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Ironman Training Week 6 – Marathon Peak Week

Asia and I on Our Epic 21 Mile Run!

Wow what a week! Not only did I workout more than I ever had in one week, I also put about 10 hours of overtime at work. It was definitely a struggle to get everything done, but all in all, I would say it was a successful week. I did skip yoga and would have liked to have done at least one more short core workout but I did get my key workouts in. I also tried to get as much sleep as possible with all things considered.

Before you read my workouts this week and wonder why I put in so much work with 5 months to go until Ironman, let me preface by saying this was my marathon training peak week so my run volume was really high. Combining my high run volume with three bikes and 3 swims added up to a lot of hours of working out! All three swim workouts were technique focused and fairly short, which helped.

Workout Summary: 

Monday: Slept in (much-needed) and then did 1,600 meter swim after work. Found a swim workout online and did 2 x 50 easy, 1 x 100 easy warm-up then 2 x 50 (alternating each lap using just right arm and just left arm), 4 x 25 kick (on back). Main set was a Pyramid – 50, 100, 150, 200, 200, 150, 100, 50 followed by 1 x 100 and 2 x 50 cool-down.

Tuesday: 10 mile mid-week long run AM. Woke up at 4:55 a.m. for this one so that Asia could get to work by 8 a.m. I had 2 Gus on the run, one at mile 3 and one at mile 7 since I didn’t have time to eat breakfast before. We took it VERY easy and experienced an absolutely stunning sunrise. It felt good to get this run out of the way so early!; Easy spin on trainer & P90X Ab Ripper PM (while watching the Bachelor – multi tasking is fun).

Wednesday: Sufferfest “The Hunted”  on Trainer. This workout has a 20 minute continuous effort, unlike most of the other Sufferfest videos which are shorter intervals. Mike used this as a change to test his average power over the 20 minutes, but unfortunately I couldn’t do the same because I clipped the wire on my power meter as I was moving it from my old bike to my new one. I had to order a new set of wires! I felt pretty good during this workout although I woke up pretty tired.  PM – 60 Minute Tri Club Technique Swim Class (at local JCC) – Approximately 1,000 meters. This class is a great resource provided by the TriClub and I haven’t been taking advantage of it lately. I was glad I went, although I didn’t really learn anything I didn’t already know, it’s great to listen to someone explain proper swim form and go through all the drills. We swam on a 33 meter length pool and did the following drills after the warm-up, starting with work on balance and rotation and progressing through: kick on side, kick on back, kick on stomach and rotate to each side without using arms, repeat last drill but with 1 stroke every 6 seconds, repeat again with 1 stroke every 3 seconds, closed fist drill, zipper drill, catch-up drill, alternate breathing sides, freestyle focusing on longer strokes, etc.

Thursday: 10 x 800 Yasso 800s (8.5 miles) plus 1,000 meter swim.  Swim was 300 meter warm-up and then 12 x 50 alternating 4 different drills – closed fist, zipper, catch-up and focus on extension. 100 cool down. Yoga was planned for the evening but I skipped it since I had to work late and we were meeting friends for dinner.

Friday: Complete day of rest.

Saturday: 21.3 mile run. I took it easy and focused on race day nutrition and  felt pretty good finishing this run. You can read more about this run here.

Sunday: 49 mile bike ride down the coast and up to the Oceanside bike path (was supposed to be 45 mile ride plus 3 mile run but we didn’t want to run on tired legs from our long run and then accidentally overshot the bike mileage). I had oatmeal before this ride which is pretty substantial and then had 2 Stinger Waffles (160 calories each) and a Gu. Despite this, I was REALLY hungry by the end of the ride! I was also exhausted by the end and very thankful to get off the bike. Last week I came to realize that I need to buy a new saddle for my new bike that fits my lady parts better and this ride reiterated this fact. I was extremely uncomfortable for a significant portion of the ride. I tried riding in aero for the majority of the bike path portion (it’s about 7.5 miles each way) but on the way back it was too painful to ride like that.

Weekly Volume (Time on bike includes door to door time, including stop lights and bathroom breaks): 
  • Miles Run: 39.8
  • Hours Biked: 5.75
  • Yards Swam: 3,600
  • Total Hours: 14.5 
Nutrition
Nutrition this week overall went pretty well. I found a recipe for a healthy lentil soup and made it on Sunday night. We had salad for lunch with a cup or cup and a half of soup for the first half of the week. One of the things I struggle with is getting in enough calories from healthy food and I think lentil soup is a great addition to my salad so that I can get enough calories and enough nutrients. On Wednesday night we put in our Costco sized lasagna before we got on the trainers and had that for dinner and for lunch another day during the week. I ate a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables all week. As usual, the weekend was a different story since we end up going out to eat with friends and also need a lot of calories to satisfy our hunger. I think we have a good balance going – we typically eat fairly “unhealthy” foods for three meals per weekend and then eat very health the rest of the week. It’s also nice to have a reward for all our hard work – knowing I get to eat pizza and drink a beer after my long run makes it a little more fun!
As for workout nutrition, I think I’ve got my run nutrition down – 1 Gu every 40 minutes seems to be perfect. I may need to incorporate salt later on but I don’t’ think it’s necessary for the Surf City marathon which starts at 6:30 AM and 50 degrees and will finish by 10:30 and 65 degrees. Bike nutrition still needs some tweaking. According to Ken, the coach who performed my Vo2Max test, I should hold back on extreme amounts of calories on the bike right now to get my  body used to burning fat for fuel. I plan to start testing my Ironman bike fuel strategy starting the week after the Ironman. Right now I’m only eating about 150 calories/hour on the bike and it has a lot to do with the fact that my new bike only has 1 water bottle holder and I use it for water. I can’t drink only a flavored drink without being extremely thirsty. I am looking into buying CarboPro which is a tasteless carbohydrate drink and mixing it with some sort of electrolyte mix. That should add some calories without having to chew anything on the bike.
Reflection on the Week
Overall I was quite impressed with myself this week! I was able to get in a significant volume of work and not finish the week completely exhausted. I took a complete rest day on Friday which definitely helped and also got in a nap on both Saturday and Sunday. I also got an average of 8 hours of sleep each night this week, if not more. The only thing I wished I’d made time for was yoga and maybe one more short core workout, but I think in the end the extra sleep and mental rest was probably more important.
Definitely the highlight of the week was completing my 10 Yasso’s 800s in 3 min 50 seconds each. With a 1 mile warm-up and 1/4 mile jog intervals between, it ended up being a total of 8.5 grueling miles on the treadmill. Definitely a mental and physical test! According to Bart Yasso, I’m now ready to race a 3:50 marathon. As of now, however, our plan is to run a 3:55 marathon pace and then if we’re feeling fresh, pick it up. My A race this season is Ironman, not the marathon, and I don’t want to hurt myself due to my ego!
A second highlight was getting in the pool THREE times! I struggle to find motivation to swim so it was a big accomplishment for me to swim three times in one week. Although my swim workouts were short, they were all focused on technique. My primary goal in the next month is to improve my technique so that when I start doing long master’s and open water swims I am using proper form.
How did your week go? 

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January 18, 2012 By fitnessfatale 2 Comments

Filed Under: Triathlons, Uncategorized Tagged With: Ironman Couer D'Alene, Ironman Training, oceanside 70.3, Surf City marathon training

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Beth

    January 18, 2012 at 12:59 am

    That is a really solid peak week! If you can get through that feeling good, you’re set for a great marathon!

    Reply
  2. Page

    January 19, 2012 at 1:24 am

    DANG! You are officially a bad ass. Nice job on a really tough week.

    Reply

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