Ironman training week 4

Last week before starting on my Trainerroad plan! And the big question going into the week was, will I get the flu?

Fortunately, other than feeling a bit headache-y and under the weather on Monday evening, nothing came of it and I made it through the week fine. My poor husband had to stay in bed for a few days, but fortunately the kids didn't catch it. So really that particular round of the flu went about as well as we could have hoped.

Very solid week of training. Short a swim again, but I did get in one 3,000m one, so I'm calling that good.

Monday: REST! So good.

Tuesday: 8k lunch run; 50k Zwift in the evening

I am off centre. All this time and I still can't #selfie right.

Not a whole lot interesting to say about those. I skipped getting up early to swim in case I was getting sick (figured the extra sleep would be more beneficial). Running was good. Cycling was good. Everything is feeling good.

Wednesday: 9k lunch run; evening weights

Judge all action shots by the quality of the ponytail action

Now THIS was a run. Felt amazing. Just one of those days where the temperature was perfect, I was feeling good, and if it hadn't been for the whole having to go back to work thing, I felt like I could have run all afternoon.

I can neither confirm nor deny that I'm wearing compression socks so that I don't have to shave my legs.

Went to the gym to lift weights, which was thoroughly enjoyable. I had really forgotten just how satisfying it is to pick up heavy shit. Plus, good for the bones and all.

Thursday: Swim 2200m; Zwift 42k

I just like how my back looks here. Pure vanity. hey all those rows and shoulder presses have to be good for something, right?

Off to the pool in the morning, where I met another member of my gym who is also training for Tremblant! Hopefully we will bump into each other again, since we both plan to swim early Thursday mornings. As much as it's pretty sweet to have the pool to myself, it's always nice to know that someone else will be there and will be quietly judging you if you don't show up...

In the evening, another round on Zwift. Nothing fancy. Kind of looking forward to the structured training starting this week, although I am NOT looking forward to the FTP test. Not even a little.

Friday: 8k lunch run; 3000m swim

Another beautiful day. Let's not discuss that Weather Network article about the deep freeze coming back in February. I'm just going to be here enjoying sunshine and reasonable temperatures and being completely in denial about winter continuing on for another month...

Swim in the evening, because that's a fantastic Friday night. No really, it kind of is. Somehow I managed to pick the exact same workout I did the last time I swam 3,000m, with all kinds of distance per stroke work, but that worked out nicely. That drill is really helpful. And some hypoxic drills, which I guess are fun in their own vaguely cruel way.

Saturday: 72k Zwift; 9k run; weights

Up early for 2:15 on Zwift, as one does. Almost done watching Black Mirror, so I need to download more movies for next weekend's long ride. Not super impressed with this season, though. Show seems to have kind of lost its mojo a bit.

Then a delayed brick run while the kiddo was at her basketball skills session. There was a tiny bit of wind.

HA.

The wind was insane. I was able to route things to stay out of it much of the time, but the final km straight into the worst of it was not particularly fun.

Weightlifting later in the afternoon, however, was super fun.

Deadlifting my bodyweight for 2x5? Nice.

In addition to PRing my deadlift, I had wanted to start working on pullups. But when I got to the weight room the gravitron machine was missing. So no way to do assisted pull ups. I figured I'd use the bar on the Smith machine to do some negative reps (jump up to the top, slowly lower down), but then I shocked the hell out of myself by actually pulling off a real pull off! I haven't been able to do those for years! I guess all those barbell rows over the last few months are working.

chin is above the bar! woo! (narrow grip, obviously - never in my life have I been able to do wide grip pull ups)

I can only do one at a time, but I'll take that over 0. I ended up doing about 8 singles scattered around my workout, so I'm going to keep working those in and hopefully rebuild back to being able to do actual sets of 5-8 of them.

(killer upper back DOMS from those Sunday afternoon, though. whoa.)

Sunday: 20k long run

This was a bit lonely (there were hardly even any other runners around, probably because of the Robbie Burns run), but OMG that sunrise made it all worthwhile.

Plus, I did the whole 20k with an average heart rate of 144 bpm, which is crazy low for me. Things are really coming together nicely.

(could have gone to swim later in the day on Sunday, but did not. Oh well.)

This week, starting on the Trainerroad Ironman plan. Technically I'm starting a week earlier than I need to, but that's a deliberate choice to give me a spare week to play with in the schedule, just in case. And I signed up for the Chilly half, which I have no intention of running particularly hard, but it'll be a good chance to see my running friends and provides a nice bit of motivation to keep up the distance on the long runs.