Ironman Training: Week 2: Two-a-days Begin!

This week, we started two-a-days, which basically means two workouts in a given day. Yippee! (sarcasm)

The “Struggle Bus” suit was definitely required this week.

We also started morning swim workouts- double whoopee! (sort of sarcasm) Our favorite pool, Bobby Hicks is finally open with summer hours, meaning they are open in the mornings and usually set up in long course. Long course is great for training for triathlons, but it does take a bit of getting used to after swimming short-course yards for the last 6 months. Since 100 meters is longer than 100 yards it takes a little getting used to the new intervals. Sayonara 1:15 hundreds.

I stayed up a little too late a few nights this week (darn you Orange is the New Black, but at least now I’m done!) which made getting up for morning swim a bit more challenging, and it definitely caught up to me on Thursday when I was falling asleep watching TV at 9:30. It was a nice little wake up call that it is going to be a LONG summer with lots of early to beds and early wake ups.

Here’s how it went down:

Monday: 1600m swim, 9km run

My alarm went off at 6:00am for our first morning practice of many. I’m quite thankful I live close to the pool and can roll out of bed and be there by 6:15! We eased into long course and only did 1600m. In the evening, our little group ran around Tampa for a nice little 9k jaunt. It was disgustingly humid and we were all DRENCHED in sweat by the time we got back. This definitely made me second guess selecting Cozumel as our Ironman.

Tuesday: 8.5 km run

Like clockwork, there were storm clouds hovering over Tampa in the evening, when we were planning to run. They seemed far enough away and Felipe was convinced we could plan our run around them. So, we took off towards the clouds, not really taking a set route, but following Felipe, as is our MO for group runs. About 5km in, we were the closest we had been to the storm, and the thunder was clapping, so we headed back towards home. 1 km later it started raining- the kind of rain you know is just going to get harder. At that point the instructions became: get home as fast as you can. Felipe took off, and Heather and I booked it as fast as we could. Of course, about half a kilometer from home, we got stuck by a train crossing! Thankfully we hovered under a building’s awning until it was through the intersection, before kicking it into high gear for the remainder of the run. A little lot of rain will make you move fast-my pace was 4:44 and 4:38 for those last two kms!

Wednesday: 2200m swim, 1 hour yoga, 45 minutes spin

In the morning we swam; nothing to exciting to report. I went to a lunchtime yoga class at Yogani with Annette Scott. If you are ever in Tampa, check out one of her classes- she will kick your butt! I don’t think my obliques have ever been that sore after a workout, ever! In the evening, I hopped on the trainer for a little spin with Glee. I was not feeling in the groove of it at all, which is why I stopped at 45 minutes rather than an hour. So. Bored. I’m gonna need to get over that though, there will be plenty of trainer time this summer.

Thursday: 2300m swim, 8km run, 1 hour yoga

Courtney, Heather, and I were the only ones for morning swim, so we did a nice little set of 16 x 100s, working hard for 3, and then 1 easy. It was nice to get a little hard work done in the pool:-) After, I ran an 8km solo, and I felt BLAH! It was humid, and I think I just needed to fuel better. I had only eaten a banana and some PB before swim, so my body definitely needed some more calories. In the evening, Bill and I headed to another one of Annette’s classes. It hurt so good! I definitely need to keep this up!

Friday: Run, 11.5km

Morning thunderstorms = cancelled swim practice = extra sleep, yay! But we weren’t off the hook. We did a group run in the evening despite the obvious storm headed our way. We got about 1.5km into the run and it started to rain a little, and off to our right some ominous clouds were moving in. We stopped for a minute to contemplate whether to keep running away from the storm or head back (which would have been directly into the pouring rain). We opted to keep running, and headed to our normal starting spot for our 4k “loop” (more like an “L”) that includes going up and over a bridge, twice. The plan was to run the 4k twice (8k total), but if it started storming badly, head home as fast as possible. We staggered our starts, and I went second. Shortly after we started running, it started to rain a little, but the storm was still kind of behind us. When I was going up the bridge the first time, I looked back on downtown, and you could definitely tell it was down pouring there. I kept running, and the rain became a little more steady, but not unbearable. Actually, it cooled it down some, and made me realize I would much prefer to run in the rain than in the ridiculous heat and humidity. As I was returning over the bridge (about 3.5 km into the run), Felipe passed me, and by this time it was raining pretty hard. I asked him if we would be headed home after just the 4k. I couldn’t understand his response and kept running. No joke, about 30 seconds later, we were out of the rain, and the sun was shining. This didn’t last long- it was just a pocket between the clouds- but it was quite ironic to me. On the next 4k, there was another section where we got some heavier rains, but again, not too unbearable- my iPod still works:-) We did a nice little 1.5k cool down at the end of the 8k, and I was pleasantly surprised we were able to get the whole thing in. Florida summertime storms will never cease to amaze me.

 

Saturday: 63km ride

These Florida storms are getting out of control! We didn’t set a ride time for Saturday morning because the weather forecast was 60% chance of rain the entire morning out where we ride. But, around 9:30am the weather forecast looked decent for the next few hours, so we planned to meet at 11:15 (yes, I know we ride late). The original plan was to ride do 3 x 20 minutes steady on the one quiet road whose name I am currently forgetting-up, back, up again-but when we turned back to do the second set, there were dark clouds directly ahead of us. There was no way we would make it 20 minutes in that direction without getting caught in the storm. So we turn back around, and made a left onto Wachula road, and did the second 20 minutes there. We made the left onto Carlton Lakes road to take us back towards the car, and could tell we missed the storm. It had stayed to the north of us, blowing eastward. Win! I was pretty happy with how this ride felt- I’m itching for some longer rides now!

Sunday: 45km ride, 5km run, 1 hour yoga

Heather and I met up on Davis Island in the morning to get in our workout. We did pretty much exactly what we did last week: 6 loops around Davis island- the first lap was warm up, and then laps 2 through 5 were hard, with each of us taking 5 minute pulls. Then, we used the last loop as a cool down. This was a nice little workout- it’s fun to get in some good strong pulls, and to battle the wind, which can be quite annoying some times. Good practice for Cozumel. A bunch of people were out running, riding, and just wandering around the island. It was definitely a beautiful morning!

After, we ran 5k together. I did my darndest to stay with Heather and was sticking with her up until the last k, but then she really turned it on, and dropped me. But, I was still happy – I averaged 4:51!

 

I wrapped up my weekend/kicked off my week with some yoga in the park. Ah, exactly what I needed.

Totals:

Running: 41 km

Biking: 133km

Swimming: 6100m

Other: 3 hours of yoga