The Highs and Lows

It has been said that the hardest part of the Ironman Journey is the actual training and the highs and lows you will experience along the way. No doubt about it, training for the Ironman (or any long course-multi sport event) is tough. Whoever said that training is a piece of cake in my opinion, is not doing it right or they have much assistance along the way (not having to juggle full time work, family and have plenty of outside assistance).
I know for a fact that personally, I will (and have) experienced both highs and lows so far in this journey and sometimes, this can (and has) occurred over a 24 hour period.

Warning, the following will include female issues, if you feel uncomfortable, jump to ***
In addition to training for an Ironman, issues relating to my female monthly body works have played a havoc on me since I increased my training load over the last 10 months to long course.
I had never really had much of an issue with these since it started but the impacts of it have sometimes become more unbearable on certain times of the month. I have started to take note on my energy levels, performance, pain threshold as well as recovery times and I have noticed patterns and how they impact one another.

On good days, I find that my (training) pain threshold have been higher and able to push through sessions at greater intensity and for a longer duration in time. On bad days, I find simple things like being on the bike, very uncomfortable on my core muscles, hips and lower back. On these days, I still do the session but I may cut it short or lower the intensity. On really really bad days, I just jump on the windtrainer as I am able to stop (safely) and manage the pain away from the general public. In addition, I have also started to manage the pain with medication but only as a last resort.

***On Saturday, I had on my program, a 140km ride. As it was recovery week, the distance was slightly shorter than the previous. I started my ride once again at 4am from my house, riding towards Mordialloc and then up towards Port Melbourne prior to meeting the group at North Rd, Brighton at 6am. As much as people think I am crazy to be starting my ride so early in the morning, I actually enjoy it immensely:

• No large pelotons on the road (yet) to ride dangerously past me or yell out for me to get out of their way
• No egos to deal with
• Barely any cars on the road, less stress
• I am able to ride solo and work on my own tempo, pace and technique

Early morning rides are nice but I had a little shock to my system when a fox charged at me around Ricketts Point after I turned around at Mordialloc. As I rode along, I could see the fox from about 500m away, it was running towards me and at the last minute, it decided to leap upwards at me with its mouth opened (I could see teeth). Luckily, I somehow anticipated that it was going to do something like that and swerved my bike wide towards the right (onto the oncoming lane) and only narrowly missed it. Luckily no cars were around at that time in the morning or else it would have been a visit to the hospital.

By the time I met up with the group at 6am, I had already completed 50km. For a 140km, the ride would be with the group (until I get dropped - this happens everytime) and then turn the bike around Mt Eliza way. Due to my body not feeling 100%, I turned around at Frankston BP and made my trip home. My 140km ride became 115km. The rest of the day was spent in bed with a heat pack on my hips. This was a low day but I did what I could.

Sunday's program was a 24km endurance run at Fairfield/Studley Park with Coach Greg. Sunday runs had become one of my favorite sessions as I could see improvements in my running abilities. I have not missed this session since I started in June 2012 unless it was a non-coached or it was race weekend.

We did our usual 5km warm up run around Fairfield Park. I will usually start out running with the group but I tend to drop back as I am not able to keep up with the main group's warm up run pace (which is around 5min/km - I am slow).  I like to think of it as doing the group a favour - they get to have a little rest prior to me catching up with them to be brief by Coach Greg about the day's main set.

Instead of a standard 18-19km of endurance running (of which 50% of it must be faster than marathon pace as per program), Coach Greg made it into a Fartlek set at which our on is done at our faster than marathon pace and the recovery part was running at recovery pace back towards Greg and then start again.

Greg asked me what my marathon run pace (plan) was for Ironman. I honestly told him that I would be lucky if I could hold  under 7min/km pace on the day. He laughed and said that I should be able to do much better and so he set my on pace at 5:30min/km for 2km. He then mixed it up and for some parts of the set, I was asked to do 5:10 for 1km and then 6min/km for 3km. The set was not an easy one but I enjoyed it. It pushed me through my pain threshold and set a new benchmark in my speed and endurance limits. This run session was a success - a high. Next Sunday's run will be increased to 26km which will be my longest run (in a single session) to date.

After the run, it was a 15min soak in icy water in the bathtub at the same time, drinking my Optimizer for my recovery nutrition which has been working for me for the last few months. I have been routinely buying my 2 bags of ice in Clifton Hill on the way home from the run as cold water from the tap is not cold enough for any relief.

My legs and hips are currently still feeling the effects of Sunday and dealing with the other issues (prior to ***). I think I must schedule a massage on a Monday morning on a regular basis (until I finish my Ironman) so I am able to carry on the next week's training without any hiccups.