Training and Coaching and Gadgets....Oh my!!!!

Weeks 3 and 4 of training consisted of a total of 7 hrs swimming, 6.5 hrs biking, 5.5 hrs running and 2.5 hrs strength training. As relatively easy as Week 3 was, week 4 was gnarly.  My bike workouts contained descriptions such as Angel of Mercy, Sufferfest and 4x10 mins at Functional Threshold Power.  Where do these workouts come from you ask?  That would be from my coach Jeff.  You absolutely do NOT need a coach to train for an IM (Ironman).  There are plenty of very good training programs available online or in books.  I decided to hire a coach for a few reasons. 1. I really plan on only doing this once and I want to do it the right way. 2. I have a well-known tendency to overtrain.  I need to get over the more is better mindset. 3. Long training programs burn me out so a coach will keep me acccountable and challenged throughout.  My coach came highly recommended and has a very impressive IM background.  In fact he has qualified for the World Championship IM in Hawaii a few times. That means he's blistering fast. Even more importantly he has done the Lake Placid IM every year since 2005 so he knows the course inside and out.  He is not cheap however.  In fact between registering for the race, hiring Jeff and getting housing for race week I have had to cash in a CD, take money out of my retirement account and cash in a week of vacation time!!!!!  On that note....if you are an owner of some athletic-based company and want to sponser a middle-aged female slow triathlete PICK ME!!!  I will glady plaster your logo anywhere you want in exchange for some cash.  But I digress.  Jeff sends me my workouts a week at a time and then depending on what type of workout it is I upload the results into my training program.  There are two devices I am currently using.  The first is my Garmin GPS watch which allows Jeff to see where, how far, how fast and how long I ran.  It will also tell him what my heart rate was and the elevation gain/loss of the route.  The second is my Powertap Powermeter for the bike.  This allows him to see how long, how fast and with what power I was biking in addition to how fast I was pedaling, my heart rate and the temperature.  See.....you can't lie with this stuff.  If he tells me to ride four 10 min intervals at my functional threshold power and I don't he'll know.  This keeps me motivated and honest.  By the way functional threshold power is the power I can sustain for 1 hr before lactic acid builds up in my muscles so much that I can't clear it and my legs fall off.  Ok maybe they don't fall off but that is what they feel like.  One other very important thing I use in training is my Road ID.  When biking and running it is attached to my ankle so that God forbid anything happens to me someone knows who to call and that I am allergic to penicillin.  Came in handy big time when I crashed the bike!!!  Just for the record I do not wear my Road ID when biking inside on the trainer because if I fall off my trainer I am pretty sure Quinn will hear me and when she comes in the room she would be laughing hystericallly and unable to call 911 anyhow!!!

Garmin, power meter, heart rate stap and Road ID.  Tools of the trade.