Week 5 Training Summary IMAZ

Post Edit (Monday): I stepped on the scale today for my weekly weigh-in and saw a number I haven't seen in 9 years...151. My senior year of cross country at Augustana I weighed 148 the week of the regional meet. Within about 5 hours of that last race I'm sure I was over 151 and I have not been down to that weight since. I gradually put on weight until I reached 202 lbs. in January of 2008. It was November of 2008 that I decided I wanted to devote myself fully to the sport of triathlon and I've been as low as 153 on two different occasions until today when I saw 151. It was a loss of 3 lbs. for the week and it brings the 5 week total of IMAZ training to 17 lbs. lost. When I decided I wanted to race one more time this year I knew one thing I wanted to do was get lean for this one. I have always believed over the past couple years I could compete in the low 150's but I never had the mental strength to do it. In a typical week I would have 5 "+" marks in my workout log meaning a day of junk free eating and I would have 2 "-" signs in my workout book meaning I ate some kind of junk. I wanted this race to be different. 8 weeks to train for a big race is not a lot of time. I hoped it would be short enough I could stay focused throughout and so far through 5 weeks I have managed to eat healthier than I ever have over a 5 week period. I have 35 straight days of "+" marks in my workout book. I plan to continue that for 21 more days. What surprised me most about losing 3 lbs. this week was that I lowered my volume and focused more on quality workouts. I made sure to fuel myself a bit more than I have been so that the workouts would be quality. I actually thought I might gain weight this week but I've added some muscle over these past 5 weeks and it has definitely boosted my metabolism. End Post edit
I'm now 5 weeks down and 2 to go before a week taper leading me to Ironman Arizona. I'm feeling more fit than I've ever been which has really been a surprise to me. After 2 weeks off following Ironman Wisconsin where I managed to gain 8 lbs. I've really gotten into great shape quickly. My weight on Monday was 154...down 14 lbs. through the first 4 weeks of training. I expect to lose a bit more this week but I'll have to wait until tomorrow morning to find out exactly where I stand. I'll do a post edit once again to report where I come in this week. This week my goal was to reduce the volume a bit but increase the quality. I had gone up each week through my first 4 weeks. Combining the increased volume with a reduction in calories to get to a low weight for this race had made it tough to get high quality work in. This week I ate more and really saw the benefits of how strong I was on the hard workouts. Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday I did high quality bike intervals. Wednesday I did a 10 mile tempo run in 58:42. It felt great and I got faster as I went. Friday I had a great track workout of 4x1200 meters starting at 5:15/mile pace and cutting down to 5:00 pace. I finished the 1200's and ran 4x 200 meters in 32 seconds. I haven't done much speed training while training for the Ironman so it felt good to get the legs moving a bit faster. I had some great swims. My best one was probably when I got to the pool late and only had 50 minutes to swim. I swam a straight 3,000 yards comfortably hard and came in at 45:08. I felt really good about this. With a wetsuit on in cold water I should be able to finally break 1 hour in Arizona. I have averaged nearly 17,000 yards/week through my first 5 weeks of training. That is a higher 5 week average than I had all year. My total training time this week was 23 hrs. 15 minutes. I ran 57 miles, biked 170, and swam 15,300 yards. I lifted weights and did plyometrics twice, did lunges, speed drills, strides, jumped rope, and did push-ups all three times, and did core work 11 times. I received some samples this week of a new flavor of GU. I was super excited to taste the newest addition to the GU line. The flavor is Peanut Butter which is perfect for anyone who loves peanut butter. The GU tastes exactly like peanut butter. It was amazing!! Look for it to be available to the public this week. It is my new favorite flavor. I have cut out peanut butter from my diet over the past 5 weeks. I have only had peanut butter once so it was nice to get it in GU flavor. Speaking of GU Energy they are running an awesome special right now. It is called the Gu Performance Energy Sampler. The sampler pack includes 9 GU gels, 5 Roctane gels, 2 packs of GU Chomps (they are like the best fruit snacks ever:), 2 electrolyte brew packs, 1 recovery brew pack, and 3 electrolyte brew tablets all for $23.99. The value of all that is over $35.00. The link to the special is at https://guenergy.com/store/special-offers/the-sampler.html

Jen and I have finished booking our trip to Arizona. We have our flights taken care of and this week booked our hotel and rental car. I am super excited to race again. I ready to put this hard work into action. My goal is pretty simple...I want to take as much time off my 10 hr. 6 minute PR from Wisconsin as possible. I know that time does not do my fitness justice. I'm much better than that and I hope to show it in Arizona. I'm nearly 10 lbs. lighter than I was in Madison and I believe that will help me. I have been using GU Energy electrolyte tablets in my water and will continue doing this especially the week of the race to make sure I don't have the cramping problems like I had in Wisconsin. The pro field is huge and that will make for a fun race with more people around me the entire time. I know I have more work to do these next 2 weeks. My goal remains to the same in training...get better every day. Thanks for reading! DREAM BIG!