Saturday, August 20, 2011

IMC Training By The Numbers

This must be the tapering slump... all of a sudden I have too much time on my hands!

The bike has been serviced by the folks at SpeedTheory and I took it out for a good spin. This, then, also is my "longest" workout for now until the race itself. A whopping 2 hours! 1:30 on the bike followed by a 30 min run. Tomorrow I'll swim a bit and next week - Race Week! - all the workouts are fairly short.

Well, Sunday won't be that short, but that is not a workout per se but The Race.

With a mere week until Ironman Canada I was wondering how much training I actually have done. And more importantly... Was it enough?? Surely it cannot have been enough??!! OMG! I am freaking out! Maybe I should be cramming in another 7-hour ride and a 36k run?! Maybe start it with a 4k swim to be sure?!?

STOP! Breathe.... Relax! In-and-out-and-in-and-out. Phuuu OK, that's better.

Maybe it wasn't enough - I don't know. But it is what it is now.

And here is what it was and is:

  • Weeks trained: 36 -- from about mid-December last year
  • Out of the 36 weeks I had 20 weeks where I completed at least 30 min less training than was on my plan... not good! Well over half. But in the end it all comes out pretty even with 471 planned hours and 449 completed.
  • Days off: 55 or about 1.5 per week but that includes those due to injury or being sick
  • Total number of workouts: 341 - just about 9.5 per week or 1.7 per day
  • Races as part of training: 3 - First Half (half marathon), Delta Tri (sprint), and Oliver (Half IM)
  • 88 Swims for 84 hours (and maybe something like 250 km but that is just calculated)
  • 104 Bike sessions for 207 hours and some 5,650 km
  • 26 of those were followed by Brick Runs for 9.75 hours and 108 km
  • Stand-alone Runs I did 90 in 98 hours and covered some 1,030 km
  • I also completed 42 strength training sessions for about an hour each
  • Not counting the three races that is about 450 hours of training -- and all of those numbers include the taper training that I am planning to do until next week Saturday. 

My goal for Sunday is to have a ton of fun and ideally don't hurt too much on the run. If I can also get away without any mechanical issues on the bike ride and no GI problems throughout the race that would be super splendid! It would also be nice if I don't get kicked around too much in the swim and come out of the water with my goggles still on.

But if pressed for a time answer, I would have to say that I would LOVE to come in under 12 hours. That is not entirely unrealistic, but a lot of things will also have to click and go well.


  • Swim and T1... maybe about 1:30
  • Ride and T2... hopefully 6:00 for a total of 7:30
  • Run... oh the run... I'd have to do it in 4:30 to make the magical 12 hours. 

We'll see. Thanks for stopping by.






2 comments:

  1. Have a great race, and let us know how it goes . Like I need to tell you to :-)

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  2. Thanks Gord! The sooner I'll share my experience the better my time was. So if you don't hear from me in a while after the race ...

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