Week 25 & 26 Ironman Training

Week 25 & 26 Ironman Training
July 2, 2014 Jess

Our new normal is finding its home in our hearts.  Lhasa, who sleeps in Harry’s bed day after day, is adjusting well to her only child status.  At first we were all very melancholy, I don’t remember a time where my vibration felt so low.  I paid attention to that feeling and following the Patriot Half I opted for extra rest whenever I had the opportunity.  I knew that recovery was key since I was going to be adding a new level to my training by the end of the week.

As soon as I saw the title of the next Live Love Teach immersion, Unhindered and Unbound, I couldn’t wait to participate. I knew it was set for the end of June but I initially reasoned myself out of it.  It was too close to Placid, I didn’t have the cash flow and I had a fear of missing scheduled workouts.  Then one day recently, it reappeared in my view and suddenly attending this training became possible for me. After spending a few precious moments letting my ego talk me out of it, the ego loves to make logistics more than they are, I got myself registered. On top of practicing yoga multiple times a day during the eight day immersion, my plan was to swim, bike, run train for one hour each morning. It sounded like endurance training to me so I embraced it and left the scheduled workouts behind.  I dove into the week with an open heart, I couldn’t wait to get to work on burning up more ego.  The week was intense and awesome.  Just how I like it.  Radical honesty and lots of laughing.  I made connections with beautiful souls, rocked the vinyasa for 2-4 hours a day and came out the other end with a clearer path to trusting the present moment.

Following the training, as in the same day, BJ and I packed up the gear and headed to Lake Placid for the weekend.  With Lhasa in tow, our first roadie without Mr. Harry, we arrived at the Northwoods Inn by 8pm. Location, price, kitchenettes and a soft spot for big dogs makes this place our go to for Placid lodging.  We immediately devoured a pasta meal with fresh bread then hit the hay.  The weather forecast was for a hot, sunny weekend and with new pavement on some of the sketchiest parts of the course, it seemed we were in for an epic experience.

After a sunrise meditation at my favorite spot in town. Beej and I started our Saturday with swimming one loop of the course in Mirror Lake.  I mooched in his draft zone for the first half then lost his bubbles as he found a faster groove than I.  The water temperature was a perfect 70 degrees and the day felt calm.  Walking back up to the hotel after the swim, I realized that when I’m swimming in Mirror Lake, there is no other place I’d rather be. I’m really starting to get excited about the swim.

Onto my bike for two loops of the bike course.  Just as I remembered, mammoth.  Consider me reacquainted with the brute that is, this Ironman bike course.  The climbs are monster and the descents are technical at times.  Conserving energy for the marathon will be priority on race day.  They say that the race doesn’t begin until mile 18 of the run and I plan to feel strong at mile 18 of the run.  So although there will be times where my fancy saddle will feel more like a lethal weapon than a cushion for my body I will be steadfast and embrace the experience however long it takes.

A 30 minute transition run completed my training on Saturday.  As I rounded the view of the lakefront beach in my final steps, I could see beej and my big girl walking down to meet me for a swim.  Finishing up on a few steep hills I fell into the water and felt full of joy to be swimming with my dog. Afterwards we hit the Lake Placid Brewery for some takeout, black bean burgers and a growler of their IPA home brew.  I whipped up a big spinach salad and we filled our bodies back up in preparation for another day of training.

I gingerly got back on my bike Sunday morning for a quick recovery ride.  I used this time to drop water bottles along the course so that I didn’t have to carry anything on the run.  Happy to get off the bike I checked in on Lhasa who was still exhausted from her swim the night before.  I envied her laziness and slipped on my sneakers.  I was planning on one loop of the course minus an out and back section.  Also hot and sunny I was so thankful to have cold water waiting for me in the shade along the way.  It was almost an hour before I felt I had my legs under me but after that I was able to kick it into gear and run strong back into town.

I returned to the hotel and felt major gratitude for a safe and successful training weekend.  I took a long shower, made a huge spinach and hummus sandwich to tide us over before stocking up at our favorite health food market then we headed back to Newport.  A quick but memorable training weekend in the books, our biggest workouts complete and less than four weeks to go.

Bring it!

Week #25 Recap

Monday
2400 yd swim
Tuesday
60 min recovery ride
Wednesday
30 min recovery run
75 min heated vinyasa
Thursday
75 min z2 bike

 

Friday
2400 yd swim
YOGA
Saturday
60 min z2/z3 ride
YOGA
Sunday
60 min z2/z3 run
YOGA

 

Week #26 Recap

Monday
2500 yd swim
YOGA
Tuesday
45 min BST ride
20 min z2 run
YOGA
Wednesday
YOGA
Thursday
20 min z2 run
YOGA

 

Friday
2700 yd swim
Saturday
45 min open water swim
6hr 25min z2/z3 ride
30 min z2 T run
Sunday
50 min recovery ride
2hr 5 min run

 

 

1 Comment

  1. Craig Wilson 10 years ago

    You are still a stud. Nice to catch up on your happs.

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