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.