Halfway there.

That is both encouraging and mildly terrifying.

Overall, it was a decent week. A little unusual because I inverted the schedule. I did the long bike and long run at the beginning of the week and then eased off as the week went on. For Week 16, I’ll go back to a more normal structure.

I have two weeks until the Rockford 70.3. After that, I’m going to try rearranging my training week so that Sunday becomes the rest day, the long bike moves to Friday, and the long run moves to Saturday. I hope that I stop nuking entire weekends with training and can actually do things with the family while everyone else is off work.

Swim 🏊

• Total swims: 3 (FINALLY!)
• Total distance: 7,550 yards
• Total time: 2:24

Nothing spectacular, but solid. A little boring, perhaps, but solid. The biggest victory is simply getting in that third swim. It only took fifteen weeks.  I also managed to do one core strength workout.  Miracles do happen!

Bike 🚴

• Total rides: 3
• Total distance: 87.5 miles
• Total time: 5:16

The bike week was a little strange.

Monday was the Rockford course ride, which I’ve already written about. Let’s just say I learned some valuable lessons about hydration, sunscreen, and not leaving critical equipment in the car.

I also missed a brick workout during the week, so yesterday I squeezed in a 1:20 ride after the 5K race.

Unfortunately, that ride had to be on the e-bike because my local bike shop seems to have a unique interpretation of the word “appointment.”

I dropped the bike off on Tuesday for my Thursday appointment.

“We’ll call by the end of business Thursday.”

Nope.

Friday?

“We’re backed up.”

Saturday?

Nope.

Sunday?

Nope.

If it’s not done today, I’m picking it up, getting my deposit back, and taking it somewhere else.

Run 🏃

• Total runs: 4
• Total distance: 19.4 miles
• Total time: 3:05

This included:

• A 9-mile-long run
• A 6-mile medium run
• A 5K race
• A 1-mile run off the bike

I felt very strong during the 5K. I wound up finishing 7th in my age group out of 35 runners.

Looking at the results afterward, I realized I probably could have challenged for a podium spot. Unfortunately, I was serving as the designated rabbit for my daughter, who wanted to break 30 minutes. She did.

Mission accomplished.

That meant my first two miles were slower than they otherwise would have been, but I wouldn’t trade that result for a slightly faster finishing time.

Total Training Time 🧮

• Total time: 10:45

A pretty substantial week.

Training Metrics 📈

TrainingPeaks:

• Fitness: 117
• Fatigue: 140
• Form: -5

All good.

Fitness continues to creep upward while fatigue has actually come down significantly from the peak. What really surprised me is how much better I feel physically.

A few weeks ago, I was so sore that rolling over in bed felt like a chore. Now I’m doing nearly twice the training load with maybe half the soreness.

My Garmin metrics reflect that too. Body Battery and Training Readiness have both improved noticeably.

For fun, I went back and looked at Strava Relative Effort. The last time I posted it regularly was around Week 3.

Back then:

• Week 3 RE: 622

This week:

• RE: 1,193

Dayum.

Looking Ahead

Today should be a rest day. It won’t be.

I don’t like starting the week with a rest day because life always seems to intervene later in the week. Last week I missed a brick workout and wound up with a very long Sunday because of it. I’d rather run and swim today so that when the inevitable scheduling disaster arrives later in the week, I’m not scrambling to catch up.

This week I’ll head back to the Rockford course and see whether I’ve fixed some of the issues from the first attempt. As for the 70.3 itself, I’m not planning much of a taper. It’s a training day, not an A-race. The goal is experience, execution, and learning.

All in all, I’m feeling good about the progress.

Halfway there. Only fifteen more weeks to go.

This was one of the best weeks of the entire cycle so far. Strong workouts, good energy, and – most importantly – I’m feeling fit instead of just feeling tired.

I still missed a swim, but honestly, I’m okay with that.

Swim 🏊

• Workouts: 2
• Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
• Total Distance: 4,025 yards

I’d still like to hit that third swim each week consistently, but I’m not panicking over it. My 70.3 swim is downstream in a river, so I’ll survive until summer break gives me more flexibility.

Bike 🚴

• Workouts: 5 (though two were commute rides)
• Total Time: 5 hours 9 minutes
• Total Distance: 76.2 miles

Very happy with this week’s riding. Saturday especially felt like a win. It was raining, and I was leaning toward delaying the team ride… until I saw a rider from the team ride past my house and got publicly shamed by my own conscience into going.

I rode out with them but came back solo, which actually worked perfectly. Ended up with a really solid 3-hour ride. Pace was good, though the overall average looks slower because of the lights and stop signs. City riding reality.

