Ironman training week 4

Last week before starting on my Trainerroad plan! And the big question going into the week was, will I get the flu?

Fortunately, other than feeling a bit headache-y and under the weather on Monday evening, nothing came of it and I made it through the week fine. My poor husband had to stay in bed for a few days, but fortunately the kids didn't catch it. So really that particular round of the flu went about as well as we could have hoped.

Very solid week of training. Short a swim again, but I did get in one 3,000m one, so I'm calling that good.

Monday: REST! So good.

Tuesday: 8k lunch run; 50k Zwift in the evening

I am off centre. All this time and I still can't #selfie right.

Not a whole lot interesting to say about those. I skipped getting up early to swim in case I was getting sick (figured the extra sleep would be more beneficial). Running was good. Cycling was good. Everything is feeling good.

Wednesday: 9k lunch run; evening weights

Judge all action shots by the quality of the ponytail action

Now THIS was a run. Felt amazing. Just one of those days where the temperature was perfect, I was feeling good, and if it hadn't been for the whole having to go back to work thing, I felt like I could have run all afternoon.

I can neither confirm nor deny that I'm wearing compression socks so that I don't have to shave my legs.

Went to the gym to lift weights, which was thoroughly enjoyable. I had really forgotten just how satisfying it is to pick up heavy shit. Plus, good for the bones and all.

Thursday: Swim 2200m; Zwift 42k

I just like how my back looks here. Pure vanity. hey all those rows and shoulder presses have to be good for something, right?

Off to the pool in the morning, where I met another member of my gym who is also training for Tremblant! Hopefully we will bump into each other again, since we both plan to swim early Thursday mornings. As much as it's pretty sweet to have the pool to myself, it's always nice to know that someone else will be there and will be quietly judging you if you don't show up...

In the evening, another round on Zwift. Nothing fancy. Kind of looking forward to the structured training starting this week, although I am NOT looking forward to the FTP test. Not even a little.

Friday: 8k lunch run; 3000m swim

Another beautiful day. Let's not discuss that Weather Network article about the deep freeze coming back in February. I'm just going to be here enjoying sunshine and reasonable temperatures and being completely in denial about winter continuing on for another month...

Swim in the evening, because that's a fantastic Friday night. No really, it kind of is. Somehow I managed to pick the exact same workout I did the last time I swam 3,000m, with all kinds of distance per stroke work, but that worked out nicely. That drill is really helpful. And some hypoxic drills, which I guess are fun in their own vaguely cruel way.

Saturday: 72k Zwift; 9k run; weights

Up early for 2:15 on Zwift, as one does. Almost done watching Black Mirror, so I need to download more movies for next weekend's long ride. Not super impressed with this season, though. Show seems to have kind of lost its mojo a bit.

Then a delayed brick run while the kiddo was at her basketball skills session. There was a tiny bit of wind.

HA.

The wind was insane. I was able to route things to stay out of it much of the time, but the final km straight into the worst of it was not particularly fun.

Weightlifting later in the afternoon, however, was super fun.

Deadlifting my bodyweight for 2x5? Nice.

In addition to PRing my deadlift, I had wanted to start working on pullups. But when I got to the weight room the gravitron machine was missing. So no way to do assisted pull ups. I figured I'd use the bar on the Smith machine to do some negative reps (jump up to the top, slowly lower down), but then I shocked the hell out of myself by actually pulling off a real pull off! I haven't been able to do those for years! I guess all those barbell rows over the last few months are working.

chin is above the bar! woo! (narrow grip, obviously - never in my life have I been able to do wide grip pull ups)

I can only do one at a time, but I'll take that over 0. I ended up doing about 8 singles scattered around my workout, so I'm going to keep working those in and hopefully rebuild back to being able to do actual sets of 5-8 of them.

(killer upper back DOMS from those Sunday afternoon, though. whoa.)

Sunday: 20k long run

This was a bit lonely (there were hardly even any other runners around, probably because of the Robbie Burns run), but OMG that sunrise made it all worthwhile.

Plus, I did the whole 20k with an average heart rate of 144 bpm, which is crazy low for me. Things are really coming together nicely.

(could have gone to swim later in the day on Sunday, but did not. Oh well.)

This week, starting on the Trainerroad Ironman plan. Technically I'm starting a week earlier than I need to, but that's a deliberate choice to give me a spare week to play with in the schedule, just in case. And I signed up for the Chilly half, which I have no intention of running particularly hard, but it'll be a good chance to see my running friends and provides a nice bit of motivation to keep up the distance on the long runs.

Ironman training week 3

Got off to a slow start this week. Weather, tiredness, back bugging me, etc. But a solid week overall.

