Ironman Canada Training Recap – 26 Weeks

Ironman Canada Training Recap

26 weeks to Ironman Canada. If you missed last week’s Ironman Canada Training Recap, you can find it here. I had a work trip that ended up shortening my longer weekend workouts, as well as gave me 2 rest days for the week. I felt pretty good after traveling all day to get to my destination last week. My hotel had Peloton bikes, so I had the luxury of doing my workouts on one. The treadmills were also high quality, which made for nice running. There was a decently sized lap pool for me to do my swims, but we didn’t bother with any swim workouts while I was away for work.

Swim

Only 1 session. I skipped my second swim, because we had a friend drop into town, and decided to spend the day entertaining her and taking a rest day. Originally, we thought we would take her skiing or cross-country skiing, and that would’ve been my workout for the day. We ended up just hanging out all late morning and afternoon. And after she took off, Justin and I decided to keep it a rest day.

I also got a new swim toy, a new pull buoy from Eney Buoy! I had a 2500m swim and felt pretty good throughout. The Eney Buoy is bigger and floatier and helps keep my legs higher in the water. I’ve also tried to start breathing bilaterally more. My coach said I don’t need to breathe bilaterally, but it is a good skill to have. When I started to pay attention, I realized that I could get more frequent breathes if I did bilateral breathing. So I’m going to try to keep it up for the next few swims and see how it goes. It felt like I was able to swim faster. So we shall see how it all goes. I’m also due to record more videos for my coach to review.

Ride

2 sessions, my weekly heavy intervals session, as well as a long ride. I had a 20-minute race effort close to the end of my 2-hour ride, after a bunch of 5 minute heavier efforts. I wanted some motivation through that segment, so I put on a 20 minute FTP test with Olivia on my phone. The first 10 minutes went by really fast, and so did the next 5. The last 5 became a bit of a mental struggle, but I powered through. I really wanted to see some high numbers for my watts and output. 

I wasn’t sure how hard to push on the 20-minute race effort. After a little bit of mental wrestling, I decided that it would be a waste of time if I didn’t give the 20 minute my true best. That last 5 minutes of the 20-minute effort got ugly. And I told my coach that. She told me that we were doing this for mental strength. There will be times when I’m out on the race course, and this is one of those moments where I can remind myself how strong I am and how I can push through. 

Run

2 sessions, Fartleks session, and a 90-minute long run. My speed session was decent. It was the last day of my work trip and I was getting a bit tired from talking all day and the lack of sleep. I ran all the work segments and walked a bit of the easy segments. I forgot to wear my heart rate monitor, but I think I put in a good effort and close to my desired half marathon pace. 

My long run was 90 minutes and a hilly one at that. My warmup paces are starting to get a little faster. And I ran all the hills and flats at the same speed. The long run felt pretty good, even though I walked a few times. I took one gel, and a bottle of water. The gel was a Honey Stinger, and a pretty tasty one. I had the Fruit Punch flavor, and it tasted just like honey. We might have to pick some up for future training runs and races.

Overall Thoughts

My work trip was busy with very long days. However, I am very happy with how the week went. While I was gone, I didn’t skip a single workout and was able to put out efforts that I am proud of. Something I do want to work on is better hydration. Last week, I am sure I did not drink enough water. And with all the air travel and work, I know I didn’t take in enough water throughout the days. And even now with being home, I’m still not hydrating very well.

I’m also trying to figure out how I feel about “skipping” that one swim, which ended up giving me 2 rest days this week. My coach also said it was fine because it was a lower volume week for me anyway. And I don’t feel guilty as it was a day well spent. It might have been possible to get out for a swim after we sent out a friend off. But Justin hadn’t taken a rest day in a while, so I think it was that was a day well spent. We’re not in the thick of Ironman training just yet, and I don’t want to neglect other areas of my life.

I hope you enjoyed reading this Ironman Canada Training Recap. We’ve got plenty more coming up.