Ironman Training Week 3 Summary

Merry Christmas! As you can probably guess, my lack of recent posts is due to being VERY busy with the holiday!

I still can’t believe how quickly this year went by. My birthday is on Christmas so I’ve had twice as busy of a week celebrating both Christmas and my birthday. As for training, since I have this week off of work, we plan to do our big runs and bike rides during the week so that we could save Christmas weekend for our family and friends.

Starting with last week (the week of December 19-25), I am going to write a weekly summary of my Ironman training. It will include some weekly mileage/hours and some comments on nutrition and how I felt overall. Not only do I think this will help me in my training but I hope that it can give others who may be considering an Ironman or who are also training for one a more detailed look at what I’m doing to prepare.

 Here’s a summary of my workouts:

• Monday: 60 minute Sufferfest “The Hunted” spin (moderate effort) on trainer
• Tuesday: 8.5 mile Mid Week Long Run plus P90X Ab Ripper AM; 60 minute Sufferfest “Downward Spiral” (high intensity) workout PM
• Wednesday: 45 minute easy spin &  3 sets of 20 push-ups/plank punches/mountain climbers AM; 5 mile run at lunch
• Thursday: 8 x800 Yassos with warm-up/cool-down on treadmill (7 miles total) plus 1,000 yard swim AM (300 warm-up, 4 x 150 drill, 100 cool down)
• Friday: 1 hr 25 minute Sufferfest “Local Hero” cycling workout (high intensity) and P90X Ab Ripper
• Saturday: 10 mile run (on part of the Surf City Marathon course)

Total Miles Run: 30.5

Total Minutes Biked: 250

Total Yards Swam: 1,000

Due to a lack of a big workout weekend,overall mileage was moderate this week. However, I felt it was a good week in that I was able to get several great mid-week workouts in. The highlights of the week were:

• I actually swam! My last post discussed my reservations with swimming. Well, I finally got in the pool! I headed to the gym early on Thursday morning to get my Yasso workout out of the way before work and I figured since I was already there, I might as well get in the pool for a bit. One thing I can tell you is that I have work to do! But I think taking the first step to actually get in the pool was a move in the right direction.
• I had an amazing 10 mile run on Saturday. I went to my Mom’s house in Huntington Beach on Friday and Saturday morning woke up to an amazing sunny day (high of over 70). I ran 5 miles out and 5 miles back along the boardwalk in Huntington Beach (basically miles 20.5-25.5 and 15.5-20.5 of the Surf City Marathon course) . I was surprised that I felt so great considering I did a very tough Sufferfest workout the day before. However, the first mile I ran just under 9 min/mile at it was really easy. The more I ran the easier it seemed to maintain a 8:50ish pace. I even ran the final mile in 8:15 minutes, ending up with a total average pace of 8:45. This gave me some encouragement that I can run the Surf City Marathon in under 4 hours. If i can maintain the 8:45 pace for the entire race, I’d even be able to break my 3:50 goal (which is the goal time I use for my Yasso 800s).
• My energy level was high this week. Mike and I weren’t using supplements for a while and we recently got back in the habit of taking 2 scoops of XTR (a mix of branched chain amino acids and glumatine, among other things) and 1 scoop of high quality glutamine after most workouts. Mike has even been taking this mixture 2x a day to ensure that his energy levels are high and he doesn’t get sick again. I think that our supplements are making a difference!
• As for overall nutrition this past week, it has been very poor. With the holidays and my birthday I’ve been eating out A LOT and eating a ton of baked goods and chocolate! I know that this is temporary though so I have been enjoying it all! Come January I plan to get back to a more healthy routine and try to limit my sugar intake.

I think Week 4 is going to be epic! We have this week off of work so we’ve scheduled some pretty awesome workouts. PLUS I took my V02Max test this afternoon and I have a lot to share about that experience! It was encouraging and a great learning tool.

How did you adjust your workout schedule for the holidays?