Recovery....

Recovering from a race is like tapering but worse......at least when you taper you can get excited about the race, calm yourself that all this sitting will only enhance the race, make you faster, let the hard work be absorbed.... Recovering from an IM is not hard the first week, because, well moving is usually painful, you have NO desire to hop on the bike or run, swimming - nah. But after a 70.3 and after one where I did not leave everything I had on the course and have another race in 5 weeks is hard!

Day after I was tired - yes from the race, but also from waking up at 3am race day and not sleeping well race night. Always mystifies me how after an IM or 70.3 I do not sleep....all the adrenaline and caffeine (in my case) is surging through my body. So I feel crappy from no sleep.

Monday comes around and it is a reverse taper day...aerobic maintenance- 20 minutes of each. Really 20 min on the bike - it takes me that long to get all my gear together. Maybe I should just cruise around on my 1990 Fuji Mtn bike that weighs 30lbs and has old fashion pedals, but I do as coach says. Flush the lactic acid out. Honestly I skipped the swim- the pool is 10-20 minutes from me and the effort to go there and back is 30+ minutes. The first few steps running were stiff but I was amazed how quickly my legs loosened up. And well after 20 min on the bike, I kept riding, it felt good.

Tuesday I was back swimming and hooray UCSD is finally long course meters! Big change from short course and I love it. And my shoulder was awesome, okay, great 90% pain free. I'll take it. Felt good to swim and since this was the 1st day of long course times meant nothing to me, so I'll assume they were outstanding. The only think I dislike about long course is we go from 16+ lanes to 8 lanes and we have to share and sometimes with a lot of people. Now I am very spoiled as I swim at 7:30 when there are 70% less people that the people who swim at 6am. Since I don't have a real job I can swim later. Often at 7:30 I have my own lane, which I love, because I can modify the workout when it is too much stroke or kicking....I just swim a long set and then regroup with the workout. So now I have to play well with others and follow the workout. But it's all good because now I swim in a faster lane and just try to hang on.

After swim, Jen was riding 4 hours! She is a maniac, after 90 on Saturday and mega Mtn Biking Sunday she rips out another long ride. And she has no Ironman on the schedule....she is my hero and well young too! that's my excuse and I am sticking to it. So I joined her for part of the ride and it is amazing how we can chatter non stop the whole time- nothing better than girlfriends on the bike. I was explaining recently to Riley about the special relationships that come out of hours on the bike or long runs. How you really cannot foster a friendship like that in other ways...you have each others undivided attention and we talk and talk. Now mind you this is not true with all cyclists, the boys we ride with are often seen shaking their heads as we chatter our way up Great Western Loop, Kitchen Creek and the like. Now I'm not sure I would be described as a "chatty Kathy" type in day to day life but on a bike, whole other alter ego!

I ran Tuesday evening, something I normally do not do. I am usually all about train early, be done and enjoy the day (not that I don't enjoy training, but well, you know) In any case I ran at 5 and it was awesome - not the usual gastric issues I usually suffer from later in the day and it was great. So maybe more of that? Maybe or maybe not.

So recovery week has reached Wed and really and the runs are longer, the rides are longer but not long as in Ironman long but slowly creeping back up. So by the end of the week, the workouts are of respectable length and I roll into a monster volume week - last one and to be handled with care, too hard and I have back off. This will take patience and probably mean I am training alone- no temptation to hammer with anyone! Good Ironman training.