Breaking Down

"The world breaks everyone and afterword many are stronger at the broken places."
           - Ernest Hemmingway, A Farewell to Arms

Quotes seem to motivate me, and really make me think.  I came across the quote above and it hit home considering how I'm feeling because Ironman training has come into full swing.  I'm just hoping that all of those broken places are stronger come November 21st.  So the next two months are about "breaking to become stronger." 

The body will need to adapt to the higher training volume, as I transition from the half ironman distance races to the ironman distance.  I have known this for a while but I really have no high end speed and that was pretty evident in my ride this morning.  I can ride tempo for quite a while, however, when it comes to going super hard for a short time that just doesn't happen.  I think it's important to get out of your comfort zone, so this morning I wrote a bike workout which I knew I would struggle with.  Typically I would write a workout that would be tempo types of effort for longer periods of time.  Instead today this is what I did:

3 times through the following:
5 x 30 seconds
- 20 seconds max (470-520 watts)
- 10 seconds rest
4 minutes rest

15 minutes @ 80% (250-270 watts)

The first rep in each set was well over 500 watts...the rest was painful...very painful.  One thing that did feel good was the 80%, I was feeling a lot better as things went on and was finding that I had to hold back towards the end.

Day 3 of the running come back will have to happen tonight, and I think taking the dogs with me should help as they like to set a blistering pace right from the start and then taper off.  I was able to get a quick 2300 yard swim in and held under a 1:30 pace for any set that I did, so that's a positive, especially given the fatigue.  2 months of hard work left, and it's time to get after it!