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I'm in the home stretch to IMC and this past week was a big one. 

I knew going in there was lots of volume, big intensity and the forecast was for some of the hottest weather Seattle has ever seen. 

The week started off innocently enough, just a nice little 2 hr ride.  It was warm but not sweltering yet.  The ride included some time riding 75% and 85% of TT effort.  In the end it was a good ride to just get the legs warmed up for the rest of the week.

Tuesday we ramped things up a bit with a nice little 3500 yd swim in the morning with lots of drills and some short pacing intervals.  Things started to really get tough later in the day when I headed out for my negative tempo run.   Basically for this one you warmup, then run at a mod/hard effort for 25 minutes, turnaround and cover the same distance you just ran in 25 minutes at a hard effort.  These are tough regardless but as I started the run at 6:00 pm it was 95 degrees.  It wasn't as fast as I normally run these but intensity was there given the heat with an average for the whole run around 7 minutes per mile.  This would just be a hint of the rest of the week.

Wednesday was a simple day.  Another 2 hour ride, only a little twist ride 26 miles at full time trial effort.  Pretty much this ride is ride as hard as you can hold for 26 miles, again normally a hard workout but as I cruised through Redmond towards the Snoqualmie Valley the temp was 104 degrees at 6:30pm.  The temps were as hot as my legs.  I had a great TT ride with an average of 23.6 mph for the 26 miles.

Thursday was another short day.  Just a one hour run with fartleks (short hard effort) in 96 degree heat.  I was really happy how my body was handling the heat, my HR was up a bit not it wasn't spiking or blowing the roof off from the heat which helps with my confidence if it's hot at IMC. 

Friday as a swim/run brick.  Another 3500 yard swim workout this time mod/hard 300 as in 9 of them all at even pace.  Immediately after off for another 1+ hour run again the temp was in the 90's.  This is my taper day before "big" Saturday. 

Saturday was supposed to be swim, bike, run brick day but as I hadn't slept well with the heat all week I pushed the swim off to Sunday and just did the bike/run workouts.  This was enough believe me.  I started the ride at 7:30am.  The call for the day was hills and pickup the effort in the 2nd half of the ride.  I did a double loop ride hitting 5 hills each loop none were really what I'd consider climbs as the longest was probably 2 miles but they were steep and at the start of the bike it was 70 degrees and humid.  It was a great ride I rode hard focusing on nailing the hills and rode them all in the big ring except one (it's 15% in spots).  In the end I rode 106 miles in 5:45.  Immediately off the bike and out for a run.  40 minutes of easy running.  I felt great on the whole run as was clicking off the miles at near 7 minute mile pace. 

Sunday was not going to be any easier just 2:15 minutes of running.  This is my low aerobic run but anytime you're running for 2+ hours it's a tough day.  The legs were a little stiff for the first 20 minutes then loosened right up and had one of the best long runs I've had in a long time.  It was humid and still warm but not sweltering.  17 miles in 2:10 @ 138 bpm average.  What did this tell me?  If I'm having a good day, I can run a fast marathon off the bike since my HR race threshold on the run is around 160 bpm.  I finished off the week back in the pool with another 3300 yards just 4 x 500 (first 3 were at even pace then ratchet up the pace for the last one. 

Whew....I survived and best of all felt great throughout the week. The totals for the week were 10,000 + yds in the pool, 180+ hard miles in the saddle and 50+ solid miles on the run.

One more big week this week with a huge 3 day weekend of training which will include a very long run and upwards of 13 hours on the bike over 3 days.  The weather is supposed to cool off so I'm headed south this weekend in search of some more warm temps.

Just one more week then I start the long slow taper.  I'm swimming well, riding well and running well.  I may be fitter than I've ever been before.  We'll see how it all comes together in 27 days.