The Intense Weeks: A Typical Week in the Last Phase of Ironman Training

To those who continue to follow me, thank you.  To those who have donated to the cause of fighting Multiple Sclerosis with me, THANK YOU.  We have raised nearly $4k on the way to Kona.  To those considering helping the fight, please visit http://bit.ly/11jTDEA

Many folks want to know what a typical week looks like for me in training.  "Who" varies from fellow competitors, to the athletes I coach, to novice triathletes, to patients to friends and relatives.  Answering always takes a bit of thinking about who asked the question.  Fellow competitors and the athletes I coach get a fairly detailed look at the current phase.  Novice triathletes will hear a more general overview of things, while patients, friends, and relatives get some mixture depending on how much time we have and how bored they start to look.  My readers here will get the detailed review (for better or worse).

I work part-time (MWF), and have daycare for my son during the week.  I try to get the vast majority of my training done during the week to maximize family time on the weekends.

I do 3 week blocks, followed by a recovery week.  Particularly with the intensity that I train at, I've found that more than 3 weeks of cumulative training will fairly quickly result in illness, injury, and overtraining.  RestWise has been instrumental in helping me find how closely I can toe that line.  This past week marks 9wks to Ironman (IM) in Kona, and 1 more week of hard training before a recovery week.

The basic structure of the past week - what Coach Smyers prescribed:

Mon - rest day

Tues - bike/run brick - 2.5hr steady IM effort bike (with 3x15' 40k Time Trial effort intervals) and 70min running at half-ironman race effort (half-ironman is exactly that: half an IM, or 1.2mi swim, 56mi bike, 13.1mi run)

Wed - long swim (400's and 50's) total 4000m

Thur - 5hr steady bike at IM effort

Fri - morning recovery swim (before work) long run (after work)

Sat - interval swim (75's and 100's) total 3300yds

Sun - running form drills in the morning and  bike intervals (VO2max effort)

Total time at 15hrs (2.75hrs swim, 8.5hrs bike, 3.75hrs run)

Now, at least as importantly, here is what I accomplished:

Mon - Success!  Took a rest day.

Tues - 2.5hrs on the bike netted 54.8mi as prescribed - generally 230watts (W) for all but the intervals, which were at ~305W.  The run went as planned as well, though heart rate (HR) was quite high (more on that later).  10 miles at 6:20 pace and last mile at 7:20 for 70 minutes total.

Wed - swim done early in the morning when I can swim long course meters.  Definitely tired from Tuesday, though, core and legs particularly (which makes for slower, sloppier swimming).  Main set was 3600m - 3x [2x400 on 6:50, 8x50 on :55] mixing up some pull, some paddles.

Thur - As planned, netting 106miles in 5hrs 31sec.  One stop at mile 75 to refill (I have space for 5 bottles on my bike while training, reduced to 3 when racing).  As always at this point in training, I'm thinking "There's no way I can run a marathon after that."

Fri - slept an extra hour rather than doing my recovery swim.  Long run done in Forrest Park (I love Portland, OR) along the Lief Erickson Trail.  Mile markers every 0.25mi.  17 miles total in 1hr 52min.

Sat - I slept 11hrs Friday night - in addition to the 30' nap every day this week.  interval swim went south as soon as I started the harder section, and ended up becoming my recovery swim workout from Friday.  Mentally and physically the right decision.  I also had a swim lesson from local legend Dennis Baker that afternoon for what I think resulted in the first time in my life I swam twice in one day.  Dennis is helping to redo my stroke completely.  It's going to take quite a while, and it's slowed me down for now, but I can already see how it will in the long run (swim?) significantly improve my efficiency in the water.

Sun - we will see, but my RestWise score is up from 60 to 80 today, I'm up early and feeling energized again (and have time for this blog post finally!).  I'll be doing form drills with one of my new athletes (professional triathlete Damian Hill), and bike intervals on the trainer later this afternoon.  Those will hurt, but I think they will go well today. 

In reviewing my planned schedule and my actual schedule, there will be a moving of workouts in the future, if Coach Smyers agrees.  Saturday I think I am just too exhausted from the previous 4 days to be able to get a constructive swim workout in.  Thus my day off will move to Saturday and involve a recovery swim (1500yds easy).  Friday will then only be the long run, and the interval swim will move to Monday, when I have a bit more energy.  We will see how next week goes.  4 more weeks of hard training to go - with a lovely recovery week after next week - then taper arrives!

Going back to one part of interpreting HR data, HR will climb higher than effort would suggest when dehydration is setting in - less blood volume with the same demand from oxygen (i.e., pace, in this case), requires the heart to pump more often to circulate that lower blood volume.  Thus your HR goes up, even though your perceived effort does not.  This is an example of how training / racing with a HR monitor (though there are some pitfalls to be aware of) can be extremely beneficial, giving you nutritional status feedback.

Off to do my form drills running.  SO helpful for efficiency (i.e., faster speed with the same effort).  Thanks again for reading, following, and contributing!

Good training, and good day!