A week in the life of Ironman training...

I've been asked a few times this week how I fit Ironman training in along with work, family, etc. I've had a couple of 15 hour training weeks this month and while challenging, it's definitely do-able. I'm still early in the training schedule - there is still 110 days to go before race day and my peak training week will jump to 20+ hours. Here is the answer to the question - one week's schedule for my Ironman training.

Monday - training day off! Great start. Got to sleep in until 6 and was at work by 7:30. I conducted an orientation for new employees most of the day and was on my feet a lot. On top of the training from the previous week, the legs were a little sore. Mondays, my typical rest day consist of lots of protein. Typically eggs in the morning, a salad at lunch time and salmon for dinner.

Tuesday - Alarm goes off at 4am. I'm on the road by 4:2o for a 45 minute run that included 6 x 5 minute intervals at 85%. After this I had a quick change and drove to Planet Fitness to get a weight workout in. I get there around 5:30 and back home by 6:30. After making my smoothie and my son's smoothie, I take a quick shower and get to work at around 7:40. I work through lunch - typically packing my lunch and visit the salad bar at the local grocery store. My wife has a meeting so I pick up my son at 6, bring him home, make dinner and help him with homework. After he goes to bed around 8 I hit the trainer for a 1 hour ride. Finish my pasta dinner by 9:30 and fall asleep on the couch watching 24 from Tivo.

Wednesday - Alarm goes off at 4am. This morning I have a brick so I'm on the trainer by 4:30 for a 50 minute interval session, followed by a 40 minute outdoor run with the same intervals as the Monday morning session. I'm back home a little after 6am, make my son and myself our smoothies and hit the shower. I get to work for 7:45. I'm out the door right at 5:30 so I can get to Masters swimming for 6pm. That lasts for an hour. I get home about 7:20, have my pasta dinner, and fall asleep to Lost. Thank goodness for Tivo!

Thursday - The UNH pool doesn't open until 6 so I get to sleep in a little until 5:30. I arrive at the pool by 5:50 and am the first one in the water. The workout today consisted of a 2,500 yard continuous swim. That took me 40 minutes - I shower at the pool and head home to eat (my regular smoothie), change into work clothes and get to work by 7:45. I have a ride that night so I also pack a bag with my bike gear and load my bike into the back of the car. I left work right at 5:3o to meet a couple of friends for a 6pm recovery ride along the coast. In typical New England fashion, the fog rolled in just as we were rolling out. Thankfully I had enough gear with me to keep warm. I finish the ride at 7:15 and pick up my son from my wife who has some late meetings. Once my son and I get home we both get dinner and I fall asleep on the couch watching re-runs of The Office on Tivo (detecting a pattern here?).

Friday - Alarm goes off at 4am. I had a 90 minute on the schedule and was out the door by 4:30. It was incredibly foggy and I thought my 10.5 mile loop would take me a little longer as a result, but, I finished in 1 hour 31 minutes. By the time I stretched, ate, showered and packed my lunch for the day, I still had time to grab a bagel and decaf coffee at Panera and arrive at work by 7:55. I also packed a gym bag so I can do my strength training after work. I get to Planet Fitness by 5:30 and home by 6:30 to help facilitate the craziness of a sleep over with two 11-year old boys. Somehow I managed to stay awake until 10pm.

Saturday - My son had a sleep over on Friday night so Saturday morning consisted of making pancakes for them before heading out on a 1-hour run at about 7am. Once I got back I did some work around the house and took a short nap before heading to the pool and getting a 45-minute swim workout in. I also had a 2nd 45-minute run workout planned for the afternoon which I was going to do in the late afternoon. But, I was feeling good after the swim so I decided to get the run in right after the swim. That gave me the rest of the afternoon to eat and nap.

Sunday - Today was the final push for a a long week. I had a 3-hour ride on the schedule followed by a 15-minute run plus a core workout. Because of the anticipated cold and windy weather in the morning and a family commitment, I decided to wait until the afternoon to get my ride in. Originally, the plan was to be on the road by 2pm. However, my son got a new gadget for his Playstation and needed help setting it up. Remembering how I felt as a kid after getting a new toy, I helped him get that set up before heading out. Unfortunately, the wind had not died down much but at least the temps had rose up into the 50's, which made for a challenging but comfortable ride. After the ride, I headed out for a run and felt surprisingly good and topped the day off with a core workout. It was a perfect end to the weekend. My wife made me a great dinner, bought Ghiaradelli chocolate chips for snacking and the Tour of Flanders was on Versus. It was a good day and I'm looking forward to a rest day.

Stats for the week:

7000 yards of swimming

99.25 miles of biking

35 miles of running

15 hours 11 minutes total training time including strength training

27,400 approximate total calories burned

Rigid vs. Flexible

I recently received the next training block from Suzan, my coach. While plugging the workouts into my schedule for the next four weeks it became quickly apparent that it is going to be a challenging month. It's not only the physical challenge of the training volume at 10 - 12 hours per week but the prospect at trying to fit it all in with the rest of life.

