Muskoka 70.3 base build week 6

In case you missed it, I was featured by Triathlon Canada magazine this week! Big thanks to Coach Nancy from the Iron Canucks for suggesting me. As I've said before, it feels strange to be singled out like this when I derive so much inspiration and motivation from other runners and triathletes! But holy cow, how neat to be in a national publication like that. It all happened really fast, too, less than a week from being asked to do it to showing up on the website. Still kind of hard to believe it really happened!

But enough about my new star status (autographs available on request, hahaha). So, how was the week? Building up to the peak week of the plan, so although the hours cut back a bit the intensity was pretty high.

Monday: rest
Tuesday: 2100m swim*; TR 1 hour
Wednesday: 8k interval run (400m sprints)
Thursday: 9k lunch run; TR 1:30; 2000m swim*
Friday: TR 1:30
Saturday: 28k long run; 2000m swim
Sunday: TR 1:30; 6k brick run

*no, I didn't suddenly get fast enough to fit in 2000m on weekday mornings. Tuesday my husband was at home so I didn't have to rush home on a deadline. Thursday I swam at night.

What, is 13 hours a week of training weird? Oh, it is. Well then.

One of the things I like about Trainerroad is you really get to know what different effort levels feel like, physically. If you really want to understand the difference between an aerobic effort and an anaerobic effort, there's nothing better than experiencing them firsthand. For example, my Tuesday workouts right now feature 20 second all out sprints. It's fascinating to observe how the body reacts to that sort of things.

Little pointy painful bits

The first 10 seconds is great. The power number shoots up and it's like, I AM AWESOME.

Then the next 5 seconds time starts to slow down. And the realization that this is a really bad idea hits.

And then the last 5 seconds (as you can't pull in enough air and your heart rate is spiking through the roof) are basically a complete trainwreck.

It's so much fun, really!

Really, Trainerroad is awesome. Can't you tell?

Thursday at lunch I decided to do my 'easy' run up the escarpment. It was a beautiful day and I wanted to take some pics of Hamilton. Of course, going up the escarpment kind of turned my easy run into a not so easy run - it's inevitable with that elevation gain. Which proved to be a mistake later on, since it left my legs feeling pretty heavy going into the Thursday/Friday/Saturday bike/run combo of DOOM. Two tough Trainerroad workouts and a ridiculously long run. Note to self: don't make this harder than it needs to be!

Not frozen anymore. That's probably not a good thing in February...

The view was worth it!

I was especially worried about Saturday's long run, since my legs were pretty tired before I even started. But, I managed it pretty well! Really, it felt better than I had any right to expect.

Started that run kind of stupidly early...

Finished it in daylight with my girls. Probably the run felt good because of the awesome company. Long runs are so much better with friends! Thanks Ivanka and Sam!

Sunday I did my trainer workout and really wasn't sure I was going to follow up with the usual brick run. My legs were pretty much DOA by that point of the week. But my heartrate was in a good spot on the bike, and by the end I felt pretty decent, so I went out for an easy 6k - and I was glad I did. It wasn't the best feeling run, but I think it helped loosen everything up a bit. And then I felt totally justified spending the rest of the day baking and eating.

Sunday afternoon tea & chocolate chip cookies = so happy.

My husband also did a 30k run over the weekend, so Sunday called for a lot of cooking. Enchiladas with an obscene amount of cheese in them and refried beans, yum.

I'm happy with the week. Today I feel really good, and my resting heart rate is in the usual zone, so I don't think it was too much. But I'm a little nervous about week 7. The bike is pretty intense, there are plans for a stupidly long run on Saturday, the weather forecast is looking ugly, and there's some family/life stuff going on that is messing up my usual schedule. It's going to be an adventure, that's for sure.

Very tentative schedule:

Monday: rest
Tuesday: swim, EZ run
Wednesday: TR
Thursday: swim, EZ run, TR
Friday:TR
Saturday: longass run, swim?
Sunday: TR + brick run

I'm not specifying which Trainerroad workouts I'm doing this week. That's because at this point I have no idea. The scheduled week 7 workouts are likely going to be too much in combination with the run planned for Saturday, and I'm still debating what I'm going to do about it. Shorten up the run? An easy 20k would perhaps be a better idea, especially with the awful looking weather forecast. Sub in an easier week from earlier in the plan and do week 7 next week? Drop the Friday workout altogether and take that as a pre-run rest day? I'm not sure yet. Whatever I end up doing, it'll be fun times, though.