12/21/15 - 12/27/15 Swim - 2 Bike - 2 Run - 2 Strength Training - 0 Mileage (weekly / 2015) Swim - 4300 yds / 70.6 miles Bike - 34.1 miles / 1434.1 miles Run -5.15 miles / 404.76 miles This was a good week for me, I hit all my swim/bike/run sessions but, still struggling to get my strength training. This week I'll push to ensure that I get at least 2 strength training sessions. Holidays are always a tough time to get your training in but I knew I needed to stay dedicated early on just in case I caved on the weekend but even after a work issue that needed attention this morning I still worked out after. Super happy with myself! I can't believe this is the last week of the year......which means then we are in 2016......which means that Ironman Texas is even closer......I still have my good days and bad days but mostly I'm freaked out most days. I know that as a I hit longer sessions I'll start to feel more prepared than what I feel right now. I ...
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12/14/15 - 12/20/15 Swim - 1 Bike - 1 Run - 0 Strength Training - 0 Mileage (weekly / 2015) Swim - 2400 yds / 68.1 miles Bike - 26.2 miles / 1400 miles Run -0 miles / 399.61 miles This turned out to be a crappy, crappy week in a lot of ways. Basically I let work interfere with my life, not just my tri life but my life in general. I had to get a pep talk from my husband to remind me what is important. I'm extremely disappointed in myself for letting this happen and I MUST turn it around. I know some will say it's only week 3 but in IM training every week is important, May is sadly not that far away. I do not want to disappoint myself for my lack of training. I'm regrouping my mental game and going to refocus. There are 2 weeks left in 2015 and I want to get my shit together before 2016 starts.
12/7/15 - 12/13/15 Swim - 2 Bike - 2 Run - 1 Strength Training - 0 Mileage (weekly / 2015) Swim - 3740 yds / 66.8 miles Bike - 39.4 miles / 1400 miles Run -2.28 miles / 399.61 miles I missed one planned workout last week but missed all my strength training sessions. I have always been bad about making time for strength training and know that this is equally as important as swim, bike, run, mental training. I'll try to focus on that this week. I made some really good tough decisions last week. Work has been ridiculous and on at least 2 occasions I chose ME. I have to remind myself that I made a sacrifice not doing Austin for a short term impact at work. But at the end of the day the only time I can get my training in is in the morning so a bit of sleep is the sacrifice. Work will be there and worst case it won't . My life / my goals / my desire to challenge myself is far more important to me than...
11/30/15 - 12/6/15 Swim - 1 Bike - 2 Run - 2 Strength Training - 1 Mileage (weekly / 2015) Swim - 1800 yds / 64.7 miles Bike - 26 miles / 1334.4 miles Run - 5.88 miles / 397.33 miles Week 1 of IMTX 2016 training is in the books. I missed 1 swim session this week but hit everything else. Yesterday I watched the rest of Ironman Kona while biking - jeez it continues to be super emotional. As the swimmers hit the water, I realized that will be me....and I have to swim 2.4 miles......sigh, then bike 112 miles and then run 26.2 miles. WHAT THE HELL AM I THINKING!?!?!?!?!?!?!? I don't remember being this freaked out last year when I decided to do my first 1/2. The hubby says I was but I don't think I was this bad. It's going to be a long 5 months!!
The past few weeks have not been as I had wanted or planed but tomorrow the excuses stop......tomorrow I officially start my IM TX 2016 training. I'm super excited and nervous. I found the shirt to kick off training but disappointed it didn't arrive for tomorrow but it will be here later this week. I'm going to keep looking for fun, motivational shirts. Maybe I'll buy one for everyone month leading up to the big day..... I still haven't watched all of Kona Ironman - it still intimidates and scares the SHIT out of me. The hubby and I both agree that we have been horrible the past few weeks so we are both weighing in tomorrow and will see who loses the highest percentage by the end of the year. I know I'll have about 20ish pounds to lose and that won't happen by the end of the year but it will be a nice challenge and a good way to finish off the year!!
