What a Day! And Reality Strikes
I’ve been confident recently. I’ve tried not to show it too much, but I’ve been feeling good about my training and my levels of strength, speed and overall fitness. Last night I was talking with Elizabeth and thinking out loud about how well my progress and preparation were going and thinking optimistically about race day. Well, today’s training sessions were an eye-opener for me. Not because it went poorly or anything bad happened, it was just a reality check about how hard this Ironman race is actually going to be. Don’t get me wrong, I know that this is some pretty serious stuff and racing 140.6 is going to kick my ass pretty good. BUT, I’ve been racing well in the half marathons and feeling good on the bike, and my swim fitness has been getting significantly better every week. So, I’m feeling good. Well, today I remembered that each discipline can be as good as I think on it’s own, but it’s a whole different story when you have to put them all together… Enough of this vagueness, on to the story.
Today, John scheduled me to train in all three sports – a swim and then a brick. I didn’t have to (or plan to) do the brick right after the swim. Instead, I decided to get up early and go to the pool for my swim, then hang out with Elizabeth and Charlie for a couple hours before getting on the bike to start the brick. I got up at the crack of dawn and actually accidentally got to the gym before it even opened at 8AM. I was the first person in the pool and took care of my 3,600 yard swim pretty handily. The main set was a 1,000 set, then 10×100 with a nice long rest between each 100. I swam great. Sharing the lane with me was this dude who I see in the pool pretty regularly. I have no idea what his name is. He has done a couple ironman races, but this year’s challenge is the 28.5 mile Manhattan Island Marathon Swim. Yes, that’s a 28.5 MILE swim! My god. The winners do it in around 7:00-7:30. I have no idea how fast this guy is hoping to do it, but he’s a pretty fast swimmer. Anyway, I was talking to him for a minute and checked out his workout for today: 16-17,000 yards. That’s around 9-10 miles in the pool. I have no idea if that takes him four hours or five (probably somewhere in between), but either way, that is crazy. His cool-down was about as long as my entire swim.
After my swim, I came home and Elizabeth and I took Charlie out for a nice long walk and some time at the dog park. His leg didn’t bother him at all. That doesn’t mean he’s cured or won’t have the operation, it just means that it’s not as bad as the other leg was when he went under the knife. We talked about postponing the operation for a week, which we’ll probably do because we’re headed out to the beach next weekend and this way he can take full advantage of the yard before he has to be calm for 4-6 weeks. Bummer.
At around 1:30, I got on the bike and headed out. Did I mention how gorgeous of a day it was? Perfect. Sunny and seventies, with a slight breeze. Awesome. I decided to go up the West Side and cross the George Washington Bridge to ride Route 9W in New Jersey. I had totally forgotten how much it sucks to actually ride there. It’s about 13 miles to get across the bridge from my apartment and, while parts of the trip up are good riding, for the most part it’s a crowded, small path that could use some fixing. Anyway, once you’re on Route 9W, it’s awesome and totally makes the hour trip up there worth it. The road is nice and smooth, there’s a nice wide shoulder, there are enough cyclists out there so you don’t get lonely and there are good hills to work on. So, I spent an hour on Route 9W (half hour out, half hour back), and came home. One issue with doing a brick from my place is that from the time I leave the West Side Highway until I’m home is about a mile and it’s stop and go because of lights. So, by the time I’m home and transitions, I’m already pretty cooled down.
I ran the bike upstairs, changed my shoes and shirt and took off for a run. The ride had felt great – the part on Route 9A went well. I stormed up the hills and flew on the flat sections. I felt comfortable on the bike, my rear end is a little sore, but that’s not too surprising given the saddle time I’ve been putting in recently. The run, on the other hand, was pretty tough. I started off pretty strong and feeling good. But about 1.5 miles in, I started hurting. I’m sure that calorie deficit and dehydration had something to do with it (I had close to enough calories, but not nearly enough fluid, and most of the water fountains on the West Side are still turned off), but it just plain hurt to run. I ran at a good strong pace (I’m estimating about 7:30’s), but it was HARD. And then I started thinking about riding more than twice that distance, and doing it without the NYC garbage miles and then running more than three times as far. And oh yeah, doing it all right after the swim. It hit home today what I’ll actually be going through (or I got a better sense at least) and it’s terrifying!
My total training time for the day: 5:27
One thing that happens when it gets nice out is that everyone comes out of the woodwork to be active. The whole city was crowded today with runners, cyclists, rollerbladers and walkers, most of whom have no idea how to act in public. It’s dangerous enough out there when I’m only dealing with cars and other thick-skinned athletes who are willing to brave the elements. Today, I seriously almost got into accidents or fights about a half-dozen times. Normally, it only happens once or twice during a ride. I’m not sure who’s worse, rollerbladers or taxis. Both assume they own the road and take up a far greater part of it then they should. And neither type pay attention to what’s going on around them. Cyclists don’t normally wear headphones because of safety issues, but it’s rare to see a rollerblader without them on – they cruise down the West Side Highway with an exaggerated arm and leg swing weaving across the path. One of these days maybe I’ll just hit one for fun… The taxi who decided that he should turn right in front of me and nearly got broad-sided. I think my yelling and obscenities scared his passengers far more than him or me. There was also the woman on a bike who decided, right in front of me, to move from the left side of the lane on the path to the right side of the lane. And she was pissed at me for getting too close to her (and touching her a bit on accident) as I swerved to pass her on the right. Finally, during my run there was the dog who jumped up at me and tried to bite me right where it counts. His teeth actually did graze the inside of my leg. I think that was the closest call of the day. All kinds of fun! I almost wrote that I’m happier when the weather’s bad and all those people are inside, but the sun today just made me so happy that saying that would be a huge lie.
Swim – April 21
Distance: 3,600 yards
Time: 1:21
Brick – April 21
Total time: 4:06
Bike – West Side to Route 9W
Distance: 50.3 miles
Time: 3:08
Average heart rate:
Transition: 5:45
Run – West Side Highway
Distance: 7 miles
Time: 52:30
Average heart rate: 159
Conditions: Sunny, 70’s, light breeze, beautiful spring day