6 Weeks to Go

Today I got an email from the Iron Girl Rocky Gap triathlon that E and I are doing September 7th. It was some bad news: they have cancelled the race. They couldn't secure a permit they needed for the roadway and therefor couldn't ensure a safe bike course. Whatever that all means, it is very disappointing that they couldn't pull it together properly. And I was especially disappointed for E, since last year she was injured and could only do the swim portion after registering for it. She's been doing such a great job with training, and this was going to be her first complete race. I know she was looking forward to showing up this year ready.

However, she found another one for us to do that same weekend in West Virginia: The Appalachian Traithlon. It's actually slightly farther away, but it sounds low key and fun enough. It is only the second year for it, which kind of makes me nervous. But I think I'll register on Saturday before the race when I get there, because, well...last year there were only 13 women and 32 men. Yeah. TINY. We can camp at the park it's in, perhaps for free. Kinda roughing it, but whatever. It is just going to be a very different experience! Small race, no shwagg, CHEAP, and just down and dirty - what a race should be, really. The only thing I'm worried about is the lack of people. It's just not as fun to not have someone to chase, but who knows. Maybe this year the word has gotten out and it will be bigger. (Right now there are only 4 people pre-registered though - ha!)

So now I have to get my money back for Rocky Gap, cancel the hotel, say goodbye to the prospect of beautiful, clear water and kayaking the next day in Maryland, and now focus on maybe winning the whole damn (women's) race. Because last year's winner had a bike split of 17 mph. And it's a flat course.

So. Back to work!!!

Here's what this week looks like.

MONDAY:
Just back in town from a LeMons weekend in Joliet and friend-visiting in Chicago. It was a pretty fantastic weekend, even with the LeMons race failure.

TUESDAY:
Bike: Tempo. I'll do spinning (first time at the Y I'm now a member of)
Strength.

WEDNESDAY:
Swim: 1500. Warm up 250, 8 x 25 drills, 8 x 75 max (45 sec rest), 4 x 50 sprint (20 sec rest), Cool down 250.
Run: Tempo Run 32 minutes. 10 warm up, 12 tempo, 10 cool down

THURSDAY: 
Bike: on trail 45 minutes. Speed intervals. 4 x 1 min with 2 minute active recovery.
Strength.

FRIDAY: 
Swim: 1500. Warm up 250, 8 x 25 drills, 3 x 200 (45 sec rest), 8 x 25 sprint (20 sec rest), Cool down 250.
Run: 35 min run + 6 x 20 sec strides.

SATURDAY:
Bike: Long group ride - Breakfast Ride.

Here I go. 6 more weeks - woohoo!

Winter Training Week 2

This Monday appears to be beginning like last Monday: nice sunny warm weather (for fall). There is the difference of the time change, however. I like gaining that hour, but everything is always a little wonky for a bit.

The time change didn't keep anyone from the pool this morning. But it was smiles and friendly "good mornings" from the Cocoon cast, as usual.

Today's set:
250 warmup
6 x 25 pull drills
5 x 100 intervals, 30 sec rest in between.
6 x 25 kicks
250 cool down

Shared my lane with a pregnant woman who I see regularly. That must feel good to be in the water! She's faster than me. Of course. (Maybe the baby is kicking to help?)


THE WEEK:
Monday - Swim 1300 yards / Run 40 minutes
Tuesday - Spinning 1:00:00
Wednesday - Swim 1500 yards / Run 25 minutes
Thursday - Bike 1:10:00 + transition run for 10 minutes
Friday - Swim 1500 yards / Run 45 minutes
Saturday - Bike 1:15:00


I didn't have a great week training last week. Missed Thursday because of work and I think I missed one other workout. But I wasn't really worried about it. I expected some adjustment woes to happen. We'll see how this week goes - should be better and I'm excited!

Official Pie-Season Winter Training Kickoff Day

I've toiled over the schedules and have come up with a plan for the most of winter: an olympic distance plan that I'll probably modify here and there as I go. And today (drumroll)................... is the first day of it. [cheering!]


A snapshot of the schedule:

Sundays - off
Mondays - base swim in the a.m. / run in the p.m.
Tuesdays - biking...which I'll do mostly through an a.m. spinning class / strength
Wednesdays - interval swim in the a.m. / run in the p.m.
Thursdays - biking...1 to 2 hours
Fridays - swim (base or intervals) in the a.m. / run in the p.m.
Saturdays - biking...which I'll do either in an a.m. spinning class or on my bike / strength

So that's it in a nutshell.
I'll see how it goes every week. It seems pretty balanced.


