Week IM – 23: Big Freeze Continues

Substituting one discipline for another.

The weather continued to conspire against Ironman hopefuls this week. It dropped to –5C on Friday night and a lot of the roads were too icy for a long spin. There was only one thing for it – substitute in a hike for the cycle and climb Kippure Mountain. It turned out to be a lot of fun and, in the opinion of two separate Triathlon sources, a 15Km hike is directly comparable to a 7.5km run, so all was not lost.

Substituting sports completely unrelated to triathlon is quite a good idea – particularly for longer triathlon training. In the first 4-5 months of an IM training plan, you’re basically building a fitness engine to carry you through long hours towards the end. If you can do this in another sport, then it seems to be a good idea to go for it. The last thing you want to be when you arrive at the critical last 3 months is bored. GL recommends all sorts of substitutions – skiing, rowing, hiking, any field sports for workouts.

I got out for a 40km spin on Saturday afternoon so I didn’t see the day as a big training loss.

On Tuesday I had the second physio session in as many weeks. My ITBs (a strip of tissue connecting the knee and hip) were really tight so some deep tissue sports massage (read: elbow digging) was required to loosen them somewhat. They were causing the patellar to track improperly and causing some pain in the knees (AKA Runner’s Knee). When I started on the strength and conditioning program – it seems I neglected the conditioning part - I wasn’t stretching nearly enough. I’ll try and fit in 10 minutes stretching daily from now on, using the foam roller 2 or 3 times a week, especially after running.