Race day is just over two weeks away. I'm spending a lot of time thinking forward about the race and the trip - mostly about the details:
- What am I going to wear on race day?
- How many spare tires should I take?
- Should I wear a visor or a hat for the run?
- What will I put in my Special Needs* bags?
- What exactly will I eat on race morning?
The list goes on. I've also started to reflect back a bit. On one hand it's hard to believe that I've been at this since September, but on the other hand it's hard to remember anything before it. Training has taken up most of my free time. I worked hard in school and I've worked hard at work, but I've never focused on anything like this before, this intensely. I never really took that into account when I started - it seemed like something I'd just go and do. But the outcome is that I think I'm better prepared for this than I have been for most anything as well - lots of veteran Ironman atheletes around me are telling me that from their point of view I've nailed my training and have the work to have a great race.
I'm almost to taper - just a few more solid days of work. Last Saturday was my "capstone" workout - the longest day of the cycle and a big test leading into the race. The weather continues to be awful, esp on Saturdays and this past Saturday was the King of Crappy Saturdays. I started the day with 3k in the pool - main set was 3x800. I did the 800s comfortably in 12:45 or better, very fast for me. By the time I got on the bike it was pouring, but fortunately it was in the 50s so it was tolerable. One big final F.U. from the Seattle winter. This kind of steeled my resolve - at one point I'm riding through May Valley with 1/2" of water on the road. It's just a downpour and I start thinking "really? is this all you've got weather?" I was dreading a day out in the rain but was kind of a breakthrough as well - just made the day that much more of a challenge. I should have gotten a picture of me and the bike after the ride - just covered in mud. I need to get a picture of my garage. There's dried out dirty cycling gear hanging everywhere. After it dries, the dirt and grime just comes off in chunks. Unfortunately also trashes the bike - my front derailleur completely jammed about 4 hours into the ride...
I cranked out my 5 hour ride and felt solid all the way through - my average power ending up near 200w for the day, another solid result. The end of the day was an hour run that I probably pushed a little harder than I should have but it went well. The real result was how fast I recovered. I've been "carrying" a lot of fatigue from 6 months of training, but these long days are making a big difference. I felt good within an hour or two of the workout...good enough to go eat a bunch of Yakisoba and Sushi at a Japanese place called Rikki Rikki. Sushi has clearly become my favorite post-workout food. After Saturday I had 4 days of basically rest - wow. Scott had rest on the schedule along with 2 massages. Time to get the body moving towards healing and charging up for race day.
Which brings us to the title of this post. I've mentioned that you kind of watch your waking heart rate to see what your body is up to. The week before last I was getting concerned - I was waking up in the 50-52 range which is high for me. That continued into last week and I didn't feel that great either - looking back I think I was actually a little sick. Fortunately it never really got bad enough to be obvious, but the training load along with fighting whatever I had caused the high HRs.
Here's my waking HRs since last Friday, the 23rd: 49, 47, 49 (expected after big Saturday), 44, 42, 42, 40. Actually I saw 39 for a second on the HRM this morning, but seemed to be stable at 40 so I used that. I've never been below 40 before. I've never been fit like this before.
I'm also starting to do some other prep tasks for Arizona. I've started tanning to get a little sun exposure before I get down there. Even with sunscreen, 10+ hours in the AZ sun can give you tanlines that will last longer than tatoos. I've also started doing something called "sauna training" to try to get acclimated to the heat a bit before I go down there. This is the kind of training we can all get along with: sitting in the dry sauna and drinking as much water as you can, a couple times a week. I think it's starting to work - the office seems chilly all of a sudden.
The rest has really helped the outlook and the performance. I just did my first "real" workout since my rest - 2.5 hours on the bike, normalized power of 218w. That's crushing it for me to do that on a solo ride. The hour run afterwards was good too. I've got 3 more days of hard work then it's taper city - Scott keeps telling me that my numbers are all just guesses until I'm rested up. This was a nice taste of that.
Defintely looking forward to getting out of town for a few days and experiencing the whole race experience from the inside. It's coming up quick and I'm as ready as I'm going to be. My number one goal was to stay healthy - so far so good.
One other thing is that I'm starting to learn a lot more about how to do this right. I'm learning there is a sweet spot for me at around 16 hours a week of training - it's not so much that I'm shelled all the time. It allows me to hit my key workouts much fresher and get more out of them...
Here's how the training has gone:
| Week |
Mon |
Tue |
Wed |
Thu |
Fri |
Sat |
Sun |
Totals |
| Season Totals (10/2/06-3/25/07) |
Time |
Distance |
Units |
| Swim |
66:40 |
198,793 |
yards |
| Run |
81:15 |
570.40 |
miles |
| Bike |
169:30 |
2,822.50 |
miles |
| Weights |
16:30 |
|
|
| Core |
1:30 |
|
|
| Stretch |
4:20 |
|
|
| Total Time |
339:45 |
|
|
* At the half way point of the run and the bike, you have access to a bag that you packed with whatever you want that you thought you might want or need in the race - special foods, extra GU or salt tablets, pictures of family members, etc.