IMLP 2014-Week 19 Training Update-Recovery Week Blues

My love-hate relationship with recovery weeks continues. I always look so forward to them, but then feel like crap most of the week. It is nice to have some extra time to do things I have been putting off though. I finished the week with almost 12 hours of training. While that probably still seems like a lot to most people, it is 5-6 hours less than my prior weeks. Most of the rest time occurred during the beginning of the week and I kept the long workouts long on the weekend. I did cut my long bike on Saturday back to 4:30hrs, but still got in a decent 72 miles.

My bike ride on Tuesday was a bit adventurous as I had to get creative to avoid the disastrous oil & chip jobs that has covered most of Longswamp Township. What a mess! It probably would not be too bad if they would sweep up the extra stones, but no. I was able to limit it to just crossing the plagued roads. It was nice to see some different territory for a change too.

The dreaded “chips” of Longswamp Township

Oil & Chip-Longswamp Township

The only really bad workout was my run on Thursday. It was just a standard 40 minute steady state run, but I felt like I was dying. I could not wait until the Garmin hit that 40min mark.

I extended my long swim on Friday to 1:10 covering 3500+ yds. I just never seem to get faster with this long swim. I think it is the drudgery of just back-and-forth in the pool for that long. I lose my enthusiasm quickly. Open water swims are so much nicer.

My Saturday ride route was a bit of just winging it. I started to map out a route Friday, but lost interest after Garmin Connect timed out after I hit the save button on creating a new course. It does this a lot and it really sucks. You spend all this time mapping out a course and then the site session times out. Note to self, do NOT use Garmin Connect to map out your routes!

Kiegels Church

Berks County Pasture

Sacony Creek

I ventured out Saturday with the only real intention  of circling around Lake Ontelaunee near Reading, PA. It was a really nice ride, although it was kind of slow from checking Google Maps on my phone all the time. The best parts were Sittler Valley Road and Sacony Road. Sacony Rd was very flat, shaded and wound along a nice stream. The road is actually marked as closed since they are putting in a new bridge, but the section that is closed is only about 50 yards of dirt that you can walk across. There was no traffic at all due to the Road Closed signs too.

Wedding Carriage

Wedding Carriage

One other highlight was when I passed a couple elegantly decorated horse and carriages carrying a wedding party in between Topton and Kutztown. I had to act very quickly to get my iPhone out and snag a couple pictures of it .

Lehigh Parkway Run-Little Lehigh Creek

Last Sunday I kind of screwed up with my nutrition and hydration on my long run. I expected to circle back home partially to refuel, but instead went out to long on the initial loop with only two FuelBelt bottles of Skratch Labs. I never made the second loop and crashed around 15 miles. So, this week I loaded up with 6 FB bottles of Skratch Labs, two large bottles for before and after, and 4 Amrita Bars and headed to the Lehigh Parkway. The result was much better. I got in just a hair shy of 18 miles in 2:54. Not super fast, but a consistent pace that I would be happy with at Ironman. I also felt like I could probably do the remaining miles without too much issue. That hip issue that occurred a couple weeks ago has not surfaced again which I am very happy about.  I also ran during the hottest part of the day to simulate when I will be running in Lake Placid.

The recovery week actually ended much better than it started, so I guess that is par for the course. I only now have two more hard weeks of training before taper time(ugh more recovery!). That went fast! Next week I head up to Lake Placid for my annual mini-training camp to kick the tires a bit. Rumor has it they are doing some stand-up paving from the ski jumps down to Cascade which was the WORST part of the bike course. This should help increase the bike times a bit. Stay tuned to my twitter feed for updates on that.