Run 🏃

• Workouts: 4 (including the brick run)
• Total Time: 3 hours 17 minutes
• Total Distance: 20.7 miles

The highlight was Sunday’s 90-minute run, which turned into 9.51 miles.

The first mile felt a little tight, but after that the whole thing felt… easy? Mentally and physically easy. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever described a 9-mile run that way before.

Then I uploaded it and realized I was only supposed to do 7 miles. So: bonus miles!

Total Training Time 🧮

• Total Duration: 9 hours 41 minutes

Big week.

TrainingPeaks Metrics 📈

• Fitness: 114
• Fatigue: 192
• Form: -49

The numbers continue to scream, “You are training hard,” but I’m handling it well.

Reflections ✍️

This week gave me a real confidence boost. The long bike felt controlled. The long run felt easy. Recovery seems to be improving too—I slept great last night and genuinely look forward to taking today completely off.

Next week will require a little schedule Tetris because I’ve got something on Saturday. I may push the long bike to Sunday and move the long run to Monday since I’m off work. We’ll see how it all fits together.  Or, just long run later in the day Saturday and long ride on Sunday (more likely…might head up to Rockford and ride the bike course)

But overall?

Feeling strong.

I didn’t hit every planned workout this week, but I still increased the training load and, more importantly, I’m feeling pretty strong.

At the moment, I’m sore from the weekend, but that’s what Monday rest days are for. Past Me finally did Future Me a favor.

Swim 🏊

• Workouts: 2
• Total Time: 1 hour 24 minutes
• Total Distance: 4,125 yards

This is where I missed a workout. This was supposed to be the week I added a third swim, but pool scheduling makes that difficult. I’ll keep trying, but honestly, if I stay at two swims per week until summer break, so be it. Once school is out, flexibility improves dramatically.

Bike 🚴

• Workouts: 3
• Total Time: 3 hours 50 minutes
• Total Distance: [distance not provided in your notes]

This was also slightly short of the plan, but still productive. One ride was supposed to be an hour and ended up being 45 minutes. The long ride was planned for 2:30 but finished at 2:17.

That said, the long ride was with a local bike racing team doing their route, and the pace was definitely faster than my usual long ride effort. I could’ve tacked on another 13 minutes afterward, but I counted the higher intensity as enough. Next weekend I’ll ride with them again and extend the loop to make sure I hit the full duration.

Run 🏃

• Workouts: 4
• Total Time: 2 hours 54 minutes
• Total Distance: 18 miles

The runs felt good overall. Sunday’s longer run came on tired, sore legs, but I still knocked it out.

One stat I’m oddly proud of: in the last 12 weeks, I’ve only had to walk during a run once, and that was for maybe two minutes. That feels like real progress.

Total Training Time 🧮

• Total Time This Week: 8 hours 10 minutes

TrainingPeaks Metrics 📈

• Fitness: 101
• Fatigue: 159
• Form: -45

All good. Numbers continue trending upward without me feeling destroyed.

Reflections ✍️

I’m definitely feeling fitter. The bikes and runs ramp up over the next few weeks, eventually topping this phase out at a 4-hour bike and a 9-mile run. That should set me up nicely for the 70.3 in June.

The other thing I need to address is weight. I lost about 5 pounds during the base phase, but I’ve stalled out a bit recently. I’d like to race leaner. Not lean—let’s not get unrealistic here—but leaner.

Overall, though? Progress. Real progress.

Build Phase Begins (sort of… still easing into it)

Solid week. Not perfect, but very solid. More importantly, I don’t feel nearly as beaten up as I did earlier in the cycle. That’s a good sign that the adjustments are working.

Swim 🏊

• Workouts: 2
• Total Time: 1 hour 18 minutes
• Total Distance: 4,025 yards

Same as last week. Steady. Next week, I’ll try to bump this to 3 swims, which will be a challenge with scheduling, but it’s time.

Bike 🚴

• Workouts: 4 (over 3 days, including a commute)
• Total Time: 3 hours 33 minutes
• Total Distance: 51.8 miles

The long ride (2 hours on Saturday) was… rough. Slightly hungover and didn’t eat beforehand – brilliant planning. About 1:20 in, I finally had some honey packets and, shockingly, my legs came back to life within minutes. Lesson re-learned: fuel matters.

Run 🏃

• Workouts: 4 (including ~1.5 miles off the bike)
• Total Time: 2 hours 56 minutes
• Total Distance: 18.2 miles

Today’s 7.5-mile run was solid. It started as a bit of a death march, but I settled in and finished strong – even after the 2-hour ride the day before. I had enough left in the tank to swim afterward, which feels like real progress.

