Recovery Week is Over

After last week’s Ironman Lake Placid, this has been a recovery week with short workouts of between 20 to 40 minutes, done a low intensity to allow the body to recover and flush out all the residual toxins and assorted other ‘bad’ stuff in the muscles. On the schedule for today was a 1:30 minute run, which was to include 6 x 1 mile hard effort repeats. After I was running and warmed up I made an executive decision and decided to turn it into a long run. I felt that I needed a decent long run under my belt before heading off to Louisville. I was running north on 10th Line and decided I would go right up to Stouffville Side Road, stop in for a Gatorade and run back down to Markham. My knee was somewhat painful up to mile 7, but I didn’t feel anything afterwards. It was a good run and I feel more confident about the run in Louisville. At least I know I’ll be able to run to mile 15 this time!

Here’s an interesting (and embarrassing) story for last week’s Adirondack Daily News

Fifty-five ambulance calls were made on Sunday during the Ironman competition — about double the amount of calls from last year.

Lee Foster of Saranac Lake, a volunteer driver of a safety and gear (SAG) vehicle during the race, said he aided 23 competitors in addition to the ambulance calls Sunday. One accident in particular stood out — it involved a cyclist colliding with the back of his vehicle and three others colliding with the back of the ambulance he called to the scene.

Tina M. Pippy, 41, a police officer from Ottawa, was pedaling on state Route 86 near Cobble Mountain Road toward Lake Placid when she collided with his SAG vehicle. Foster had parked the Chevrolet Suburban in a position to protect another woman who had recently fallen off her bike from severe stomach cramps. While Foster called an ambulance and administered care, Pippy collided with the back of the vehicle, Foster said.

Pippy suffered a broken arm and ribs, and cracked her helmet in the accident as well as breaking the left-side taillight of Foster’s vehicle, he said. She was treated at Adirondack Medical Center and released on Sunday, according to hospital spokesman Joe Riccio.

Foster called a second ambulance, which arrived and picked up Pippy. As it backed out of the scene, three more cyclists collided with the back of it, he said. None of them was injured.

Ironman emergency crew, by the numbers:

82 EMS volunteers
25 member medical team
24 ambulances
2 advanced life-support fly cars
1 Life Flight helicopter
55 ambulance calls made