Week 6 of Ironman Prep Training Phase - 07/26/2010

I'm deep into the depths of Ironman training and with that comes a significant amount of fatigue. It really hit me for the first time this week. Several weeks of pushing the workout mileages, durations and intensities higher have led to overall body fatigue, extremely tired legs and a crabby attitude. This all came at an inopportune time with my first race rehearsal scheduled for the end of the week and my son's 2nd birthday party with out-of-town guests for the weekend. But I got through it, learned some lessons and hopefully didn't come across to those close to me as too abrasive or off in LaLa Land.

The Swim
I put in 3 swim sessions this week including a 2.4 mile race simulation swim at race effort. The heavy fatigue I spoke about above really showed itself for the first time on my Tuesday swim (2nd swim of the week) where I just couldn't push the paces like I had been for the past several weeks. This carried over to my race simulation swim where I swam a couple minutes slower than I had planned (and didn't feel comfortable either).

The Bike
My bike workouts this week were limited to a morning trainer ride with high intensity work, a 112 mile race simulation ride and a 3 hour "always be pushing" ride. Again, the fatigue made the race simulation ride tougher than it should have been but that's a given with trying to do this in the middle of Ironman training (much different than how I'll feel for race day after a nice taper period). My race simulation report can be found in a prior blog post.

The Run
I put in 5 run sessions this week including my longest continuous run to-date: 20.5 miles in 2-1/2 hours. It went pretty well despite the extreme heat and humidity even at 5:00 in the morning. I also did a 6 mile race simulation run off my race simulation bike ride on Friday. This was at race pace and went well.

Body Composition
Weight is right where I think it should be. It's amazing how much I eat yet I'm maintaining, if not losing a pound here or there. My plan is to carry a couple more pounds into race day with the anticipation that by the time I get to the marathon of the Ironman I will be down a few pounds anyway. I need to keep the nutrition coming over these next several weeks so my body doesn't fall apart with the amount of work I'm throwing at it.

Here's the day-by-day view of the training I did for the week followed by a summary of the week's data:

Monday: Shelled legs/body made for struggle with 2 x 1.5 mile run just under 6:00 pace. Pleased with my effort to gut it out. 8.5 miles in 59 minutes. Then a great 3,000 SCY swim with total of 1,250 yards of all-out sprinting! Felt awesome pushing myself to my swim limits.

Tuesday: 60' on trainer hammering out 30/30s & 15' at .8 IF. Then 4 mile brick run at steady effort. Nice way to rack up 103 TSS before 7am. 3500 SCY endurance swim. Cracked 2000y in-just didn't have it. Tried to rally in last 700y to finish set. Stoopid early to bed tonight.

Wednesday: Long run sufferfest in crazy humidity: 2:30, 20.5 miles, final 30' @ MP turned into 30' of trying not to slow down-ended up good. Then celebration of Drew's 2nd birthday: spent morning at county fair and played all afternoon at the house. Then his favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner. Great day!

Thursday: 2.4 mile race simulation swim done in a 25 yard pool. Didn't feel great. Time was a couple minutes slower than I wanted but I'm tired! Focus was crap, too.

Friday: IMWI race sim ride/run done. Was bummed about ride time then found brake had major rim rub! No wonder legs felt trashed all day. Rained entire ride so very slick roads. Need better focus next time.

Saturday: Badly needed rest day! Slept in, then got ready to host Drew's 2nd birthday party and our out-of-town guests. Fun day!

Sunday: Another great ABP (always be pushing) ride with fellow EN teammate and friend Matt Ancona on his home course in the Barrington, IL area. Didn't feel great at all but he forced me to suck it up and put in some solid efforts toward the end.

Totals for the week:
Training duration: 18:36
Time spent at or above FTP on the bike: 29'
Time spent at or below lactate threshold pace on the run: 49'
Avg bike intensity factor (% of FTP): .702
Mileage: 241 miles (Swim: 10.1K, Bike: 190 miles, Run: 44 miles)
Training Stress Score (TSS): 1173
Chronic Training Load (CTL): 137.0
Training Stress Balance (TSB): -22.7
Weight: 168.0
Functional Threshold Power (FTP): 293 watts
Vdot: 55.3 (but training at 56)

Performance Management Chart through week 6 of Ironman Prep Training: