Wednesday: Run 5 miles, swim 3,300 yards
The sickies are finally getting well, and the wellies have avoided getting sick, so things are getting back to normal around here. Including my spending the usual two-plus hours at the gym.
Today was a killer run workout, but what really kills me is that by "killer" I mean short repeats at about a 9:30 mile pace nearly killed me. If you couldn't parse your way through through that last sentence, what I'm trying to say is that, even though I've been training hard for 26½ weeks and losing a bit of weight, I am stinking s-l-o-w. I mean, it's ridiculous. There obviously aren't a lot of speed-related workouts in the Ironman training plan, but there are some, and I do do them. Shouldn't a 10-minute mile feel pretty easy by now?
To make matters worse, not only have I not done any fast running in this training, I also haven't really done any long running. The plan doesn't have any five-hour run workouts (or even close), which is about what it would take to get me into the 20+ mile range. Am I doomed to a death march in this race??
P.S. Rereading all this, I think I've actually reached a milestone: I've transferred my main concern about the race from the bike leg to the run leg. This must mean I'm going to be fine on the bike leg!
In general, I like to think you are not doomed. :) But even if you had to walk at the end, it's not a death march, it's a victory march.
ReplyDeleteGlad people are feeling better there. K was sick here, and (little) C a bit also, and I now I'm running a fever too. Whee! Good times. I need to start taking vitamin D, right?
Oooh, I like that. Victory march!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, for heaven's sake, take some Vitamin D. And C, too. We all started taking it at the beginning of winter (well, I've been taking it longer), and we've stayed well through a ton of school and extended family sicknesses. Up until this event, we'd had one sick day total all winter among the four of us.
I don't think there's any reason to do a run workout longer than 3 hours - chance of injury goes up, etc. Running the marathon leg of an iron-distance race just seems totally different, anyway, than running a standalone marathon! Though I agree that there is a temptation, when executing a training plan based on time, to bump up the times to compensate for slowness!... (Like, 1hr bike might mean I should really do 1:20 if I am so much slower than the fast cyclists!)
ReplyDeleteHi Jenny, part of me knows all that, and I am resisting! (Well, except that I am doing some very long walks once a month as part of my training, but I think those are a Force for Good.) Thanks for reading.
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