With 53 days to go, I am now neck deep in Ironman training. Since I'm feeling so much better physically these days, I am having so much fun with it all! This was the last week of a major three week build, and I went into it with some residual fatigue from what had come before. But I ended up having a great, great week. Here's how it went.
Started with a race rehearsal (RR) swim in Walden pond with two other Endurance Nation athletes on the Labor Day holiday. The 2.4 miles went like clockwork, and I know I'm ready for the race swim. In training I like to get over what I call the "swim hump"--getting to that place where you are certain the swim is in there. All the pool workouts I've been doing so religiously, capped by the RR tells me I'm good to go. I swam 9,000 yards this week all tolled. Here we are getting ready for the swim.
It was a big run week with a total of about 35 miles. My longest run this week was 16 miles in about 2:30. Not bad, and that's a LOT for me. I'm quite sure that nagging injuries kept me from even coming close to that weekly total last time I trained for IMFL. That's reassuring mentally and physically. I still have some work to do in the run training in these final few weeks. Mainly I need to make sure I stay consistent and keep up the frequency.
It was a big bike week too. A total of 9 hours on the bike with a ton of interval work. The EN bike training is incredibly productive, but it is tough. My last four hour ride on Sunday was a major mental challenge. Physically, I was holding up fine, but I think knowing I would get a rest week as soon as I was through with the ride was a big incentive for me to git 'er done. Here is a sample of the four hour ride I did. Trust me, this is a good one! In a few weeks the Functional Threshold intervals go up to 2 x 20'. Ow, that's going to be rough.
Warm Up: 45' @ 65-70% of functional threshold (FT) watts
Main Set: 2 x 40' (5') @ 80-85% FT
10' @ 65-70% FT
3 x 10' (4') @ 95-100% FT
Remainder is 80-85% FT, as you feel.
So all tolled it was:
Swim 3:30
Bike 9:00
Run 5:00
I am entitled, and entirely deserve every single minute of this step down rest week! And I'm taking it!
As my Endurance Nation friend Marianne says, Runnin', Ridin', Swimmin', and having a blast!
