Ironman Training - Week 1

After a boring recovery week following Powerman Alabama, I find myself looking at 19 weeks until my first Ironman. This week marks the first week in dedicated IM training and I'm so pumped to finally be here. Undoubtedly, this will be a journey that where I learn a lot about myself, but also learn A LOT about time management. Looking ahead at the schedule, I can already tell that I'm going to be having a few discussions with the wife over being gone so much. I've already made a mental note of making sure I'm "with her" when I'm with her. No zoning out. No taking the easy road and watching TV. Three and 1/2 years into marriage, we still consider ourselves "newlyweds" so I don't have all the experience in the world, but I think this is one I have right.
I started week 1 off a little early this Saturday. The plan was to do an easy paced 60 mile ride with a group then do a short run afterwards. Saturday had to be the first really hot day of the year as we saw temps reach a high of 88 degrees mid afternoon. The sky was clear as a bell and gorgeous. You could not have asked for a better day for riding. Our group of 7 headed out around 7:30 for ride. I started getting a little worried because my legs weren't feeling all that great after 12 miles into the ride. I kept my pulls short and tried to stay on target for an overall pace of 18 mph. The paceline was never 18. It stayed around 23+. One thing I really wanted to work on today was nutrition. I brought 2 cliff bars and 1 gel with me. The plan was to take in a cliff bar every 20 miles. Except that I am still fumbling around like a kid with all thumbs trying to get the packages open, the cliff bars worked just fine. Around mile 40 it hit me. My legs. They felt like I'd just gotten a fresh pair. I felt stronger than when I started. Where was this coming from. I hadn't done too many long rides so it couldn't have been my endurance kicking in. I'll have to mark it up to endorphins or common grace or something. I felt strong the rest of the way. I had no problems on our climbs and felt great all the way to the finish. I'll have to say, I think I've found my new energy bar. No gut issues, no problems with the energy level. I'm sold.
After the ride, I threw on my new Nike Elite 4's and headed off for a short run. The goal was just to test the legs for a couple of miles after the long ride. No issues. Felt great and had good legs. I did notice a tendency for my HR to jump up at the slightest incline. Will have to work on that.
Sunday is long run day. I'm slowly ramping my long runs back up, but instead of running with speed, I'm having to slow it down to IM pace. Oh this sucks. Looking ahead, I'd absolutely jump for joy if I'm able to run my IM marathon at a 9 minute pace. So, I'm going to train for it. So Sunday was a planned 1.5 hr run at a 9:00 pace. Zzzzzz. Oh, thank God for podcasts. Without the pain of running hard to keep me awake, I really struggle with long runs. I did it just fine, but I dread the coming weeks when I'll be out on the road for 2-3 hours plus chugging along at a 9:00 pace. I'm sure that pace will seem like I'm flying during the IM, but for now it's not so fun.
Here's what the rest of the week looks like:
Monday - 45 minute endurance swim
Tuesday - 7 miles of speed work, 1.5 hr bike
Wednesday - 3100 yards of swimming drills, 1:20 endurance ride on trainer
Thursday - Speed intervals on trainer 1.5 hrs
Friday - 3000 yards of speed work in pool, 1 hr recovery run
Saturday - 2.5 hr hard effort ride, 20 min easy Run
Sunday - 2 hr run at 9:00 pace.

Thankfully, I'll be doing the weekend's workouts at the beach. My wife turns 30 this week. Time to celebrate. Tailwinds...