A little run down

Last weekend must of had a bit of a negative effect on me. I am a bit sick with a cold in the middle of the summer. I guess it is better now than 3 weeks from now. I am about to force myself to go run for 2 hours in the heat. On the bright side, it is not after cycling for 6 hours so it shouldn't be too bad. I swam 2300 meters this morning and felt ok but not fantastic. I had a nice social ride last night with some old friends, including Ross Palmer who used to live here but now lives in Austrailia. There were 5 of us and I was quite a bit faster than 3 of them and not as fast as one guy (Dan) So, it was fun because I went fast with Dan for a bit and then we circled back for the others and chatted for a bit etc... It reminded me that training for an ironman is a bit of a lonely pursuit because you train so much and alot of the training you do by yourself. (or, at least I do)

I plan on doing some open water swimming in the morning in Rustico and then my last big ride on Saturday. I am going to do slightly more than 180 k so that I can say it is my longest ride ever. (because my longest ride has always been the ironman distance of 180 k) if i am going to do 180 k, i might as well do 182 k.

Not much to report

On Monday this week I was completely wiped out after the weekend so I took the day off. Yesterday, I swam about 2600 m in the pool doing 100s, 200s and some kicking. Last night I went for a short run of about a half an hour just to lossen up my legs. Today I plan to go road biking for a couple of hours and am trying to find someone to go with. Tomorrow is supposed to be about a 2 hour run which shouldn't be too bad.

Not quite recovered from the weekend

This was my second last long training weekend before ironman canada and I am feeling it this morning. Saturday, I was on the road at 7 am. I cycled out from charlottetown toward North Rustico and met up with Corena and Kris Taylor on route. We cycled to Stanley Bridge where Corena left us and Kris and I went up to French River, Darnley, Malpaque and Kensington and then back to Stanley Bridge where Kris left me. Then I continued on to Hunter River, Brookvale and then back to Charlottetown. It was 165 k in total which is the longest ride I have done this year. But, it was the 3 hour run yesterday morning that really did me in. I was slow and sore in multiple places by the end of it. Corena and I did it together and the quote of the morning for me was when we started to run and she said "holy heavy legs!" Yesterday was a good indication of how you feel when you do an ironman triathlon. I think that the people who end up walking the marathon in an ironman haven't done enough of these types of runs where you feel terrible but keep on going. Yesterday afternoon I had to lie down for a couple of hours just to get off my legs.
On another (but related) topic i went out to dinner with friends last night who I get together with every summer and got a rather serious lecture (unsolicited) from this friend that she felt that I was addicted to exercise and that it was not "healthy" and that I needed to stop doing ironman triathlons.
I didn't bother to argue a whole lot but did try to point out that there were worse things to be addicted to and I like the structure of having a a training plan; I enjoy the people I meet and hang with while training; the people I do traithlons with are my friends and we do other things together etc.... I am not sure she listened to my point of view. There is one more big week of training and then a 3 week taper. I am supposed to cycle for an hour today just to loosen the legs but I am not feeling to ambitious as I sit here right now.