20 Weeks Out!

Wow 3 weeks have gone by already and it has not been easy. I think I am starting to get used to the training volume but I am already starting to see some changes in my body. The two biggest changes is I am always hungry and I need a lot more sleep. I guess those shouldn't be surprising but I have just been amazed with how fast the two caught up with me. Another smaller change I haven't quite adjusted to yet is the demands of what I eat. I have found that afer eating some meals (pizza) my body responds pretty negatively (indigestion, feeling hungry right after but my stomach is already full) and after eating others (salad) my body feels great. I also am seeing weird cravings develop: after a long workout I LOVE salt, I am always thirsty (ok no surprise there), and I always want a glass of whole milk. For the most part I have continued with a pretty unhealthy diet and just dealt with the consequences as they come but pretty soon I am going to have to start thinking about keeping a food diary and trying to focus on foods my body wants and cut out the garbage.

Suburb Scenery

Swimming
I had a major breakthrough with swimming and you won't believe what it was. Instead of counting my laps, I move my water bottle along the tiles at the side of the pool. I usually have no idea how many laps I have left and I found it makes the time go by so much faster. Before I was counting every lap in my head, then thinking about it as a percent (yup, I'm a nerd), thinking about how much time was left, thinking how much I hate swimming, "wait was that 14 or 15 laps?". Now I just try and have fun with it and not look at how many tiles are left to cover up. I actually started trying to learn flip turns last time I was swimming and had a blast (I CANNOT do flip turns haha). And then after, I spend 15 minutes sitting in the hot tub. All in all I am trying to find ways to make swimming more fun.

Insert  Pool Picture Here 

(it always feels weird bringing a camera to the pool)

Biking
With the weather turning, I am forced to do almost all my training rides inside. There is some definite ups and downs to this. The upsides: it is really easy to get food and drink, I train in my apartment so it is 72 degrees which is close to expected race temperature, the trainer forces you to pedal constantly and really focus on strength, and I can jsut get on and go - no need to look up the forecast, plan for gear, anticipate a flat, etc. The downsides: it. is. boring. Riding outside is so much more fun with the sites and people watching, I ride a lot slower inside (probably a setting on the trainer), I will be racing outside and not on the trainer. But something I picked up from one of the many triathlon podcasts I listen to is I tell myself "I get to ride today" and try to never think "I have to ride today". Just a simple change in the wording makes it more enjoyable.

Running
I go back and forth on whether I prefer to run outside or on the treadmill. On the treadmill I can monitor my pace obsessively and try to measure my improvement. If I run outside, the time goes by a lot quicker. I did my long run outside this past weekend and it went by wayy faster than some of my short runs done on a treadmill. But there is always the weather consideration. So I bought some more cold weather gear and will play it by ear each time I go. I will say this last long run outside was full of excitement. I got out there pretty early since it was Thanksgiving and I had to help with some of the meal prep. I got there so early... the sun wasn't up yet. If you have ever run through a forest preserve an hour before sunrise without a sun lamp, you'll know what I am talking about. A squirrel came out of nowhere about a mile into my run and I was sure I was about to be murdered. Then, right after the sun came up I rounded a corner and almost ran into a HUGE deer. And then around halfway through I ran out of water. Of course all of these things made the run way more fun so I imagine my next long run will be outside but now that I am back in the city, I can't imagine seeing many more deer.

See that deer?!

Other
Some things in the back of my mind - the only triathlon I can do in open water before the ironman is about 8 weeks out in Houston. Should I pull the trigger and sign up? It wold mean booking a hotel, paying for the race, taking the time off, buying a flight, and renting a bike. It would also be some of my only open water training before the big day. I probably have to do it but I am a bit nervous. - Update: I signed up! Haha in the day since I wrote this and hadn't posted it, I signed up.

Travel for the real race - I haven't given this any thought yet. EEK!

The last big thing at the front of my mind is what to do about the Holidays coming up? I have a ski trip and then of course Christmas and New Years. How is all of that going to affect my ability to stay on my training plan? Would it be smarter to take a break during ski trip and just enjoy the skiing?

