IMTX Block 4: Tick Tick Boom

And in the blink of an eye, it's almost done.  Block 4 and the final block before taper ended Sunday - again, this was a 3 week block with two weeks of Peak Volume followed by a week of recovery, where once again, life took a turn and smacked my recovery straight in the face (what, its not wise to drive 24 hours in 3 days, most of it overnight?)  Oh I kill myself.  But I'm getting ahead of the story.  Lets talk about this peak week crap, otherwise known as "Where Mean Dude Tried to Kill me" (It didn't work.  Hah).

The concept of peak weeks aren't new to me - its pretty typical that in the span of Ironman training that there will be a few weeks of ridiculous volume about a month out from race day, and this was no exception.  The volume for my max weeks averaged 21-23 hours each week, with a few key long ass workouts - namely, a 6 hour ride followed by an hour run, a 20 mile run, and a 4000 yd straight swim (okay swimmers, you can stop shuddering - we do this exactly once to just fucking do it.)  The rest of the build was just adding on to other workouts, and mounting that fatigue.  The key here was to set those three workouts up so that I was ready to rock it with both the nutrition aspect and also get an idea as to my numbers for race day.

As expected, we prepped as well as humanly possible and dealt with the shit when it happened.  Globally, I set up the two weeks in advance for life by doing a lot of meal prep, scheduling playdates for the kids (I have the best Mom friends!) and accepting quite a few early wake ups, ranging from 3am on.  Ironman is not glamourous by any stretch, and there is a time to dig deep and ask how much you want it....and I really, really do.  My favorite lifeguard at the Y helped me out here - during week two, when I was seriously dragging at the pool, he chatted me up and we were discussing my likelihood of survival.  Flippantly, I told him this was just "an experiment with thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours to see what I get out of it - NBD" and he looked me dead in the eye at 5:45am and asked "Like a trip to Hawaii?  How bad do you want it?"  Answer - Pretty fucking badly.  The desire to go to Kona is strong here, folks.  I'm fully aware its a crapshoot on the day and that anything can happen, but the laser focus is all there and I plan to throw  everything i have at this goal., 

In terms of execution, the two week span brought much of what you would expect - some successes and some "character building".

The Swim - As luck would have it, the heater at the Y was on the fritz during this span, which meant that a few swims I did - the water was in the upper 80s.  Holy hell.  I appreciated the nod to the tropics, but sadly, they do not allow margaritas on deck, so I absolutely muscled through some of these sets as well as I could, adjusting for conditions.  And while it sucked, that's about right - I don't expect the water to be mid 80s in Texas, but the day will absolutely bring something unexpected, so we roll.  My big swim went well, and I felt pretty good about that - I have a pretty accurate read on what I can expect to do on race day, which was the goal.  I am by no means a swimmer, but I get the job done with not a ton of effort, so we have held on to that this cycle and I feel good about it.

The Bike - Man, I'll tell you. I have been feeling pretty good on the bike - but its always a tough thing, because the weather this time of year is just not conducive to riding outside.  I got a few short shivery rides in, but most of my riding was still indoors this time around.  There were a few 3am wakeups to get it in, and two long rides - 5.5 hours and 6 hours, where I posted a few questionable videos and Mean Dude debated checking me into an asylum (to be fair, he thinks that a lot and I don't blame him).  With the being said, all long rides were successful  - I have my nutrition dialed in and my plan for the day.  A few issues popped up here - my HRM died, and so we learned how to go off watts and RPE - I ordered a new one, but it was a good reminder that shit can happen race day and that backup metrics are a good idea.  (I have never been through an Ironman where all my tech worked, so if this is the time it craps the bed, I am happy about it!)

The Run - Well, you guys know this is my fave, and there was no exception.  I had a little snafu during week one, when my long run was split - 9 in the morning and 10 in the afternoon.  I'm fully aware of the logic of this, but my body did not respond well at all.  I hit the run goal, but felt like I got run over by a bus afterwards.  Happily, my runs off the long bike were spot on - with the help of Laura, my amazing neighbor and fast becoming bestie, who does a great job of letting me cry with a side of "Get in loser, we are running" to remind me what my goals are and that I'm a tough bitch.  God I love her.  My last long run - a 20 miler, was absolutely perfect - I had no HRM so went off RPE and hit the pace beautifully.  I haven't spent a lot of time here talking about numbers, but the fact that my 20 mile training run was at a faster pace than my last marathon PR pace was awesome - on day 13 of peak efforts.  Suffice to say, unless its a zillion degrees on race day, I feel good about the run!

All that other stuff - Is what it is.  At some point, I will stop being surprised at the wild curveballs life throws me, but again, the past four months have included zero of what I expected, in terms of sport, life, and family and friends.  I'm positive I will write some ridiculous navel gazing post while I am tapering (get excited) but for now, as I am so damned tired and in need of looking at the positives...I'm highly focused on being so incredibly grateful for the people that have been in my corner this go around - of course, my coach, who really is the opposite of mean (except when he forces me into zone 2 at hour 5 of a long ride), my swimmy friend Bear, who again, brought me a survival care package during my most stressful peak week (I LOVE YOU!), my runny friend Laura (waxed poetic about above) who has just been there for me for everything - as someone who is used to just getting it done, the idea that I have such an amazing friend to check in and also get my butt moving during a tempo run is beyond amazing - AND she does cheesecake deliveries! My friend Billy who just lets me cry and listens to my endless sob stories without judgement, and, of course, my neighbor Kelly, who takes my kids, feeds me Costco chicken, and lets me collapse in her backyard post workout failure and cry like a little kid.

It's again, amazing what life brings you when you need it most.  And as I pen this, I am admittedly three days into taper and giving up caffeine, so I might not have all my devices - but I do know that while Ironman is a solo sport....I could never do it without my tribe.  And if you asked me 6 months ago who that tribe would be....I never would have known it to be most of these people.  I love you guys.  So much. You have no idea how much you mean to me. 

Ten days out from IMTX.....what's left?  No caffeine (screw you mean dude). Five days left of NY, then a long road trip to TEXAS and taking on Ironman #5 - I CANNOT WAIT! Next update to come from the Lonestar state - stay tuned!