Official Ironman Training! Woo Hoo

Alright -- I've let a little bit of time slip by me.

I'll just say that my pre-training ended successfully with my 100 mile Solvang Century Ride on March 14, 2009. I took my time this year and found the fun in riding again. It was freezing cold, but so beautifully green, I could almost transport myself (in my head) to the Scottish Highlands again. Gorgeous!!

Now, I thought that I had figured it out so that I would have the week after Solvang as a recovery week, and then I would start my official Ironman schedule on March 23. Well, that didn't happen. As I started writing my schedule (yes, can you believe it? This time around I wrote my own training schedule!), I realized that I had calculate incorrectly, and I actually had to start my official schedule on March 17, just 3 days after the big ride. I did it, though, and have successfully completed my first official week of training. Here's what it looked like:

Tuesday = I was supposed to do my long bike today, but my lower back was still pretty sore from Solvang, so I decided I could fit it in on Wednesday morning instead. Today, I did 1 hour of strength training, adaption A.

Wednesday = 55 min run in the morning. My tempo swim of 15oo yds in the afternoon. For those of you that don't know, the tempo swim is designed to make me work on my speed. So I'll do swim intervals with bursts of speed laps, followed by easier laps. It was challenging after the 55 min run in the morning.

Thursday = 45 minutes spinning intervals on my bike on my trainer, followed by 1 hr of strength training, adaption A. (I'll have a post explaining what exercises are part of each adaption.)

Friday = Long swim in the morning -- 2000 yds. (40 laps in a 25 meter pool, OR 80 lengths. I specify a lap as there and back, a length is swimming from one side to the other.)

Saturday = 30 minute run with the Team in Training team. It was another 4 minutes run, 1 minute walk situation -- which is what I've been practicing on my long runs as well. I think I may be using this method during the Ironman. We will see how I progress. In the evening, I did a yoga mini-workout that was focused on stretching for runners.

Sunday = My long bike was supposed to be 2 hours, 45 minutes. I met up with one of my participants after the ride, and helped her figure out her new bike, so I ended up riding for 3 hours, 10 minutes. This was a hard ride -- partially because I was alone for the first 2 hrs, 40 minutes, but also because it was crazy windy at Griffith Park. I find riding against the wind more exhausting than climbing a mountain. The ride also included 2 climbs, the first much longer than the second. I do have to say that I noticed it was much easier than the last time I climbed to Mt. Hollywood. I'm going to say that's because of Solvang. :)

So that was my first week. Mondays are my day off, so I'm reveling in my rest today.

Short-lived Victory

Well, I guess I patted myself on the back too hard on Tuesday because the rest of the week was kind of a flop.

Wednesday = 1500 yd swim
Thursday = 50 minutes of spinning
Friday = 1600 yd swim (I got easily distracted, but needed the laughter so it was okay.)
Saturday = In a class at the Aquarium ALL day long. Should've run when I got home, but didn't, sadly.
Sunday = 20 mile bike ride (This was supposed to be a 56 mile bike ride loaded with climbing, and I was actually looking forward to it (very odd), but there were some complications with the other riders (flat tires, etc...) and it ended with 20 miles.)

Monday = Day off
Tuesday = Day off #2 (WHA?!!?)
Wednesday = I will swim after work today. I promise! Somewhere between 1500 - 2000 yds, depending on when I get out of work.

Oi!

This weekend is Solvang. Completely not ready for it, but I'm looking forward to treating it as fun time. (100 miles of bike riding = fun?? What's happened to me?)

Then I have one week of "recovery" (from what, I'm not sure). The week of March 23, 2009 is week 1 of my official Ironman training schedule. 26 weeks from race day. I need to get to the point where I can embrace this instead of fear it. lol

Wish me luck!

High Five to Myself!

Alright, I know you all have been waiting with bated breath...

I DID IT!!! lol

I ran my 3.75 miles yesterday evening. It's the first time since I started training again that I actually started the week of training on the right day! Woo Hoo!!

I understand this doesn't seem like much, but I need to celebrate the little victories, and this, my friends, is a victory. Baby steps. Little, tiny baby steps.

IM Training Schedule

On a slightly different note (don't worry, I'll report back tomorrow that I DID run tonight), I was just looking at my training schedule and things are kind of working out pretty well. I have Solvang in two weeks (which I am completely not ready for, but will suffer through anyway), then I have one week of recovery, and then it's my first week of Base Training (see how it got capital letters there? That means it's official now.)

So the week of March 23 is Week 1 Base Training. Woot!

Another week bites the dust!

Woo hoo!

One less week to train for IM. lol

Last week, AGAIN, I couldn't seem to get myself started before Wednesday. I don't know what's up with that.

Wed., 2/25 = Run 3 miles in the morning, swim 1500 yds after work.

Thurs., 2/26 = I know I did something this day, but cannot for the life of me remember what it was. lol What can I say? I'm an old lady. The memory is the first thing to go.

Fri., 2/27 = Swim 2000 yds in the morning. This is the longest I've swam in a long time. My shoulder held up alright, but was definitely aching by the end. I need to keep working on stretching that out.

Sat., 2/28 = Rode 37 miles -- up to see the Hollywood sign in Griffith -- pretty good amount of hill climbing -- definitely lots of room for improvement there. I'm still amazed at how fast you lose fitness.

Sun., 3/1 = Nothing sport specific, but walking around Sea World all day has to count for something, right?

This week I am determined to start today, on time. I WILL be doing a run after work today. I WILL run after work. I WILL!