Ironman Training Week 9 – January 30 – February 5
Last week was all about rest! I got plenty of sleep, drank a lot of water, ate a lot of food and got just one workout in per day. It felt VERY weird to reduce my work load this much but it was also a great mental break from hard training. I purposely scheduled dinner dates on three of the nights in order to avoid the temptation of adding in a workout (yes I have to trick myself!). I didn’t intend to take it quite so easy this week, as I know the Ironman is my A race and the marathon is really my C race, but I decided to cut myself a break. I still have 4.5 very long months of Ironman training ahead of me and taking one week easy isn’t going to prevent me from making it to the finish line.
Monday: I slept in and then swam 2,000 meters on my own that night, alternating between focusing on my length/reach and pointing my fingers toward the bottom of the pool. The swim technique tips I got from my swim analysis are really paying off. After spending the majority of the session swimming 50 meter sets, I did a few timed 100s and was able to pull off a few in the high 1:30s, which is big improvement from the 1:50s I recorded for myself the first time I got back in the pool in early January.
Tuesday: Asia and I ran an easy 5 mile run during sunrise before work. We decided to run one mile at race pace and ended up easily running it at an 8:30 pace (instead of 8:45). We felt encouraged by this mile feeling so effortless. Tuesday night we had plans to have dinner with Mike’s parents, so there was no workout and we were in bed by 9:30.
Wednesday: Started the day with an easy 60 minute spin on the trainer (while watching Biggest Loser – I love multi-tasking!). After work we had a double date so no workout and another early bedtime for me.
Thursday: Asia and I ran the same 5 mile route as Tuesday and afterward I did P90X Ab Ripper and stretched. I was planning to swim that evening but decided to take advantage of this easy week and go home early enough to spend some quality, non workout time with Mike!
Friday: Complete day of rest
Saturday: 2 mile run with two 30 second Fartleks. I felt good on this run and definitely wanted to keep running!
Sunday: Surf City Marathon. Race report here if you missed it!
Volume Totals:
- Meters Swam (using meters from here on out as I realized my pool is measured in meters, not yards): 2,000
- Hours on the Bike: 1
- Miles Run: 38.2
- Hours of Core Work: 0.25
- Total Time: 9.25 hours
I had a very hard time knowing that I only biked and swam once each this week, especially since the bike is my weakest sport. I’m committing myself fully to improving on the bike now that the marathon is over. Whereas in the past my runs were my priority workouts, now the bike and swim will be. If there is a workout I need to skip that week, it’ll always be a run before one of the others. You’ll never have a good run if you fail miserably on the bike, so from here on out, I need to learn to love my saddle!
Nutrition
I started off the week eating pretty normal – salads, fruit, the usual. Starting around Wednesday I started to add in extra carbs and Thursday I brought bagels to work for the office. I ended up eating 2 that day and another 2 on Friday! Bagels are my favorite indulgence and I don’t let myself have them often because I usually overindulge! We also had a potluck at work on Friday and I brought more baked goods (I’m becoming quite a baker thanks to Pinterest) and my boss brought us all cupcakes on Thursday. It’s safe to say that ODed on desserts AGAIN last week. I go back and forth between not caring because I am working out so much (well that wasn’t the case this week) and caring because I know that eating all that sugar isn’t great for my health or for my performance. Since the marathon and going forward, I’m going to allow myself to indulge on occasion but I really need to cut back on the daily chocolate from the candy jar at work and justifying eating chocolate, ice cream, cookies or cupcakes at least daily!
Do you have a hard time tapering? Do you increase your calories toward race day or do you try to keep them the same but just increase your carb intake? Or do you not carbo-load at all?
I still need to get the whole Nutrition thing down.
Anyhow, great job on your marathon! and I agree sometimes it’s hard to taper, but at the same time it’s good to.
I’ve changed my approach towards taper nutrition. the last race I did, I didn’t carb load at all but just made sure that I was getting plenty of good clean carbs in the days leading up to the race. I had zero stomach problems during the race which I think was a result of that.
I don’t increase my calorie intake too much since the energy expenditure is lower due to the taper. I eat a big breakfast the day before the race – but NOT a big dinner. This ensures I don’t have a bunch of food in my gut on race day.
As for tapering generally, it makes me a little ansty, but I take that feeling as evidence that the taper is working.
Congrats again on your PR. now get on that bike 😉
Your “rest” week is still intense! You amaze me!