IRONMAN CHATTANOOGA 2019 TRAINING

WEEK 25 – Monday 8/19/2019 – Sunday 8/25/2019

Granted, I’m a pretty moody SOB to begin with, but this week I was in a funk.  After training for four Ironman events, I should know by now that come about this time during training that I can get moody.  Week 25 in my thirty-week training plan is usually when I am sick of the training and just want to get it over with.  I’m not alone in that, plenty of triathletes get that way judging from the posts I read on Facebook this week.

It started last week really when I had sort of a rough Saturday long ride and run workout.  It wasn’t bad, but I felt like it wore me out more than it should have and that I should have my hydration and nutrition better dialed in by now.

Then on Wednesday, I realized it was the 40th anniversary of my father’s passing.  I spent some time reflecting on that for some reason.  Truthfully, I don’t really remember mourning his passing when I was 15 years old and usually, the day passes by without me even noticing.  But I did remember this week and got reflective about it.

The following day I had a work event in the evening that I wasn’t really excited about doing.  The event was just not my thing, but I went and realized that I was silly to feel the way I did.  My coworkers appreciated my effort even though I was in a mood, and I realized the people there were fighting things in life that I had no idea about.  I’ve written about attitude before and reminded myself about being more understanding and appreciative of others and their personal battles.

But on Friday I had a good day.  The weather got cool – temps in the ’70s for late August made for a great 1.5-hour run.  Saturday was also beautiful.  My 5.5-hour bike ride was awesome.  I dialed back the effort a little and found that I didn’t wear myself out as much as I usually do.  I think if I plan to ride about 17mph in the race it will be a good tempo to leave me feeling good for the marathon.  I never felt dehydrated or without energy, and the hour-long run afterward went great.  Sunday was another great weather day and the 16.5 miles of my 2.5-hour run seemed to float by.

 

 

 

The weather certainly made a huge difference in my attitude.  I am really hoping this trend continues to race day.  A great day will make for a much better mood for me.  Five more weeks of training and I am now kind of looking forward to it.

 

WEEK 25 TRAINING TOTALS:

Swims: 1 total, 2800 total yards

Rides: 3 total, 140 total miles

Runs: 5 total, 43 total miles