Ironman Training: Week 16

Yet another week where things don't go perfectly. There was terrible rain on Monday and Tuesday, so I did some weight-lifting Monday night. Then I was sick on Friday and Saturday, though I finally managed to get my long bike ride in on Sunday. I didn't do much swimming or running, but this was the second-most biking I have done in a week (I biked 92.5 miles in mid Oct).

Click to enlarge.

2/25: Weight-lifting (Incline Press: 3x12x95, and then a set of 6 pull-ups). I was going to do squats and/or deadlifts too, but my lower back was a bit tired so I skipped them.

2/26: Rest day

2/27: 2700m swimming in the morning (400m warm-up, then 2300m long swim in 47:45). 20 miles of biking in the afternoon with lots of wind.

2/28: 10.57 mile bike, following by a 3.11 mile run. Ankles were pretty sore on the run, and afterwards I was EXHAUSTED. This workout pushed me over the edge from "almost sick" to "definitely sick".

3/01: Rest day, sick.

3/02: Rest day, sick.

3/03: 49.43 mile bike ride. My phone's GPS kept messing up during this ride so I had to estimate how much 50 miles was, and sadly I fell a bit short, but that's close enough for me. Tons of wind (again), but it was a good ride overall. When I hopped off the bike my quads were cramping, so I did some stretching before following it up with a 3.11 mile run. The run was awful: I felt okay for the first mile, but after that my ankles were way too sore. I actually hopped off the road and ran on the grass for most of it. I need to work on stretching my ankles out at the end of my bike rides so they're loose enough to run on, or stretch a bit during transition.

Weekly Totals:

Swim: 2700 meters (1 hour 7 minutes)

Bike: 80.38 miles (4 hours 55 minutes)

Run: 6.22 miles (1 hour 2 minutes)

Strength: 30 minutes

Total: 7 hours 34 minutes

February Training Review

February was a short month, but packed with training. Here's how my workout spreadsheet looks at the end of it (with daily/weekly bodyweight measurements on the right side). Click the pictures to enlarge them.

Some of the highlights:

SWIMMING

• 23,500 meters total (14.6 miles)
• 9 hours, 15 minutes over 9 workouts
• 5,358 calories burned
• Second-highest month of swimming volume (July 2012 was 15.8 miles)

BIKING

• 257 miles total
• 15 hours, 30 minutes over 13 workouts
• 11,631 calories burned
• Highest month of cycling volume (previous most was 217 miles in July 2012)

RUNNING

• 38.5 miles total
• 6 hours, 14 minutes over 10 workouts
• 5,488 calories burned
• Second-lowest month of running volume (August 2012 was only 33.7 miles)

TOTALS

Purple = swimming, Green = biking, Red = running

• 5 weight-lifting workouts (3 hours, 30 minutes)
• 34 hours, 29 minutes over 37 workouts 
• 22,477 calories burned (not including weight-lifting)
• Second-highest month of total volume (July 2012 was 35 hours, 47 minutes total)
• Workouts on 25 of 28 days (3 full rest days)
• 12 days with multiple workouts
• 7 bike-to-run brick workouts
• Weight change from 192.7 lbs to 193.6 (+0.9 lbs)

Noteworthy accomplishments:

• Swam 3800 meters continuous (the Ironman distance)
• Incorporated bike-to-run workouts back into my schedule

My goals for march are mostly cycling-related. I want to bike at least 400 miles total, which is doable since my current schedule has 457 miles planned. I want to bike a metric century (100 kilometers, or 62 miles) in one of my long rides; based on my schedule my long rides will be 50, 20, 56, 62, and 70 this month. I also want to incorporate more tempo rides and intervals into my bike workouts. 

Aside from that I hope to keep my ankles healthy while running, and to begin two-a-day swim workouts on Mondays and Wednesdays. I've made huge improvements in swimming over the last 4 months, but sometimes it's difficult to wake up at 4:00am and I miss a workout. Hitting up the gym to swim after work twice a week should help keep my volume up. I want to pop out of the water with plenty of energy in the Monticelloman Olympic Triathlon in 9 weeks!