11/16/15 - 11/22/15 Swim - 2 Bike - 1 Run - 1 Strength Training - 0 Mileage (weekly / 2015) Swim - 1700 yds / 63.67 miles Bike - 23 miles / 1308.4 miles Run - 5.1 miles / 391.45 miles I'm heading into the final stretch before I need to get very serious. This was a decent week of workouts. I got to swim, which I haven't done in awhile. he legs were a bit rusty and some soreness after running but still felt good to put in some distance and excited about doing more. This coming week will be tough since we will be heading out of town for Thanksgiving so no swim and probably no biking. I'll do what I can and focus on getting in some strength training. Yesterday I started watching the 2015 NBC Kona Ironman coverage and it started to freak me out a bit. I realized next May this will be me, I don't know if I was scared of how many people I will be competing with, the distance or just the challenge. The mental side of this training is ...
I'm still disappointed about not racing today but I got a lot of work done and I can't dwell in the past....it's time to move on. I have 3 weeks until Ironman TX training starts. For the next 3 weeks I'm going to commit to strength training, which has been lacking, more like non-existent for months. So I want to take advantage of lower volume and get it into the routine so when I do start the IM plan that I ensure that it sticks. My nutrition has not been great the past few weeks and I have not been tracking for months. So I'm committed to tracking my food and drink. I also need to ensure that I get to race weight by IM TX. So I'll get back to weight tracking. Lots of improvements that I need to make but I know it's fora good cause :>)
Today I decided that I would not race in Ironman Austin 70.3 this weekend. I'm not happy about the reason I have decided not to race but right now I'm letting work be more important. This will NOT become a habit and this doesn't mean taking the rest of the year off because Ironman Texas training starts in 3.5 weeks. I WILL NOT let work change my decision to do Ironman!!!
10/26/15 - 11/1/15 Swim - 0 Bike - 1 Run - 1 Strength Training - 0 Mileage (weekly / 2015) Swim - 0 yds / 61.86 miles Bike - 10 miles / 1270.4 miles Run - 3.84 miles / 382.27 miles Not the week I would like to have had and not a week that I'm proud of but I can't go back and change the past so I have to look at the positive side - I worked out Saturday and Sunday after zero workouts the rest of the week and when I could have used a few adults beverages to relax after a rough work week, I made the choice, knowing that would not help next weekend. My work life bumps interrupted my training this week but I've decided I can't use that as an excuse I have to accept that every day/week/month/year is not going to be perfect and I still have to make the time for my training. I have said this before, I have to put in the time in order to see the glory.....I'm not always good at listening to my own motivation. Many...
I'm lost.....I'm off track.....having a hard time finding my way.....getting back on track. It happens, right? You think when you have a plan that you can stick to it and keep moving. I haven't done a very good job of that the past few weeks.....this week was really bad, haven't worked out yet this week, I say yet because Saturday and Sunday are still possible. I've said it before, I have this problem a few weeks before a race, just can't stay on track. This week more so than normal because of a disruption in my routine. I have to learn to figure this out and how to not fall so far off track. Going forward it becomes even more important. I have to learn to fight back.....right now not sure I feel like fighting. So have I screwed up.....don't know.....do I want to quit.....sadly at times.....can I still do this.....don't know.....have I given up...................................I don't know that answer yet, let me sleep on it. ...
10/12/15 - 10/18/15 Swim - 1 Bike - 1 Run - 1 Strength Training - 0 Mileage (weekly / 2015) Swim - 2,300 yds / 58.9 miles Bike - 28 miles / 1232.4 miles Run - 4 miles / 364.43 miles My self lecture / motivation clearly didn't work for me but I'm back on track this week - promise. The positive things I will take from last week: I continue to maintain my weight despite a lack of working out. The sessions I did do were high quality and I felt strong and put in a solid effort. Despite not doing the necessary training, I'm not going to beat myself up because that will accomplish nothing. Three weeks till Austin 1/2 and the weather is starting to cool down, has me a bit worried about clothing selection. The traveling over the next few weeks will make training tough and I know that I won't be able to get all my swimming because of a lack of access to a pool but I'll do what I can.
I continue to get in this rut, lack of motivation before races and I worry that this could create a much larger problem when I start Ironman training. But I realize that my training sessions immediately following a day or 2 of rest are better - I'm stronger, faster and can push harder. One always worries if you take too much time off you will lose strength, speed, etc but I realize with fewer sessions I'm getting more out of each session. So I'm not going to let that get me down, although it's not something you can do every week but every once in awhile I need to listen to my body. I'm also realizing I need to stop listening to what my head is telling me. If you think too much about the future and let it eat you up, then your mind becomes a negative, depressive mush that you end up hating. So I'm going to work hard on keeping the negative thoughts in check. This is a long road, I'm not the first to travel it and will definitely not be t...
