Sunday – 4-hour bike ride. My friend Amy was a guest at my gym and we did the 1.5 hour class at 8:30am. I got in 15 minutes before class and asked Amy to ride with me 15 minutes afterwards to get me to 2 hours. She’s such a support. She did!
I had contemplated riding the remaining time on the lakefront path, even had my bike in the car, but decided to finish the last 2 hours in the cycling room. Safer. Quicker. (I didn’t have time today to drive somewhere else for a safer, hillier ride). Pushed myself in the class and then during my 2 hours alone, I did 4 minutes of hills every 15 minutes. Not a lot, yet more hills than I’d get on the lakefront path. For some reason, was not nearly as bad as yesterday. Made me nervous that I’m a lot less comfortable on the seat of my bike. I need to do a bike fit!
Swim Session – 10 x 200 (50 easy, 50 build, 50 easy, 50 hard). Did a warm up of 200m, prior to this (after last weeks experience of driving right into a workout without warm-ups and doing poorly with shortness of breath and panicky feelings). = 2,200m; took about an hour and 15 minutes. = 315 minutes
Monday – 90 minutes of cycling; attended about 50 minutes of a one-hour cycling class, got in some intervals and a hill, ladder. (1 min, 2 min, 3, 4 & back down). Then 40 minutes of spinning and multi-tasking.
Swim recovery session – 300 swim, 300 kick, 300 pull, 300 swim = 1,200m. Just jumped right in because it was a recovery effort and because I swam ½ non-bilateral to practice my form on breathing right and on breathing left. Took 40 minutes. = 120 minutes
Tuesday – Got up early to run 45 minutes on the treadmill. Felt energetic and great. Started at 10:30ish pace and slowly moved it up to 10:00. Felt pretty rested, which is good with the half on the calendar on Sunday. = 45 minutes
Wednesday – Got up to ride bike for 60 minutes, talked to my coach throughout, time went by quickly, sweated quite a bit.
In evening, ran 30 minutes, did strides every 5 minutes after 10. Felt good. (not too tired this step back week). Average 9:59. Was slower than I expected, yet hot part of the day and felt strong. = 90 minutes
Thursday – 90 minutes on the bike at the end of the day (because in the morning got up at 5:30am to lead a webinar from 6am to 8am) in the fitness center. Only on level 4, like yesterday morning, yet seems like a nice consistent (sustainable) challenge that makes me sweat a lot. Switched to lower seated bike with 25 minutes left, okay, now level 7. = 90 minutes
Friday – Floy home from California. Swim session. Time Trial: WU: 200, Main: 1,000. Didn’t go all out time trial with the half I’m in on Sunday, but kept it steady. Took me 26 minutes. = 35 minutes
Saturday – Traveled to Racine for Half Ironman. (Read more here!)
Got to go to Ironman village! Patiently waited in my “Athletes Only” lines and make it just in time for the last Athlete briefing at 2pm. Easy to take in most of the information. I’m not quite sure about this no drafting on the bike rule: staying back 6 bike lengths and if you want to pass you’ve got 25 seconds to do it and once you start passing someone, you can’t stop. I don’t want to inadvertently mess this up. Since I have a “conserve and confidence building” race intention, I’ll just sit back and only pass when I’m absolutely certain I can.
They also mentioned that bike helmets need to be USAT certified and that some old ones aren’t. Well, crap, mine is old! I figured, why worry, went back to the car got my helmet and waited in the “Solutions” line (which is the Pros check in line – so not long) to ask about my helmet. She smiled at me nicely, told me she liked my old school helmet and that I had nothing to worry about. There were some older aerodynamic styles that are no longer approved. Okay. I may be a dork, but I’m not worried.
Ran into someone I know! A participant in a leadership program I currently leading. Fun to chat and connect with someone in the village!
Got settled in the hotel, found a place to get a pedicure, dinner and some sleep before the 4am alarm!
TOTAL = 695 minutes = 11.50 hours
- Swim – 150 minutes = 22%
- Bike – 470 minutes = 67%
- Run – 75 minutes = 11%
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