First build week and photo dump

Here's the recap from the first week of my build phase, week 25 of my Ironman training plan

If that looks insane, it was.  seriously. This was the first week of the plan that I got from Coach Doug Maclean, the incredible pro triathlete that wrote my build phase training plan.  Totals for the week were 4.5 miles of swimming, 186 miles on the bike, and 17.2 miles of running totaling up to 14:15 in total training time.  Not including the strength and yoga work.

I skipped the planned Thursday night run to rest up for the Battle at Buckhorn sprint tri on Saturday. That second run workout was the warmup/cooldown run I did at the race site.  I was supposed to do another 90 minutes Thursday and 45 minutes on Saturday, but I bailed on those.

They say when you run with a new pain, blame the shoes and replace them.  I skipped those runs thanks to a niggle in my foot that I think is tendon related.  There seems to be some inflammation in there, regular ice and ibuprofen help it tremendously.  But after I run and the day after I run are always the worst.  I have had some hatred issues with the Mizuno Wave Rider 16's, as they always felt kind of lopsided,  My wave rider 14's were some of the best shoes I've used over the last few years, only you can't find the 14's anymore.  So I ordered a new pair of 15's to get me through the next few months and they will be here in a few days.  Meanwhile, I'm taking this week off from running to let the tendon heal.  That means this week has lots of biking and swimming, and some extra strength and yoga work.

The training plan did not call for a long run on Sunday since the long bike ride is more important. So after the race on Saturday I did as much of a cooldown run as I could stand, and that will be it until at least next Tuesday.  Better to let this thing heal up during the start of the training plan so I'll be good to go during the peak weeks.

This training plan..... Doug the man..... Tuesday was a double brick day.  The morning workout was bike focused with a BST (Bike Strength Training) workout followed by an easy runoff.  The BST was 2 x 10 minutes on a huge hill, so tough I could barely keep 60 rpm.  This turned out to be a phenomenal workout. I did an easy zone 1 runoff after this guy for as long a I could.

The evening brick was run focused, so I did an easy 45 minutes on the bike then ran fast.  Actually the run focused workout had 4 x 1 minute up a really steep hill, then some recovery time and I actually freaking did a 19 minute tempo run at a 9.0 speed!!  That's a 6:40 pace for almost 3 miles.  insane.  I found my upper limit there.  The fatigue from the BST and the hill work in the same day were made it quite labored.  But that makes it more awesome. This week's tempo session is supposed to be 25 minutes, and I'd love to put up a 20:30 5k time.  stupid tendons.

Wednesday's run was recovery, and both of the swims were solid RAM practices. Thursday I actually forgot to look up what kind of bike workout I was supposed to do, so I just went long.  Then for the race we had a strategy in mind, and Sunday I got in my long ride for the week.  I cannot stress enough how incredible Doug is as a coach.  Totally changed my approach to this build phase, and his approach is very effective.  I love it.

And as if that wasn't random enough, here's a photo dump of other stuff I have been meaning to post about:

At the Tyler's Taproom before the Bulls Game

We went to a Durham Bulls game with some good friends and all of the kids had a blast

Needless to say the girls had a blast

They did the "running of the kids" instead of the running of the bulls at the game, and Evil Genius got to run across the outfield! That's her in the white shirt

I snapped this at the pool at Pullen Park a couple of weekends ago. The kids had a blast.

The kids were at an art camp at the church last weekend, so we had the time to find them some roller skates.  Now if Bigun is at home and awake, the skates are on.  She loves it.

So that was a lot of triathlon training, yes. But there is still plenty of time for the family and I get to spend lots of time with Kelley and the kids.  I work out twice a day (the days that only show one s/b/r in the graphic I also did some strength work and/or yoga), in the morning before anyone else gets out of bed and at night after the kids go to bed.  I fully appreciate that I am able to do all of this with the support of such a wonderful family instead of having it create a conflict inside of the family like it does for so many people.  This is a real blessing.