IRONMAN Mont-Tremblant Training: January to Race Day

What an incredible year! 2016 was definitely the "Year of Reviving Abby." I learned the hard way that when you stop exercising and eating well, your body SHOWS you. :-)

I actually thought that 2015 would be my year. I had an awesome career year (#1 salesperson of the year! That's a MAJOR accomplishment and I'm very proud). However, I was still 15 pounds overweight and I didn't have my body back yet.

I was ready to make a change.

I started the year as a Beachbody Coach and followed the #21DayFix workouts and nutrition plan religiously along with my challengers. That's a lot of leg days and arm days! Facebook is funny because it reminds you what you posted a year ago and I can see how much progress I've made. After about 9 months of doing those HIIT and strength workouts, I realized that I could do more. I signed up for a couple of trail runs. One was 7 miles. Then I got to thinking... if I can do 7 miles, then I can probably do 13.1. Then I thought, if I do do 13.1 miles... then what comes next? A marathon? Well, if I can do a marathon, I may as well do an IRONMAN! You see that logic? :-)

In true Abby fashion, as soon as I make a decision to do something I go full force. I signed up for IRONMAN Mont-Tremblant, signed with my triathlon coach QT2 to help develop a training program for a full-time working mom, and bought a triathlon bike (holy crap did I really just do that!?!?). 

After doing IRONMAN Arizona in 2010, I NEVER thought I'd submit myself to this level of competition again. But, things evolve and it's our nature to test ourselves. I started building base mid August and I've ramped from about 4 hours a week to my current stage which is 8 hours a week. My current routine is split between swim, bike, run, and my fav #21dayfix workouts. 

Starting in January I'll be ramping up from about 10 hours a week to my peak weeks in July of 18-20 hours a week. At the beginning of each training block we can submit a new schedule based on our availability. Here's what I requested:

Monday 

• 1 hour bike in morning
• 1 hour in afternoon of spin class, run, or lift

Tuesday 

• 1 hour swim in morning
• 1 hour in afternoon of spin class, run, or lift (I can increase this afternoon session to max 1.5 hours during peak times but prefer to keep it at one hour until I really need to ramp up)

Wednesday 

• 1 hour bike in morning
• 1 hour in afternoon of spin class, run, or lift (I can increase this afternoon session to max 1.5 hours during peak times but prefer to keep it at one hour until I really need to ramp up)

Thursday 

• 1 hour swim in morning
• 1 hour run in afternoon

Friday 

• long ride/run brick – any amount of time needed

Saturday 

• shorter ride/run brick – any amount of time needed

Sunday 

• swim – any amount of time needed (I can add some kind of running during peak times but would prefer to keep this at swim-only for the first few months)

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