Post-IMLP Training Week Four

...otherwise known as "recovery."  LOL.

Actually the week did not get off to an auspicious start. After a great week of light training the previous week with a Mini-Tri PR (1:20:22), my first sub-8 or sub 7:45 mile since my running injury two years ago, and a great "long" (36 miles) bike that had me zooming, I was primed to finally go sub-1:20 at the last Mini-Tri of the year on Monday.

Unfortunately, I woke up feeling like CRAP. COMPLETE crap. ZERO energy, the chills, body aches, etc.  I packed my bag anyway in the hopes I would feel better by the end of the day, but no luck.  It was especially frustrating since the weather was perfect. A lot of people DID set PRs. GRRRRR.

Tuesday, which was supposed to be a swim, was more of the same. Of course, the fact that it was cold and rainy didn't exactly make me want to hit the lake.

Wednesday I finally got back into training and I've hit everything else.  Not a great week except for yesterday's bike, which was 40 miles in 2:25, or a 16.5 MPH average. SWEET!  I'm actually kind of SCARED that I could go sub-3:30 on the bike on Sunday.

So yes, sidelined by my second illness since Ironman, but it's all part of the recovery process.

Up next: A week of light workouts followed by taking care of Unfinished Business at the Vermont Half on Sunday. Woohoo!

Friday Film #20

I know, I know. I disappear for nearly a month and instead of bringing a IMLP race report, I only have a Friday Film. I WILL write up my report, but I just HAD to share this with you, courtesy ThinkGeek.



LOVE. IT.

(And damn do I miss TNG. Random factoid: It premiered on my 10th birthday and I watched "Encounter at Farpoint Part One" while opening gifts.)

Friday Film #19

I know, I disappeared again. I'm training 18-20 hours a week while literally doing the work of 1.5 people at my job. (Luckily, only through, well, about the time of Ironman. I'm going to have so much extra time all at once after the race that I won't know what the hell to do with myself.) Anyway, a couple of real goodies this week.

 Video #1: "I'm With Neil" - I have a total nerd-crush on Neil DeGrasse Tyson.


Video #2: Hitler rants about fixie hipsters - "The derailleur is the only thing the French ever got right. And for what?" KILLS me every time. Thanks to Steve in a Speedo for sharing this one.


Have a good weekend all! 9 days of training left for me before taper starts. Thank GOD.

Friday Film #18

Haven't done one of these in a while. I've been laughing my ass off over this one since one of the guys at work told me about it.

ELEVEN!

Back on Monday with a Race Report from my first tri of the season - HITS Oly Triathlon in the Catskills. (At IM pace as a run-through, so I'll be one of the last in. *G*)

Week In Review

I don't even know what week of IMLP it is at this point - I started back in January. Anyway, haven't done one of these reviews in ages so here we go:

Swim - All OWS this week. I'm a wuss in open water so am trying to get as much experience as possible. I spent over four hours in Mirror Lake out on the buoy line. It all went pretty well - not much to write home about there. I *DO* wish I could zip myself into my wetsuit though. I usually train alone so it's a pain finding someone to do it for me.

Bike Although I didn't do any cycling until Thursday, this week was all about the bike. Holy crap. I biked 11.5 hours from Thursday - Saturday, including doing my first century in a cold rain on the brutal IMLP course. And the other two rides? Hill repeats and an easy ride. On HILLS. I need it though - the bike is my weakness and IMLP is a tough, tough bike course.

Run Did a 15 miler this week for only the second time ever, matching my longest run. Otherwise pretty quiet on that front. Running is my comfort zone so aside from the weekly long run I take it pretty easy in that regard.

My total training time was a whopping 19.5 hours. CRAZY. Especially with a full-time job.

So now I'm in my last rest week. Next time I finish a build, it'll be taper time, which is a truly scary thought. Ironman is such a big, scary beast I feel like I need several more months to prepare! LOL!

