IM – 4: The Peak Period.

The beginning of the end

This week marks the start of the second last period of training (before the final taper week): the Peak Period. From November to April, I built up strength to sustain long sessions. From March to June I turned this strength into sport specific endurance. Now it’s time to turn sport specific endurance into Ironman performance.

In an ideal world, I would have adequate endurance built up to comfortably complete all three distances easily. I feel I’m there with the swim and the bike but injuries meant I ran late with building up running miles - I never reached the top of the build phase (running 40+ km a week) - and so I will forego the peak running workouts in favour of building up as many marathon pace miles as I can.

Peak workouts are typically shorter and at a constant, high intensity. On Saturday, I went out with a short distance triathlete and did 105km on the bike between a flat session out to Wicklow/Kildare and a 30km time trial. It’ll mean sacrificing some endurance in the hope of boosting race performance and freshness. Fewer sessions over all, and working on 4 hour muscular endurance sessions rather than 8 hour slogs. The same in the pool - 2km at a faster than race pace rather than long race pace swims.

The peak phase starts with a rest week after the Build period (and the Half Ironman last Sunday).I took Monday off and worked on active recovery on Tuesday and Wednesday. I went to the physio also, for a dry needling session. This is basically acupuncture where short needles are used to relieve tight points in muscles (it sounds worse than it is!). It can be a good compliment to deep tissue massage which physios often use for the same ends. It relieves tension with more accuracy but can mean longer recovery time afterwards – my hip was still sore as of Sunday, which was a bit annoying.

Doing four less sessions this week has left with some time I forgot existed. I’ve used this to train for the mental side of the IM the best way I know, reading Dean Karnazes:

“The [race] would be primarily about one thing: not giving up.  It really didn't matter how long it took to get the job done; what mattered was getting it done.  This was an exploration into the possibilities of self.  Being a champion meant not quitting, no matter how tough the situation became, and no matter how badly the odds were stacked against you.  If you had the courage, stamina, and persistence to cross the line finish line, you were a champion.”