Going with the cliche title: The road to Ironman begins - IMMT training week 1

Happy New Year!

To be honest, I'm not even sure how many weeks there are right now until Ironman Mont Tremblant, since I have yet to really work on my official training plan. So unlike me, really! But that's one of my goals for this week - get something down on paper so I can figure out which Trainerroad plans I'll be using and when I officially need to get started on them.

Until then, I'll basically be maintaining what I've been doing through November/December. Getting in 2-3 swims, 3-4 bikes, and 4-5 runs each week. Keeping the runs easy, the biking fun, with a loose goal of swimming at least 6000m each week, a long ride of at least 2 1/2 hours (adding on from watever I did the previous week), and a long run of 16-21 km.

So how did week 1 go?

Monday
Swim: 3000m
StrongLifts A

-17 means waiting for the windshield to de-frost before going anywhere.

My gym opened at 8 so I was up early-ish to get in a long swim. Might as well get the year started on the right foot (stroke?). Of course, that was after an inordinately long wait for the inside of my windshield to defrost. Which I will have to remember to take into account for early morning swims while it's still so cold out!

Oh just equalling my longest swim from last year on January 1st, no big deal.

I also did StrongLifts day A, which was good. I need to put together a full body strength program, I think - I can usually get in 2 days a week, but Stronglifts really needs 3 and I just don't have that kind of time. I need a full body routine I can do in a half hour or so if I'm going to keep up with the strength work. And I need to, since weightlifting seems to have been really beneficial for my bad shoulder and cranky back.

adding weights for rows. Not ideal to do right after a 3000m swim...

Then in the afternoon it was marginally less freezing so I talked myself out for a run, using my usual 'just go for 2.5k and if you are hating it you can turn back and then at least you've run 5k' method. (I never end up turning back, because I generally start enjoying myself too much to turn around).

The running on snow pack kind of blows, but hey, sunshine! I'll take it.

Tuesday
Zwift, 35.5km

Nothing fancy, just committed to an hour cycling around Zwift with no real plan but to get the heart rate up. I had some moderate DOMS from lifting weights on Monday so was in no mood to do much more than try and flush out the muscles. (and on the plus side, the DOMS showed I hit all the right muscle groups, so yay?)

Wednesday
Swim - 2600m

Not sure what was going on here but it's marginally more fun than the usual 'swimming towards the camera doing front crawl' shot.

Swimming at 5:30 am means having the pool to myself (until 6:15 or so, when a couple of other people showed up), and trying to trick my brain into thinking I was still laying in bed sleeping. It sort of worked. This was a strength workout - lots of pulling, some work with paddles - and left me with pretty sore lats!

Run - 8k

My plan for this picture failed, but at least we got this solid shot! Unlike my phone, the GoPro seems to be able to handle taking short videos in the cold.

Met up with Christina for a lunch run at work (can I say how awesome it is she got a job on campus and can be my lunch run buddy?! so awesome!). Totally overdressed because there was hardly any wind, but a solid 8k towards the current Lululemon challenge, which I am doing because last year they gave us t-shirts and shorts for completing the challenge and the shorts are freaking awesome. I want another pair!

Unfortunately the pace was a little fast for me and ye old sciatica was twinging Wednesday night. After a lengthy session with the foam roller and my Mr. Spiky Ball 'O Pain, I got it to go away, but it was a good reminder to be careful.

Thursday

Run - 9k

Wait, I have to do how many km to complete this challenge? And Monday's run didn't count? Damn it.

Working at home, so I had time for a run in the mid-morning, plus the heavily discounted trail shoes I ordered from MEC arrived and I wanted to give them a whirl to see how they'd feel on the snow packed sidewalks. They were fantastic - much better traction than my standard runners. The wind was from an odd direction (North, unusual here), but that made it easier to minimize my time running into the wind, so even though it was chilly it really wasn't that bad. I think I'm starting to remember the lessons I learned during the winters of permanent polar vortexes re: how to dress for nasty low temps and bad windchills (essentially, layers you can pull on and off your face and head, and minimize time running into the wind as much as possible).

Zwift - 31.8km

Ride on!

Just spinning the legs out. Not much exciting to say about this one.

Friday
Swim - 2100m

My choice of lanes because no one else is dumb enough to show up at 5:30 am

Getting into the 'swim' of things (I am HILARIOUS) with the early morning swimming. My garmin was uncooperative and stopped recording laps 500m in, which was super frustrating (fingers crossed it's one of those weird one off tech things and not the watch dying...). The swim part was pleasant enough. If I have to get in a workout at 5:30 in the morning, swimming really is my favourite, at least until we get back to being able to watch the sunrise on early morning runs.

Saturday
Zwift - 110km

I knew if I mentioned the 25 laps of the volcano achievement to Zindine he'd be totally into doing it. Which unfortunately meant I was committed to finishing the whole damn thing! Started to get uncomfortable about 2 and a half hours in, but pushed through and finished it off. Welcome to Ironman training.

Run - 8k

The GoPro stayed alive for a solid minute before the battery succumbed to the cold

After lying down for about 2 hours and eating some snacks, I bundled up and headed out for a run (will they let me do that at the Ironman? an hour nap between sports would be grrrrrreat). Run felt good, since fortunately there was barely any wind so no real windchill factor added on to the air temp of -12.

Sunday
Run - 20.18 km

So many layers to manage the temperatures.

Waited until later in the morning to run since it was supposed to be warmer, which I think was a filthy lie because the wind was nasty. I ran straight into it for 5k, thinking I'd turn around, but then my path turned and it became more of a cross wind so I stuck it out. And then the last 5k back to the car felt like I had wings, the tailwind was so amazing! Gotta love that!

Weights

LET'S DEADLIFT!

Did a full body routine which has left me with major DOMS today. At least I know it's working? And I think the full body will work better for me so that I'm at least hitting all the major muscle groups even the weeks I can only manage to strength train once a week.

Totals:
Swim - 7700m
Bike: 178km
Run - 53.68 km

Pretty solid place to start! Aiming to more or less do the same thing again this week. A little more challenging with it being a full five day work week, so we'll see how it goes.