Week 25 - Post Race Recovery and Build Up

After taking Monday off, I felt pretty good with not too much stiffness and no soreness in the legs. But it was nice having a day off totally from training anyway. Normally I go for a recovery swim the day after a race with not too much of anything else. However the planned swim for that day did not materialize as I unexpectedly got called in to work. On Tuesday I did a lot of stretching and core work which made me feel really good. I also put in in a 50K Bike ride to Duke Point on a nice Sunny day.

On Wednesday, it was back at the lake for a 2000 M swim, coffee break rest and then off I was on the hills of Ladysmith doing a 12K Tempo run. The legs felt just great. On Thursday it was back for another 40K Tempo ride on the bike and then on to a tempo 10k run. Friday was my longest swim this year with 3000M going across the lake and back 4 times. My shoulder held up and was only a bit sore at the end. Hopefully, I am starting to heal as I gave my arms quite a lot of rest in the past couple of weeks with very little swimming and weights. I cannot make up for lost time and expect too much too reduce my swimming times but just maybe now that the soreness is starting to go away, I can push a bit harder in the water and gain a bit of time.

Saturday was a scorcher of a day and I headed out with a group of friends on a bike ride. They had left from Duncan therefore I was joining them 30K later. We had not ridden more than 40K when 3 of them had flats which slowed down the pace a bit. When they decided to turn around, I continued on as I had to get some extra mileage in. Altogether because of the heat, I consumed almost 8 bottles of gatorade, supplementing with a copious amount of gels and a salt tab every hour. I finished the 140K ride feeling no cramps but really hot. I quickly got home and took in some L-Glutamine and had a ice cold protein shake. Later on I treated myself to a nice juicy steak and a couple of good Belgium beers. Ahhh....So refreshing!

On Sunday I did not know how my legs would feel after the long previous day's ride. I had 24K long run planned and it was already screaming hot by 9:00am when I left. I carried my gatorade bottle and one gel with me. That was soon gulped down because of the heat and thank God there was a gas station convenience store on my route where I could re-fill my bottle. The one thing I forgot however were salt tabs as I was sweating profusely in the humid hot climate. But I survived the run with a good steady pace and had a good nap after to rest myself for work that afternoon.

All in all it was a very good week of post race training, and this coming week is loaded with high mileage. I also have an Olympic distance Tri this weekend but with all this heavy training, I am guessing I will not have too much gas left in the tank for a good performance. If I do not feel up to par, I do not think I will participate in this one. But we shall see and play it by ear for now. 8 Weeks to go to Ironman. Time is swiftly going by and so much training to complete.