posted by Lee@Tri*Inspired*Life on Ironman

So, training week #13 marks the first week into the second half of my training plan. It was an exciting week as I hit a couple of milestones!!

Monday 5/5

AM – 54 minutes on the treadmill with the main set focused on speed work – Yikes! This sure was a way to get the training week going. This was a tough, tough interval run with 3×10 minutes on the treadmill with 2 minutes rest between intervals. I have gradually worked up to this quicker pace the last couple of speed work sessions, but this one really had me focusing hard to finish. Last week I did a 2×10 at this speed, so that extra 10 minutes really was a challenge. I pushed through and was happy to finish it up! The main set totaled 4.4 miles with the speed sets averaging 7:32.

Tuesday 5/6

AM – 75 minutes on the bike trainer – 6×5 minute intervals using a big gear and low cadence. There is plenty of rest between intervals (5 minutes). Felt pretty good during the workout.

PM – 2500-yard swim with speed focus on the main set – I felt good early on and did fatigue at the end, but I was able to push pretty consistently throughout the workout. I was pleased with my overall average pace of 1:47 for the 1800 yards main working set.

Wednesday 5/7

PM – Long Run – I will start this run recap with a little bit of history. For a while, I have had the goal to run a half marathon distance at sub 2-hours. I have only run this 13.1 mile distance a hand full of times…twice in Half Ironman races and a few times in training leading up to those races. I thought maybe one day I would train for a half marathon race (just the run) and work toward that goal. Going into today, my plan was a 2 hour long run. My last long run was 1 hour 50 minutes and I ran a pace that would meet this goal…however, that day I was able to put out a really great run. I was not putting pressure on myself for this run to meet that goal. All I could focus on going in was just having another good training run and overcoming whatever obstacles came my way.

Tony and I went to the typical greenway we have used for all the long runs. We got going and pretty quickly I realized that I didn’t have a lot of pep in my step. I thought to myself that I don’t need to worry…I just need to get really warmed up before I fall into my groove. After a couple/few miles in, I really did not feel too energetic. I was not necessarily feeling bad; my legs were just super heavy. I mentioned this to Tony and he did what he always does…put things in check and told me things to focus on, such as my breathing. Even if he is not feeling great, he just tries to respond to how I am feeling with sound advice. All I could do was just stay focused and not really worry about time or speed, just trying to fall into a pace that I could maintain for the long haul. We got to our first turn around at 4.5 miles and I was feeling a (tiny) touch better. I just had to maintain what I was doing and keep moving. At around the 9 mile mark, we passed the point where we started our run on the greenway. We then continued on in the south bound direction (we started out going north). We only needed a couple miles out and then a couple miles back. These are the miles where I had to dig deep and keep my mental game in place, as much as possible. As we neared the time of our run where we are around 2 miles to go, Tony mentioned that we would have to pick up our pace a bit to hit 13.1 under 2 hours. Sure, I wanted it, but I told him that I could only really focus on finishing. Well, apparently, I had another gear down deep and gradually ramped it up. My fastest mile of the entire run was mile 12. We stopped at 13.1 miles and the total time was 1:59.32. I did it! Somehow, I did it. It was a great feeling, but ouch!!!…my legs were burning! It was great to reach this milestone and somehow even sweeter considering how I up and down I felt during the run. I was proud of myself for staying strong and pushing through this run. Even if I had not hit the 13.1 miles in the time, I would have still been pleased for getting it done, but this was extra sweet!!

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	1:59:31.6	13.11	9:07
1	9:30.8	1.00	9:31
2	9:10.8	1.00	9:11
3	9:10.7	1.00	9:11
4	9:08.2	1.00	9:08
5	9:18.2	1.00	9:18
6	9:07.4	1.00	9:07
7	8:57.7	1.00	8:58
8	9:00.0	1.00	9:00
9	9:00.5	1.00	9:01
10	9:05.3	1.00	9:05
11	9:16.5	1.00	9:16
12	9:03.5	1.00	9:04
13	8:46.9	1.00	8:47
14	:54.8	0.11	8:37

 

Thursday 5/8

AM – 50 minutes on the bike trainer – As would be expected, my legs were pretty tired on Thursday morning. The main set of the trainer session was 2×10 minutes at lactate threshold with alternating cadences every one minute. Heart rate did not go super high, but it was still a challenge. It is always hard to train after a long run, but I tell myself that it really does help my legs recover.

