Skip to main content

Week 3 - "Recovery"


Week 3: "Recovery" week. Workouts are either shorter, less intense, or some optional workouts aren't even an option this week. No 60-90 minute ride on Wednesday, no optional swim on Thursday, no transition run on Saturday or spin before the run on Sunday. Overall, a few hours less volume.

Tuesday's trainer ride had a lot of fast spin - which is not something I'm great at. I can churn through tough gears all day, but to really increase my cadence takes a lot of effort and attention - if I'm not watching my cadence the entire interval, I always seem to sink below 100 RPM. 
Wednesday's swim felt just as hard as a normal swim but was a lot easier than it usually is with a 90 minute morning ride. 
My run on Thursday morning was in CRAZY wind. I got blown into a cement wall. It was not ideal weather conditions, but rain or shine or storm we run! 
I took my rest day on Monday, so I was supposed to swim Friday, but I skipped the technique swim this week. I hate technique swims. I know it's snobby of me, but I just don't feel the need to work on my form, even though I know I should. During Ironman last year, in the grand scheme of my 15 hour day, the swim took ONE HOUR AND TWELVE MINUTES. 72 minutes out of over 900 minutes. While I know I need to be in great swim shape, and swimming helps continue to build fitness without causing a lot of joint or muscle pain, I am just not as focused on the swim this year. It's not my weakness and while I shouldn't let it become one, I am not going to worry about it as much. Ok, off my soap box for now.
Saturday/Sunday: Saturday's trainer ride wasn't too bad, and Sunday's run was SUPER rainy but I got in 7.6 miles in 64 minutes. 

Training feels really different this year. Last year, fear drove me. I was so afraid of this beast of a race. Could I do it? I knew this was something that I could easily fail if I didn't work hard. That drove me every single day. Got me out of bed, got me to the pool, kept me pushing through 6 hour bike rides. I'm feeling very indifferent to training this week. What is driving me? Why am I doing Ironman again? What is my goal, what do I want to gain or accomplish? What is going to push me? Yes, everyone who knows me knows I'm doing my 2nd Ironman, so it's not a lack of accountability. I'm missing that spark this week. That spark that makes training exciting and not a chore. The spark that proves I'm growing and working towards something. I know I'll find it, but I missed it this week. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My running journey

I never considered myself a runner despite being an athlete my whole life. After an ACL injury took me out of competitive sports in high school and I went through 9 months of physical therapy, I started running on treadmills to try to get back into shape. It makes me laugh now because you couldn't pay me to run on a treadmill. I was too afraid to run outside; I am by no means some incredibly graceful and natural looking runner. I didn't do cross country or track in high school... I don't look like the Nike ads - and that made me self-conscious. Little did I know the beauty of it all is that no one looks like that. Hit a trail any Saturday  or Sunday morning and it is filled with all kinds of people - old and young, skinny and heavier, graceful and clumsy; they all have something in common - they're trying! And they're all runners. I started dating Isaac when I was 20. A few months into our relationship, he made a simple statement - "running outside is h...
Post a Comment
Read more

"She doesn't even go here!"...I have a lot of feelings.

As we've been tapering, I've been overwhelmed with all kinds of feelings. Happiness, fear, anxiety... all the feelings, more than I've felt in a while. I have been so exhausted the past 6 months that I've felt a constant state of being "out of it" and haven't felt as emotionally connected, so this overwhelming rush of emotions throughout the days has been very different. I thought that when they said not to go crazy during taper that it would only apply to elite athletes that train a LOT harder than me. Already, I've found myself pushing my workouts too hard. Everything this week is supposed to be super easy or don't do it at all. I'm swimming, biking, and running too fast and hard. It's challenging to not keep pushing at the intensity I'm so used to - every workout I have to remind myself constantly to slow down - total opposite of everything up until now! While tapering has certainly been challenging mentally and emotionally, I am e...
Post a Comment
Read more

Race Report: Ironman Boulder

Morning of: Woke up at 3:40am. This race started at 6:20am due to the rolling swim start, so we needed to get there extra early. Downed 1 1/2 English muffins with pb+j and drank some grape pedialyte. Put sunscreen on my face and arms. (mistake #1 of the day - not having Isaac put sunscreen on my back!) We had to walk a half mile to the high school, drop off our special needs bags (bags halfway through the bike and run you can fill with things you might need but can't carry on you all day) and then hop on the bus to take us to the reservoir. I have not felt that nauseous for a race in yeaaaars as I did walking to the high school. I thought I was going to throw up on the way. When we got to the res we all headed over to our bikes to put on nutrition and check tire pressure. Threw on my swim skin and got ready to swim! Swim: This swim was a rolling start, which means you seed yourself based on your anticipated finish time. The options were less than an hour, 1hr-1:15, 1:16-1:...
Post a Comment
Read more