Happy Mother’s Day

IRONMAN LOUISVILLE 2020 TRAINING

Unknown

WEEK 8 – May 4 > May 10, 2020

IRONMAN TRAINING IN THE TIME OF PANDEMIC – PART VIII

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there!  I certainly miss my late mother and think of her often.  If you are fortunate to have your mother and father around, cherish the time you have together.

IMG_0015

My mom never knew me as a triathlete.  She would tell me to be careful when I was just a runner, worried about the marathons in particular.  I wonder what she would think about the Ironmans I have trained and raced.  I’m guessing she wouldn’t have been too happy about it.  That’s what mothers do, they mother.

Week 8 was a drawback week as far as training goes.  The training plan sneaks these in occasionally and it is always a welcome surprise.  It always seems to come just when you need it.  So this week ended with a reduced ride and run, and I reduced the run even more by eliminating it because it’s Mother’s Day and it’s a rainy Mother’s Day.  Maybe I will do it tomorrow on my normal rest day in Week 9.  It’s an easy hour run that I can do without much effort.

While training for my ultramarathon this past winter I had developed some nagging little injuries, but when the pandemic hit and the event got postponed, I was happy to slide into the Ironman training which heavily reduced my running workload.  I realized in Week 5 or 6 that I no longer had those injuries and was feeling pretty good.  But I’m starting to feel the little behind the knee thing starting to come back.  Maybe taking off from running on Mother’s Day is a good thing to give it an extra day of rest.  I’m guessing Mom would approve.

TOTALS FOR WEEK 8:

  • Swim:  0 / 0 yards
  • Bike:  3 rides  /  66 miles
  • Run:  3 runs  /  14 miles
Gunners-2-1
My wife is an awesome mother!  Happy Mother’s Day Kari!

 

Smile!

IRONMAN LOUISVILLE 2020 TRAINING

Unknown

WEEK 7 – APRIL 27 > MAY 3, 2020

IRONMAN TRAINING IN THE TIME OF PANDEMIC – PART VII

My son had a female teammate on his college cross country team that had two great attributes that everyone took notice of.  First, she was smoking fast.  She outright won many of the meets during the season.  When the team ran in the NCAA DIII Cross Country Nationals, she was the runner-up.  So yeah, the competition knew who she was.  And the second characteristic – she smiled when she did it.  I’m not just saying that if she heard you cheer for her that she would flash a smile.  No, she smiled through the entire race like she actually enjoyed running and putting the beat down on everyone else.

This week I thought about that out on the trail while putting in my training runs.  Although lately there have been some times when I wanted to flip people off, this week seemed to be more enjoyable.  Lots of people were being friendly and I took notice.  So I started to smile when I saw people.  Not sure if they noticed me having fun doing what I love doing, but I started to see the benefit of smiling.  My pace quickened a little.  I felt myself sliding comfortably into a pace that normally is reserved for hard efforts.

So smiling may be in my future.  Feeling good about running in this crazy world right now is just what I need.

Training went well this week.  After riding a stationary bike and my gravel bike for my training rides the previous six weeks of training, I finally committed to riding my tri bike for my Saturday long ride.  I don’t mind getting my gravel bike dirty and riding it is fun, but I was pushing hard and only finishing with a 15 mph average.  So I was eager to ride the tri bike to see if there was a difference.  Yes, there is a difference.  I did 45 miles and averaged 17.5 mph.  That’s something to smile about.

I’m not alone when I say I haven’t done any swim training yet.  Most pools are closed due to the pandemic, and the lakes are just now starting to hit 60 degrees allowing some swimmers that are braver than I a chance to swim.  But that’s way too cold for me.  I will open my pool soon though.  I usually open it in May when the temps start averaging around 60 degrees or more.  I looked at the forecast for next week and see that we have another cooler week coming, so I think I will wait one more week before opening the pool.  I’m okay with waiting.  Swimming sucks.

TOTALS FOR WEEK 7:

  • Swim:  0 / 0 yards
  • Bike:  3 rides  /  72 miles
  • Run:  4 runs  /  25 miles
Gunners-2-1
Note to self:  Start taping up the nips!  YEEOUCH!