Week 10 was the highest workload so far in terms of training stress. I started using Training Peaks this week, which really helps me track how things are going, and plan future workload. I’m generally seeing a good correlation between how I feel and what the numbers are saying.
I hit all eleven workouts again this week, so that helps a lot. Some weeks in the past, I’ve only done nine or ten of my eleven. It was also my highest volume swimming week. Cycling and running volume were down a bit from previous highs, but the intensity was there for sure.
The last two cycling workouts this week were 1.5 hour sweet spot workouts (80-90% of my FTP). So they should have been pretty challenging. I feel like it was just a bit easier than it should have been. I did each at about 3% higher power than prescribed, and I feel like I easily could have added another 2-3%. I might need to reassess my FTP in two weeks! Right now these sweet spot workouts happen to sit right at my target Ironman race power. I just need to raise my FTP so this same power is is about 65-70% of my FTP instead of 90%.
One of those sweet spot workouts was followed by a brick run. I spent 90 minutes at my target race pace/power on the bike, then immediately followed it up with 30 minutes at my target race pace on the run. It felt really good! Obviously there’s a big difference between 2 hours and 10 hours. But there’s also a big difference between today and race day in 22 weeks!
This week was just over 10 hours and next week is scheduled to be over 13 hours. Then it’s time for a rest week (back down to 9 hours). I was really hoping that last number was a bit lower when I looked it up to type it.
Week 10: 5500yd/2h22m swimming; 85.9mi/5h20m cycling; 15.4mi/2h36m running; 6000 calories
Cumulative: 35,650yd/17h04m swimming; 698.1mi/46h44m cycling; 113.0mi/18h27m running; 44,700 calories