Week 9 of 18 Ironman Boulder Training – Life Interupts

I am switching back to a Monday-Sunday training week now that the kids are winding down the school year and my swimming schedule has changed because of Wednesday Tower 26 open water swims. That means this week was only 6 days. Amazing how I can bend time huh?

The week started to go out of whack on Wednesday when I got slammed pretty hard in the ocean while trying to get past the break. The wave slammed me so hard it felt like my bad shoulder was hyper extended and hurt pretty bad. I called it a day and got to the showers before the rush. By Friday it felt better. Not perfect, but better and I was able to swim 2700 yards with no issue.

It was also discovered Tuesday night one of my kids, who struggles in school, has dug a pretty big whole for himself over the last two months. I do what I can to keep track of things but he has to learn to take care of himself at some point. I didn’t expect this part of parenting to be so difficult. It was a very emotionally draining and stressful week as a result.

So when all was said and done I missed all my strength training and one bike session. The other parts of my life just needed more of my attention and time. I can’t beat myself up for missing workouts. The best thing I can do is make sure the ones I get to, get my full attention. So by Saturday afternoon, after throwing a paintball party for my oldest, I went out and had a really nice easy and fun 1:15 run. It was hot but it felt good to run and sweat and shut my mind off from life for that time.

I am getting really excited for an upcoming trip to Boulder to train. I am anxious to ride the bike course and I can’t wait to see how it compares to what I am training on now. But mostly I really need some time with Stuart. Our life is very busy, which is much to our own doing. So some weeks life becomes very functional. Just getting through everything that needs to get done. We both need some time together to recharge our batteries. At least when it gets tough like this we always turn to each other. I couldn’t do this without him! Any of it!

Below is a monthly total for May. It looks like the numbers are moving in the right direction. June will be a another busy month and I hope to get some really great training in. I can’t believe it is only 9 weeks until race day!

Week 8 of 18 Ironman Boulder Training – Pump up the volume!

It is amazing to think that the race will be here in lass than 10 weeks! Not planning a full year in advance for a race has its advantages! This week was shaken up my the fact that Tower 26 has started again! We were sue exactly when the first swim would be but I am happy to say I did some ocean swimming on Wednesday. I am surprised how much I missed the swimming out there. I really enjoy doing it! I will do all I can to make it a regular Wednesday morning workout. My coach was nice enough to juggle my whole schedule around to allow for the open water swimming which meant my weeks was a little off kilter. I missed a couple of opportunities for “optional” rides so I did one on a day it wasn’t prescribed (sorry Coach!). Next week my schedule will be shifting around to allow for the Wednesday swimming so it will be a week of adjustment for sure!

Saturday morning started off a little scary. When Stuart came down stairs to feed the dogs he discovered the garage door half open and one of the bicycles laying on the ground. Further inspection found his road bike had be messed with as well. Someone had broke into our garage (crawled through our dog door we suspect) to steal bikes but was unable to get them out (too many kid bikes in the way) so they left with nothing. Needless to say we feel very lucky that they didn’t take anything and even more lucky that none of our family was hurt (all 6 of us were home). The scary part was it was very obvious they only wanted the bikes. There were other things they could have walked off with but didn’t. Which means we were targeted for sure. Not exactly sure how they knew we had bikes but we have locked down our Strava accounts and have taken a few more precautions at home.

The biggest day of the week was Sunday. I had a 4:30 bike followed by a 40 minute run. Stuart and I decided to head to the ocean and then ride back up Mullholland (7 miles climb with 1700 ft of gain). Once we got to the beginning of the climb we were already 3 hours in to the ride. I knew we wouldn’t be home for another 2 hours. I ended up riding for 5:19 but made it out for my run! It was a pretty hard day but I was really pleased with my effort. Some days a little suffering is a good thing.

Monday I had a long run that was only supposed to be 60 minutes but my coach told me if I felt good I could run for 90. I really wanted to have a big week so I went a route that would make me run 75-90 minutes. It was hot and I was a little tired but I totally did it! I am finally starting to feel like it is all coming together.

Failing does count

I am very lucky to live in the same town as Professional Triathlete Jordan Rapp. It is pretty cool to see him training around town not to mention he is always willing to share his insight on training and racing. His recent blog post is a good one. This quote stuck out to me;

“Too often people who define success on their own terms simply define success to be whatever it was that happened. You need to be able to fail and have it count.”

The post is pretty long, but worth the read.

Nailed it!

