We are almost halfway through so its time to start focusing on nutrition. Oy….

 

Monday: run/swim. 60 minute stroller run/5.97 miles/10:03 average/68 degrees. After racing the day before I decided to skip the intervals so the twins and I (well me, really – they take it easy anyway) took the run easy. I must have landed funny or run weird or something though because my knee started to feel a niggle after I was done. 60 minute swim/2400 meters. I can’t remember why I stopped at 2400 but I think I was just tired and decided I was done. Interesting how even 100 more meters seems like too much effort.

Tuesday: ride. 60 min ride with 2×5 min intervals/18.43 mi/18.5 MPH/70 degrees. I look forward to the intervals now, but am nervous about the bike ones depending on the traffic. I had planned to go back and forth on a usually low traffic road that ended up with higher than usual traffic that day (go figure), so I just kept going and tried to pay extra attention. I had trouble getting into zone 4 but I think some traffic jitters played into that.

Wednesday swim/run 60 minute swim/2300 yards. I skipped getting up at 4:45 and swam in the pool in my neighborhood (which allowed me to “sleep in” until 5:15). I forgot that the pool would be dark at 5:30 though so that made the warm up interesting. I could see ok there is just something a little weird about swimming in the dark. 45 minute run with 2×3 min intervals/10:11 average/4.42 miles/91 degrees I went to speed work every Wednesday through the summer last year and I have no idea how I managed any speed. It is SO FREAKING HOT. The intervals made it difficult for my heart rate to recover so I did some walking while I melted. My knee, unfortunately, was also not happy. *sigh*. It is always something

13494789_861936900213_6999192277823548969_n

Thursday quick change. ride. 45 minute ride/14.1 miles/18.8 MPH/77 degrees I woke up and my knee was still hurting. Ugh. I considered skipping the entire workout but decided to KT tape it and try out the bike. As long as I kept a consistent cadence I didn’t notice any issues, and even when I did it was minimal, but I played it safe and skipped the run part since that was what aggravated it the day before. As the day went on it felt much better, but not quite enough to make me feel comfortable attempting a run again.

Friday long run swim. 70 minute swim/3000 yards. I did a lot of debating the night before on making Friday my rest day and attempting the run Sunday vs. swapping out the run for a swim. In the end I decided that I enjoy my Sunday rest day and swapping allowed me an extra day of rest from running, just in case. By Friday morning my knee was back to a “niggle” but I’d really rather it be gone. I still have no idea what I did to it – guessing maybe I twisted or hyperextended it or something. So now I’ve done my “extra swim” swap two weeks in a row so I’ll follow the plan as written for the next two. On the plus side, the swim felt strong and it was my longest distance to date!

Saturday long ride. 3 hour ride with 1 5 min interval/55.4 miles/18.5 MPH/77 degrees (increasing to 88). So I have this for the future in case I forget – this ride I tried a little over 2 scoops for each of my two bottles (~110 calories each) and a fig bar for nutrition. Unfortunately about an hour and a half into the ride my stomach was upset – cramping a little on and off. It actually ended up doing this for the whole day so I’m uncertain if it was a nutrition issue vs. a mild bug as my mom had an upset stomach for a couple days last week. I do know that I need to drink more – the recommendation is about a bottle an hour and I was doing about 2/3 that. Other than that though, and the heat (again with the heat), the ride went well.

Oh, and I swapped out a seat AGAIN after wondering if the too wide seat was partially causing the knee issue (I suspect I  may have been pedaling with my legs bowed out in order to avoid pressure along the sides of my….erm….crotch). I definitely need a more traditional style seat,and while the one I tried has been the best so far, it didn’t work either. Here is hoping trial number 5 is the charm…..once I can get back down to the bike shop that is.

Sunday REST DAY! Knee feels ok so tomorrows run is the test.

13528769_1371771039506646_2870255872871331430_n

 

Total Time: 9 hours 45 minutes (long and quick change run skipped/swapped for swim)

Training Thoughts: An Ironman is one giant math equation. How many calories do I  need per hour? How many solid vs. liquid? How high should my seat be and how far back/forwards? Also,  I feel like I’m constantly walking a fine line on injuries – adding up the hours like that makes it so much easier to hurt yourself. I cannot slack on the stretching. AHHHHH!!!!