Ironman Training Week 28 – Taper Week 2

Week 2 of taper wasn’t too different from week 1 – just less volume! Check it out:

Week of June 11-17

Monday – Rest day!

Tuesday – Before work I ran 4.3 miles including 2 Yasso 800s. I felt pretty crappy on this run – legs felt heavy and my lower back was still sore from wearing my wet suit for the 2.4 mile open water practice swim on Sunday (I think my wet suit is too short and it adds pressure to my back). This was one of those runs where it almost feels better to run fast – the 800s were almost more manageable than the easy miles.

After work Mike and I did 60 minutes of spinning while watching the Bachelorette. My bike computer, as usual, is on the fritz so I have no idea what my watts were. My legs actually felt pretty good but I kept it at a pretty easy pace for the entire ride.

Wednesday – Master’s swim again on Wednesday! We stayed for the entire set and got in 3,900 yards of swimming. The main set was:

8 x 100 base, 8 x 50 base

6 x 100 base + 5, 6 x 50 fast

4 x 100 base, 4 x 50 base

2 x 100 base +5, 2 x 50 fast

Overall I felt good during this swim although I woke up very tired again. I decided that i would rearrange my workouts so that  could sleep in Thursday and promised myself that if I was still tired Friday, I’d skip swim.

Wednesday night I had planned to do yoga but when I got home and Mike said he wasn’t going to join me, I decided to just skip it and take a walk with him instead.

Thursday – I slept in and was happy that I did although the sluggishness was still following me around. That evening, however, it was miraculously gone. Asia, Jeremy and I went to our local Running Skirts store which is just a couple blocks from each of our houses, for a 4 mile group run with two pro triathletes, Beth Walsh and Heather Jackson.  Once the group started running, we realized we were falling behind so we picked up the pace. After about a half mile Asia ran up  next to Beth and Heather, who were running together, and started talking to them. She looped me into the conversation and soon we were running along the coast with two pro triathletes at a 7:30 min/mile like it was no big deal. I wasn’t wearing my Garmin but Jeremy told us that at one point we got down to a 7 min/mile. Oopsie! But the miraculous thing was that it felt pretty easy to us – maybe it was the excitement of chatting it up with pro triathletes. On the 2 mile run back, we slowed down a bit and dropped back from the group.

Both were really nice, but Beth was particularly friendly and once we told her about CdA coming up she gave us a few pieces of advice. The first was to expect three things to go wrong on race day. When the first thing goes wrong, you will deal with it or fix it and then think to yourself, “ok what’s next!?” rather than dwelling on the mishap. I really liked this one! She also said she definitely recommends changing clothes for each segment – she wishes she could still change but of course now that she is pro she can’t waste valuable seconds or minutes! She also told us that we’d do better than we think we will and that our bike pace will be much faster than our practice rides. We’ll see!

After the run I headed home for the second part of my brick, a 45 minute spin on the trainer. Nothing too eventful here – just kept it easy.

Friday – This was our final full length masters swim! A lot of people get out at the 1 hour mark but Mike and I usually stay for the entire 1 hour 15 minute workout. This time we got in 3,900 yards of swimming . After the warm-up and some kicking and drills, we went into 8 x 100 at base, 8 x 50 at base, 6 x 100 base + 5, 6 x 50 fast, 4 x 100 at base, 4 x 50 at base, 2 x 100 at base + 5, 2 x 50 fast. It was a good workout and I felt really strong.

That night we met up with Asia and Jeremy at our favorite local ale house for a couple of beers. All we could talk about was the upcoming race – excitement, fears, strategy, everything!

Saturday – Saturday we did a 40 mile bike ride down the coast. This was a very flat ride and overall I felt strong. I kept the effort moderate and didn’t push it at all. I tried to stay in aero a lot. I just didn’t feel like eating a lot on this ride and ended up only eating half a Bonk Breaker bar (which I was testing out because they were will be available on the course – I don’t plan to eat them on race day but I wanted to try it out just in case I do end up eating one) and half of my water bottle of CarboPro, for a total of only about 300 calories over 2.5 hours of ride time. I meant the eat the second half of my Bonk Breaker when I got off the bike but forgot and realized it only 1/2 mile into my 35 minute run (~4 miles). I felt ok for most of the run but the second half I was afraid I”d faint from hunger!

Sunday – We met up with fellow SD Tri Club members for the weekly open water swim in Del Mar. We swam about 2,000 yards (left my watch next to the computer all night so it only had enough battery for the first half of the swim). I felt ok on this swim – swimming in the ocean without buoys is mentally tough because you feel like you are getting NOWHERE. I found that counting my strokes helped. I know that it takes me about 18 strokes to swim 50 yards so about 36 is 100.

After the swim we opted out of the  60 minute spin we had planned since my knee was feeling a little tender (it didn’t feel sensitive on the bike but did afterward for some reason) and we knew we had to get our  bikes off to Tri Bike transport by the early afternoon. We spent the rest of the morning cleaning and lubing our bikes. It is definitely a lot of work to maintain your own bike but I was glad to save the money by not having the bike shop do it for me. My cassette went from disgustingly greasy to shiny after about a half hour of work on it. Rory (I finally named my bike!) is going to look GREAT on race day!

Weekly  Totals

• Yards Swam: 9,800
• Hours Biked (door to door): 4.75
• Miles Run: 12.6
• Core/Strength: 15 min
• Total Time: ~10.25 hours

Thoughts

This week was interesting – I’m not feeling that “restlessness” to workout like I had heard I would. Hopefully it will come this coming week. I’m actually feeling a bit sluggish during workouts (which I also heard is common but that it would go away and it hasn’t!). I did a lot of research and planning this week for the race – things like putting together my packing list, reading the athlete’s guide, putting together a rough draft of my race plan and weekend schedule, buying all the nutrition and miscellaneous things I need for the trip, and getting my bike shipped off.

Nutrition for the week started off really well and ended poorly. I made a big veggie roast one night and a big crock pot of turkey chili with several extra veggies thrown in which we had two nights for dinner and as a side dish for our salads at lunch. I cooked a healthy dinner for us Monday – Friday –  however, the weekend entailed plenty of beer and BBQs (two of them), as well as homemade pecan banana pancakes. Overall I ate a ton of fruits and veggies so I think it’ll be ok!

Going into this last week I am a mix of emotions. I am somewhat regretting not flying out to CdA on Wednesday so that I could get checked in on Thursday and have more time to rest before the race. I’ve put together my race week workout plan and I feel good about it. I probably have a little too much going on this week – a massage, a pasta party with friends Tuesday, and a hair appointment Wednesday, but instead of worrying about it, I plan to just go with the flow and try to get to bed as early as possible. I just need for focus on the end goal – finishing the Ironman.

How was your week? Have you experienced taper sluggishness? Did it go away!?