Road to Kona Training : Week of Aug 15 (PIVKON -6)

I miscalculated the title of the last post, it should have been -7…So here we are PIVKON Minus 6 or to be more specific 45 days away from the big show.  I thought last week’s load of 5,000 yards swimming, 17 miles running and 100 miles of biking was tough.  This week’s was even more intense.  Grand total was 5,200 yards swimming, 23 miles running and 142 miles biking. Here is how the week went.

I’ve been pretty consistent with Monday morning Pilates and this week was no different.  Then, after a few meetings it was off to the pool. I’m convinced that sticking to Pilates has increased my swim times as I’m much more focused on form and utilizing the full length of my torso. Also, the body weight exercises have definitely increase my arm strength. The swim workout was only a total of 2,200 yards with the main set being 800 yards, then 600, then 400, then 200, then 100 all with 30 second rest in-between book marked by a 200 yard warmup and cooldown. Super happy that my average pace was below 2:00 min per 100 yards which is a nice improvement over my YTD swimming pace.

Second or I guess third workout really, was a sunset run in River Side Park before dinner. Today’s run workout was called a Monghetti which is a very popular speed workout that goes like this:

WU: 15mins Easy
MS: 2X:15 hard/easy, 2X:30 hard/easy, 2X:45 hard/easy, 2X1min hard/easy, 1X1.5min hard/easy, 2X1min hard/easy, 2X:45 hard/easy, 2X:30 hard/easy, 2X:15 hard/easy
CD: 12mins Easy

In English terms the main set starts with 15 seconds of hard effort followed by 15 seconds of easy effort done twice, then repeat for 30 seconds, then 45 etc….  When complete it was 5 miles total in 44 minutes. I was super happy with the sub 9 minute per mile average pace. We’ll thank Mr. Joseph Pilates for that too.  And thank you Rochelle for joining me for the start of this one.

Tuesday had a 90 minutes bike workout on the schedule. I chose to do that one indoors and clocked 30 miles on the trainer.

Wednesday morning it was back in the pool for the workout below. I started feeling really crappy 1,000 yards in and almost bailed. Then I remembered that I promised to document these so I decided to suck it up (Thank you!) and got a swimmers high resulting in another very satisfying average pace. Later that day it was off to Central Park to cover the full 6 mile large loop and a quick pic by the reservoir. Doesn’t take much for me to break into a drenching sweat but the temps were actually quite nice resulting in another sub 9 average pace.

 

I had a busy Thursday afternoon planned so it was up early for another indoor Bike workout.  The pic shows what happens when I forget to put a towel down.  It was just over an hour, otherwise there would have been more flooding.  After the spin it was back to Pilates. The session was such a great workout that I felt motivated to continue and hit the weights for a bit as well.

     

Friday‘s long ride totaled 76 miles followed by a quick 2 mile OTB (Off the Bike) run. For non-triathlon folks following along…that is called a brick workout.  One workout on top of another and this one is meant to get your tired biking legs used to running as soon as you get off the bike. The bike warmup was 10 miles to get me through Harlem and The Bronx and onto the Empire State Trail (which goes to Canada btw). I stayed on that up to Mt. Kisco in Westchester NY and then turned around. On the return leg I crossed the Tapanzee Bridge, rode down into NJ and back over the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan before the 5 mile cool down back home. I stopped for a conference call and a quick snack mid way, a Cliff Bar, which I dropped right after snapping the pic below. That was 200 much needed calories. I was so hungry that I gave into a junk food craving later on. Easy to justify fries and a milk shake when you’re burning so many calories. Slight improvement on average pace but still very much work in progress.

. . .

Saturday’s workout was an easy 10 miles down and up the west side. Tons of folks out an about biking, running and exercising. Misery loves company. Misery ?!? JK – I love this stuff.

 .

Sunday had a two hour spin on the agenda but a very busy weekend with friends got in the way. THANK YOU friends!! My body did not mind at all, but I did manage to get in 10 miles on the trainer in the evening to cap off the 16.5 hr training week.

PS: If you’re not subscribed for updates, please do so below so you get notifications via email in case you miss a social post.