Ironman Training Week 23 – Starting the Final Build Block

Last week marked the beginning of the final build block in my Ironman training schedule. Once it’s over, there will be no more building, just tapering and recovering. I can’t believe that the race is nearly here! We are in the home stretch and I definitely have started thinking about Life After Ironman (LAIM) more than a few times. I think the thing I’m most excited for LAIM is sleeping in! However, although thoughts of weekend getaways, weddings (and bachelorettes and bridal showers), and beach days are more frequent, I am still focused on the goal at hand – get to the finish line at Ironman CdA!

Here’s how the week went down (week of May 7-13):

Monday – My Masters Swim woes were gone on Monday morning when the regulars in my swim lane announced that we were now a 1:40 base lane. I was thankful that everyone was in agreement that we were ready to make the move since I wasn’t really loving the idea of jumping a whole 10 seconds per 100 and leaving the friends I’ve made in my 1:45 base lane. I forgot to write the swim set down  but I believe we swam 3,600 yards. 

After work I joined a co-worker for 60 minutes of turbo kickboxing and followed it up with 10 extra minutes of push-ups and core work. It was fun to switch it up! My blog post about this workout is here.

Tuesday – Tuesday mornings I have interval workouts scheduled for non recovery weeks. However, I kind of play it by ear depending on how I feel. This day I actually felt really good and decided to go for it. After a very slow 1 mile warm up, I went into 6 x 800 intervals with 1/4 mile rest between. While training to break 3:50 at the Surf City marathon I would do these intervals at 3:50 but I was happy that I was easily doing the intervals faster than that this time! In total, I ran 6 miles. I made sure to get a good stretch in after this workout.

After work Mike and I got on the trainers for 1 hour 40 minutes of spinning. 

Wednesday – Master’s Swim was a great workout again thanks to our new 1:40 base. In total I swam 3,800 yards. 

Back on the trainer after work for 1 hour 25 minutes of spin intervals thanks for The Sufferfest’s “Local Hero.” I felt good during this workout and my average watts showed it.

Thursday – I met up with Asia in the morning for about a 9.5 mile run (just under 90 minutes). As usual we started off sluggish and tired but by the end we were glad we did it. Afterward I did P90X Ab Ripper . 

This week was VERY busy for me and after a 10.5 hour work day, I decided to call it a night and skip the swim I had scheduled for myself (not to mention I can’t swim at the gym  between 6:30-7:30 due to a aqua aerobics class and I left work at 6:45).

Friday – Rest day! Again, another 10.5 hour day at work. I was exhausted by the time I left work and enjoyed a nice evening on the couch.

Saturday – 102 mile bike ride. As I mentioned in my blog post about this ride, it took FOREVER. 9 hours door to door. Yikes! Hopefully the next 100 miler is less time-consuming! I had planned to run afterward but since it was 4 p.m. when we got home, I skipped it in favor of eating a very late lunch/early dinner and resting.

Sunday – I figured I’d be absolutely exhausted on Sunday after such a long day Saturday, but surprisingly my 18 mile run wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Immediately after I jumped on the trainer for 60 minutes of spinning and held a good wattage the whole time.

After all that working out, I rushed to get ready, went to breakfast with Mike and then drove an hour to my grandma’s house to see my mom, grandma and several aunts, uncles and cousins for Mother’s Day. Although I tried to sit as much as possible, it definitely wasn’t the ideal recovery from such an intense weekend of workouts. But, it was nice to see my mom (she lives in Orange County so I don’t get to see her that often).

Weekly Totals: 

• Yards Swam: 7,400
• Hours Biked (door to door): 13.25
• Miles Run: 33.5
• Hours of Strength/Core/Cross Training: 1.5 
• Total Hours:22.75