Week 5 Complete! 130 days 22 hours to start

The teacher becomes the participant.

This summary is delayed because of Easter weekend. Life happens!

After the joy of getting outside for a couple of rides and enjoying everything a taper had to offer I was back inside this week. I am not hardcore enough to cycle when I need to layer up, and even in the summer I am a bit of a delicate flower in the morning. 

The cut back week was nice to get a bit more sleep and some rest. I had some openings in my one on one schedule, and an extra cycle class to teach,  so I shifted my workouts. The big change was moving my long run from a day off Friday to a Monday where I am on my feet teaching classes and training clients. That one was hard to get through, and because of the weather I ran it inside on the track.

Survived 1:20 around the track.
That's 53 laps.

Monday

Run - 12.5km on the indoor track. I felt like I could have done better with fuel and electrolytes as my legs were quite cramped towards the end

Tuesday

Swim - 2400m total with this workout:

200 warm up

3 x 100 fins torpedo, 6/1/6, broken arrow

2 x 100 javelin

4 x 150 build pace

4 x 200 pull scull/dog paddle, paddles, fists, paddles

4 x 50 easy/fast

100 cool down

Bike - 1:25 total between two cycle classes

Wednesday 

Bike - 53:00

Thursday

Swim - 200m done as 5 x 400 with the first being done as drills and the rest as continuous swim

Friday

Run - 6.4km done on the treadmill with some speed bursts

Saturday

Bike - 2:20 on my bike on the trainer

Run - 1.6km on the treadmill as a brick run

Totals 8:44 training time

Swim - 4400m

Bike - 4:38

Run - 20.5 km 

Week 3 Complete! 145 days, 16 hours until start.

 This post is a day behind because things got in the way from posting on time. The funeral for the family friend was on Friday and I felt a bit low leading up to it and after as well. Here is a summary of the week:

Monday

Run - 6.4 km on the treadmill  keeping effort low

Tuesday 

Swim - 1500m total including 200m and 400m time trials for CSS testing

Bike - 1:00 total including 30 min spin class

Wednesday

Run - 10km on the treadmill at easy effort

Thursday

Bike - 1:00 at a recovery effort

Friday

Bonus rest day

Saturday 

Bike -1:30 including some moderate intensity intervals

Totals

Swim - 1500m

Bike - 3:30

Run - 16.3km

The week ahead is a cutback week in terms of intensity, but I see it being in similar volume. Weeks 5-8 will have an increase in intensity and volume so I am looking forward to backing off a bit this week.

Aside from the sadness, I am feeling good. My body is tired towards the end of the week so I am always looking forward to the rest day. I am unsure if I am eating enough so I am being mindful of that. 

So, What's the Plan? 162 days, 19 hours until start.

If you know me, you know I like to plan. If you know racing, the you also know you need to have a plan. Some people can wing it, and I have done some races with little to no actual training, but approaching an Ironman this way is above my pay grade. Behold what I think is the best book out there! 

This book has plans from the sprint to iron distance as well as off season maintenance and strength. For the triathlon plans there are 10 levels of intensity. The higher the number the greater the intensity in number, duration and quantity of workouts, length  For this race I am following a modified version of level 3. There are 3 workouts each for swim, bike and run. Because of my schedule I am only going to swim twice a week. 

My general plan is as follows:

Monday - run 

Tuesday - swim and bike

Wednesday - run and strength (group fitness class)

Thursday - bike

Friday - swim and run or brick 

Saturday - bike

Sunday - rest

I teach group fitness classes or train clients Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Because I am on my feet already, those will be single workout days of a lower intensity. Eventually Fridays will become a long run alternating with brick workouts, and Saturdays will be the long ride. Swimming may move from Friday to Thursday. There will also be children's activities and vacations to work around, but this is the general idea. I will be following what the book has laid out for length and intensity of the workouts though, even though the days will be shuffled around. 

That being said, I will make taking care of my RA the top priority and if I need to back off or skip a workout that's what I will do. Because I don't like deviating from a plan, that will be hard for me, but if I make deviating from the plan part of the plan then it's easier. Follow that?