IMAZ Week 18: Needing a break

18 weeks down, 6 weeks to go. 3 weeks until taper starts!

This week work has really picked up again and I am busier than ever. Thankfully I'm not travelling at the moment, but still, the longer hours at work and more mental investment does make it tough to keep the focus on Ironman training. I think this week I also suffered from "I am sick of all this training consuming all of my spare time", and I just generally felt tired and lazy. It also didn't help that the massage on Tuesday made me feel pretty sore for the next few days.

This week was also recovery week. Sorry, "reduced hours" week. Not actually recovery according to our coaches. But I think my body desperately needed recovery week this week and not just reduced hours! So I took some recovery and reduced the hours and now I'm feeling mentally refreshed and re-charged, ready to go into the last hard 3 weeks of training before taper starts. I am still dealing with some aches and pains in my calf and foot but I'm hoping that if I stay consistent with massage, stretching and icing then hopefully that will keep this thing under control until I truly get a chance to recover post-IMAZ.

I only did 6.5 hours this week, which is half what I usually do. The goal was 11 hours. I had 4 whole days off this week. I feel a little guilty. But a little guilt is good and that will fuel the next 3 weeks. I think it has also been sensible to rest my calf and foot a little bit too. Having said that, I ran 8:45's for my long run this week after swimming earlier in the morning, no wonder I woke up feeling lazy on Sunday and wanting to skip the 60mi bike ride!

Mon - OFF
Tue - OFF (took Gordon to Zoot for an early birthday dinner!)
Wed - T3 Swim (1.25h)
Thu - Easy Run (0.75h), T3 Trainer Ride (1.25h)
Fri - OFF (worked until 10pm)
Sat - T3 Swim (1.25h), Long Run (13.5mi/2h)
Sun - OFF (was supposed to be 60mi bike, also Gordon's birthday!)

Weekly Totals:

Cycling: 1.25h / 25mi (Goal: 5.5h)
Running: 2.75h / 18.5mi (Goal:3h)
Swimming: 2.5h / 4.35mi (Goal: 2.5h)

So the cycling suffered this week. But missing one 60mi bike ride is not going to make a difference to my training. I think after all the years I've been training I've started to realise what's important and what can be skipped. Not that I make a habit of skipping workouts, but I know that the mental and physical benefit of truly having a recovery week can be more beneficial than doing a 60mi bike ride.

PS
Yes, I'm making excuses. Which means that I do feel a bit guilty about missing the 60mi bike ride. Gordon and I talked it over for a good 30 minutes, wavering backwards and forwards between "let's just go and do an hour or two" and "let's just relax and enjoy doing nothing". Clearly the doing nothing idea won today :)

PPS
Can you categorize playing the Wii as part of triathlon training?