Feb 16, 2017 4:46 am

Good morning,

Thanks to those people who stopped by yesterday and read my first blog. I appreciate you taking the time.

What does a week of IRONMAN training look like? You can pack a lot into a week. In 2004, I designed my own program based on my background in athletic training. It worked well but if it wasn’t for a friend who told me to back off on the mileage early in training I would have burned out. In 2008, I hired a coach. That was a smart move. I didn’t have to think. Just show up, do the workout.

This year I combining the two. I am using my knowledge and experience of two IRONMAN races plus I still have all the information from 2008 to use in my training. I have not been pushing the mileage yet but now that I am 6 months out, that will change.

My week looks like this:

MONDAY – YOGA/STRETCH ( this is one area that I must be more focused on )

TUESDAY – A.M SWIM 2000 m     P.M. CYCLE  30-45 min ( indoor right now )

WEDNESDAY – A.M. WEIGHT TRAINING ( I see a trainer, Andy, every Wed a.m, lots of leg stuff ) PM YOGA/STRETCH 

THURSDAY – A.M. SWIM 2000 m     P.M. CYCLE 30-45 min ( indoor )

FRIDAY – A.M. WEIGHT TRAINING ( I do this session on my own, also if I miss a bike or swim this is where I would insert it during the week to make it up )  P.M. RUN ( distance has been light, nothing over 8 km. Working on losing weight. More on that in my GOALS blog )

SATURDAY – A.M LONG RIDE/RUN ( ride will work up to 2 hours by end of march, then outside 4-6 hours in spring and summer. Run immediately after bike 20 min to 90 min depending)

SUNDAY – A.M. SWIM ( 3200 m – 4000 m depending on workout )

REPEAT. 

As the spring hits and workouts move outside the runs and bikes become longer. Up until now I have not biked longer than 70 min at any one time inside. Too long for indoors at this time. Again, more on the specifics of my training in my GOALS blog next time.

Needless to say, you throw a work day in there and other obligations people have and it adds up to a busy week. No time to waste. At the end of each day I sleep like a baby:-) I started this workout the day I signed up for IRONMAN CDA so I have had my weeks look like this for 6 months now. The mileage has just jumped up this month now that we are closing in to race day. In 2008, I started my program 7 months out and had to miss a whole month due to eye surgery so I am way ahead of schedule for 2017. Trying not to overdo it and burn out.

THE CAST OF CHARACTERS

I am not the only fool who is doing this. Let me introduce you to the 3 amigos.

LAZ 

– early 50s, has completed 2 other IRONMAN races in solid times. Has completed many other Tri distances and has run many marathons.

– tough as nails, carved out of stone ( I am carved out of pudding )

– a Father now so has to be really organized every day to get his daughter ready for school and himself ready for work and training.

– he is the guy who we can all blame for this. He is the one said he was going to do CDA first.

JOE

– early 50s, has completed HALF IRONMAN races and many other Tri distances. This will be his first IRONMAN.

– excellent cyclist and I am told swimmer (known Joe for 25 years, never seen him swim).

– excellent chef (lawyer by trade) so that could hinder him:-)

– lots of fun to be around, one of those guys you look forward to hanging out with.

– 2 kids, son in University. Coaching his daughter’s hockey team right now so has to work around that.

RV

– early 50s, has completed many Tri distances of Olympic and HALF IRONMAN. This will be his first IRONMAN.

– has competed at the World Championship level for Olympic Distance, so he is no slouch.

– super focused. Will know every heart beat, power outage, step taken in his training. Detailed.

– missing a leg. Hasn’t slowed him down one bit. Amazing man.

– super fit. Don’t be surprised if he ends up in Hawaii in October.

– has 2 sons. All grown up.

– did I mention he is missing a leg.

 

All 3 guys are amazing. I have known them all for about 25 years. Met them at hockey ( as all Canadian males meet their friends ). Of course those aren’t their real names but their nicknames. Where I grew up, your nickname was your name.

Let me clarify one thing. LAZ was the first one to say he was going to do this race but I was the first one to enter. LAZ entered after me, then RV and then we finally convinced JOE to enter. We will have a blast in CDA. We haven’t had much time to train together. Everyone has their own training schedules and lives so we try to meet every couple of months, over beers of course, and talk and catch up. Hopefully in the spring/summer when we move outside, we can do our long bikes and runs together.

So there you have it. You can see what a training week looks like and you have been introduced to the fine friends who are doing this race with me.

I got a new lap top and my phone cord doesn’t fit the new inputs so once I get around to buying a new one I will upload photos so you can meet these guys.

Take care
Scott