Yay! Week 1 is Done!

IRONMAN LOUISVILLE 2017 TRAINING

WEEK 1 – March 20 > March 26

Very glad to have one of the 30 weeks of training in the books. I was excited to get started, and to once again be following a plan instead of just doing whatever certainly gives you a sense of accomplishment.

So if you are wondering what the first week of an Ironman training plan looks like, here’s how it went for me.

Monday – Rest day! But I ended up doing a 30 minute stationary bike spin and a 2 mile treadmill run.

Tuesday – A swim and run. I am following the easier “Just Finish” version of the swim plan in Be Iron Fit, so it was a 1600 yard swim today. 200 yard warm-up, 8×50 drills, 5×100’s with 20 seconds rest in between 100’s, another 8×50 drill set, and a 100 yard cool down. I was very surprised at how much my shoulders and arms were fatigued during the swim. I’m sure it will get easier within the next couple of weeks. I averaged about 2:02/100 yds. The run was supposed to be a 30 minute run in Zone 2, which is a light pace run. I gunned it instead, pushing to finish 4 miles in the 30 minutes. So much for following the plan.

Wednesday – The bike/run brick day. I always think of this day as an easy day, because it sort of is. 30 minutes on the bike with a 15 minute run and you are done. Beats Thursday, that’s for sure.

Thursday – 3-shower Thursday. I get up and shower before I go to work. Swimming was up first, and I was still sore from Tuesday’s effort, having not done any swimming in months. The fitness will come eventually, though. You swim, then you take shower number 2 to get the chlorine smell off of you. Then it’s off to home to spin on the bike for 30 minutes. And since I am a running streaker, I get to do a mile after that on the treadmill to keep my streak alive. Then it’s time for shower number 3 followed by a liberal coating of lotion so my skin doesn’t dry up completely and leave me itchy for two days. I don’t like Thursday.

Friday – It’s typically a run day, but since I was leaving town on Saturday to drive to Minocqua, Wisconsin I decided to do both Saturday’s 60 minute bike and brick the 30 minute run. If I hadn’t, I would have missed the bike altogether. Now I can do an easy mile or two before leaving on Saturday, and just do some easy running for the following three days after that.

Saturday/Sunday – An easy two mile run on the treadmill at home and then drove to the Northwoods. Sunday was an easy 5 miler around Minocqua.

So there we have it, Week 1 is in the books. Just 29 more to go.

TOTALS:

2 Swims – 3200 yards total

4 Bikes – 41 miles total

7 Runs – 20 miles total