Big week this one, well kind of, it’s the first of the big weeks on the plan so it’s not massive but bigger than the previous three so I guess that counts.

In my IRONMAN – SEASON 3 PART 4 update, I was struggling with the early morning starts towards the end of the week. Sadly, they weren’t really that early, I have just fallen out of that routine of 5am training sessions.

This week my wife returns to work, I am still working from home, probably for the rest of the year by the looks of it. To be honest, I don’t need to go into the office anyway and I would usually work from home three or four days each week. My daughter is still off nursery so I am balancing working, homeschooling / entertaining a child and fitting in some Ironman training around all of that. It’s all part of the challenge.

Monday:

Bank holiday here in the UK and it was sunny again. All four bank holidays during the lockdown have been warm and sunny. Typical when yo are restricted on movements and activities.

So “hard” week kicked off with a hard turbo…. see what I did there. 71 mins with 10 min @ 310w, 5min @ 285w, 8 x 90sec @ 360w, 3 min @ 180w plus warm up and cool down. I had a lie in today and jumped on the bike at 9am, making the most of the day off.

Back out for the weekly 7 mile recovery run in the afternoon sun, it was lovely out there and nice just heading out with no pace goals, just enjoy the time and bank some easy miles, taking me over 200 miles of running so far for May.

Tuesday:

1 Hour easy ride on Zwift @ 180w.

Speed Interval run in the late evening sun. So nice running through the lanes as the sun was setting on a warm summer? evening. Can we call it summer in May, I don’t want to tempt fate and ruin this nice weather we have.

Anyway, the run session:

• 1.5 Mile warm up
• 2 x 10 sec strides
• Repeat 3 Times:
  • 2 min @ 6:20/mi, off 90 sec
  • 90 sec @ 5:50/mi, off 90 sec
  • 60 sec @ 5:20/mi, off 90 sec
  • 30 sec @ 5:00/mi, off 90 sec
• 2 min recovery
• 1.5 Mile cool down

Wednesday:

6 mile easy paced run, ave 131bpm.

30 min core strength training

Power Sweet Spot session on the bike, this is a session I have gone through many times in the past, but not since January. Since then my FTP has moved up to 327w (it’s actually 344w but I set it lower on Zwift. 344w feels too much for now) and tonight it felt tough getting through these 5 min reps. Felt rewarding at the end, having pushed through and got the session done despite some profanities coming out and a pool of sweat on the floor.

• 2 min warm up
• 2 min @ 215w
• 2 min @ 245w
• Repeat 5 Times:
  • 5 min @ 345w
  • 5 min @ 180w
• 10 min cool down

Thursday:

1 Hour easy ride on Zwift @ 180w.

30 min upper body strength training

10k alternations. This is probably my favourite run session. Alternating between 1k @ half marathon pace & 1k @ marathon pace. It’s a tough one and designed to increase endurance speed as well as training the mind that marathon pace is easy/slow recovery pace by running the 1k recovery reps at marathon pace.

• 1.5 mile warm up
• 2 x 10 sec strides
• Repeat 5 Times:
  • 1km @ 6:30/mi (4:02/km)
  • 1km @ 6:50/mi (4:15/km)
• 1.5 mile cool down

Friday:

7 mile easy paced run to kick off the day. 131bpm heart rate which came in at 8:35/mi average.

Legs, hips, & glutes strength training session.

55 min strength building ride on Zwift. Seems to breeze through this one today, must have been feeling strong. I was a little concerned the earlier strength training session would have made this tougher but ddin’t seem to.

Saturday:

Technical issues again today! should have been doing a 2 & half hour endurance ride but my chain snapped bearly 10 minutes into the ride, clearly putting down too much power for the Boardman bike. I carried the bike back home but just didn’t feel like jumping on the other bike and doing the session.

I did do the “brick” run, but running 5 miles at 7:00/mi pace as a standalone run just isn’t as challenging as doing it after 150 minutes on the bike. It got done though.

Sunday:

15 mile long run, no real pace goal today just wanted to go out and run comfortable. Finished up with 15 miles @ 7:15/mi and felt good throughout, no real stress going into the body.

1 hour easy ride on zwift @ 180w

30 minute core strength session to finish off the week.

Weekly Stats:

• Swim – 0 yrds, 0hr 0min
• Bike – 125 Miles, 6hr 21min
• Run – 58.2 Miles, 7hr 22min
• Strength – 2hr 30min

Hard week kinda felt like a piece of cake really. Not doing the longer bike session / brick made for an easy weekend. Running went well again, two good sessions plus the long run banked. Finishing May off with 256 miles of running.

No swimming again is starting to bug me, now the open water swims are back I wnat to be back in the water but the one open water venue near to me (15 miles away) is now fully booked until the 10th June and the water temperature there is currently 20.3’c so it is perfect conditions. I need to find somewhere / way to get the swimming in.

I also need to step up my bike game, its seriously lagging. I usually aim for around 150+ miles per week but this past 4 weeks have fallen well short of that.

Strength training is going really well, often something I neglect but I have put in a serious effort since February to incorpurate strength and stretching into the weekly routine.

Have a look to see how IRONMAN – SEASON 3 PART 6 went.