posted by Lee@Tri*Inspired*Life on Ironman

In a nutshell, this was a fairly tough week…probably more mentally than anything else. I was battling getting enough sleep and some late nights at the pool (therefore getting home late) due to long planned swims coupled with fighting traffic to make it to the pool after work. I did have a couple of highlights that made me smile including my Tuesday morning run and my Thursday evening bike trainer session.

Monday 5/12

AM – 60 minutes on the bike trainer –The main set of the trainer session was 3×10 minutes at lactate threshold with alternating cadences every one minute. Heart rate did not go super high, but it was still a challenge. Really, nothing is easy with this training!

Tuesday 5/13

AM – 75 minute steady run – This was my earliest alarm so far for training. It went off at 4:45am and I knew I had a long run in front of me. No need to dabble…the only way it was going away was to knock it out!! The plan was a 75-minute steady run on the treadmill. After a thorough warm-up I was at it. SURPRISINGLY, I felt good, despite the severe darkness that still remained out the window. After about 30 minutes in, I adjusted the speed by .1 every now and again and would leave it at the higher setting for one song. Then I would adjust it back down. I did this back and forth several times and then for the last couple of miles, I felt I had enough left in the tank to keep the higher pace. The gradual increases continue to help me get stronger and have a direct impact on my long runs. I finished the 75 minutes with 9.15 miles.

PM – 3100-yard Swim – This was a mix of easy/moderate/fast sets using varying distances. If felt fair starting out. I was a little concerned that my super early session would impact this late swim. My breathing felt a bit shallow for the first part of the workout.   This is something that I used to feel very often, but as I have spent more and more time in the pool, it has become rare. The couple of things that did stand out to me is that I had a 3×200 set with efforts of easy/moderate/fast. So essentially the first interval is slow and the last is fast. In the past, I have not had an appropriate differential between the varying efforts…sure some, but not what one would expect. This was a good gauge and I felt that I had improved in this area. I focused on keeping the slow effort in check and not gradually speeding up and pushed to try to maintain the fast where I could. The last set was 6×100 building speed over the 100. I would swim the first 25 at a slow effort the middle 50 moderate and the last 25 fast. I basically hit the same times for all 6 100s. I was running out of steam, but I had just enough to finish up consistently!

Wednesday 5/14

PM – 3700-yard Swim – This was another long day in the pool. I had a main set of 4×750 with 1 minute rest between sets. These are tough after a full day to get motivated about. I just have to take the mindset and “just go and get it knocked out”! I can’t focus on how long I will be in the pool…just do it! I felt ok, but my times were not quite where I want them. I was able to get through the main set of 3,000 yards with my average pace holding at 1:58 per 100 yards.

Thursday 5/15

AM – Speed work on the treadmill – So my speed workouts have changed again a bit more. The intervals for last couple of sessions were 10 minutes and had worked up from two sets to three. This change was to 15 minute intervals. I had to run two this times and they were tough! The total time was still 30 minutes, but holding that pace for 15 minutes at a time was a real challenge. I ran my way through it and was able to keep my average pace about the same as 7:30.

PM – 2 hours on the bike trainer – I had planned to join an outdoor group ride from a local tri store, but Mother Nature did not cooperate. We ended up having some where around 3-4 inches of rain, so time on the trainer it was! Once again, I opted to ride the Have Mercy Spinervals DVD. As I described a few weeks ago, this session really gives you a big bang for your buck. Going into the workout, I was dragging a bit. I was not looking forward to spending two hours on the trainer. I was bummed that the weather forced a change of plans.   However, I got going, I pushed through really well and was very pleased with my effort! I was excited that my total average watts increased 22 points from the previous time I performed this workout. I think the change is a combination of me getting stronger, but also some recent fit changes made to my bike. My range of motion of the pedal stroke has increased slightly, which seems to allow me to push more power.

Friday – Rest Day!!

Saturday 5/17

2 hours on the bike followed by 50 minute run

Tony and I rode out from our house a bit after 7:30am. It was rather chilly as I needed the arm warmers. We chose one of our frequent routes. I was feeling fine but it was obvious that my legs were feeling the some left over effects from my trainer session Thursday. It seemed that when I hit the hills, I did not have the normal power in my legs. The wind was a bit unkind as well. We had a total of 35 miles at 17.6 mph.

50 minute run – Solo run in my/surrounding neighborhoods. Still my legs were not hitting really hard, so this was not a very fun run. Unfortunately, I had to walk a couple of the hills and I only allowed myself to do so for a short time. My approach is always to stop my Garmin when I walk because when I go out for a timed run, I am supposed to run a certain amount of time. Where walking may have to happen, I still feel I need to run the set amount of time. I ran 5.71 miles at 8:46 avg pace.

Sunday 5/18

Open Water Swim – I met the same couple of friends from last weekend, but they brought a few others. There were a total of six of us swimming! The day was a bit cooler and overcast as compared to the prior Sunday. Even though the water temperature was reading as being warmer, I thought it was MUCH chillier (in my wetsuit)!!! It took a bit for me to warm up and my breaths felt shallow at first. After the first 300-400 meters, I fell into my pace and my breathing was normal. The group re-grouped twice, generally for safety, but other than that, I was feeling strong and I was really concentrating on my stroke with high elbows and long reaches. I really felt good during this swim. We had some current head on and we swam back to shore, but nothing too bad. All in all, no complaints on this OWS…other than the chilly water! I finished up with 1.39 miles in 47:06.

Bike Hill Repeats

After the swim, I met Tony to do hill repeats on Raven Ridge Road. This was not necessarily a big hill, but we knew this stretch of road had some challenge to it with some gradual climbs. The “downhill” section actually had a slight gradual climb as well, so it was not pure recovery. The “climb” section was right around 3 miles and the time of five repeats ranged from 10:36 – 11:04. I was definitely struggling with this workout. I was fighting fatigue in the legs and just not really wanting to be on the bike. I made it through and completed all five repeats with a total of 31.93 miles in 1 hour 52 minutes and average pace of 17 mph.

Totals:

Time: 13 hours 44 minutes

Swim: 9,246 yards

Bike: 104 miles

Run: 21.13 miles

Stretching/foam rolling: Getting in a little more…

Tags: Ironman, Training