Under 10 Weeks...Aquaman?

I keep looking at my training plan/calendar and I see that I am in Week 21 of 30....meaning that I have less than ten weeks until IMAZ.  I can't believe how quickly the past few weeks have flown by, in fact even this week is just shooting by.  It is already Thursday and I have put in 7,000m in the pool already, a number that used to take me a good week and a half to reach.  I feel like I say this all the time, but if anyone had asked me even 18 months ago if I would ever do an Ironman I would have told them there was no way in hell I was ever going to swim 2.4 miles!  Well, here I am less than ten weeks out from my first Ironman and putting in 3,500m (~2.2 mile) swim workouts three days a week.  I'm not saying that I am Mark Spitz or Michael Phelps....or Aquaman for that fact, but I am definitely not the near-drowning-mess of a swimmer I was five years ago when I started in this sport. 

So, anyway....here is my recap of the past few days:

Tuesday

4:15AM alarm goes off, I hit snooze....4:20AM alarm goes off again, I get up and curse this stupid idea of doing an Ironman.  4:30AM I leave the house barely conscious and somehow arrive at HealthQuest alive and well.  The pool is packed, 5:15AM and every lane is full with a couple doubled up already.  WTF?!  I jump in and start swimming, within about 20 minutes there are only three of us still in the pool.  I do my 3,500m workout, er make that 3,400m since I cut my cool down a bit short (by 100m).

3,400m - 500 wu, 4 x 100 drills, 5 x 200 @430sec, 5 x 100 @20sec, 5 x 50 @10sec, 6 x 25 @5sec, 8 x 50 drills, 200 cd

I managed to get out at lunch for a run, but not the 1.25 hour run that was on my training schedule.  The first 15 minutes of the run was horrible, I felt like absolute crap.  I couldn't figure it out, just so tired and heavy feeling.  I managed to turn it around for the last 30 minutes and did negative splits on the way back to the office.  Even though it wasn't what was on my training plan, it was a good work out and I realized that I am in really good shape.  My average heart rate for the run was 141 BPM, and that is for ~8:10/mile pace (the last two miles were under 7:45/mile pace).  This is a really good sign!

My wife was out with a good friend of hers for the night so it was just me and my girls.  We had a good night, although there was a bit of typical 7 year old female drama that had to be dealt with.  No worries though, everyone went to bed happy.

Wednesday

I like Wednesday's because it means I am doing my sunrise BRICK workout at my house.  After I am done I get to shower there, I see my wife and kids for a bit, I actually feel like I am a part of the family on these mornings.  I also get my girls on the school bus which is just awesome to do.  Not too much to say about the work out, 45 min. on the bike watching Jersey Shore (awesome show!!!!), then outside for a 30 minute run.  I did run really well actually:  30:00, 3.93 miles, 7:38/mile pace.

Not a lot going on the rest of the day, just work.  Oh, I did meet with someone about a possible new job opportunity.  I had a very good conversation with the person and we'll see where it goes from here.

Today

My very first thought this morning at 4:15AM, "If I miss one swim workout it isn't going to be an issue come November 21st.  I could just stay in bed and get another hour or two of sleep."  I fought off the evil thoughts and made it to the pool to get in my swim workout.

3,500m = 500m wu, 8 x 50 drills, 3 x 150 @20sec, 4 x 250 @30 sec, 3 x 150 @20 sec, 4 x 100 drills, 300m cd

It was a pretty good swim for me today, all of my splits for my main set were under 1:58/100m, which for me is stellar considering the distance I am now swimming.

As for the rest of today, I have a 1.5 hour ride that I am going to squeeze in at lunch time.  My plan calls for "@ 15 min, insert 4 x 7 min Z4 @ 4min spin", but I am looking at doing a very hill ride that will definitely get my heart rate up, so I'm not too worried about sticking to the numbers exactly.  With that said, I do realize that I can probably work a lot harder on the bike than I have been.  I take for granted that I am a decent cyclist without really having to train like I do for the swim and the run.  I could probably make significant improvements on the bike if I focused a bit more during each training session.  I guess it starts today!

Ciao!