I knew I'd been forgetting something on these entries. Some sort of summary!

Monday: rest day

Tuesday

Plan was to go to the pool for 5:30 am, but it snowed overnight and I didn't want to deal with driving in whatever slippery mess might be out there (the city pretty much sucks at dealing with small overnight snowfalls - their philosophy seems to be to just wait until after morning rushhour to plow, when half of it will be gone from everyone driving through it). So I went back to bed. I regret nothing.

Run: 8k

Short 8k at lunch. Hooray for Hamilton and clearing the multiuse paths (reasonably) well!

Zwift: 37.5k

*insert Zwift picture that looks like all the other Zwift pictures here*

(I forgot to take a picture and I'm too lazy to screenshot the one on Strava)

Usual toddle around Zwift until I got bored and it was time to put the kids to bed.

Wednesday

Swim: 2000m

Made it to that 5:30 swim and did a modified version of this 30 minute workout to make it 2000m. And of course it actually took 45 minutes because this book is designed for much faster swimmers.

Weights

Usual weights in the evening when I just couldn't deal with the thought of running outside in -17. I dunno, I'm a total wimp this winter. Weights went really well, even if I did have to share the weight room with three whole other people. I guess that's what passes for a January crowd at my gym!

Thursday

Brick: 1 hour Zwift; 9k run

Had many good intentions of doing various things during the day, but nothing actually happened until I got on Zwift after dinner. This winter weather has just been exhausting to deal with.

When I get the sprint jersey I do remember to take the screenshot!

Anyway, an hour on Zwift and then I knew I had to run, which I wasn't super enthusiastic about
because have I mentioned how the cold weather was just really getting to me this week? BECAUSE IT HAS.

So I did a complete clothing change (struggling out of a wet sports bra and then into a clean one is quite the production) and went out to run at least 30 minutes.

Slightly crazy eyes going on here. It was late, OK?

And then I got weirdly into a zone and the next thing I knew I was 4.5 km from home. It was a slow run but somehow I got completely into a meditative headspace and ended up doing the full 9k without even really feeling like I did anything at all. Wish I could bottle that! It was like I just shut off my brain and floated through the run on auto pilot.

Friday

Run: 8k

Easy run at lunch. Enjoying the seasonal temperatures. It is so much more pleasant to run at -1C. I was, however, feeling a little stiff and off overall, which could have been the brick the night before (given I haven't done one of those for months...), but also probably at least partially due to getting an adjustable desk and spending some of my time at work standing instead of sitting. In the long run I think that's going to be very beneficial, but right now it's taking a bit of getting used to. I probably overdid the amount of time I spent standing this week just due to the novelty.

Lookit me all professional and shit

Swim: 2700m

Did the advanced workout. Hated life a great deal by the time I got to the final 2 100s.

Quiet evening at the pool. Going to bed with goggle marks is super sexy, right?

Saturday

Run: 18k

Glowing pink shirt for early morning visibility. That thing is crazy bright.

Up ridic early to fit this in before kiddo #2 had a free throw competition. IT WAS ALMOST WARM YOU GUYS. Would have been nice to run a little later and really been able to enjoy the sunrise, but I'll take what I can get!

Weights

Deadlift PR at the gym. Getting so close to full plates on those! (those are 35 pounds - I also did a set with added 5s, so another week and I should be up to full 45 plates).

It was probably the socks.

Sunday

Zwift: 63k

Empty Zwift roads are boring

This was a super tedious ride. My internet connection had gone all wonky which was messing up my Zwifting - ended up alone for most of the ride, which is really boring, especially when you also can't get Netflix to work. Once I finished the ride I confirmed with the rest of the family that the internet was being weird and we rebooted the modem, which fixed it. Wish I'd thought to do that when I was having so much trouble logging in to Zwift 2 hours earlier! Anyway, it got done.

Brick: 5k

Jazz hands because the week is DONE.

This felt like total garbage. But it's miles in the bank. So excited to do more bricks. Ha.

Decent week altogether - short a swim this week, but that's OK. My husband wasn't feeling well Sunday and I didn't want to go to the pool and be uncontactable for that long leaving him home sick with the kids. Life takes priority over training.

(let's all cross all fingers and toes I don't catch the flu from him, because after last winter, I am so not interested in going through that again).

On to the next week, where I'm going to try and win a Cervelo from Zwift and enjoy my last week of no Trainerroad freedom.

Ironman training week 2

Solid week. The weather continues to be really weird in annoying ways, but that's winter in Canada. Always a good time.

Monday: REST

Tuesday: oh just a bit of everything

Swim: 2350m

Math error on this workout (4x25m does not equal 200m there book), and in trying to correct it to get the total distance right I managed to make it worse...

