I really need to find a good resource to explain why recovery from an Ironman is so dramatic and takes as long as it does. I'm still struggling to wrap my head around how it can be that different from long training days where you're doing 2/3 of the volume (with much less running, of course).
Here's what I'm talking about.
It's been over three weeks from the event. Since then:
- The first 7 days after the race were pretty much completely off from training. Towards the end of this week a wave of delayed fatigue tends to hit you.
- The next 7 days were light, with a little bit of running towards the end of the week.
- The third 7 days was a 12-hour training week with just a little "real" work sprinkled in, it was good to get moving again.
- My Heart Rate has been through the roof every time I've trained - 10-15 beats higher than I'd expect for a given pace/exertion. My HR is typically very predictable. I can't figure this one out, though a buddy who did the race is also experiencing this.
- My running is 45-60 seconds per mile slower than normal, even more if I was to run at my normal HR.
- My swimming has gone completely to crap. I'm a mess in the pool; any worse and the old ladies with hair nets and kick boards will be out pacing me.
So there you have it. The only bright spot is that I'm coming back into form on the bike pretty well.
In the pool, I just can't seem to find the technique that I was swimming with before the race. I'm about 5s slower per 100y than I was easily swimming before the race (that's a lot). I think all that swimming with a wetsuit makes you a lazy swimmer. I've got 15K in the pool this week, so I'm hoping that will whip me back around and I'll rediscover how I was swimming at camp. But its frustrating as all hell.
The run progression is fairly similar to what other post-Ironman periods has been. It takes about a month for me to run "normally" again, which in my case is any longer run at a low HR (< AeT) at pretty close to 8:00 miles. Before the race I was comfortably doing 2+ hour runs at that pace/effort. I'm about 20s/mile slow right now.
I'll know that I'll get there over the next few weeks, so I'm not whining about it. It just takes time. But it's just amazing what an impact the race seems to make on your body. It's easy to think that this stuff is mental but there seems to be some pretty hard data to it. And most of the soreness from the race, for me at least, works itself out within 72 hours. Three weeks seems like such a long time.
The lesson here is to be careful with your recovery and let it happen. I don't think you can force it, and you're very injury prone in the process.