I Survived a Pretty Big Week

I knew September would rush by in a blur; here we are on the last day of summer.  Basically, if I haven't been training, I've been at work, or I've been recovering on the couch.  Last week was the biggest week of training I've had for this ironman, possibly my biggest week ever (definitely in terms of combined volume and effort!).

To be honest, when I looked at my training plan for the week last Sunday, I was anxious.  It looked hard!  I got a pep talk from a friend, and got down to work.  Chop wood carry water - which means I did what I needed to do.  Here's what my training week looked like.

Monday: 4000m swim, with the main set consisting of 6x400m race pace.  Nothing like a good swim before breakfast!  Then after work, a 2-hour ride with some FTP intervals.

Tuesday: 1 hour easy run, and a 30-minute strength session.  I did both of those after work, as every Tuesday morning I have a 7 a.m. meeting.

Wednesday: Another early morning swim, this time 3500m with an endurance set of 3x800.  After work, back on the bike with some VO2 max hill repeats.

Thursday: Ah, I love Thursdays as it's the only day I only have one workout.  A one hour hilly trail run with the dog.

I amuse myself with fun socks.

Friday: 4200m swim before work, including a 10x300 race pace main set.  After work, when my boss wanted to head to happy hour, I had to pass and hop on my bike for a 2 hour easy spin.  Sigh - I love happy hour!  The struggle is real, people.

Saturday: This is the day that was causing me some dread.  I'm getting burned out on long rides, and while I figured this was coming, I hoped I'd luck out with something else.  Anyway.  It was a race simulation day so I started with a swim - only an easy 50 minutes.  Then immediately out on the bike for a really long, over distance day.  Instructions were to go up to 7 hours (really, my enjoyment factor decreases sharply after 5 hours, but I'd see what I had) with 5 hours at ironman pace (75% FTP).  Despite the dread, I had a great ride, hitting some good power numbers and my fastest pace in training ever; I got to the 180km IM distance at 6:14 - hopefully I can do that on race day on the hilly Louisville course!

The results from Saturday's ride.

Sunday: 2 hour long run.  My longest run in 3 years, and it actually wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.  Adaptation, anyone?  Followed by a 30 minute strength session, at which point I was sure my coach was trying to kill me.

Recovery session on the couch with
SpiderTech tape and Marc Pro.

It all added up to almost 23 hours, although I don't sweat the hours because I know it's what do you with those hours, not how many hours.  And what I did with those hours was exactly what I needed to do that week.  One more hard week, then two weeks of taper - bliss!