Shave and a Haircut

Thanks to this week's smashfest brick (Century ride followed by 4 mile run) being delayed until tomorrow thanks to "Oh My God Are You KIDDING Me?!?" winds, I have time to write up this post that I meant to do over a month ago. About 4 years ago I donated my waist-length hair to Locks of Love. And by "donated" I mean "cut above the ears." I've been growing it out since then - mainly because my hair grows so fast that I don't have time to head to the hairdresser's every month to keep it in any semblance of a style, but it was back to halfway down my back and I was literally tearing swimcaps trying to stuff it all in there. It was time for a change:

Pre-cut hair. Black hair-dye is from a supposedly "temporary" color for Halloween. I brought in this photo for my stylist to work with:

And after a few tweaks I had this:

I was left with an impressive amount of hair to donate, and this DOESN'T include the huge mass of hair around the chair that we couldn't save.

It actually weighed .6 lbs but changed when I took the pic. Made a nice little packet and mailed it off to Locks of Love:

It's been MUCH easier to train with the shorter hair, although as usual with my "grows like a weed" hair, it's already in my eyes again. Sigh.

Why I Haven't Posted in Three Months

Exhibit A: Today's entry in my training log:

Barely hanging on. Was psyched about having a relatively short swim today and then saw tomorrow's ride. 2 hours with 1:30 of it as HILL REPEATS and nearly cried. Are you KIDDING ME?!?! I can barely do one hour on FRESH legs without wanting to die. Seeing that when I'm having trouble going up and down the stairs TODAY is just soul-crushing. I know I need it with my pathetic cycling ability, but I need a month-long rest. I miss things like free time, actually feeling fresh for a workout, not having to go to bed at 9 (which, up here this time of year, is before it's COMPLETELY DARK), or not having to eat all the damn time.

...Yeah. And y'all don't want to read that.

Friday Film #17

(Yes, was way off with the numbering last time.)

Even crankier now that we keep getting teased with spring, and then (today), dumped snow on. Par for the course in March, but UGH. It's trainer time AGAIN today.

Something to cheer us Northern athletes up:



Well, okay. Cheer us GEEKY Northern athletes up. Yay for Red Dwarf!

March Motivation

(I know, I need to write up last weekend's race report.)

Man, we've had an unusually mild winter, but still - March around here just sucks the life out of you. We've had constant cold, overcast skies since I got back from Dallas, and now, a cold spell. This is what I saw on Weather Underground as of about 9 ET. A.M.

And looking out my front door:

The problem with March is that by now this has been going on for MONTHS. It wears you down and mentally beats you up. I've been dressing like this just to go to the pool since October:

I remember reading an entry in Dede Greisbauer's blog where she said that the winter training - months spent bundling up to run, and being stuck on the trainer for hours upon hours - is what makes New England triathletes so tough.

Although I agree with her on principle, I am ready for it to be OVER. I did my time. I did multiple twelve and thirteen mile runs on the damn treadmill getting ready for Cowtown. I've broken in my LeMonde trainer to the point it's no longer a fun new toy.

I want to run in shorts. I want to feel the wind in my hair as I scream down Cascade Pass at 40 MPH with white knuckles and prayer. I want to get out of the chlorine and swim in Mirror Lake.

We're supposed to have a warm spell mid-week, going from the teens to almost 50. (Welcome to the Adirondacks.) It's not permanent, but a nice reprieve. Wednesday is a run - I can bust out shorts.

Fellow Northerners, how do you get through it? I would love to hear.

In the meantime, the damn pool awaits.

Double Swim PR Day

I know my weekly summaries have mentioned that my swimming's been going well despite only two swims a week, but today was especially good.

My warm-up was 200 yards swim. Without trying, I knocked a whole 5 seconds off my PR.

First set was 500 yards. Knocked THIRTEEN SECONDS off my time, and that was with alternating between easy and fast.

I've gone through literally WEEKS of poo-tastic swimming before, so this was a real treat.

Unfortunately payment came due during the last 1000 yards of my workout,but still - I am TOTALLY jazzed.

Now I just need to get similar improvements in my bike.

Week Six

I know...no pictures lately, just quick write-ups of my weeks and the occasional Friday Film. It's funny - it's not that I'm too busy - well, work is crazy but my training volume is still pretty low - I just don't have much to say or pretty pictures to show. I'm hitting the pool, the trainer, and half the time the treadmill this time of year. Not very picturesque. especially with us having a very rare snowless gray and brown winter.

