Week 4 Training Summary IMAZ

In my 4th week of training for Ironman Arizona I am really beginning to feel like I am back into great shape. This was my highest volume of training for a week in quite a long time. For the week my training time was 29 hours. I have had people ask me before what I do in times when I don't feel like training. My answer is pretty simple...I don't train. Most days I look forward to training. I don't plan enough rest days and when my body gets run down I know it's time to take it easy. Typically when I'm deprived of sleep my motivation to train is low. That was the case on Wednesday. I had some aweful swim times in my workout on Tuesday and I got out of the pool early knowing I was tired. I had put in over 15 hours of training in the previous 3 days. All I did Wednesday was run 1.5 miles. This was enough to get me really motivated for a big weekend of training in which I was able to get 17 hours of training in from Friday to Sunday. For the week I biked 240 miles, ran 60 miles, and swam 18,200 yards. I also lifted weights and did plyometrics twice, lunges, push-ups, jump rope, speed drills, and strides all three times, and core work 13 times. I'll have to wait until tomorrow morning to find out if all this workout time helped bring my weight down any. I know from the workouts I'm back into great shape. On Friday I ran 2x 3 miles at tempo pace with 1/2 mile easy between them. I ran the 1st in 17:21 and the 2nd in 16:51. I did a bike interval workout on Tuesday that was 5 minutes at 300 watts, 4 minutes at 320, 3 minutes at 340, 2 minutes at 360 and 1 minute at 380 before climbing back up the ladder with the same wattages. I took equal rest after each hard period. 16 days prior to this workout I did the same thing but cracked on the 2nd 2 minute period. By cracking I mean I was not able to pedal at the wattage. The awesome thing about my trainer is that I can program in the wattage and if it is too much I just won't be able to pedal. That's what happened 2 weeks ago. This week I was able to make it through the entire workout and although it was tough I was never in jeopardy of making the wattage levels. It's a good confidence builder to know I've gotten that much stronger in just 2 weeks. Combine that with losing 10 lbs. over that time period and my power to weight ratio has increased dramatically. I rode 105 miles on Saturday and then ran 2 hrs. (17 miles) on Sunday morning. I'm really looking forward to this race in Arizona. The start list for the pro race is HUGE! There are 55 guys on the start list and 35 ladies. That will make for a really fun swim with lots of feet for drafting options. It will also make the ride much more enjoyable because there will be people around. All the pro athletes will be wearing a GPS tracking device so fans not in attendance can get instant updates beginning when we exit the swim. That will keep me going when I'm tired knowing that people can see what my current pace is at all times. After 3 weeks in a row over 25 hours of training time I'm planning to cut back the total volume this week but really focus on getting more quality work in. I need to get 3 quality interval bike rides this week and 2 hard running workouts. I'll do a post edit tomorrow to report the weight.
Post Edit: I almost forgot to report...I was 154 lbs. on Monday. That is -1 lb. for the week and -14 in my 4 weeks of training. It will be tough to lose much now that I've gotten rid of most of my extra baggage and I'm trying to get more quality workouts in which requires a bit more fueling.
153 is the lowest I've been in 9 years and I've been there on 2 separate occasions. I don't think I'll be that low but the scale will tell tomorrow. Only 21 more days of hard work. I'm at 28 straight days of junk-free eating. I can't wait for Nov. 20th!! Thanks for reading. DREAM BIG!!