The Eagleman Training Block

As I finished up with Challenge Knoxville, I jumped right back into it.  I got home from that race Sunday night about 7pm.  I was swimming in the pool the next morning at 5:30am.  I did this last year in September, as I did a half and then went right into a hard week.  Maybe the hardest week I had in the buildup to IM Chattanooga.  I guess I don't remember being so tired.

Thanks Trevor Wurtele

One thing I have to keep telling myself is that you are not at the fitness level you were at last September.  This might be the hardest thing for me this year: patience.  I was probably in the best shape of my life going into Chattanooga.  It is debatable, considering how much I ran in college (up to 115 mile run weeks with 90 minute strength sessions 3x a week).  Definitely more time and more rounded.

A hundred miles of bike on the road, a hundred miles of bike . . .

I've grown impatient sometimes.  It took a while to get over the hump, so to speak, and not feel like I was dying in every workout.  Even into January this was happening.  But over the last month I've started to feel better and nail some good workouts.

Loop de Loops

The past 3 weeks have been the peak block in the buildup to Ironman Eagleman 70.3 up in Maryland.  I didn't get as much swimming in because of the Memorial Day weekend schedule.  No practice Fri/Mon.  But that did help me get some serious bike and run miles in.

You have something on your 2x20, it was Pain!

So if we go back over the last 21 days, this is what we have:

Swim
8 swims, 20,780 meters, 9 hours 8 minutes
I'm sticking with the quantity over quality theory this year.

Bike
14 rides,  639.2 miles, 30 hours 38 minutes
I got in a good one hundred miler, and some good tempo and interval rides.  Feeling strong after 30 miles at 250 watts.

Run
16 runs, 140.1 miles, 16 hours 51 minutes
Pretty consistent with the mileage.  I felt pretty good in the 16 miler.  I'm still working on getting my tempo run pace down, but 8 miles at 6:25 pace in May isn't too bad.

Let's Run some intervals, shall we?

The last day of that stretch was just a fun day hanging out with the Big Sexy man Hisself, Chris McDonald, at the Epoch Universal/Bike Depot Triathlon Camp.  We rode 45 and then did a 4.5 mile brick.  We dropped everyone, and it was just me and him for the last 1.5 miles.  That was pretty cool, hanging with the boss, so to speak.



So now we rest.  We taper.  We get mentally prepared. I'm looking forward to Eagleman.  I will be so far behind coming out of the water in this non-wetsuit saltwater swim, that people will be like "he's a Kona what? Seriously? Nooo?  Really?"

I'll just take one pot

So then my plan is to hammer the bike. Shocking, I know.  As my wife says, "you're plan is ALWAYS to hammer the bike". Maybe hammer is a strong word.  I mean, I don't want to go all Patrick Evoe 2012 Augusta 70.3 "Bike Angry" type of hammer (look it up).  But I do need a good bike split.  We're going for broke.  After this race, we're flipping the switch to 140.6 training.  And that's where the real fun begins . . .

Is it a rest week yet?