8/19 - 8/25 - Professional Triathlete Training Log - Weekly Swim, Bike, and Run Miles

2013 Ironman Louisville Pro Podium
 #1 Chris McDonald, #2 Patrick Evoe, #3 Thomas Gerlach
#4 Jonathon Sheron (not pictured) #5 Ryan Bates #6 Mike Hermanson

The most important weeks for me to document are the weeks after Ironmans and the weeks before. This blog has been my own sort of repository I can look back to when I am on the road traveling or out and about and I need to reference something quickly. I encourage everyone to write even if it is not in the public space. It forces you to take a closer look at your training, your body, and your recovery. I haven't wrote a more in-depth race report in quite some time so I will write a more lengthy Ironman Louisville race report later on this week.

The short and skinny from Ironman Louisville this past Sunday was that I had another great race. The race for the win was pretty much out of the question with Chris McDonald putting the race out of reach early on the bike. It ended up being the same podium as last year just in a different order for Chris and Patrick Evoe, and myself still taking third. In the end I went 8:41:11 with a 51:52 swim, 4:36:28 bike, and 3:07:12 run.

For those interested I will be doing a live show on the podcast "In The Big Ring with Ben and Lindsey". We are shooting for a 9pm central start but you can always watch it later as it is recorded. I'm sure we will talk a little about Ironman Louisville, Ironman Wisconsin, and a few other subjects.

If you have been following along you will know that my taper basically started last Monday morning. Here is what I did this past week leading into Louisville for that taper:

Monday: Bike #1, 18.5 miles, 59 mins, 2x8 min intervals at race pace, 1x5 min interval at race pace. Bike #2 easy cruise to Masters swim practice.  We swam a varying set of 200s. Feeling pretty terrible in general today. Last 200 was 2:38 LCM.

Tuesday: Run 6.5 miles at 7:30 pace middle of the day, to acclimate to heat. First hot day we had in Madison in a long time. 90 with humidity and wind.  Bike, 27 miles, 1:30 min, road a trail where I road race pace from one intersecting road to the next, then did the next section of the trail at recovery pace, and repeat. Ended up being about 10x race pace intervals for a total of about 20-30 mins of race pace work. Swim 2000 meters, 38 minutes. Just swim easy. Still feeling terrible.

Wednesday: Run 5.5 miles with race pace intervals. 3x .5 mile, 1x 1.5 mile.  Goal was to burn the race pace into the legs and to continue heat acclimation. Scorching mid-day, midwest heat-wave run. Easy bike to the pool. Swim 3000 meters in 59 minutes. 5x200 LCM descending. Still feeling terrible.

Thursday: Travel Day

Friday: Swim 1800 with ms as 8x100 desc on 1:30 in 1:16, 1:15, 1:14, 1:13, 1:12, 1:11, 1:10 1:09.  A perfect descending set just to get the body going. 1.25 mile run from where I parked to the Galt House for the pro meeting. 13 mile bike, 42 mins, I biked the out and back technical section of 1694 twice. Feeling ok.

Saturday: 8 mile bike ride 27 min with 2x3 min intervals at race pace, .5 mile run. Basically ran from my car to transition to pick up my run and run special needs bag that I was missing. Feeling ok but not worried about it.

Sunday: Race. Felt fine all day. Made a crucial swim mistake early. Biked pretty easy, but back tightened up around mile 100 or so. Ran easy but I was very tight.

My weekly swim, bike, and run totals:

Total: 242 Miles / 18 hours 28 minutes
Swim: 15,032 yards / ~9 miles / 4 hours 08 minutes

Bike: 193 miles / 9 hours 22 minutes

Run: 41 miles / 4 hours 57 minutes

Core:  0 sessions / 0 hours 0 minutes