IRONMAN training update 4/29
Got a pretty nice little Saturday planned.
Nice little Saturday indeed. Just a 3.5 hour bike ride in heart rate zone 2. This is 1 week prior to my 70.3 race in St. George, Utah.
I took the opportunity to sleep in a little. And by that I mean 6:30. Our child was up an at ’em early this morning. Rather than get up super early I decided I would try and get as much sleep as I could and spend the morning with the family. My thinking here is that the workout is less than 4 hours so I could get a big chunk of that done during the baby’s nap.
I will be cautious not to go over my zone 2 heart rate as any extra effort today will sap energy from my race next weekend. Ah, so it’s time to talk about that. I will for the first time in almost 20 years doing a race! It appears that I will actually compete without canceling. This is just a half ironman but I feel like it took an incredible amount of work to get to this point! It’s been a frustrating road of attempting to train and then quitting over and over again. It was always the same thing: knee/IT band issues. Why did it take me so long to figure out it was the weak gluts? I am not sure. But things are finally getting better and that makes me happy. I do not think I will be able to push myself to my full limit for this race but I will be happy with a solid effort and not provoking injury. I am still in a learning phase and that means learning about how to train and stay injury free. I will have to be a little careful on the bike and pay attention to quad and IT band tightness.
But overall I would say that this is great. It’s great to be running and cycling again. That was the main goal and I am making it happen. But it took a lot of work and research.
Workout Plan:
Bike 3.5 hours in zone 2.
Fuel:
I am starting nicely full from lunch. Not stuffed. A reasonable lunch. A bowl of steel cut oats with blueberries and a banana. Turkey tacos without the cheese. And some cold cereal with almond milk just to top me off.
During the ride I need roughly: 300 Cals per hour x 3.5 hour = 1050 calories
2 pieces Ezekiel 4:9 Bread: 80 calories per slice: 160
2tbsp Almond butter: 190
Cliff bar bitter filled: 230
Reg cliff bar: 250
Anti inflammatory smoothie: 24 oz: 400 cal?
=1230
Water:
I have been hydrating gently this morning and will slam a bit extra right before I head out the door.
During the ride I will need a minimum of 24 oz per hour x 3.5 = 84 oz. That might not be enough as I can tell it’s a hot day. This will at least be a good start.
Standard bike water bottle filled to the rim
= 20 oz
2 bike bottles
The anti inflammatory smoothie counts as some. Let’s say 16:
So that means I still need 2 refills on the bike.
Music:
I might play around with listening to a recent podcast I recorded or I might listen to my own ironman training playlist that I have been working on. Hoping to get the pre-race playlist up to date before the race. Here it is.
Family:
I have the family stuff sorted for the workout. I spent the morning at home and my wife got a chance to disappear for a few hours and hang out with a friend. She definitely needed a break after a tough week.
Post Workout:
So here is how it went…
An easy ride in zone 2 which is 100-125. Stayed in the middle of zone 2 or lower. I definitely have bilateral IT band soreness after my lactate test yesterday. After next week, I need to take a very close look at this IT band issue. Seems like what I really need is some focused strength training.
Even though this was a chill ride, I almost crashed 3 times today. First was due to a car, second was avoiding pedestrians, and third a crazy skateboarder. I need to take it easy and just be smart.
Fueling and hydration was solid.
I had to cut it short mainly due to my late start and I wanted to see my baby before bedtime. But I also had some sore areas.
Problem areas:
IT bands: #1 issue
Left Achilles soreness
Hamstring tendons
Hand numbness
Bike shorts/perineal numbness
Sore back: not terrible, just noticeable after longer rides
Next: need to hydrate, eat, and ice my sore spots. All while playing with the family. Got to keep it family friendly!
How about you? What do you do for the weekend prior to your 70.3?