Today is day #1 of my Ironman 70.3 Lake Tahoe training plan! I am feeling excited about this race and the training. I am feeling refreshed and hopeful that there are enough hours in the day (now that my PhD is done) to train for this race. The plan I chose to follow is a pretty simple one, 3 of each sport, 3 times a week. This isn't a whole lot different from my usual running plans: Run Less Run Faster (3 runs per week: track, tempo and long with 2-3 crosstraining workouts). Actually it is very similar just with more "crosstraining" which I guess we can now call training, and with more double workout days or bricks. So even though it is fundamentally similar... for some reason in my head this feels like a whole new concept and I am excited about it.
What a let down that today is a scheduled rest day of the plan... whomp whomp...
I decided that I am going to make an honest effort to incorporate strength training in this cycle. In the past I have said that and then after 1-2 weeks bailed on it completely. So in the spirit of strength training I decided to go for a yoga class today (hence the Ommm title of this post). I was pleasantly reminded that I really love yoga, especially heated power flow type classes. The instructor today had some awesomely wise words that I thought I would share:
"Meet your body where it is today. Take stock or where you are right now, and then push yourself from that point."
Meeting myself today meant meeting some suuuuper tight hips (thanks to the marathon last weekend) and a weak core (hey I said I would work on it!). In general though I felt surprisingly good and promised to do yoga more often. I think taking stock of where you are in the moment/day/training cycle is something that is easily forgotten and can lead to disappointment or worse, injury. Hoping to keep these words in mind as I start Ironman 70.3 training.
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| Kona's best downward facing dog. |
Great post and your plan sounds good! I have a few comments (don't I always?)
ReplyDelete1.) In Run Less Run Faster, aren't all your runs hard? When I first started tri training I thought all my runs could be hard (there are only 3 per week, after all), but I learned REAL quick that 1-2 days of HARD biking can really interfere with hard running. So even though you're only doing each sport 3x/week, remember to take a few easy days in any given sport and listen to your body!
2.) I have been strength training (core mostly but legs too) and I feel really good. I have no idea if it will reflect in my actual performance, but I'm on board with your plan!
3.) Hilarious picture of Kona yoga.
4.) If you feel a need to skip a workout in any given week, skip a swim. It's such a small fraction of the time you're racing a 70.3, and it's first. You'll be much more glad that you have the bike/run endurance. Not that I'm advocating skipping anything at all, but just saying :)
WOOHOO!
Thanks for the comments! Ya the Run Less Run Faster plan is all "quality" (aka hard) effort runs, but I definitely don't expect to hit the same type of workout for the tri plan. The runs for this plan start off really reasonable, 6 miles is the longest this week, so I am going to definitely take it easy. If you have any good leg strength moves that you find useful I'd love suggestions. I just looked at the Tahoe course again and realized my two biggest challenges are not panicking on the swim, and surviving that mountain of a climb on the bike... definitely two things I think some strength would help with!
DeleteAlso, I see that you "liked" Ironman Canada on Facebook! I thought about doing that but it seemed like a huge commitment :p
ReplyDeleteHaha, well you can always "unlike" and I was curious to see what sort of announcements they have :)
DeleteYaaaaay day 1 of training! I was also looking at a plan that incorporated 3 days of each sport, so I'm looking forward to seeing how that goes and doing some group workouts with ya!
ReplyDeleteHearing you guys talk about strength training *almost* makes me want to start up again too, but then I remember how bored I get with it. Maybe if you guys write some posts about your benefits / gains, then I'll get inspired :P.
And Kona is the best!!!
This is the plan Matt and I are using (with some modifications):
Deletehttp://triathlon.competitor.com/2010/09/training/super-simple-ironman-70-3-triathlon-training-plan_12364
So far it seems good..haha on day 2.. and day 1 of actual workouts :P
Nice - that's one of the ones that I found searching the interwebs as well. Now I just need to sign up for a race to force myself to start training :P
Delete<3 Kona
ReplyDelete<3 Yoga
<3 Strength training (I forget who, but someone told me that strong arms actually help when running up hills!)