70.3 Training

Since my Half-Ironman training has been going on for a few weeks now I thought I'd document my progress to look back on for future races. My last Half-Ironman in 2015 was completed during the course of training for a full Ironman (which didn't get completed) that same year. I basically took the same schedule from that training plan and tweaked it a bit. Instead of completing all three disciplines three times per week, I'm doing one swim, one brick, one short run, one long run, and one long bike instead. I'm also sprinkling in some strength training when I can fit it in (both time-wise and energy-wise).

My longest swim and bike were both this past weekend, and both continue to be a learning process for me. I needed 40 miles on the bike, but ended up with 47.5 since I was biking with a group whose meeting point was 4.5 miles from my condo. Now that I live so close to the city, I can bike right out the door rather than racking my bike onto the car and driving somewhere. It's super convenient, but also adds on more mileage when I'm meeting others for a ride so I have to be conscious of that.

We met at the base of the Big 4 Bridge at 8:00 a.m. and set off on the same route I did for a my 35-miler just two weeks prior. We were going a bit further than what I'm used to for our turn-around point, but I had been down this additional road once before so I was at least somewhat familiar. The pace was fairly easy - or what felt easy considering I was drafting behind some folks and holding a conversation with a fairly new triathlete named Katie. Keeping the conversation going, those first 15 miles or so felt like a breeze as we cruised at about an 18mph pace. I had brought along with me a 24oz bottle of Infinit as well as an additional 24oz of water, and 3 Gu's. Katie mentioned that the water bottle she brought didn't fit in her cage so she was riding without any hydration. Seeing as how it wasn't unbearably hot, I handed over my water bottle to her so she would have something to sip on throughout the planned ride. It was a risky decision given the distance, but I since I struggle with taking in fluids on rides anyway, I thought it wouldn't hamper my performance much.

At the 18 mile mark we crossed over a highway onto a road that contains a fair amount of rolling hills. The ride had been pretty flat thus far, and I'm never good on hills, so my speed suffered a bit. Even though I KNOW I need to ride more hills to get stronger, they are the bane of my cycling existence and unless I'm forced to do so or someone else is leading the ride, I'll avoid them at all cost. So it was probably a good thing that I let go of a little control and just went with the flow. At the 23 mile mark, Josh and Bill had pulled over onto a side street, stating that the actual turn-around point was a mile or two ahead, but contained a heckuva hill so they were opting to wait there while others chose to go all the way. Since I was already going to be over my mileage limit, I decided to stop as well and took a 5 minute breather before heading back towards our start point. I noticed that I was running out of Infinit at this point, but at the very least knew that I could fill up at the base of the bridge before finishing up my last 5 miles. Although Josh, Bill and Julie opted to wait for the rest of the crew, I headed back on my own knowing they would soon be on my tail as I was definitely bringing up the rear with this group.

Another 7 miles or so back towards home, I gave in and asked Bill if he had any water to spare - I didn't think there was any way that I could make it to the bridge without anything as the day was now getting hotter and I was beginning to feel myself at the first stages of a bonk. I've NEVER been good about getting my nutrition down on the bike, and this is something I really need to work on over the next few months. That July heat isn't going to show me any mercy and my fear is that if I don't get it straight before my race then I'll suffer another DNF - that cannot happen! Luckily, Bill had some to spare - not straight water, but Infinit like what I had been drinking, so I was able to get in some more calories as well. This was definitely a good thing as I noticed myself getting quiet on the ride back in when Bill was trying to have a conversation with me. My lack of verbal response is a tell-tell sign that I am on my way to a not-so-good place while training, meaning I have not taken in the amount of calories or fluids that I've needed to.

Once we reached the bridge I headed back over alone while Bill waited for the rest of the group to catch up in Indiana. Once I reached the base of the Kentucky side, I topped off the rest of my bottle with straight water, which was a welcome relief from the sweetness of the Infinit-filled bottles I had already downed. I had a little over 4 miles left to go and my quads were burning from the previous hills. I had one more long, slow climb up Zorn Avenue, which is always a bear as it's one of the few ways to get back to my place and is situated just 1.5 miles away from the condo. I made my way up and over, then a quick left back onto Brownsboro to my final destination.

Upon my return I had planned to try a short run just to get the legs stretched out and used to moving after such a long ride. However, due to my lack of nutrition I felt a bit light headed and went inside to the cool A/C to grab a drink and relax for about 15 minutes. Although I didn't get a run in I did manage to take the dog for a one-mile walk around the block without incident - success!

Two days later I would complete my longest swim in a year. I wanted to make sure to get to the outdoor pool early enough to snag a good spot where I could relax and tan, but I also wanted to make sure the pool wasn't too crowded for me to get in 2200 yards before it was overrun with kids and families. This particular pool only has one lane open for lap swimmers, which makes sense since it's more of a recreational pool than a training pool. Somehow, getting a swim in isn't as tedious in an outdoor pool as it is indoors - something I was very grateful for given the distance I was about to complete.

I wasn't sure how I was going to break this swim up considering I needed to complete 44 total laps in 25 yard increments. 44 total laps = 88 total touches of the wall before turning back and doing it all again. And again. And again. At first I thought of breaking it up by 200 yards. Then I came to my senses and realized that would take way too long, so I decided to do two sets of 1100. Of course, by the time I reached that 1100 mark I didn't want to stop; mainly for two reasons. 1) I was already on a roll and 2) 2200 yards is 1.25 miles which is just over the Half-Ironman swim distance and I wanted to see how long it would take me to complete the entire length in one go round. Well... the answer is 1:06 - which is still within the time frame of the cut-off so I'm good there. I realize that this pace is uber-slow for most folks but, to be honest, I'm not particularly worried about the swim itself or my swim time as long as I make the cut-off. I'm not necessarily going for a PR (although it would be nice) and know that my struggles will always be with the bike and the run, so as long as I survive the swim I'm okay with whatever my time happens to be. Besides, I am always faster in open water than I am in a pool so I'm fairly certain I can crush this 1:06 time when all is said and done.

Looking ahead at my training plan, I have this same distance on the calendar every single week with the exception of two longer distance swims. At some point I will taper. Until then, I'll keep swimming along and working on my shoulder and arm strength, as well as my endurance. Just like with biking and running - swimming is one of those things that I always dread getting started, but always enjoy once I'm there. I'll just have to keep that in mind the next time I'm moving at a turtles pace for over an hour.