This is recovery week so it seemed like as good a time as any to post on how the new year is shaping up for me. And I’m pleased to say “so far so good.”
I’m Officially Back on the Training Schedule
My coach actually gave me the week of New Year’s off which was good because like so many others I was fighting a really bad virus that was probably bronchitis though I never got an official diagnosis. Suffice it to say, I felt pretty terrible and the prospect of swimming and running outside were intimidating.
By the week starting January 5, I had largely kicked and now after several workouts, it’s gone. I rarely get sick and I don’t deal with it well when I do.
While this is my Ironman year, it’s not next week so he’s eased me back into a training routine and for that I am especially grateful. It’s not as though I didn’t swim or run during the off-season, but it was a period that was dominated by the bike.
A real benefit has been the variety after having spent so much time in the saddle. My first few pool workouts were a bit difficult both due to still shaking whatever was ailing me and just not being used to spending much time in the water. Running was not quite as tough since all of the cardio was there, but it was not especially easy either.
Equipment
From an equipment standpoint, my only new addition is a Scosche RHYTHM Plus optical heart rate monitor. There are several out there right now, but DC Rainmaker seemed to rate this one the highest. So far, I have no complaints. It’s a vast improvement over the Garmin chest strap I had been wearing up to this point. That one was starting to show far too many spikes due to static electricity or even worse, not providing a reading at all. I’ll probably keep it as a back-up but the Scosche is definitely my new primary for workouts.
Practice Races
Early on this year, my coach asked what other races I was doing in addition to IM Boulder. My answer was of course, none. I want all of my focus to be on what is easily the biggest race of my life. He understood and appreciated that focus but said he would put some “Olympic” like events on the calendar so that I don’t get burnt out. I’ll see what I can do about doing some posts related specifically to them. Since they are not real races, I’ll feel a little bit better about stopping to get some pictures along the way. I had wanted to do a self-supported race last year but the timing never quite worked out.
Hawaii
My vacation is now only three weeks away and I’ve done a little recon via Google of the area on Kauai where I’ll be staying. I’ve also rented a road bike for a few days while I’m there which will allow me to keep training on my weaker discipline. We haven’t had a terrible winter here, but outdoor riding has been off the table for me since November. In addition to riding and running, there appears to be a decent open-water swimming venue just a short walk from my billet. Being on the leeward side of the island means calmer surf and it should be a good location in which to fit in 30 minutes or so.
The Blog
Posts have obviously gotten a bit sparse lately and that’s mainly a product of not having much new to say. A side effect of that is not doing some basic house-keeping on the site but I expect that to be done before the month is out.
Thanks for reading and best of luck to anyone who is training and preparing for their upcoming season!
