This is how the training for IMCDA really went

I told you in the previous post how I thought the whole training program was going to happen.  Well.....It didn't.

Here is how it went.  I bought several books on Ironman training, Going Long, Triathlon Bible, Ironman program by Ironman.  And they were all good books, I really enjoyed the Going Long book.  They were all very in depth and used big words and got into the science of astro physics or something like that.  So after careful consideration I took a piece of all of them and created my own.

All the books recommended that you make your big run for the week on a different day than your big bike.  This wasn't going to work for me for a couple of reasons.  I have a wife and kids and I just didn't have the time during the week to go on a 3-4 hour bike ride.  That coupled with the fact that I was nervous about not being able to finish, led me to do exactly what most books recommend you don't do and that is make Saturday a big day.  My idea was to put the big bike and run together on the same day to build my confidence so that as I got closer to game day I knew I could put everything together.

I basically had about about 25 weeks, I trained anywhere from 8-12 hours a week for the first 15 weeks.  The next 10 weeks I trained anywhere from 10-18 hours depending on the week.  The last ten weeks I created a A,B,C level week which concluded on a super Saturday, C being the the lightest.  So week 11 was a C workout, the week concluded on Saturday with 30m Swim/1H Bike/1 hour Bike.  The next week would be a B workout and the the times and length would be a little longer and then same with the A workouts the following week.  The next C workout would be a little more difficult than the previous C workout plan and I built from there.  My biggest Saturday being 2M swim/80M bike/18M run.  Depending on the week, it would range like this Monday 1-1.5H/Tuesdays 1.5H/Weds 2H/Thursday 1.5H/Friday 1H/Saturday 2-8H/Sunday always off.

I ended up doing a lot of Brick workouts and concentrated on hitting the bike and then at least running for 10 mins.  What I said about the whole swimming thing, well that was a lie (although I didn't know it at the time).  Swimming was a good way to break up the treadmills and spin classes. (I did a lot of spin classes).  In retrospect I probably was correct in my time prognostication about the swim I did a lot training in the pool but in the end it probably only saved me 5-10 mins in the end.  It was taking me about 1:18m for a lap when I started at the end I was close to 1:13m.

AZ and I were lucky to find quite a few century rides as IMCDA approached and I started feeling comfortable doing around 16.5MPH average. 

The run I thought I would be able to hold it to a 4:45 marathon.

And for the next 10 weeks everything really went as I had planned, the nerves started going away as the workouts got checked off and I didn't feel very nervous.