Ironman Training Week 12 – February 19-26
This was the biggest week to date! Here’s how it went down:
Monday: Since we had the day off, we headed outdoors for our familiar “Pizza Port” route. We rode 44 miles with plenty of climbing and then came back and did Ab Ripper X and push-ups.
Tuesday: Started the day with 2,600 meters of swimming in the pool, including 4 x 400. Finished it with a easy 5 mile run. I had scheduled a track workout for this night but after such a big weekend I figured my legs could use a little rest.
Wednesday: For the first time, Mike and I went to our local YMCA (we aren’t members) and tried the Masters Swim. It was quite intimidating since everyone looked really fit and they all seemed to know what was going on, but it ended up being less scary that I imagined. I did however, get in 3,000 yards of swimming (I think this pool is in yards….) with plenty of endurance work. It was a good workout and I definitely think I will be making this a weekly routine. After work we got back on our trainers for a 90 minute spin while watching the Biggest Loser.
Thursday: We started the day with The Sufferfest “Downward Spiral” on the trainer. Thsi workout is one of my favorites and definitely one of the most intense. After a warm-up, it is a pyramid of 120 105, 90, 75, 60, 45, 30, 15 seconds on/off. After 5 minutes of rest, you repeat the sequence and they add on three bonus 15 second sprints at the end. This workout gets my heart rate VERY high and I finish drenched in sweat. At lunchtime, I did 75 minutes of Yoga. I’m lucky to have a yoga instructor come in to work twice a month. This workout was harder than usual – less stretching and much more strength type work.
Friday: Rest day! I got 9.5 hours of sleep Thursday night and woke up Friday feeling much better. I don’t know what I’d do without a rest day each week!
Saturday: 67.5 mile bike ride followed by a 4.3 mile run. I felt great on this ride and could tell a significant difference in my comfort level on the bike. Blog post about this ride here.
Sunday: We headed back to the beach on Sunday morning for another 1 mile ocean swim. This time the waves weren’t as big but there was still a current, although not as strong as last time. There was quite a large group this time – 20 people! We all swam out past the waves and then swam together half a mile North and then reconvened and swam back. Although I bought some booties for swimming in the cold water, it was absolutely freezing! My face was literally numb and my words were slurring a bit because I couldn’t move my mouth! This really made me reconsider wearing a tri suit the whole time for Oceanside. I think I’m going to bring a backup outfit so that I can change into warm clothes after the swim if necessary! After the swim, we headed home and put our feet in hot water to defrost them then got laced up for a 90 minute run. Our friend from the Vavi Running Club whom we also ran the Rock n Roll Marathon with, Jen, met up with us and ran with us. We kept it at a pretty slow pace and ended up only running about 9.5 miles in the allotted time. This whole running for time rather than miles thing is very new to me and honestly I prefer miles! I don’t like unround mileage numbers!
Weekly Volume (bike time is door to door, not ride time):
- Meters Swam: 7,600 (new weekly record for me!)
- Hours Biked: 11 (another record)
- Miles Run: ~19
- Minutes of Core/Strength: 90
- Total Weekly Hours: 18.5
This time on the bike ride I took in 1,000 calories which is about 200/hour if you’re counting total ride time (ie including water/bathroom breaks and waiting at stoplights) or ~225/hour if you use Garmin time. So far this is working for me but I think I should bump it up just a bit for race day so I really should practice that a few more times before then.
Since we had the extra training day this week, this week ended up being quite a big week. By the end, I was pretty exhausted. I probably should have rested a bit more over the weekend, but errands and social commitments called my name and I listened. We managed to get in a 1.5 hour nap on Saturday but I definitely didn’t spend enough time sitting on my butt on Sunday. I could have used a nap or at least a couple hours of lounging on the couch. As such, we ended up sleeping in Monday morning following this week and skipping our scheduled 60 min easy spin, at Mike’s suggestion. My legs were feeling quite tired Sunday night despite wearing my compression socks for 9 hours that day (I’m pretty sure you aren’t supposed to wear them that long but with all the errands and running around and a dinner party that night I forgot to take them off!).
stop making me jealous of your gorgeous riding weather and hilly places to go k thanks.