Total Training Time 🧮

• Total Time This Week: 7 hours 46 minutes

TrainingPeaks Metrics 📈

• Fitness: 93
• Fatigue: 154
• Form: -38

Numbers say I’m working hard, but I don’t feel crushed. That’s new – and encouraging.

Reflections ✍️

This was a good week. The biggest takeaway is that I’m handling the workload better. Earlier in training, this kind of week would’ve wrecked me. Now? Tired, yes. Destroyed, no.

The bigger issue right now is nutrition. I’m not overeating—I’m just not eating well. That needs to change. Time to get back to the goal of 30 different fruits/nuts/veggies per week. It sounds ridiculous until you try it. Smoothies help cheat the system a bit.

Next week looks a lot like this one, just with about an extra hour of training (another swim and +30 minutes on the long ride).

All in all… it’s going okay. Which, at this point in training, is exactly what I want.

Solid week. No complaints. Everything came together nicely and the workouts felt strong across the board.

Swim 🏊

• Workouts: 2
• Total Distance: 5,025 yards
• Total Time: 1 hour 34 minutes

Both swims felt strong. The second one came shortly after a six-mile run, which made it a bit spicy. Still got through it just fine.

Bike 🚴

• Workouts: 4 (spread over three days because I split one 60-minute ride into two 30-minute commutes)
• Total Distance: 67.3 miles
• Total Time: 4 hours 29 minutes

Yes, I know. 4:29. Had I realized that while riding, I would’ve stayed on the bike another minute just to clean that up.

The big ride this week was today’s 40-mile ride in 2:40. I finally broke out the road bike again. It took a block or two to remember how it felt compared to the e-bike, but after that, it was smooth sailing. Really happy to have it back in the rotation.  Today’s long ride was a bit slower than I’d like, but 15% of that was a strong wind and 85% was having to stop at WAY too many stop lights.  As much as I can, I’ll be driving out of town to bike.

Run 🏃

• Workouts: 4 (including one 15-minute brick run)
• Total Distance: 16.7 miles
• Total Time: 2 hours 45 minutes

Slightly short compared to the plan. Two of the weekday runs were supposed to be 60 minutes, but I just don’t have that kind of time during the workday. I made them both 45 minutes instead and moved on.

Total Training Time 🧮

• Total Duration: 8 hours 48 minutes

TrainingPeaks Metrics 📈

• Fitness: 69
• Fatigue: 143 (rest day tomorrow!)
• Form: -74

So the numbers say I’m going hard, flirting with overload, and accumulating fatigue.

Reflections ✍️

This is definitely a harder program than I’ve done in the past, and the training volume has almost doubled compared to earlier in the cycle. Surprisingly, I actually feel pretty good.

Fatigue is climbing, though, so tomorrow’s rest day will be welcome. The goal now is to keep stacking solid weeks without tipping over the edge.

Base Phase Week 8: strong work, still moving forward.

Solid week. Amazingly, I feel great this afternoon. This was a full week—I made all my planned workouts. That felt good, but it also meant a big jump in training load, which is not the wisest thing. I’ll keep an eye on it.

Swim 🏊

• Workouts: 2
• Total Distance: 5,000 yards
• Total Time: 1 hour 31 minutes

This is where I technically “lose” time compared to the training plan. The plan calls for 2,500 yards in 60 minutes, and I usually knock it out in about 45. So it looks like I’m shorting the duration, but I’m not losing sleep over it.

Bike 🚴

• Workouts: 3 (including a brick)
• Total Distance: 61.7 miles
• Total Time: 3 hours 45 minutes

The long ride was two hours yesterday in the cold and rain. Somewhere along the lakefront, I discovered a 13.1-mile race was going on that I didn’t know about.

Then, at literally the farthest point of the out-and-back, my chain dropped and wedged itself hard into the front cassette. It took some work (and a fair amount of grease) to get it loose and back on.

Still, it was a good ride. I don’t mind training in bad weather. I have no idea what race-day conditions will look like, so: train for the weather.

Run 🏃

• Workouts: 4 (including one off the bike)
• Total Distance: 18.4 miles
• Total Time: 3 hours 1 minute

Yes, I’m absolutely counting that extra minute.

This was a huge jump in mileage—borderline How Not to Train-level jump—but it felt good while doing it. We’ll see how the body responds over the next few days.

Total Training Time 🧮

• Total Duration: 8 hours 17 minutes

TrainingPeaks Metrics 📈

• Fitness: 56 (up from 39)
• Fatigue: 128 (up from 64… gulp)
• Form: -54

So the numbers basically say:

• Fitness: Going hard
• Fatigue: Increasing fatigue (duh)
• Form: Overloading

I probably should have scaled things back a bit, but I felt good throughout the week.

