Rachel's IM Canada training: week 15 (of 24)

Posted by Rachel

Two of my fellow bloggers are running a marathon right now. I'm sitting in a bed in Las Vegas, mildly hungover, writing a blog post. And while they're probably 18 miles or so into their run, I just woke up. Some people are more productive than others. I also know that Chen would laugh in the face of a mild hangover and go for a 10-15 mile run, but I think I'll just sit here and write this post until I can motivate myself to get coffee.

So, training. This was a good week where I also had some struggles. But considering there are only about 2 months left, this training cycle was the most difficult so far so I should probably expect to be tired. Here's a recap of my week with stories.

Monday
am- 4000 yard swim. After the weekend's epic journey bike ride Saturday and crazy trail run Sunday, I was ready to just float around. Luckily I saw a training buddy at the pool so about half the workout was structured then the other half was just floating around. I also left for a 24 hour work trip to Santa Barbara Monday afternoon. Quick work trips are exhausting, but there's no better place to go so I can't complain.

I think that, collectively, every blog writer in this account has made the point repeatedly about how amazing Santa Barbara is, so I'll try to not be exhaustive about it

Tuesday

am- 8 mile unintentional progression run (slow to fast, 8:05 pace). As much as I dislike running first thing in the morning, I was so psyched for this run. It was 2 miles from our hotel to the trail to the beach, so I figured I better run 8 to get my beach time in. Two days after swearing off trail running forever, here I am running along a packed trail on Atascadero Creek to get to the beach (it was flat and packed though).

Then finally, I got to enjoy sunrise over Goleta Beach. It's funny how I used to live here (and of COURSE I appreciated it when I did), but now I'm taking my camera on runs and thinking I would wake up at 5 am ANY day for this.

Good morning, Pacific Ocean (pre oil spill) from the bluffs

(Disclaimer: I'm not hating on my current residence, because the Bay area is also quite beautiful. I'm just having SB nostalgia.)

After getting home from the business trip at 6 pm, I had time for a trainer ride.

pm- Trainer Road: Bird. 15 x 1 min hard intervals at my new FTP were... well, hard. The 8 mile run at a decent clip then sitting on a plane probably didn't help the situation. (60 min/15.1 mph)

Wednesday

Bike commute- 29.7 miles, 2400 ft, 13.0 mph. This was one of the toughest rides I've had all training. I'm in the 3rd week of a build cycle and had just done intervals the day before, and my legs were DEAD. Add in a brutal 15 mph headwind and hills, and it was tempting to take the train home instrad of ride. But these are the workouts that show you can get though rough spots (which are bound to happen in an IM), so I'm glad I did not in fact take the train. 

Thursday

am- skipped morning spin class. One of the first self-prescribed workouts that I skipped, but I figured I wouldn't get much out of it given the state of my legs.

pm- 6.5 miles comfortable run (8:20)

Friday

4000 yards @ master's swim practice.I had some decent pull sets and a 300-200-100 set at the end on 1:25 base that I finished with decent times (3:54/2:33/1:13) so overall this swim was alright.

Saturday

BRICK. Due to having a 3 pm flight to Vegas, I had to (1) wake up at the ass crack of dawn for this workout, and (2) structure it a little differently than past bricks. I figured since my biking is weaker than my running, I'd go for a harder ride and shorter run. So the bike leg was 62.6 miles, 5800 ft climbing, 13.3 mph. 13.3 mph, you may not notice for the distance/climbing, is about 0.5-0.7 mph slower than it should've been- so what happened? Well, it was foggy but mid-50s at sea level (warm enough I guess), but the weather at 2000 ft was MISERABLE. It was freezing cold, windy, and raining. So here I am in the 7:00 hour, riding my bike in super low visibility, with a wet hydroplane-looking layer on the road riding around curving, hilly roads. It was here I decided I would cut the ride short. But then I fought back against myself- am I going to quit in the Ironman because I don't like the weather?? I hope not (especially given the entry fee), so I better man TF up. 

It's freezing and I can't see shit, but I won't quit!

I got to the bottom of the hill on the other side (20 miles into the ride) at an average of 11.0 mph. So that added a lot of time to my ride, but the weather was better over there and I must have rode at a decent pace the rest of the ride to get back up to 13.3 mph. I'll accept this as a victory. When I got home, I did a 6.5 mile run at 8:12 pace. I pushed toward the end because I knew it was a short run, but my quads were starting to fatigue and it would be a bad strategy to run that quickly in the IM marathon (mental note). Luckily, the lines at the OAK airport were short as usual so I had time to replenish some of the calories.

Fenton's coffee oreo ice cream and Auntie Annie's pretzel. Salt, carbs, sugar, fat, calories.. yes please.

I also had a Shake Shack burger and fries and wine and tequila for dinner. This step back week begins in Vegas for my sister's 30th bday. And oh yeah:

Sunday

Rest. Drink.