Week 4 Wrap-Up (Let the taper begin!!)

After the crazy peak weekend, I was pretty much fired on Monday—so I wisely opted for a complete rest day on Monday as I let my body recover a little. My training program had a slight decrease in volume—which I appreciated immensely—plus I knew I’d be doing a very long swim on Saturday in Madison, so I didn’t sweat things too much during the week. I ended up doing a quick swim in Diamond Lake Tuesday night—not ideal as a replacement for the three swim workouts I was supposed to get in, but such is life. My bike and run workouts went well throughout the week, and I also started making a concerted effort to get enough sleep, which went OK for the most part.

Saturday morning, Erin, Sue, Michele and I trekked back to Madison to do a swim sponsored by the Madison masters swim group—they had the IM course marked out in Lake Monona and had both 1.2 and 2.4 mile swim options. We, of course, opted for the 2.4 mile course and even went without wetsuits, even though we were about the only triathletes that didn’t wear them. I didn’t really push it too hard—I really wasn’t sure of the pacing, but I knew I wanted to end the race with enough left over to do the 70+ mile ride we had planned (the out-and-back and one loop). Things felt fine, except I got very very bored on the second lap—even resorted to singing Jimmy Buffett songs in my head to pass the time as I swam. I also think I drank a fair amount of Lake Monona—not the wisest thing, I’m sure, but it definitely wasn’t on purpose. We were all pretty chilled when we got done—wetsuits might have been a wise option—so we changed into our bike gear and headed to Starbucks to warm up a bit before we took off on our ride.

After we headed out on the ride, I noticed my bike computer crapped out early on, so I had a brief stop in Verona to fix it, and then Michele and I ended up pulling off the side of the road between Verona and Mt. Horeb to let a motorcycle caravan go through—about 5 minutes of solid Harleys, which was pretty wild. Other than a crappy headwind, the ride was uneventful until we hit Verona again and I had my fourth flat tire of the season. Unfortunately, I had my Zipps on my bike to check the braking on some of the downhills, so I ended up completely ruining one of my Tufo tubulars—not a cheap flat tire, but at least I now know how to change my tubulars—turns out it’s very easy to do. Michele helped me out, and then we rode fairly cautiously back into Madison to do our brick run. We took off together for a 4-mile brick—true to form, took off a little too fast and I again got a side stitch that slowed me down to a walk for a little while. I managed to run for the last 1.5 miles solid, so I felt OK about that, but wasn’t overly thrilled with my day at that point.

The four of us ended up at Great Dane for some post-ride food and drink, then Sue, Michele and I again took off for Mundelein—as with last week, Michele and I planned to do our long run together. Sunday morning, the three of us headed to Pleasant Prairie to cheer on the Kraft gang and Nate, Sue and Michele’s neighbor, in the Pleasant Prairie triathlon. It was a blast cheering everyone on and a great reminder that triathlon is a great sport and a lot of fun—just what I needed mentally after a rough day on Saturday. Unfortunately, it was also very tough to get back into the swing of things after the race to get motivated to run…not made any easier by the lunch stop at Culver’s on the way back. Michele and I decided to follow the same route we did the previous week and headed to Old School—neither of us really wanted to run, but it’s what we had to do. After the first 10, I was truly ready to bag it—I was in a crappy place mentally and absolutely exhausted—probably more a factor of the past couple of weeks of intense training than anything else. But, I told myself that I would do another three at least, so Michele and I took off from the car and a brief water break to get it done. Both of us ended up calling it good at a 13-miler…probably not a bad day, but not as good as what either of us wanted to be sure. Sue, Michele and I headed to Starbucks on our way back, then I again met Theresa for another latte before heading back to my house. I was wiped—no doubt about that…and mentally in a pretty rough spot, but I guess that’s what happens when you get about three weeks away from something like Ironman and all you want to do is be done. But such is life…and only three weeks to go…

Here’s the roll-up…

Swim: 2:01:30 / 5140 meters
Bike: 6:51:33 / 120.75 miles
Run: 4:55:22 / 31.40 miles
Total: 13:48:25 / 155.36 miles