Three months ago I posted the hacked, Crossfit Endurance based training program that’s supposed to get me across the finish line at Ironman Arizona in under 12 hours.
I told you how important it is to strategically plan your weeks and prioritize your tasks so that you’re in the best position to show up, perform and hit your marks.
You saw my sample weekly training schedule that features one rest day on Mondays, and six days of training – four of which call for two workouts.
But like New Year’s resolutions, that’s all easier said than done.
Now that I’m a solid three months into the training program, and less than four months away from the big race, let’s take a look at how training is going and see whether I’ve been able to follow through on these commitments to becoming an Ironman.
Here’s my training progress report card, broken into five categories: Overall training schedule, Swim, Bike, Run, and Nutrition/Sleep/Mobility.
Overall training schedule: Good
I’ve been a Scheduling Nazi and have stuck to my program diligently over these past three months. A skipped workout will pop up from here and there, but I have a nice streak of nine straight weeks following my training schedule to a T.
Swim: Excellent
I’m most pleased with my progress as a swimmer and adoption of the Total Immersion form. My stroke frequency is down to 10 Strokes Per Lap (SPL) over 1,500 meters. This is a HUGE improvement from my 18SPL average over a year ago, and even an improvement from my 12SPL average from seven months ago. Swimming is all about technique, practice and mental fortitude. It reminds me of this great quote from the documentary Jiro dreams of sushi: “Always strive to elevate your craft”
Bike: Good
I love my bike – a Cervelo P2 – and love my long rides on the weekends: up before the sun rises, cruising through beautiful desert scenery, and flying down the road. I think I have a good formula for fueling during longer rides with Accelerade, and have gotten down the dosage and timing correct. So far no bonkage. I also go to an intense spin class once a week that’s an excellent workout. The instructor goes really heavy and it’s a tough hour that I benefit from on those longer weekend rides too.
Run: Average
I had to adjust the run sections of the program to go easier on my lame left foot. I can feel it getting stronger, and there’s no pain, but I still need to take it slow and build up to longer distances. Most of my runs land in the 30- to 45-minute range, at about an 8.5-minute mile pace.
Strength and conditioning: Good
I’m going hard in my Crossfit Endurance workouts, and feeling stronger, leaner and confident about this strategic course. I’m still learning technique on some of the Olympic lifts, so the loads are relatively light on those WODs, but most of the exercises I crank out like a crazy person at the gym.
Nutrition, sleep and mobility: Excellent
Food preparation, planning, cooking and consuming are focal points of my days. Most of my meals loosely follow the Paleo Diet, with lots of green vegetables, bananas, applesauce, almonds, olive oil, avocados, sweet potatoes and spinach. I’m getting hungry just typing this. For protein I favor, chicken, grass-fed beef, eggs and Whey Protein Isolate powder. Also, check out my homebrew post-workout drink.
Sleep is a new priority for me these days and I’ve cut out a bunch of time wasters at home so that I can regularly get at least seven hours of sleep every night. This is a big improvement for me, as I used to get by with about six hours a night.
With all this exercising, you can’t blow off proper warm-ups, cool-downs and stretching. Stretching properly takes time, but it’s worth it, and I’ve been pretty diligent about spending 15 minutes on mobility work every day. For me, it’s important to get the stretch sessions in immediately following the workout, and not let me convince myself that I’ll stretch for fifteen minutes when I get home from the gym. It’s too easy to get distracted with other stuff at home and miss the stretch. Also, a weekly yoga class has helped loosen me up on my one day off. Yoga is a good way to spend an “off day” on active recovery, and avoid the couch.
Overall, an encouraging first three months of training. And I can’t wait to keep pushing over the next three months.
We have the Boulder Ironman 70.3 coming up and I’m really excited to see how all this training surfaces in an actual race – since this will be my first real test. It’ll be good practice and I’ve been missing that rush of adrenaline from race day competition. My foot isn’t ready for the race’s 13.1-mile run, so I’ll most likely just do the swim and bike and duck out of the race after about 3-5 miles on the run.
Wish us luck at the Boulder 70.3 event, and stay tuned for a race recap.
Update: Read my Race Report and see how we did at the Boulder Ironman 70.3 triathlon. Hint: it was awesome!
– Live every day –
Adam