Athlete Series: Jason’s Final Prep
Okay. I’ve been a little behind in my athlete series as Jason preps for IM Maryland. So, today is my attempt to catch you up in all things training and racing as the race looms ever closer for Jason.
We are five weeks out from the big race and Jason has been hard at work. He’s had some great training weeks and a good shake out race as we come into the home stretch of preparation. Here’s what has been going on:
July
July was a busy and big block of training and racing. Jason did two races, Mountain Lakes Olympic Triathlon at the beginning of the month, and Maine 70.3 at the end of the month. In between these races we kept the volume relatively high so we could keep the pressure on with just two months left of training.
We have been in the Build Phase of training so Jason has seen a good deal of race specific intensity in his sessions and we’ve kept the volume pretty high since his event will be such a long day. Here is what a non race week in July has looked like for Jason:
Monday: Long Bike with tempo efforts + run off the bike
Tuesday: Recovery Swim Session
Wednesday: Long Run with tempo or race pace intervals
Thursday: Strength + Longer Swim
Friday: Aerobic Ride
Saturday: Long Swim
Sunday: Long Run
Because Jason works a full week that includes some travel we’ve been trying to hit 12-13 hours of training. We maximize each session to make sure he is getting in the quality he needs to prepare for the race.
Maine 70.3 was a solid training day for Jason. He had some setbacks early on in the bike that could have mentally taken him out of the race, but he fought through and is that much more prepared for IMMD.
The swim was super fast at Maine, like, insanely fast! Then he had a nice hill to run up into T1. Within the first mile of the bike, he flatted. A few miles later he flatted again. He had to wait for race service to help on the second flat, and they found a spoke poking through the rim tape. Fixing it with a bandaid, he prayed it would hold for 54 more miles. It did! But this was a 35 minute hold up. Not stressing, Jason recalculated his nutrition plan and stayed on top of intake. He made it to the run a bit later than planned, but the body was holding up. The run was great. He focused on heart rate and did more IM pacing as this was a race to work on pacing. He finished in good spirits and some solid takeaways on what to do if…!
August
We are already two weeks into August and training is not slowing down for Jason. After a few easy days post Maine 70.3, Jason is back to training and it will be ON until taper time. The weekly schedule will look similar to July, only we’ll be making those long runs and rides even longer.
With 5 weeks to go, the pressure is on!