Ironman 70.3 Training Plan

Ironman 70.3 Training – Week 6

Miscellaneous

This week’s training went well. It included a 5AM, 20-mile ride on my spin bike, but I made it work! It’s all about adjusting your schedule to make sure you get your training in. Most people (I’ve learned) will not understand this, but your journey isn’t for them to understand anyways.

Week 6 Overview:
8 Activities
6 Hours + 55 Minutes
61 Miles
3,860 Cals Burned

Week-6-OverviewThis week was another dreaded pool swim. I’m actually really proud and happy when it’s over and when I’m sitting in the hot tub or sauna knowing I just swam a mile. BUT actually driving to the pool and getting in the cold water is another story – especially when it’s super early in the morning and you’re rushing around before work to make sure you get your training in.

I ran 10 miles yesterday on a gorgeous, spring morning. It quickly warmed up and was 82 degrees near the end. I loved every second of it though. For some reason I was keeping my mind occupied by just thinking, so the miles ticked by fairly quickly. {These type of runs are few and far between, but it sure is nice when it happens and your mind is distracted.}

Like I mentioned before I had a 4:45AM wake up call on Thursday to get in my 20-mile bike. I started at 5AM and finished around 6:30AM. I had to be at a work location at 8AM so it was a race against the clock, but I pulled through and fit everything in! I also built out a nice little “pain cave” the night before and spent my ride watching two episodes of The O.C. (Yes the show that came out in 2002! It’s so, so good.)

pain-Cave-TheaterThis weekend we are traveling to Chicago for my husband’s birthday! (His b-day was in March, but I got him a trip to Chi town with a 5-hour pizza tour included!) It’s going to be a field day. We’re so excited! We’ve never been to Chicago either so stay tuned for our adventures. I made sure there was a fitness center at our hotel, so I plan on doing my “long” run (10-miles) super (crazy) early on Friday morning since we leave Friday night. Then Saturday I’ll get up early and workout at the hotel and then take Sunday off.

Again – it’s all about adjusting your training schedule…and staying calm 🙂

Happy Week 7!

Ironman 70.3 Training – Week 3

Miscellaneous

This past week’s training went much better than week 2! I am FINALLY starting to feel better and my coughing is at a minimum. It’s amazing to experience life again without constantly coughing! (My cough lasted nearly 8 weeks!!)

I got in a solid 7 days this week and felt amazing. In previous training plans I always incorporated a rest day, however this one doesn’t give me a rest day for a few weeks still. (When we really start ramping up the mileage and it makes more sense.) However I feel good despite no rest day.

Here’s a rundown of the week:

Total Training Time: Six hours, 23 minutes
Total Mileage: 47 miles

week3-trainingI got super bored during the swim this week. I’ve mentioned before that during these first couple of weeks of training that I really want to focus on drills and form rather than distance. I found myself wishing for some underwater headphones though because I was actually just SO bored! I kept telling myself that sitting in the hot tub after my swim was my “reward”.

I’m still riding a spin bike for my training. My road bike is packed away somewhere at my mother-in-laws and will require digging it out and then getting a tune-up. I’ve been thinking about getting another road bike and just transferring my aero bars to the new one, but we will see. I’m not trying to spend that much since it’s not completely necessary and I just want a new bike 🙂  It might still be a few weeks until I can start getting outside with this typical bipolar Northeast Ohio weather.

I had my first “long” run this past weekend on Easter Sunday. I did 7.5 miles. I set out to do anything between 7 and 8, so I felt OK about my effort. I got nervous last week after I looked at the calendar and realized I only have six weeks left until my first half marathon of the year. (Cincinnati Flying Pig Half Marathon.) It probably won’t be a PR race for me, but at least it will motivate me to get out there and cover some distance.

Happy Training Friends!

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Ironman 70.3 – Week 1 Training

Miscellaneous

Last week was my first official week of training for Ironman 70.3 Ohio. I’ve been hitting it pretty hard since beginning of January, but man does it feel good to train with a purpose again!!

Week One-1Here’s an overview of how it went:
Total Training Hours: 6 hours, 35 minutes
Total Mileage: 35 miles
week-1I signed up for a free 70.3 training plan through AJ Baucco Coaching. We use an app called Addaero and all of the training is imputed into an easy-to-follow calendar. I didn’t follow the plan to a “T” this week, but I definitely used it as a base to what and how I was training. So far it’s an awesome program!

This weekend I headed back to the pool for the first time since August (haha) and surprisingly it went pretty decent! Although I know I have SO much room for improvement still. (Decent in this scenario means I didn’t drown or come close to it, but I wasn’t very fast either!) I focused the hour I spent in the pool on basic drills, trying to get the base of my form down again. At first I wanted to panic by how out-of-shape in swimming I was, but I reminded myself that I still have 23 weeks to train for the 1.2 mile swim. I will also be training with Cleveland Triathlon Club for a few open water swims and doing a few other swim clinics throughout the summer. Plus my college roommate is a swimmer so I’ll probably be getting together with her sometime in the next 23 weeks for a 1-on-1 training session. In my case – we’ve got nothing but time and I’m going to make sure I take full advantage of that!

In other news...I’m going on over a month of not feeling too great, which is super frustrating. I had a terrible cough/cold for all of February and it feels like it has been coming back over the past two days. I’ve been on antibiotics, steroids, inhalers, you name it. It’s frustrating and annoying, but the good news is I go to the doctor’s next week so hopefully I’ll be on the road to recovery soon. (Fingers crossed.)

Here’s to another full week of training! I had P90X on the schedule for today (conditioning), but when I got to the gym this morning someone else was already using the TV in the studio. It was annoying, but if there is anything I’ve learned about fitness and training – it’s that you’ve got to learn to adapt and modify. Not everything is going to go as planned because stuff (life) happens. SO instead I did 10 minutes of rowing, 40 minutes of strength training (pull ups, push ups, squats, leg press, abs and LOTS of kettle-bell drills) and then finished it up with 20 minutes of a huge incline on the elliptical. I was sweating like a dog!!

Happy Training!

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