A sample "Build" week

Throughout my training process for this year's Ironman Arizona, I've been posting my "planned" weekly training.  Usually, life gets in the way and I end up having to change some of my training on the fly.  I have found, through my planning this year (because I've never really followed a training plan!), that it is much better to at least have a plan to try and stick to and alter it slightly than to have no plan and just make it up each day.

I thought maybe it would be interested for some of you to see what one of my weeks actually looks like.  Since last week was a pretty big week for me, I thought I'd go ahead and use last week as an example.  Now, keep in mind that last week was very close to being my largest week, mileage-wise, but was not my largest week time-wise.  Here is what I had planned for last week:

You'll notice that there are only two swim workouts, which is pretty usual for me.  I'm actually happy if I get in two swim workouts during a week.  You will also notice that there are five bike workouts.  A couple of those bike workouts were done as recovery workouts, so it was a very low intensity.  The three runs that were scheduled is the same that I schedule every week.  Not the same workouts, but one speed workout, one brick run or tempo run, and one long run.  Now let's see what my week ended up being like:

You can click on the image to enlarge it

If you compare my actual workouts with what I had planned, I only missed one workout!  And that lonely workouts was the very last swim session.  Sadly, that's a typical scenario for me.  No need to lecture me, I know it's bad.

I found it interesting that I traveled over 200 miles during this week!  Of course, doing a 100 mile bike ride helps.  I've averaged somewhere between 12 and 14 hours of training during this whole season.  This week was a little over 15 hours, and I believe my longest week so far was a little over 17 hours.  What boggles my mind is that I train this much, and I'm willing to be it doesn't come anywhere near the amount of time that the pro's and top age-groupers are putting in.  So, if I ever wanted to get to Kona, I would need a lot more free time...or I just need complete 9 more Ironmans!  Ha!

Alright, that's enough for now.  I hope you enjoyed getting a glimpse into one of my training weeks.  Thanks for reading!