4:00am - Wake up Call.
4:05am - Breakfast (bagel with peanut butter, greek yogurt, bananna, endurolyte tablet, water, coffee). General streching & yoga.
5:45am - Arrive at pool
6:00am - In the water to swim 95 minutes (or 5,025 yards or about 3 miles).
8:00am - On the bike leaving the Tosa WAC to ride 103 miles out and around Holy Hill (6.5 hours on the bike).
2:30pm - Arrive back at WAC and immediately run for 30 minutes.
3:00pm - Finish, shower up and go home.
This was a good plan except for one broken link. Upon arrival at the WAC at 5:45, I discovered it did not open until 6:30. I was not going to sit around and waste 45 minutes on this very busy day, so I decided to start the cycling portion first and worry about the swim & run when I got back. So I began what was to be a fairly technical ride with a very hilly theme featuring at least 6 "major" climbs. The total elevation climb on this ride was 5,059 feet. The final route ended up looking like this and as expected, it was definitely challenging......
These longer rides continue to include various experimentations with nutrition and proper fueling in order to find the ideal mix for me. I confirmed a couple more important pieces to my puzzle that helped me eliminated Perpetuem and gels (in the bottle) from my nutrition plan. Both of those seem to make me ill on the bike. I've also eliminated Cliff bars from the menu as those did not sit well with me either (probably too much protein & fiber). However, I did discover that my newest and most effective munchable are a type of granola bar with about 90 calories and no fat. I ate 4 of them on the bike with no issues. In fact I was craving more of them and could definitely have used a few more for additional calories. In addition, I have also had success with gel blasts, pretzels and jelly beans. If I can combine all of those, I believe I might have my personal key to a good nutrition plan. I will continue to experiment with this mix, but at the moment, I am happy to report that I have found something effective!
So I finished the bike portion in 6 hours and 30 minutes which was perfect. I made it back to my car in the WAC parking lot, loaded up the bike and made the sweaty transition to the run. I also kept this run easy because I knew I had a very long, hard swim afterward. I had a decent amount of energy left in my legs and the run went fairly well, so I considered that another win for me (don't worry, the loss is coming up on the swim)!
Here's where the fun really begins. After 103 miles on the bike and a 30 minute brick run, I did not feel like doing the swim at all (can't imagine why?)! After 7 hours of endurance work, I was quite ready for some food, drink and rest. There is a reason today's workout had the swim planned first and I quickly understood why. Unfortunately the WAC not being open early on a Saturday morning, messed me up a bit. Yes, I like to blame others (ie the WAC), when my workouts go sour. Anyway, I began the swim very slow and lethargic and knew I would never be able to complete the 8x400's at TH pace that were planned. So I went along and just did everything the best I could. I was hopeful I could just get in the full 95 minutes.
After about 40 minutes of swimming I felt some general calf cramping, but nothing too serious. I did have to stop once, but the calf loosened up very quickly and I continued on without issue. Unfortunately at about 53' my right calf cramped up completely and I was in tremendous pain. The thing was locked in that position for several minutes and was not loosening up. I rarely have cramping and when I do it is never this bad. Even after it finally "un-cramped" it was very sore, stiff and irritable. I knew I could/should not continue on and had to pull the plug on this workout at 53 minutes instead of the full 95. I decided I would make up the time on Sunday when I had another swim on the schedule.
So what can be learned from this crazy day? Actually quite a bit and most of it was very valuable to me. The sole negative was that I didn't quite finish the workout due to the cramping issues. However, these types of things will happen when you engage in 8.5 hours of endurance work and the good news is that I will never have to finish an actual Ironman race with the swim being the last leg! Some of the big positives include being very happy that I finished a 7 hour and 53 minute workout or 92% of the total time of 8:30. That is not an easy thing to do. In addition, I completed a very difficult century ride through the hills and I continue to make great discoveries and progress in formulating my nutrition plan for race day! This is all very, very good and encouraging as I continue to move forward in my training!
Oh, as a side note, the weekend wasn't all about workouts. Saturday definitely was, but on Sunday I was able to remove five of our exterior light fixtures on our house and replace them with new ones that Colleen had purchased. And I did that in between a 12 mile morning run and a 2700 yard afternoon swim. It felt nice to finally do something valuable around the house!
Totals for week 14 looked like this:
Swim - 10,172 yards (5.78 miles)
Bike - 146.38 miles
Run - 32.1 miles
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