IRONMAN TRAINING 2021
Week beginning Sunday, June 13, 2021
15 weeks until IRONMAN Canada.
WEEKLY GOAL
With the confirmation that Ironman Canada is a go in September, I had to drop my backup plan for Ironman Italy. It is just more realistic to travel by car to a local race than to fly 9 timezones away during the backend of a global pandemic. Consistency has been paying off; my goal for this week is to keep showing up.
SUMMARY
I feel I like was ON THE EDGE
The carry over from last Saturday (the ride in particular) stayed with me throughout this week.
This is the second week that I struggled to find time to journal. Work has been steady and engaging, the bathroom renovation has taken up some of my time and the weather has been such that I'd rather not be on the keyboard as much.
This was a 14 hour week.
SUNDAY JUN 13
Sleep 3 | Fatigue 4 | Stress 3 | Soreness 4
Rate on an scale 1-7 1=best 7=worst +5 is a warning
PLANNED WORKOUT
Run 2:15. Really similar to last week. Easy effort. Cover some ground. Stay well fueled. Find that nice continuous stride. Post run: Put on a timer for 20 minutes and stretch/roll.
NOTES
Total Time: 137 minutes Distance: 22km
Very late, post-dinner start to today's workout. I really struggled to "find a nice stride"; this was a crash fest with the ground for the first 18 kilometres. It really wasn't until the last stretch on the Goose that I found any sort of rhythm.
Sharp but brief twinge at the bottom of my right fibula at 5, 11 and the 13th kilometre marks.
MONDAY JUN 14
Sleep - | Fatigue - | Stress - | Soreness -
Rate on an scale 1-7 1=best 7=worst +5 is a warning
PLANNED WORKOUT
Short commute to/from the pool.
5:30am: Swim 2400: 2 rounds (100 easy free, 2x 50 w/ buoy to warm up, 2x 50 steady kick. r :15 after each) 12x 100 D 1-4, 5-8, 9-12. 1: Relaxed, 2: Relaxed but high form focus and staying high on the water, 3: Focus on form and turnover. Good bit of effort, 4: Something you can hold for 750-1k all out. r :25 after each. 10x 50 Odds: Easy/relaxed, Evens: FAST, something you can hold for 500-750 effort r :25. 100 easy to cool down.
NOTES
Total Time: 60 minutes Distance: 2400m
I drove to and from the pool this morning.
In the water, I could feel the past weekend, right from the first length. The 12x100m descending was an exercise in humility. The harder the effort, the harder it became to make any time on the previous length. Those 12x100m descending numbers look flat as a board
TUESDAY JUN 15 ☀️
Sleep - | Fatigue - | Stress - | Soreness -
Rate on an scale 1-7 1=best 7=worst +5 is a warning
PLANNED WORKOUT
Ride 85 minutes. Spin 25-30 minutes easy (Maybe a bit extra on the way out vs back home). (Towards Mill hill) 6x 3:00 #1: Steady climbing to warm up. #2-6 @ a touch easier than 20k effort, 2-3 minutes easy after each. 20-25 minutes easy riding to cool down.
Run 30 minutes flat and EASY.
NOTES
Total Time: 130 minutes
On the way out toward Langford, I rode with a guy named Gerald who, at 61, was signed up for his first triathlon. Turns out, he opted for the Calgary 70.3 in lieu of the cancelled Victoria 70.3 race. I'll be cheering for him in August!
I decided to add a bit more of a challenge to this week's hill workout. I rode a bit further, to the Braemar Heights subdivision to tackle the hill of Haida Drive.
Each time up was harder effort, gaining 5m on the last rep. I finally reached the crest of the hill on the end of the sixth rep. I was huffing and puffing pretty good tonight.
I still hadn't had dinner yet but I had a window to get the 30 minutes of easy running in. Default easy route to the Selkirk Trestle but I took the hillier Burnside Road back to change things up a bit.
WEDNESDAY JUN 16 ☀️
Sleep - | Fatigue - | Stress - | Soreness -
Rate on an scale 1-7 1=best 7=worst +5 is a warning
PLANNED WORKOUT
Short commute to/from the pool.
