Journey to Kona Day 225: Playing it by Ear

During my taper for Kona it is essential that I play every day by ear.  Today, I rode my bike for 90 minutes.  My goal is to ride between 90 minutes and 2 hours every few days.  I'll follow up that ride with a 30-60 minute run.  Today I ran for half an hour.  That was enough.  I felt ok at the start of my workout today, but "just" ok.  In the spirit of recovery, I'm trying to maintain neuromuscular stimulation, but not at the expense of any added fatigue.  In fact, if I do these workouts right, they'll help me reduce my fatigue level.  It's a fine line.  Laying on the couch theoretically should help reduce fatigue, but I think that we all know that laying on the couch isn't good for us.  Active recovery is the operative word, while at the same time maintaining my fitness.  As soon as I'm feeling much better, I can even sprinkle in a little intensity. Just a little, lest I dig myself a hole that I can't get out of before Kona.

My bike ride felt good today.  I rode two loops of my hilly 11.2 mile course in my neighborhood.  I kept my intensity down to comfortable, and kept my heart rate reasonably low.  During my second loop, Thump!, I ran over something, and then, thump, thump, thump. My front tire flatted.  I've never had any confidence in fixing flats, but I've been working on it lately, mostly out of necessity, rather than choice.  My initial reaction was to call my wife to pick me up, but that thought lasted about a second.  This was a chance to test all of my equipment and flat fixing abilities.  I had my flat changed in about 10 minutes.  Not super fast, but if I ever flat during an ironman, I get 10 minutes of rest before heading back out on the bike.  Not too big of a deal in the big scheme of things!

I collect a ton of data with every ride.  My power output and heart rate were right where I want them to be at this point.  In fact, my effort on today's ride is consistent with my goal in Kona.  What's positive about that is that I have three more weeks to shed fatigue in order to feel even better at a similar power output.  That's encouraging.  I was only three days removed from my last long run today, so I know that I'm not fully recovered.  Speaking of recovery, I set out to run 6 miles, but decided to cut it to three.  I was still feeling some fatigue during my run, though my legs felt fine.  It is my goal to finish every workout feeling like I could do more.  That's something that my coach has pounded into me.

I'll be repeating what I did today every few days, and every time I do it, I'll play it by ear.  I've learned over the years to listen to my body, and now is the time to fully take advantage of that knowledge.  Come race day, in three weeks and three days, I'll use that same knowledge, whatever data I have available and my instincts to guide me.  That's playing it by ear!