Well it is all coming to an end. Lake Placid is only 10 short days away. Since July 2nd I have been in the Peak Block of my training program. I have had some of my best runs of the year during this 2-week period. I have also focused on my nutrition on the bike to see how I will react off the bike, and have had no real GI issues adjusting to more Gu and Gu Chomps; less Clif Bars this year.
I have managed to hit almost all my sessions during this block. I did take a Saturday (7/7) off and missed an 8 mile run and 2 mile swim. I needed to pick Kristina up from camp that day, 2 hours away and I had a party the night before and later that day. When I woke up that Saturday (7/8) at 4:30 AM, my body said WTF and I listened! Getting that 2 extra hours of sleep before I left to pick her up was great. A two hour ride up, one hour to pack her stuff, and two hour ride back knocked out 5 total hours from the day. I would have made up the session later that day, but we had another party in the afternoon. I guess when you have two friends turn 40 on July 3 & 4th, you have to expect a few parties. That is when training for an Ironman sucks!
Brian’s party was Friday night July 6th, a surprise from his wife and I was the person who had to get him out of his house for 7 hours. So I got to work at 5am to get in my recovery bike ride, then I took Brian to golf at 12:30pm in 98 degree heat. We had a good plan however to not dehydrate…for every beer we had we also had a Gatorade and water with it. After golf we were a little early, so off to Union Jack’s Pub for some air conditioning, wings, and beer. I got Brian out of the bar; that was a major accomplishment, on time and he seemed really surprised when we got to his house. My work being done, I only made it to 10pm, then I had to go home and sleep. I can’t hang like Training Payne can, I am still an amateur when it comes to Ironman training and partying.
Scott’s party was July 7th at his house. Thank god he has a pool because it was 103 degrees that day. After I got Kristina from camp, we picked up Cathy, Emma, & Conor and headed to Scott’s. Scott has a great pool at his house; the only problem was it was so hot that the pool water was warm, like a tub. It was still better than no pool, but on a hot day you need a nice cool pool to relax in. We had a great time at his party. It was another long day for us. Late in the day, it looked like a storm was coming so we packed up and headed home. I had to do one more long ride so I wanted a nice restful sleep Saturday night.
During this Peak Block you train differently than the other blocks. You essentially do four Bricks of bike/run with different emphasis….hour bike and 90 minute run…2 hour bike and 45 minute run….hour bike and 75 minute run...90 minute bike and 55 minute run. As you can see these sessions each focus on a different discipline. All still have a swim session on that day, but done later in the day. The Peak Blocks still average about 16 hours of training for the week.
I’ll finish up this weekend down the beach at my parents house. That will be nice for the kids. Next week will be race week and the sessions are just to keep me loose and recovering from the past 6-months of training.
Here is Conor and Emma "helping" me take the bike off the car. The seem excited to go back to Lake Placid and do a little more stuff this year since mommy is coming!
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