The Road to IRONMAN: Kicking Off My Taper Week
Mike Drak, Author and Senior Contributor for Booming Encore, has publically shared his goal to complete the IRONMAN race in Cozumel in November, 2022. He is currently undergoing an agressive training schedule and shares updates with us on his progress.
I was scared to look at my training schedule this week because my legs were still shot from last weeks demanding bike and run workouts. To my pleasant surprise everything Coach Fiona planned for me was easy to get me ready for this weekends Ride To Conquer Cancer.
The ride is a two day event that takes us over 200k from Toronto to Niagara Falls. At the end of day one after riding 100k we stay over night in Hamilton and on day two we ride another 100k finishing in Niagara Falls in front of a cheering crowd. There is free Steam Whistle at the end of the ride and boy does that beer ever taste good!
This is my second time doing the ride and I always get a little emotional at the start seeing all the bikes carrying yellow flags representing a rider who is a cancer survivor. Every participant has their own “why” for being there and I’m always reminded of my own father who passed away from pancreatic cancer at age 72.
Assessing Fitness
I’ve been trying to nail down my bike training zones for the past couple of months and it seems to me that my training heart rate is on the low side. So far my highest maximum heart rate during training is 114bpm and when doing multiple 15 minute intervals I can hold 150 watts at 104bpm.
I’m concerned that I’m being lazy and not pushing myself hard enough in training.
To get a clearer view on things on day one of the ride once we get out of the city I plan on hooking up with some fast groups and pushing it as hard as I can. Riding like that well outside my comfort zone will give me some valuable data on how high I can push my heart rate and how long I can hold “race pace” for.
On day two I plan on riding alone similar to how I will be riding at Ironman. Riding alone is much more mentally challenging but thankfully I have my Garmin to motivate and keep me honest.
The plan is to ride the first 10k easy then 20k at Ironman race pace (150 Watts), 10k easy, 20k race pace, 10k easy, 20k race pace and, 10k easy to the finish.
Bottom line it’s going to be a wonderful, emotional, hard and fun weekend.
