This was my second to last week before my race. As expected, the workload was greatly reduced. There were a couple notable highlights though.
I was in Florida for the week and our company took part in the Mercedes Benz 5K Corporate Run. I used this to replace a planned tempo run. It was also great practice for running is warmer and more humid conditions. I managed to run the first mile in 9:40 which is a new fastest mile for me. I ended up running the 5K in 32:44.
The second highlight was my bike ride on Saturday. At the start of the ride I felt great. Even though it was supposed to be a Z2 ride, I was able to comfortably generate more power and not feel as though I was working really hard. So I decided to keep that up for at least 20 mins to see if I could get a new FTP. I ended up going pretty and for 30 mins and then I backed off and did the reminder of the ride at Z2. After the ride, both Garmin and Training Peaks reports a new FTP of 187. This is up from my last FTP of 167.
I am sure I could have gone even harder for the 20 mins so my real FTP is probably higher. Perhaps I will consider doing a proper FTP test after my race.
My run on Sunday was a bit disappointing. I was expecting to feel much fresher and I also felt a bit lethargic. I have a feeling that I was paying the price for my FTP-level 30-min ride segment on Saturday.
I am not into the last week of my training. I barely have any workouts. I have to careful what I eat as I’m not burning as much calories as I would in a typical week
This was my last biggish week. It was the first week of the taper, but I still did 10 hours of training. This coming week is where I will notice the biggest drop down to under 7 hrs.
This week was mostly uneventful, but there were two nice running related achievements. For my BRICK workout, I had to run 2 miles and I felt really good coming off the bike and a tempo ride. I didn’t have any jelly legs and I managed to run them at an 11 min/mile pace.
For my long run, I also felt good and for that, I also ran the 9 miles at an average of 11 min/mile. I know I will not be able to replicate this pace in my actual race, but it’s good to see those running improvements.
Now that my training is in the bag so to speak, my focus has now shifted to race day. I spent the last couple days thinking and going over the logistics on race day and make various checklists of things to pack and to have in T1 and T2. It’s not finalized, but it’s getting there. I periodically remember something I need to add to my lists.
This was the last big training week before my race. Now it is time to taper with my race just 3 weeks ago.
The highlight of the week has got to be the 70-mile ride I did. When I saw that on he schedule, I was a bit worried. Up until then, my longest ride was 50 miles and I think that was before I actually started my Ironman 70.3 training.
For this ride, I tried using Gatorlytes which was recommended to me by my coach. I took 3 bottles of Gatorade Endurance and in two of those bottles I added a packet to each. I drank those first. When I first tasted it before heading out, it tasted really salty. During the ride, I could taste the saltiness too, but it wasn’t too bad. In the end, I think it worked great. I didn’t experience any sort of cramping or near cramping. In the past, at around 2 1/2 hrs, I would start to feel as though my quads would cramp. So I think the Gatorlytes was a success and I’ll be sure to use them on my race. I still need to try it on a run. The other recommendation from my coach was HotShot. I ordered a trial pack. They will arrive in time for me to try on my long workouts this coming weekend.
The ride itself went great. I am happy with the pace and how I felt. I covered the first 56 miles in 3:10:05. That is a time with which I would be happy if I can reproduce in the actual event.
I didn’t manage to do my long run as family events and obligations got in the way over the weekend. What I did do was try a short run on Sunday in the mid-afternoon with the sun and temperature at the highest. That was eye-opening. I was huffing and puffing as though I had just started running, my heart was racing and over the course of the short 2 miles I did, I managed to drink as much liquid as I would when I run 10 miles on a cool day. This was not a good omen as I suspect I may have to deal with similar conditions n race day.
This coming week calls for about 10 hrs of training
This must have been my worse week of training, but I’m hoping it was so because I was sick and that it wasn’t for some other reason.
The week didn’t start off too bad. I was tired on Monday, but I was able to do the scheduled bike and swim that day. Tuesday morning called for a 6-mile tempo run, but from the very beginning, I could tell something was not right. As I started running my body felt as though I was in mile 12 of my 12-mile long run. I had to stop running at about 0.75 miles and take a breather. I started back running and not long after I had to stop again. At that point I had a debate with myself as to how to proceed. I could have tried to run the 6 miles easy, but I knew that if I couldn’t even get 1 mile done, that 6 miles would just be a lot of walking. I ended up abandoning the run. I had a runny nose, slight cough and general flu-like symptoms.
My coach suggested I see a doctor to first determine if I had the flu as that would dictate how I proceed. I was able to get an appointment that evening and got tested for the flu. The good news is that I did NOT have the flu and so it was just a cold or some virus. I skipped the swim for that Tuesday evening.
For the next couple days I was able to get through the planned workouts. While still sick, it didn’t impact my workouts.
The next test was my long 12-mile run on Saturday. It started off normal, but after 9 miles things just fell apart. I had to start walking and I ended up running/walking the last 3 miles.
The worse part was after the run though. About 30 mins after getting home, I went to take a shower, While standing in the shower, I started to feel really dizzy and nauseous. I stooped down and felt better, but all of a sudden I opened my eyes and found myself lying on the shower floor. I don’t know if I laid down myself or fell, but I don’t have any bumps or anything that I would expect if I fell.
I got out the shower and went to bed to rest. I couldn’t get warm and any movement would result in some muscle cramping, even muscles I don’t ever get cramps in.
I drank as much as I could and ate some salty Ritz crackers. A few hours later I started to feel ok again, but still weak.
In retrospect, I suspect I got severely dehydrated. Before my run, I joked to my wife that I got up 5 times during the night to pee. I thought I may have drank a lot the night before but I wonder if it was my body getting dehydrated as I was still sick.
During my run, I only ever take one 17oz handheld bottle of water and so that probably also contributed to the dehydration.
To make matters worse, I found out the day before that my race will not have changing rooms and so I decided to do my long run in tri shorts to see what it was like…..I always run in running shorts. The tri shorts gave me a blister or bruise in the seat which I guess is from the chamois or the edge of the chamois.
By the next morning I felt ok and I was able to do the long ride and brick run on Sunday afternoon.
I managed to end the week with just over 11 hrs of training, but having this bad week was a knock on my confidence to do the Ironman 70.3. Luckily I think the worse of my sickness is behind me and my health is returning. I don’t think I’m at 100% percent, but I’l close. I guess it’s good that I got sick now instead of in the days leading up to the actual event
I have one more big training week with 11-12 hrs planned and then it’s on top the taper.
