Ironman training week 21

I'd say something boring like 'wow this was a big week' but at this point they are all big weeks, so what would be the point? Usual sort of week. Did a lot of stuff. Feeling good. Very hungry.

(the amount of food I am eating these days...oh man. Post Ironman is going to be quite an adjustment.)

Swim: 6220m
Bike: 245 km (8:32)
Run: 56k

Monday: rest

There are worse places to be on a Monday morning!

Monday was a holiday, which normally I would use to my advantage to get a bunch of training done, but I really wanted the rest day and to spend some time with the kids. Unfortunately the eldest wasn't feeling well, but the little one and I had a good time wandering around the Royal Botanical Gardens for a few hours.

Tuesday: 2500m swim; TR Jacks +1

The Tuesday usual. A trip to the pool in the morning, and threshold intervals on the bike in the evening. Threshold is for sure less painful than VO2, but it's got it's own special brand of uncomfortable going on. It's not easy. But now that I'm getting out on the road and seeing the results of this training, it's a lot easier to keep motivated to get these workouts done. You can pack a lot of training benefit into a 60-90 minute ride if you are doing the right workouts, which is what keeps me coming back to Trainerroad over and over again.

Wednesday: 14k run; 2000m open water swim

Running with the sunrise

Solid early morning 14 to bring back the mid week long run, which for me are a good way to add a little extra run distance into the week without having to add another run or make the long run extra stupid long. Plus I saw Amy heading out on her bike ride (and we took the most terrible pictures of each other I'm not going to share, haha). And still really loving the hydration pack, especially the pockets that make it easier to carry the GoPro to grab shots like the above (and really, the picture of the run is the most important thing).

Hooray I can still cram myself into this wetsuit!

Then it was Amy time again in the evening (yay!) to head out to Gulliver's for an open water swim. Gulliver's is under new management and things are a bit confusing at the moment (and more expensive), but I still have a real fondness for that lake, since it's where I learned to open water swim. And early in the season like this the water is really clear and cool and pleasant.

Before we jumped in (with Christina)

The swim was fine. It felt like it took a really long time to figure how the hell to swim open water again (kind of felt like I was less swimming and more randomly flailing around and not going anywhere very fast for about 1500m), but there was no panic or anything so I expect the next swim will feel better.

Sadly, I think I may be about done with weightlifting until after the race. It's just getting too hard to fit it in. Maybe a handful more sessions if I don't go to open water practice on Wednesdays, but I'll take it week by week.

Thursday: TR Gibraltar + 8k brick

1:45 of tempo on the bike, then out the door for an 8k run. That is a lot of work for a Thursday night, really, but I'm telling myself there's not that many more of these and I can handle them for a few months. It overall felt really good (I did have to turn on the AC at home, though, because the house was crazy humid and I could not fathom the bike ride on the trainer in those conditions).

i gotta buy much larger freezies for my post hot weather brick workout treat

Friday: 10k run; TR Pettit

rainbow socks and the red tanktop I forgot I owned. Dress fun and the run is more fun.

Easy run (surprisingly easy feeling after the Thursday night brick, really), easy hour on the bike. Fridays are all about easy and being prepared for the weekend.

Saturday: 135km ride

Yep. First of the big rides. Laurence and I can't seem to get our schedules to match up, and Fab was busy with a different workout planned, so my two go-to ride partners weren't available (and 135 solo sounded not super fun). But Zindine offered (threatened?) to come help me out with this one and brought Mellen and his friend Amanda, both of whom are stronger cyclists than I am. So I was a little nervous about keeping up with the group going in, but at the same time if you are going to ride that far, it's a hell of a lot easier if you have wheels to hang on to.

Mid ride pit stop with the coach/engine who pulled us pretty much the whole way

The black spots on my legs? All bugs. I was covered in them; I guess they stick to your sunscreen. Cycling is super sexy, y'all.

And it ended up being a really great ride! I mostly stayed on the group, felt pretty good (although I'm still feeling like I'm not climbing hills as well as I was two years ago), and didn't really start to feel tired or cranky until about the last 5k when my back/neck were getting sore and were pretty over this nonsense and wanted to get off the stupid bike already. But any time I can ride 135km and have an average speed of 30 km/hr, I'm going to be pretty happy about it! So that's the first big one checked off and it was a great confidence boost. Sometimes it's hard to feel if you are really making progress when you are just spinning away on the trainer, and you need to get outside to see yeah, getting stronger and developing that endurance.

Post ride. Note who didn't do a brick run after, because we are sensible people (plus we wanted to gossip and given how fast these three can run, I wouldn't have been able to do any talking if I'd tried to run!)

Sunday: 24k long run; 1700m swim

Started early with 6k solo (plus trying to help round up a lost dog that had gotten away from her owner), then met up with Nicole for another 18k. (after we had a couple of false starts trying to get our hydration packs adjusted properly!)

SO HAPPY TO NOT BE ALONE!!!

The run was fine. Great company makes a big difference. My legs weren't at all tired from the bike ride the day before, but it was getting humid and warm and I was mentally not super excited about this run. My heart rate was also a little high through the whole thing, but overall I'm not going to complain about it. The time was put in and I felt at the end like I could have run longer if I'd wanted to (which I most definitely did NOT).

Love having Nicole in my corner; keeping me company and believing in me :)

Then it was into the lake for a quick cooldown (brrrrrrr) and home to shower off all the damn bugs. Theme of the weekend was clearly getting covered in bugs.

Short swim at the pool at lunch because I had some stuff I wanted to do with the kids and not a lot of time. And my shoulder was bothering me a bit after the open water swim on Wednesday, so I figured better to do a short swim and see how things went than a long swim and injure something. It felt fine so I dunno, some kind of one off randomness.

So a great week! The next one shortens things up on the weekend ride and run, which is super nice because I have a 5k race on Saturday evening. Can't wait to see how that goes after doing a big brick workout in the morning...