IMAZ Week 3 Training Summary

3 weeks into training for Ironman Arizona with 6 remaining.  Coming off a big weekend of training I felt really sluggish on Monday.  I continue to have some deep hamstring tightness but I also had some really deep quad soreness to add to the mix.  I headed out Tuesday to run after a pretty big day on Monday and I had to decide quickly what to do.  I felt like I had been trying to push myself through this dead leg feeling for a week or so.  I had experienced little rhythm at all in my running.  Running typically feels effortless at a base mileage pace when I'm in good shape and recovering well.  It normally takes me 10 days of consistent training to get to the feeling where running is easy.  I was on day 16 of training and felt terrible.  Even an easy run pace felt difficult.  I stopped my run about 1 minute in and decided I would take 3 days off of running.  I took Tuesday completely off, just biked for 90 minutes on Wednesday and then Thursday biked for 90 minutes easy to go along with a 90 minute swim workout.  When I resumed running on Friday I felt very good.  The deep soreness had disappeared.  Now I finally feel like I'm recovering well.  Sunday I ran 18 miles which was my longest training run in over a year.  I felt pretty good but the best sign of my fitness and that my legs were back was how I felt on Monday.  I ran 12 miles on Monday after the long run Sunday and my legs felt 100%.  It's a good sign that I'm finally able to put in high volume and recover quickly from it.  I feel like things are starting to click.  For week 3 my run mileage was down a lot at only 34 miles but I still biked 210 miles and swam 14,000 yards which was my highest swim yardage in 3 months.  I am starting to feel fit in the water again.  I had some good hard sets...not where I was when I was swimming 20,000 yards/week but not too far off that.  I plan to add about 1,000 yards each week to my swimming total until the week before the race when I will cut my yards in half.  I have stayed away from the high intensity workouts since my legs were not recovering but now that they feel good even after high volume I'm ready to start adding back the intensity.  I've been working hard in the weight room staying in there about 3 days every week.  I'm also back to doing plyometrics which I think have helped me develop power in my legs to put out high watts.  The biggest benefit to plyometrics I've noticed over the last few years is how they help me to run off the bike.  When I'm doing plyometrics regularly I can get off the bike and run well without any real period of distress.  When I'm not doing plyometrics in training my legs feel like most people would expect coming off the bike to run.  I rarely ever do brick runs.  I've found  the plyometrics get my legs ready to run off the bike.  I've done more brick running in races this year than I have in workouts.  My plan right now is for the next 4 weeks to be high volume.  I have been doing almost all of my riding indoors on the Cycleops Powerbeam Pro trainer.  That trainer has been so valuable to me.  It allows me to program in the desired wattage which is just as important in my recovery riding as it is my hard workouts.  On the recovery days I set a limit to how high I will allow my watts to get regardless of how good I feel.  I know the goal is to recover so I make sure the wattage stays at a recovery effort.  On the hard days I am able to program in the high wattages to make sure I'm pushing my lactate threshold levels.  This upcoming weekend is the Make a Wish Foundation Walk for Wishes.  It is a 5k run or a 1 mile walk.  It is a big fundraiser for the Make-a-Wish foundation of Iowa.  It would be great to see you there.  The link for sign-up is here.  Thanks for reading!  DREAM BIG!