You know what’s not on an Ironman training plan?
A week off for the flu – that’s what. Not anywhere in the plan. I checked. But I had no choice there was no way I could do anything but rest last week.
On Thursday I checked in with my coach that I thought the weekend plan of 16-18 miles Saturday and 100 miles Sunday was not gonna happen. He agreed and when we met Saturday we modified the plan a lot.
Slow followed by slower
The run I did 8 sloooow miles Saturday morning followed by a 100 yard dip in the ocean. Then I went home and napped. Then I did 6 more miles in the evening. Those six miles were even slower than the morning miles – it was crazy. For a total of 14 miles so it’s not a total waste of a training day. And for the record yes this is taking it easy when you’re training for an Ironman.
Sunday – Bike
Coach had said it won’t be 100 miles but I had secretly made a back up plan for how I would get my 100 miles in anyway. Luckily those plans fell through because I was completely trashed after just 50 miles. Back at the parking lot he looked at me and said, “home … rest. Do another hour on the trainer later.” So I went home and again I napped. I did put another hour in later on the trainer – nothing crazy – just pedaling.
Both days these were heavy duty out like a light naps. Drool and everything. I haven’t napped like this since I started training. At one point my son came to wake me up and I really did intend to get up and I couldn’t … needed more sleep. I really do feel like I’m just starting over fresh with the training. Which is a little unnerving to be honest. I tried to do some research for information so I would have an informative post here but I found nothing helpful. Some anectdotal evidence that my HR might still be high … it could take 3 weeks to get back to normal.
So, I’m taking it easy. For example today I did not get up and go to early swimming. Instead I’ll go at noon 🙂 for an hour.
I can’t believe the race is only 7 weeks away … no I don’t feel ready are you crazy?
I did find something interesting online this week or last week which is that on RunTri.com http://www.runtri.com/2010/07/runtri-benchmarks-easiest-ironman.html
They have a chart of toughest/easiest Ironman races and Florida and France are sort of side by side. Which is a little crazy but I’ll take any encouragement I can get here.
Everyone gets sick, and while you may not love taking the time to get well, the truth is you have way too much base for this small amount of time to have reaching effects.
You’ll be back to normal in no time!