SwimTraining

I woke up Monday morning with a sore throat and runny nose…I was sick two weeks before my Ironman. Any other time I would train normally, but this was not like any other time.

I decided to skip the bike workout planned for the Monday morning, but I ended up doing it in the afternoon. I had a swim planned for the afternoon and I skipped that. I then had a decision to make. I can try and train as planned, or as close as possible, or to try and get as much rest as possible. Since this was a taper week anyway, I decided to try rest.

For the next 4 days I didn’t do any workouts. It was very disconcerting seeing my “fitness” number on TrainingPeaks drop each day. I know I can’t get any fitter during the taper, but I was distressed about losing fitness. I got worse the next couple days, but by Saturday I was starting to tell that I was getting better. I wasn’t 100%, but I felt I was OK to train.

I had a 2-hr bike and 30-min run BRICK session planned for Saturday. I ended up just doing the 2-hr bike ride. It went well except for being a bit chilly. I had a 1-hr run planned for Sunday and I did that also.

Due to missing 4 days of training, I only ended up doing just under 4 hours of training for the week. I’m still not 100%, but hopefully with the lighter load planned anyway for this last week and the week to fully recover I can be back to 10% by Sunday

With just one week left to my Ironman, I am now in the planning and packing stage ensuring I make as many lists and checklists as possible to ensure I pack and have everything I need before I fly to Tempe and for my race.

This week involved an unplanned trip to FL for a few days which disrupted my swimming . I only ended up swimming one day this week.

I did my long 2-hr run, but my long bike ride of 4 hrs was reduced to 2 hours as I had a Scuba class the entire weekend. I ended the week with 9 hours of training. While not ideal, I’m OK with that.

The previous week was one of my best training weeks, but this last week of training has got to be among my most disappointing.

First, the best workout has got to be my long run on Saturday. It went great. I ran the first 12 miles without taking any walking breaks. I ran/walked the last mile to end the run at 13.1 miles. My average pace for the entire run was11:52 min/mile. I will take that any day!

For the remainder of the week, there were two factors at play:

1) I was traveling for work and that makes it challenging to do all my workouts. It’s not that I didn’t have the time. It is just always a little bit harder
2) My motivation these days has been at an all time low

For my swims, I started off as normal, but on my first day swimming in the hotel pool, I got to about 400m when a kid came into the pool. I know he would have seen me swimming laps and there was plenty of space in other parts of the pool. but he seemed to insist on playing right in my path. I almost swam into him a couple times. I ended up cutting that workout short. On my next swim day, I just got tired or bored of swimming and ended the workout after swimming juts over 1000m. My motivation just isn’t there!

All my runs were done as planned, but I had to run/walk while running in FL. The heat and humidity was tough.

My long Sunday ride was disappointing. Due to the weather and a family commitment, I had to start my long ride around noon. While I planned to do a 5 1/2 hr ride, I decided to abandon it after just over 3 hrs. I could have gone more, but just the thought of sitting on the bike for another 2 1/2 hrs was not appealing.

I don’t know if this is normal, but I am so ready to stop training!

Now, to make matters worse, I think I may be getting sick. For now, it’s just a congested feeling in my chest but it’s something to keep an eye on.