13 Weeks Out!

The big picture - I have completed 11 weeks of my 24 week training plan (ok I skipped one for ski trip) which means there is only 13 left! Lately I have had a lot of doubts about my training plan, but of course nothing consistent. I wrote my on training plan. Why you ask? Well if you google Ironman training plans you find two things: a bunch of crappy training plans where you wonder if the author ever actually did a triathlon, or some super complicated training plan where you have to google terms to have any idea what is going on. I wanted something simple and all in one place.

I'm sure this means something 

to someone but not me!

So my starting point was my half Ironman training plan - it worked great! In fact I was probably a little over trained. So I started out by doubling that. I then talked to a friend to see his thoughts and he told me do 4 bikes per week, 3 runs, and 2 swims. So I incorporated that. Next I decided to do 3 weeks of build followed by 1 week of a step back just to give myself some off time. If any of you have ever seen Hal Higdon's training plans you'll see he does something similar. Then I decided I wanted my max week to be week 19 and my base fitness was going to be 1/3 of my worst week. With all of that in my, I built my plan. I compared it to some of the other plans out there (mostly time spent), made some tweaks, and what you see below is where I ended up. You'll notice I only have 9 workouts I have to complete each week, I don't have set days for each workout. It makes it feel like I have some flexibility even if the reality is every Monday-Thursday I do the exact same workouts.

My bible

You'll notice the training plan after week 19 isn't finished. I want to incorporate some interval training and haven't figured out a taper. TBD!!!

So all of this gets us back to: my doubts! Sometimes I sit on my bike and think: I am riding 80 miles today and the triathlon is still 14 weeks away - I am way off here. Sometimes I will be working out and think - oh lord I am under trained right now. Overall - I wrote the plan and I am trying to stick with it. I think the pan will ultimately have me more than prepared, but time will tell.

Run
Last week I took off on my long run and decided to let my HR monitor govern. I took off at my normal pace and my Garmin vibrated saying something about "Performance +3!!!!" I dunno what the hell that means but I took it to mean run faster. So I sped up a little and got my lap split for mile 2: 8:28! Woah - I'm a 10 minute miler what's going on? But I checked my HR and it was fine so I kept going. Mile 3 split: 9:05. Slower than mile 2 but still wayyyy faster than I expected - and I set off into the wind. What??? I kept on running and kept getting my splits with a shock every time. When all was said and done I managed an 8:53 pace for 14 miles making it my second fastest half marathon ever. Alright maybe this training is working. A few days later my resting heart rate came up at 35.

Swim
And to really hammer home the theme of inconsistency, that same week as my best ever run, I had a short swim. It felt like one of my first times in a pool: I couldn't catch my breathe and every lap took AGES. I swam 2:15/100 yards (normally I am at 2:00/100 yards ISH) and had to stop a whole bunch. In the end I had to break it up and stop at the wall a few times, I choked on water, and I didn't swim a single lap feeling relaxed. So of course this left me feeling: shit I am not prepared for the swim at all - I'm gonna drown. So that's Tuesday - Wednesday, one of my best runs ever. Thursday - I had a long swim and I just broke it up into 300 yard chunks to feel comfortable in the water. I ended up AVERAGING 2:00/100 yds INCLUDING MY BREAKS!!! What the fuck is going on here???

versus

So looking at the data it looks like it missed me 

kicking off the wall for some reason. That makes

me feel a little better

Bike
The bike is definitely where I feel the most comfortable. Which means not super comfortable but kinda. Truth be told I sometimes have trouble falling asleep Sunday night because I know Monday morning I have a long bike ride. But during my long bike rides I usually find myself thinking "oh yeah this isn't bad at all!" The intermediate rides are short compared to the long ones so they are usually pretty easy. Minus the fact that I always feel like my butt is a little bruised, the biking should be the easiest leg for me.

Random bike news: I went for a bike ride outside on Saturday and it was so much more fun than the trainer. It was super wet out and windy so I didn't set any speed records but I had a lot more fun out there than I do in my apartment. It did show me a few things: I need to practice riding outside to get used to the speed and maneuvering, I need to practice changing flats just in case, and I need to practice with my helmet.

It looked worse with the tube under it, I swear!

After the bike ride I looked at my tire and noticed there was a large gash on the outside rubber that did not puncture the inner tube. So I bought some new tires and put em on (read step 1 in practicing changing flats.) The good news is they are higher PSI than my previous tires so I should be faster woo!

Overall
I am starting to get a little nervous about the actual race itself. I wonder if I will be able to pull it off and I am still super nervous about nutrition. I managed to spend $200 on more GU. Of course then I heard a podcast about just using a concentrated power like perpetum and thought about switching to that. But no I committed to GU. Oh who knows! I will say coffee does seem to hit my body a little harder than normal. Might have to start skipping the daily cup of Joe. As always, nutrition is a big question mark.

