7 weeks to go and Trip to St George

Hey everyone, I had a great week. I was able to make a trip out to St George (SG) with a fellow athlete who is also doing the Ironman in May. I think it was more of a confidence booster of the training I have already done.  So let’s get started on the training this week.

Swim: This week I started with a longer work out on Monday doing 10x200 yd and 1x250yd with warm up and cool down. My times have significant decrease due to finally getting the mechanics of my swim stroke down going from 1:35-1:40 100s to 1:25-1:30 100s.  On Wednesday I did a shorter workout with 5 x 200 yd and 5 x100. Then on Saturday while out in SG I did 60 minute endurance swim which I covered 3900yd. This is the longest distance I have gone which was about 2.2 miles. We swam at a community center along the course in Washington City due to the water temp being 52 degrees in Sand Hollow so I opted for the 80 degree water. For the week I swam 5 miles. 

Sand Hollow IMSG Swim 

  Bike: This was the last week of my Progressive cycling class. We mostly did intervals of hard efforts. I am going to get a power test done on Friday this week to see where my power is at now just before the race.  The rest of my riding was out on the course. On Saturday we started from the Community Center (where we swam) out to Sand Hollow Reservoir where the swim for the race is (about 13 miles) also T1 (Transition from swim to bike) then we started the course. All year I have been hearing how tough this course is and all the climbing that is involved. One part of me thought, “I live in Colorado they don’t know what climbing is” and the other part thought “this course is going to kill me”.  So here I was riding the course all in my big ring (harder effort). The scenery was beautiful.

Some of the scenery on the course

 We rode in to town (about 21 miles) and began “the loop”. I could tell it was a long steady climb but I was still moving along well. The roads are rough which I ran lower tire pressure (105 -110 psi) vs (120-125 psi) and I was on my carbon Zipp 808 Fire Crest wheel to absorb the road vibrations. I pushed ahead a few times and really was enjoying the ride up to Veyo then I came the “The wall”. At first I didn’t know it was the wall until I climbed to the top and met another cyclist that just climbed it and asked him. It was hard towards the top where I switched to small ring but nothing I haven’t done before in my training. Then there was two longer steady (5-6% grade) climbs then it was 14 miles of downhill.  I rode back to my truck and totaled 5:15 hrs and 91 miles the first day. I was very pleased with the day.  The next day we rode from the hotel and did another loop. I climbed the wall twice just for good measure.  So I ended up with some high volume on the bike this week. Over 10 hours in the saddle and 175 miles.

Bottom of "The Wall"

Almost to the top

Run: Shorter week of running this week due to my trip, taking a day to pack and spend time with the family before I left. I had a track work out on Tuesday doing an 800 m warm up then 8x 400m hard efforts (averaged 1:20 laps) then a nice 800 cool down. I didn’t run again till I got out to SG.  We ran off the bike on Sunday from the hotel to T2 (Transition from the bike to the run) which was about 1.5 miles. Then we started the course. Which is almost shaped like a pitch fork with a handle; running out and backs down 3 streets to the south then one long out and back to the north.  For the Ironman I will run 3 laps with each lap being just over 8.5 miles. I was comfortable with the run course. I started out with my partner but he was having some IT band issues so he had to cut out early so I just tried to study the course and run it comfortably.  I ran just over 12 miles heading back to the hotel.  It was a great run my goal is to run a sub 4 hour marathon for the race and I think with the motivation of seeing my family a number of times on the course I should have enough gas in the tank to push it.

Over all, I had a great week of training and I am looking forward to the race. Couple more long bikes and runs coming up with some high volume weeks then it will be time to taper before I know it.

Thanks,

Nate