It’s hard to believe another week has passed. They seem to be going quickly and I’m sure summer will only get worse. And I’m really hoping to see some sunshine soon. I certainly won’t gripe about the (much needed) water that’s been filling the lakes or the cooler running temps. I just really want to see something other than clouds in the sky. Feel free to quote me on that in about eight weeks.

The week began with a three day weekend. We had a camping trip scheduled with some friends but given all of the recent flooding and chances of even more we opted to move the camping trip indoors (as in to a hotel). Unfortunately someone forgot to let Coach Bob know it was a holiday as my training schedule showed the normal two workouts. I managed to get a weight room workout in at the hotel that morning. Later that afternoon I grabbed a trainer ride back at the house. And so life goes when training for an Ironman.

It’s amazing to me the tools that are available to aid in training.  Thursday I was scheduled for a 90 minute steady bike ride.  Rather than just hop on the trainer and spin I used a program called BestBikeSplit to simulate my IMFL bike ride.  The app is pretty cool and has been used by pros to predict their times on 112 mile rides to within a minute or two.  Pretty amazing to me, and it’s even more amazing that their base package is absolutely free.  I was able to export the simulation and import it into TrainerRoad, the software I use when on the trainer.  I saved a full version of the 112 miles (that will come in handy in future weeks) and then lopped off everything but the first 90 minute to create a workout simulating the first 90 minutes of my race day ride.  The ride went fairly well (in the image below, the yellow line displaying my power should match the top of the blue).  My heart rate and cadence pretty much flat lined, which is good in that my heart rated didn’t drift up and cadence didn’t drift down.  If I can manage to hold onto those numbers on race day I’ll be a happy guy.

I’m starting to get a good feel for the level of fatigue that comes with four workouts in two days. We typically have two days of workouts, a rest day, three days of workouts, and then another rest day. I really do live for rest days lately. It’s amazing how your body needs recovery when you begin to challenge it. I’m also getting a feel for how hard I can push during a workout when I’ve completed three other workouts in the past 36 hours. The answer: not as hard as I would like. I typically like to push myself but I’m starting to realize that I just can’t push as hard at the end of a block. If I continue to, especially as the duration picks up, I’m going to wind up hurt. Most coaches recommend at most one really hard bike or run for the week and the rest should be done at lower intensities. It’s all about the body learning to perform while fatigued; push a fatigued body too hard and it could literally end a season.

Finally, I want to say a huge “thank you” to those of you that donated to CTF in the month of May.  As you may know May was NF Awareness Month.  I found out very late in the month that all May donations will be MATCHED!  How cool is that?  I don’t think that the match will go towards my fundraising but that’s not the point.  The point is to generate awareness and funds so that the right folks can find a cure for NF.  If you’re reading this and want to be a part of this great cause then you can do so here.