Finished up my last build before CowTown. The good news is my swim and bike went really well. Third time was the charm for the Wednesday Killer Interval Session on the trainer. FINALLY completed it. Swimming's been going, well, swimmingly as well.

But the run. OH the run. As a triathlete, you're always going to go through phases of one discipline or another being "off", but first off, running is my STRENGTH and what moves me up from "straggler" to "back of the pack." Plus, my next race is, you know, a HALF MARATHON. With PR ATTEMPT. I had two key running sessions: a track session with my first 400s in almost three years, and a 13 mile run with tempo intervals. Neither went well. However, both were done on EXTREMELY loaded and fatigued legs.

I just keep telling myself that the reason for this is that I'm just starting my build for swim and bike, so of COURSE I'm seeing gains, while I've been training hard in running all off-season and peaking for Cowtown, so of COURSE my times are falling off. I know this, but it is still hard to watch.

Anyway, now begins my two week taper, with lots of swimming, easy biking, and tapering the run. I know I'll be ready to kick it in two weeks.

Week Five

Yikes, never wrote up my Week Five thoughts.

It was a rough week, I won't kid. Although I wasn't tired or anything (I actually logged into TrainingPeaks on Sunday and was disappointed that this week wouldn't really be any more volume-wise.)

What was rough was that I was having really lackluster training sessions in all three disciplines: My swim times were pretty darn slow with a couple truly awful splits, my cycling was mediocre and I once again couldn't finish Wednesdays Two Hour Hill Simulation Trainer Ride of Pain, and my running, blech all week, culminated in a total meltdown during my 11.6 mile run outside. (First outdoor long run in at least a month.)

Ending on that awful long-run was a definite blow mentally with CowTown only being three weeks (well, now 2.5) weeks away. I considered that my key workout of the week and I just didn't hit it, which leaves me wondering if the treadmill running just doesn't work for me. I have one last 13-miler on Sunday before I start tapering and the weather (Highs in the single digits) is really looking like I'm not going to be able to do it outdoors. (What kills is that it was 34 and sunny with no wind today and I had a freakin' trainer ride.)

So, rough week, but at least I'm handling the volume so far.

SHOES! (And Friday Film #14? I think?)

What girl doesn't love to talk about shoes? Last night I got a call from the local sports store that the Kinvaras they were SUPPOSED to order for me two weeks ago never got ordered because their shoe person (a true guru named Sally) slipped on the ice and broke her hip.

While I like Sally and feel bad, that kinda left me high and dry. I love my Kinvaras, but 225 miles and they were DONE. "Starting to get shin splint-y pains" done. (Not surprising since I blow through "pillow shoes" in only 300. You'd think I was a 6'4" Clydesdale, not a 110 lb girl.)

Anyway, at about 5:00 I ordered from Zappo's Running Site. I even got my Kinvara's on sale! I figured I'd get them Monday or maybe tomorrow if I was lucky, but believe it or not, look what was waiting for me after my 11:00 meeting:

The fun thing about the Kinvara 2's is that they come in like a bazillion colors. I picked pink and black. Aren't they hot?

And from the side:

Oh, and if you're running the Cowtown Half Marathon, this is the only view you'll get:

That's right, smack-talking starts NOW.

Oh, and for anyone who thought I was exaggerating about the weight of my trail runners with YakTrax. They actually weighed 1.8 last time.

Finally, a Friday Film for you. The Rock doing an awesomely spot-on Ahnold impersonation:



(Apologies for the soundtrack being so ridiculously off from the visuals.)

Week Four

I have officially finished my first month of IMLP training. Woohoo!

Week four was heavy on the run, medium on the swimming, and light on the bike. (Only 3.5 paltry hours in the trainer.)

Swimming went okay. I did 6K, the most swimming I've done in a while. (Shut up.) I could REALLY feel it in my arms during the second session, which was PAINFUL.

Biking was nearly nonexistent. However, my next race IS a half-marathon and my coach feels bad giving me too much trainer time. I DID have a long, tough, interval session on Wednesday that fried my legs. I actually couldn't finish the intervals and had to end with an Oly effort ride.

