Rachel's IM Canada training: week 6 (of 24)

Posted by Rachel

I'm submitting this post a little bit early this week so that my post tomorrow can focus solely on the Oakland Marathon review. I'm fully expecting it to be as fun as always, and it's nice to be running a marathon as a "training run" (ie. with no pressure to hit any time whatsoever). The start/finish it literally right outside our window and I can hear them setting up now. Can't wait!

So here's a recap of my week 6:

Monday
am- I finally defeated the set that I failed at last week. I think it's probably more satisfying to do something that you fail at than to just get it the first time (though my preference is still to get it right the first time). Here's what I did (with no additional rest other than however much you make the interval by): {2 x 500 @ 7:30 + 1 x 100 hard @ 1:40 + 2 x 500 @ 7:20 + 1 x 100 hard @ 1:40 + 2 x 500 @ 7:10 + 1 x 100 hard @ 1:40 + 2 x 500 @ 7:00 + 1 x 100 hard @ 1:40}. I actually found this set on the internet and highly recommend it (adjusting the intervals faster or slower as needed). My arms were SO dead at the end but I was still able to do the last round in 6:47, 6:45, 1:16. However, the total workout was 5000 yards (not meters), and judging by the deadness in my arms, that last 428 m would've been a real struggle. So I still have some work to do before that open water 5k I signed up for.
pm- 1 hour spin (moderate/steady, while watching Bourne Identity; estimated to be about 15 mi but who knows) + 300 various crunches

Tuesday
6.5 miles with 5 at moderate tempo pace (tempo miles 7:35 average; was worried about going too much harder than that because of this whole marathon deal)

Wednesday
Travers subscribed to this awesome Trainer Road program, so I got to measure my FTP right on my own bike on our trainer at home! This was intimidating because I have NO idea what effort I can sustain on a bike for 20 min. If you asked me to do this for swimming or running, it wouldn't be a problem. But I suppose this is how I will get better at biking- by knowing what types of efforts can be sustained for how long, and doing trainer workouts based on my FTP. I couldn't believe I liked a trainer ride! I think I was actually too conservative, but my FTP came out to 176W. This is around 3.0 W/kg, which according to the internet, is much higher than an untrained cyclist! Woohoo! (Ok, it's a lot lower than a great cyclist, but I'm working on it!) I'm excited to do some of the interval workouts that design targets based on my FTP, then repeat the FTP test again in about a month.

Thursday
am- light strength and core. Beginning in week 9, I'm going to replace strength with an extra spin but keep core.
pm- comfortable pace 6.5 mile run (8:24)

Friday
3400 yards at master's swim
The coach asked us to a couple of 100s non freestyle, hard (within a set of 6 x 100 @ 1:40). The biggest surprise here that I didn't know until today is that my 100 backstroke hard is literally only 2 sec slower than my 100 freestyle hard. This seems lame... I do 8000+ yards of freestyle per week and about 200 yards of backstroke, shouldn't my freestyle be significantly faster?? Why can't there be an Ironman backstroke? Why am I stuck being fast and slow at the same strokes that I was when I was 10? :p

After work, we went to a German/beer place that was a little off the beaten path. My sausage and soft pretzel were decent, but the best part was the water (I love water):

Saturday
We're doing some bike ride today that actually hasn't occurred yet. Given that we did 85 miles last week this will probably be around 30, and I actually don't even care if we make it that far (the joys of self-coaching!). After all, we're running a marathon tomorrow.
pm- Eat pasta. Eat gelato.