Week 21 of training for Ironman Boulder 2017 is on the books. I can’t believe it is only 6 more weeks until race day. 5 months of training are behind me already. Although February was a bit of a wash, due to a pretty bad case of Bronchitis for a solid two weeks. March and April have been mostly trying to get back to where I need to be.
The early part of the week was spent mostly recovering from the St. Luke’s Half Marathon. My run on Wednesday was still feeling a little soreness in the legs. Thursday was a really good day. I had a great swim and was able to get out with some work mates for a really nice 2-hour ride.
My 2nd run of the week on Friday was ok. It was bit warm out(~85F) so that never works well for me. I took it easy and just kept things in zone 2.
My long bike ride on Saturday morning was great. I followed most of the old DCT ride route making my way up to Kempton, PA, down to Werley’s Corners and back again, totally just under 75 miles. Not super fast, but it was breezy and my watts indicated I was working harder what my speed indicated. It was warm Saturday, but the sun was behind the clouds most of the time so that helped.
I was also playing around with a GoPro too. 🙂
I drank two bottles of Skratch Labs, one water only, one bottle of Hammer Perpetuem(3 scoops) with some Beet Elite powder. I also had an Amrita Bar and a Honey Stinger Waffle for some solids. Oh yeah I also got some free, sample vegan crackers from the Rodale Institute while I stopped for a “natural break”, Phil Ligget would say.
I finished things off with a 20-minute brick run and broke in a new pair of Saucony Freedom ISO’s. More on those later.
Sunday was a bit cooler and overcast. Perfect for a long run. I was a bit leery about how the legs would feel after the long bike the day before, but things were feeling pretty good. I got in a little over 16 miles in about 2.5 hours. Things were getting a little stiff towards the end though and my IT band was tightening up. While stretching at a stop sign a guy stopped to make sure I was ok. That was cool! 🙂
I also ran the entire run in my new Saucony’s. They did pretty well too. No brake-in required. 🙂 Not sure if they are marathon material though. They are soft and comfortable, but not quite as luxurious as the Hoka Cliftons. Of course, the Hoka’s would have covered my feet in blisters too and the Saucony’s didn’t.
One other note was that I got in two good core strength workouts in this week too. I have been slacking on that lately and I am starting to feel it. I am thinking that this was also why my workouts towards the end of the week were better.
All-in-all feeling good. Another pretty big training week this week and then a little rest the following week.