No, this is not a list of Pintrest fails. I had a pretty successful swim in the pool this morning. Since this is my third swim in as many days (a factor of Tower 26 open water swims starting and a shuffle of my schedule to accommodate it) I was surprised I held it together!

The main set was 12 X 100 descending 1-4. To make it a little bit more difficult it was long course. I am getting pretty used to swimming long course since I do about 2 times per week. That being said, it still feels really long and hard (TWSS, I couldn’t resist).

Above are my splits for the set. I am really pleased with my consistency and the fact that my fastest 100s got faster!

Week 7 of 18 Ironman Boulder Training – Just keep training!

Week 7 passed with out much incident. I am still managing to do all my workouts to plan, EXCEPT my strength/TRX. I have a feeling that the race is going to creep up on me and be here before I know it! I think that is a good thing. Ironman Arizona was so late in the year that it felt like it to forever to get there. With Boulder happening in early August I think that will work in my favor. As far as training things went well. I had a REALLY good run off the bike on Sunday for my 4 hour brick. The great part was it felt so good to be running after 3:30 hours of riding. Of course my brick had to start late in the day because Stuart and I went to the Amgen Tour of California final stage in Pasadena to help out at the Skratch Labs booth (Stuart is a Taste Agent).

Only You!

The next day I did my long run; 2 hours this week. I  thought I would make it easy on myself and run near  work along the beach in Santa Monica. My goal pace for Boulder is 9 minute miles for the marathon. I managed the 2 hour run at that pace and my HR was only a little bit higher than I would have liked. But WOW did the flat running make my body hurt! I have become accustomed to constant changes in elevation since it is quite hilly where I lived. I don’t think I will be long running at the beach again!Most fun of the week has had when Stuart and I did out Born NOT  to Run 0.0 km race on Saturday. It involved drinking a PBR and taking a picture. I can do that!You can see Stuart’s o.o km run below

Week 5 and 6 of 18 Ironman Boulder Training – I am not 21 anymore

Life has been a little extra busy and crazy so I am combining two weeks of training updates into one.

Week 5

Week 5 was going well all week until Sunday. The only workouts I missed were my strength/TRX workouts (yes, I know I said I would get better about those). Sunday morning we had signed up for a super cool race, The Wings for Life World Run. The race started at 4:00 AM and essentially had a moving finish line. That is, it chased you down. My goal was to make it for 20K before getting caught. Even though this race was crazy early and ended up laying me up in bed for the rest of the day it was the most fun I have had racing in awhile! The race only happens in two places in the US but it happens all over the world at the same time (hence the 4 AM start). You can see my results below. I also got 8th in my AG (but not sure out of how many)

Getting caught by the finish line!

Week 6 went a little bit better but Saturday I decided to celebrate (nothing in particular) a little too hard an felt terrible all day Sunday. Word to the wise, cranberry Red Bull and vodka are a bad bad bad combination. Still, I managed to get through a 30 min swim, 2:30 bike, and 30 min run (during which I thought I might die).

Once again I still didn’t do my TRX/strength work. I will just stop making excuses for this. But otherwise I kept true to my schedule pretty well. Highlight of the week was riding with Stuart. He is back on his bike so we get to ride together a little now! Unfortunately (or fortunately form my perspective) he tends to ride in front of me most of the time! I need to get him in the pool. That is the only place I have an advantage!

Week 4 of 18 Ironman Boulder Training – Ramping Things Up

After last week being a bit of a rest/recovery week this week was a big increase in volume. I was raring to go and get it all done! I was holding on and doing well until Friday when I wasn’t feeling so great by the time I finally got home from work so I switched things around a bit and did my Friday run on Saturday.  This set me up for three days of running in a row. Nice way to test my legs. I am happy to say they passed! Monday was my long run and I had a phenomenal 11 mile run! It was the longest run I had had since I ran a 30K in January.

I also had a great swim that showed some progress! The comment circled at the bottom was from my coach. All the comments were great but this one made my day. I really do feel like I am on MY way to having another good Ironman!

Lastly, this week I picked up some new kit from Coeur Sports. I feel so lucky to be an ambassador for their clothing because I am constantly amazed with how awesome their kit is! This week I got a cycling jersey that matches the newest tri kit I got from them, the Monaco line. It was perfect for long training ride. The sleeves are more like a cap sleeve so they make riding aero perfectly comfortable,but since it isn’t a tank top it keeps the sun off my shoulders. The pockets are big so you can carry a lot of fuel if necessary. And, it is super cute and flattering! #winning!