SOCIALLY PROFILED
IRONMAN CANADA TRAINING - 2022
Week beginning Sunday, July 31, 2022
4 weeks out from race day.
WEEKLY GOAL
Keep on pushing while adding some extra sleep.
SUMMARY
Total Time: 15 Hours
I feel like I was ON THE EDGE
Lots of fatigue to start the week. I worked through it to have a solid afternoon on Wednesday only to crash on Thursday.
The week culminated with my biggest ride of this year's build.
Reality is hard to ignore.
The Keremos Creek Wildfire is the largest in the province and currently has the IM Canada Bike Course cut off. Who know what will be?
SUNDAY JUL 31 âī¸
Sleep 3 | Fatigue 6 | Stress 3 | Soreness 3
Rate on an scale 1-7 1=best 7=worst +5 is a warning
PLANNED WORKOUT
90 minute Run/Walk: 20 minutes walking to warm up. Legs will be tired from the day before. Give them some time to loosen up. Run 60 minutes. Easy effort. Flatter route is perfect. 10 minutes walking to finish up.
Mobility 30 minutes
NOTES
Total Time: 82 Mins Old Man Shuffle: 10.5 km
Tired legs is an understatement. This one hurt in a couple of ways.
Ran on gravel with my soft Altras and my pinkie toe did not agree with the surface. My legs were super heavy and never loosened up. What really hurt the most was my ego; I fought for about 28 minutes up to Mann Road but after a quick bio-break in the bushes, found it really hard to shuffle again.
MONDAY AUG 1 đ¤
Sleep 2 | Fatigue 3 | Stress 2 | Soreness 3
Rate on an scale 1-7 1=best 7=worst +5 is a warning
PLANNED WORKOUT
Big Swim: Open Water 2x 3 minutes EASY to warm up and get loose. Rest as needed after each. These are to stretch out and get comfortable. 4x 15 minutes continuous/steady. Swim straight. Breathe. Have fun. Find your sustainable rhythm. Something that seems reasonable for 3800 meters. Rest 3 minutes between each. 3 minutes easy swimming to cool down.
NOTES
Total Time: 84 Minutes Swim: ~3500m
Durrance Lake with just a trisuit (no neoprene).
I felt good; swimming doesn't ask a lot from my legs, however during the 3rd 15 minute rep, I felt a bit of a cramp in my left hip flexor. Water was nice and I had Carina on her paddle board, checking in with me as I swam laps of the lake.
TUESDAY AUG 2 đ¤
Sleep 3 | Fatigue 5 | Stress 3 | Soreness 3
Rate on an scale 1-7 1=best 7=worst +5 is a warning
PLANNED WORKOUT
Order is up to you.
Ride 45 minutes EASY. Any bike. Inside or outside. Run 30 minutes EASY.
NOTES
Total Time: 90 Mins Ride: 24 km Jog: 5.3 km
Weather is still sunny but it has turned cold (for August).
I rode my TT Bike up to Hamsterly Beach to pick up the race swag (hoodie) that was not available for The Victoria Half. It was roughly 30 minutes to and about the same coming home.
I did not run immediately when I got home but when I did eventually head out, it felt like a "brick session"; heavy legs (again) for almost the full half hour.
✓ Little toe was fine this evening.
WEDNESDAY AUG 3 âī¸
Sleep 3 | Fatigue 4 | Stress 3 | Soreness 3
Rate on an scale 1-7 1=best 7=worst +5 is a warning
PLANNED WORKOUT
Same plan as last week but get in the final Willis rep.
Ride 3:00 on TT bike: Ride 20-40 minutes easy to warm up.... 3x Observatory climb. Not at an effort, just steady climbing up and down. Being as comfy as you can. Then.....ride 30-50 minutes on flatter roads. then.....2x Willis Point (Front side) Again, just spinning up and down. Head home.
Off the bike: Run 30 minutes. EASY and flat.
NOTES
Total Time: 195 Mins Bike: 63 km Run: 5.4 km
Basically the same route as last week and I did the second trip up Willis Point Road (no flat tire this week). Consumed Maynards (80g) and a 700ml bottle of Gatorade with 50g of sugar added, plus one 700ml of water.
These mid-week, three hour rides now feel routine. Steady, even effort up the hills; in the aero bars on Wallace Drive up to Saanichton when safe.
The run off the bike went well too. Found myself in a nice rhythm right away (comfortable but not fast) and held it for the entire 30 minutes. Little toe still had a bit of a nervy feeling tonight; more of an annoyance than anything.
THURSDAY AUG 4 âī¸
Sleep 6 | Fatigue 3 | Stress 4 | Soreness 3
Rate on an scale 1-7 1=best 7=worst +5 is a warning
PLANNED WORKOUT
Swim 3000: 300 easy swim, 200 swim w/ buoy, 100 steady kick, all to warm up. Rest as needed. 4x 100 gradual descend 1-4 from easy to 1k effort on #4. R :30 after each. 12x 100 Odds: Strong/high turnover/best form, Evens: Relaxed/easy. R :30 after each. 600 aerobic/smooth steady w/ buoy. 4x 50 easy to cool down.
