Among many silly reasons, I started my journey to Ironman because I wanted the challenge. I wanted to see what it felt like to take something from concept to completion. I wanted to do it to see if I could do it. There have been a lot of things I’ve started and never finished…plenty of unread books, academic and career endeavors, design projects, and so forth. At this point in my life I don’t think that’s a practice I should continue. I mean, welcome to adult life, right? Take a stand, deliver on your promises to others, but most importantly, yourself. Ironman Louisville is THE BIG RACE but it really just is a celebration for a training season well done. I’ve been training since November 19, 2012. Come August 25th that will have been 9 months and 6 days since I’ve made the honest effort at training for a 140.6. It started out with HITS Marble Falls TX and then got replaced with IMLOU. And, even if that doesn’t work out, there will be HITS Palm Springs.
But, on to this week — at the completion of my training week, I was all smiles. I survived three long days in a row! A 2 hour run on Friday night, a 5 hour indoor triathlon on Saturday, and a 2.5 hour run on Sunday. I felt like I was finally ready to move up to the comfortable half Ironman finish, meaning that I could probably pull off a 70.3 at this point in my training if I really wanted to. Lake Stevens is in a few weekends but I already have my tune-up race scheduled that same day — The Seattle Seafair Olympic-distance tri. An olympic-distance tri will be more than enough for me. A 70.3 a month out from my big A-race may not be wise since it may set be back further because of recovery from such a hard effort. I should put that effort into my training instead.
Week 19 Ironman Louisville Training: 14.1 hours; Swim: 4892.8 yards; Bike: 58.85 miles; Run: 29.33 miles Rowing: 1.09 yards
Monday, June 24th: Rest day
Tuesday, June 25th: 0.5 mile swim/10 mile ride/45-minute tri team speed/agility class
Wednesday, June 26th: Rest day b/c my surgery site was very sore
Thursday, June 27th: 0.5 rowing/4 mile run/3.75 mile ride
Friday, June 28th: 0.96 mile swim/11.08 mile run
Saturday, June 29th: 1.32 mile swim/45 minute cycle/2.57 mile run
I’m testing out using a watch for the race, since I can’t have my phone on me the entire day. I’m really kind of paranoid about finishing before the 17-hour cutoff, and all of the other cutoffs in between, so I’m hoping my phone will help pace me. I want to track all of my race splits — Swim – T1, Bike, T2, and Run — and I think I can use something this simple to help me. Too bad I can’t set multiple alarms for different things. So far I’ve been able to use it in the pool to count my lap times — but, because it only counts 30 laps, I don’t hit the splits button until after every forth lap. I then tested out some new nutrition mixes today as well as a fueling plan — 100 cal HEED after the swim/getting on the bike, and alternate between HEED and Gu every 35-45 minutes. Worked out great and I was fine for my run.
Sunday, June 30: 11.69 mile run (only!) Got it out of the way in the morning so that I could enjoy the wonderful day ahead.
On a side note, I live in this small neighborhood called Eastlake. It is on the east side of Lake Union. I originally chose this side of town because of the proximity to the lake and thought that it’d be great for open water swimming. In the last year I’ve never seen anyone jump into the lake and tonight was the first night I saw a group of people dive right in. So, I think I’ve finally realized that I am two blocks away from a lake swim. Huzzah! Now all I need to do is to grab a few buddies to join me a couple of times every week.
In other news, Ironman Boulder is opening up for registration. I can’t imagine what it’s like to race at elevation. I (obviously) live at sea level and I’m pretty sure my lungs would just explode!
Amara in Training 