5:30am is early. Good swim, though. Helps when you basically sleep through the first half it.

Run: 8k

Out of the office for a lunch run. Flat, easy, slushy in spots as all the snow starts melting, but I'll take it over -20 any day.

Zwift: 35k

Um does anyone see the problem here? Check where your fan is pointing before you start...

New roads on Zwift! Although from what I saw (admittedly I was watching Black Mirror at the same time) it was pretty much just a tree lined road. Not super exciting. But it passed the time.

And then I went to bed and slept like the dead!

Wednesday

Run: 9k

My Timehop app informed me that 5 years ago this day was the first time I ever ran to Princess Point at lunch, so naturally Christina and I recreated that run. I am so spoiled for options for running at work!

Weights

40 minutes of the big 5 at the weirdly empty especially given that it is January gym. Squats, bench, deadlifts, rows, overhead press. Simple, quick, hits all the muscle groups. Get in, get it done, get the hell out.

Thursday

Run - 8k

The temperature climbed up to 12 degrees (WTF) so this run practically turned into a swim...

Zwift: 35k

Meh. I am about ready to get back to a Trainerroad program, I think. I need some structure to my cycling and Zwift is starting to bore me.

Friday

Swim - 1800m

GoPro FAIL.

Got the pool about 10 minutes later than I wanted and had to cut this one a little short, which I didn't really mind because everything about this swim felt awful. Just couldn't find my stroke. Plus the picture was a total fail, and everyone knows if you don't take a decent photo your workout might as well not even count.

Saturday

Zwift: 83 ish km

"I have how much longer left?"

Watched some Black Mirror and a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother. These long rides are all about going in with the mental attitude that 'today I will ride 2:30' (or whatever time) and then ignoring how much time has actually passed for as long as possible.

Also, snacks. Always have snacks.

Run: 8k

Only picture I manged before the phone froze up and died. 

It got stupid cold again. And everything froze. And now everything is all ice covered, which is a huge pain in the ass, but I found a nice paved 700m loop near my kid's basketball practice that had been reasonably well salted/plowed and ran around it for a while. Didn't even get dizzy. Nasty wind and SO DAMN COLD.

Sunday

Swim: 2300m

man this pool feels lonely some days. I should not complain about that because the opposite is much much worse...

A little endurance work to kick off Sunday morning, including a bunch of 50m kick drills without fins which were pretty much the definition of futility. When you are kicking your lungs out and barely making progress down the pool...well, suffice it to say my kick needs some work.

Run: 14k

This was a bit short because have I mentioned the ICE EVERYWHERE?! Gah. Ended up running 4k along the beach on the sand (!) because that was safer than the path. First time I've ever seen the Hamilton side of the beach trail in that bad a condition. Usually the city keeps it clearer :(

But at least I took lots of cool pictures! Makes things a little more fun trying to find those shots, and really if this isn't fun, why would I even bother doing it. Crossing my fingers things warm up a bit and I can go chasing sunrises again soon.

On to week 3! More of the same-ish, although hopefully a longer long run and more weightlifting. I skipped the second session this week to go buy a standing desk for my office, which I think was a better use of time in the long run. Assuming I ever get around to assembling it...

Going with the cliche title: The road to Ironman begins - IMMT training week 1

Happy New Year!

To be honest, I'm not even sure how many weeks there are right now until Ironman Mont Tremblant, since I have yet to really work on my official training plan. So unlike me, really! But that's one of my goals for this week - get something down on paper so I can figure out which Trainerroad plans I'll be using and when I officially need to get started on them.

Until then, I'll basically be maintaining what I've been doing through November/December. Getting in 2-3 swims, 3-4 bikes, and 4-5 runs each week. Keeping the runs easy, the biking fun, with a loose goal of swimming at least 6000m each week, a long ride of at least 2 1/2 hours (adding on from watever I did the previous week), and a long run of 16-21 km.

So how did week 1 go?

Monday
Swim: 3000m
StrongLifts A

-17 means waiting for the windshield to de-frost before going anywhere.

My gym opened at 8 so I was up early-ish to get in a long swim. Might as well get the year started on the right foot (stroke?). Of course, that was after an inordinately long wait for the inside of my windshield to defrost. Which I will have to remember to take into account for early morning swims while it's still so cold out!

Oh just equalling my longest swim from last year on January 1st, no big deal.

I also did StrongLifts day A, which was good. I need to put together a full body strength program, I think - I can usually get in 2 days a week, but Stronglifts really needs 3 and I just don't have that kind of time. I need a full body routine I can do in a half hour or so if I'm going to keep up with the strength work. And I need to, since weightlifting seems to have been really beneficial for my bad shoulder and cranky back.

adding weights for rows. Not ideal to do right after a 3000m swim...