Ironman Training: Week 15

Another week where things didn't go quite as planned, but hey, that's how it goes sometimes.

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2/18: 2400m swimming in the morning: 400m warm-up, then 20x100m sets, with every 4th one a sprint (1:35, 1:31, 1:30, 1:32, 1:29, 1:32). In the afternoon an easy 10 mile recovery bike ride to get some blood into my legs.

2/19: Bike/run brick: 10 miles on the bike followed by 3 miles running. Legs very fresh.

2/20: 2700m swimming in the morning: 400m warm-up, then 2000m long (in 39:30), followed by a 3x100m cool-down. Weight-lifting in the afternoon (Squat: 3x5x140, Bench: 3x12x125, Pull-ups: 5 sets, 40 total).

2/21: Another bike/run brick: 10 miles on the bike (including 4x1:00 sprinting intervals mixed in) followed by a 5K run. My heart rate settled in nicely on the run, and then I picked-up the pace for the last few minutes.

2/22: 2400m in the pool in the morning: 400m warm-up, 10x200m sets (most of them between 3:40-3:50), and one 100m cool-down. Pushed the pace on the 200m sets to a fast, but not too difficult, speed.

2/23: Today was my second attempt at my 50 mile long bike ride (after getting rained on last weekend), and once again I went out to Yorktown in the pouring rain. As soon as I arrived I realized that I had left my tire patching kit at home. I haven't gotten a flat tire since buying my tri bike in September though, so the odds of it happening today were pretty low, right? /foreshadowing

I was having a fantastic ride. The rain stopped after the first 30 minutes, my legs felt good, and I was pacing myself perfectly. I did 30 miles before stopping to refill my bottle with gatorade, and still felt fresh when I started my 4th loop. So guess what happened near the end of this loop, at mile 37? Yep, a flat in my rear tire. 37 miles biking, one again short of my 50 mile goal. I walked my bike the 2 miles back to my car (no easy task in bike cleats), changed into my running gear and salvaged the workout with a 4 mile run. I don't know if it's because I've been doing a lot of bricks lately, or because I had a 30 minute cool-down while I walked my bike back to my car, but I had no trouble with this run and my legs felt fantastic. I'll be doing bricks with all of my long rides from now on.

2/24: Bre was running in the Colonial Half Marathon today, so after watching her start the race I went over to Colonial Williamsburg to get my own run in. I ran 5 miles before stopping to get some sandwiches at cheese shoppe, but I ended up running an additional 15 minutes with Bre at the end of the race, so I tacked it on to my first runkeeper to make it an even 10K run for the day. The race was a tough hilly course, and despite that Bre rocked it with a 2:46 time! That's 2 minutes shy of her PR, but that's to be expected on such a hilly course. Great job sweetie!

She did not look this happy at the end.

Weekly Totals:

Swim: 7600 meters (3 hours 10 minutes)

Bike: 68.27 miles (4 hours 10 minutes)

Run: 16.44 miles (2 hours 44 minutes)

Strength: 45 minutes

Total: 10 hours 50 minutes

It wasn't as big of a week as I had hoped thanks to the flat tire, but 10 hours 50 minutes is still the most volume of training I've had since November, and the second largest week ever. I've been icing my feet/ankles lately, and they're finally healed enough for me to get some decent running in, and next week I have a 10 mile long run scheduled to make sure my body is ready for the Shamrock Half Marathon in three weeks.

Yes that's a cooking pot. Don't tell my wife. 

I also signed up for another race: the Jamestown Olympic triathlon, on June 8. This race is two weeks before the Rev3 Half Ironman triathlon, so it should be a good final stepping stone before that. 

Triathletes vs Runners

One of my favorite blogs (http://iwannagetphysical.blogspot.com/) posted the above infographic the other day, and I found it really interesting. Specifically the time comparison between stand-alone marathons and Ironman marathons. Boston Marathoners only run their marathon 24 minutes faster than Kona triathletes? Wow.

There are a few takeaways from this information. First, that cross-training is valuable. Sure the best way to improve your running is to go out there and run, but there are other things you can do to supplement that.

