Training – April 2019

April marked the official start of my 2019 triathlon season. Much of the focus was on Florida 70.3 on April 14^th, but there was some good training leading up to it, and a big training block afterwards.

Training leading up to Florida 70.3

The first week of April was a lighter week of training with only 9.5 hours. There was a swim-run brick, which was interesting. I haven’t run immediately after a swim in many years, and it’s amazing how strange it feels to do something different! The swim that proceeded it was very strength focused with a lot of paddle work. That killed my arms, shoulders, and lats for the swim two days later, but I’m trusting that all of that work will make me stronger. I’ve always felt like I have a skinny, weak upper body so I’d love to bulk up and get a bit stronger there.

I managed to get outside on my bike a bit the weekend before Florida, which is so essential after so many months on the trainer. The training the week of the race was lighter, and I was starting to get that “coiled spring” feeling that I get when the coaches decrease the intensity leading up to a race. In Florida, I managed an easy brick, swim in the pool, and swim in the lake. You can read all out my Florida 70.3 race here.

Training post-Florida 70.3

Training the week after the race was fairly light as my body recovered from the big race effort. I also had my husband’s birthday, Easter, and our wedding anniversary all in one week so the lighter training load was much appreciated!

The following week, April 22-28, was my biggest training week to date! I saw the 19hr50min in Training Peaks and knew I had to prepare myself mentally, and work on my schedule. That meant that my focus was on my training and on my work. There was no room for extra social events or work meetings. Within my first 15+ hour week of training, I had 2 of my longest swims ever – 4350m and 4500m. I also had two of my toughest ECFit Boulder workouts, real strength workouts with heavy weights. The Romanian dead lifts had my hamstrings hurting all week! Add to that a killer strength run on the treadmill – uphill sprints anyone?

My bike workouts included max burst efforts, intervals dancing around and above FTP, and a 4 hour endurance ride followed by a 40 minute brick run. The coaches are really testing me!

In the end, I finished with 20hrs25mins of training. I managed every workout, and I’m still here to tell the tale. This week is no rest week, though. There are 15.5 hours planned, and I’ll be riding the Tour de Camden followed by a brick run on Saturday.

Overall, I was pretty scared about doing 20+ hours of training, but my body held up and I feel good. I find myself being a little tired this week, and I’m having to use lots of Mg12 to work on sore spots in my calves and ankles. Chattanooga 70.3 is only a couple weeks away. Much of my run training will be working on trying to keep as cool as possible in the heat. The heat really killed my run in Florida. I’ll be testing new cooling towels, some new preload and hydration mixes, and doing some heat acclimatization runs. The heat isn’t going anywhere soon. I just need my body to adapt a bit better.