Week 11 to Ironman Canada

This week was a big week coming off my recovery week (Week 10) and I had to do some major shifting of workouts since I knew I was leaving for Portland on Friday and not coming home until very late Sunday night or early Monday morning.

Here is the plan my coach, Daryl, served up, plus a little extra I added just because for the BADGES!

Monday, March 11th – SWIM – 

45:00 – 20×100 on 10s, easy efforts with good form, last 50 of even 100s tempo effort.

(took me 46 minutes.  This was a toughie!) 

Tuesday, March 12th – BIKE/RUN –

1:00:00 – 15min WU, then 10x[3min tempo, 1min easy], CD.

30:00 – Steady effort run with 3-5x10sec hill sprints, walk back recoveries. Focus on quick hands and feet, lifting the knees aggressively, not pushing off. If on treadmill, run hills at 6-8% grade and step off the treadmill for 20sec for recoveries.

(For the run – I did 5 x 10 sec hill sprints at 7% incline (7:30 pace), focusing on high knees.  3.6 miles for an average pace of 8:20.) 

Wednesday, March 13th – BIKE/RUN plus a SWIM –

3:00:00 – 3x[20min easy, 40min steady Ironman effort].

30:00 – 20min steady IM pace, 10min easy CD.

30:00 – 8x broken 150s as [75, 50, 25 with 5s rest between], 15sec rest between each 150. Aim to build towards tempo effort across the set.

(Call me crazy, but I took the day off work to get this in.  Plus, I just really wanted a day to myself.  Three hours on the trainer was a toughie, but I knocked it out.  Then I ran 3.5 miles in 30 minutes for an average pace of 8:34.  Added the swim in the evening since I was heading to Portland for the weekend. Ended up with 1300 yards because I finished the 1200 in 27 minutes.  Felt great about that!)

Thursday, March 14th – BIKE/RUN –

1:00:00 – Aerobic Ride – Ride aerobically inserting 1 or 2×20 minutes Steady effort being sure to stay below your Mod-Hard zone.

30:00 – Run off the bike for 30 minutes Easy and relaxed.

Hey – nice veins popping out of my temples.  Whoa!

(3.5 miles – 8:34 pace.  PS – had to stop and take a picture at mile 3.14 because today was 3/14.  And – it’s for a BADGE!)

Friday, March 15th – SWIM plus a track RUN –

45:00 – 10×200 on 20s, odds easy/steady, evens CSS pace.

(I met my friend Judy at Arne Hanna for a swim, then a track run.  I didn’t have a run planned at all today, but I’ve been working on acquiring these badges from FurtherFasterForever and a track run will earn me another.  More on that soon!  I finished the swim set in 49 minutes.  My CSS pace was slower today.  Bummer.  Easy track run for fun – 3.4 miles total.  9:30 pace.)

Saturday, March 16th – LONG RUN –

1:30:00 – 1.5 hours continuous at the bottom of your Steady pace zone

(The ultimate sweatfest.  THINK BIKRAM meets the TREADMILL.  I decided to do the treadmill at the hotel to earn another badge.  What badge?  The F3RunEMZ badge – named after this stellar runner!  10 miles on the treadmill.  I can do that on a treadmill – no problem!  Especially in 90 minutes.  Well, let me tell you – I barely eeked this puppy out.  For starters, it was freakin HOT in the exercise room.  WHAT?  I looked at the temp gauge – 74 degrees!! HOLY HELL.  I tried to turn it down, to no avail.  The controls were locked.  No problem – I’ll call the front desk.  Pause the machine ….. NOOOOOOooooo!  I ended my workout.  OMgoodnessNO!  Ugh.  This happened a few times actually.  I think I was delirious from the heat.  Maintenance was not available and one gal, who didn’t speak English couldn’t change it either.  I was stuck with 74 degrees.  Thankfully, my friend Meghan, not this Meghan, but Meghan who pronounces her name Mee-ghan, not May-ghan, was right there with me for the 10 miles of madness.  And, she wasn’t even earning badges.  What a nice friend!!  Check out her fashionista blog HERE!  Anywho – ran 10.22 broken up miles on the mill in 1:31:18 for an average pace of 8:56 … um, otherwise known as slow.  Oh well.)

We did manage to clean up after our Bikram style run!

Sunday, March 17th – ST Paddy’s Day RUN just because –

(Nothing on the schedule because I finished all my workouts, however, I could not let a run go by wearing my green!  Along the water front in Portland no less.  Great run with Meghan, pronounced Mee-ghan!  AWESOME! 3.7 miles.) 

 ***

Overall Training Hours completed for Week Eleven: 11 hours 15 minutes

27.92 miles of running

88 miles of biking

3.02 miles of swimming