Second, that triathletes are better athletes than runners. The best triathletes in the world run their marathon at a pace 55 seconds slower than the best runners in the world, and that's after swimming 2.4 miles and biking 112. And that's before considering the conditions: Kona is hot, humid, and windy. The Boston marathon is in April, and is a downhill race: it's a point-to-point run, starting at a 490 feet above sea level and ending at 10 feet. (Disclaimer: yes I know there's a medium-sized hill around mile 20, but still.) Given all of these conditions, Boston runners should be at least an HOUR faster.

Regardless, both are pretty awesome accomplishments. The average marathon time for all Ironman triathlons is 4:55. Anything under 5 hours and I'll be happy in November!

Ironman Training: Week 14

I had a recovery week scheduled for next week, but due to some terrible weather on Saturday I decided to take it this week instead. Still a good week of workouts though.

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2/11: Slept-in and missed my morning swim (I've been doing that a lot lately on Mondays). Weight lifting in the afternoon (Squat: 3x5x135, Incline Press: 3x12x90, Pull-ups: 7 sets, 59 total). I was planning on biking a bit to warm-up before the weights, but the weather was pretty crappy outside.

2/12: 10 mile bike ride with 5x1:00 intervals mixed-in, followed by 3 miles of tempo running.

2/13: My big Ironman distance swim: 400m warm-up, followed by 3800m long (in 1:21:00). Skipped the weights in the afternoon.

2/14: Easy 10 miles on the bike, followed by an easy 3 mile run. It feels good to do more bricks again.

2/15: 2400m swim in the morning: 400m warm-up, then 10x200m sets. The last two sets I did reasonably fast, in 3:33 and 3:39.

2/16: They were calling for freezing rain and snow all day, but when I woke up the radar looked favorable so I headed out to Yorktown to spend 50 miles on the bike. I ate a cliff bar after the first 10 miles, and then the rain started coming down. Miles 10-30 soaked me through all four of my layers, and I stopped to eat another cliff bar and to refill my water. My legs felt great but the temperature was dropping, and a few miles into my next loop I started shivering. I cut this loop short and finished at 34.46 miles. I was planning on doing a short brick afterwards, but I was too cold to do anything but go home and soak in a hot bath.

2/17: Rest day.

Weekly Totals:

Swim: 6600 meters (3 hours 18 minutes)

Bike: 55.13 miles (3 hours 22 minutes)

Run: 6.23 miles (1 hour 2 minutes)

Strength: 45 minutes

Total: 8 hours 27 minutes

Taking the rest week early worked out because aside from cutting my long bike short, I also missed several other workouts: swim and bike workouts on Monday, weights on Wednesday, and a run on Saturday. It was still a solid week in terms of workload though.

The next week is especially tough: I'm planning for at least 12 hours of workload (3 swims, 4 bike rides, 4 runs, one weight-lifting session), which would be the most I've ever done. Here's hoping the weather cooperates! 

Ironfish

I've made a lot of progress in the pool in the past 3 months. When I first started swimming at the gym I had to do sets of 80 or 60 meters, because I couldn't swim 100 meters continuously. By December 31 I could swim 2000 meters continuously, and at the end of January I had stretched that out to 2500 meters. That's still a long way from the Ironman distance of 3800 meters though (2.4 miles). My plan was to slowly build-up to the distance over time (2600 one week, then 2700, then 2800, etc.), but I'm an impatient person.

So on Wednesday morning I woke up at 4:00am and went to the gym with the intention of tackling the Ironman distance.

The Ironman Florida swim course is a little unusual: instead of one 2.4 mile loop, they have a 1.2 mile loop that athletes complete twice. So halfway through the swim you have to exit the water, run along the beach for a hundred feet, and then re-enter the water.

Having the swim broken up like this allows athletes to drink some water and quickly eat some food before starting the second lap. So I planned my swim to mirror that: I would swim 1900m, stop for 30 seconds to eat a gel pack and drink some water, and then do the second 1900m. After my standard 400m warmup (4x20m, 2x40, 2x60, 2x40, 2x20) I began.

