Training Week of July 6: A 96km Long Ride, a 120g-Carb Long Run, and a Big Bike Weekend
Roughly 200km on the bike across three rides, two swims that finally started to smooth out, and a long run where I pushed my carb intake further than I ever have. This was the biggest bike week yet in my build toward Ironman 70.3 Washington Tri-Cities — the race where I finished 15th in my age group last year and where the goal this time is to go faster and earn a slot to the Ironman 70.3 World Championship.
Three loops of Stanley Park on Saturday's long ride.
Where this week fits
I'm still following My Pro Coach's Advanced Half-Distance Training plan on TrainingPeaks — the same program I used last year for this exact race. If last week was a fairly even swim-bike-run build, this one tilted hard toward the bike: three rides for close to 200km, with the big block landing on the weekend. That's the direction the plan wants me heading as the race gets closer, and it's where I have the most to gain against last year.
Bike: two structured rides and a near-century weekend
Tuesday was the indoor structured session — a TrainingPeaks Virtual ride called "IRONMAN 70.3 Power Slope," 47km in about 1:30 with a bit over 260m of simulated climbing. The main set was three descending over-blocks — 10 minutes Z3 into 7 minutes Z4, then 8 into 5, then 6 into 3, with short recoveries between — so the workout gets sharper as your legs get more tired. That last block is exactly where it bit; the legs felt good through it, but there was no hiding. I'm still chipping away at season two of House of the Dragon on the trainer, which is the only reason 90 minutes indoors goes by as painlessly as it does.
Then the weekend. Saturday was the week's marquee session — on the plan as an "Endurance Ride With Sub-Threshold Sections," which meant mostly Z2 with three 15-minute blocks at upper-Z3 to low-Z4 baked into the middle. It came in at 96.3km over 3 hours 17 minutes of moving time, averaging just under 29.3 km/h with about 773m of climbing across three Stanley Park loops. I was frustratingly close to cracking 100km and to a 3:30 total — and I'll admit I got a little lazy at the end and let it go. But the ride felt strong the whole way through, sub-threshold blocks included. That's the part that matters this far out: fitness is clearly moving in the right direction.
Sunday I backed it up with another 56km, a flatter 2-hour spin at around 27.8 km/h, and rolled straight off it into a brick run. Two big rides on back-to-back days is exactly the kind of bike-heavy weekend the plan is built around at this stage, and my legs came through it better than they would have a month ago.
The EZ Gains disc wheel cover still isn't on the bike yet, so all of this weekend's speed was on the standard setup. Last year's bike split at Tri-Cities was 2:35, and once the disc cover and the rest of the aero upgrades are dialed in, taking a chunk out of that is still one of the biggest levers I'm counting on for September.
Run: zone-3 intervals, a 120g-carb long run, and a brick off the bike
Monday opened the week with the key run session — an "IRONMAN 70.3 Sustained Pace" build inside an 11.8km run: four 9-minute efforts in mid-Z3 with 3-minute Z1–2 jog recoveries between them. The point of that workout is control — holding effort steady regardless of what the pace does — and the numbers backed it up. Average heart rate for the whole run sat at 157 bpm and topped out at 169, with the work intervals holding around 163 bpm and roughly 4:55–5:05/km, then settling back on the recoveries. My running power hovered near 390W on the hard reps. It ended up carrying more training load than the plan called for (86 TSS against a planned 70), which tells me I leaned into the reps a little — and loading up on carbs during the run kept my head focused all the way through, which is becoming a theme.
Wednesday was the long run, and it doubled as a fueling experiment: 18.5km at about 5:36/km, split into roughly 50 minutes of mid-Z2 and the rest at high Z2. I took 120g of carbs — four PF30 gels in a flask — to see how my stomach would handle a load that high. Nothing blew up, which is genuinely encouraging, because race-day fueling on the half-marathon leg is one of the things I most want to have bulletproof before Tri-Cities. The last few minutes of any long run are the real endurance test, and this one held together.
The flask before the long run — testing a bigger carb load than I'd run on before.
Sunday's brick closed out the week — just over 7km off the 56km ride. I went out faster for the first 15 minutes than I probably should have, and the legs were tired, but they felt good under that fatigue. That's the whole reason the brick exists: teaching the legs to run when they're already cooked from the bike.
Swim: two sessions, and one of them finally clicked
Two swims this week, both structured pull-focused sets. Thursday's 2,250m "Love to Pull" session was a grind — it felt okay, not fast or smooth, one of those days where my body can't quite remember the movement. Some pool days are perfect, some are survival mode, and that one leaned toward survival.
Friday's 2,375m "Big on Arms" set was the opposite: smoother, and my body wasn't as tired in the water. That's the more useful data point of the two — proof the swim is trending in the right direction even if it's not linear week to week.
And a leg day
Thursday also had a short strength session — leg day, about 34 minutes. My only real complaint was that the World Cup game I'd planned to watch through it was already over by the time I got to the gym. Low-intensity maintenance work by design, just enough to keep the legs resilient through a heavy bike week.
Where this leaves me
This was a bike week, plain and simple — close to 200km across three rides, capped by a near-century Saturday that felt strong start to finish. Add a long run where I pushed fueling to 120g of carbs without issue, a couple of swims trending smoother, and a brick that proved the legs are adapting, and it's exactly the kind of block that beating last year's 15th place at Tri-Cities is going to be built on. Consistency over the summer, one bike-heavy week at a time.
Curious where this fitness would place you?
See how this week's bike-heavy training would stack up against the historical field at Ironman 70.3 Washington Tri-Cities, or browse the race page for course and qualification detail.
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