Mega Monday

Tonight at dinner Scott asked me, "So what did you get up to today?" I laughed a bit and then replied, "Ironman training".

I'm trying to do my longest stuff early in the week when Scott is at work and Moana is at her summer fun camp thing... My work tends to be lighter earlier in the week so it makes sense for me to use these days for bigger training vs the weekend when my training imposes more on my family. So. Mega Mondays begin.

Jogged down to the pool and swam with Mark this morning. I was bit surprised at how relaxed and smooth my stroke felt today, but it felt quite good so I'll go with it. Cruisy warm up 16:02 as a slight negative split 8:04/7:58. Effort was low but like I said I felt smooth.

Main set 4 rounds:
400 steady @6:20
3x100's fast @1:30

I used paddles for the whole main set b/c I know that pads allow me to swim strong while keeping my HR lower, which helps me later when I know I have more training to do that day. Plus 2800M with pads is a legit strength set! We took an extra 10seconds rest between rounds just because I was being lazy with my swimmers math and it was easier to start each round again on the top. 400's were 6:05, 6:04, 5:59, 6:01 and the 100's fast were all 1:22-1:24. I was pretty happy to be able to hold a strong pace throughout the set today, felt like a machine and finished feeling like if we had another round I could keep going. Plus, 3800M in 61min works for an Ironman training day! :)

Jogged home, ate again, walked the dog, then off for a ride. Pretty much rode the same ~4 hour route as yesterday, but today was different in that 1) the roads were dry, 2) it was super windy(!), and 3) I was on my road bike. I was going to ride my TT bike again but the battery was dead in my garmin and I can't get it to take a charge?? Ugh. I guess I could still ride my TT bike even if I didn't have power but whatever I just opted to switch it up and ride the road bike since I was just going to go by feel anyway. Legs felt like bricks for the first 20min or so but then after that felt pretty good. There were times today when the wind was ripping so hard (in gusts) that I actually started laughing... like this is simply ridiculous... but there were also sections where I had a nice tailwind so it was fine. I also had an opportunity to practice changing a flat tire. Can be a PITA to have to do at the end of a long ride but you gain confidence in skills you practice so that's how I looked at that flat tire today. The best part I think is that I finished feeling mentally rock solid- not like I was dying to get off my bike. Then I ran my favorite 10x30" strides OTB and those felt about as good as they've ever felt.

~5.5 hours of swim bike run today. Not bad for a Monday! :) It's funny... The more I train, the better I feel. I had the thought today that I'm really enjoying Ironman training this round. I kind of want to get myself to the point though where I'm just dying to get off my bike. Not sure how much riding that will take? I'll try again tomorrow.