Total Miles 151.72, Total Hours 13.39
So I had to switch weeks up to accommodate next weeks half ironman. This week was supposed to be the recovery week but instead I did the next base period's week 1. Which worked out cause next period is a 5 week time frame, so fortunately I'll only have three grueling weeks before the final recovery week. Anyway, on to this past week...So this week I had two brick workouts. One was a 2 hour bike and a 1 hour run the other was a 4 hr 20 min bike with a 30 min run. Both went well. The bike was the longest of my life and was tough, but felt good for the run, surprisingly.
My long run was over 11 miles, with the final 30 minutes at a tough pace. The swims were long, but felt nice and easy. All in all, quite a good week but very ready for my recovery week.
Still feeling excited and confident about the ironman. Everything is falling into place and I'm rearing to go, and ready for the big day to get here. I just have 3 of the toughest weeks left after next week. If i can get through october, I'm good to go... Feeling good!
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Day 121 of Ironman training, 59 days till the race
So today was brutal. Today was a 130 minute run, with 100 easy and the final 30 hard. Even the easy part wasn't all that easy. The humidity returned, though it wasn't hot, and made it a pretty tough day. My heart rate was pretty high for the whole thing, and then screaming high for the final 30. I think we did about 11.2 miles in 2 hrs 10 minutes. Pretty slow pace, but for the end. I'm still worn out from it, and I still have another workout later tonight. 2400 yard swim. Well, just thought I'd write up the run. It was a doozy.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
61 days left until Ironman
Training is really starting to just move along smoothly. As hard and long as the sessions are becoming, they're becoming easier and easier to do. Today I did a 3 hour workout which consisted of a 2 hour ride followed by a 1 hour run. The rides are getting so much better. I'm amazed at the difference in comfort level by switching shorts and getting my seat set up slightly different. I'm not experience any more major pain. The run was about as easy as you could expect a 1 hour run to be, especially following a 35 mile bike ride. Legs felt good and fresh. Almost as if I was the first workout of the day. Today was also one of the more miserable weather rides I've had so far. It wasn't terribly cold, but it did rain on me for the first hour of the bike. The roads were also wet, so it took about 10 minutes for my socks to become completely saturated and cold. It didn't stop me, or even slow me down. I just kept moving along and it didn't bother me in the least. I was SOOOO thankful to myself for remembering to bring a new pair of socks for the run. The run would've been pretty miserable had I not thought about that. So far in training I've dealt with heat, extreme humidity, rain, and cold. Nothing's stopped...thought the extreme humidity was by far, the most difficult for me to deal with. I was slow and miserable throughout the entire ordeal...but at least of all the weather elements, that is one that I know I won't have to worry about in Arizona. Maybe heat, cold, even rain, but humidity is the only one that will stop me
Monday, September 19, 2011
Week 11 wrap up
Week 11, 212 miles, 13.9 hours.
What an awesome week of training! This was my bike focused week and the one I was most dreading. Biking has not exactly been my strong suit or something I ever look forward to doing. Swimming has been my strongest sport for some time, running is something I'm finally seeing a lot of improvement in, and am feeling more and more comfortable at longer and longer distances. Cycling has been the one sport where I've been the most reluctant and worried about come race day. I haven't felt strong, I get sore easily, and haven't felt like I've seen any improvement. This week started changing my thoughts on that. The first three days were cycling with constant increases in distance. Wednesday was a tempo ride, where I maintained nearly 20 mph for 90 minutes straight, with 2 significant climbs mixed in. Saturday was another long ride, followed by an easy 30 minute run. Sunday was the monster day. It was my longest ride of my life and it felt really good, and gave me another huge jolt of encouragement. It was a 4 hour long ride and I rode 75 miles. Another discovery I made was that I was actually more comfortable in tri shorts compared to cycling specific shorts. I didn't feel the same incredible pain in my nether regions that I did with other shorts, with more padding. Still felt some obviously friction pain along the top part of the inside of my thigh, but nothing I wasn't able to tolerate.
Awesome weekend of riding and I feel a lot better about my cycling skills as a result of this week.
Normally I'd be entering my recovery week now, but because of the Half IM in two weeks I've switched weeks. So i'm going on 4 straight tough weeks now, and next week will be a recovery. At least that means that after that week I'll only have two tough weeks till the next recovery. Cycling and running are both going to really start ramping up in the coming weeks. Going to be a very tough next month. However, I have no doubts as to my ability to get through it.
What an awesome week of training! This was my bike focused week and the one I was most dreading. Biking has not exactly been my strong suit or something I ever look forward to doing. Swimming has been my strongest sport for some time, running is something I'm finally seeing a lot of improvement in, and am feeling more and more comfortable at longer and longer distances. Cycling has been the one sport where I've been the most reluctant and worried about come race day. I haven't felt strong, I get sore easily, and haven't felt like I've seen any improvement. This week started changing my thoughts on that. The first three days were cycling with constant increases in distance. Wednesday was a tempo ride, where I maintained nearly 20 mph for 90 minutes straight, with 2 significant climbs mixed in. Saturday was another long ride, followed by an easy 30 minute run. Sunday was the monster day. It was my longest ride of my life and it felt really good, and gave me another huge jolt of encouragement. It was a 4 hour long ride and I rode 75 miles. Another discovery I made was that I was actually more comfortable in tri shorts compared to cycling specific shorts. I didn't feel the same incredible pain in my nether regions that I did with other shorts, with more padding. Still felt some obviously friction pain along the top part of the inside of my thigh, but nothing I wasn't able to tolerate.
Awesome weekend of riding and I feel a lot better about my cycling skills as a result of this week.