You just add water to a concentrated powder

and drink it. I'm told it has the consistency of

a melted milkshake.

Of course I just bought all of this....

15 Weeks Out

105 Days!!

It has been a long time since I have posted about this but the holiday season has been crazy. I went on a week long ski trip to Telluride Colorado. I was going skiing every day at 7-10,000 feet above sea level. So that counts as working out right? Well before the trip I thought so and didn't end up working out outside of the skiing. The problem with that logic: the skiing wasn't very intense since the snow was garbage so there was a lot more emphasis on the beers. From my calendar you can see I also snuck down to Mexico for a few days.

Calendar is a mess....

Now I let myself skip one week of training because of ski trip but that was it. So, on the 17th, I did my long bike ride - 65 miles. And at the end of it, I couldn't walk. I destroyed my legs and actually fell asleep on the floor right next to my bike. I woke up and tried to shove a pizza into my stomach just to get some of those calories back but I found myself thinking - oh shit I am wayyyy behind here. And with that, I went to Mexico!

 Ski trip!!!

Fast forward a week, and I did my 55 mile bike ride, and that was a piece of cake. I have had some similar things happen with running - one week it is easy and the other it feels impossible. Swimming - one week it took 3 days to recover, the next I did my two swims on back to back days. So what is going on here?? I think ski trip set me back a little and now I am getting back on track but the whole thing left me feeling like I am not where I should be in my training.

Holiday diet of course

Super cool side note - I got myself a Garmin Fenix 3 HR for Christmas. Ohhhh that baby is cool. It tracks my swim time and laps, my heart rate, my sleeping, everything! It's better than Santa

Swim
Aside from the one horrible swim I had right after Mexico, swimming is going well. Plus with my new watch, I can actually track my swimming. I think I am building my strength and am headed in the right direction to being able to complete this bad boy. Knowing the watch is tracking me, I now try SUPER hard to never stop once I start swimming which can only be a good thing. Concerns at this moment:
1) My speed isn't improving at all. I thought about hiring a coach, but honestly, I just need to survive the swim to be happy.
2) Most of my swims have involved me stopping a few times to rest or clean my goggles etc. Can't do that on race day. The watch is helping me limit/ eliminate this but still on my mind.
3) I have done exactly 0 open water swims, and given the high today is 11, I won't be doing any around here any time soon. I am doing a triathlon in Houston in March so that will help, but is that enough?

Swim splits

Bike
OK so since the ski trip I have knocked out a 55 and now 70 miler (woo!) Both of them felt pretty good so I am no longer freaked out about my fitness levels but man that ride after ski trip sure had me scared. For those of you who have never ridden a bike for 5 hours while staying in one place, let me tell you what its like - hurts the butt, numbs the brain.

70.00 Miles

Haha it isn't horrible but it is definitely not the most fun way to spend a Friday. I managed to watch 4 episodes of Narcos and a movie and still wasn't finished! But with 10 minutes left I usually pop off the bike and stick a rising crust pizza in the oven so when I am done, I snag a quick shower and then FEAST!

Serving size: 1

Some of the things I am starting to experiment with: I changed my bike seat to one that is a little more comfortable (and thankfully a little lighter!) so I will have to tweak the position of it a little. I also have been testing what different foods feel like in my stomach - a handful of nuts and raisins might make it into the race day plan. Fresh fruit definitely will! Nutrition on the bike is definitely my biggest concern for race day.

Gu, Pear, Nuts, and Salt Pills

Run
I did a 13 miler this week outside and let me tell you - it. was. freezing! With any run outside I am usually pretty cold for the first mile and then warm up. So before I started I checked the weather - 20 degrees and then dressed for a typical 20 degree run. The problem: the forecast I looked at was either out of date or plain wrong. It was 12 degrees and windy. Now 8 degrees might not sound like much but I was shivering for most of the run. I couldn't keep my fingers warm and my camelbak kept freezing so I would have to take a sip every 2 minutes just to keep it flowing (I fill it with hot water too!) By the end of the run, my jacket had actually accumulated some sweat and frozen so I couldn't straighten my arms! Not to mention breathing the cold air leaves my throat feeling a little raspy. I may have to give some serious thought to doing some of these runs inside again. I definitely will be adding another layer if I try to run outside again.

Other
Overall things are going well at this point. I have 105 days left (exactly 15 weeks) which means I should be more than prepared if I stick to my schedule. I will keep experimenting with nutrition (both while working out and recovering) and hopefully come up with something by race day.

My attempt at eating healthy

Another interesting side note, I am sleeping over 9 hours per night. I don't know if that is just laziness or my body truly needs that much sleep but boy I am sleeping a lot these days. The only other thing on my mind is time management. This is a huge time commitment and I need to find a way to keep my social life going if this is going to be sustainable. This week, my watch says I did 13.75 hours of cardio. Not to mention going to and from the gym, all the extra laundry and prep, and whatever else goes into making all this happen. Social life: TBD.