As I mentioned in my previous blog post, this week was supposed to be my peak training week but due to fatigue, schedule conflicts and possibly injury, it was changed to recovery week. I will change next week to a “normal” week again but I won’t be making up the 100 mile ride that I had scheduled for this week.
Week of May 21 – 28
Monday – We showed up a little later to Masters Swim due to Mike forgetting his goggles, and I was only able to get in about 200 yard warm-up. This workout was HARD and nearly all the intervals had the word hard in them. After the warm-up and a 400 kick (random?), we did:
- 4 x 125 with 25 hard, 100 easy
- 4 x 100 hard
- 4 x 125 with 75 hard, 50 easy
- 2 x 200 hard
- 4 x 125 with 100 hard, 25 easy
- 1 x 400 hard
I was pooped by the last 400 and ended up going to the back of the pack and swimming it out easy. I was exhausted from the weekend and it was trickling over into my swim workout. In total, I got in 3,400 yards of swimming.
That night there was no working out – only rest!
Tuesday – I slept in til 6:30 then headed to the gym to swim on my own, getting in 2,500 yards. I did a warm-up then a set of descending intervals – 500, 400, 300, 200, 100. I used my new watch which was awesome!
After work I went for a 4.2 mile run which was supposed to be longer, but my legs felt like concrete and my attitude wasn’t good, so I cut it short. My pace was super slow and I was just feeling terrible. I made sure to get in plenty of stretching and foam rolling afterward to help ease the pain.
Wednesday – Mike and I had this day off of work so we slept in (10.5 hours woohoo!) and then went for an easy 40 mile ride up the coast. Afterward we did 20 minutes of upper body/core in the form of P90X Ab Ripper, push-ups and pull-ups.
Thursday – We got on the trainers in the morning for an easy 60 minute spin. After work was the first San Diego Tri Club Aquathon of the season. The course is supposed to be 1,000 meters of swimming and 3 miles of running, but my Garmin indicated that we got in about 1,000 yards of swimming and 3.2 miles of running. There was a strong current on the swim and it only took me 13 minutes which was about a 1:25/100 yard pace! If only IM CdA was a one way swim with a nice current – I’d be done in an hour! I did the 3 mile run at about a 7:40 min/mile pace which for me is pretty good (my watch didn’t go into multi-sport mode like I thought it would so while I was running it was telling me my pace in yards – I found out my pace when I uploaded the data). but I felt dreadfully slow running out there! I was definitely passed more than I passed others – although I didn’t wear a timing chip and it’s not really an official “race” I still put pressure on myself to compete and when I’m not feeling 100% I get a bit frustrated. It was a fun event though and the swim start was definitely great practice for CdA – there were about 400 participants at the event and it was a beach swim start.
Friday – Rest. I had to rest up for my BIG day on Saturday!
Saturday – On Saturday Mike and I headed up to LA for what I mentioned in my last post as a top secret mission. All I can tell you is that I was on a game show! I can’t give you any more info right now other than it will most likely be on TV this summer and that it was a physical challenge!
Sunday – Rest. We didn’t get home from LA until 3 a.m. and I felt like I was hung over on Sunday most likely from caffeine withdrawals from the 8 cups of coffee I drank on Saturday. Our bodies wouldn’t let us sleep in so when we woke up we felt terrible and had to skip our planned workouts. After a walk on the beach, we went back to bed before heading to a friend’s BBQ and then back to bed at 9 p.m.
Monday – Since this was a holiday weekend and the week was an odd one, I’ll include Monday in week 25. Mike and I woke up feeling much better and headed out for a 69 mile bike ride. We followed a variation of our normal route which is equally as hilly as CdA and unfortunately my knee was acting up again. Around the halfway point the other knee started to hurt too. It wasn’t too painful -just a bit uncomfortable – so I kept riding but the last 10 miles or so were pretty rough. I kept my pace easy for this entire ride since I was still tired from the previous days. I didn’t take a lot of calories on this ride but felt fine other than the knee. I am getting pretty worried about this knee thing and am somewhat contemplating getting professionally fit on my bike. The odd part is, I’ve had this bike for 5 months now and haven’t had any pain until now. I’m not sure what the deal is but with CdA rapidly approaching (less than 4 weeks!) I don’t have much time to decide. A professional fitting is expensive and also takes about 2 weeks for your body to adjust to it, so I need to do it this week if I do it. Money is tight and I don’t want to spend it on the fitting but obviously if it’s going to impact my Ironman performance significantly then I need to do it. Ugh! 🙁
Weekly Training Totals:
- Total Yards Swam: ~6,900
- Total Hours Biked: 9
- Total Miles Run: 7.2
- Total Core/Strength: 20 minutes
- Total Hours: ~12
A Weird Week
Well, this week didn’t go as planned. The game show was totally fun and I’m glad I did it, but it did put a crimp in my training. However, regardless of the game show or not, I wasn’t feeling great coming into this week and I think turning it into a recovery week was a good idea. The sport I neglected the most was the run which I think is ok since Week 24 was such a big run week for me. Unfortunately despite the recovery, my knees aren’t cooperating and I really hope that things improve so that I can get in my final big training week before the taper begins.
Nutrition was really bad this week – I had two big lunches out with work, ate junk on Saturday at the show, and went to a BBQ Sunday and Monday. Overall, there weren’t enough veggies and fruits in the week. I know that nutrition will be important during these last four weeks going into the race to ensure that I don’t get sick and I plan to get back to my normal, healthier meals this week.
It’s really starting to hit me now that the race is rapidly approaching. I have been thinking about things like which suitcase I’m going to use and wondering if there is a bagel shop near our hotel. You know, things you think about just before you go on vacation. The race is going to be here before we know it!!!
How was your week? Do you add in an extra workout on 3 day weekends or do you take a day off to relax?
ok, it’s a little crazy that you’ve been training for 25 weeks!!!! whooooooooffff. we’re getting so close!
Hey, I was there…at the May Aquathlon! Following your blog.