70.3 training | TooTallFritz

I’m at the point of marathon training where things are getting rough. My legs are tired. If you are training for a fall marathon then you can probably relate cuz I know your legs are heavy too. The mileage is starting to creep up to the point where we will soon peak, then start to taper back down. For the Chicago Marathoners, we basically have another 4 weeks of hard training, then we are done, ready to taper, and absolutely prepared to run the full 26.2 miles on October 13th. So take a deep breath, just get thru the next four weekends and you will be in the home stretch! You can do it!!!

In addition to marathon training, I’m also finishing out TRI season. Not brilliant planning but then I didn’t plan it this way. I have a rollover registration from the 2012 Great Illini Challenge 70.3 which was canceled, so they rolled all of our registrations from 2012 to this year. I considered downgrading to the Olympic distance so I can just go out, smash the distance and go home but I’ve decided against that. I don’t want to downgrade. I don’t want to waste the registration fee. I don’t want to waste the opportunity to tackle the distance. I’m trained for it even if I have only swam 1x since Racine so it just feels like a cop out to go shorter. Therefore, on Saturday, I’ll be going the distance and pushing thru the last TRI of the 2013 season, which just happens to be a half iron distance event.

Marathon Training + Half Iron Training + CrossFit + Allergy/Head Cold + IBD flare-up = One wiped out momma this weekend.

As a result, this week is all about recovery so that I can be fresh on Saturday. I took a rest day yesterday. I’m pushing my water, allergy meds and probiotics to help get rid of my “extra” issues. I’m using Nighttime Recovery and Bio Tools to help repair my tired muscles. And I actually slept last night thanks to both Michael and Libby (my weim) being tired too. So it will be a good week and I will be rested by Saturday even though I had to pull out my bag of tricks to aid my recovery. At least I’ve been doing this long enough to have a bag of tricks, right? Smile

Feeling tired is a natural part of marathon and TRI training but make sure you are able to recognize the difference between being tired and having extra factors that are also draining you. Don’t stress if you need to skip a day of training, or two, to get some of your energy back. Rest. Relax. Listen to your body. If you “run” yourself into the ground, then you will get sick or injured or both.

** Resting up for Great Illini ** Amanda – TooTallFritz **

Yesterday was it. I had ran out of excuses. I’m 46 days out from a 70.3 triathlon in Racine, WI and I just HAD to get my ass in the pool. I didn’t want to do it but those ironmen are mean. Rough. They swim with their fists and it’s important to stay as far in front of the next wave as possible! So I went to the pool. I wasn’t thrilled but I ~~faked~~ mustered a smile.

This go round, I decided to swim at Governors State University. They have a nice 24.99 yard (odd distance to eliminate it from being legal for competition) lap pool and it’s normally not too busy. It’s open from 6am – 9pm M-F, and has similar Saturday hours but who the hell wants to do a swim workout on Saturday? Not me! Plus, they let me do month to month so when TRI season is over, I don’t have a nasty gym membership ~~requiring me to sell my soul~~ to cancel. Win, Win. I also noticed some improvements to the pool area since the last time I used it for TRI training. Kinda cool and relaxing, if you head to an indoor pool for that.

Then I got in the water and fought with my goggles for 16 minutes before I was able to get them adjusted properly and actually get to some real swimming. Then I was almost out of time and needed to pack it up and head home to the family. In all, I had a craptastic 35 minutes of ~~adjusting my goggles and floundering around~~ swimming for a distance total of 1250 yards ( 0.71 miles). Impressive, I know. At this rate, it will take me well over an hour to get thru the 1.2 mile swim in Racine. That means just about every wave behind me will not only swim over the top of my slow ass but also punch & kick me as they pass me up. I’m seeing stars already. I can only hope that the water in Racine is cold. Super cold. Let’s slow those crazy people down! Okay, more importantly a water temp under 78 degrees means it’s wetsuit legal. Yay, me! Although I “normally” don’t need a wetsuit for that distance, it’s nice to have because it provides a little added buoyancy, fixes some of the imperfections in my swim, and HELLO, it holds me up when those assholes punch me in the side of the head. Feel free to read my IM Muncie 70.3 report HERE.

The good news, is that the swim in Racine looks SWEET! It’s a point to point swim where we hop in the water in one spot, and swim a parallel line with the beach to another location and get out. No stupid M to swim. Or V. Or J. Or whatever crazy shape that they make to slow us poor sighting swimmers down. Just two right turns around buoys and straight swimming. Racine, we may become friends after all. Looks like I’ll just be able to put my head down and swim, hopefully in someone else’s slip stream!

Swim #1 down. Many more to go. I think I better just leave my swim clothes in my car and go as often as I’m able. My goal is 2x per week til Racine on July 21st. We’ll see how that works with the family ~~and job and commute and life~~ dynamic but that’s the plan as of today.

Which part of TRI training is most daunting or inconvenient for you?

** Happy TRIing ** Amanda – TooTallFritz **