Skip to main content

Muncie always teaches you something

The week leading into IM 70.3 Muncie we knew it was going to be a training race because the forecast was for hotter than a thousand suns and we had always thought if it as a training race anyway. It was also my birthday.

The day before I met a friend for lunch and a tour of the recent developments in downtown Muncie. It was very cool, but I wasn't wearing the right shoes for it (flipflops)...I am too old for that crap. Then I checked in for the race, went to the athlete briefing, bought the things I needed/wanted, checked into the B&B, and then headed back into town for dinner. Then it was an early night.

In true form, Muncie was hot. The water temp was 82.6 which really meant no wetsuits (even though I don't compete for awards it means it's much too warm for me to not overheat and panic) and a slow swim. Worse than I imagined, but I kept my cool about it. Then I had a super great bike. It was fun and fast and I enjoyed it a lot. In transition I had a hard time getting my shoes on over my wet socks and there felt like a wrinkle on the bottom of my foot, but I didn't bother dealing with it. The first few miles of the run were fine. I was actually thinking there wasn't anything I would rather be doing on my birthday. After the turn I was still alive and doing ok, until about 8. Then I was slowing a bit, then I didn't feel great around 10. I spent the last 5K thinking I would feel better if I puked. The last mile was super rough. After I got on the grass and crossed the gravel path I ran into the finish. If I had hustled a bit more I could have had a 7:14+ time on 7/14, but alas 7:15:08. My second best time and on a rough day. Happy with it. I got my stuff and went to the car, checked messages and responded to a few, then headed home. There was a side trip to McDonald's to get unsweet tea and water, but otherwise straight home to get David and head to Blind Owl for my birthday party.


Sometime on Sunday I figured out that the ball of my foot was sore. Bruised or something. Mildly uncomfortable. Since we're within 90 days of IM I mentioned it to coach and my PT friends...and then I got put on injured reserve/no running. Boo. Threw off my week riding on Tuesday. And I got bummed. We determined my running shoes were probably dead. The thicker socks and wrinkle may have been a factor. Wearing unsupportive shoes when I'm not training probably hasn't helped. So I started icing it, wearing a boot to bed, and wearing my winter (supportive) shoes for work. It's helped and my foot feels fine now. Still have a revised workout Saturday and reporting to coach daily.

Monday - 1,100 yard OWS. Something like that anyway. I managed to use the pool setting for OWS, which doesn't work well.

Tuesday - 22 mile ride at Crown Hill cemetery.

Wednesday - 2,900 yard swim and 15.6 mile ride. I rode from the Benjamin Harrison Y into the state park and then did 6x the incline from Boy Scout Road to the gate with recovery back down.

Thursday - 17 mile ride in Hamilton County in the morning.

Friday - foot test walk in the morning, 2 mile walk, then 1 mile with 1 min run, 3 min walk. The foot is doing well. 2,950 yard swim after work.

Saturday - 16.4 mile ride followed by 3 mile run. The ride was good and the drizzle held off until I had the bike back on the car and was headed out to run. The run went well, three progressively faster miles with no pain. HR was a bit higher than desirable, but I think the dew point had a lot to do with that.

Sunday - 60 mile ride. There was some construction and I didn't feel obsessive enough about 100K to add on at the end. 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Iron Rose 2020

  Some race reports are easier to write than others. Some take a while to process everything that happened. On September 26 th  I set out to do my own full Ironman distance triathlon (2.4 miles swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run). When coach at I first started talking about it we talked about maybe as a one day effort (race format) or three days (like some of the virtual options have been). My last big training weekend (biking 100 on Saturday, running 20 on Sunday, and swimming 2.2 miles open water on Monday) confirmed that I needed to shoot for single day because I had come so close to the three day in training. So we were full steam ahead with the plan already in motion. I had planned routes, marked my bike course, secured volunteers for aid stations (amazing people all around), dropped off aid bags…finished training and tapered.   Race morning Trena arrived at my house early and we headed over to Andy’s for the swim. Trena and Jen were doing safety kayaking for me. Andy and Anna wer

Vision 2020

I'm a planner. And a dork. And I wrote a lot of Vision 2020 plans around 2000 so now that it is 2020 everything feels weird. Ok, that's out of my system. Let's talk about 2020. I've already done a self-assessment of last year and met with coach to plan 2020. Everything is focused on Ironman Wisconsin on September 13.The milestones have been set, but there will be some infill along the way. Milestone 1: Carmel Marathon - I did a spring marathon (also Carmel) in 2018 ahead of Louisville and it seemed like a good idea to do that again. So for the 10th Carmel Marathon I am running the full. Spring marathons feel undertrained compared to fall because the time between recovering from fall and getting ramped up to multiple 20 mile training runs is not there. I take the spring effort as a see what happens sort of race. Must finish to keep the streak alive, but I will see how everything else unfolds. Milestone 2: TourdeLou - not so much of a race as a supported event ride

Block 3: Race Withdraw is Real

Early in this block I was pretty pissed that some people who don't train (much) were going out and racing better than what be PR for me.  I have NO problem with people being faster than me (most are), as long as they put in the work.  But without work it just makes me upset.  And especially if they then bemoan how "slow" it was.  I wanted to race out of spite.  But I didn't get to. I've had some strong swims, and one complete disaster.  But I mostly shook off the disaster and moved on. This block was all bike trainer for cycling.  I did one of the workouts at the Loft while the class was doing something else.  I will do this for some of the weekday rides just so that there are other people around.  One of the things Coach Matt is doing is noting when I last did a workout so I can see how change is happening.  It seems I am doing better each time I do a workout, so that's good.  It will be nice to get outside (which should be tomorrow). Running has been s