17

17 hours of training this week!  Its definitely time to get very very serious about the Ironman and my focus is peaking right alonside my fitness.  Things are good on the training front.  Which isn't to say it isn't without issues and obstacles...   but things are still good and moving in the right direction.

Here's some snippets of how the week went...

Monday: 

I started the week with a strong statement as to my dedication and mental strength.  I was still in LA on Monday which was the scheduled take down day or "strike" of the event.  So I worked a very long fairly physical morning from 7am-1pm and then went to grab some lunch before heading to the hotel gym.  It was time to get my long ride in.  Fortunately this hotel had a decent gym in it complete with a spin studio which I've never seen in a hotel before.  So I sat down on the bike, turned on the tunes and started pedalling.  My plan for a nice long sustained even effort for three hours.  Something right around mid to high zone 2 heartrate.  Fortunately the spin studio was air conditioned to very cold temperatures but it still wasn't long before there was a giant puddle of sweat under the bike.  There was a mirror to my right and when I looked at myself I could see steam rising from my head and back from my bodyheat when it met the cold air conditioning.  I figured that was a sign I was working nice and hard.  Spin bikes have no computers on them so my only guage to effort was heart rate and perceived excertion.  The first hour passed pretty quickly... but hour two is where it starts to get hard.  You look at the clock on the wall and only a minute has passed since the last time you looked and you still have almost two hours left to go.  You just have to take your mind someplace else and just focus enough to keep the effort up.  I always save the best tricks for the last hour.  Thats where the positive reinforcements and the good day dreams go.  Thats when I start picturing crossing the finish line of the Ironman and the people that will be there and what that moment will be like.  Those thoughts can get me through anything.  After three hours it was time to hop on the treadmill for a quick 20 minute transition run and then I was DONE!  Great workout and I felt like a mental GIANT after completing that.  Little mental victories like this get filed away...   and when things get hard I can remind myself that I can ride for three hours without going anywhere... and if I can do that I can do ANYTHING!

Tuesday:

Sit in airplanes all day on the way home.

Wednesday:

Wednesday was a hard day.  It started early (or at least as I early as I could get going considering I was still on west coast time) in the pool for a 3700yd workout of kick drills, intervals, and all sorts of other fun.  The main set consisted of a 7x300 on 30 seconds rest at race pace.  And if that wasn't enough to kick my butt that was followed with a 10x50 sprint set on 15 seconds rest right when I had nothing left in the tank.  I left the pool feeling totally zonked!  Mission accomplished...   then it was home for some lunch and a bit of rest and then out on the bike for an hour of intervals followed by a sixty minute run.  A bit much for one day but I have to make up for the missed day spent in airplanes.  I was DEFINITELY ready for bed at the end of that day!

Thursday:

70 mile ride at a nice steady effort with some nice chatty bits and some nice stretches of serious effort and nice amount of time spent in aero.  Plenty of rollers to keep the legs busy and plenty of flats to get focused on the style of riding I'll need for the B2B.  I really liked the area we rode in as I think it will approximate the B2B course really well so I plan to ride out there a lot.

Friday:

Sixty minute run focusing on form and trying to stay pain / discomfort free.  Not there yet but I'm learning what works and what doesn't.

Saturday:

2 x 1.10 mile swims for a total of 2.2 miles.  I did two loops of the GVP dock swim and only paused at the beach between loops to make sure a friend of mine was doing ok who was having a bit of a rough day in the water.  And then from the pond it was off to Providence for a nice two hour 30 mile ride full of sharp little climbs that never seemed to end.

Sunday:

Rock and Roll Half Marathon.  I decided it was in my best interest to treat this as my regular weekly long run and not go out and do anything stupid.  Its all about the B2B.  Last year I put this race on my calendar so I could see what I could do in a half marathon.  My PR at this distance (1:35) was set in a half ironman length triathlon as I've never actually raced this distance.  So I was hoping to race this one...   but with everything going on with my right leg I decided to enjoy the day instead and take it easy.  So I ran the entire race with another team mate whose plan was to go just under two hours.  PERFECT!  In the end I felt better at the end of that run that I have at the end of any long run in weeks.  So that was promising.  Still not perfect but I felt pretty good out there today.  Definitely not my old self, and definitely not ready to go fast yet...  but at least it felt better than usual.  I felt encouraged today.

So all that adds up to 17 hours of training.  Not too shabby!  This week is going to be another big week complete with some long rides, long runs, and long swims...   its all about the Ironman!

And speaking of the Ironman...   I don't know how people lose weight training for one of these.  I need to work on my food discipline because all this training makes want to do nothing but eat, eat, eat!  I just need to focus on putting good quality foods in my belly.

Another good week in the bank and hopefully another one ahead....    two weeks to go to the Timberman Half Ironman triathlon (which I'm training right through) and 12 to go till B2B.  (not that I'm counting!!)