The Road to IRONMAN: Hell Week
Mike Drak, Author and Senior Contributor for Booming Encore, has publicaly shared his goal to complete the IRONMAN race in Cozumel in November, 2022. He is currently undergoing an aggressive training schedule and shares updates with us on his progress.
Last week was my hardest and longest training week appropriately dubbed “Hell Week.”
Total training amounted to 23 hours broken down as follows;
Swim 4 hours
Bike 12 hours
Run/Walk 7 hours
The hardest workout was the 3.5 walk/run I did in a light cold rain on Thursday. I wore gloves but still my hands were cold the only consolation being that it will not be cold in Cozumel.
My leg while still only around 70% is on the improve and will not prevent me from doing the race which is a big relief. It would have really bothered me to go this far and not be able to start.
There has been a lot of cold/flu going around and it feels like I’m surrounded by it.
When my wife caught it I decided to get the flu shot and after talking to the pharmacist I decided to get my COVID booster as well. She had an opening on Thursday night and after getting the shots I was told that I could feel some side effects and not to train for two days. I opted to only miss training on Friday and during Saturday’s swim I started to feel real bad and my left arm hurt. In the swim workout our goal was to do 15 X 100 meters on 2:15. I only managed to complete 12 of them before bailing on the workout.
On Sunday I went for a planned 140k ride but around the 80k mark I began to weaken considerably. I thought the weakness was probably due to the shots I was given. Not wanting to press the issue I called the Contessa to pick me up after 100 km.
On Monday night while swimming on my back I almost fell asleep I was that tired. I decided to quit the workout early.
Thankfully this week’s schedule is easy and I will get some much needed recovery.
On the plus side I’m getting excited. I will be leaving for Cozumel on the 12th with the race being on the 20th. Time to work on my race plan!
