Four Down - Sixteen Weeks to Go!

Week four of my Ironman training started on Sunday, July 10th with the Hospitality Highway Century ride in Roswell, Georgia.  I rode 115 miles on the hilly course in north Atlanta in 6 hours and 26 minutes, including breaks, averaging 17.8 mph.

Monday was supposed to be a bike ride day but I didn't do anything.  Tuesday's swim/run training fell by the wayside as well. 

Susan bought the new cookbook Now Eat This! by Rocco DiSpirito.  Since Rocco is a chef and a triathlete I thought I'd include a few few picture of his recipes in my blog.  Nutrition is an important part of endurance and recovery.  Good nutrition should also be part of my training.  Susan has been trying the new recipes and I've been helping her "evaluate" the results.  On Monday we had Chicken something followed by Salmon something on Tuesday.  So far the dinners have been pretty good.

Susan's pork tenderloin with Rocco's green beans

A closer look

Veggies from Susan's garden

Rocco's Mustard Encrusted Salmon on a bed of saute'ed spinach

Rocco's Skinny Chef Salad

Wednesday I rode with the Southern Crescent Cycling folks.  It looked like the weather would stop us but luckily for us the storms didn't materialize.  We rode our usual 29 mile route from Epic Bikes going south around Hampton and around the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

On Thursday I swam 1.7 miles in the lake.  It took me 1 hour and 13 minutes in my big blue bloomers.  They create a lot of drag but I'm not racing so who cares.

Me in my Big Blue Bloomers

On Friday I ran the 11 miles around the lake.  The skies were overcast so the tempurature was not as hot as it has been.  About 3.5 miles into my run the rain came down.  It only rained for about 5 minutes but I was soaked.  I felt okay so I continued on.  I finished my run in 1 hour and 27 minutes.

On Saturday Susan and I had planned to ride together.  I'd ride 20 miles with her and then go off on my own and do another 20 miles or so.  Well, we got up late, read the paper, drank some coffee and before we knew it we had to go to Atlanta to run some errands.  Instead of riding I decided to swim.  I got in about .95 miles.

My totals for the week are I swam 2.65 miles, rode 143.93 miles and ran 11 miles.  This took me about 11 hours and 15 minutes to complete.  That's 1 hour and 15 minutes shy of the 12 hours and 30 minutes my training plan called for, but a good effort never the less.

Next week it's almost 14 hours of training for me.

Thanks for reading.