Six Down - Fourteen Weeks to Go!

Paying penance for week five, week six of my 20 week Ironman Training Plan started with a bang (but it ended with a whimper).  By the end of Monday I'd completed over 40% of my planned training for the week.  Sunday is usually an off day however, I decided to bike with some folks from the Southern Crescent Cycling club.  We rode 63 miles.  Even though we started early, I like to sleep-in, it was a good ride.  Monday is usually a bike day however, since I had just ridden on Sunday and the threat of rain loomed, I decided to swim and run.  I swam 1.85 miles and ran 7.5 miles.  My run pace suffered from having biked on Sunday and the swim I had just finished.  I averaged only 8:28 minute/miles.

I'm pleased to report that my wave-o-meter was pegged on Monday.  I received about 8 solicited waves and 1 unsolicited wave.  If you read My First Big Dam Ride blog you'll recall that I wave thank you to drivers as they pass when I run and occasionally when I bike.  I do this as if to say thank you for not knocking me into a ditch and leaving me for dead.  It's worked so far.

I ran again on Tuesday.  It was just 6.2 miles though.  I planned to have a good ride on Wednesday, weather permitting, so I didn't want to kill myself.

My Wednesday ride went as planned.  It was a good ride.  Instead of driving to Epic Bikes to meet with the other riders I decided to ride so I'd get those extra miles.  I rode 41 miles averaging over 19 mph.  If I were keeping track of my hydration I'd have to say that this ride pegged my hydration meter.  It was hot.  I almost finished 3 full large water bottles and a bottle of Gatorade in just over 2 hours.

On Thursday Chip, Richard and I were supposed to OWS in the lake.  Chip wasn't able to make it (chickened out) in the last minute so Richard and I were on our own.  We swam about 1.9 mile.  I finished in 1 hour and 11 minutes which was close to my fastest time yet.  Put me in a race and I'm gonna try to win!  I did look back every now and then to see if Richard was still alive.  I think it's looking pretty good for Florida with the buoyancy of the saltwater and a wetsuit.  Richard finished the swim just after me.  Then we ran around the lake.  That's when I killed Thing 1, not literally of course.  Chip likes to refer to Richard and I as Thing 1 and Thing 2 from the children's book The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss. 

Some interesting reading

Thing 1 and Thing 2 are good runners

Anyway, Richard was just finishing 26 consecutive days of training without a recovery day.  His legs were fried.  We finished our 7.5 mile run/walk but it wasn't pretty with us averaging 11+ minute miles.  My wife even drove by to check on us.  She always thinks I'm either gonna drown or get hit by a car.  I don't think I'll drown but she might be right about the second scenario.  I do run alongside some busy roads.

Friday and Saturday were off days.  I'd hoped that I'd be able to get in another good ride before the end of the week but that wasn't the case.  My work schedule got in the way.  I completed 11.5 hours of training for the week.  That's 3 hours shy of my goal of 14.5 hours.  Week seven is a recovery week which has me doing 13 hours 10 minutes of training.  That doesn't seem like much of a recovery!

Weeks 7 through 11 of my 20 week plan

The important thing is that even though I sometimes feel sore after some of my workouts I haven't had any injuries.  I've also got to save some energy for the time trial on Saturday.

Since I've decided to take Sunday off too I might as well publish my July mileage totals so, here they are.  I swam 11.45 miles, rode 341.73 miles and ran 83.25 miles in 38 hours and 22 minutes of training time.

BTW:  What's up with FuelBelt's One-Size-Fits-All sizing?  I own three FuelBelt products and only one of them fit me properly.

Thanks for reading.