Ready to rock

I spent the past 6-8 weeks basically preparing to train for my primary goal race this season - Ironman  US Championship in New York City (actually it's mostly in New Jersey but who would sign up for Ironman New Jersey?).  Ironman is a long day even if you are relatively fast - I expect to be in the 9-10hour range but the pros can go sub-8hrs.  If you want to be at all competitive you need to do more than simply put in a lot of volume.  The race prep phase needs to include a good amount of high quality threshold and tempo work layered on top of the necessary volume and long sessions.  With about 12 weeks to go I need to already have the basic endurance and fitness so I can start turning up the heat.  Basically, I've been training to train the past couple months.  I did a lot of running and put in a lot of time on my bike trainer through the cold dark months.  It hasn't been too long that I've been getting outside for longer rides and I just got back to the pool 4 weeks ago after forgetting where it was since early September.

That brings me to today, the end of a solid 8-day training block that essentially ends my "getting ready to train" phase.  I really hit it hard and had some challenging workouts but managed to nail everything including most of the little things like doing my run form drills, plyometrics, and dry-land stretch cord exercises.  This last week was a sort of peak just before I take a few days break from training and get a little mental rest for the weekend down in 'Nawlins' taking in Jazz Fest (FOO FIGHTERS!!!).  When I get back on Monday I'll hit a couple quality sessions and then benchmark my fitness at the Kinetic Half.  I don't have any particular goals for the race except to execute well and see where I'm at. 

Here's a summery of the last week of training:

Thursday 4/26 - 90min tempo run with 3 miles @ 6:30, 2 miles @ 6:20, 1 mile @ 6:10.
Friday 4/27 - long endurance swim, easy run finish with drills and plyos
Saturday 4/28 - 4hr ride including 2X15' @ FT and 3X20'  @ 90% FT
Sunday 4/29 - 90min trainer ride with 3X25' (2') @ 85% FT
Monday 4/30 - easy run finish with drills and plyos, Tempo interval swim
Tuesday 5/1 - 60min run with 3X 1 mile @ 5:55
Wednesday 5/2 - 60min trainer ride with 10' @ FT, 20' @ 95%, 10' @ FT, moderate intensity endurance swim
Thursday 5/3 - 2.5 hour long run finishing with 3 miles of tempo.

Between the tempo run last Thurs and the long run today I really feel like I'm over the hump of a 2.5-3hr run needing to be all basic endurance pace.  After 15 miles of relatively easy running today I was feeling pretty good so I decided to drop a few miles in the 6-6:15 range then shut it down for a couple of easy cool down miles.  I could have racked up another 5+ miles at 7:30ish pace without struggling if I wanted to.  It was nice to finish a long run with some quality and not feel totally spent.  That's how I know it's time to start layering on that tempo and threshold work consistently through the week.  I'm looking forward to the next 12 weeks of specific race prep although I know I'll be happy when the early weekend mornings are over and I get to enjoy the second half of the summer with at bit more leisurely lifestyle.

Here's today's run