Endurance Eating and Sleeping...

My Ironman Mug

Other than the usual AIDS (After Ironman Depression Symptoms) or PIDS (Post Ironman Depression Symptoms) that you hear common to most triathletes after they complete their major events, most will also experience what I have called PIES - Post Ironman Eating and Sleeping...

That is pretty much what I have been doing in abundance of since the 24th March 2013.

Monday 25th - The Day After...

Someone cruel must have organised that tired and sore athletes should go all the way to St Kilda to pick up their bikes and bags between the hours of 8am - 11am. The sights and sounds of athletes around Catani Gardens around that time of the morning was pretty funny. Not only do people reflect on their event with fellow athletes and supporters, they were also showing signs of DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness), wearing compression garments and drinking to replenish the fluids lost during the event.

Photo of my family on my handlebars

I forgot to mention in my Race Report that I had lost > 6kg (appox 20% of my body weight) during the race (this also included 3 toilet stops) and I still didn't get the drip when I collapsed over the finish line.

As my athlete wrist band was cut off in the medical tent after the race, I was not able match my bike to me (the athlete) the standard way but luckily, I had a photo of my family (including myself) on the handlebars of my bike and the marshal laughed when I told them about my story and when I placed my face next to the photo to claim little Dale (the Cannondale) is truly my steed.

 

What I thought would be my next challenge was to match my T1 and T2 bag to me, well they (marshals) didn't seem to care much as I told them that I had my band cut off by the medics. Boring story, got my bags.

After stuffing bags and bike into the car, we went to the Royal Melb Yatch club to hear the roll down for the Kona slots. We had 3 people in our squad who had slots from their placings but no one else received a slot from the roll down.

Post roll down, I devoured a chorizo pizza and some hot chips and then ventured off to the expo for some finishers merchandise. To be honest, very disappointed. You had a choice between red or pink. I didn't see anything I liked or would wear and there was nothing in my size. The smallest was a S/10 which was still too big. I bought an ironman t-shirt and a few decals for the car and that was it. Oh and where do I start with the green finishers shirt we received post race....I will not be wearing that shirt....ever. Sorry.

After spending a few hours with the squad at Republica, I ventured home to have a nap (14/28 gels caffeinated + coke = no sleep post race).

The Awards dinner was held at Etihad stadium. I use the word "dinner" lightly as we were given meat pies and hot dogs to tie us over during the ceremony. Some people (non IM participants) paid $50 for this and it was not well received. Dietery needs of some athletes were not met - vegetarians, vegans, gluten-intolerances. I had no intentions of staying past the Awards ceremony as I had no spare cash to spend as I needed to save up for the next Ironman registration which opened today (more news on this later).

Tuesday 26th - Post Ironman Winery and Bday celebrations

One of the girls from our squad kindly organised a winery day at Mornington to celebrate that we are Ironmen/women and her bday which was on the Wednesday before the Ironman Race. I decided to not go too hard on this day and slept in and drove myself to T'Gallant to meet them for lunch. Lunch was amazing and I believe I ate my own weight in pizza and baked potatoes...so much butter and garlic, oh so so good!

I had a massage booked in at 6:30pm so I left the group at True South (in Black Rock). I did have an ice bath after the race but didn't have enough time to fill up the bath enough to cover my quads so those were still sore. My hammies, calves and hips were fine. I also had my shoulders done which was a relief as I had trouble reaching in between my shoulder blades.

Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th - Back to Work...

Nothing much to report except that I went back to work but I did write up my race report and post race reflection pieces and uploaded the professional photos I had purchased.

Easter Weekend - I did the following:

One of the "Gifts" I received from
 friends who supported me on race day

• Moved furniture/cleaned the house - I have now moved the bed into the smaller room and moved all my bikes, clothing and tubs of stuff to the larger room. I ended up with 4 garbage bags of clothing to the salvos, 1 bag of shoes (salvos), 3 bags of rubbish and a whole recycling bin filled to the brim.
• Had real breakfast cooked by someone else with real company and conversation
• Ate so much junk food without regrets - chips, chocolates, processed fried stuff (I don't even know what it was...), ribs (800g of it), custard desserts, cake, chocolate biscuits, ice cream, lollies...
• Went to bed late and slept in until 9am (earliest), 11am (latest)...

I gave myself a 1 week window post Ironman to eat junk (that I normally would not eat) and now I am back on eating real food (not a diet of any sorts). I may still have some left over processed foods which I will be happily bringing into work to share.

No real training sessions for me this week. I will be heading down to Catani Gardens for Tips & Tricks clinic again on Saturday followed by supporting my squad (and others I know) on Sunday for the last triathlon race for the season.

I am now in the recovery phase of the Tri Alliance Program and before I sign

off this entry, just wanted to share some good news - I have a slot into the 2014 Melbourne Ironman. Won't be doing any training for this until May (post Recovery Month of April). Grateful that I was able to get a place without much trouble. I will be establishing my plan for the next season soon and will share as soon as I can.