Then in the afternoon it was marginally less freezing so I talked myself out for a run, using my usual 'just go for 2.5k and if you are hating it you can turn back and then at least you've run 5k' method. (I never end up turning back, because I generally start enjoying myself too much to turn around).

The running on snow pack kind of blows, but hey, sunshine! I'll take it.

Tuesday
Zwift, 35.5km

Nothing fancy, just committed to an hour cycling around Zwift with no real plan but to get the heart rate up. I had some moderate DOMS from lifting weights on Monday so was in no mood to do much more than try and flush out the muscles. (and on the plus side, the DOMS showed I hit all the right muscle groups, so yay?)

Wednesday
Swim - 2600m

Not sure what was going on here but it's marginally more fun than the usual 'swimming towards the camera doing front crawl' shot.

Swimming at 5:30 am means having the pool to myself (until 6:15 or so, when a couple of other people showed up), and trying to trick my brain into thinking I was still laying in bed sleeping. It sort of worked. This was a strength workout - lots of pulling, some work with paddles - and left me with pretty sore lats!

Run - 8k

My plan for this picture failed, but at least we got this solid shot! Unlike my phone, the GoPro seems to be able to handle taking short videos in the cold.

Met up with Christina for a lunch run at work (can I say how awesome it is she got a job on campus and can be my lunch run buddy?! so awesome!). Totally overdressed because there was hardly any wind, but a solid 8k towards the current Lululemon challenge, which I am doing because last year they gave us t-shirts and shorts for completing the challenge and the shorts are freaking awesome. I want another pair!

Unfortunately the pace was a little fast for me and ye old sciatica was twinging Wednesday night. After a lengthy session with the foam roller and my Mr. Spiky Ball 'O Pain, I got it to go away, but it was a good reminder to be careful.

Thursday

Run - 9k

Wait, I have to do how many km to complete this challenge? And Monday's run didn't count? Damn it.

Working at home, so I had time for a run in the mid-morning, plus the heavily discounted trail shoes I ordered from MEC arrived and I wanted to give them a whirl to see how they'd feel on the snow packed sidewalks. They were fantastic - much better traction than my standard runners. The wind was from an odd direction (North, unusual here), but that made it easier to minimize my time running into the wind, so even though it was chilly it really wasn't that bad. I think I'm starting to remember the lessons I learned during the winters of permanent polar vortexes re: how to dress for nasty low temps and bad windchills (essentially, layers you can pull on and off your face and head, and minimize time running into the wind as much as possible).

Zwift - 31.8km

Ride on!

Just spinning the legs out. Not much exciting to say about this one.

Friday
Swim - 2100m

My choice of lanes because no one else is dumb enough to show up at 5:30 am

Getting into the 'swim' of things (I am HILARIOUS) with the early morning swimming. My garmin was uncooperative and stopped recording laps 500m in, which was super frustrating (fingers crossed it's one of those weird one off tech things and not the watch dying...). The swim part was pleasant enough. If I have to get in a workout at 5:30 in the morning, swimming really is my favourite, at least until we get back to being able to watch the sunrise on early morning runs.

Saturday
Zwift - 110km

I knew if I mentioned the 25 laps of the volcano achievement to Zindine he'd be totally into doing it. Which unfortunately meant I was committed to finishing the whole damn thing! Started to get uncomfortable about 2 and a half hours in, but pushed through and finished it off. Welcome to Ironman training.

Run - 8k

The GoPro stayed alive for a solid minute before the battery succumbed to the cold

After lying down for about 2 hours and eating some snacks, I bundled up and headed out for a run (will they let me do that at the Ironman? an hour nap between sports would be grrrrrreat). Run felt good, since fortunately there was barely any wind so no real windchill factor added on to the air temp of -12.

Sunday
Run - 20.18 km

So many layers to manage the temperatures.

Waited until later in the morning to run since it was supposed to be warmer, which I think was a filthy lie because the wind was nasty. I ran straight into it for 5k, thinking I'd turn around, but then my path turned and it became more of a cross wind so I stuck it out. And then the last 5k back to the car felt like I had wings, the tailwind was so amazing! Gotta love that!

Weights

LET'S DEADLIFT!

Did a full body routine which has left me with major DOMS today. At least I know it's working? And I think the full body will work better for me so that I'm at least hitting all the major muscle groups even the weeks I can only manage to strength train once a week.

Totals:
Swim - 7700m
Bike: 178km
Run - 53.68 km

Pretty solid place to start! Aiming to more or less do the same thing again this week. A little more challenging with it being a full five day work week, so we'll see how it goes.