Week Seven: Ironman Training Recovery Week October 3rd – 9th , 2011

What I hope to document here is my 13 Week Journey to my first Ironman Race. I’m not sure exactly how I’m going to do this. I may do it in a quick journal format with my random thoughts…which may be more for me than anyone else and not to exciting to read, but if your ever considering doing an Ironman or even just a triathlon…then you can read about what goes through my mind in the training process. Highs,  lows,  emotions, fears, rants, etc., etc. Enjoy!  PS: forgive any spelling mistakes…chalk  it up to fatigue from lots of training J

Monday-  Recovery WEEK!!  YEAH!! I’m so happy for this week. I’m coming off a good training week. Had a great week for nutrition also. SO today was scheduled for a test workout in the pool where I did 3 X 300 with a 400 warmup. I went 5:42; 5:45; 5:37, with the last 200yds with a Pull. This puts my T-1 pace at 1:54 per 100 yds.  Got in 1700yds. Was happy to go home and relax today.

Tuesday-  Easy 45 min Run today. Got home from work and headed over to the clubhouse and do 45 on the treadmill.  I ended up keeping it all in Zone 2, but ended up flying on the treadmill and got in four miles. 

Wednesday-   Swim again today, just for 45 minutes, got in good drills and focused on forms. I got in 1600 yds. Felt like I wanted to do more, but in the end, my shoulder just said no.  I was hurting, almost as much as when I needed to get cortisone shot so I had a lot of trouble sleeping, and ended up taking some pain meds.  GRRRR, I  didn’t like that.

Thursday-   REST DAY!!!!  I did nothing! I relaxed on the couch and watch 3 hours of TV. Yep…I got my Direct TV back, not by choice mind you, but regardless, I watch several shows, along with making some good food for my brick workout. I was still pretty tired, this week at work has been a bit rough, so I felt more fatigued from this.

Friday-  FREEZING!! That was how my day started. I had planned to jump out of bed and get on the road for my 3 hour ride by 6 am. I knew it was going to be a bit cold, but I wanted to get my ride and run in before my well deserved massage. So I got up at 5 to let out the dogs, and BURRR it was 37 degrees!! No way in Hell was I going to jump on my bike in shorts and fly down the road at 16 mph for 3 hours.   So I did want any normal sane person would do….I climbed back under my warm covers, and debated what I should do. I kept trying to tell myself that when race day comes, It’s going to be this cold, I’m going to be cold coming out of the water and jumping on the bike wet. Still…it took me a bit to get out on the road. So, finally I got out around 8:30 am. Temp 40 degrees. I loaded up on warm clothes, then I backed off and only wore what I would have for race day. It took a good 10 miles before my quads started  to warm up and let me get into a normal rhythm.    I was also noticing that my right IT band was a bit sore, and not liking the ride, so I had to modify making this a brick workout for race pace, and backed off. I got in 43 miles at a 15.9 mph pace. That was nice, I liked it at 2:45 hr/min. I got home a bit earlier then planned, but already knew I wasn’t going to get in the entire time. So instead of a 5 hour Brick, I made it a 4 hour brick. I ran 1:15 hr/min and got in 7 miles with a good 11:17 mile/hr pace. I did this with a 10 /2 Run/Walk pace. I was pretty happy with that as well. But at about mile 5, my IT band really began to hurt, so I had to back off and just go easy on the run.  So total time was 4 hours. I got in a total of 50 miles. I then took a nice long hot shower and headed off to a 1:30 hour massage.   When I got in, the first thing she said was “wow, your middle back is extremely tight!” She spent a long time working out my back, it was pretty sore.  And when she hit my IT band, I just about jumped off the table. But I felt pretty good afterwards, still a bit sore in my lower back and my IT band, so I iced that when I got home.  I stopped a few places and picked up a few items for training, but then headed home and relaxed.

Saturday- KONA IRONMAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS   WOW!! AMAZING RACE today!! I watched the most awesome race today with Chrissie Wellington and Craig Alexander!   Kona is the Super Bowl of Triathlon! It’s the best of the best! Craig “Crowie” Alexander had such an amazing race where he was ahead by a mile, was a mile from the end, and on track to break the course record. He usually runs a sub 6 min pace. He went from running, to stopping dead in his tracks to stretch out his hamstrings and calves, then he ran, and stopped again, then again.  Unbelievable, he has the most amazing form I’ve ever seen for a runner. And he then just started running, grit his teeth and went. He then was slowing down a bit toward the end, but then started sprinting, and jumped across the finish line!  A photo that is now my wallpaper for inspiration and broke the record by 12 seconds!!!  AMAZING!!!  
Women’s:  Chrissie was out late in the swim, late in the bike, and was 20 minutes behind starting the run. And then she just went to town!! She blew past all the competition and was in first by the energy lab. She only had Rinny following her 4 min behind, then 3 min behind, then 2 minutes behind.   But she prevailed, and crossed the line, two minutes ahead of Rinny. And she was spent, I’ve never seen her not be excited and happy. She was exhausted, spent, tired, in pain. She was a true inspiration of pushing though pain.  Both of these will be good motivation for when I have weak moments and use that to push though the pain.

Sunday-  Rest day again!   Today I headed to Phoenix with Nicole. I had a mission to look for a race suit for Ironman and new shoes. So I went in search of these items. I found a pair of shorts at Pearl Izumi, and I found two tops that I might use, I still really feel like I need to find a tri top, but I’m still unsure of what I’m going to do. I need to do some more research.  Here is my current choice.

My current Saucony’s are toast for running, I was well over my 500 mile limit. The plan was to get another pair on sale, and instead afte trying on some different brands,  I got a new pair of Brooks Trance 10.

I’ve never had Brooks before but they always get  good reviews. When I put them on, it felt like I was walking on clouds. I’m looking forward to trying them out on my 1:15 hr run tomorrow.  

One other thing I got was some more Nutrition and got some IRONMAN PREFORM drink mix that will be on the course, so I want to do some training with it and see if it will work for me. Looks good, reviews were good, will find out tomorrow when I use it for my run.