Over the next four weeks my Son turns 11 and the major fundraiser for Bretton Woods Adaptive is taking place in addition to a busy work schedule. This scheduling exercise of training for an Ironman while also having a family and a job has highlighted the need to have a balance between a rigid disipline to do the training and flexibility to fit it in whenever possible.

The Problem

For example, in two weeks I'll be participating at the BWA Blast, an all day downhill skiing event which is the major annual fundraiser for the charity I'm supporting through the Janus Charity Challenge. I feel a need to be there. Scheduled for the same day is a 2-hour bike followed by a 20-minute run with a 1 hour 45 minute run the next day. I'm at a stage of my training cycle when building an aerobic base is critical for the next stage in training. Missing these workouts would really not be good.

Normally I would do the bike outside in the middle of the day on Saturday when it's warm enough and do the long run on Sunday morning. I definitely can't fit the bike in on the day of the fundraiser and I'd rather not run for almost 2 hours the morning after skiing all day.

The Solution

My plan at this point is to ride on Sunday and get up early on Monday to fit the run in before work. Not an ideal scenario but it is the reality of my balance between being rigid and flexible.

3:30 on the trainer - UGH!

My brother got married this past weekend (another post on that later) and that meant I was limited in my scheduling for the long ride and run on the schedule.

I was able to get up on Sunday morning (after being the Best Man at Jon's wedding and dancing most of the night) to get a 12 mile run in. I actually felt better than I expected with the humid weather and hills that were on the route I had chosen. But, the rain started to fall about a 1/2 hour in it kept me comfortable for the rest of the run.

The real challenge was the 3 hour 45 minute brick I had to fit in. With the schedule I had I couldn't do it until Monday afternoon after a 2-hour drive from Hanover. There were thundershowers expected most of the afternoon so I was left with a choice - chance it on the roads with the heavy rain and potential lightning, or ride on the trainer for 3 1/2 hours. I had a couple of movies from Netflix so I opted for the indoor session. It was the 2nd longest ride on the trainer, the longest I have ever done was four hours while training for Ironman Lake Placid in '06.

Definitely an exercise in mental toughness, and on top of it all I did a short 15 minute run! Here's hoping for the payoff on race day at Patriot.

Tune Up weekend

Mooseman is this coming Saturday so this past weekend was my last chance to get some good training volume in.

By the look of the forecast on Friday night with a chance of rain predicted most of the day, I thought I'd be riding the trainer. When I got up it was gorgeous so I was able to get a 2-hour ride in before the rain started to fall later in the day.

Sunday I was going to head up to Wellington State Park for a GSTC Mooseman race prep training. Paul and I were going to drive up together before Paul bailed and I started to wonder if I wanted to drive 3 hours round trip for a 2 1/2 hour training. Particularly with gas at close to $4/gallon and the weather being so nice. Instead, I did my own triathlon training camp.

It started with a 15 minute bike ride to the pool. I swam for about 30 minutes before getting back on the bike and riding for about 30 miles. I finished up with a four mile run which was harder than I expected. The temperature had gotten pretty warm and I haven't gotten a lot of training in the warm weather yet.

Good thing because the forecast for the race this weekend is temps in the 80's!

GSTC Group ride begins

Tuesday's workout was a Masters swim session. We normally don't quite finish the full workout in the hour practice. The yardage for a workout typically varies from 2,700 yards up to 3,200 yards. Ironically, with Tuesday's workout being 3,200 yards, it was one of the few workouts we've finished the entire thing. There was a lot of freestyle swimming which definitely helped and we also got started a few minutes early.

Evening workouts always make the next morning's workout more difficult. Wednesday was no exception. Yesterday morning I did a run of about 5.5 miles in just under 50 minutes. Then after work I met up with GSTC for the first Wednesday night club ride of the year. There was only four of us but it was nice to ride with a group, despite the 50 degree temp and stronger than expected winds. We got about 22 miles in about an hour and 15 minutes. We had some good hills and a pretty strong headwind for the first half of the ride that kept our speed way down. Two of the four were also new to the club so I think everyone wanted to make it more of a casual ride than a hammerfest. That certainly contributed to the slower pace.

After the ride I went on a run through college woods on my own. I don't usually enjoy afternoon runs but this one felt good. I think I planned my nutrition timing better yesterday which helped make the run more enjoyable. I ended up getting home around 8 last night, boiling a big serving of pasta and having it with my wife's homemade sauce which she had just finished making. After that I finished the meal off with a small serving of Ghiardelli dark chocolate chips (I tell myself I eat them for the antioxidants in dark chocolate ). Nice way to finish the day.

I was supposed to swim this morning but decided to get the extra rest. Tonight I have another ride scheduled which I'll be doing on my own and will be more of a workout than last night