Ironman Training – Week 24 – October 7 – October 13 2019

This week of training was going perfectly until the last day, but more on that in a bit.

A cold front moved into the North TX area and this helped bring the temperatures down. The result of this was that my runs were great. For my long run on Saturday, I managed to run the whole 10 miles without taking any walking breaks. That is quite an accomplishment for me as all my runs over the last few months have been run/walk runs. I did have a run during the week that was cold, wet, and windy, but I didn’t mind at all.

The downside of the cold front is that it impacts my cycling. While I don’t mind and actually love running in the cold, I hate riding in the cold. I was due to do a 5 hr ride on Sunday, but it was too cold at my normal start time so I decided to start riding around 9 am when the temperature was 60F. Initially it didn’t feel too bad, but as I started to sweat, the wind started to feel cold and I was miserable. I abandoned the ride after just over 7 miles.

I then decided to wait until the afternoon when it was due to warm up to the low 70’s. I headed out and while the temperature was fine, my heart and head just wasn’t in the ride and I abandoned that ride after just over 10 miles. In the end, I rode a total of an hour and I didn’t do my 5 hr ride.

Mentally, I’m getting to the point where training is getting harder and harder. I don’t feel physically tired. I’m just not motivated to do those long workouts. While it is scary that the Ironman is only 6 weeks away, a large part of me is glad. I just want to get it over and done with!