Ironman training…PR or ‘just another Ironman’

So with 15 weeks out…2 weeks before the ‘official’ beginning of my final Ironman training push, Coach Gale Bernhardt and I begin to lay out my training program for the final 13 weeks, to build the best-that-I-can-be Ironman body.

…the only wild-card right now is the right knee/leg strain that popped up this week, so hopefully will get sorted out in the next 2 weeks…or we’ll adjust accordingly…

One thing that we’ll take a close look at is the amount of Intensity to put into each week of training…for this we’ll circle back around to the discussions that we had earlier in the year, when we looked at the question of training Intensity…a couple of earlier posts:
http://www.irondaughterirondad.com/how-much-intensity-in-training/
http://www.irondaughterirondad.com/how-much-weekly-training-intensity-20/

So I have some homework to complete…an examination of how much High Intensity Training (HIT) I’ve been able to absorb each week of the year so far…along with the total hours of training each week.

In terms of total hours per week, my training will build to about 17 hours for the week…plus some yoga…sort of like this:

• Swim: 3:30 (7,000+ meters), typically 3 workouts, with a long swim of 1:30 (2.4+ miles)
• Bike: 8:30 (160+ miles), with a long bike of 6:00 (115+ miles)…or 4.5 hour Saturday/3 hour Sunday back-to-back rides
• Run: 5:00 (30’ish miles) with a long run of 3:15 (19+ miles)

If my body complains about the running volume, I’ll probably swap in more bike time.

As I shift to Ironman specific training, my key goal for the bike and run, will be to turn whatever speed I have…the ‘fast’…into ‘long’…the ability to hold a race specific pace for a few hours…my Ironman bike around 6 hours, my Ironman run around 5 hours…and hopefully both less than that.

Swimming, my focus is to now add speed to my less-than-perfect-but-that’s-what-I’m-bringing-to-the-dance form…so faster intervals, holding form…in the quest for the perfect combination of stroke rate…how fast I can turnover my arms…and stroke length…’form’, how far I go with each stroke…so quite a bit of experimentation over the next few months to get it dialed in.

My test results will be used to determine my race plan as we get closer to race day…I’ll plan to do a final run test 4 weeks out, and a final bike test 3 weeks out from race day.

Of course, I have enough fitness right now to complete an Ironman in a decent time…maybe not record breaking, but decent.

Based on my Vancouver Half Iron race results, if Ironman was to today, I _should_ be able to complete it under 13:30:00…and with any luck, closer to 13:00:00…but of course, how much fun would that be?

…to set a PR (Personal Record) I need to be under 12:57:44…and best would be ‘comfortably’ under…or it’s just-another-Ironman 🙂