Week 24 of 26

So 3 weeks out from Ironman and this week was meant to be a lighter training load. Or so it seemed....

Monday was a 3.9km swim in the afternoon. Warm up 400m, 10 x 100m swim, 1000m pull buoy/paddles, 10 x 100m pull buoy only, 400m swim, 100m cool down. Pretty tired after the big weekend. The pool was very busy too, as the uni students are all back. Tuesday I did an hour's gym session - alternating arms, legs and core, 30 repetitions each. The gym was even worse, it was like in a shopping mall during year end sale!

Wednesday I swam again. It was my last day for using the Western recreation center facilities and I wasn't going to renew my membership as I wouldn't be here for long. 2 x 2000m - swim 33:16, pull buoy 35:11. In a 25m pool too. Luckily I had the digital pacer clock, otherwise I would be sure to lose count!

Thursday I was planning to ride but the weather didn't look very promising. So I took a rest day and did some errands. Friday I rode, it was still cold and I had the full winter gear - beanie, gloves, long pants and two layers of long sleeves. Rode to Lakeside and back for 90km.

Saturday, the original plan was to ride long for 120km. But it started with rain. So we had breakfast at Angelo's and did some groceries. The rain seemed to have stopped at 10am or so, so I took the risk to ride 90km. Very, very windy and headwind all the way back! There were short periods of shower but luckily, I didn't get too wet. In the afternoon, I ran for 75 minutes. Not exactly a brick run but I had a short 2 hour break in between - lunch and a nap. It was still gloomy and there were some moments of light drizzle.

That night, we had dinner at Peter's with some of our regular training buddies. We had great food and wine - okay, maybe I was the only one who didn't have wine as the rest are done with their racing for the year. It was nice to do something other than swim, bike and run. But we still talked about triathlon a lot. Thanks Peter for hosting and thanks for the thoughtful gift - very Canadian! I'll be missing everyone.

Some sweet memories of Canada!

Sunday, I did my long ride of 120km to Talbotville and back. It was a bit chilly to begin with - about 6 degrees Celcius but it soon warmed up and it was a nice day after all, some mild winds and mostly tailwind on the way back. My Garmin didn't show the decimal points in the distance and it was not until I finished the ride and checked the history that I was short by 400m, didn't know it would round up! I rested for a few hours and then did my 2 hour run in the afternoon. Legs were pretty tired after the 3 days of consecutive cycling but still managed to clock just over 26kms.

My final pit stop at this intersection. There's probably a patch of dead grass here somewhere... hahaha

The official taper begins this coming week and I totally look forward to it. The past couple of weeks have been solid training but I can see signs that my body is craving for the rest. I only have 3 days here before I leave for Malaysia for the Ironman.

Week 24 of 26 statistics:

Swim - 8.0km (2 hours 20 minutes)
Bike - 299.9km (9 hours 52 minutes)
Run - 42.9km (3 hours 15 minutes)
Gym - 55 minutes

Total - 350.8km (16 hours 22 minutes)