Slowly Ramping It Up...

It's about 16.5 weeks out from Ironman Coeur d' Alene and so that means things are starting to ramp up a bit.  I have been trying to focus on my swim stroke and have been in the pool a fair amount (for a triathlete) this past week or so.  Actually I've been in the water 5 times already this week, and will be in the water again tonight.  That doesn't mean that I'm hammering out huge yardage each session, but I'm trying to get a better feel for the water, and what better way to do it than to swim more right?  When you pick it up in one area another will probably fall off a bit.  I haven't been cycling as much this week as I have in the past weeks, but have still been getting some solid work in on that front.  My run has been picking up and I've had my biggest mileage week since prior to IMAZ.   The consistency is going to be crucial as I said before, and I have been consistent with my long runs.  I have hit it 4 weeks straight now, and feel good about that.  I don't want to ramp up my running too quickly, and have been healthy thus far and am determined to stay that way!  I've been adding 10 minutes to my long run each week.  I'm going to continue to build that in the coming weeks until I hit about 2 hours and 30 minutes.  Keeping the pace in check is really the key!  I tend to get impatient and then pick up the pace so that the run is over quicker, not always the most ideal.  I was guilty of this on Sunday, and ended up going a little faster than I had wanted.  This week I am going to try to back it down and work on negative splitting the run finishing up just faster than race pace.  I don't quite understand the theory where you train slower than race pace and expect it to be there when you race.  How does that work?

This morning was an early wake up call for computrainer:

15' Warm Up
6' @ 90% (280 watts)
3' RI
5' @ AT (305 watts)
3' RI

4' @ 110% (340 watts)
3' RI

5' @ AT (305 watts)
3' RI

6' @ 90% (280 watts)
Cool Down
Still have masters swim tonight and I was planning on meeting up with Bird to get a run in prior to swimming.  I'm going to keep things in check for the run, as I want to have a good swim.  Big goals are going to take some big work!