70.3 Couer d'Alene Race Week!

6 months of training and somehow it feels like it's both flown by and taken forever to get here. Regardless, it's race week and I couldn't be more excited–even if the last two weeks scared me a bit.

Injury Scare & Illness

Up until about two weeks ago I have been lucky to have to had an injury free year. When I would do my longer runs I would feel some tightness and discomfort in my right calf/shin area. Every time it propped up I was able to rest it away. Every time until two weeks ago when I haphazardly signed up for the Rock n Roll Half Marathon.

Rock n Roll

In a random meeting, a coworker told me about another coworker signing up to do the local Rock n Roll Half Marathon. It so happened that the date of the race was the same day of my weekly long run. I promised myself I would stay within myself and I would not 'race' it.

I did the race and I finished with a great time of 1:51. I kept my pace steady at 8:29/mi and did not feel like I pushed myself too hard. I was extremely happy with the time was looking forward to the final 3 weeks of training.

Normally when I do my long run I feel tightness for 24 hours and then it fades away. I'll do a speed day on the treadmill 2 days after and then no running for several days. By then I'm healed up and good to go. Unfortunately I didn't heal up by the following long run. I opted for a torturous elliptical session for an hour followed by a light 30 minute run.

I gave it a couple more day but decided to skip my next two runs. The calf and shins were still sensitive to anything more than walking. I hated it. Mentally I was on the struggle bus. All of this training for naught. Desperate, my wife reached out to a friend who is an accomplished PT. They were traveling overseas with a US Olympic team but connected me with a colleague in town (also a PT with a US Olympic team).

This last minute appointment alleviated a lot of my fears (that I wouldn't be able to race) and that I had done some damage that would take weeks to heal from. Fortunately, I was a responsible athlete and modified my workouts and took time off because it really could've been worse.

As of this morning I was able to run for 16 minutes with little to no pain. I could adjust where my foot strikes the ground and keep a respectable pace. I'll need to be careful and stop if needed but right now I'm feeling a bit hope I didn't have the past week and a half.

Race Week

The plan is to leave for Couer d'Alene on Thursday. This leaves about 2 days to do everything. I have to train, I have to pack, and I have to wrap a number of things for work. I also have to be a dad and husband in there as well. All good though, I'm anxious, nervous, and very excited.

Goals

My goal is still sub 5:30. I think 5hrs might be out of range considering the injury stuff I've been dealing with. I'm targeting the following splits:

• Swim: Sub 30 min

  • I'm concerned about using a full sleeve wetsuit. If the water temp comes up a couple more degrees I might opt for the sleeveless. I swam with a full sleeve suit this past weekend and it felt like I was fighting against the shoulder restriction.

• Bike: Sub 3 hours

  • There's some climbing in this course. The good part about this is that there is an equal amount of downhill too. The first 16-17 miles are flat. Then a some climbing and rolling hills, a downhill, an uphill, and back to transition. Assuming I'm not toast it should be close.

• Run: Sub 2 hours

  • I know I can do this. I just did it without much rest. But that wasn't directly after a swim and bike ride either. Also I have my shin splints issue I'll be nursing. If I can get into a decent groove I should be able to keep this under 2.

Ending this now. See ya later.