Whew! A week full of stories, different kinds of experiences, and hustling to fit it all in.
Sunday -Bike 2 hours, did 1.5 hour class + 30 minutes. = 120 minutes
Monday – Dim day from grief, in bed until 2pm. Took bike in for 30-hour check-up and to get total SPD pedals. While my bike was in the shop, I ran 45 minutes. Skipped my swim session. Didn’t really have time for it (after my time in bed) and had a swim lesson at night. It was just me for the lesson! Figure about 25 minutes of drills and swimming. = 70 minutes
Tuesday – I had a full training day downtown, and my husband out of town. So, I got up at 5am to get in one hour on the bike downstairs. My son set his phone alarm and got himself and his sister up so I could bike continuously, thanks kids! In the afternoon, I got out of training at 4:45pm. Traffic worked well (I willed it!). I changed quickly and started to run at 5:13. Was to do a 45-minute run. Had planned to run straight to school to get kids, yet that was getting tight on time, so I decided to do 40 minutes a little faster than an “easy” run. = 100 minutes
Wednesday – Swim session before my hair cut. I tried to complete the long session I missed on Monday; yet I didn’t have quite enough time.
Wu – 6 x 100 (2nd 50 on 2nd one I did kick)
Main – 30 x 500 (Was supposed to do 4 and cooldown of 2 x 150 pull – didn’t get to those)
= 70 minutes
Thursday – Bike ride with Amy. An easy 2 hours. My SPD pedals worked great! I clipped and unclipped easily! So jazzed about this. I won’t be worried about falling!! Yay!
Swim session plan said 30 minutes – I can’t get the swim sessions done in the time indicated. I had my VA (virtual assistant) go into my calendar and change all the swim session durations to 1.5 times what they were listed at. Gotta face facts.
Wu – 300m continuous
Main – 10 x 100m
Cd – 200m (50 swim, 50 kick, 50 swim, etc.)
= 120 minutes
Friday – Morning routine with the kids had a few snafus so I didn’t eat as much as usual. Then took off in a hurry and forgot to bring a gel. I was not appropriately nourished! I felt okay in first half and started slowing down in second. Mentally kept it going and decided to arrive back at my car at 70 minutes to eat the gel I was pretty sure was on the passenger seat. It was! But damage was done by then. Finished very slowly.
Wasn’t too concerned about having a bad run. I was more worried about how depleting myself would impact the next day’s bike ride on the Ironman Wisconsin course!
Just fueled and hydrated the rest of the day. = 90 minutes
Didn’t sleep well before Ironman Wisconsin ride.
On the drive to Madison, my friend Betsy and I read/viewed (well, she read and played videos as I drove) information about the course and how to handle group rides and bike crashes. Good information, yet can raise anxiety levels easily – at least mine!
Saturday – 48-mile bike ride! Did 40-mile loop of IW (Ironman Wisconsin) course. Wow! Hilly.
Let me just tell you: When you get overly confident in this tri-sport, it will smack you back down and humble you! I was feeling so confident about my pedal clipping and unclipping. Then…at the first stop sign on the ride, those in front of me realized it wasn’t clear and stopped. I didn’t get unclipped in time. I had time to shout, “I’m not unclipped” and fell over. Awesome! We are about to head out to do 48 miles of an extremely technical course and I can’t stop at the first stop sign. That rattled me (and stung) a little.
Whew, okay, back to acting real conservatively with the unclipping.
Learned so much about gear shifting. Used all 10 gears and shifted a lot. Big hills, plenty of them. I handled the hills! I was huffing and puffing at the top of some and was often pedaling slowly at the top. Yet, I never felt like my leg muscles couldn’t do it.
My goal was to learn about gear shifting and finish the bike ride. So a conservative approach was in order.
At the last aid station, my friends – with heavier bikes and about 12 miles left said, “Let’s all go at our own pace and meet up at Endurance House.” I heard there were a few dousy hills left to go. Yet with only 12 miles left, I headed out and pushed myself a bit. I felt strong. At the same time, it’s daunting to think about doing this loop twice, plus 32 other miles preceded by a 2.4 mile swim and followed by a marathon… Can make my heart rate increase just thinking about it.
If I was training for a Century Ride on this course, that would seem like a nice reasonable stretch goal!
Other riders were impressed with my friends Betsy and Harris who came to ride with me. They are experienced cyclists who’ve done many long, multi-day biking events. They helped me with shifting and pedaling approaches and with communicating and signaling. When other riders asked them if they were training for Ironman Wisconsin, they would say, “No, Amy is. We’re out for a bike ride!” Others thought that was pretty darn cool, and so did I!! = 240 minutes
TOTAL = 810 minutes = 13.5 hours
- Swim – 95 minutes = 12%
- Bike – 540 minutes = 66%
- Run – 175 minutes = 22%
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