My Trek to Ironman Success

Feelin' Hot Hot Hot!
Last week was my rest week and I wanted to take full advantage of that. I put in a lot of hours and miles during my last block and I was starting to feel a bit worn down. As the book "Going Long" says, if it is an easy day, make sure you take it easy. If it is a hard day, go hard. I extended that philosophy to my rest week. With the exeption of a short 500 yd swim and an hour long spin on my bike, I did nothing. It felt great! I came into this block with more energy and motivation to keep it going.

With 13 weeks behind me and 13 to go, I decided to cut out my strength day on my usualy Monday off day. One day a week wasn't really doing me any good and at my age, I can build and maintain muscle pretty easily just by swimming biking and running. Instead of strength, I inserted a light swim. This will allow me to keep my feel for the water, get in some extra swim time, not fatigue my muscles, and it stretches out the week a little bit, so I don't have to do so many doubles with a nine hour work day squeezed in between.

This is the first week I tried it and it seems to be going well. On Monday, I put in my light swim. On Tuesday, I ran for 40 minutes in the morning and then did an hour spin at night. Yesterday, Wednesday, I swam 3,250 yds in an 1:20. I know, not blazing, but I did it. And I did it in a big, frumpy swim suit with all of my hair. Those aren't exactly race conditions. Today, I ran for :30 this morning and I plan to get in a 1-2 hr bike tonight. I plan on putting in a third swim tomorrow, then a 13 mile run and a 100 mile bike this weekend.

My numbers are really getting up there. More importantly, I gave myself the time, by starting my training last October, to really work up into this distance and spare myself from the overtraining injuries. I find myself now holding back a little bit on the run miles especially so that I don't get burned out or too fatigued. I still have thirteen weeks to go and my mileage, I think, is looking pretty good.

Here's to a great weekend of training!

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