Ironman Training – Week 19 – September 2 – September 8 2019

This was a decent week of training, but I did about 3 hrs less than originally scheduled.

The week didn’t start too well. I got up Monday morning to do a run and after about 0.25 miles, I realized my body wasn’t ready. I was still tired from my monster training session on Saturday. Even though I took Sunday off, I needed 2 days. So I ended up not doing my run nor my swim scheduled for that day.

The highlight of the week though was my swim session on Tuesday. I wanted to see if I could actually swim the Ironman distance swim, non-stop, so I tried that…and I was successful. I swam 4300 yards in 1:38:41. I am super pleased about that. That will give me a lot of buffer in my actual Ironman.

The main concerned is how I felt about 1-2 hours afterwards. My whole body and stomach felt weird. I don’t know if I was dehydrated or needed food. Eventually after eating and drinking, I started to feel better. I plan to do this IM swim distance a few more times before the actual event. The next time I will try eating a gel right before and right after and to also hydrate immediately.

After doing that long swim on Tuesday, I skipped my swim on Wednesday so I only ended up swimming that one day for the week.

For my long ride, I tried eating more salt every 5 miles, but I still ended up getting cramps, but they were delayed. Instead of getting them around the 2-2.5 hr mark, I got them at the 3 hr mark. At this point I’m not sure what to do. I may try even more salt next time.