IRONMAN LOUISVILLE 2017 TRAINING
WEEK 24 – August 28 > September 3
I resist looking ahead to the weekend workouts because I don’t want to know what is coming. Since last weekend was a five hour Saturday bike ride and a two hour Sunday run, I assumed that this weekend would bump those workouts another 1/2 hour each. I’m not sure what possessed my wife Kari to crack open my training book and look, but I’m glad she did, because she made me aware that I only had to do another 5 hour ride. Hooray! I would have went out and did the 5.5 hour ride without even realizing the plan didn’t call for it.
But five hours on the bike is still no walk in the park. On Friday I chaperoned the mega marching band at a local football game and there was a lot of standing, making my legs very tired. I was all prepared to have to labor hard on Labor Day weekend. But the gifts kept coming. The weekend was beautiful! Cool temperatures and mild breezes made for perfect training conditions. I started the ride with a one piece tri suit with a cycling jersey over it, with arm warmers and a long sleeve tech shirt, and gloves as I headed out and I was pretty chilled – it was 47 degrees! But 45 minutes into it, I was ready to lose the shirt and placed it on the ground near a stop sign. I came back and picked it up 3 hours or so later and put it in my jersey pocket. I did shed the gloves, but kept the arm warmers on throughout the ride for protection from the sun.
Saturday’s ride went really well. I made it through 83 miles last week and didn’t enjoy it much. But I managed to get in 91 miles of great riding in this time. I followed that up with a 7.25 mile run and felt really great through that as well.
Saturday’s effort was far from over though, as Kari and I had plans to attend the Barenaked Ladies concert in New Lenox, which meant doing a lot of standing on tired legs. And since it was BNL, I figured I’d be doing some kind of bad dad dance routine, and I did. I was somewhat surprised that my legs weren’t killing me. Sure they were a little tired, but not achy or sore. A great end to a great day.
I was expecting Sunday’s long run to be on some tired legs, but surprisingly enough I felt pretty good. I got in 15 miles in 2:18. Then I did a very easy spin over to Frankfort to watch my daughter and her mega marching band do the community proud in the Frankfort Fall Fest parade. I didn’t leave myself time to grab something to eat, but I took whatever candy I could get from the parade as I sat in the shade of a little bush. I spun the bike home and had a bowl of cereal.
I was fully expecting that this weekend would be laborious. But it turned out that it wasn’t that way at all. Maybe I should have titled this week “Not Laboring on Labor Day.” It’s really a testament to the periodization of the training plan. It sure is making me ready, not only for the race itself, but for each week as I progress. Let’s see if I feel the same after next weekend.
TOTALS:
2 Swims – 4200 yards this week / 83550 yards total
4 Bikes – 147 miles this week / 9966 miles total
7 Runs – 48 miles this week / 773 miles
an amazing run 