The end of the Volume, bring on the Taper!!

Sitting down tonight writing this while watching the Ironman Lake Placid finishers stream across the line. A weird feeling, the next full Ironman race is Mont Tremblant, feeling a little bit nervous now, but also inspired by all the awesome triathletes crossing the line in Lake Placid tonight!

My heavy volume training is over now, the lighter volume with more focus on speed starts tomorrow morning. Basically fine tuning the huge volume base that has been laid down over the past several months.

Looking back on my training now, I have been doing at least 140 miles per week for the past 7 weeks. Thats an ironman a week. At first I found that volume tough and very tiring but now as I end the volume period I find I am able to handle it without the feelings of muscle ache and physical exhaustion that I felt at the start, all a good sign I think!

July looked like this, with the last week of July being my biggest of all (in terms of time and distance):

2 great training events this past weekend. Yesterday I did the NYC Marathon Long Training Run in Central Park and this morning did my longest swim - 2.3m miles off West Neck Beach.

The NYC run was great, 2 loops of Central Park, nice and hilly, held a great steady pace and even heart rate throughout and very happy to finish 13.3 miles in 2 hours even.

The swim off West Neck beach this morning was great, started off with the pod, all the fast swimmers in the water today so I trailed for the first loop. strong outgoing tide this morning so heading south was a tough haul through but then nice and speedy heading north. After 1.2 miles and 1 loop the pod went back in to the beach but I stayed out and headed for a 2nd loop solo. Happy to see my pace held for the loop and I got the 2.3 miles done in the goal time I was looking for.

Ironman Training Goals:

So how am I doing on my goals for Ironman training? I set these when I entered the race one year ago, scary....

Cycling goal is ok, I am happy that I have been able to stay strong on the bike in the last 2 months, really catching up significantly in volume.

Running goal is great, blown away my target of doing 1,000 miles in preparation.

Swimming goal, well I think I was obviously way too optimistic about the volume that could be put in. That said the swim is definitely the area I can do better in, so for the future I will see about trying to get to 100 miles in 12 months....

So now its time to start getting all the gear ready for action! started today with retiring my current running shoes, 550 miles done this year and a nice ripped open hole on the left shoe, time for the new A5's to take over. Laces transferred and they are ready to be broken in starting Tuesday.

June wrap up, just on one month to go.....

The irony of writing about June training at the end of July is not lost on me.... i think it reflects how busy life has become in the last few weeks with the heavy training schedule and a busy summer with family and work.

Over the last few weeks my weekly mileage has really picked up and been averaging around 140 miles a week, so an ironman a week.

Been through peaks and lows, times where my body was utterly exhausted and times where i felt super strong. The hardest days have been during the regular week where early morning 3 to 4 hour sessions are followed by a full day at work. With the right nutrition, early bed times and recovery drinks I feel like I have been doing well. The end of this coming week will see the end of my volume training and the taper / speed sessions will start. 

Here is a snap shot of my June training:

What is the optimal # of bikes? Apparently one more that you currently have... so the Cervelo was recently joined by a Trek Madone road bike. I found the Cervelo, while fast, was difficult to navigate through busy town roads and on group rides. The Trek is amazing and I am really enjoying riding, esp on the climbs where there is a big difference to the Cervelo. That said, nothing beats the Cervelo on the flats and downhill.

I've become an early morning person now, waking up at 5am without an alarm clock. Nothing better than watching the sun rise while getting ready for a bike ride and swim. The photo below is of the group I have joined swimming off West Neck Beach. Great bunch of people who are very welcoming and allow hacks like me to drag along after them on their long swims. I've done about 10 open water swims now and am feeling a lot more confident on the long hauls.

Compression leggings are a complete lifesaver, I have been living in these guys, they work wonders for recovery!

Did the Gold Coast Century ride 2 weeks ago, started with a bunch of friends from work. We have the beginnings of a bike club forming there, lots of people interested and hopefully will keep the momentum going.

Corny but catchy, I saw it recently while surfing FB and it struck home. Just have to keep on going....

Ironman Run Course rule #1....

Run Course Rules & Instructions
1. No form of locomotion other than running, walking or crawling is allowed.