My 4th week of training for IM AZ was my best week in months. My total training time this week was 25.5 hrs. which was my highest since early July. For the week I ran 60 miles, biked 200 miles, and swam 15,200 yards. I also lifted weights, did lunges, jump rope, push-ups, pull-ups, speed drills, and strides all three times, plyometrics twice, and core work 13 times. One of my big goals for this race was to get leaner. At Rev3 in Ohio I was heavy carrying a lot of unwanted weight on my stomach. Before I started week 1 I weighed in at 166 lbs. By the weeks I have gone 164, 161, 159 and 158 where I am currently. The weight has not come off as quickly as I thought it would but I can tell I'm gaining muscle so that will make it difficult to lose weight. I'm definitely more lean than I was. I'm fitting into shorts I couldn't fit into 4 weeks ago. I'm wearing belts for shorts that I didn't need them for just a month ago. I'm excited about the progress I'm making in this area. I'm trying to make sure I don't lose muscle like I did in April when I got my weight down into the 140's. Yesterday I bumped up my leg lifts to the highest weight I've ever done on them. I'm getting more excited for Ironman Arizona every day. I'm not ready to break 9 hours quite yet but I believe I'm on schedule to do so Nov. 18th if we get decent weather. After running 76 miles over a 7 day stretch from last Sunday through this past Saturday I noticed I had some swelling and a little pain in the arch of my right foot so that is something I'll keep a close eye on. If I have to cut back my running mileage a bit it won't frustrate me. By having my legs more rested I'll be able to have better bike interval workouts. Right now my legs are feeling the effects of the high running mileage and I'm not putting out the power I'd like to on my bike intervals. I am feeling much faster in the pool than I was a month ago when I felt like a barge making little progress. One of my favorite test sets is to do repeat 200's. When I was swimming 20,000 yards a week in the summer I would do 10 of them on 3:00 and typically average 2:43 for each one. My best ever average is 2:41 when doing them on 3:00. Last week I did 8 of them on 3:10 and averaged 2:47. This week I did 10 of them on 3:10 and averaged 2:43. That was the morning after a 5.5 hour workout day so I was expecting to be a little tired. I was very excited about the progress. This week I'll do 10 of them again but on the 3:05 to see how that affects my average time. I'm hoping to average the same on slightly less rest. I'm sticking with my swim plan of adding 1,000 yards each week until the week before the race when I will cut back the yardage.
Saturday was the Walk for Wishes 5k run and 1 mile walk to raise money for the Make a Wish foundation. Last year the Walk for Wishes only had 40 people register. This year was over 200! Despite terrible weather with pouring rain they raised over $8,000 for this great cause. My biggest area of concern right now is my lack of outdoor bike rides. I was able to get 16 miles outdoors yesterday (my first outdoor ride in 16 days) before it got dark. I typically do my running, swimming, and lifting after school and save my biking for after the kids are sleeping when I go on the trainer. I don't ride that much in the aero position while riding on the trainer and that has me a little worried about how my back will feel riding almost the entire course in Arizona from the aero position. I'm hoping the weather will finally cooperate this weekend so I can get out for a long ride. This week should be another big one in terms of volume. Thanks for reading. DREAM BIG!!
No comments:
Post a Comment