23 Weeks Out!

Well week 1 of training is here and boy it came on fast. I thought I had all this free time and of course as soon as training starts, my schedule fills up. There should be a nice lull again once the holidays are over but between now and then, I am struggling to fit it all in. I actually started typing this post a week ago and I still haven't managed to post it!!

View from the bike route

So as I start on this journey, I think back to my training for the half Ironman, I found I really enjoyed crossing my workouts off as I completed them. The problem with creating a calendar in advance though, was my weeks always shifted around so I never did the workouts on the day I expected to. So I am trying to come up with a good way to track my workouts that involves crossing out each workout as I complete it but also allows for some flexibility. I found a few apps and decided they were too complicated. So below is a picture of what I came up with:

Before with my "plan"

After with almost every workout shifted

The calendar method is kind of working but it isn't perfect yet. Of course I love to get the hardest workouts over first so I started with my first long bike ride. It was 40 miles which of course when I think back to last year, wasn't that long ago. But I can say at like mile 10 I thought I was going to die. I seriously overestimated my fitness levels starting this thing! That is ok though I can still complete every work out, and at this point, this is all I care about.

The swim is going pretty well. I have made a conscious effort to go slow and work on building strength before I start trying power through the longer swims. So what it looks like, is I swim 50 yards, stop for a few seconds to catch my breath, and then takeoff again. Eventually I am going to have to skip those little breaks but for now it allows me to focus on my form. I had a little scare a few weeks ago where I pulled my back muscle trying to ramp up too quickly. This new method has not seen a recurrence of the pulled muscle so I am going to stick with it for now. Plus it's way more fun to swim when you don't feel like you are drowning.

As far as the running goes, this is probably where my fitness was furthest from where it needed to be. I always feel so sluggish and heavy. Part of the problem could be I actually am sort of heavy right now. I have also taken this training as carte blanche to eat whatever I want. So my diet has been crap - yesterday it was McDonald's and cereal. (Yes in that order.) Another thing I am sort of dealing with is I have a little bit of foot pain. I am hoping it is just my foot getting used to the new training levels and is not something more serious like a stress fracture. I am gonna buy some new shoes and hope that is enough. We'll see!

My trusty steed

I have a couple of busy weeks coming up with school and travel so we will also see how it goes sneaking all these workouts in. The weather is also starting to turn so I am having to do more of my workouts inside. I really prefer to do them outside haha! Running I guess you can do outside no matter what the weather. I do want to try and swim in Lake Michigan one time before it gets too cold but well see. Biking might be the one thing I have to just give up on and start training indoors. The trainer at least keeps me honest and builds a TON of strength quickly.  23 weeks to go!!

26 Weeks Out - I signed up

26 Weeks Out

I signed up

      

Well I have been thinking about this for a long time and I finally just pulled the trigger... I signed up for my first Ironman. My head is spinning thinking about all the things that are going into this. How long should I stay for? Should I book my hotel now? Do I book flights now? What did I just do?

Swim:
I just started swimming again and I feel like I have gotten so much more comfortable in the water but I pulled my back swimming a few weeks ago so I have had to really ease back (HAH pun!) into things. Also - the water temperature COULD be too hot for a wetsuit legal swim (unlikely). I don't know if I can do a 2.4 mile swim without a wetsuit. Hell I don't even know if I can do it WITH a wetsuit.

Bike:
Should I rent a bike? My friend told me I could borrow his high end tri bike he used when he did an ironman. Should I ask to borrow that for 6 months (so I can train with it?) In the mean time I am trying to retrofit my current bike with my old aerobars since they don't fit perfectly.

Run:
The thing I am the most worried about with the run is training for this in the winter. The treadmill can get pretty boring and I have a lot of 15+ mile runs on the schedule. Yikes

Other things on my mind:

• Can I find an early triathlon so I can practice swimming in open water?
• Should I invite a whole bunch of people to come and see me try and pull this off? 
• Can I pull this off???
• What else do I need to buy?
• What have I not even thought of yet?