Ironman Barcelona 2015 - 10 Week Training Summary

Here is a quick review of my last 10 weeks leading into Ironman Barcelona.

Training time was at a premium.  During this period Lynn had a serious car crash, we moved house, it was the summer holidays and we needed to entertain the girls, and then we had to adjust to increasing commuting time for the girls school runs.  Training, although usually high priority for me, was not high on the family priority list!  That said, Lynn gave me some great support and encouraged me to find time for training, often sacrificing her own spare time to support me.

A couple of quick observations:

• I had almost two weeks out whilst trying to get my left knee fixed - it had been swollen, crunchy and cracking since the end of May and I had tried - in vain - to train on it.  The MRI and the cortisone injection was the last throw of the dice!
• Run training was limited throughout.  Long run peaked at 1 hour! It was painful to run beyond that.  I tried to make up for that in the last few weeks by increasing frequency of shorter runs.  Most of this running was steady - nothing particularly fast.
• All bike training was indoors on the turbo trainer.  Managed to do quite a few 2 hour + sessions to try and build some endurance.
• Swim training was consistent, notching up 18 sessions (all in a pool) during the 10 weeks.  However, all sessions were 40-50 minutes.
• All gym sessions focused mainly on core work, with some low-weight leg exercises as the knee started to get better.

In summary then.  Over the 10 weeks, I averaged just less than 8 hours per week, with an average of 8 sessions per week.  78 sessions consisted of 24 bike sessions, 20 run sessions (including 5 short runs in race week), 18 swim sessions and 16 sessions in the gym.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 10 8 hours 26 minutes	Turbo – 70’ Tempo	-	Turbo – 180’ 6x20’ @z3	Run – 30’ Easy	-	Turbo – 75’ Strength endurance	Turbo – 150’ 5x20’ @z3
Week 9 8 hours	Run – 55’ Steady	Turbo – 60’ 10x3’ @z4	Gym – 25’ Swim – 60’	Gym – 25’ Swim – 50’	-	Turbo – 60’ Strength endurance	Turbo – 144’ 3x30 over/under
Week 8 6 hours 50 minutes	Gym – 45’ Swim – 40’ Turbo – 75’ 5x10’ z3/4	Physio	Resting swollen knee	Resting swollen knee	Resting swollen knee	Gym – 50’ Swim – 40’	Gym – 55’ Swim – 45’
Week 7 3 hours 6 minutes	Resting swollen knee	Resting swollen knee	Resting swollen knee	Turbo – 50’ 4x8’ z3	MRI Scan	Turbo – 75’ 10x5’ z3	Gym – 60’
Week 6 8 hours 6 minutes	Turbo – 70’ 5x10 z3	Run – 35’ Steady	Cortisone injection	Gym – 30’ Swim 40’	Run – 35’ Steady	Turbo – 120’	Turbo – 120’ Tolerance efforts
Week 5 10 hours 29 minutes	Turbo – 120’ Z3 efforts Run – 10’ Brick	Gym – 50’ Swim – 50’	-	Turbo – 55’ 10x3’ z4	Gym – 20’ Swim – 45’ Run – 65’ Steady	Turbo – 120’ 4x20’ z3	Swim – 60’ Run – 35’ Steady
Week 4 10 hours 30 minutes	Gym – 25’ Swim – 40’ Run – 30’ Steady Physio – 70’	Turbo – 70’ 3x10 z4	Run – 30’ Steady Swim – 55’	-	Run – 48’ Tempo	Turbo – 140’ 3x30’ over/under	Gym – 40’ Swim – 45’ Run – 35’ Easy
Week 3 12 hours 14 minutes	Turbo – 150’ 5x20’ z3 Run – 50’ Brick	Gym – 30’ Swim – 25’	-	Turbo – 70’ 5x10’ z3	Gym – 40’ Swim – 50’	Turbo – 95’ 2x20 z3 1x30’ race pace Run – 60’ Brick	Turbo – 120’ 4x20’ Run – 30’ Brick
Week 2 7 hours 43 minutes	Gym – 40’ Swim – 45’	Physio	Gym – 20’ Swim – 40’ Run – 40’ Easy	Turbo – 50’ 10x3’ z4	Gym – 30’ Swim – 40’	Turbo – 60’ 2x20’ Race Pace	-
Race Week	Swim – 40’ Run – 30’ 4x2’ efforts	Run – 25’ Steady	Run – 20’ Steady Swim – 35’	-	Bike – 40’ Run – 10’	Run – 15’	RACE DAY