Running has been AWESOME. I finished up the week with a 10 mile treadmill run with only :20 seconds/mile pace slower than goal race pace.

So, another good week of training under the belt. Woohoo!

Ugh

Ugh...I know, I know. I really DO want to document my journey to Ironman Lake Placid. And yet another two weeks have gone by.

I had my first recovery week of the season, which included my first Tim massage of the year. Heaven! (Well, it hurt, but in a good way!)

My run has REALLY been coming along. I'm still not QUITE back to where I was pre-injury. Over a YEAR AGO. But still - my long runs, while on a treadmill, have been looking really good. I actually see the POSSIBILITY of a PR at CowTown next month.

I've set a couple more PRs in swimming as well, which is cool.

On the downside, my already-slow bike is really Teh Suck right now. As in "I'd better LIVE in the saddle after the half-marathon if I went to make the bike cut-off" suck. Coach had me do an Epic Bike Block last year that really brought me along, and I am now the proud owner of a LeMonde trainer, so I know it'll come. I just wish I was progressing on the bike as much as I was in the swim and run. I have the feeling that that's going to be the discipline I'm always going to have to fight tooth and nail to see any progress in.

So that's where I'm at. I have all of this week's training done aside from Sunday's hard ten miler.

On a lighter note, I'm about to stuff one of that cats in the carrier for their vet appointment, so here's a funny cat video for your Friday Film. Maru, the Japanese cat with a box obsession.

Friday Film #15

This one's a no-brainer. Someone I follow on Twitter shared this video last night and I can tell I'm going to be obsessing about it for the next few weeks at least.


We Are Young ft. Janelle Monae

fun. | Myspace Video

It's bittersweet though - reminds me of that "The rest of your life ahead of you and anything is possible" feeling that you only have in your early twenties.

Week One. DONE.

Well, week one of IMLP training is in the bank. Scary and reassuring at the same time.

Swim: Only 2500 yards thanks to the gym boiler breaking mid-week. Did replace the missed swim with an easy spin. Still have my speed but my endurance is a little iffy right now. All in all not bad for this point in the season.

Bike: 5 hours on the trainer. Four of those hours were HARD. One-legged drills, Out of the saddle repeats, and hard intervals. No Z2 base building like last year. Need to work it hard though. My HIM bike time last year was over four hours. (Embarrassing!)

Run: 21 miles. Went pretty well. All my outdoor runs are slow with a high heart rate thanks to having to wear trail runners with YakTrax. They literally weigh almost a pound EACH. Not to mention that I'm running through slush, ice, and snow. STILL better than the treadmill, although I wasn't able to avoid it for Sunday's 10-milers. THAT was mind-numbing.

Strength Training: Not much - 2 15-minute core sessions. Went well though.

Total: 10:05 hours.

So there you have it. Week one all put away to be brought out on Race Day. Onto Week Two!

Friday Film #14

I haven't done a Friday Film in AGES, so here you go:



A Very Important Nerd PSA. LOL! (And yes, I'm a huge Big Bang Theory fan. BAZINGA!)

Raising Money

Although Ironman is definitely its own reward, I wanted some extra good to come out of it. To that end, I am raising money for the local animal shelter, Tri-Lakes Humane Society.

They are a great group who work hard to take care of the unwanted and neglected animals in the area, but like many shelters are on a shoestring budget.

My goal is to raise $1406, or $10 per mile. Please donate at my Firstgiving page here.

After all, how can you NOT want to help these faces? (And yes, these are pictures of actual animals currently available for adoption in the shelter.)

Thanks in advance for your generosity. Let's make this happen!

Day One of Ironman Training

Well, here we go. My training week starts on Mondays, so today was the start of IMLP training. Although the actual workout itself wasn't scary, it was scary because of what it's building up to.

The longest journey starts with a single step, or in this case, 1 hour of one-leg drills on the trainer followed by a 1.5 mile run. My first brick since the Lake George Tri on Labor Day.

When I looked outside and saw this,

I decided that I better add to my run clothing in "Transition."

I set up a stool to rest my right foot on:

And it was go time:

The actual session went well. My legs felt surprisingly fresh for not having run off the bike in MONTHS.

And with that, it's official. I am Ironman in Training. Let's do this!