Week 2 training recap: 14 weeks until Ironman Florida

I finished my second week of my IMFL training in style this week with a nice run in Ottawa with Barry.  We ran the last 17k of the Ottawa Marathon course which is beautiful through Rockcliff and along the Canal.

The Numbers - week 2 - July 23 - 29
Swam 2 times: 3.48 km, 1 hours 26 mins
Biked 4 times: 180.45km, 6 hours 36 mins
Ran 4 times: 37.16 km, 3 hours 32 mins
weight trained once
SUP (Stand up Paddle) once


I hit all my scheduled workouts except in swimming.  I have to find a little more focus and drive to get to the pool for my drills and be more excited to complete my full continuous swim at open water swim practice on Wednesday nights.  The weather even cooperated and I finally got out for a 1:30 SUP which was a great workout as well as fun!

The highlight of the week was my solo, 4 hour, 109km ride on Friday.  While riding with someone is always nice, I think completing some of my long rides alone is great mental training.  I won't be riding with anyone at IMFL so might as well train for that.  I rode up Warden from Major Mac until I hit Lake Simcoe and then I headed West around the lake until I turned around at Roches Point.  It was a spectacular day for a ride and the scenery was beautiful!

I really need to figure out my nutrition on the bike.  It's the question of 4:1 carb:protein or straight up carbs.  I have friends and mentors who can argue for each side.  This week I took 4 bottles of Ironman Perform, a bag of Honey Stingers and 2 Acellgels (4:1 ratio).  I ate a few of the stingers and one of the gels but the Perform wasn't washing them down well so I stopped.  Obviously I was leaning toward a mostly carb nutrition and while I performed pretty well (average 28.2 kph) I did not feel content with my nutrition.  Lessons learned: need bottle of NUUN to wash down Stingers and Gels and my stomach gets a little grouchy with just Perform to drink.  I have all week to figure out what I will try this weekend!

I'm excited to get into the upcoming week of training.  My week will end with a ride of the Muskoka 70.3 course with a few of my club mates on Saturday.  My plan calls for a 4:30 ride - I assume we will make it through the 94k of the course in 3:30 - 3:45 so will have to add a bit on the end if I can.  And then finally a 2 hour run on Sunday.

Goals for Upcoming Week
- nail swim workouts Monday (3,200m drills) and Wednesday (3,000m continuous)
- create nutritional plan for long ride
- sort out HRM issues  (my Garmin heart rate monitor is not work)

Happy Training - get ready to say hello to August!