Week 9 IMTX 2015 -- Turn the switch
Week 9 is here! 12 weeks to go! I hope everyone's Pre-season/Outseason/ Get Faster training has gone well. While it is now time to shift your head into the "training to race mentality", 12 weeks is still a ways to go. Focus on building consistency hitting the high priority workouts this week. Good luck everyone! Lets get some action going in the IMTX forum.
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Dang. It's that time already
I woke up this morning with all POSITIVE thoughts. No negative. 12 weeks of positive thoughts!!!
Have you done IMTX Mark?
How'd everyone else do today?
Just got done with swim. It's my first back to back long swim. I felt a little tired, but kept telling myself....12 WEEKS. There are no excuses for 12 weeks!!!! The work has to be done!
I actually prefer the longer yardage sets versus the sprints. I get into more of a rhythm with the longer.
Just got home, going to run in a bit.
Having trouble deciding on what kind of fuel. I'm starving now, but don't wanna eat because of the run. I drank some Gatorade while I was swimming. I think I'll do a GU and see how that feels.
Was looking forward to riding outside tomorrow, but 100% chance of rain, so trainer it is
I'm still under-performing on my rides, but I'm giving myself a bit of a break on that, since I've been focusing more on the run and swim over the last few weeks.
https://app.strava.com/activities/259949236/overview
I'm with you on that Chatter. My mind tells my body to get comfortable with the pain and struggle. Then my body tells my mind to keep out of its affairs, and then cuts off oxygen to the brain.
So the swim was pretty cool. I got tired at the end and felt like I was swimming through molasses.
You can barely see your hand in front of you in the water, but I like dark water compared to clear!
The one tip I have for everyone----be at the swim start early. We got there an hour before start and stood in the bathroom line the whole time. We FINALLLY get out of that line with about 2 minutes to spare before the cannon goes off. Took that long to get our wetsuits on. Cannon went off as we were walking down the path to the water. There were people just standing around on the path, in no hurry to get in. This year, I will be in the water when it goes off!
My IMTX was finishing the swim and DNF at about mile 82. Boyfriend made it through run, I was just a spectator at that point. Smarter training this year---crossing the line before 17 hours!!!!
For me, I was excited about week 9 for a while as the week coming from the swim transition/Nov OS and ready to get down to business in preparation for TXIM. Unfortunately, my youngest daughter contracted rotovirus, and then passed it on up the food chain hitting me last, literally the Saturday night before Week 9 was ready to start. Outside of physical weakness and other things that go on with the virus, let's just say I could not get psyched up for the workouts because there was nothing in the tank. Long story short, the front end of the week was pretty miserable, struggling to stay on pace with my wko's and a couple were sacrificed in order to get better quicker. On the week, only missed one high priority wko so feeling a small victory. Today, finally had a breakthrough in that I recaptured some of that pre roto magic where my legs on the bike felt about 90% strong and sustained both training rides throughout the weekend.
Looking ahead to week 10, I am planning to go 100% on Red and Yellow, 50% on Green. My wife is taking the kids this coming weekend to her parent's home in Erie, Pa so it's full on preparation mode for camp in a few weeks and starting to dial in a nutrition schedule for the bike and run. My wife is awesome but she still can't wrap her head around the adult training camp. I caught that look to Ed!!
Good luck this week, Eat Nails.
There is a practice swim a few weeks before the race, where you can swim in the main lake. But they don't let you go up the channel to the swim-out. If you're interested in doing that, let me know, and we'll head over there together.
I've made it a point in my training to purposely get water in my goggles, so that I could practice flipping on my back and fixing them, while still moving forward.
@Eric.. Glad you're getting back in form... Sick is no fun... But on the bright side it was good timing... Didn't ruin your camp/race.
My wife took an "If I can't beat 'em...I'll join 'em" approach. She did a HIM last year and we both signed up IM Boulder this summer ( 2 days before our 25th anniversary... So to keep peace about attending camp I got her to sign up for Total Immersion swim camp in Vegas last month...
I was listening to coach Patrick IMTX podcast from a couple years ago when he won his AG... Good stuff
http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/d/a/0/da097201f2293d3b/IMTX_Patrick.mp3?c_id=4554324&expiration=1425278695&hwt=ec4abd5410f417cfed2fbfdf31bc5132
@ Eric...you poor thing regarding getting sick! I only had a slight case of getting sick after the Big Protocol Ride and was out for 3 days! But glad you are back in the saddle and ready to ROCK!
@Latisha! Thanks for the calming advice
@ Ron...how do I seed myself in a Mass Start?
@ Chris...genius idea about the goggle practice to get water out! Trying that today even in the pool!
@ Ed...thank you
Are y'all going to be at the CAMP?
In my opinion only, unless you feel you are a strong swimmer, willing to get beat up a little you should stay back behind the big pack ( bridge would be good start) being a bit behind the pack will give you time to settle in and then once you feel comfortable you can rock. With more experience you can move up closer to front. However there are only a few IM's left that are mass start. Embrace the experiace and RELAX ! It's a rush I love it.
If you haven't seen (I know it's a rival team) good video on course. http://www.outrivalracing.com/orr-ironman-texas/
Ron's advice is right on target (but what else would you expect from someone whose done this nonsense 4 times...lol?)... more important than worrying about if you've done 3K yards... or if you made it to 1:05 or 1:10... recon the course and seed yourself right. You'll swim a straighter... less congested line... limit the contact by not getting swum over by the swim beasts... or bumping into the people in full panic mode... At the start it will take a little bit to settle down and get into your normal rhythm... but once you do its cruise control...
Can't wait to get down to Houston for a few days to meet the team and hopefully get some sun!! Second winter in a row where Polar Vortex has made the news more times than I can count, not good.
FYI, if anyone is looking to grab some cheap IMTX gear, it's 2014 stock but on the ironman website they are getting rid of everything they have at super cheap prices. Thought I would throw that out since I was on their site last night and grabbed a visor, a hoodie and a t shirt / hat for my wife and support crew. Good training gear and positive reinforcement.
Back to it in the pool tomorrow, get after it on the run guys. Good luck.