Finishing week 11

Well, I just finished a 5.5 hour bike ride followed by a half hour transition run. As opposed to last week when I was completely wiped out, I felt great this weekend. I got off to an early start and left home around 7 am. I did my usual route but went a little further by going from Charlottetown to Stanley Bridge instead of Cavendish and then I headed to the south shore- Argyle Shore, Canoe Cove, Rocky Point and then back to town. On the run I had plenty of bounce in my step- my only problem was that I was really hungry. I ate some things along the way but it was not enough, Tomorrow morning I am going to run for three hours straight.

I missed one workout this week which was supposed to be an hour run. I opted for a nap instead.
Friday morning I met some tri people at the bridge in Rusticoville for some open water swimming. It was fun and we swam for about 45 minutes. I figured we did about 2500 metres. I had a better attitude today which helps alot. Starting early seems to be key as well.

Stressed for no good reason

Last night when I was rushing to cut some grass before dark (at my place in New Glasgow where i seldom have time to sit and enjoy the 1.5 acres of manicured lawn and shrubs) I realized I was a bit stressed as usual at trying to fit everything in. I am planning on taking thursday and friday afternoons off but even with that it is tough to get everything done. I even schedule my "fun" things; I bought a ticket to a concert tonight at the Harmoney House theatre in Hunter River which is part of my mindset of being determined to enjoy summer even if it kills me. Tomorrow night I am going to see the Stan Rogers show and Friday night, Sketch 22.

Yesterday morning I did a brisk 2600 m swim with Jamie and Tyler and in the afternoon cycled for an hour and a half. This morning I swam for an hour and a half and did 3800 m with the main sets being 30-100s. This is the longest I have swam this year. This afternoon I am going to do some running drills (speed drills) in Victoria Park for about 45 minutes. Tomorrow I am going to attempt to get to the gym at UPEI at 7am and go running for an hour before work to get it over with. If you knew me that would tell you that I am pressed for time as I hate running in the morning and seldom do it. I like swimming in the morning but not running.

Lots of biking

Well, I can say that I completed all of the workouts in my week 10 ironman program. I am not sure if I did them all with the recommended level of instensity. On Saturday I cycled for 5:15 hours which took me from Charlottetown to Cavendish, New Glasgow, Crapaud, Argyle Shore, Rocky Point and back to Charlottetown. I had hosted a dinner party the night before and had some wine and did not get to bed early. This is not ideal preparation for a day like this but that's the way things go. I did a half hour run after the bike ride so it was pretty much 6 hours of training. I then got cleaned up, immediately ate as much as possible and than tried to sleep for a while so I could join my friends at a BBQ. I woke up at about 8pm and went out with my friends.
The one thing I can say is that I seem to recover fairly quickly from these long workouts. Sunday am (after another late evening) i cycled for a little over two hours and felt relatively strong and wasn't really that exhausted by the day before.

I did oversleep a bit monday morning and was late for work. The next three or four weeks are the peak training period. Looking ahead on my training program, I don't believe there are enough long runs. For me to run a decent marathon, I need to have run a few 3 hour runs prior to the marathon. This somewhat advanced training program that I am doing doesn't seem to have many runs longer than 2 hours 20 minutes. So, I am going to do a 3 hour run this coming sunday and at least one more before the race.