Ironman training week 30 - 3 weeks to go

Good lord, 30 weeks? And I've manage to blog them? That's the real challenge, here, trying to find something to say every week.

This week was not as originally planned, but overall I'm in a good spot to start TAPER. Although with the lack of running I feel like I've already been tapering for about 2 weeks, but hey, the 5 week long taper, it's the newest thing. Everyone is going to be doing it!

Swim: 9550m (biggest swim week ever!)
Bike: 246 km
Run: 6.67 km (damn it I'm claiming that .67)

Monday: rest day

Tuesday: 3000m swim; TR Elwell

Originally I had been planning to try a run, but after sitting at work all day on Monday, my achilles and shin were both aching a bit, and I figured I'd better go another day. Frustrating! And then the TR workout was this beastly nonsense which is just a hell of a way to end off the training plan. I remember this series of workouts from before Muskoka two years ago and they are not even a little bit fun. Especially since I've so been enjoying NOT doing VO2 max work.

Wednesday: 3050m swim

Again, no run. Getting frustrated, I finally made an appointment for a massage on Thursday and to see a new physiotherapist on Friday and get some potential answers/relief for whatever was going on with my leg/back/who the hell knows.

Good swim, though! How it ended up with an extra 50m, I dunno.

Thursday: TR - Polar Bear

Did this in the morning because I was home with the kids to take them to the dentist, and I figured I wouldn't be in any shape to do anything after the massage in the late afternoon. Last time through the two hour tempo ride for this training cycle! I am not going to miss doing that ride. Two hours steady effort on the trainer takes mental toughness. I wouldn't say it got easier the more often I did it, but I did learn some mental tricks to get through these rides that will hopefully serve me well on race day.

Apropos of nothing, Ironman training is one way to feel a lot more comfortable in a bikini...

Then a little time on the beach with the monsters before I got thoroughly beaten up, I mean, massaged. If I learned anything from that massage, it's that it's not just my left back/hamstring area that's super fucked up, it's also the quads. Which would then be confirmed by the physiotherapist on Friday...

Friday: rest day

I felt a weird combination of sore but also much better on Friday after the massage clearly loosened up all kinds of issues on my left side. Then I went to physio after work, which was even more eye opening - not only do I have the nerve impingement issues from the sciatica in my back, I've also got one in the front on the left side which was causing the shin discomfort. And my hips are out of whack and there's a muscle on the left side of my back that isn't activating properly and I'm pretty much a giant ball of issues.

So, got the physio treatment, and again leaving aside the general feeling like I'd been beaten up on the left side of my body, I could tell overall I was feeling pretty much normal again. Nothing like having a therapist wrestle your hips back into alignment to solve your problems!

Saturday: 163k ride

Aw these lovely folks. Fab of course, who is so freaking ready for this Ironman thing, and I can't wait to see him out on the course! And Zindine and Mellen who just did Lake Placid and thought 163k would be a great recovery ride, because they are awesome friends and possibly slightly mad. Turns out Zin is much easier to keep up to if he just does an Ironman the week before, so he'll just have to keep alternating ironmans one weekend, long rides the next, I guess. HA.

Also, BUTTER TARTS and CRAZY EYES

The whole ride felt fantastic, which is kind of mind boggling. A few years ago riding 100k was exhausting! Now I can churn out 100 miles and finish feeling fresh and not even really tired?! I guess that's what steady, consistent training can get you. It's really something what your body can adjust to and start to find normal.

Sunday: 6.67km run; 3500m swim

Running! Feeling normal!! Physio suggested a 40 minute run to test things out, so that's why the weird distance. The first couple of km my entire body was like 'um, we thought we were done with running? why is this happening?' but once I settled in everything felt normal and good. And so far no negative fall out from the run, so I think we are back in business here. I'm going back to physio tomorrow, and will keep the running short for the next little while, because the bigger picture here is to get to the start line in (less than) 3 weeks healthy, not to try and cram in some stupid amount of running now and injure myself. The fitness is there. The run was always going to be a run/walk, so there's no need to go nuts trying to make up for lost workouts.

Capped things off with a long swim that felt amazing. Now if I could just figure out how to hold that pace in a wetsuit...

I wanted to get in the Trainerroad workout I'd missed on Friday (Whorl, which is a very easy 1:15 spin, just for some additional aerobic time), but then our hot water heater died. Since I had no desire to take a cold shower after a trainer ride, I dropped it out of the schedule. Sometimes outside forces conspire against you!

So, now it's technically the first week of tapering, but that will really end up only applying to the long bike getting shorter, and I kind of feel like I've already started what with missing a bike and the lack of running. But if I'm not in shape for this at this point, there's not a lot to be done, so I'm just going to trust my training, follow the plan, and get to the start line happy and ready to go.

Good number. Let's get ready to do this thing.