Different kind of training day...

Today was a train and watch Reid train day. It didn't help that I had one or four more beers than I should have last night. I wasn't close to hungover, just really really tired all day long.

I would have been fine had I been able to sleep an extra couple of hours this morning. Unfortunately, I had to be up early to get Reid to his 9 am weight training session. According to his swim club training schedule, I'll be doing this for the next 3 months.

I learnt an important lesson today, no more than a few beers on Friday night if I want to have any energy to get up early on Saturday morning. Saturday night will have to become my beer night.

As Reid did weights, I went and had a slow tire leak repaired. When I picked him up he already had a couple of new friends. One yelled, "See ya Reid". It sounded like he was someone Reid already knew. I asked Reid who that was and he said, "a kid I met, we were weight training partners". His name was Markus.

We got home and I just wanted to nap, but time wouldn't allow it. I only had enough time to get my tempo ride in before I had to drive Reid to the pool for his second training session of the day. My legs were still sore from yesterday's run and I knew I wasn't going to "mail" this ride in. I was committed to go as hard as I could without going anaerobic. Which I executed to plan perfectly.

It was a little windy and cool. I'll take the wind over a cool day any day. I took a hilly route and my entire plan was to have a HIGH QUALITY training session. My legs were exhaustedly sore. Yesterday's run hurt, so today's bike was going to be somewhat painful.

I was so tired, it was cold, it was windy and I knew it was going to hurt, I really didn't want to do today's ride. But I had no choice, I NEEDED this muscle tearing ride as part of my preparation for next Saturdays IMSG. A tempo ride was the second last ingredient to a set of fully shredded leg muscles.

The last part of the recipe is to do a 10 km road race tomorrow. After that, my legs should be completely spent and my body fully exhausted. So far I'm on track, except I need to be careful about my right Achilles, it's a little sore to the touch right now. If I wasn't already registered, I'm not sure if I'd do a race day sign up.

With that said, I'm still going to do it, I just don't know how hard I'm going to go. I want to go hard, but I don't want to injure myself 6 days before IMSG. My plan is to come up with a race day plan at the start line or shortly thereafter. I'll do a 10 minute warm up before the start and depending on how it feels will determine how fast I want to go.

I'm also not sure how much my legs have in them to race. They are currently close to full depletion. I want to go fast if I can, but I'd happy with a slower pace if it fully empties my muscles. If I start fast and feel ANY problems with the Achilles it will be immediate slowdown, even if it becomes a 10 km walk. I hope everything goes according to plan because I'm looking forward to a relaxing muscle rebuilding taper.

My ride was strong, one of the strongest that I can remember having in the Escarpment in a long time. During the ride, I didn't eat anything and only drank 1.5 bottles of water. When I got home I had to get Reid to swim club and barely had something to eat. I would have much preferred to eat and nap. I was so tired and was working my way to a semi-bonk state without much food.

As I was driving Reid to the pool, I was thinking, "this is all good. Training hard all week, not taking care of myself last night, getting up early and training sore and tired is a great way to prepare for the Ironman. Next week's rest days are going to be so well deserved and beneficial. If everything goes according to plan, my muscles will be rebuilt and be I'll be standing at the IMSG waters edge ready to go".

It turns out Reid's swim club session ran long. It was supposed to be 1:15 and it lasted 2 hours. The kids were doing a 5 km swim-athon. What a great day for Reid to start, he hasn't swam laps in a couple years and WHAM, he gets two hours of lane time right out of the gate.

He did luck out in one respect, they didn't have the right training swimsuit for him, so they gave him a racing speed suit instead. Of course, if he quits after three months, I've already taken "dibs" on the suit.

However, they forgot his swim cap and he had to wear one of mine. He was a little disappointed, he wanted a club cap. The coach said he'll get Reid one, that picked him up a bit. Turns out he'd rather wear a team cap than an Ironman China cap.

I forgot to show him how to put the cap on. Rather than the logo's on the sides, he had them on the front and back. I've captured it on video. If he ever gets good, this will be good video of how "little he knew".

In the pool, his swimming looked good. He may not be fastest, but he's not the slowest and he has a decent stroke. It still needs work, he's not reaching enough, but it's decent. He was even swimming faster than some of the people in his lane and his coach was yelling at him to pass the slow people. He definitely doesn't look out of place.

For some reason, it was unusually "hot and humid" in the pool area. I was just watching him and was fading from the heat. He didn't even have any water. When one of the mothers beside me "suggested" I get my son some water or Gatorade, I realized that probably wasn't a bad idea and I got some Gatorade for him. When he saw it, I could tell he appreciated it. He probably thought I'm such a loving and caring father.

Truth be told, as a father, I just don't have those motherly instincts. Had the women beside me not said anything, I probably wouldn't even have considered getting him something to drink. Afterwards, if he would have asked for some, I would have told him, "don't worry, we'll be home soon, I'm not paying $2 for a Gatorade, suck it up and just drink your spit".

I also come by it honestly for two reasons. First, I had similar fatherly upbringing, and two, I don't normally think of drinking water when I swim. My philosophy is, "Why drink water, when your in water?"

All in all, Reid did AWESOME!!! As we were walking to the car, he looked at me and said, "your going down, that money is mine". The non verbal energy he had when he said it was, "I have no problem doing this!!!" On the car ride home, I captured some of his "cockiness" on video.

On a different note, Johan Stemmet is racing IMSA today. You can track him at Ironman.com he's in great shape, trained hard and should do well. Hopefully Kona bound. Send him your karmic cheers and vibes.

Tempo Bike - 2:30:22 / 81.12 km / 32.37 kph / 135 avg hr /1407 ft elevation gain

180.2 lbs / 21.4 BMI

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