Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Post Ironman...Now What?.....

So what happens following Ironman?

After crossing the finish line (about 20 min later) my body decided that enough was enough and got rid of every bit of the liquid fuel that I had taken in for the day.  After a pretty yucky 15-20 minutes I was driven back to the hotel.  EPIC LONG SHOWER, ginger ale and crackers, with some great reminiscing about the day’s race until 1AM with Scott and our amazing friends.

As I expected I got ZERO SLEEP that night.  Body just did not want to give into it.  Thank goodness for social media during the early A.M. hours.  I was so glad when the sun came up so I could start talking again.  LOL!

Days after I was still not able to eat a lot and what I did eat was far from anything I had trained with for the past 9 months.  I found those foods to sound nauseating.  So I mixed it up with fresh things and the taste change worked!

Now more than a week later I have sadly cut the Ironman wrist band off and am about to die to get back to some form of exercise.  Seriously, how do people “do lazy” and not go crazy from being so lazy?

I added up what I took in during the entire Ironman event:
20 Gu gels (1 before the swim, 1 after, 7 on the bike, and the rest during the marathon)
5 fuel bottles on the bike
TONS of water during the day
1 Cliff bar
5 little cups of flat coke (so good during the run)
6 or so orange slices
2 packs of power bar chomps (1 on the bike, 1 during the run)
* I do feel my fuel was spot on for me.  I never once felt a dip and my energy was even throughout the day)

So I have another 5 weeks until I can even think about riding on the roads again.  After over doing it Friday I am very aware of what having cracked ribs really mean.  The pain was just about more than I could handle and I am now controlling it with meds.  Trying to be smarter is not always easy.

All this “lazy “ recovery has given me plenty of time to plan out my next big event(s).  HUBBY is even joining in along with two of our closest friends.  CRAZY and AWESOME is in our near future with this group!

May – 2012 White Lake Half Iron, NC
October – 2012 REV3 Half Iron, SC
June – 2013 Ironman Coeur d’Alene (any bloggers care to join us?!!)

Now all we need to do is SAVE and PAY for all of this EPIC fun.

Robin

9 comments:

Matthew Smith said...

You deserve a break after all that craziness for Ironman. IMCDA is tempting, and I might see you at REV3 in SC. I'm pretty sure I'm doing the Rev3 in Knoxville. Enjoy the break, but get back into it. I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing too!

Matty O said...

I don't know what my nutrition will be on race day. It's honestly up in the air. Everything I practiced does not sound good anymore haha.

So, I will be freezing snickers bars and other little "treats" that will be waiting for me at special needs.

Partly to motivate me to get there, and partly because I know I will eat a snickers bar :)

We need to start saving too :( 2 IM brand events next year = not cheap ... ugh.

Marlene said...

I hope you can find a way to enjoy the downtime without going crazy from "laziness" - but it's not LAZY in your case, just recovery. :) Remember that!!

Wowzers, that's a lot of gels! Crazy to think that you raced through three meals and a day's worth of snack times. hehe

Big Daddy Diesel said...

Here is an article I have saved, maybe it can help you

http://www.trifuel.com/training/triathlon-training/your-ironman-is-over-what-about-life-as-you-know-it

Karen said...

My hubs has had more than a few cracked or borken ribs and swears they are worse than any other broken bone you can have. Rest up! I have heard IM CDA is so lovely. That would definitely be on my list of must dos... you crack me up that you already have your next race planned :)

Wes said...

sleeping after an Ironman is indeed a challenge :-) Good thing I always cat nap on the ride home!

Heal up chica! more adventures await!!

Judi said...

i cant believe you want to do another IM! me? never again!

Grey Beard said...

With cracked ribs, the first 2 weeks are the worst, and the pain seems to peak at about 10 days. They hurt worse than the collar bone break for ~ 2 months.

IIRC, (broken) ribs were still bothering me when bad weather rolled in 5 months later. They have not bothered me the last 2-3 months though, so they do seem to heal completely.

Lazy comes with age, which is really about pains from injury history and fatigue sapping the joy out of sports. Of course, the best defense against both is to stay very fit and healthy without overdoing it. Sounds like you are already planning to do just that.

JD said...

Still thinking about joining you crazies for IMCDA....I'm too afraid of the discipline necessary to complete the training!

jd