Originally written in German. Translated to English by AI — please excuse any awkward phrasing.
The last big training week before the Ironman started as always with a swim session on Monday morning — unfortunately not a great one, so I called it after 25 minutes. I had the body position of a brick, zero power, zero technique; carrying on would have done more harm than good.
Tuesday brought an easy GA1 bike ride of 75 minutes, including 6×90 seconds at threshold. All in all an easy session and exactly what the legs needed to open back up. The lingering fatigue from Sunday was finally gone.
Wednesday had a 3.5h bike session with 2h at race pace and a 1.5h brick run, the last 30 minutes of it fast. Together with two training buddies we headed into the Kraichgau hills first — we were moving at a solid clip. Unfortunately I didn’t take in enough food, and I felt it clearly on the run. The warm and humid weather didn’t help either — I got home pretty wrecked and salt-crusted. Despite everything, I’m happy with the session.
Thursday was the second swim of the week, and not much clicked again. At least I made it through to the end this time, even if the split times were noticeably below normal.
Friday was the last long run — 2h, which I got through without much trouble and at my usual pace.
Saturday called for a 5km swim session, with 20×200m as the main set. As poor as the previous two swims had been, this one was equally good.
Today, Sunday, was the longest session of the entire build in terms of time: 5.5h on the bike followed by a 20-minute brick run. The ride wasn’t bad, but not really easy either — it finished right on target: 5:31h riding time, 180km distance.
The next two weeks are taper. Volume goes down, intensity stays the same.