Quick catchup

I guess it makes sense to establish a baseline of where I am at this point, and to do this requires going back about six weeks.

On June 18, I did the Patriot Half Iron. I finished in about 6:30 - considering I had no real time goal, I was pretty happy about that. I think earlier in the year I was just wanting to finish under seven hours. A quick recap of each part, based on what I remember:

Swim - Finished in about 43 minutes, if I remember correctly. A little disappointing - I had been doing a mile (36 laps, up and back, in a 25 yd pool) consistently in about 30-31 minutes - so I was hoping for a swim time closer to 36-37 minutes. In retrospect, I think part of the problem may have been that I had been training using bilateral breathing, on the idea that on race day I'd just breath from the right side. The thought was that I'd be breathing more, and thus have more oxygen available to muscles and be able to perform better. I think this backfired on me, and caused some directional issues (not a lot, but enough), as well as breakdown of form, since I was not as symmetrical on both sides.
About 1/2 to 3/4 of the way through, I got a mild sprain on my upper left quad. Not sure whether it was because of water temps (71 degrees) and lack of a wetsuit or what - but fortunately it was just an annoyance and nothing debilitating.
Bike - Finished in just over 3 hours, averaging close to 18 mph (more precisely, 17.7). The first loop I think I averaged 18.1 mph, and on the second it was close to 17.4 mph. I took about 3-5 minutes halfway through to stretch and down a clif bar. But overall, I was pretty happy with the bike performance for a first go around at a half iron.
Run - My game plan was simple - stop every half mile and walk for 0.05 miles (about 30-40 seconds). If I remember correctly, when I hit 9 miles during my training, I switched from running once/week to once every other week, but increased the distance by two miles - so on one week I did 9, and then two weeks later I did 11. It was probably two weeks after that when I did a single 12 miler. Then, about two weeks before the Patriot, at the beginning of June, I ran the Worcester Half in about 1:53, a PR for me. That was my last long run before the Patriot half. My legs were definitely quite gassed - I couldn't even manage to bring home the last 1.2 miles without having to take a walk break. However on the last 1/2 mile I was able to get to an 8 minute mile for the finish line. My run time was around 2:20 or so. Considering that during last years Cranberry olympic my legs were so shot I could barely run the last 300 feet, I was just happy to have finished this run fairly strong - even if it was short lived.
So overall, I was reasonably happy. I got a time under my expected goal of 7 hours, I managed to keep any IT band issues at bay, and I was able to walk and function afterwards.

From July 22 to July 25, my friend Dave and I went up to Lake Placid to volunteer for the Ironman there. By this time I was due for a 100 mile bike ride (having done 84 miles two weeks prior), so I figured I'd do the IM bike course twice. We set out on Friday anticipating being out all day, but after Dave got a flat followed by a full on blowout of a replacement tube at mile 20, and a flat I got at mile 46 - we were out of CO2 canisters, so we called it a day. As it turned out, I was still fairly fatigued from the P90x legs and back routine I had done on Tuesday, as my legs were still stiff and sore from that workout - so even that first loop felt like I had already put on 30-40 miles.
We ended up doing a 2nd loop on Saturday, so I still got 112 miles in for the weekend, but just not all in one ride. In the end I decided that this was fine and that I was ok with the more conservative approach before doing a full on century in a single ride. It would give me a couple weeks to get acclimated to the P90x legs and back - a routine with a lot of exercises similar to what was prescribed in PT for my IT band - and thus something I wanted to work in on a regular basis into my training regiment.
On Sunday, after catching the start of the race, we headed back to the hotel and did a 90 minute run. I ended up doing around 9 miles or so, keeping the pace relatively light, as it was already a legs-heavy week. Also, it was decently hilly - so I wanted to make sure I didn't do anything to cause undue tightening of my quads (thus giving me IT band issues).

In part due to that 90 minute run, I decided it was about time to bring a 2nd day of running per week into my routine. What I had done before was fine for the half, but being able to sustain a full 26.2 miles after 112 miles of that bike course was going to need much stronger running legs than running once/week (which actually fell to every other week, as I had been alternating weeks between long bike rides and long runs). It seemed like Wednesday or Thursday would be the best days to do this second run, as it would give a few days before and after to recover before going through either the upcoming long bike or long run. That would maintain Monday as the Yoga/recovery day, Tuesday as the P90x legs workout (which, in time, would hopefully not result in such soreness), Wednesday or Thursday as a mid-week run with the other day and Friday being flex days (either rest, or an upper body P90x workout).
Oh, and I started going to the pool M, W and F mornings to work on getting my two beat kick sorted out. So some days are double training sessions. I'm still amazed I've been able to get my ass out of bed early enough to do that - because getting out of bed early is so not me.

So that is what I've been trying to maintain.

This past weekend saw a 20 mile distance-extending run on Sunday, where I started taking a 0.05 mile walk break every mile instead of every half mile, as I had before on my distance extending runs. The mid-week runs seem to have helped, as my pace per mile on that 20 miler was 9:30 min/mile, whereas my other long runs were many times well over 10 min/mile. This coming weekend should see a full 100 mile bike ride. My thinking is that I'll pause here, at 20 miles run and 100 miles bike, for most of the month of August. By not extending the distance, I'm hoping it'll give my legs a chance to get used to that distance for a while, and allow things to catch up regarding that 2nd running day/week as well as the legs strength routine. Then, around September, I can start extending the distance again for the run, and making the bike more challenging by either bringing more terrain and hills into the rides, or trying for a faster pace.

My overall plan is to run and bike as long as possible into the winter - basically until either bitter cold or snow force me off the road - and then come spring get out as early as possible. During the 2-3 months of the winter where cycling is an impossibility and running is drastically reduced due to icy sidewalks, I'll continue with the yoga (maybe go to 2x per week), and hit the P90x, as I've wanted to go through the full 90 day cycle.