WEEK 30 – July 18, 2016 – July 23, 2016
So here I am, the last week of training leading up to the big day, Ironman Lake Placid 2016! Thirty weeks of preparation to do anything certainly is a long time. I have always said that the preparation throughout the thirty weeks was much more taxing and harder than the race itself is, and I still believe it. I always compare it to baking a cake, the work goes into getting the ingredients, mixing it up, baking it, and decorating it. The eating of the cake is the easy part. May not be the best analogy, but I like cake. Enjoy the fruits of the one’s labor, I suppose is what I am getting at.
So after thirty weeks, I thought I would take a look back at each week and see how I got here. Here’s a brief summary of each week and a link to the post if you would like to review the whole thing.
2016 IMLP Training -WEEK 1 – Birth of the Gunners! Standing at the bottom of the mountain taking those first steps to get to the top.
2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 2 – Worried about missing swims, but thankful for being able to ride outside in January!
2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 3 – Trying to justify being happy about having to train indoors.
2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 4 – Dealt with a cold.
2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 5 – Life got real – the participant list came out! Realized I was old.
2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 6 – A meat and potatoes week. A mention of what to wear during cold winter rides.
2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 7 – A day by day account of weekly training.
2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 8 – A dial back recovery week. Rode with Todd for the first time.
2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 9 – Realized what a commitment to Ironman is.
2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 10 – Ended the first 10 weeks and the base phase of training with a ride with my Gunner teammate John.
2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 11 – The training load increased and the weather got better.
2016 IMLP Training – Week 12 – First freak out of training and learning to deal with the many issues that pop up.
2016 IMLP Training – Week 13 – The research of the Lake Placid course begins and I start my race planning.
2016 IMLP Training – Week 14 – Full aero disc wheel gets ridden, no swimming.
2016 IMLP Training – Week 15 – Half way done! I mention that the race will be here before I know it. So true.
2016 IMLP Training – Week 16 – An awesome week culminating with a ride with my Gunner teammates.
2016 IMLP Training – Week 17 – A taper week highlighted by a peacock sighting.
2016 IMLP Training – Week 18 – Raced a half marathon!
2016 IMLP Training – Week 19 – Uh oh! My in-ground swimming hole is broken!
2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 20 – Not a great training week, but got to watch my son run a track meet.
2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 21 – A Gunner long ride that I hosted, and new Gunner tri-suit designs finalized.
2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 22 – The first week I actually felt the challenge of training.
2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 23 – I joined the rest of the cool triathlete club and got a GPS tri watch!
2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 24 – The high mileage weekend training hits. A day by day recount of the week. Raced a sprint tri.
2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 25 – A mid-week 5K and a long ride out to Kankakee, exploring new routes to ride.
2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 26 – Pretty much the same as Week 25, just hotter. My teammates and I decided we hate this sport. (Not really)
2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 27 – The hardest week of the thirty week plan. Awesome long ride with my Gunner friend John.
2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 28 – The taper begins, but it doesn’t really seem like it! The new Gunner tri kits are in!
2016 IMLP Training – WEEK 29 – Spent some time getting life in order. Tough week emotionally.
And with this summary of Week 30, there you have it. All that’s left to do is just 140.6 miles of swimming, biking and running. I am really looking forward to Sunday’s race. I get to eat the cake!
(I will wrap up the few days traveling to the race and race itself in my typical race report fashion in a post race blog post.)
WEEK 30 TOTALS:
Swims: 2 total, 1:20 hours, 3850 yards
Bikes: 1 total, 38 minutes, 8.25 miles
Runs: 6 total, 2:23 hours, 16 miles
an amazing run 