Monday, June 17, 2013

June 10-16: Now We Train for an Ironman



Now that I wrapped up that business of swimming across the Chesapeake Bay, it’s time for solid, focused Ironman training. I have only one race – an Olympic distance in mid-July – between now and Ironman Mont Tremblant, which gives me time to get into the repetitive weekend rhythm of bike really long then run kind of long on Saturday, run even longer and swim easy to revive my legs on Sunday.

I have honestly missed it. It’s been nine months. Far too long.

That doesn’t mean I’m hiding away for the next nine weeks, though. In fact, this upcoming weekend, I’m heading out to GarrettCounty, MD for their Gran Fondo. Where I will spend 62 miles biking this:





They didn’t name it the “Masochistic Metric Century” for nothing.

It will still be part of a bike forever-run a while-rest-run forever-swim a little chain of events, but at least it will be somewhere besides hills all over DC and Montgomery County, MD. AND I get to practice my (nearly nonexistent) climbing skills.

In the meantime, I’ll keep plugging along at all the workouts, just like I did last week.

Monday: Rest day.

Tuesday: 45 minutes of strength training in the morning, then 1800 yards of easy swimming with DCRP masters to relive the glory of our swims across the Chesapeake Bay.

Wednesday: 5.45 miles of running at the track in the evening, when temps were in the high 80s/low 90s. I thought I was handling the heat relatively well, and set out for 5x1200: 5:46-5:46-5:48-5:45-5:59. The heat finally won on #5.

Thursday: 75 minutes on the bike trainer in the morning, including 4x5 minutes at zone 4 power. In the evening, 4100 yards of short, fast swimming with DCRP masters.

Friday: 45 minutes of strength training.

Saturday: A four hour brick, starting with just under 48 miles of biking out towards Poolesville, and wrapping up with 6.42 miles of running at 9:22 pace.

Sunday: A 9.5 mile run with Rachel in the morning, then 1000 meters of very easy swimming to shake the weekend out of my legs.

7 comments:

  1. Yikes. And I just wrote a post complaining about the hills on the IG Columbia course. You are a machine.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Columbia's hills are legit, too. Seriously. Ouch.

      Delete
  2. You are a beast. That course looks terrifying!

    Not to be a stalker, but what track do you run on? I'm in Northern VA but the track next to our apartment isn't open to the public and that makes me sad....and I end up doing all my speedwork on the W&OD trail, which works, but isn't as nice as a track.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Washington and Lee High School - it can get crowded, but it works.

      Delete
  3. Have fun in Garrett County! I'll be there this weekend too but my time there will be spent camping and boating. I will also be swimming across the lake (well, small cove off the lake) but that is a small fraction of the distance you swam last week!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Watch out, IMMT--you are coming and taking no prisoners! And holy hills. Geez, that course looks tough. I'm wiped out just studying the elevation chart.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Look at those gains. Good luck with that!

    ReplyDelete