IRONMAN CHATTANOOGA 2019 TRAINING

WEEK 24 – Monday 8/12/2019 – Sunday 8/18/2019

I was expecting to get back on track this week with very little deviance from the plan after swapping the past two weeks of training around and making a concession here and there.  But life sometimes throws you a curveball or two.

 

I’m getting really tired of having nipples.

It was a nice day, somewhat cooler than the past few and I only had an hour-long run to do, so I skipped covering my nipples.  Big mistake.  One got chaffed and started bleeding halfway through the run.  Why do men have nipples anyway?  It’s not like we use them for anything.  They aren’t even that interesting in my opinion.  But if you are a male runner that isn’t rail-thin, you are bound to one day experience the dreaded bleeding nipple.  After thirty-plus years of running, you would think that they would have calloused over by now, or somehow adapted so they don’t get chafed.  But sadly no.  So I guess I will start covering them with Bandaids for every run, so buy some stock now.

 

 

 

Ashley’s back at Valpo for one last year!

Ashley may not have been excited about returning to Valpo for one final year, but it’s only one more year!  Check-in at the apartment where she stays was on Saturday, so that meant if I wanted to help move her in I needed to somehow get my important Saturday long bike in, so I moved the Sunday two-hour and 15-minute run to Friday to free up Sunday for the bike.  Doing the long run on Friday meant I would have to try to make up Friday’s normal run another day.  Yeah, it didn’t happen.

 

 

 

Why can’t summer storms come in the middle of the week?  

I had moved my Saturday long ride to Sunday so I could have Saturday free and what happened?  It decided to storm like crazy Sunday morning.  I had planned to be out on the bike before 8 am but with the heavy rain and lightning, I waited until the radar showed that it was past.  I hit the road at 10 am and was amazed by how much water had poured on us.  I was soaked from the waist down from just riding through the puddles and the standing water on the roadway.  I explored a little on the ride to avoid the bike trail because when the leaves and junk on the trail get wet things get a little scary.  Thankfully though the ride went smooth, I had no wind going out and a tailwind coming back, and I stayed on top of my hydration and nutrition today.  I only felt a little low on energy getting back home, but as I switched to my running shoes for the hour-long run, I downed a Gatorade and the run went well.

 

Hello Saddle Sore, My Old Friend (with apologies to Simon & Garfunkel)

Hello saddle sore, my old friend

It’s not nice to see you once again

Because you are literally a big pain in the ass

And it’ll take you at least a month to pass

And the cries of my pain could be heard along the road I ride

Thanks to you, you damn saddle sore.

What’s the deal with saddle sores?  I use the butt cream.  I use Body Glide. I make sure that anything that can chafe will get some attention.  But this past couple of weeks the damn saddle sore I always get from riding showed up again.  It is actually bothering me just sitting on this cushy chair right now.  And don’t mistake it for a zit, because it is definitely not a zit.  Matter of fact if you try to squeeze that sucker, it’s going to let you know that he’s the Captain now.  Touching it hurts!!!  So I generally will just coat it with some Neosporin and a Bandaid (again, buy some stock now!) and let it be.  Some day when this Ironman race is over it will go away because I can guarantee that I won’t be letting my butt sit on that bike again until next year.

Click here to see a picture of my saddle sore:  Saddle Sore – NSFW!!!

 

WEEK 24 TRAINING TOTALS:

Swims: 2 total, 3500 total yards

Rides: 3 total, 135 total miles

Runs: 4 total, 33 total miles