Tough run

I ran for about 2 hours and 20 minutes yesterday and I can honestly say it was one of the toughest runs I have ever done. The combination of all the workouts and races I have been doing has left me fatigued. I spoke with Corena who did the same run on wednesday and she felt the same way. I don't think I felt any worse in either of my two previous ironmans running 4 hour marathons than I felt yesterday. The only thing that makes me think this training might be working is that when I got a bit pissed off at myself, and upped the intensity and speed, I was able to do so and actually felt better. The plan for this run called for upping the intensity into zone 3 for two 12 minutes intervals late in the run and then a final interval in zone 4 at the end of the run. I kind of did this and was surprised that I was able to. The other thing that makes me think I am getting fit is that I am not stiff or sore after and felt fine after I completed the run.

Despite having to do 6 hours of exercise tomorrow, I am having a dinner party tonight and will have a few drinks (in moderation). This is part of my motto of trying to live a normal life while training for ironman triathlons. I hope to be on the road biking by about 8:30 am tomorrow and finish with a run around 3 pm.

Getting it done

Basically, my mindset this week (which is less than perfect) is to get my workouts done. This is the first of about 4 big weeks of training that are essential to successfully completing an ironman triathlon. This morning I swam 3200 m which is a long swim; I did a 1000m warmup, 1000m pull and 20- 50metres fast and a 200m cooldown. Last evening I ran for about 50 minutes and it felt terrible starting out but got better. My legs were tired and heavy and I felt tired. Yesterday morning I swam 2500m and then the previous evening (Tuesday) I cycled for about 2 hours. This afternoon, I am going to run for 2 hours and 20 minutes. I have a route that I have been running regularly that is almost exactly 2 hours for me and I will just run 10 minutes further in one direction. I am taking this afternoon off work and tomorrow afternoon instead of taking all of Friday off which is what I am supposed to be doing. I find it easier to miss half a day of work than a whole day given how many real estate deals we have at work. Tomorrow i am not working out at all and then Saturday is a big day with 5 hours of cycling planned plus a run afterwards of about 45 minutes. (it is supposed to be an hour but i am not doing that)

Lost posting

I did a post about the Fredericton triathlon but must have forgot to post it or did something wrong. I was reasonably happy with my performance on the weekend. I had a solid swim of 26 mins. and a decent bike of 1:13 and an ok run of 48 minutes. I tend to judge my performance a bit by how others did. (I have been doing triathlons long enough to know where I fit in relative to others in the Maritimes.) My placing was 19th out of 80 which might be a fews places lower than usual for me but I didn't feel too bad when I realized that between 15th and 19th there was about a 25 second difference. I had plenty of gas left in the tank and should have pushed a bit harder. I could have run a bit faster but for my first Olympic triathlon of the season, it wasn't bad. It was fun to see the tdisc guys finish their first triathlon and congrats to them for doing it. Regarding my run, I noticed that the guy who came 12th (who is usually a fairly elite triathlete) had a slower run time than me so I didn't feel too bad.

I was going to get right back to my ironman training yesterday but the weather was bad so I took the day off. I swam this morning in a pool that was extremely crowded and people who could barely swim were jumping in lanes with relatively fast swimmers. The pool staff could organize things a bit better with signs (which they have) I plan to cycle for 2 hours after work today. This is the start of the weeks of long training sessions and you can't miss any of them. This Saturday, for example, I am supposed to bike for 5:15 hours and then run an hour. Six hours and 15 minutes of exercise in one day is a lot of exercise. As well, I have all kinds of social things I want to try and fit in. We will see how it goes.

Fredericton triathlon

This was the first time I have done this triathlon since 2005. We were lucky in that it did not rain during the triathlon when it was raining off and on all weekend all around the maritimes. I was reasonably happy with my performance on the weekend. My swim was 26 minutes; bike 1:13 and run 48 Minutes. My run definitely could be a bit faster and that is the one thing I need to work on a bit. The thing is I can run faster but I tend to hold back a bit on the run instead of going for it. I attribute part of that to all the long distance training I have been doing over the past few years where I am always measuring my endurance. I was going to swim this morning but decided to sleep in a bit. I am going to try to get 2 hours of cycling in this evening to keep on track with my ironman program.