Ironman Canada - 27 weeks out

	IMC: 27 weeks to go (January 19-25)	Challenge: 27 weeks to go (Feb 10-16)
Total training hours	15:21	10:50
Swim	3:18 / 7000m	3:59 / 9450m
Bike	1:57 (16.5 km on the trainer + spin class)	4:28 (trainer time + spin class)
Run	4:13 / 41.9 km	2:23 / 24.44 km
Strength training	1:33
Yoga	4:00
SBR Total	9:28	10:50

A little less swim bike run than at this point pre-Challenge, and as with last week, a big variation in the distribution which of course makes sense given that I’m preparing for a marathon March 1^st! I also managed to keep a couple of strength workouts and a pretty spirit-nurturing number of yoga classes in the mix. Hooray… Next week I may not be patting myself on the back for that – at least that’s my prediction as I compose this midway through the week having no strength workouts or yoga classes under my belt… There’s a reason for that and if I can remember, I’ll talk about it next week.

This is how the week looked:

Monday	7.3 km run after work Plyo circuit at home
Tuesday	2300m swim before work “Bench Press for Cyclists” x 15 – trainer workout after work TRX push-ups & squats Hatha Yoga Class
Wednesday	Strength circuit at home after work PRM Spin Class
Thursday	Hatha Flow Yoga Class 7K run after yoga
Friday	2350m swim before work TRX push-ups to pike (to failure)
Saturday	2350m morning swim 5.2 km PRM run post-swim Hatha Flow Yoga Class
Sunday	1.5 km pre-race warm-up run Hypothermic Half Marathon  Gentle Hatha Yoga Class

So what are these “Bench Press for Cyclists” (see Tuesday this week)? This is the description my coach offered when I texted him after doing my first workout like this. I had assumed that the point of these was mostly mental and that their race-day payoff would come when I was miserably grinding up that third big hill out of Pemberton on the way back to Whistler… in the midst of my anguish, when not cheered by the knowledge that I was only 20 or 30 km from getting to run a marathon, I could console myself by saying “well, at least I’m not on the trainer, grinding out those 1 minute sets”. 

How these work is that after warming up, you hop off the bike and load up all the resistance your trainer has to offer. [If you’ve got a fancy trainer that you can adjust from the saddle, well la-dee-da, you still get the idea.] Then you get back on and get in your biggest gear, and you pedal at 40-45 RPM for a minute. Then you rest for a minute. If you’re spendy enough to have a fancy trainer you can adjust from the bike, you could dial down the resistance and spin. If you’re not, you just sit there gasping for breath and praying for death. And then you do it again. The minutes you are grinding away are very, very long. The rest minutes are alarmingly short. Oh sure, some will tell you a minute is a minute. They’re wrong. 

The first time I had to do these, I thought I had to do 16 and upon clarifying, realized there were only 8. When I was done, I texted “thank God there were only 8, not 16!”. The ominous reply: oh, we’ll get to 16. The following week, this workout made a reappearance and I had to do 10 of them. The week after that: 12. Foolishly I noted in the comments of workoutlog “these are getting easier already”. Ha. You see how many I had this week? That’s right, 15. Not easy.

Sunday was race day … Half Marathon number 13 and another attempt to go sub-2… lucky 13!  I’m going to post a race report but spoiler alert… you can tell from my PBs in the sidebar anyway: I didn’t do it.

Ironman Canada - 28 weeks out

Guess what time it is kids? It’s time to start sharing the deets of the IMC journey… Why? Because I want to. And because if I share every workout on my Facebook timeline, everyone will hide me from their news feed. I know I would.

So this time instead of keeping a running total of the training hours from week to week, I’m going to compare how the IMC prep looked compared to the same week pre-Challenge. For two reasons… one, it will be interesting to see how they differ, and two, and more importantly, I just don’t want to have to do all that math. So without further ado my lovies, here is how things looked 28 weeks out from race day:

	IMC: 28 weeks to go (January 12-18)	Challenge: 28 weeks to go (Feb 3-9)
Total training hours	13:47	12:34
Swim	2:04 / 3900m	3:57 / 8150m
Bike	1:56 (14.2 km on the trainer + spin class)	5:20 (trainer time + spin class)
Run	5:56 / 58.3 km	1:01 / 9.7 km
Strength training	2:36
Yoga	1:15	2:15

Not a huge difference in the total training load but a big shift in the distribution of time. Even as I was typing out the summaries, I realized that they are likely going to look very different this far out, given different run race schedules, and the fact that this time pre-Challenge, I was still coaching myself.

This is how the week looked:

Monday	8.3 km run at lunch Strength circuit at home after work
Tuesday	Track work: 6 x 800m (200 @ 70%, 200 @ 80%, 200 @ 90%, 200 max) TRX crunches to failure
Wednesday	2100m swim before work PRM Spin Class TRX push-ups & squats
Thursday	11 km run at lunch including 20 minutes in zone 3 Plyo circuit at home after work Yin Yoga Class
Friday	“Bench Press for Cyclists” x 12 – trainer workout TRX back-row & squats
Saturday	1800m PRM swim 8 km PRM run post-swim Strength circuit at home
Sunday	21 km run

Per my last post, I am also most definitely putting down some roots in Crazytown. Creating big calorie deficits to try and look like I belong at the pool or in Spin class but not reaping benefits as yet. I started reading Racing Weight yesterday (on loan from my coach). I’m a little frustrated by what I’ve read so far which suggests no focus on calories at all. The central premise seems to be if you eat optimally for training, then your training will get you lean. And the guidelines for optimal eating for training are about timing, diet quality, and nutrient requirements – but not calories. It’s a one-size-fits-all approach and that makes me nervous. The book also encourages tracking of data – you gotta know I’m on-board with that one – including weight, body fat percentage, and performance on specific workouts. The idea being this allows you to functionally assess your ideal race weight. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with this yet… it means more food (oh, sooo much more food), and that would suggest more Karin. So the jury is still out. Out of curiosity, I compared my weight at the start of this training week to my weight at the same point pre-Challenge, and I’m 2 pounds lighter this year. Meh. I’m going to express that in ounces because it sounds way more impressive… 32 ounces smaller. Woo! I didn’t have the fancy-schmancy Tanita scale then though so I can’t compare body fat percentages… likely an inaccurate reading, yes, but useful for tracking changes.

So where do I go from here? I don’t know yet.

So... where have I been?

So completely and positively rooted back in Crazytown.

[sigh]