Rachel's IM Canada training: week 19 (of 24)

Posted by Rachel

When I was first making my training plan, I was concerned about having week 20 as a step back week so close to taper. I can now safely say that I have beaten the crap out of myself for the last 3 weeks and I am more than happy to take a step back. This week was somehow productive at work, full of partying, AND full of exercising. I don't know how it all fit, besides the fact that I didn't do any chores. I'm looking at a pile of work clothes that needs to be ironed, our fridge is empty because I didn't grocery shop, and I didn't get a card for my parents' anniversary (6/19), awesome friend's birthday (also 6/19), or Father's Day (sorry, Dad, you're the best!). Here's why:

Monday
am- 3000 yard swim as a recovery from the 5k no from the prior Saturday. My arms actually felt decent considering my huge positive split in that race.
pm- Trainer Road/Diamond. This was a pretty hard workout the day after a 20 mile run.

Tuesday
am- 4200 yard swim, including 4 x {2 x 250 @ 3:45 + 1 x 300 @ 4:00} (no rest between sets). The 300s were ~3:50 and this 3rd swim in 4 days felt great!
pm- 8 mile progression run (slow --> fast/ 8:02 overall average). My legs definitely felt like bricks, thank you last weekend's 20 miler.

Wednesday
29.7 mile bike commute, ~ 2300 ft climbing, 14.0 mph. There was a headwind, but I think I may have drafted off of Travers in the headwind on the downhill ;) I had a funny moment of cycling stereotypes when we had stopped briefly and were pulling back onto the road, but I heard two cyclists (couldn't see them yet) coming up the hill around the curve speaking Italian. I said "we should let these guys go, they sound fast." Why would being Italian make them fast?? I'm half Italian, and I'm not fast! However, it did turn out that my stereotype was right and they WERE fast!

Thursday
am- 3600 yard swim, including a few shorts/fast sets. I was really happy with my times again during this workout. My disastrous 5k OWS was nearly forgotten by the time I finished this workout and I loved swimming again.
pm- 6.5 mile run, 8:22 pace (pace was fine but my legs felt like bricks, again).

Friday
REST DAY! (Which included 5 miles of walking, does that count for anything?)
This was a fun day because the Warriors victory parade was routed right down our street! We got a great spot to enjoy the NBA champions! (I hope nobody from my work has found this blog but if they have I was at work the WHOLE day Friday... really.)

Here's me at work

The Mayor of Oakland & MC Hammer in a fire-breathing snail. So much better than the Mayor of SF's ride. 

Hi, Klay!

Draymond & Marshawn- this must have been the party bus

Steph Curry...facing the wrong side of the road!!

Igoudala/ finals MVP!

And then I went to work (seriously). 

Saturday

am- 2.35 mile swim (approximate) at Aquatic Park in 1:00:45. Despite the overuse of Body Glide, I always end up chafing miserably in salt water. Oh well. I think this is the first time I have swam 4 times in a week since quitting college swimming after my sophomore year (ie. a long LONG time ago). It felt great!!

pm- Thanks to Chen's actual date being out of town, I got to be her stand-in date for her AMAZING work party! Her work party consisted of all the free ballpark food you can eat (we took on soft pretzels, mac & cheese, a brat, and an ice cream sandwich), booze, and three surprise musical guests. I'm not sure if it was the large quantity of alcohol consumed under the beating hot sun, but that party was AWESOME!! First, we got to see Jason Derulo (sorry, my pictures suck because we were still busy eating far from the stage at this point).

Then, Imagine Dragons! I learned they are from Vegas, and also that they're pretty good live, and also that I know most of their songs thanks to my Pandora station.

This guy can really sing!

Obligatory selfie; if we're not training, we're definitely eating and drinking!

And then came the headlining act... 

Recognize her?

How about these sharks?

Don't drop Katy Perry!

Afterward, I went home and watched Will Farrell and Kristen Wiig's Lifetime movie (a great recommendation from Chen!) while hydrating to get rid of my massive headache (the penalty for drinking all day in the sun, unfortunately). 

Sunday

Triple layer brick. Here's what we did:

Bike #1- 23.7 miles, 2280 ft climbing, 13.7 mph

Run #1- 6 miles, 470 ft climing, 8:44 pace

Bike #2- 28.0 miles, 2230 ft climbing, 14.6 mph

Run #2- 6 miles, 470 ft climbing, 8:28 pace

Bike #3- 23.7 miles, 2280 ft climbing, 13.9 mph (same as bike #1)

Run #3- 4 miles, 308 ft climbing, 8:30 pace

Total biking: 75.3 miles, 6789 ft climbing, 14.0 mph average

Total running: 16 miles, 1253 ft climbing, 8:34 pace

This workout was a BEAST. It was tough, and despite fueling enough (so I thought) and hydrating more than enough, I was a little bit shaky at the end. I don't know if this was related to exhaustion, fueling, or too much partying and exercising in one week. It's really daunting to think the the Ironman is about 5 hours longer and given today's workout I'm still not too sure I'm ready. But there's not really enough time left to worry about that, so onward we go!