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IM Kona: 5 week countdown


This was an exciting weekend as we watched the Facebook live coverage of the Ironman World Championship in Nice, France. We had four athletes racing (along with a few of my nutrition athletes) and it was great to track them throughout the event. The professional races (all women raced on Sat and men on Sunday) were super exciting to watch. The bike course looked exceptionally challenging but then again, it also reminded us of our riding in Greenville. Except in Greenville, we have much worse road conditions. But we lucky to have narrow, quiet roads, long climbs, twisty descends, punchy hills and everything between  - except for flat roads. Sadly, we have none of those where we live.

As for my training, I was able to get back into a routine this week - although my mind was not always present. As the week went on, my head space/mental state got a bit better. Karel and I often swim together and we enjoy riding outside together. When it comes to running (back when I was running more regularly), we would often start runs together and then finish around the same time. This week was a little different as we had our long rides on different days. I had ~5 hours of solo riding which meant a lot of hours with my own thoughts. Thankfully, my mind was in a good place and I was able to put together a good ride. We finished Friday evening with pizza from Sidewall - in honor of Grandpa Joe who would have turned 96 on that day. He wanted a pizza party for his birthday so we made sure to yum with him in our thoughts.

As for my training last week.....
Swim: 24,000 (5:55 hours)
Bike: 10:10 hours (long ride 97 miles/5:10)
Run (a combo of treadmill running and water jogging): 2:33
Strength: 40 minutes
Total weekly training hours: 19 hours

I'm happy to report I'm progressing slowly with my running - all on the treadmill but I'm feeling a bit better with each run. Yes, I want things to progress more quickly but I must be patient with my body. I'm undecided if I will race Kona (or just do the swim/bike) depending on how the next few weeks go. While I am bummed about the situation I am in, I just love being in Kona for the World Championship and we have 3 athletes racing (plus Karel) so I will be in great company when it comes to being surrounded by positive energy.

Karel has been putting in some solid training. Although his back still bothers him on the bike and often during the day, he is running super strong and surviving his swim sessions ;)

For his long run on Sunday, the workout was a 90-minute negative split run. Here's how it went down for Karel.

1:40.49 total run time
15.2 miles
6:39 min/mile average pace
139 average HR

Mile splits:
7:26
6:54
6:25
6:42
6:34
7:05
6:36
6:29
6:08
6:07
6:10
6:11
6:06
6:09
7:46
7:07