Ironman Training: Week 2

Week 2 Totals:

Strength: 2 sessions
Swim: 3.4 miles (about 4800 yards)
Bike: 73 miles
Run: 13.82

Total miles: 90.33

The theme for this past week: HILLS. I am not a good hill climber whether it be running or on my bike.

Tuesday evening my good friend Kate and I did hill repeats on this short (only a quarter mile) but steep hill in our neighborhood. I sprinted up the hill as best as I could and I easily hit my max heart rate and my quads were shaking by the end of our workout.

Saturday I ran almost 9 miles with Chloe. We ran around the AU campus area- my old stomping grounds! It made me happy to run past my college house but our route was full. of. hills. Again, my quads were shaking by the end of the run.

Run elevation chart

We then swam in the long course pool at Wilson High School. It was my first time swimming long course- I loved it! I don't do flip turns so the less I have to interact with the walls and awkwardly change directions, the better! Chloe is a super fast swimmer (26 minutes for her 1.2 half ironman swim!) so I didn't even try to keep up with her feet in front of me. She also gave me some great tips on my stroke. Maybe I'll get a little faster now :)

By the time Chloe and I got to brunch we were totally exhausted. We chatted away while playing with the kids menu and licking our plates clean.

I win :)

By the time Sunday rolled around my legs had had enough with the hills. Yet, I let Katie talk me into riding almost 60 miles of them. As soon as I started the ride I knew my legs hated me. We kept trucking along, going painfully slow up the hills to keep our heart rates down. I was determined to stay in Zone 2 (the heart rate zone where oxygen is still getting to your muscles).  Climbing up a hill at 9 miles an hour makes me extremely frustrated. My heart rate needs to learn to keep up with my legs.

bike hills!

I did manage, for the most part, to keep my heart rate in my zone 2. When you look at my heart rate chart below- don't freak out- I have a very high heart rate. I have a little humming bird heart that beats like crazy. My Zone 2 is higher than anyone else I know and my max heart rate is 210. Inside the black rectangle is my Zone 2.

Not too shabby, right? I was very surprised when I looked at my Garmin when I finally got back to my house that my average speed over the 55 miles was 16.2 mph - considering I thought the average speed was going to be about 12 mph, I'll take it as a win!

On our way back home Katie was keeping up with a pack of cyclists (I was way behind trying to give my legs a pep talk to keep up, but they wouldn't listen) and hit a massive hole and manage to get flats in both of her tires. She only had one spare tube so I flagged down another cyclists and asked him for his spare tube. I hope that man had a wonderful ride and I hope bike karma comes his way! Thanks for the spare tube, buddy! (ps, I would have given Katie one of mine but I ride 650 baby wheels and she rides 700s).

changing flat number 2!

My training plan called for a 60 mile ride, but I had to pee so badly that I went right home and cut the ride 5 miles short. Peeing on the bike during a race is one thing- peeing on the bike 5 miles away from home in fully padded bike shorts is another.

My legs were not used to all those hills I made them run and bike up and down so I hopped into an ice bath after I stretched and drank 2 glasses of chocolate milk. I tried to take a blog-worthy picture of my ice bath but they all look like I want to cry, so to save myself some embarrassment, this is the best picture I managed to take.

and now I am sporting compression tights for the rest of the day in hopes that my legs will be ready to go even further next week. Oh, Ironman training, you make my legs feel like jello.