7 days till IMLP

I'm only 7 days away from what I consider to be the biggest race of my life.  No other race have I trained harder, sacrificed everything, and felt so good going into.  The past seven months have been intense and I really do feel ready.  So as far as this week went...it might have been my worst week in training.  While in DC on Wednesday I woke up early for a easy 50 minute run.  I felt very sluggish....much different from the weekend where I felt just awesome.  I attributed it to the early wake up call and the recent travel and went on with my day.  The drive back to Pittsburgh put me home just in time for a group ride with some of my biking friends.  We set off on a easy 90 minute ride.  Thursday after work I drove directly to the pool where I met Jen for our afternoon swim.  Nothing crazy, but there were some hard 200 yard sprints that threw me for a loop.  After the swim we drove to the track for some short intervals.  Like the pool, we did 20 x 200 sprints.  However, my legs weren't used to sprinting and towards the end of the workout my left hamstring was tight.  I didn't think anything of it, went to bed and felt fine.  When I woke up Friday morning it hurt to walk.  I couldn't believe it.  7 months of training injury free only to have four injuries less than 2 weeks from race day.  My shoulder was sore, my ankle was twisted, my hip flexor was tight, and now my lower hamstring was about to snap.  On another note I took my bike to the bike shop and found out that my chain, both chain rings, and cassette needed replaced.  $400 dollars later my bike should be good to go for next weekend. 

When I got home Friday I decided to sleep.  I laid down on the couch at 5:30 PM woke up at 10:30, brushed my teeth, moved lethargically to my bed and didn't wake up till 6:30 the next morning.  It was fantastic.  Just what the doctor ordered.  My leg was still sore, but I decided to proceed with the mornings 3 hour brick workout.  I still felt really out of it.  My legs would not respond, and my heart rate was really high.  I would assume this is normal because of the taper,  but I always hate this part of the training.  During the taper I feel like crap.  Plain and simple.  Today I went out for a easy flat ride and a easy run.  I felt a little better.  Ankle is 100%, shoulder is 95%, hip flexor is 100%, and hamstring is 85%.  I would expect all to be 100% by next weekend!!! 

While having all this extra time on hand I let the Engineer and "statistical" monster out and he creped into my training / triathlon life.  I started looking at other athletes in my age group, and their past Ironman times.  Believe it or not, there will be nine other athletes in Lake Placid that have qualified for Kona in the past 9 years, and a handful of others that were pretty darn close.  However it seems that sub 10 hours is still the magic number.  I started to analyze times, run splits, who was a fast biker....who could catch me on the run...then I quickly discard all the data and told myself that all this data means absolutely nothing.  Just when a little self doubt snuck in, I began to tell myself that I didn't work this hard to be worried about what everyone else can do.  This is my race and I am the only one responsible for my race outcome. 

posted by Chad Holderbaum @ 4:32 PM Comments: 0