Tag: Week 19

Whew! This Week Flew By

IRONMAN CHATTANOOGA 2019 TRAINING

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WEEK 19 – Monday 7/8/2019 – Sunday 7/14/2019

 

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Bearskin Trail near Hazelhurst, Wisconsin

 

Training while on vacation can be challenging, mainly because you want to be doing vacation stuff instead of training stuff.  But fortunately for me, my family has a lake home in northern Wisconsin that allows me the opportunity to do open water swims, and run and bike on a beautiful trail.  I can’t complain about that.

The training you do during the week while training for an Ironman is pretty unremarkable, and I find that the only thing I really remember about them when Sunday comes and I write this wrap up is the Saturday long bike ride.  This week’s ride took place on the Bearskin Trail in Oneida County, Wisconsin, which is an old rail-to-trail conversion path.  I have used this trail for most of my rides when I am up north because it offers lots of beautiful scenery and it is awesome.

I really had to motivate myself to do this ride.  I was almost mad about it, but when I got to the trail, I realized how lucky I am to have this beautiful trail available to me.  The ride was to be four hours long and just like the ride I did in 2017 when training for Ironman Louisville, I got to the 2-hour turn around point I decided to go just a little longer to hit 30 miles before turning around.  I was feeling great, but I was getting low on water so I decided to ride by a couple of county buildings but found no outdoor water spigots.  I rode a little further and found the Nokomis Fire Department building and a firefighter let me in to refill my bottles.  Very thankful for that.

As I got to the three-hour mark I started to bonk.  Not sure why that happened, as I was using gels and feeling good up to that point.  But I limped it home in four hours and twenty minutes.  Not exactly what the plan called for.  I was also very sore from riding my hybrid bike on this crushed rock trail instead of my tri bike on the road.  My muscles and butt just aren’t trained and used to that bike.  I also made the mistake of trying to keep my pace on that bike equivalent to what I do at home on the roads, which caused me to push my effort pretty hard, only to manage a 14 mph average speed.  It felt like I was averaging 20 mph by the effort I was putting out.

When I got home I hobbled down to the lake and waded into it while my somewhat concerned family watched.  It took me a little bit to recover, but after a while, I was back to normal.  They say being near the water restores the soul.  It did that and a whole bunch more for me this week.

WEEK 19 TRAINING TOTALS:

Swims: 2 total, 2,035 total yards

Rides: 2 total, 72 total miles

Runs: 3 total, 20.5 total miles

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Back to the grind next week.  Getting close to being 2/3’s done.

 

Sprinting in the Beater

IRONMAN LOUISVILLE 2017 TRAINING

WEEK 19 – July 24 > July 30

I’ve always been somewhat self-conscious about my body.  As a kid my mom would take me to the “husky” section of Sears to buy my clothes.  I always swam in a t-shirt to hide my chubbiness.  Maybe it wouldn’t have been so noticeable for me if my two best buddies didn’t have bodies that would be suitable for modeling.  (They still have those bodies.)  Even in my high school and young adult years, I would always buy a shirt that was a size larger than I need.

I started running like most people do – to lose a few pounds.  I did lose a few pounds, but my body shape stayed the same.  Not sure why after almost 28 years of running that I would not be rail thin like most marathoners, but it never happened to me.  I am a slightly slimmer version of the same body that I have had since I can remember.

But when I started triathlon, things changed.  First of all, one of the reasons I stayed away from triathlon was that I didn’t think that I could wear that skin tight clothing and be comfortable with how I felt and looked.  Especially in the early days when they wore bikini style shorts.  I can remember buying my first tri suit at Endure It! in the western suburbs of Chicago.  I tried a two piece and remember thinking I looked like the Michelin Man.  After that I tried a one piece suit and thought that it wasn’t too bad.  Often times I would throw a t-shirt over it just to make me feel a little better about myself.  But after getting a few races under my belt, I looked around and realized that it wasn’t all that bad.  I saw all shapes and sizes of people squeezed into Lycra, and in reality I wasn’t the shape that my mind imagined myself to be.  Triathlon seems to be giving me more than I had bargained for.  I’m getting less conscious about my image.

This weekend I did a sprint triathlon.  I was thinking about how I looked in comparison to others at the event.  Not sure why, but I did.  I was admiring this one guy who looked like he was a former pro.  Fortunately for me he was in the 55-59 age group and I didn’t have to worry about losing an age group spot to him (He finished 3rd overall).  He had the look that I wanted but somehow can’t achieve.  As somewhat of a car buff, I envisioned myself much like a souped up beater – a car that looks rough on the outside, but is all pro-stock under the hood.  The term “sleeper” also comes to mind – a car that is so tame looking, but packs a wallop.

I took my time in the water, but once I got to the bike I let it rip.  I ended up surprising myself with a 21.8 mph average over the 11 mile course.  When I got to the run, I played my strategy right.  I allowed myself to settle in and not go crazy that first mile.  I ended up running a 20:46 5K, nearly matching my personal best for road raced 5K’s this year.  That was surprising as well.

The biggest surprise was when I saw the results on the screen at the finish line – 1st place in the M50-54 age group, and 9th place overall.  I wasn’t expecting that.  But I guess nobody expects the beater to have a supercharged big block under the hood.  Sometimes not even me.

TOTALS:

3 Swims – 3300 yards this week / 60050 yards total

3 Bikes – 33 miles this week / 9426 miles total

7 Runs – 30 miles this week / 565 miles total

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Standing tall on the top step.
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Nice race week break.  Back to work in Week 20