Four Days Down

I am on a week break in Kelowna and it is full of training eating and sleeping. I just completed the 4th day of my first major ironman training block. Coach Scott has scheduled a total of 32 hours this week which should be interesting. I arrive on Friday evening and started the block on Saturday. The last 4 days have broken down as follows:

• Saturday: 4000m swim, 2.5 hour bike, 30 min. run
  
• Sunday: 5 hour bike, 40 min. Run 
  
• Monday: 3600m swim, 3 hour bike
  
• Tuesday: 45 min bike, 1 hour run (recovery day)
  

So far the body is holding up very well. Other than straying slightly last night I have been conscientious about sleep and nutrition. It seems to be paying off as I am recovering very well. No muscle aches or pains either even after doing more than an hour of climbing yesterday. The next three days will be rather huge as long as the weather holds out. The highlight of the week will be riding the Ironman Canada bike course on Thursday.



After a terrible Manitoba winter it is wonderful to be in the Okanagan. The weather is not stellar and is on the cool side but I left 25cm snow drifts behind in Winnipeg. This week will give me a huge jump on my IMC preparation and the only down side is it looks like I will be back on the trainer for a while when I return home on Monday.

The big decision this trip was to put our condo in Kelowna on the market. If it sells then we will buy a home here, sell our place in Winnipeg and rent something until we are done with Manitoba. Another one of life’s interesting journeys.

Now this is crazy..

And I thought coming off of Richter Pass at 80+ KPH was nuts.

Recovery Week and Then...

I am starting my first recovery week since Christmas. I have finished a hard block and now it is time to get ready for training camp. Scott has a 32 hour week planned for me. It will include a 3, 5 and 6 hour ride and a 4500m swim. I will need to make sure that I stretch every day as well as eat a lot of high quality protein and carbs. Should be an interesting week.

Interesting Week

It has been an interesting week. Several weeks ago I had to reapply for my present job. My employer will only give coordinators three year contracts and my time was up. Worked hard to prepare an updated resume and read over the appropriate literature in order to prepare for my interview. I found out Tuesday that I have my present position for another three years. This will be the last time that I have to go through that. We will be in BC the next time my term is up.
Workouts were going well up until Thursday. An hour run was scheduled for that day and for the first time in quite a while the session was like torture. I could hardly move my legs but was able to get through the 60 minutes. The next day a 3400m swim was on tap and I did not have high hopes after Thursday’s experience. Much to my surprise I nailed the workout and felt it was a break through session. That was followed by a 3 hour ride and 40 minute run on Saturday. Today Donna and I went to Birds Hill Park. She walked and I ran for 2 hours. My run was awesome and I feel that things are coming together.

Over the last three years I suspected that I was not getting as much from my workouts as I should. For the most part I was basing things on perceived exertion as I had little else to base things on. The coaches at Tribalistic were not big believers in use heart rate data to base workouts on so I had little else to go on. After working with the data from my testing at U of M coach Scott forwarded workout heart rate zones this past week. From the data it appears that for the most part most of the work I was doing was at a steady or low endurance level and I was not incorporating work at higher intensities. With the new heart rate zones in had I headed out for my 2 hour run today and was able to keep my heart rate at the high end of the endurance zone and felt great. It looks like the $140.00 for testing was well spent and the newly established training zones will pay dividends.