The last week of training! It was set up to be a good week but I lost focus towards the end managing to pull it back onto track. I had hoped for another 12-14 hours but in the end it came in at just under 10. It may sound a bit odd to hope for time but as mentioned in the Week 9 review I do think this plan is a little bit light in volume for a Half Ironman. I will write up my thought in another post later on this topic. So on with the review.
Monday, off! I was happy to comply after a pretty big end to Week 9.
Tuesday; brick. Sufferfest Local Hero and a short run on the Treadmill.
Wednesday; an hours’ worth of intervals on the treadmill. I am really happy how my run has come back. One thing I have noticed is that I am taking longer to settle in. I think while this is a function of the training it also has something to do with my age, I am no spring chicken anymore and things just take a little longer to warm up! This is something that I need to remember on race day. That being said I was happy to be able to hit sub 6s on the intervals!
Thursday; more intervals. This time less intensity and more duration, 3 x 10 minute at RPE 8 with 3 minutes easy in between. I forgot to turn off my GPS on my 910 and so I was getting all kinds of weirdness but the ‘mill kept rolling and so did I!
Friday; July 4! Mini Tri, totally off plan. I wanted to throw all three elements into one workout just to make sure I could. I swam for 30 minutes, rode for just over an hour and ran for 37 minutes so a 2:10 workout that was somewhere between a Sprint and an Olympic in distance.
Saturday; Swim. I actually forgot the workout and so I improvised and swam 21 x 50 with warm up and cool down.
Sunday; brick. Back on the plan and I rode Sufferfest ISLAGIATT and then ran for 30 minutes on the Treadmill.
A couple of notable items. While running on the Treadmill I have been watching YouTube and to get my head in the right place and been replaying old NBC Ironmans’ During one the commentator mentioned that rotating the body during the swim reduces drag and as my swim is not great I am happy to tray anything that might help. So the last two swims I have been consciously focusing on that and lo-and-behold it worked!
My Mini Tri swim was a 1500 cold start nonstop swim. I finished in 29:43 a 1:59/100 pace, that’s the fastest I have ever swam, ever!
The next day the 21 x 50s netted out at 2:00/100 pace and my fastest one, the last one was a 1:43! WTF! I guess that rotating thing works!
The other item is that I crushed the ISLAGIATT ride covering 38 miles in just under 2 hours which is a good 3 miles further than I have ever done and PRd on TrainerRoad with a new 60 and 90 minutes average Power Hopefully this bodes well as I am a little worried over the lack of riding on my Tri bike!
So the totals for the week; 10 workouts 9:47:58 112.98 miles
- 2 swims; 1:10:38 3100 yards
- 3 bikes; 4:32:20 82.48 miles
- 5 runs; 4:14:00 28.74 (that’s nearly 30 miles…I haven’t done that in a very long time!)
So the plan is done, this week is a taper and race day is this weekend!
Onwards!
Stuart - are the distances you're swimming typical for half-ironman training in your experience? I only ask b/c your workouts seem just a touch over the race-distance, whereas on race-day you'll have to be able to do that swim plus a lot extra afterward. It leaves me wondering if you would want to train above + beyond race-distance (3000+ yards) just so that you don't feel fatigued coming out of the water. Not the best question to ask in your last week of train prior to a race, so sorry for that! Genuinely curious though!
ReplyDeleteSean it's a valid point. I think the whole plan is a bit light in terms of volume. This week was especially so although some of that was my fault. Most of the swims were in the 2100-2300 range so just around HIM distance (2100) and I would of liked to have seen some at the 2500 distance, of course I could have added that on but then it becomes a life/time issue! All that being said a lot of the swims were intervals which although shorter are higher in intensity and should help overcome the fatigue. I guess we will find out on Sunday!
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