Mobility 25 minutes
NOTES
Total Time: 0 Minutes
Terrible sleep last night; sweaty mess at 0300 and a headache. Did get back to sleep only to have a second round of night sweats. Not good. Bailed on the swim as the headache hadn't subsided by 1500.
Weather was windy, cold (17ÂēC) and miserable.
FRIDAY AUG 5 âī¸
Sleep 3 | Fatigue 3 | Stress 3 | Soreness 4
Rate on an scale 1-7 1=best 7=worst +5 is a warning
PLANNED WORKOUT
Again, order is up to you. Spin 30 minutes. Nice and easy. If you have more energy than expected you can ride a bit longer.
Run 45 minutes EASY. Flat route preferred. Just getting back into the swing of the frequency and volume on the run.
Mobility 12 minutes
NOTES
Total Time: 75 Mins Run: 7.3 km Ride: rollers
Much better sleep last night though I have new knot in my right piriformis.
I felt really good at a relaxed effort to the turnaround at the Round 9 Boxing Gym. I can only hope to feel like this in Penticton in a few weeks. Once home, I set up the rollers outside in the sunshine an pedalled easy but steady; way warmer than if I was out on the road.
SATURDAY AUG 6 âī¸
Sleep 3 | Fatigue 4 | Stress 2 | Soreness 4
Rate on an scale 1-7 1=best 7=worst +5 is a warning
PLANNED WORKOUT
Big Ride: ~145-160km.
Race day fueling.
In the bars when it's safe to be in the bars. Getting in some solid sections of climbing. Bear Mountain, Observatory reps, John Dean reps, ect. Basically....try to get in over 1000 meters of climbing on the day. More is certainly ok as well. But you do need some aerobar sections. Steady on the climbs, easy/controlled the rest of the time. Ticking over the K's.
NOTES
Time: 360 Mins Ride: 123 km (hilly)
Heading north on West Saanich Road, I noticed the main gate to the Observatory was closed. I could have got off my bike and used the pedestrian gate but I decided to pedal on instead.
A roadie flew past me going up Willis Point Road only to blow up maybe 150m ahead of me; I slowly started to bring him back. Before I got the chance to pass him back, he turned around and headed back down; I carried on.
Traffic didn't give me a clean opportunity to turn left onto Ross-Durrance Road so I headed up, then down for an impromtu trip to Willis Point. The long climb back out of Willis Point was slow but steady. Before I knew it, I was turning right on Ross-Durrance Road for the trip to the foot of Bear Mountain.
According to Strava, I beat my time over the segment "Up N Over Bear Mountain" (7.1 km) set about a month ago and am now a full 2 minutes and 14 seconds from about this time last year. Heading down the south side of the hill, I had some sketchy gusts of wind to deal with.
My trip continued west after a 5 minute stop to top up of my water bottles at the Happy Valley Market. I was ~2:40:00 into the ride at this point.
While climbing up Lindholm Road, I noticed a pretty significant amount of brake rub going on. I stopped at the top to find that my rear quick release skewer had loosened. This was my second time ever up that hill but I was faster this time (according to Strava) despite the handicap.
Down Liberty Drive and left on Rocky Point Road with ~3:30:00 elapsed, I figured that if I ride another 60 minutes west, I'd get around 6 hours on the day.
At the corner of East Sooke and Gillespie Road, I had a decision to make. Continue to the end of East Sooke (easy) or head up Mount Matheson Road for the first time (less easy). My coach's description of the later was "it's steep."
The view from top of Mount Matheson Estates is spectacular!
The ride back to town has its "grunty climbs" but for the most part, I felt as good as I could have hoped for. I finally had some longer moments in the aero-bars after lots of climbing on the day.
One last spin into Esquimalt before heading home got me just over 6 hours of activity time (moving time of 5:50:55).
Seriously beautiful afternoon for a bike ride. The weather was warm, sunshine and apart from the south side of Bear Mountain, next to zero wind.
NEW PERSONAL RECORD
Total Accent: 2049m. Previous record was 1609m set last August on a ride to Cobble Hill.
OTHER NOTES
I swapped out the 11x25 cassette for a 12x28 cassette before the ride. I am still thinking I may go to a 30 tooth for IM Canada.
I wore my Oakley ARO7 helmet and survived the climbs though I did drink more water than I typically would. It was a "sweatfest" for my head going uphill but comfortable with some airflow going downhill. Still, I'm likely to wear the Evade II for IM Canada.
My QL was fine but my lower lumbar had a couple of moments over the 6 hours. Something that was noticed but never to the point of slowing me down. Sore crotch and fatigued quads were more prominent during the ride.
Calories were in a 700ml sludge bottle, 300g of sugar plus a bit of honey diluted in orange flavoured Gatorade. Maple syrup gel packet, Maurten gel (non-caffeinated) and a Gu (birthday cake). ~8L of water.