April 16-22: Resting and Racing

 

This week was exceptionally light, with two full rest days, and no one workout longer than 45 minutes.

Well, unless you count that little race on Saturday. Which happened to account for well over half of my training (well, training/racing) for the week. The high quantity of rest started to really get to me Wednesday night, and at 10 pm, I had a nearly uncontrollable urge to go lift weights and bike around Hains Point 15 times. I was also convinced that my tight gluteus medius was clearly a symptom of a femoral neck stress fracture and that I would die during my race.

Yep, normal taper business. But in the end, it paid off with a relatively good race (well, at least 67.2 miles of good racing). More on that Thursday, but here’s what my final time of 6:03:13 landed me.

And now, here’s the recap of the very light week.

Monday: Easy 45 minute watchless run in the morning – not entirely watchless, because I took a plain Timex-type watch with me to make sure I didn’t stray too far from the prescribed 40 minutes.

Tuesday: Rest day. Used the evening off to start laying out the gear for the weekend race.

 

Wednesday: A pretty easy double day, starting with 12.8 miles of biking around Hains Point in the morning, averaging 17 mph while staying at a pretty low heart rate despite the winds. A 5.5 mile evening run building up to half ironman race pace (9:27? OK fine. It didn’t feel that fast.).

Thursday: Another rest day, which involved driving down to Charleston after working a half day. Since rest days usually aren't noteworthy, here are some facts and figures about the drive.

• Time spent driving: 7 hours, 43 minutes
• Percentage of that time spent on I-95: 93
• Ounces of Diet Coke consumed to stay alert: 108 (ouch)
• Number of times I came across Queen playing on the radio: 7
• Number of times it was "Bohemian Rhapsody": 3
• Number of subsequent headbanging sessions: 3

Friday: A quick half hour swim in the morning, then an easy 15 minute bike in the afternoon after packet pickup, mostly to make sure that my bike was in working order after the trip down. Bike was racked by 5 pm, then I headed back to the hotel to pack the transition bags – which was more complex than normal because T1 and T2 were in different locations for the race - and rest up.

Saturday: Race day! 1.2 miles of swimming (plus a long run to transition) in 31:49, 56 miles of biking in 3:03:36, and 13.1 miles of running in 2:22:20 (ouch). Also a one hour sailing workout post-race, followed by a crabcake and steak eating session in the evening.

Sunday: Drove home through a lot of pouring rain and traffic, then hit the pool for 2700 yards of easy recovery swimming.

Worst part of the week: Too much stupid rest. No, not really, I needed to rest for the race. That didn’t make it any more fun.

Best part of the week: RACE. 70.3 done with a first-place plaque in hand.