one week till mooseman

I am kind of laughing to myself that I am not exactly tapering for my upcoming half ironman next week. I am training for an ironman at the same time so this is kind of a warm up to kick start the season. It will be a good test of my fitness because anything that takes you 5 hours of intense physical activity is not to be taken too lightly.

Yesterday, I did a short brick workout with an hour bike ride followed by about 40 minutes of running. Neither leg was too intense although I did do sprints during the run and felt pretty good. I was a bit late leaving work and I wanted to be done by 7 pm so I could have supper and cut some grass in New Glasgow. This morning, I did one of my week 4 ironman swims which was not too difficult. It was about 2400 m and consisted of 500m, 5- 25 m fast; 400 m, then 4-25m fast, 300 m, then 3-25m fast etc... I don't have anything scheduled for after work today but I am thinking of adding in about 90 minutes of biking. (I really shouldn't be adding stuff) Tomorrow, my plan is to bike 3 hours; run a half hour and then a longish run on Sunday. But, the weather sounds like rain tomorrow fairly definitely and I really don't feel like biking in the rain if I don't have to so I may reverse that and run tomorrow at some point (after the rain) and bike on Sunday.

Eating a Lot

I have noticed that my appetite has really picked up the past few weeks with increased training. I generally eat well but I am just eating a bit more. Yesterday, at both lunch time and supper I was starving. I always eat quite a bit for breakfast - bagel, fruit, yogurt sometimes cereal, sometimes protein shake and usually a combination of two or three of the above. For lunch, I sometimes bring stuff like apples, yogurt and then just buy a sandwich and or salad. My favorite spot at the moment for lunch takeout is the Merchantman deli which is on Water Street around the corner from the Pub. Their sandwiches are fantastic; they are big and you feel like you have gotten your money's worth. I don't go out for a sit down lunch much as I don't have time. I have supper with my mother about three times a week which is great because she makes traditional PEI dinners with meat, vegetables etc.... Training wise, yesterday was a full day; I did running drills in the Park at lunch time for about 40 minutes; I met up with Corena and Greg after work and we cycled out in Pownal and did the Gay Road hill a couple of times as well as Tea Hill. It was between 90 minutes and 2 hours for me by the time I got over there and back home. This morning I didn't realize our swim class was cancelled so I was a bit lost as I didn't come to the pool with a prepared workout. I swam pretty easy for about 40 minutes. This evening I may not doing anything else and take it easy between work and teaching at 7 pm.

Tomorrow's ironman workout calls for a short bike ride followed by an hour run. I am a bit skeptical about running that long after biking as a training exercise. I have always trained with short half hour runs after bike rides and had good success with that in ironman races. I do lots of long runs by themselves for endurance and then the short brick runs just to be used to the feeling of running after biking.

Monday morning

This morning I managed to get to the pool early and did 3400 m. I felt great and it was probably the best I have felt in the water this year. I am not sure why exactly. The main part of this morning's swim workout consisted to doing 200s in zone 4 of my heart rate and then doing 50s in zone 2. This is part of my ironman training program. The program, which is a more advanced one than I have used in previous years, has a lot more variation in speed and intensity and seems to be paying off. This afternoon, after work, I am going to do running drills in the park again.

Getting a bit faster

Today (sunday) I went for another 2 hour run. it was beautiful this morning and I felt great. I did the same route as I did about a week ago and today I ran much faster. In the same time period (2 hours) I ran about 2 k further than I did last week. I was wondering if this speed work I have been doing in my ironman program is helping. Maybe. I ran from 11 am till 1 pm today. I had a big lunch afterwards.

Yesterday, I cycled for about 3 hours 30 mins. with a 10 minute break in the middle at my place in New Glasgow. I ran for a half hour after cycling as usual. Tonight, I will look at week 4 of my ironman program and sort of map out my training for the week in between my work and teaching schedule. It is 4:35 on sunday afternoon and despite being on my second post workout cup of coffee I could easily lie down and take a nap. I am going to swim in the morning and aim to get to the pool a little early around 6:45