Reflections ✍️

The tricky part next week is that the training load actually increases again. That’s going to be a challenge. I need to find a way to build in a dedicated rest day, but scheduling swims around pool availability makes that tough.

Monday is supposed to be the rest day, but it’s also a great day to swim. Of course it is.

And just to make things more interesting, the two weeks after next are both build weeks.

Sheesh.

Still… 23 weeks until race day. Plenty of time to keep building—hopefully a little more smoothly than this week.

Decent enough week, though I missed a few workouts — mostly out of concern for overtraining. Time-wise, I still hit my mark thanks to skiing, which also absolutely cashed my legs. So overall… I’ll call it a win.

This was supposed to be a step-back ski week, but the snow conditions are terrible. Fortunately, I’ve got a mountain bike, Peloton access, and a pool out here. I can do just about everything except run (no shoes), which is not ideal but manageable.

Bike 🚴

• Workouts: 2 (missed 1)
• Total Distance: 42.6 miles
• Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes

Solid rides. Nothing crazy, but good time in the saddle.

Run 🏃

• Workouts: 2 (missed 1, shortened 1… yikes)
• Total Distance: 9.26 miles
• Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

This is where things slipped a bit. Missing one and cutting another short isn’t ideal, but again — part of managing fatigue.

Swim 🏊

• Workouts: 1 (missed 1)
• Total Distance: 2,500 yards
• Total Time: 50 minutes

Another missed workout here. Hoping to make this up a bit in the coming week.

Cross-Training : Skiing🎿

• Workouts: 1 day (Snowbird)
• Total Distance: 14.8 miles
• Total Time: 3 hours

Legs felt it. Skiing counts.

Total Training Time 🧮

• Total Time This Week: 7 hours 30 minutes

TrainingPeaks Metrics 📈

• Fitness: 37 (small gain)
• Fatigue: 78 (hmm…)
• Form: -35 (geez)

Those numbers basically confirm what I felt — I’m training hard. Maybe a bit too hard for this point in the cycle.

Reflections ✍️

This was one of those weeks where the plan met reality. I didn’t hit everything, but I didn’t ignore what my body was telling me either. That matters more right now.

Looking ahead, I may need to acknowledge two things:

1. My age
2. The fact that I’m still working full-time during the school year

That probably means dialing back duration and/or intensity slightly for now, then ramping more aggressively once summer hits and I have more flexibility.

A smoother base phase and a steeper build might be the smarter play.

Not perfect. But still moving forward.

This entry will look a little different than the previous ones because I switched tracking platforms this week. Up until now, I’ve been using Strava, but I’m moving back to TrainingPeaks for Ironman training. It’s what I used the last three times I trained for IMWI. It has more bells and whistles and—if I can figure it out—might even have my old workouts that I can copy forward.

With that change noted, this was a good, solid week where I hit about 90% of the plan. The only thing I missed was a 15-minute run off the bike.

Total planned training time was 7:00, and I finished at 6:41, which I’ll happily take. Fifteen minutes of that gap was the missed brick run, and the rest was just being a few minutes short on swims that were distance-based anyway.

Swim 🏊

• Workouts: 2
• Total Distance: 4,850 yards
• Total Time: 1:25

Both swims felt good. Nothing heroic, just steady work and decent rhythm in the water.

Bike 🚴

• Workouts: 4
• Total Distance: 47.1 miles

Also felt good. Once I get back from Spring Break, I’ll switch back to the road bike. For now I don’t mind using the e-mountain bike because it keeps me solidly in Zone 2, which is exactly where I want to be during base.

Run 🏃

• Workouts: 3
• Total Distance: 13.6 miles
• Total Time: 2:16

This was a nice jump from last week’s 10 miles, and I definitely felt it. Today’s six miler was basically slow miles, slower miles, slowest miles. But it got done, and I immediately followed it with a 2,500-yard swim, which is the kind of back-to-back work that builds durability.

Total Training Time 🧮

• Total Time This Week: 6 hours 41 minutes (out of 7:00 planned)

TrainingPeaks Metrics 📈

Because of the switch to TrainingPeaks, I don’t have a comparable relative effort score this week. TrainingPeaks uses a different system:

• Fitness: 35
• Fatigue: 70
• Form: -9

Since I don’t have historical data loaded yet, those numbers don’t mean much on their own. What I really care about is the trend—the week-to-week deltas—not the raw numbers.

Reflections ✍️

Overall, this was a very solid base week. Good volume, most of the workouts completed, and no real signs of overreaching. The runs felt a little heavy, but that’s expected with the mileage bump.

Once I get back from Spring Break, the plan is simple:

• move back onto the road bike,
• keep stacking Zone 2 time,
• and keep nudging the run mileage upward without forcing it.

Base Phase Week 4: steady progress.