Final St. George 70.3 training - weekend recap

April 24, 2017Marni Sumbal, MS, RD

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A few months ago, I reached out to my friend Katie (Thomas) Morales to see if we could arrange a weekend of training together here in Greenville. Not only did I want her and her hubby Chris to come and visit us so that we could all hang out, but I thought it would be great to train with Katie, since she is extremely fast and strong. Although we both favor hard, hilly and challenging race courses, I race as an age grouper and she races as a professional triathlete. She is one fast and strong female!

Katie and I have been friends for many years. Just before she turned pro, we raced together in Lake Placid and then again in Kona in 2013.

Katie, Kendra and I before the awards at 2013 IM Lake Placid.

Looking ahead and thinking about the timing of training, I thought it would be so fun to be pushed by Katie and to have some company in town while enjoying our amazing cycling roads two weeks out from St. George.

With this being my final weekend of big training before IM 70.3 St. George on May 6th, Katie and her hubby were able to take time off work to come and visit us on Thursday evening and stay until Sunday. Not only did Katie celebrate her 34th birthday with us but we had 3 full days together, for some swim, bike, run fun.

Although our work at Trimarni never stops or slows down (especially with 5 of our athletes racing IM Texas this past weekend), we were able to squeeze in some training and finish off our last big training block with lots of fun, great food, smiles and a little bit of suffering. Thankfully, we had great weather on Friday and Saturday and minus the rain and cooler temps on Sunday, we were able to get in three days of quality training. Next week is all about recovery and starting the sharpening phase of our training to help us feel sharp, fresh and fit for the hills of St. George, Utah.

Here's a recap of our training::

Friday AM:
4750 yard swim

500 warm-up

Pre set:
6 x 100s (25 kick, 50 swim, 25 kick) w/ fins
6 x 100's (25 kick, 50 swim, 25 kick) no fins

MS 3x's:
16 x 25s on 25 seconds
200 swim EZ w/ paddles/buoy
1 min rest

Post set:
3 x 100's as (25 strong w/ 5 sec rest, 50 build to fast w/ 10 sec rest, 25 fast) into 50 EZ

Rest 1 minute

Friday late morning:
2:27 hr ride (43.7 miles), 2864 elevation gain
Social ride, exploring the roads and having fun on two wheels. Karel and I rode our road bikes.

Saturday morning:
4:09 hr ride (76.3 miles), 7755 elevation gain
Double bakery route starting from our house with a stop at Flat Rock bakery.

20-25 minute progressive run off the bike (each on our own)

Sunday morning:
Katie had her own workout (trainer bike + run) so Karel, Chris and I all did our run workout outside. Karel ran 75 minutes (very EZ) and Chris joined me for 90 minutes (1 mile run, 30 sec walk - all conversational with about 600 feet of climbing) and then he finished his run at 2 hours.

Here are some snapshots of our training weekend. Can't wait to take pictures in St. George in a week from Tuesday!