Here's a recap of this week's training:
Swim: 19600 yards (4:45 hours)
Bike: 12:30 hours
Run: 3:11 hours
Strength: 1 hour
Total: 21 hours
I have been doing all of my running on the treadmill and although I am confident that I can run outside, I am gaining a lot of confidence of being in my controlled environment while running indoors. There's no camber of the road, cars, distractions, up and down hills and heat to induce excessive fatigue so running indoors makes for a better training stimulus for me at this time. Rather than trying to bump up my running volume, I am incorporating more intensity through intervals with my running as this provides a safer stimulus for my body.
After a few weeks of just reintroducing my nervous, muscular and cardio system to running with short but frequent runs (10-15 minutes), I felt ready to increase the duration and intensity of my runs. I am not running with expectations or a goal pace or intensity in mind. Right now I am running grateful and thankful. Because I am running indoors, my watch doesn't record my pace accurately so it also allows me to run completely by feel without worrying about chasing a pace or feeling like I need to prove something with each run. I know I will be going into Kona undertrained on the run but there is still a lot within my control like being smart with my swim/bike training, focusing on good nutrition and knowing how to manage the heat.
Because I was able to keep up with swim/bike/walk/strength and included a lot of PT and manual work from professionals over the past 12 weeks, the transition back to running felt very natural - once I got over the fear of "will I get injured again, is this a normal feeling, etc." Now I am running with joy and hopefully this will keep up so that I can start the IM Kona marathon feeling healthy and strong. I am still dealing with some non-concerning niggles so it's a daily process of listening to my body and focusing on making good decisions with my training - especially with running.
My swimming has felt incredible but I am not swimming "fast" by my standards. It's a weird feeling to feel so good in the pool but to not see times that reflect how I feel. Carrying around fatigue can be mentally tough as the mind can take you in a million different directions with your thoughts.
My long ride on Friday went great and I felt amazing throughout all 5.5 hours. I finished off the workout with a 30 minute brick run on the treadmill. Karel and I rode together but Karel was feeling empty around 2.5 hours during the ride so he had to cut his 5.5 hour ride short at 4:40. He barely made it home as he was totally spent from his previous training. This is one of those uncontrollable situations where you never know how the body will feel/perform and making smart decisions without an ego, fear or guilt is important. Karel took Sat very EZ with just a 2000 yard swim and on Sunday, he also had an EZ day of a spin and swim. These micro-adjustments of training are part of being an endurance athlete. It doesn't mean one is failing but just the normal process of trying to move the needle despite carrying around a lot of endurance fatigue.
I also had to cut a few workouts short (and modified the workout to fit in what I could) due to my work load. Instead of going into workouts all or nothing, I go in with the mindset of something is better than nothing.
We have two more weeks of hard training before we begin to taper/sharpen up and I'm crossing my fingers all goes well for us over the next few weeks. Arriving to the IM Kona start line healthy is our number one goal!