Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Ironman Louisville 2019 - Taper Time 2

Sunday marked the end of the first week of my second Ironman taper. Coach Ken has done a great job getting my fitness/CTL level back up.  I'm still off from where I was at this point last time but that's to be expected with taking almost two weeks off.

Getting back into long rides sucked.  At least the first one did.  I was cranky.  I wasn't taking my nutrition very well. It started late due to storms.  It was long.  It was hot (because I planned for a cooler ride and wore a base layer under my cycling jersey).  I almost bailed on it early but pushed through.  I just didn't think I would be doing long rides on September 14!!!

The next day I did a 20 mile run.  Sure.  Let's see how this goes!  Running is probably my favorite discipline with cycling being a very close second.  I ran with the Happy Rock Sunday Runday Group (I started running with them back in early 2015).  I like the aid stations every two miles.  I got there about 30 minutes early and ran 4 miles on my own (they only set out an 8 mile out-and-back course, so needed four more to get 20).  When I got back onto course, the group had already left so it's nice to have people to chase down.  That run definitely changed my mojo from Saturday.  My last two miles were the fastest miles and probably some of the fastest long run miles I had logged.

Getting back to swimming has taken longer than I had hoped.  It was week four post-accident in which I was able to swim more than a couple hundred yards.  I normally swim in the morning but the shoulder was too sore in the AM.  So my first successful swim session was in the evening.  Knowing that the swim is the first leg of a triathlon, that's a little concerning.  So I started doing some prep work to do AM swim workouts.  I set an alarm for 3am and would take a few ibuprofen and use a heat pad on my shoulder and go back to sleep for an hour.  Then I would get up and do my PT exercises.  This seemed to work and I did two back to back days of 2,600 yard swim sessions.

The next week, I went without the warm up and my Tuesday AM swim went OK but it was pretty sore.  I was just counting every 100 yard interval until I hit 27.  I took a chance on Friday without the warm up and it was the best swim since the accident.  So hopefully I've gotten passed the soreness.  I just really don't like taking Ibuprofen continuously.

My second weekend included a big training day.  Over 107 miles of swim, bike, run.  I do really enjoy these workouts and this day gave my edge back.  Swim: felt good.  Bike: spot on.  Run: fabulous.  That evening I made my commitment and signed up for Ironman Louisville.  I had a long run the next day and it went just fine.  I'm back!

As I mentioned, I do enjoy running.  After Saturday's 55+ mile bike, I did a 45 minute run that had a sub-7 minute section in it.  I normally wouldn't have run that fast but I was trying to catch up with TKB who was out on her own run and I just happened to see her.  She's definitely gotten speedy because I didn't catch her before our routes diverged!  It felt so good running that fast again.

The last week has been fun from a planning perspective.  I got back into following the unofficial Ironman Louisville Facebook group.  Dug into the Athlete guide (which was posted 3 weeks late).  Literally planning out hour by hour what I need to do Thursday, Friday, Saturday of race week.  We've got a lot to pack into Saturday morning, so want to make sure we don't lose track of time.

It's like I've gotten back into my pre-leg injury groove and I love it.  I'm talking 2015 here!

On an additional note (because I actually planned to post this two days ago), I completed one of my longest swims of the year.  A 2.4 mile swim in a 25 yard pool.  It took 72 minutes which I was pretty surprised about.  I expected it to be at least 8+ minutes longer.  So I'm pretty thrilled.

Also... if you are keeping track (you aren't, that's ok), the bike workout 13 days before IM Lou was yesterday.  That's the workout pre-IMWI in which I wrecked.  Needless to say, I stayed indoors on the trainer (it was super windy out as well, no need to chance fate).

Looking forward...  still don't have a 10 day outlook for IM Lou but weather is looking OK.  We'll see once we get closer but I'm planning for cold, windy, and rainy.  I've already started laying out items and will start preparing my 6 race bags, even if it's just a Trello board.  The Ohio River is still around 80 degrees, so I ordered a swimskin suit.  Hoping that maybe I can hop into a lake to try it out when it arrives!


Since I don't have a lot of photos in this post, here's one of my cute dog.

This really is his chair now.  The more stuff on it the better.