PM – 2500-yard swim – It is always exciting to start the last workout before the rest day. It gives me a little extra “umph” going in…SO MUCH TO TRAINING IS A MENTAL GAME!!! This set involved several different intervals building speed. Going in I was feeling ok, but after I got really going, I realized that I was pretty tired. My swim was fair. The efforts required at “fast” pace were not where I wanted. I gave it all I could…that is all I ask of myself! I finished up with an overall average pace of 1:54 for the 1800 yards main working set, which was very different from Tuesday’s swim!!

Friday 5/9

REST DAY!!!

Saturday 5/10

The long ride was planned for 4.5 hours. I was able to find a couple of friends who were interested in riding with me for part of the time. Tim and Susanne met at my house and the three of us rolled out at 8:00 am for 2 hours. We swung back by the house for a hydration stop for me and for them to end their ride. I was so happy they were able to join me as I really enjoy riding with them both. We enjoyed a few laughs along the way…one of which was seeing a man mowing his grass by pushing a riding lawn mower. All kinds of witty comments followed that sighting!

Tony was my riding partner for the second part of the ride and he was thrilled that he had a 2.5 hour ride and not the full 4.5 hours!! I felt pretty good for the first 2 hours. I had tried to keep a check on the effort level since I had a long day in front of me. As Tony and I were headed out for part two, I was already feeling some fatigue in my legs and I could tell that mentally, I needed to check back in and pronto! After another half hour or so, I got to a better place, which I has happy about. We had some tailwinds (woo hoo!), but also some headwind and crosswinds on the way back. Luckily, nothing too bad. I was trying to stay on top of my nutrition and hydration and I still have some work to do in this area. This ride topped of at 81 miles, which is my longest ride ever. I was glad to get off the bike, but also glad to meet the milestone…it just reminds me how REAL all this training is!

Sunday 5/11

I ventured out for my first open water swim of the season. The water temperature has been slowly on the rise and this was the first weekend that it was in the range that is not “too cold” in my book (I think it was around 70 degrees). A wet suit was necessary and will be for several more weeks. However, I anticipate that Lake Placid will be wet suit legal, so all the practice I can get in the suit is great. I swam with two friends that are doing Escape from Alcatraz triathlon and they have already been out in the open water for several weeks. However, they are going to have a SUPER cold swim, so they needed to somewhat know what they will be experiencing on their race day. The swim went okay. I was dragging a bit during the first part (on the swim out from shore), but after we made to turn to swim across the lake, I felt good. I felt much looser which is always a good thing for me and my stroke. Going back was decent; however, it seemed like I would never make it to back to shore! I was really glad to get out for my first OWS of the season. I will need to spend lots of time in Falls Lake to work on my sighting and consistency swimming in the lake. It is so different from the pool and I have always tried to appropriately prepare for my races by training in open water. This race will require A LOT! I ended up with 1.44 miles in 50:30.

After the swim, I headed home and had a snack. A bit later, I ventured out into the neighborhood for hill repeats. It was 12:45 when I went out, so it was warming up pretty good. After the (flat) warm-up I started my repeats. I ran 8 repeats of around 2 minutes (up) in duration. Even though the total run time was not too long, I certainly was hydrating well. This is probably the warmest day I have run so wanted to take appropriate precautions….plus I was thirsty after reaching the top each time! I was super happy to be done, get showered and cleaned up to go spend Mother’s Day with my family!

Some things that made me smile about my week:

*This will be a week that I will always remember. Breaking the 2-hour mark for a half marathon was a big deal for me. (I still remember the first time I ran 13.1 miles in 2012…it was not in a race, but training for my first half iron). It is training sessions like those where I am so incredibly grateful to have Tony by my side to experience the excitement of meeting a milestone. He logged every mile with me and was right there with I checked the Garmin and had a huge smile on my face when I saw my time! I am a lucky girl!

*A new distance milestone on my bike. I will be breaking numerous milestones over the coming weeks so this first one is a true reminder that I am really going down the Ironman path!! WOW!!

Totals:

Time: 13 hours 30 minutes

Swim: 7,534 yards

Bike: 105 miles

Run: 22.5 miles

Stretching/foam rolling: Some, but not enough!

 

 

Tags: Ironman, Training