Disjointed Post-IM Thoughts

Between traveling up to Boston last weekend, working through some day-long meetings, and preparing for the deluge of work coming my way in September, I haven’t had a chance to finish writing up my IM Mont Tremblant race report.

But I DO have time to write up some disjointed thoughts about the Ironman aftermath. Here you go.

• In the past year, I’ve trained for, and raced, a half marathon, a marathon, a half ironman, and an ironman, without getting injured. No compromised or missed workouts because of injury, no aches or pains that I couldn’t handle with a little foam rolling or ice. This is a testament to some combination of the resiliency of my body and the quality of my coach’s training plan. My guess is that it’s mostly the latter.

• Now, however, my right knee is acting up. On one hand, it’s great timing, since I’m only registered for one more race this season (Nation’s Tri, an Olympic distance race, in 10 days). On the other hand, really? Why now, after taking FOUR WHOLE DAYS OFF LAST WEEK?

• It’s still not all that bad. I just have some pulling on the patella. The only workout it has impacted so far was a tempo-style run yesterday, when I had to stop during warm up to stretch it out for 5 minutes and then finished the rest of the workout.

• I got home from the race 10 days ago. My time trial bike is still in my car. This photo essentially sums up how I have felt about that bike all season.

• I have, however, gotten on my road bike a ton since getting back. Once for a workout, and several times for bike commuting. Because I often have to look presentable for my job and meet with important people outside our office, it’s difficult to bike commute regularly. But then Metro announced that they might basically be shutting down the red line for two months, and I decided that I HAVE HAD IT with Metro and am sporting a 20-lb backpack and my Trek Lexa daily. We’ll see how long this lasts.

• For no good reason, I bought a SMASH cycling jersey that looks just like the tri top I wore for IM Mont Tremblant. Then I found out that Rachel ordered the same one. TWIN TIME (if you ignore the fact that she’s much, much smaller than me with darker hair).

• I haven’t done a timed workout since a run on August 11 (if you discount the Ironman). Leading up to race day, I didn’t want to freak out over numbers. Since race day, I haven’t wanted to know how slow I am, but realize that eventually I need some metrics to track my training. I meant to time yesterday’s tempo run, but my Garmin got turned on in my bag and the battery drained.

• There were also plans to look at the clock during this morning’s swim workout, but I can only deal with so much bad news in one week, so that didn’t happen.

• In the spirit of not jumping right back into the grind of long-course triathlon training, tomorrow, I am going to try pilates. I expect that this will be hysterical for all involved. I would say that I hope I don’t like it, because it could be an expensive habit, but, it’s not like I spend money on, oh, furniture or clothing.

• I still might not go get my time trial bike out of my car tonight. It sounds like too much effort.

• If I do go get my bike out of my car, that might even prompt me going to the lobby to pick up my mail for the first time in over two weeks. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, here.