Feels Like Ironman Training!

And it feels good!  I just wrapped up my first week of the second build session for Ironman Cozumel and it's feeling more like Ironman training after the sick week followed by a recovery week.

This week I logged over 273km on the bike and over 40km on the run.  I missed one of my swim sessions due to poor planning on my part.  The week had me swimming back to back Tuesday and Wednesday but after a long 3,000m continuous swim on Tuesday I wasn't feeling it for swim work out the following day.  So I pushed it off to Friday - which was a stupid idea as that followed my long ride on Thursday (thanks Dushan for joining me) and my long run on Friday morning.  My back and shoulders would have no part of me swimming Friday at lunch time.  But that swim was the only training session I missed all week.

Turn Around Spot on my short 2 hour ride

Dushan and me after our 4 1/2 hour Ride 

I had a bit of extra time on the bike this week because I went out to Burlington to support my neighbour's charity and rode 100k with Spin For Limbs - to raise money to help out the families of kids undergoing limb reconstruction at sick kids.  It was a crisp and cool morning for a ride and it was  long drive out there but it was worth it.  A beautiful place to ride!  Since I was riding with a group (all roadies), I was very good and stayed out of my aero-bars the entire time and obeyed the rules of group road riding.  It was a lot of fun, and very easy for most of the ride enjoying the draft off the strong male cyclists.  The only thing I couldn't stand was breaking and slowing on the downhills when I just wanted to tuck down into aero and fly.

Just want to put a little shout out to my friend Chad.  Yesterday was the inaugural running of Ironman Lake Tahoe and Chad completed his first Ironman on one of the toughest courses in frigid conditions!  Congrats Chad and I can't wait to train and race Lake Placid with you next year!

Looking forward to another great week of training.  I'm going to get to the pool at least twice this week (it's on the plan for Monday and Thursday, optional on Tuesday) and I'm riding long with my buddy Duncan on Friday and I have a sitter lined up for my long run on Saturday!  And to top it off, the weather looks just fabulously sunny for the week!  Here's to another great week of Ironman Training!

End of my run last week!

Recovery Week Feels like Forever

Well, here I am, almost through my first recovery week and I'm going a little batty.  I made the decision to respect my plan and stick to a recovery week even though I missed some key workouts in my last build week due to that bout with food poisoning.

I've been using "The Triathlete's Training Diary" to record my training for the next year and for each week there is a spot to write out 3 of the weeks goals.  My goals this week were:
1.  Respect Recovery Week
2. Focus on swim technique
3. Eat well

I've done a pretty good job with my goals.  I have respected my recovery training sessions - though my spin on Wednesday was must more intense than my plan called for and my 30 minute recovery run might have been more at a tempo pace, I've done a good job of holding back and not taking the bike out for a 4 hour ride!  Tomorrow is my "long" ride and it's just an hour and half but the weather is calling for a strong wind out of the north so I'm ready for some wind training tomorrow!  Then I will cap my week off with a 60 minute endurance run in Niagara Falls on Saturday!

My swimming is coming along pretty good too.  I'm able to average well under 2min/100m for my swims so I'm hoping if I can focus a bit more on my technique that I'll be able to consistently hold this pace for longer distances.  I'm done with open water swimming until I go to Florida at the end of October so it's pool work for me 2 - 3 times a week.

Finally, I'm trying to eat well.  I'm back on track with my kale/spinach/berry shakes for breakfast and I'm trying to avoid the sugary treats and eat more veggies.  This will be a battle with me forever.  Also recovery weeks tend to have more wine involved than build weeks and this week is no exception!

I cannot wait for next week to roll around - especially for my 5 hour ride coming up next Thursday and then the 100k Spin For Limbs ride the following Sunday.  Looking forward to spending a lot of quality time with my bike and just hoping the warm weather sticks around for a few more weeks!

Happy Recovery Week!

Ending the First Build with a Wimper

Oh how I wish the title of this blog was Ending the First Build with a Bang!  After a great start to my first build phase of Iroman Cozumel training, the final week went south ...  I came into the forth and final week of my first build excited and ready to nail every work out.  I had made plans for 2 great bike rides with fabulous training partners and was looking forward to a week training hard to earn my upcoming recovery week.

It all started out it great on Tuesday with a good weight lifting session followed by getting my butt back to Main Square pool and pounding out 3000m of solid swimming.  And then it all began to unravel!  Tuesday night I prepared a good dinner in anticipation for a hard 2 hour ride followed by a solid run the following day.  I made sure I was well hydrated and well fed for the next day's workout.  Then as I put myself to bed nice and early, my tummy didn't feel quite right.  I thought nothing of it until just after midnight.

Just after midnight, and for the next 6 hours, I was overcome by a serious case of food poisoning / stomach bug.  Around 4 in the morning I remember thinking, I have to get this out of me so I can ride in the morning. By the time morning came, I was a listless, frail, shell of myself.  I'm still not sure how I got the kids' lunches made and got them to school but I spent the entire day laying bed drifting in and out of consciousness.  I couldn't eat.  I couldn't drink.  Thank goodness for my neighbour Alice who picked the kids up from school and for my in-laws who brought dinner for the kids and took JJ to his last soccer match.  I was completely debilitated.

Little did I know the toll something like this takes on your body.  I had lost 6 pounds in 24 hours so I knew I was severely dehydrated but I couldn't put anything in my body.  By end of day Wednesday I was sure I was not going to be able to do my run or my swim as planned on Thursday and I sent a note off to my riding buddies for Friday - I said I was fully planning on riding the planned 4.5 hour ride, as long as I could get some nutrition in me on Thursday.

Thursday came and while I felt better, it was still hard to get my body to accept much.  I got a banana down and a quarter of an avocado.  I sipped on my NUUN and plain water.  But I was still undernourished and dehydrated and my stomach was still not right.  By Thursday night I made the call that I would shorten my ride on Friday to around 2 hours and I would definitely ride if I felt up to it.

I woke Friday morning feeling better.  Not 100% but closer to 80% which isn't bad.  I choked down half a GF bagel with peanut butter - not even close to enough food but it was all I could do.  While I knew I was definitely undernourished for a ride, I was desperate to get some training in.  Plus it was Duncan's birthday and I had picked up some vegan cupcakes from Tory's Bakeshop (I am not vegan but Duncan is and I have to say - you wouldn't even know these cupcakes were vegan!  SO delish - plus they have great GF treats too - so if you are in the beaches - check them out!).

Happy Birthday Duncan!

I picked up Duncan and Dushan and off we went to Angus Glen for our ride.  Duncan had been fighting a cold so he was happy to shorten the ride to 2 hours - though I did some fuzzy math and instead of doing 50k we did 75k and instead of 2 hours we did 2:40.  It was a beautiful day, cool and breezy.  But it was tough.  My stomach wouldn't even let me try to take a GU and I had trouble taking my carbopro drink.  On a ride where I would normally drink nearly three 750ml bottles, I was able to get down 1 1/4.  Thank goodness Dushan was there to pull Duncan and I home those last 25km!

all smiles after the ride

I still have my long run in store this weekend and I'm planning on a nice easy 1:50 run tomorrow while my little guy is at lacrosse.  So my week will have consisted of 1 weight workout, 1 swim workout, 1 bike and 1 run.  Definitely not what I had in mind but it is what it is!  Next week is my recovery week and I'm going to take it.  I'll focus on my swimming and take it easy with some recovery runs and bikes - gearing up for Build #2!