The first 200m was not easy. I always mentally try to focus on one lap at a time, but it's impossible to ignore that I'm attempting to swim the length of 42 football fields. My arms were sore, and I was second-guessing my decision to attempt this mid-week instead of on Monday when my arms are fresher. I eventually settled into a groove however, and let my mind water as I methodically churned out lap after lap. It's difficult to keep count over such a distance so I broke the swim up into 10-lap segments, swimming breast-stroke on each 10th lap. Swimming breast stroke every few minutes also mimics "sighting" in a race, where you briefly switch strokes in order to make sure you're swimming in the right direction. You'd be surprised how difficult it is to swim in a straight line when you're not staring at tiles at the bottom of a pool.

I finished the first half in 41:00 (2:09/100m pace), and quickly ate my gel pack and a few gulps of water before beginning the second 1900m. I've never eaten anything midway through a swim (I usually swim on an empty stomach) so I was pleased to find that the gel pack did not bother my stomach.

The second half was a breeze. My arms felt great and I felt like I could swim endlessly, so at the 3500 mark I picked up the pace. By the last few laps I was swimming as hard as I could, and finished the second half in 40:00 even (2:06/100m pace). Overall my time was 1:21:00, a pace of 2:08 per 100 meters.

I learned several things from this experience. First, that my body is capable of doing the distance without dying (woohoo!). Second, that I can swim the distance and still feel fresh at the end. This is crucial for obvious reasons: the swim is nothing more than a warm-up for the remaining 138.2 miles of biking and running. Third, I have a benchmark time that I can measure all my long swims against.

So individually I've completed the run (26.2 miles) and the swim (2.4 miles). Now all I need to do is focus on the bike. 260 days to go!

Ironman Training: Week 13

Solid week of workouts. The days are finally long enough that I can get a good bike ride in after work, which means doing more bricks too. I'm very pleased to see my overall bike time steadily increasing. My ankle is still not 100%, but I'm hopeful it's getting better. Here's how my schedule looks (in glorious picture form!):

Click for a full-sized view

2/04: I was still a bit full/hungover from the Superbowl, so I skipped my morning swim. I jumped on the bike for 10 miles in the afternoon before lifting weights (Deadlift: 3x5x175, Incline Press: 3x12x85, Pull-ups: 3 sets, 27 total).

2/05: Ran 5 miles. This was my first run in almost two weeks, and I felt pretty good, though the next day my ankle was a bit sore.

2/06: Swam 2400m in the morning (400m warm-up, then 2000m long in 40:38). Weight lifting in the afternoon (Deadlift: 3x5x195, Bench 3x12x120, Pull-ups: 3 sets, 27 total).

2/07: First brick in a long time: biked 10 miles, followed by a 4.5 mile run. The run was only supposed to be a 5K, but I saw my wife near the end and decided to jog with her for a bit. This was a great brick, and I felt fantastic the entire time.

2/08: 2000m swimming in the morning (400m warm-up, then 8x200m). Arms were VERY sore throughout the workout, probably from all the weight-lifting I've been doing.

2/09: 44 mile long bike ride. The temperature wasn't bad, but the wind was brutal. There were several times when it felt like I was pedaling but not moving at all. After the first two laps I felt unusually tired, but it never got to the point of exhaustion and I felt good the rest of the way. I'm trying eating solid food (a cliff bar) on my long rides to see how my stomach handles it compared to gels, and so far I like how it's going. Next week when I attempt 50 miles I'll push the limits and eat more.

2/10: I was originally planning on 6+ miles for this run, but my ankle wasn't feeling too hot so I stopped early to be safe. 3.11 miles overall. It didn't help that it was too hot for a jacket, but too windy to go jacketless.

Weekly Totals:

Swim: 4400 meters (1 hour 57 minutes)

Bike: 64.79 miles (3 hours 58 minutes)

Run: 12.66 miles (2 hours, 7 minutes)

Strength: 1 hour 30 minutes

Total: 9 hours 31 minutes