Competitive Week 11 and 12

I know I didn’t post my training recap for Competitive Week 11 and I just finished the last week of the Competitive Training from the 36-week Ironman training plan from www.trifuel.com. 

So, here’s my snapshot from Week 11:

Monday 9/24 – off

Tuesday 9/25 – AM - 45 min. swim; PM – 2 mi @ 8:30 min/mi, strength training

Wednesday 9/26 – AM – speed-work at Davis Island; PM – 8 mi @ 8:33

Thursday 9/27 – AM – 7 miles total, 3 X 1600 @ 6:43 w/ 800 jogs

Friday 9/28 – off

Saturday 9/29 – Augusta open water practice swim

Sunday 9/30 – Augusta 70.3 Ironman!  -- You can check out my recap here.

 

I skipped some of the workouts in preparation for Augusta.  Other than that, nothing out of the ordinary for that week as far as training goes. 

On to the final week of heavy duty training for B2B.

Competitive Week 12 (if you open this link you can view each of the workouts that I used my Garmin with by hitting ‘next’:  

Monday 10/1 – off

Tuesday 10/2 – AM – swim; PM – 2 miles @ 8:30 min/mi; strength training

Wednesday 10/3 – AM – speed-work at Davis Island; PM – 7 mile tempo run (1 mi w/u, 5 miles @ 7:14 min/mi, 1 mi c/d), 40 min on stationary bike    ---  This was a very long day!

Thursday 10/4 – AM – 6 mile speed run (1 mi w/u, 3 X 1600 @ 6:39 min/mi with 800 jogs, .5 mi c/d); PM - strength training

Friday – AM – swim (long swim – 7 X 600). This is the swim that I was complaining about on Friday.

Here’s where is starts to get real!

Saturday – AM – 13 miles @ Clearwater, includes 3 bridges; PM (1:30) – 9 miles

Sunday – 112 mile ride, 2.5 mile cool down, 4.6 mile brick run, .4 mile walk

 

Sarah joined me on Saturday for the 13 mile run at Clearwater.  We met up with the A-Train group and took it pretty easy.  Easy meaning our first mile was close to 10 min and the next 5 were around 9 min/mi.  I think this was good for us because we never go at this pace on days that we’re supposed to take it easy.  I think it was a good lesson in endurance itself… not rushing through the workout and learning to just keep going.  I think this workout wore me out more than the speed workouts.  I broke up my long run into the 13 miler and a 9 miler later in the day.  I read about breaking up the long runs in a couple of other people’s training logs and thought that I would give it a try.  I was able to convince Daniel to go out with me for the 2nd run.  I was very proud of him for finishing completing the 9 miles.  He hasn’t done that distance since March.  Nothing to write about with the 9 miler.  I had 2 gels during the 13 mile run and 1 during the 9 mile run. 

Sunday was the big one.  I was wanting to get in 105, but decided that I wanted to get in a practice ride covering the whole distance.  I had done it numerous times with the swim and even though I haven’t covered 26.2 miles in a single setting since April, I’ve come very close and I’m comfortable with the run. 

For dinner the night before Daniel, DeAna, and Jamie went out to dinner at Laughing Cat.  I had 2 pieces of bread, Insalata Tuscana (side salad with Arugala, chopped pecans, apples, gorgonzola cheese, and balsalmic vinegarette), and a few pieces of calamari to start.  The main meal was jumbo shrimp stuffed with crab and a glass of white sangria.     

Breakfast was a Peanut Butter and Jelly Bonk Breaker.  Nutrition on the bike was 1 Cool Mint Chocolate Clif bar (240 calories, 50 mg caffeine), 1-24 oz. bottle and 1-20 oz bottle each filled with water and 2 scoops of Infinit mix and 3 squirts (24 oz), 2 squirts (20 oz) of MiO Energy (400 calories, 250 mg of caffeine), 1 Strawberry Honey Stinger (160 calories), 1 Oatmeal Raisin Walnut Clif bar (100 calories), and 1/2 pack of mini Ritz pb crackers (70 calories). 

Totals on the bike:

Calories = 970 calories. 

Caffeine = 300 mg

Sodium = 676 (4 scoops of Infinit) + 365 (everything else) = 1041 mg  --- WAY TO MUCH!

Potassium = 196 (Infinit) + 370 (everything else) = 566 mg

Carbs = 92 (Infinit) + 64 (everything else) = 156 g

Protein = 6 (Infinit) + 15 (everything else) = 21g

Fat = 0 (Infinit) + 18 (everything else) = 18g

 

I am so bad about not being more attentive of the nutritional values in things.  Good thing I’m writing this.  I was talking to Sarah the other day and I said “I think I was taking in too much sodium because my hands were starting to swell up while I was on the bike when I still had about 35 miles left.  And, sure enough I did.  I’m pretty happy with the Clif bars, Honey Stinger and the Infinit mix that I’ve perfected with the MiO Energy addition.  The Ritz crackers were an addition because, ironically, or stupidly, I thought that I needed more sodium on the bike.  So, I will be removing that from my race day nutrition arsenal as well as 1 scoop of Infinit and the mini Clif bar.  The mini Clif bar is 100 calories, the half bag of the mini ritz crackers is 70 calories, and 1 scoop of Infinit is 100 calories.  I was good with the total calories I took in so I can replace all of that with one regular sized Clif bar (250 calories).  And, I’ll be having either the Cool Mint Chocolate or the Peanut Toffee Buzz, each having 50 mg of caffeine.  So, I won’t miss out on my caffeine intake either. 

Well, I’m glad that we could have this conversation.  Having my race day nutrition for the bike set is a big deal!  What you do on the bike can almost make or break you on the run.   

 

Back to the 112 mile bike ride itself.  It went well.  I think I could have gone a little faster.  But, I was starting to get tired and I knew I still needed to run.  Running at 2 in the afternoon reminded me why I don’t even think about signing up for summer races that are longer than an Olympic distance.  I finished around 2:45.  I’m a little tired, but I’m not sore.  I had on compression wear almost all day Saturday and Sunday.  As of right now, I feel prepared for B2B.  I haven’t made all my training, but I tried to bring 100% to every training session I did make.  Let’s hope that the next 10 days go smoothly (i.e. injury free) and I can behave myself and watch what I eat  .