Ironman Training Week 26 – Final Week Before Taper!

This was my last big week before the TAPER begins. Crazy that I have LESS THAN THREE WEEKS until the biggest race of my life. Unfortunately my knee didn’t cooperate with my plans and I had to cut some of my cycling workout short, but my running was pretty spectacular this week so it made up for some of it. Since last week was a weird week and included a 3 day weekend, I included Monday’s 70 mile ride in with last week. So we’ll go ahead and start with Tuesday:

Week of May 29-June 3

Tuesday: I slept in that morning and then after work put on my fancy new running outfit and went out for a run from my house down the coast to Solana Beach. There is a park at a cove there and it is a common pit stop for long run as well as a good place to make a u-turn on medium runs. Lately it has been taking me a while to get warmed up and I’ve been seeing an average pace in my first mile of my runs in the high 9s. However, this run I immediately felt fresh and decided that I’d try to keep my pace for the entire run under 9 min/miles. I accomplished my goal and ran 8.3 miles at a 8:50 min/mile average pace. The pace felt slightly harder than comfortable but not bad. My knees, which had been hurting on Monday’s 70 mile  bike ride, cooperated and I barely felt anything out of the ordinary out of them. I came home and told Mike that I got my mojo back. I also did 10 minutes of upper body/core work when I got home.

Wednesday: I headed back to Master’s Swim for the first time in 9 days (due to last week’s weirdness and the holiday on Monday) with a bit of apprehension since it had been a while since I swam. The set was actually pretty easy and after it was finished we had some extra time so I stayed in so I could get in 4,000 yards of swimming in total. After I got out of the pool I talked to the coach and he told me that he can see improvement in my speed and that he would even recommend I move up to the 1:35 base lane for some of the longer endurance sets (like we did that day) but switch back to 1:40 base for the faster sets if I felt it was too fast. I left this swim feeling really confident about surviving the 2.4 mile swim at CdA.

That evening Mike and I got on the trainers. I had planned to do 90 minutes but my knees were getting sore despite my easy pace and high cadence, so I got off after 70 minutes of spinning  and then did 15 minutes of Ab Ripper X . 

Thursday: I set out in the morning for 6 miles of Yasso 800s. After a 1 mile warm-up, I went into 6 x 800 with 400 easy jog between and a 1/2 mile cool-down. My average pace for the run was 8:30 and I did all of my intervals between 3:40-3:50. It felt good to run hard!

That evening I got my bike professionally fitted. I plan to write an entire blog post on this and I definitely recommend anyone who is having any pain or anyone who just wants to ride more efficiently and comfortably (ie everyone) to get fitted by someone who knows what they are doing (not the free fit you get with your bike purchase). The fit took 2 hours and included 30 minutes of spinning (I know that thanks to my bike computer) at various paces.

Friday: The fabulous double swim day! Since Monday is our usual Masters Swim day and we missed it due to the  holiday, we made up for it on Friday morning. This was by far the hardest swim workout we’ve had yet AND it was the most exciting because I was really able to see my progress. In total, we swam 3,750 yards. We started with a normal 400 warm-up then did 4 sets of 200s with various drills (we don’t usually do drills). Then the real fun began:

• 6 x 50 @ 40 sec, 60 sec total (20 second rest)
• 1 x 100 easy
• 5 x 100 @1:30, 2 min total (30 sec rest)
• 1 x 150 easy
• 4 x 150 @ 2:20, 3 min total (40 sec rest)
• 1 x 200 easy
• 3 x 200 @3 min, 4 min total (1 min rest)

Basically, we sprinted 2,000 yards. The first 50s I was coming in at just about 40 seconds. Then when we hit the 100s I went harder, coming in UNDER 1:30 every time including one time when the coach came over and timed me (I knew he was timing me so I went harder) and I came in at 1:24. The 150s felt easier since the pace was a bit slower but there wasn’t too much extra distance, but they were still hard and I came in around 2:15 every time.m The 200s were HARD and my arms were burning but I was able to complete them just over 3 min (3:03-3:05). As a recent 1:40/100 yard base swimmer, I didn’t know that I had these kinds of times in me. It was a really hard workout but definitely a beneficial one. I am so thankful to have such an amazing Masters Swim program (hello Heather Jackson, Beth Walsh and other pros swim with us!) – I know I would have never made this much progress on my own.

