Week Thirty-One

I now feel like Ironman training is officially kicking my butt, and not the other way around.

After last weekend's very tired training, my coach thought that maybe I was doing a bit of overtraining. That is, in ironman training we are always toeing the line of what can be too much, and sometimes we cross that line. He recommended a lot of rest this week, which I gladly listened to. (Including the part where he suggested I sit on my butt and watch TV.)

Sleep has been inconsistent for me. On Monday night, I woke up at 1 in the morning, and could not stop thinking of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. When I thought about riding my bike, there was one in my bento box. When I thought of running, there was an image of me shoving one in my fuel belt pocket. When I thought of the upcoming choir concert, there was a plate of them at the refreshment table. I tossed and turned for 2 hours. Still awake at 3 in the morning, I got up and made myself a PB & J sandwich. When I got back into bed, I was able to fall asleep almost immediately.

Tuesday night was my only non-interrupted sleep this week. Usually if I wake up in the middle of the night, I fall back asleep right away, but several days this week there was some extra tossing and turning.

On Saturday morning, the swim portion of our training was cancelled due to a high bacteria count in the water. I really wasn't too disappointed (except that I was looking forward to swimming 3,000 yards in the open water - that would have been a first). We only did our ride, a 70 mile ride mostly on highway one. Not very hilly at all; in fact, a fairly easy course.

I felt much better on the ride than last week. Granted, it was a lot easier. I noticed that my legs felt a little tighter than usual. I averaged 15.6 mph in the end, which I was very happy with. What was odd to me was that even though my energy was okay during the ride, I was just wiped out for the rest of the day. Even the thought of getting up to get some water from the kitchen was too much. I was really nervous about the run the next day, and went to bed around 8:30, to give myself any extra help that I could, and probably fell asleep somewhere between 9:30 and 10.

I woke up without an alarm at 6:30 AM. I tried to sleep longer, but I was done. I lazied around the house a little bit, and finally got out for my run at 9:30. I tried a few new things this time around: For one, I got rid of the fuel belt and used a hand-held bottle. This was a HUGE improvement, as the fuel belt kept giving me stomach aches. Instead of perpetuem, I used a combination of a gel every 30 minutes with a few bites of powerbar once in a while to get some more calories in (both of these will be available during my race). No GI problems. I used a thermolyte once an hour. I chose thermolytes over electrolytes because I didn't have room to carry a lot, and you need a lot fewer of them. I also ran a 9/1 interval from the very beginning, which is only a little bit new.

Even though I think my nutrition went well, I did have a problem on the run. My left IT band started to tighten at the hip, before mile 10. I had to stop and stretch it often, which would work for a few minutes, and then the cramping came again. I know cramps usually mean that I don't have enough sodium, but I really think my sodium intake was appropriate. Towards the end of the run, I was just in incapacitating pain. I stopped at 18 miles (instead of 20) because 1) Coach Mike said 18 would be okay 2) Coach Mike said not to run longer than 3:45 and 3) I couldn't have run those two extra miles if you paid me.

I'm home now, and I'm icing and using the foam roller. I don't know what caused the cramp, but I'd love to figure it out. I'm starting to wonder how normal these things are to happen during this phase of the game. It makes me question my strength and my ability, and I hate to have those negative thoughts going through my head.

Body check: Tight left IT band during running, practically no pain now that I've stopped. Tight neck muscles and lower back. Tenderness at caudal injection site.

TOTAL DONATIONS TO DATE: $13,051, plus the cash from open house, which hasn't been put in yet ($500, minus two-hundred-something for the t-shirts).