This morning I swam 1200 yards. Warmed up 200, did 6x25 pull drills, 4x100 main set, 8 x 25 kicks, 6x25 pulls with high elbows, and cooled down 5 x 50. Wait. That's 1350 yards. I can never count correctly when I'm in the pool! Oops.

Lucky for me, this day is supposed to be nice and sunny and warm, so when I run this afternoon, it should be nice. It's been getting colder, and I'm just not acclimated to the dark and chilliness yet. I'll get there though.

This Week

Planning and planning and making schedules and changing the schedules...

I've decided to try an Olympic distance schedule to see how I handle that amount o' stuff. But for a few more weeks, I'm just going to take it easy, doing all the workouts, but no serious pushing or strict direction to follow.

So, next week is going to look like this:

Monday: swim 1500 yards / run 2.5 miles
Tuesday: cycling class / strength: upper body
Wednesday: cycling class / quick swim 800 yards
Thursday: run 3 miles / strength: upper body
Friday: swim 1500 yards / run easy
Saturday: cycling long ride (tentative - because it's fall and I don't want to ride in cold rain)

Schedule Making

After many weeks perusing the internet, trying to find a training plan for the "off season" or figure out how to make one, I finally broke down and bought a book.

It's huge. Very thick. And has every imaginable scenario for training. It covers Sprint, Olympic, Half-Iron and Full Ironman distances. Within each, there are 10 levels of plans to choose from/manipulate into something that will fit. And there are 2 levels for off-season training. Perfect!

The difficult part is deciphering it. There are codes for everything. You don't just run, you RFR3 (foundation run level 3 which means it's for a certain time). Or maybe you RLT2 (lactate threshold run level 2).  What? Also, the design of the book is pretty clunky.

So what do I do? Redesign my chosen plan, of course! (I am a graphic designer, after all.) I made an overview schedule, where I can just see what sport I'm doing every day in words, not codes. Then I wrote out the codes of my chosen plan in sentences for each day so I know what I'm doing. Because I'm never going to be able to remember what something something 3 is verses something something something else different 2. I already can't keep human being names straight that begin with the same letter.

So I'm settling into a plan that I'll use until the new year. Then I suppose I will start actual training for something or multiple somethings. I still don't know for sure what I want to do, which is pretty lucky. So many things to choose from:
1. Flying Pig half or something
2. Sprint triathlons (definitely want to do these)
3. A half ironman? (because crazy?)

I've done a triathlon. Now what?

On September 8th, I finished the triathlon I had been training for all summer: Iron Girl Rocky Gap in Cumberland, Maryland. .5 mile swim, 16 mile bike, and 2.5 mile run. It was very very fun, and sealed the deal for me and triathlon hopefully living a long life together, for better or worse.

Here's what my training looked like for those months. Click to see the calendars larger.

May it began. I was hesitant to get in the pool.

June. More consistency and increased swimming yardage.

July. Man I am serious here. Look how few days off there are!

August. I've never been this consistent with any training before in my life.

September doesn't have much to show; I hurt my back and had to scale things back a bit.

In general, I feel I trained pretty well...consistently if nothing else. I really enjoyed it. I looked forward to most workouts and it helped break up my days working by myself. 

Looking back, I think I could have taken more rest. I was worn out a lot when swimming. Definitely my weakest link.

Looking forward...well I'm still working on a base/maintenance training schedule for winter. But the goals and focus for the next few months are this:

1. Lose more weight, get leaner.  Eating healthier is helping this. I feel like I've finally balanced the constantly hungry feeling with the right kind of food to keep me fueled. But damn, I like sweets.
2. Get stronger in general.  I have no upper body or core strength, and, well, swimming takes a lot of that. My swim is pretty slow, so I'd like to make it better.
3. Get stronger on the bike. I watched my legs get bigger and bigger as I trained, but I lack power. The Saturday morning 45 mile ides I've been going on have illustrated that as I creep up every hill. 
4. Figure out how to run faster. It may just be that I'll never be able to run fast. But perhaps if I get all these other things in line, I can see how I can strengthen my run. 

And why? I have to ask myself why I would spend 7 - 10 hours currently on training. Is it my hobby? Am I winning? Is there some ultimate goal?  I think the answer to the why is simply balance. Balance for my health, my day working solo, and the empowerment and happiness my accomplishments (no matter their size or impressiveness) give me.