Week 5: March 11-17, 2013

Another great week in the pool, but not so great week out on the run.  I decided to register for a half marathon that will take place in early June, the Dexter-Ann Arbor Run.  I haven't raced a half mary in almost 3 years, so I am looking forward to seeing what I can do with the past few years of marathon training miles in the bank.  This week puts me 12 weeks out from the race, so I thought I'd start to add in some hills and tempo work.  I threw in some hill repeats at the end of Wednesday's 5 miler, and then planned on a short tempo on Friday.  About a mile in to Friday's run I knew a tempo wasn't in the cards.  My legs felt heavy and my heart rate was up in high Z2/low Z3 at a 9:30 pace, which should be a warm up or recovery pace.  So, I scrapped the tempo and finished out with a recovery slog. I thought Saturday's run might be better, but that was not the case.  I think the anaerobic intervals in the pool and maybe the bootcamp class are catching up with me.  I also didn't sleep as well as I normall do--daylight savings seemed to have messed with the whole family's sleep schedule--so that probably played a role as well.  I know by now that bad weeks are to be expected, but it's hard for my type-A personality to give up on a workout once I set out to do it.  My plan is to not use my heart rate monitor or Garmin during my workouts this next week so I don't get too wrapped up in the numbers.

On a positive note, I had a great swim practice on Thursday.  We had another "sprint day" workout and I was able to better my 100 breast time from last week.  Loving my chlorine fix lately...

This just cracks me up, especially since they're Hawkeyes!

On the 'fueling' side of my training, I made a dinner dish on Thursday using kale, my new favorite leafy green:
Cook 1 1/2 cups brown rice and set aside
In 1 T. olive oil, sautee 6 cups chopped kale
Put half of the sauteed kale in a food processor and blend with 3/4 cup almond milk, 2-3 T. spicy brown mustard, and salt and pepper.
Pour mixture over the rice and stir in the remaining sauteed kale.
Place in a casserole dish, sprinkle with breadcrumbs and some mozarella cheese, drizzle with a little olive oil, and bake at 350 until cheese is melted.

I also made these homemade Almond Joy bars last night...

Not exactly on the Ironman training diet, but I promised my co-workers I'd be bringing in some treats on Monday.  At least that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.


Weekly training stats:
Monday: off
Tuesday: 45 min. Z2 trainer spin
3200 yd swim:
500 sw, 5x50s dr/sw
3x100s on 1:20 w/ paddles
50 ez
8x125s (100 free/25 fly, then back, br, fr) on 1:50
50 ez
5x100s kick (br) on 1:30
50 ez
5x100 IM on 1:50
Wednesday: 5.35 mi. run with 5x up-and-over hill repeats. Avg HR 155, avg pace 9:10
40 min. strength training and core
Thursday: 60 min. Z2 trainer spin
2500 yd. swim:
500sw, 5x50s sw/dr
3x100s on 1:20 w/ paddles
50 ez
2x100s sprint choice on 3:00; #1 breastroke 1:18 (2 sec faster than last week), #2 IM 1:17
100 ez
3x100s on 1:20 w/ paddles
50 ez
2x50s sprint choice on 1:30; both breastroke, :36, :37
100 ez
3x100s on 1:20 w/ paddles
50 ez
4x25s sprint choice on 1:00; br/fr/br/fr, :18, :14, :19, :15
100 ez
Friday: 5 mile attempted-tempo-turned-recovery-slog, avg HR 147, avg pace 9:40
Saturday: 7 mi run, high Z2, avg HR 152, avg pace 9:44
55 min bootcamp
Sunday: 2.25 hour Z2 trainer ride; avg HR 137

Weekly totals:
Swim: 5700 yds.
Bike: 4 hours
Run: 17.35 miles
Strength: 1:35 hours
Hours: 10:10

Training cycle totals:
Swim: 27,300 yds.
Bike: 18:15 hours
Run: 93.35 miles
Total hours: 49:53