Normally I'd be entering my recovery week now, but because of the Half IM in two weeks I've switched weeks. So i'm going on 4 straight tough weeks now, and next week will be a recovery. At least that means that after that week I'll only have two tough weeks till the next recovery. Cycling and running are both going to really start ramping up in the coming weeks. Going to be a very tough next month. However, I have no doubts as to my ability to get through it.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Week 10 wrap up
Totals: 106.3 miles, 12.4 hours.
This was the Run focused week. This week I ran 36 miles. I did a total of 106 miles, and a total of 12.4 hours. This week was far better than last and I felt great through most of my workouts. I say most because I had a pretty tough run on friday. Was very slow and sluggish, but it was the third day in a row of running. However the virtual day off on saturday, where all I did was an easy 1500 yard swim rejuvenated me. I did my first, "half marathon" distance in about a year but it was one of the easiest runs I've ever done. I felt great the whole time, even had a negative split. My HR started rising to the 170's by the end of the run but I never felt out of breath. I felt as if I easily could've gone on for a while longer. I had some really good swim sessions. I had two high intensity sessions which was the run on tuesday and the bike on friday. The run session was 90 minutes consisted of seven 10 minute repeats of 7 minute tempo sessions with 3 minute rests. The bike session was a 90 minute session with 6 repeats of 12 minute tempos with 3 minutes of RPE 3.
All in all it was a really good week of training, especially considering how rotten last week was. Next week comes the bike focused week which should be a joy. Though sunday I will perform my longest bike ride of my life. The week after was supposed to be my recovery, however because of the Half Ironman on Oct 1st, I'm switching weeks, so I'm going to be pretty beat by the time that week gets here.
This was the Run focused week. This week I ran 36 miles. I did a total of 106 miles, and a total of 12.4 hours. This week was far better than last and I felt great through most of my workouts. I say most because I had a pretty tough run on friday. Was very slow and sluggish, but it was the third day in a row of running. However the virtual day off on saturday, where all I did was an easy 1500 yard swim rejuvenated me. I did my first, "half marathon" distance in about a year but it was one of the easiest runs I've ever done. I felt great the whole time, even had a negative split. My HR started rising to the 170's by the end of the run but I never felt out of breath. I felt as if I easily could've gone on for a while longer. I had some really good swim sessions. I had two high intensity sessions which was the run on tuesday and the bike on friday. The run session was 90 minutes consisted of seven 10 minute repeats of 7 minute tempo sessions with 3 minute rests. The bike session was a 90 minute session with 6 repeats of 12 minute tempos with 3 minutes of RPE 3.
All in all it was a really good week of training, especially considering how rotten last week was. Next week comes the bike focused week which should be a joy. Though sunday I will perform my longest bike ride of my life. The week after was supposed to be my recovery, however because of the Half Ironman on Oct 1st, I'm switching weeks, so I'm going to be pretty beat by the time that week gets here.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Week 9 wrap up
Week 9 - Swim Theme week....Total hours: 6.75, Total Miles: 56
This was the first week of the sport specific weeks. This week's focus was the swim. Fortunately, the swim being my strongest event this was the one week I could afford to screw around, and boy did I ever. I missed two workouts this week...the first time all season I'd missed a single workout, and both of them were swims. My Saturday workout was by far the most challenging and it consisted of a 60 min run, 90 min bike, 30 min swim. All in that order, all back to back. Basically the equivalent of an Olympic distance triathlon. I sucked in all three. I mean, seriously sucked. Hoover would've had nothing on me. My run was absolute garbage. My bike was even more pathetic. I normally can routinely average about 18-19 mph on flat ground for 2-3 hours and I averaged a whopping 13.7. PATHETIC! My swim was hard to gauge. It came at the end of the bike and run, and it was in the ocean, which I've never done before, and hope to not have to repeat any time soon. That was REALLY tough by having nothing to site by and having waves crashing on you while trying to breath. So I won't whine too much about those.
All in all, it was an absolutely horrid week of training. I feel like it was a complete lost cause. As a result I'm going to push myself a lot harder in the coming week and probably increase some of my training day durations to make up for what I feel like was a waste of a week. Already had a couple good workouts so far this week, but I'm going to up my biking distances since that is easily my worst sport. Part of that could be due to the fact that I really think I'm riding on either the wrong saddle or an incorrectly positioned saddle. Going to mess with that a little bit before my long ride on friday. Hopefully I can fix it.
Well, that's that for week 9. What a waste.
This was the first week of the sport specific weeks. This week's focus was the swim. Fortunately, the swim being my strongest event this was the one week I could afford to screw around, and boy did I ever. I missed two workouts this week...the first time all season I'd missed a single workout, and both of them were swims. My Saturday workout was by far the most challenging and it consisted of a 60 min run, 90 min bike, 30 min swim. All in that order, all back to back. Basically the equivalent of an Olympic distance triathlon. I sucked in all three. I mean, seriously sucked. Hoover would've had nothing on me. My run was absolute garbage. My bike was even more pathetic. I normally can routinely average about 18-19 mph on flat ground for 2-3 hours and I averaged a whopping 13.7. PATHETIC! My swim was hard to gauge. It came at the end of the bike and run, and it was in the ocean, which I've never done before, and hope to not have to repeat any time soon. That was REALLY tough by having nothing to site by and having waves crashing on you while trying to breath. So I won't whine too much about those.
All in all, it was an absolutely horrid week of training. I feel like it was a complete lost cause. As a result I'm going to push myself a lot harder in the coming week and probably increase some of my training day durations to make up for what I feel like was a waste of a week. Already had a couple good workouts so far this week, but I'm going to up my biking distances since that is easily my worst sport. Part of that could be due to the fact that I really think I'm riding on either the wrong saddle or an incorrectly positioned saddle. Going to mess with that a little bit before my long ride on friday. Hopefully I can fix it.
Well, that's that for week 9. What a waste.
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