Ironman Lake Placid Race Week Update-Monday-Wednesday

Monday(6 more days until race day)

Well, no training today and I really don’t feel all that great. I really feel so much better when I am training. I did get my dog out for a few walks, so I guess that is something. My biometrics are indicating that my body is starting to peak, but I am not really feeling it yet. I did do some initial packing just because I keep seeing stuff I need to take with me and it is stressing me out a bit. So I starting staging things when I see them.

I tried to chillax a bit on the sofa while watching Duck Dynasty and ended up horizontal before 9PM. I eventually rolled into bed and then I could not get back to sleep right away. I can feel the anxiety starting to build in my belly. It is more excitement than nervous anxiety I think. Just so many unknowns here.

Ironman Lake Placid’s Facebook page reported Mirror Lake water temp of 75 deg F today. 2 deg drop from previous day. Forecast for the week would indicate it is going lower than that by race day. Dust off that wetsuit!

Tuesday

Mowing Lawn

Still feeling a little groggy most of the day. My HRV reading in the morning was 75, which is pretty good for me so things must be coming together. Work went by pretty fast and on the way home the reality of what is upcoming has started to sink in a little bit. By the time I got home(I only have a 4 mile drive to/from work 🙂 ), I started feeling a bit energetic. Almost like I drank about 5 cups of coffee of something.

My training this week has been reduced to walking the dog, mowing the grass, and packing gear. I mowed the lawn and managed to eat dinner in between doing that. The weather was so much more pleasant and less humid, so it was a much more enjoyable experience. I put Pandora on my iPhone and jammed some tunes while making laps around the yard. With the extra energy, I whipped around the yard with reckless abandon. The speed lever for the self-propelled mower was at full rabbit throttle. It felt like I cut it in record time. Wished I would have timed it with my Garmin? They should add that leg to the Ironman.

A season worth of swim workouts

After cutting the lawn, I started to get some more packing done. While getting my swim stuff out of the bag I saw my little Ziploc baggie with all my swim workouts stacked together on Sticky Notes. The bottom workout was marked “1/28” which was the very first workout of my official training program. It was pretty cool to fan through them all looking at all those different swim workouts I did this season. Getting a bit nostalgic I guess. I also am pretty stoked about not having any shoulder issues this season too. Last season I aggravated my shoulder and had to stop swimming for a couple weeks right in the prime time of the training season.

Only one more day of work to go!!

Wednesday

Race day nutrition

I was up at 6am after a killer night sleep. My Jawbone Up showed that the majority of my sleep was deep for the night. Other than the one bathroom stop around 3am, it was solid. Work went fairly smoothly and after lunch my mind started to focus on the weekends task. Eventually the workday ended and I headed over to Cali Burrito to pick up some dinner. Then it was back home to continue the packing. My parents were coming later to pick up my dog, so I took him out in the yard to throw/retrieve the chipmunk. His “chippy” is just a stuffed toy that very closely resembles a chipmunk. I wore him out to the point that he could no longer bring it back to me and his tongue was dragging on the ground.

Eventually my wife arrived home and we had some dinner. More packing. Parents came to pick up the Yuki. My Mom decided that she wanted to come up to see the race. Not a great time to decide this with only 3 days away. Trying to find a reasonably placed hotel that allows pets will be quite the challenge.

With most of the packing completed, it was time to chill for a half hour on the sofa to watch part of one of the Tour de France stages I had saved on the DVR. Then it was off to bed. Long drive day tomorrow. Hoping to leave at 8am, but I know that won’t happen.