Week 10

Wow, what a week! Going into this week I felt great, but I wasn't able to get in some key weekend workouts. I ended up missing my scheduled brick on Saturday because Friday I decided, since it was my half day at work, that I'd get home from work and go for an 8 mile run and then try to go for a 2nd run later in the day. Well after making a very dumb mistake, I didn't end up going on the second run. Here's what happened, the route I usually run for my 8 miles is usually in the shade, but that's in the morning at about 9am - 10am on Saturday when I run it. Well when I ran the route in the afternoon I had planned on the same thing so I decided that I wasn't going to need any water with me on my run when it was 81 degrees out. I made it about 3-4 miles and I was suffering without water. The good thing is that I run a loop so on the way back I was able to stop at a youth center and hit a water fountain with a mile left to go in the run. I'll take it as a lesson learned that I'll always bring water with me from now on. Well after being whipped out from the week and the Friday 8 mile run, I decided not to do the brick workout on Saturday. Here are this weeks totals:

• Swim - 7,280 yards
• Bike - 81.97 miles
• Run - 13.12 miles

Week 9 - Ironman Training

The start of each training week I start off full of energy and then it tails off quickly as the week goes on and the workouts get longer. I wasn't able to get all my runs in this week, but as usual I did get in my swim and bike workouts in. The weekend was suppose to consist of a 4-1/2 hour bike ride, but was cut short because I was hoping to catch the group ride in the morning, but come to find out no one was there because there were so many people racing up in NH at Timberman. Since I had rushed out the door I grabbed everything, but my gels so the ride was cut short at 52 miles, which wasn't to bad, but I definitely need to get longer rides in. It wasn't a bad week, but I'm already looking forward to my recovery week.

Here are Week 9's totals:

• Swim - 7,476 yards
• Bike - 112.9 miles
• Run - 12.1 miles

Week 8 of Ironman Training - Recovery

It was hard to think of this week as a recovery week since the last 7 weeks have really been unproductive. The training plan called this week a recovery week so that's why I've labeled it as such. This was the first week I able to nail every single workout with the exception of 1 run. I was psyched to get in just about every workout considering the busy week I with work.

This weekends workouts were my best yet. Saturday consisted of a doing a brick, so I got up early to meet up with the Trifury Group ride. Even though where we ride from is only 1.5 miles from where Jess and I live now, I drove the car there so I could just throw my shoes on there and do the 5 mile run loop from the parking lot after my bike ride. I ended up doing 30.93 miles of biking with the group ride while averaging 21.7 mph and then ran 5 miles at a 6:57 pace. I can't say I was too disappointed with my run, but I wish I was a little faster. (I guess that's what 7 weeks with little to no running will do to you!) Sunday I was able to get in a nice 8 miler at a 6:25 pace, which was great! Oh and I forgot to mention that training here in North Andover is very, very hilly compared to Woburn. I've been going out for my runs lately and I wonder why I feel like I'm dying, then I remind myself that the first 2-3 miles of my runs were mostly up hill!

All and all here are this weeks totals:

• Swim - 5,403 yards
• Bike - 96.72 miles
• Run - 17.98 miles

A Long Awaited Post....

It's been a long time since I've posted on my blog, but there's a good reason why. My girlfriend Jess and I made the decision to move in together as soon as our leases were up on August 1st. So as of July 25th, Jess and I have been officially been living together. With all the packing, unpacking and moving the last few weeks have been a little unproductive with training for B2B.

Since I haven't written in a long time, I'm currently in Week 8 of my 18 week training plan for B2B Ironman on November 1st. As you'll notice I've hit most of my workouts for the swimming and biking, but my running is something yet to be desired. Here are the totals for Weeks 1 through 7 below.

Week 1:

• Swim - 4,638 yards
• Bike - 59.82 miles
• Run - 0 miles

Week 2:

• Swim - 3,806 yards
• Bike - 74.31 miles
• Run - 5.11 miles

Week 3:

• Swim - 4,532 yards
• Bike - 66.59 yards
• Run - 6.36 miles

Week 4:

• Swim - 880 yards
• Bike - 88.43 miles
• Run - 3.2 miles

Week 5:

• Swim - 6,292 yards
• Bike - 85.27 miles
• Run - 4.21 miles

Week 6:

• Swim - 2,552 yards
• Bike - 0
• Run - 5 miles

Week 7:

• Swim - 5,060 yards
• Bike - 107.57 miles
• Run - 2.62 miles