Athlete Series: TWO Weeks Til Race Day!

The countdown is on. Jason is in his final prep for Ironman Maryland, and I am sure he is ready for that taper to begin! Let me catch you up on what he has been doing.

The last few weeks we have been trying to use up every available training hour he has in between work and work travel. He has had a couple 14 hour training weeks, which has been really good for him. His final preparation has been getting very race specific as we dial in race power for the bike, and race pace for the run. Here is a look at a key session in the swim, the bike, and the run.

Workouts:

The Swim. To set Jason up for a good day, we’ve been lengthening the swims so he feels comfortable being in the water for over an hour. Here is a session we have done in his last weeks of training:

Warm Up: 200 freestyle, 100 kick, 200 pull, 100 kick, 8x50 choice drills. Main Set: 3x300 endurance swimming (:15) with 1 minute rest after the last 300. 3x200 endurance swimming (:15) with 1 min. rest after the last 200. 3x100 endurance swimming (:15) with 1 minute rest after the last 100. 3x200 pull with a focus on power (:15) Cool Down: 200 choice

The Bike. To make race power feel a bit easier, we’ve done tempo work first, and then had him ride longer at his race power. Most times he has also had a mid-distance run off the bike following this session. Here is a good example of a workout he has seen in training:

Warm Up: 20 - 40 minutes in power zones 1-2. Main Set: 3x20 minutes in power zone 3 (tempo, 76-89% of FTP) with 5 minutes recovery spinning in between. One hour steady at IM race power (zone 2 for Jason). Cool Down: anywhere from 10-30 minutes.

The Run. To make sure race pace feels comfortable, we’ve done a lot of intervals at race pace. Jason has a good route that he plants water on and mimics aid stations and how he goes through them on these runs as well. Here is a session he has seen a few times:

Warm Up: 15 minutes allowing heart rate and pace to increase. Main Set: 5x12 minutes at goal race pace with 2 minutes jogging in between. Cool Down: 10-20 minutes of easy running.

These sessions are also very versatile. Depending on your fitness and where you are in your training, you can add reps to each swim set, increase the time riding at goal race power on the bike, or add another rep or two on the run.

Ready to Roll

The work has been done. Jason has executed 95% of his workouts and his fitness is looking good as he enters the final stages of training leading into IM Maryland. The next weeks will be about giving him the right amount of volume and intensity so that he feels rested but fit coming into race day! Race Day is September 16th, so make sure to open your Ironman app and give him a track!