Ironman training week 19

Saw a few days ago that it's now less than a hundred days to race day, which once again was another rude shock that I'm actually planning to do this. WHAT. Well, that and the fact that I'm now into my first recovery week of the build plan, which means not that many more 4 week cycles to go through. Eep.

Fortunately, this was a really great, confidence building week. Also the most training hours I've ever done. This Ironman thing, maybe not so crazy if you train smart and build things up gradually? I'd like to think I'm being smart about this. This week suggests yes.

Swim: 7900m
Bike: 231 km (8:25)
Run: 62 km

Monday: rest

Because heading into a big week, rest is best.

Tuesday: 2500m swim; 8k run; TR - Bago

ugh it was hard to get up for this one. Main set was all 100s on short rest (15 seconds IIRC) which is always fun. Good enough.

I know they are weeds but I think dandelions are pretty.

Short easy run at lunch. Usual loop I run from home. Not exciting but gets the work done.

Dying a slow death on the trainer. Also, the theme of the day was yellow based on the pictures I took...

Then. The workout I was really, really not looking forward to. The granddaddy of VO2 workouts with 12 three minute intervals inside a 90 minute ride. And the really unpleasant surprise was the target power WENT UP with each set of intervals. Trainerroad is the worst. By which I mean the best because I know this shit works but goddamn, guys, that was a hard workout.

Wednesday: 16k run

Literally the only remotely scenic spot for the sunrise on that particular route. The bridge on the trail behind the Walmart. #classy

Oh yeah just what would for many people be their long run at 5 am on a Wednesday morning. No biggie. After the VO2s the night before I was worried this was going to be the suckiest suck that ever sucked, but once I got warmed up it felt pretty good! Even when I realized I'd miscalculated the route and would have to do some impromptu adjustments to avoid being a km short it didn't bother me.

I skipped lifting weights for a few reasons. I knew Thursday would have a big workout in the evening, and my shoulder/neck was still feeling a little off after being sore the week before after weightlifting. So it seemed prudent to skip it.

Thursday: 2700m swim; TR Gibralter + 7k brick run

Thursday triptych. Fancy words, I know 'em.

A triathlon with a really long transition between the swim and the bike that involved an 8 hour work day and cooking dinner. It's just how I roll. Swim in the morning (selfies while using the kickboard don't really work), then 1:45 tempo ride on the trainer (ugh) and a short run after that I really, really wanted to skip and make Friday Emma deal with, but Zindine messaged me that he was doing his off the bike run and I couldn't let him show me up like that. So I sucked it up and went out and ran and it was a really nice run after all the mental complaining!

Friday: TR Pettit

Friday Emma was very pleased to not have to run and basically end up with a nice active recovery day, with just an hour easy spin on the trainer to do. Should have sent Thursday Emma a thank you card for that one.

Saturday: 108k long ride; 5k recovery run

Saturday the weather was looking really iffy and I was seriously considering just doing the scheduled 4:30 ride on the trainer.

But then when I got up it was looking like very, very light rain for about the first hour and clear up after that, so I figured I'd take out the road bike over to Milgrove and ride a few loops around the less used roads there. Then if it was miserable I could come home fairly easily and finish things up on the trainer.

Still need to replace that bar tape. BAD CYCLIST.

I did get rained on briefly about an hour in, but then it cleared up and other than cold toes, it ended up being a great ride! I could have done without the headwind for the last 25k or so (I was wishing for a personal support crew to show up and swap out my road bike for my tri bike), but it was a really solid 100+ km ride that I finished feeling tired, but good.

Smiling because I haven't turned towards home yet and started fighting the wind...

Within a few hours after the ride and after some food my legs didn't even feel tired anymore so I got in a short recovery run, which are prescribed in the trainerroad plan. I'm finding they really do help with feeling better after a long ride and being prepared for the long run the next day.

Sunday: 25k long run; 2700m swim

Oh man, this run.

I went into it thinking I'd be tired and it might be a struggle after the first (outdoor) (metric) century the day before, but after getting warmed up in the first few km (everything always feels like garbage for the first 10 minutes), the entire run pretty much felt amazing and easy and like I could have gone on forever. My heart rate stayed really low the whole time, the weather was perfection, and other than having to take a bathroom break at 11k, it was one of the best long runs I think I've ever had. And after such a heavy training week! Huge boost in confidence.

(the swim later in the morning was fine, but my legs weren't overly thrilled about the situation. Still, it helps with recovery, so shut up legs and just keep kicking).

So I'm pretty damn happy about that week. I didn't even feel particularly tired on Sunday afternoon! I had a lovely hike with one of my daughters and was happy to climb the hills and scramble up the rocks with her. I was pretty tired yesterday (Monday), which I expected. For whatever reason rest day Mondays are always exhausting.

(Maybe don't ask how much food I ate over the weekend. Because, yikes)

Now, a recovery week! Going to cut back on the run and bike quite a bit and let my body absorb all that training stress before starting the next 3 week build up. And maybe try and deal with the weeds in the front garden so that the yard doesn't quite so much scream 'no one here has time to deal with this'.