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

Coming together

My training seems to be coming together somewhat in that I am feeling a bit stronger and faster n the various disciplines. Wednesday afterwork I did a run that included a 30 minute time trial and I enjoyed it by the end of it. At first, it took me a while to get used to going all out but after 15 minutes or so I started to feel better. I had my heart rate monitor on for a change (which I should use more) and my heart rate went up from 120 something to 145 when I started the time trial and got up to about 150 at the peak. That is fairly high for me as I have trained a lot at a slow or moderate pace where my heart rate is in the 120's.

Thursday, I was in Halifax for work and took the day off. I did a bunch of gardening in New Glasgow which helps me deal with the guilt of spending so much time training. This morning I forgot my swimsuit again and had to go back to my place in town for another one. I managed to swim 2700 m and the main set was doing 10-100m progressively faster and then doing 5-100m all out. I felt quite strong. Afterwork today, I am going to run and I am supposed to do 5 minute intervals all out followed by 3 minute recovery period. Tomorrow, I am planning a 90 k bike ride followed by a short run and then a long run on Sunday.

time trial week

This seems to be time trial week on my ironman training program. There was a swim time trial of 1000m and yesterday's bike ride included a 30 minute time trial. I did that out in Pownal. Today, the run includes a 30 minute time trial. I am going to do that after work (and before teaching at UPEI) Right now, between teaching at UPEI two nights per week, training, working and trying to do yard work out in New Glasgow, I have very little spare time. This morning we had our swim class. The thing I really noticed today is how high my heart rate goes when I start to do the strokes that I am not as good at. (back stroke and butterfly) I can sprint full out doing the frontcrawl and my heart rate is not as high as when I do backstroke at a moderate pace. Its because your body adapts to what it does alot. Tomorrow I think I will run some hills out in New Glasgow for a change and as a bit of practice for Mooseman. The run in that half ironman is very challenging. There are several steep hills that you have to do a couple of times. It is very much like running out in New Glasgow. Friday, I am going to do a long swim and then Saturday- another long bike ride followed by a short run. Sunday, I am going to do a long run. I am noticing that I am loosing weight. I am not sure that that is entirely a good thing because it is early in my ironman training to be loosing weight.

Week 3

I am now in the third week of my Ironman training program. Yesterday, I swam 2000 m which included a 1000m time trial. This is to give you an idea of a sort of base time for future swim workouts. My time was about 17 and a half minutes for 1000m which I thought was not too bad. I was not going full out. I was also supposed to do 40 minutes of running drills yesterday but it started to rain before I got that done. I am going to try to do that at lunch today if it stops raining. After work today, I am supposed to do a short bike ride. (1hour 15 minutes) that includes a half hour time trial.. The rest of the workouts this week are not particularly long and I will probably do more biking and running than the program calls for because of the Mooseman triathlon which I am doing in 3 weeks.

Bike issues

Yesterday, I headed out biking around 8:30 am after having gotten a bike tune up and new tubular tires installed. The tension on the chain wasn't quite right and it wasn't shifting property. Fancy tri bikes are like fancy cars- they are great when they work perfectly and not so great when they are not. I did about 3 hours or a bit more of cycling out to New Glasgow, Cavendish and back to town. I followed that up with a half hour run. I felt pretty good on the run which is always the indication of how my fitness is going. I was on a tight schedule as usual as I was heading to Halifax for the night. I need to have a look at my ironman program and plan the coming week.