with very minimal rest.  It is amazing HOW QUICKLY 15 or 20 seconds fly by!

Thursday:

AM – 30-minute run on the treadmill with the main set including tempo efforts.  These sets were short being 2x5minutes with desired pace being 1 minute per mile faster than target race pace.  This included 2 minutes easy jogging between intervals.   I averaged 8:00 pace for each of the two sets.  I felt fine during the run, but despite being a short effort, I was feeling fatigue in legs, which is certainly from the intense bike session the day before.

PM – 2800-yard swim – The main set included sets of 100/200/300/400/500 with 15 seconds rest followed by 2×300 easy/moderate/fast.  Performed all sets at “easy” effort due to feeling very tired. It ended up being a good workout though.  I was not highly concerned about time and therefore, focused a bit more on form.  I know that good form is so important and sets like this really reinforce that point!

Friday: REST DAY!!!  This was even more appreciated than normal.  Since last week’s rest day was Thursday, there was one extra day between rest days, and I could tell the difference!

Saturday: BRICK!!  For this workout, Tony joined me and we biked outside for two hours.  I really focused a lot on working my gears in the big ring and the small ring, especially on the hills.  As a result, I had a really good ride.  I maintained a strong pace on a rolling course and once again, we had windy conditions to deal with.  As soon as we got home, we changed into run gear and headed out for a 50-minute run.  Tony joined me on the run as well, and I was SOOO glad he did.  I was really dragging when we started out on the run and got a VERY short second wind about half way in and really died out at the end.  Tony did a good job of helping me through the first few miles where I was really struggling.  All in all, I was happy to maintain a pace of 9:09 for 5.46 miles.  (BIG kudos to my hubbie…yes, he bikes with me, but WHO does brick workouts when they are not really training for something specific?  Majorly supportive people do!!)

I want to share some additional results from this brick.  As I have written about before, I truly believe that nutrition is the “fourth” leg of triathlon.  A huge part of this is recovery.  However, the best plans don’t always result in actuality.  My nutrition was fine during the bike and I had enough to sustain me for the run.  I did run with my fuel belt so I could continue my hydration.  After the run, I did not really want to eat anything.  I had a little bit of chocolate milk (one of my very favorite recovery drinks) and took a bath.  By the time I finished my bath, I was feeling a little icky on my stomach.  I KNEW I had to eat, but nothing appealed to me.  I opened a diet Pepsi and had a few crackers.  I looked around the kitchen and I spotted waffle fries in the freezer, which sounded good.  While those were cooking, I ate a fun size snickers bar.  I am sharing this, because I want to be honest with my stories on the blog.  I think my body was craving sugar and salt, but these were NOT the best decisions for recovery.  I obviously won’t always make the best decisions.  It is what it is.  We DID have a great dinner that night with steak, asparagus, mushrooms and salad when we visited with friends.  That did not make up for my poor recovery, but it sure was tasty!

Sunday: 2.5 hours on the bike trainer with sessions alternating between easy spinning and target race pace.  This session WAS BRUTAL!!!  I tried to pass the time by watching several different shows from the laptop, but my legs did not have a lot of juice in them after Saturday’s brick.  Also, my poor choice for recovery may have affected how I felt.  For the target race pace sets where I really focus on watts, I was not able to maintain the averages that I was aiming for.  However, I put it all in and that’s all I can do.  I was THRILLED to get off the bike after 2.5 hours.  I had absolutely nothing left in the tank!

I know that this training will include a bunch of “firsts” for me and I have two to share that make me smile about this week’s training:

1 – 12 hours & 20 minutes of training for one week…I am certain that this is my highest volume week ever!

2 – 8,500 yards in the pool…yikes!  That equates to 4.83 miles of swimming!  That’s a lot and the highest volume for me in one training week so far!

Totals:

Time: 12 hours 20 minutes

Swim: 8,500 yards

Bike: 88.05 miles

Run: 12.24 miles

Stretching/foam rolling:  Some, but not enough!

Tags: Ironman, Training