IMCDA 2015 Training Log-Week#11

Week 11(Week of 3/9/15) was my first official build week for the journey to Ironman Coeur d’Alene. It did not disappoint. I ended up with about 13 hours total training time and I even missed a couple workouts. My HRV finally moved to back into the green zone indicating I was ready for increased training load. Key workouts were my 2.5 mile pool swim on Friday followed by a solid 3 hour trainer ride on Saturday.  My Friday night strength training came back to haunt me during my Sunday long run with some pretty sore legs. I pushed through it but my time was a bit slow. An easy Monday may be in order for the week following.

Rodale Fitness Park-Finally getting outside for some runs in nicer weather.

Training Plan…I am planning on doing 3-week training plan from here on out. That will be 2 weeks of build and 1 week recovery. I have done this in the past and it has worked well for me. Sometimes that third week of a typical 4 week plan is just such a slog that I really don’t get any good quality out of it. I also found that Matt Dixon prescribes a similar approach in his book The Well-Built Triathlete, so thought it may be a good idea.

Diet…Well I haven’t mentioned this much recently, but I have dropped 18 lbs.(woohoo!) since I started my get back to race weight plan on January 1st. I am pretty stoked that this came off rather quickly in about 2 months. The key was really just eliminating the beer and focusing on more cooking and staying away from the processed stuff. I still would like to be down another 10lbs for racing, but I want to just let that come off naturally from the increased training load that is coming my way. Anything under that may be too much for me. I need a little emergency stash for long course triathlon. I won’t be having any beer until after IM Coeur d’Alene.

Yuki and I out for a walk in Lock Ridge Park

Yuki…Yuki has been doing pretty well. He is the same dog he has always been and we are still having nightly fetch with the chippie(aka Chippie-toss) and a ton of walks. It just perplexes me how he can be so full of life on the outside, but so sick on the inside. We are keeping him well-fed with home-cooked, whole food meals with lots of veggies and he is loving it. I have never seen him so excited about eating. Granted some of that is from the Prednisone, but I think he really likes it. This cancer is a strange thing. I have to say it really makes me appreciate every moment I spend with him and I am so thankful every day that he is around. I always did, but now I really do.

Pain Cave…So work on my new “pain cave” has been progressing a bit. The drywall has been finished and it is now primered and painted with some Behr “Bleached Denim”. Next up is laying down some TrafficMaster Allure flooring and then paint and put up the trim. I had to move my new treadmill out of there while I was working on it, which was no small feat to do by myself. Think I may have to recruit some help to get it back again. I was thinking of also installing a bathroom exhaust fan to move some of the moisture out of there. Here are some images of the progress so far…

Pain Cave Remodel – Drywalled and sanded 1

Pain Cave Remodel – Drywalled and sanded 2

Pain Cave Remodel – Primered 1

Pain Cave Remodel – Primered 2

Pain Cave Remodel – Painted 1

Pain Cave Remodel – Painted 2

That’s about it for that week. More hard training to come next week and then some recovery. Hopefully, the weather changes a bit and I can migrate to some outdoor rides soon. Thanks for reading.