There are two different kinds of recovery. Jean seems to be recovering nicely from her broken collar bone. Maybe she’s just telling me what she wants me to hear, but she doesn’t seem to be over doing it. She runs with a towel under her left arm. I’m not sure of the science of that, but she says it helps her keep her arm tight to her side. Whatever works!
She hasn’t been water jogging lately, probably because she’s running on the roads so I know (or I think I know) she hasn’t tried swimming yet. Swimming may be the hardest discipline for her to get back into. She said she rode the bike trainer for 3 hours yesterday and just about went crazy. She plays an oldies CD with some fifties music (the 1950s…you don’t have to be in your fifties to listen to it) and I’m sure she hears it over and over and over and over and over and over and…you get the picture.
The other kind of recovery is from last week’s half ironman race at Muncie. I know I said it would just be another training weekend for me and I really didn’t push it as hard as if it were my “A race” for the season. But I’ve needed a little more recovery than I thought. I had planned to get right back into my normal training program and I noticed my “recovery swim” on Monday morning tired me out. I only did 2400 yards where I normally would do an easy 3600. The turbo trainer on Tuesday was an hour and 54 minutes followed by a 50 minute transition run. I was whipped the rest of the day.
Wednesday I did a “kicked up swim” and managed only 3000 yards before I ran out of gas. Thursday’s run was an 8.5 miler at a little faster than race pace. Friday was another 3600 yard swim that fatigued me early and then came Saturday. Larry was doing a “race rehearsal” and my schedule called for a 300 to 360 minute heart rate 1 or 2 bike followed by a 30 minute run. Larry set up a loop for us from Delton Middle School through the south end of the county, into Allegan County and back to the school. Each loop was 30.4 miles and he planned on doing it 4 times.
I knew I would probably not do the full 4th loop and I was right. I fatigued early in the third loop and cut out a 2.5 mile out and back. After 86.5 miles I was whipped and didn’t even start the 4th. I did run the 30 minute transition and felt surprisingly strong. The ride was hilly like the Ironman Wisconsin course, but I could tell early on that I hadn’t recovered enough from Muncie and I shouldn’t push myself just to say I did it 4 times. My run this morning was 11.4 miles and I was whipped after that one too. Oh I ran well and my legs were strong, but my arms were tired from waving at all the deer flies.
Since we didn’t have a running group run this morning, there was no catered food waiting for me at the end, so I went down to the local greasy spoon (literally…in Delton they give you a greasy spoon, fork, glass and plate) and had the meat lovers omelet. After working for just shy of two hours cleaning that sludge out of my veins, I put it right back. I knew I needed to get energy back into my system. Good intention…bad result.
Congratulations to all the Trilanders who did the Great Lakes Triathlon yesterday. I hope all had fun and it looks like all stayed out of the medical tent which, for our group, is a victory.
Just (Geezers Need More Recovery Time) Jack