Kerrville 1/2 Full Triathlon 2015 Report Kerrville, TX Swim - 1.2 / Bike - 56 miles / Run - 13.1 miles Start time 7:32 a.m. 2015 Overall - 7:20 2014 Overall - 7:15 Pre-Race While race weekend did not hold as many surprises as last year, I was excited to return to Kerrville since it was such a wonderful environment to race last year. Sadly I did not have a restful sleep on Saturday night and when I woke up I just wasn't feeling right. I can't pinpoint what was wrong or describe any better than that, just something felt off. I would soon find out the day wasn't going to get much better. Weather This year seemed similar to last year, it may have been a bit cooler because of some clouds for the run but still pretty warm. I was initially concerned about the temperature of the water because the air temperature that morning was chilly and I was pretty cold entering the water but the water was perfect. Although others would probably say it was a b...
It's finally almost here, feels like I have been waiting forever for this day. Triathlon season can be very long when there is so much time between races. Kerrville is in 1 week. This week has been a week of taper and I haven't been that great at hitting all my training sessions but the ones I did do were the long sessions and the rest has felt wonderful. This week is definitely a low volume week. I'm going to focus on doing all my training sessions, with focus on form. I also want to ensure that I stretch, stretch, stretch. I bought some magnesium and potassium supplements to hopefully help with my leg cramps. I have tried magnesium in the past but have yet to try potassium, we will see how the combination works. I already take a calcium supplement so next up would be zinc. If none of that works I do believe I will need to make a trip to the Dr. I have experienced some cramping in my right leg which I haven't experienced bef...
It never fails a few weeks before a race I seem to get lazy. If I go back and look for similar posts I'm sure I will find a similar post before all my previous races. I go through a lazy phase a couple of weeks before a race and it's so frustrating. I will admit the body has been tired this week and it has been super obvious with some of the aches and pains I've been experiencing. But, it's no reason to take 4 days off. I do feel better after getting to sleep in for the past 2 days and having a great massage this week. I know that rest can be just as important as training so I'm not going to beat myself up too much, I'm just going to roll with it and get back on track tomorrow with a long swim and run. Only 1 more week of hard training and then a week of lower volume and then a slow week (taper). We also allow ourselves 1 splurge meal, typically on the weekends, and we went a bit overboard this weekend so until after the race I'm going to focu...
Today I joined a group of folks from Houston and Austin to ride the Ironman Austin 70.3 bike course and I had a great time. I always feel better when I can ride a course that I haven't raced. The course was good, a few too many bumps (lost my water bottle on one but the SAG guys got it for me), some good hills, 1 killer hill. This was my first time on BB (aka Black Beauty) that wasn't in the neighborhood or out in Boerne as well as my longest ride on her and I'm super excited. My time was a bit longer than my Kerrville race last year but we weren't riding at race pace the entire time, much of it was a casual pace. I had minimal saddle soreness but that was only towards the end and I think it's just because I'm putting longer time in on my bike . Training this week was a bit rough, my left arm is killing me, not sure if it was from strength training or swimming or a combination. I bailed on 1 of my swim sessions and will see how I feel tomorrow on wh...
There are 5 weeks to Kerrville - 1st HIM race of the year. I had a good week of training, needed to do some adjusting based on work schedule but for the most part I hit most of what I had scheduled. My 3 hr ride got cut short today due to road closures but I'm heading up to Austin next Saturday to ride the Ironman Austin 70.3 course. Since I haven't been up there I'm excited to ride that course, but I'm meeting a group of people I don't know so I'm a bit concerned about my speed and whether or not I can keep pace with everyone. I'm still getting comfortable in my new saddle - very little pain today and no chaffing. I'm also still working on nutrition while riding, not the easiest thing for me. I'm able to drink out of my aero hydration with little problems, even able to fill up the tank with another bottle. Eating is still a challenge but I continue to practice. I've also been testing out some different nutrition - both for variety and ...