IRONMAN LOUISVILLE 2020 TRAINING

WEEK 13 – June 8 > June 14, 2020

IRONMAN TRAINING IN THE TIME OF PANDEMIC – PART XIII

Most of my inspiration for the topics for this post comes from the time I am in the saddle riding my long Saturday rides and trust me, I’m doing a lot of thinking on those three-hour-long or more rides.  This week is no different.  Here some thoughts and things that happened this week.

I should have kept the Ironman-O-Meter from last week turned on this week and asked it if I was I going to keep riding the same old route out west of home to Elwood because I was getting a little tired of doing that route, and sure enough I changed it up this week and rode east on the bike trail to head south toward Peotone and then west from there.  I usually ride the Elwood route on training days of less than 3 hours as it takes less than 1.5 hours to get there.  I can ride much farther on the other route.  I’m sure I will get sick of that pretty soon in the seventeen weeks that are left too.  But it was a nice change of pace that refreshed my mind.

As I was riding the Old Plank Trail that heads east I quickly became perturbed at the amount of inconsiderate users that were starting to dominate the trail.  They walk three or more wide, they ride in groups and pass with oncoming riders, and that’s just a few complaints.  It used to be dominated by the regulars like me who put fear into those who came out on the trail, but how the tables have turned.  When I first started triathlons and began riding a lot I was very glad to have the trail available to me, but soon realized that it wasn’t very safe for me to be on it.  Too many people not following the few simple trail rules so that we can all get by without impacting each other.  I soon realized that I felt safer riding on the roads than I was on the trail.  I’m fortunate to live in an area of Chicagoland where north of me has everything the city can offer, and immediately south of me is pretty much a farmer’s paradise.  I just need to find a quiet set of streets to get me to where I need to go without using the OPT.  Sad that a cyclist doesn’t want to bike on a bike trail.

I was very fortunate to be about 1/10th of a mile from home when my rear tire started going down.  I heard a pop and some hissing just as I was getting to my road and was able to coast it easy back home.  Inspection of the tire revealed a small rock to have punctured the sidewall all the way through to the tube.  I guess it’s time to switch to the new Continental 5000’s that I have been avoiding.

Thursday was an interesting day.  I work as a non-sworn employee in a police department and we did the Torch Run as a group.  Several of us had done it already virtually, as was suggested by the event organization, so for me, this was just to join the gang and be part of the team.  Or to please the chief.

It was a bike day so I decided to bike to work, change into running shoes and then run and ride back home.  We all did the required two miles, but I decided to add a third time trial mile just to see where my short distance speed stands since all I ever do is easy paced distance running.  I turned a 6:35 mile and was pleasantly surprised.  I think if I just focused on speed I could probably get under 6 minutes for a mile if I pushed hard.  But that is not my goal right now, and I shouldn’t do dumb things.

Swimming is going well and I feel like I am getting more comfortable and stronger in the water, but I am thinking of maybe doing an hour-long swim on my Monday rest day instead of doing the Tu-Thu 30-minute swims.  Monday seems like it needs something, and having to swim after a bike or run always gives me leg and foot cramps.  I will consider it.  Sixty minutes is a long time to be bored to death swimming back and forth in the pool.  Swimming sucks.

My Sunday long run ended the week with a nice conversation with a couple other runners I met along the way.  Mary and her husband Chris were both wearing Ironman visors as was I and we quickly started talking about Ironman and what races we were doing and what we thought was going to happen.  I was surprised she knew of my son and it was a nice change to have someone to run at my pace and talk with.  Super nice people.  We ran for about 2-3 miles together and then went our separate ways.

One last thought that I have been thinking about this week is my commitment to training for Ironman Louisville in October as I have been doing this past thirteen weeks and what will I do if it gets canceled.  I have said since the Covid-19 thing started that I will train like it is going to happen, and that hasn’t changed.  Ironman has not yet been told by the City of Louisville to cancel the race.  However, I drew a line in the sand this week.  If the race does get canceled before the midway point of Week 15, then I will stop following the plan for Ironman and just spend my week swimming, biking, and running as I see fit.  I will probably shift my focus to more long-distance running and restart my training for the elimination ultra-marathon that got moved from April to October.  However, if the race is still on after I pass Week 15, I will continue to train for it.  If the event then does get canceled for 2020 before race day, then I will try to do it on my own at home or up at the lake house in Minocqua sometime around Week 27 or 28 in the training plan.  I would hate to see twenty or more weeks of training be for nothing, so that is the plan.  Maybe I can talk my Gunner buddies into doing it with me.  The Gunner Ironman!  I’ve already got the t-shirt theme for it:

TOTALS FOR WEEK 13:

• Swim:  2 / 3000 yards
• Bike:  5 rides  /  90 miles
• Run:  6 runs  /  29 miles