After work we headed to the La Jolla Cove for the weekly Friday night swims. This time it was also the monthly potluck so there was a large group. Unfortunately the cove is pretty far from where I work so Mike and I didn’t end up at the Cove til just after 6 p.m. and a lot of people were already on their way back in. We got into wet suits and headed out to a new set of buoys that had been set up. I was really excited to use my new watch so that I would know my pace in the open water. Since the Aquathon last week was down current, my pace wasn’t accurate and I knew this time I”d get a more accurate reading of my open water swim ability. I kept the pace comfortable but not too easy and as we made our way from buoy to buoy, I worked on my sighting. I was really happy when my watch told me I was at about a 1:38 per 100 yard pace when we reached our turn around point,  but I was kind of assuming I’d had a bit of a current working to my advantage. The way back was a bit bumpier with more swells and it was harder to see the buoys but when I reached the shore I was VERY happy to see I had swam nearly 1,800 yards at a 1:38 per 100 yard pace for the entire swim! This even included a few brief pauses and breast strokes while swimming to get myself oriented (I stopped my watch at the buoys when we stopped briefly however).

After the swim we headed over for the club pot luck where Asia and Jeremy were already sitting with some others and eating and got ourselves two huge plates of food. We sat with a few others and talked about – you guessed it- Ironman CdA.

Saturday – Since I had a bridal shower mid-day, I had to switch my normal bike and run days and made Saturday a run day. I felt GREAT on this run and ran with Asia and a friend of mine, Justin for the first 9 miles or so, then headed out on my own (it was Asia’s recovery week) for the remaining miles. I got in a total of 15 miles of running with an average pace in the high 8 min/miles. This was a real confidence-boosting run because of how easy the pace felt, especially after our VERY sluggish 20 miler two weeks prior. After the run I got on the trainer for 60 minutes of spinning. My new bike fit really encourages me to be in aero – so much so that I spent nearly the entire time in that position. Overall I felt pretty good on this spin and my knees felt ok.

After the workout I cleaned up and headed over to help host my friend Shahara’s bridal shower. I will be the Maid of Honor in her wedding in August.

Sunday – Unfortunately this was a 90 mile ride that never was. I had wanted to get in one last big ride before the taper since I missed my scheduled 100 miler the week before, but my knees weren’t having it and after 20 miles of hills I decided to head back home (through more hills) and then ride the coast for a total of 57 miles of riding. When I got off the bike I had a lot of energy so I went for a run, with ever intention of turning right around if my knees were hurting, but luckily they weren’t. I was feeling so good that I ended up cranking out 6 miles of running at a 8:40 min/mile pace. I was happy that at least I could run!

After the workout we went out to breakfast and then headed to the San Diego Tri Club Meeting with a very special guest speaker, Chrissie Wellington! I will write a blog post about this, so that’s all I share for now! Oh yeah and I won Mike a Rudy Project helmet in the raffle!

 

Weekly Totals (Tuesday-Sunday): 

• Yards Swam: 9,550
• Hours Biked: 5.75
• Miles Run: 35.3
• Core/Strength: 25 minutes
• Total Time: ~14.5 hours

Thoughts

I was really happy with my running and swimming this week and that somewhat makes up for the nagging knee pain that I’ve got going on.  This was a BIG week – if I include Monday’s 70 mile ride in the total hours, I would be  up to 18.5 hours within 7 days. Every one of my swim and run workouts was high quality this week so it was a great week for me in that regard.

Now my focus turns to the taper. I’ve already started Week 27 with a rest day and we loaded up with tons of fruit, veggies, lean meat and whole grains to fuel our  bodies the best way possible for the next three weeks. My #1 goal is to get to the start line healthy, even if that means that I have to forgo a few workouts to get my knee in shape. It’s not ideal but it’s better than showing up at the start line with a bum knee.