2015 Ironman Hawaii 3 Weeks To Go

Last week, I got in pretty much full swimming and running (10,000m and 29 mi), but only about 50 miles biking. Instead, I was doing the ITU Standard (Olympic) AG World Championships in Chicago on Saturday. meaning Friday was a total admin day for registration, bike prep, and Thursday/Sunday were travel days, so only a run (Th) and swim (Sun). Since I wanted to make sure I got in my long run and swim early in the week, and there was a rain event one day, I didn’t get in a long bike.

The race itself was a whole lot of fun, despite anticipatory trepidation. EG, there were 10-12 foot waves predicted on Lake Michigan, a 20-25 mph wind. But, luckily, those winds were straight out of the north, and we had a great windbreak in that direction sheltering the swim, as well as a jetty most of the way along the course to protect against swell. Then, a lot of the bike was underground. Downtown Chicago has a lot of double and triple decker roadways, and we were on a couple of those for 90% of the ride. One completely enclosed (Lower Wacker), and one open to the air, but below grade (a busway to McCormack Place), so I found the wind to be a non-factor. The bike, oddly for a race of this caliber, was about 2 miles short. I did it @ 0.9 IF, except for the first 2-3 miles, which were building from 0.8. The run, I was trying to protect my hamstring tendonitis, so I went the first 2 miles @ IM RPE, the next two @ maybe HIM, and the last bit @ a good solid HMP. I must have passed 4-45 guys in my AG in the final 1.5 miles, when I started going my normal Oly distance effort. No post-race increase in pain, or fatigue, so all is good.

I raced without a GPS watch, or an HR strap. I did have a tiny little Timex to give me splits and times, but it drowned (leaked water) on the swim, so I had no clue about that split, nor what was going on during the run. That was OK, as I wanted to run totally by RPE anyway. And there were no km or mile markers, so I would not have known my speed anyway.

It was an odd race, in that it took over three hours to get everyone off. We raced basically in successive waves by AG. For some reason, they stuck all the OF smack in the middle of the progression. That made for a pretty crowded course from my perspective. And there were far more women than usual for a race. Lotsa folks from: Mexico, Canada, Great Britain, Canada, Ireland, Australia, Brasil. Some from Ireland, France, but didn’t really see any Germans. The run was four loops back and forth along a closed downtown street (Columbus) @ the edge of a park, so there were a lot of spectators, and a lot of runners around at all times. I pretty much was in a happy place the whole way, just having fun, staying within my envelope at all times. I’m hoping I can carry that attitude into the Big Dance.

I’m planning on 10 days of good solid training yesterday thru next Tuesday. 2 each long run, long swim, long bike. 2 Swim speed and 1 bike speed workouts. Three opne-hour treadmill workouts without a fan for some acclimitization. 15 total sessions, five in each sport, aiming for 30 hours and 1500 TSS. Then taper on the Big Island.

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