Yes, this swim is a bit easier because you'll probably be tired from Tuesday.
5:30am: Swim 2100: 3 rounds (100 easy free, 2x 50 as 25 fist drill/25 strong finish to your stroke, 50 steady kick, 50 building kick r :20 after each) 4x 150 aerobic/steady swim r :30. 3x 150 aerobic/steady swim w/ buoy. r :30. 100 easy free, 50 easy w/ buoy to cool down.
Run 45 minutes: As.....30 minutes easy to start. Followed by 12x :20 strides, :40 walk after each. 3 minute jog to cool down.
NOTES
Total Time: 130 minutes Swim: 2100m
Cooler morning than expected for a bike ride. Oh well, _"be bold, start cold."
In the water, the warmup sucked but the swim got better after that. For me, 150m is a "tweener" distance that is to short to be paced and too long to be raced. The last 100m was clocked at 1:50 so this was a good workout.
This is my training "goof" of the week:
Leaving the pool, I didn't read that I had a run to do. Instead I set off on my bike for an hour and a bit. It was sunny but cool and I pretended like it was Penticton in the third week of September. I did get this week's photo while pedalling the waterfront route.
THURSDAY JUN 17 ☀️
Sleep - | Fatigue - | Stress - | Soreness -
Rate on an scale 1-7 1=best 7=worst +5 is a warning
PLANNED WORKOUT
Ride 1:40 on MTB. Head to your favorite trail.
- Have fun!
- Head up some climbs! They don't have to be steep, but just ride the trails and try to keep the rubber side down as best you can.
- Make sure that you spin out easy on the road to/from the trails.
- You have the all clear to pin it to get up some of the hills, or push up a shallower because you want to!
NOTES
Total Time: 105 minutes
Besides crashing 3 times on the descent from Scafe Hill, this was a fun ride. I am thankful that I learned how to fall off a bike when I was young but I probably shouldn't put myself on trails above my current skill set. I did have a good run on Comfy Wooden Chair and another random trail that took me up the north side of Stewart.
I stopped for a bit at the top of Scafe Hill to take in the view of the South Island.
FRIDAY JUN 18 ☀️
Sleep - | Fatigue - | Stress - | Soreness -
Rate on an scale 1-7 1=best 7=worst +5 is a warning
PLANNED WORKOUT
Run 50 minutes. Hilly route. EASY effort. Great day to stretch and roll out.
NOTES
Total Time: 52 minutes Distance: 8.0 km
The construction of the Mckenzie Interchange left a 13m high berm to separate the highway from the park. It's an easy 6 minute easy jog to and from that berm and that was my where tonight's workout was. 16 reps, easy to the top before turning around to head back down.
As I got to the top, a guy, about my age, had walked up the backside of the hill. I kept doing my thing, jogging up and down while he took in to view from the top. On his walk down, I smiled at him, he smiled back and I blurted out, "12 more to go...". He thought about it for a moment and came back with, "I am glad I'm not you."
I continued up the hill with a smile and in my head I said, "No bud, I am glad I am not you." It is Friday evening and I am thankful to be putting in the work to realize a goal.
SATURDAY JUN 19 ☀️
Sleep 3 | Fatigue 4 | Stress 3 | Soreness 5
Rate on an scale 1-7 1=best 7=worst +5 is a warning
PLANNED WORKOUT
—
NOTES
Total Time: 205 minutes
I got rid of the wasp nest above the garage! What a relief.
Before heading to the lake, I had a session rolling out my right hamstring; that and my glutes were sore upon waking this morning.
Once in the water, I did find a pretty good rhythm with sighting and breathing. I swam from Hamsterly to Eagle Beach and I seemed to be quicker on the way back. There wasn't much of a breeze either.
I rode the TT Bike north from Elk Lake. I wasn't 6 minutes in when I needed a pit-stop. The effort was mostly easy. One thing I did a bit different was to grunt a little longer in the aero bars when on an incline. Habitually, I am up and out of them when my speed drops below 22 kph.
For calories, I had a can of Redbull (? calories) before I left the lake and got through 1 and a half bottles of lemonade (450 calories).