Week Three Re-Cap

This week was OK overall. At first, I thought it was a rest week. Nope. I did not complete one of the strength workouts and the optional third 30-minute swim for the week, but I did add time on the bike (30 minutes) and two 10-minute transition runs. We were tested with the 20-minute FTP bike test on tuesday night and I was satisfied with my results. 2.51 is a good start for me from a 20-minute test. Since 145 watts looks like a lot for someone my size, but peanuts to someone who is 200 pounds, the power to weight ratio is the figure that allows us to compare apples to apples. Supposedly, anyone above 2.50 is considered "middle of the road"... you are not a strong cyclist, but you are not a novice either. That makes me feel good. I stand to make the most gains on the bike and it's good to know I've come far enough to not be at the bottom of the barrel. Thank God, because I really DO feel like I've been hauling ass lately! That would really be disappointing if I felt like I was working really hard yet my ratio reflected the power of a novice (even though I am really!)

I also was able to confirm the feeling of satisfaction from pushing myself when I least want to. A good lifelong friend, Joe Lotus, invited me to run with him and some of his friends who are not only running Boston in 2 months, but they're running Boston as competetive age groupers. Their runs were 14-18 miles today. Mine was 8, tops, for this period in IM training. Do you know how hard it is to even qualify for Boston let alone be at the top of your Boston age group? HARD. Well, these are the people I attempted to run with on this damp winter morning out in the burbs at 8am on HUGE HILLS. Good thing I pulled the trigger at 7:30 and didn't have any time to actually absorb my decision. I've learned time and time again that you will grow the most when you push yourself to the edge. I knew I'd never in a million years be able to keep up with this group; however, I did for 1.5 miles and I was so grateful that I decided to come along. Joe was incredibly supportive, and pulled back at the end of our 20 minute warm -up to keep me going. At that point I was totally overwhelmed and thought how am I going to keep this up for 8 miles. It was cold and damp, I had to run with a water bottle, I forgot my Garmin, I was wheezing after 5 minutes and didn't have my inhaler, and the run started off with hills so my heart rate out of the gate went from 60 to 160 in minutes. PUKE. He reminded me that we're all out here for one reason or another and no one is comparing numbers. We were now at a point in the run where I could run 3.4 miles pretty flat, 2 miles were down already and those were wills for the warm-up, and then another 2 miles (all huge hills) back to the Lotus homestead. I got my bearings and went with it. It ended up being a great run, great breakfast with greek yogurt, fruit, granola, and coffee after, and energy from new friends. Mostly, I was happy to complete week 3 satisfied with my efforts to face another challenge head on purely because I've done it enough to basically know that every time I do this, I come out on the other end stronger and happier knowing that I met the challenge.

I wish I could say my Week Three Re-Cap ended on this inspirational note! It does, sort of, but I also need to share the not nice parts of Ironman training as well. Once I got to my Mom's after this great run, I completely broke down and had a 15-minute rambling, voice-crackling, session of the water works. Training for Ironman has been the most wonderful experience of my life to date. I can say that for certain. However, you move though it on autopilot.

And, when I say autopilot, I mean autopilot. I don't even remember how the water works started, but I do know I was entering debits into my checkbook from my online statement and then started talking about how I haven't had a day off in so long that I somehow managed to acrue 5 weeks of vacation. Sometimes, I don't know what day it is. I don't mean "date," I mean what day of the week. I relate to time these days as "swim/strength day" or "brick day" or "run/bike day" or "get up immediately when the alarm goes off at 4:45am for swim practice day." This would be fine if I were an on the elite team or a professional triathlete. It's not fine when you work 50 hours/week at a job where you care for others at the lowest point in their lives and never get a 10-minute lunch break even. I have not had time to balance my checkbook since January 7th until last week. It is February 21st today (I think). I forgot to pencil in "balance checkbook" into my autopilot schedule.

I love my training and wouldn't change a thing except to have more time in the day. So many of my athlete friends have more flexible work schedules, which allows them to train in the morning and ease into the day and I find myself wishing that I had that schedule. My Mom is right- it's only going to get a lot worse in the coming months and I need to keep fine tuning my routine so I CAN survive on autopilot this year. Every Wednesday is my rest day, and that's what I need to do every Wednesday- REST. No excessive phone calls, no running around, no fitting in anything else but rest. I also need to reserve the first Sunday of every month for bills and cleaning so I stay on budget and so I know there is an end in sight for unswept/unvaccuumed floors so I don't freak out. I will also be aware of what part of the month it is at least one day or the month. More than I can say I am aware of now. I guess you could call that Periodization for Life during IM training, just like our entire season of training is periodized.

Periodized on Ironman Autopilot.

The Numbers DO Count

20 minute FTP test tonight.

Power to weight ratio- 2.51
Average watts- 145 (11 watts off of 8-minute test, so pretty good)
Average HR- 154 (eh, doesn't sound high enough but my lips were blue)
Max HR- 167 (out of the saddle at 17:30 pushing 200+W)
Pre-test weight- 114.6
Post-test weight- 113.8
Fluid intake- roughly 16 ounces
Body Fat % 22.6
Water % 56.3
Muscle Mass 36.0%

Week Two Re-Cap

Week 2 was a strong one. I completed all the workouts and started sleeping more soundly. Evidently, I even slept through a 4.3 earthquake on Wednesday morning. Noelle and Keith are both working on my skewer position in the water, which needs a lot of work but is slowly improving. The 2 extra pounds of weight I gained out of nowhere is off again and I can honestly feel a difference. I'm back to my 114, give or take a half-pound. It's evident the role sleep and nutrition play and the importance of staying VERY consistent. It has to be a routine. It was nice this past saturday to rest a bit on Saturday morning and hit the pool and treadmill in the afternoon now that the bike is on sunday. It's a long week by Saturday because we're faced with our longest workouts on the weekend, it's only 2 days into the training week but the end of what's always a long work week. I'm figuring it all out, though, and clearing the clutter does help.

Week One Re-Cap

I was half-way into bed tonight when I decided to climb back out to keep up with my weekly entries. This is real-time, people! The unedited version, no doubt. It's 11pm on a tuesday night and I'm trying to wind down from our late Tuesday night power bricks.

Week One was good. I got off to a silly start by skipping the Strength workout on Day 1 like a ding dong. I was so mad at myself for making such an oversight but I erred on the side of "I'm exhausted and need to go to bed after a late swim night." The rest of the week was solid. With the added few minutes here and there for runs off the bike or an extra 10-20 minutes of strength during the week, I wrapped up the first week with not only checking off my attendance for our 5:50 AM friday swim practice, but also logged 7:43 of the prescribed 8 hours of training. Unfortunately, I may never see another 8-hour training week before September 12, 2010. Maybe 1-2 more, but not many. It's IRONTIME, as Coach K would say.

My take-homes this week were in running and swimming. For running, I absolutely feel lighter, faster and not as exhausted (in a weird way) when I think about making less contact with the ground. This was a point that Liz made in her notes. Makes a big difference in the moment even though it takes more energy at first to catch on. Point 2 for take-home thoughts came from Coach K (Keith Klebacha). Keith is my swim coach. I'm a big fan of the catch-up drill because it makes me kick more consistently. The split second or two when both of your arms are at 180 degrees of flexion, you need to KEEP KICKING or you will sink. This drill has my name all over it, unfortunately. Anyway, Keith was talking about his favorite version- the slide-in catch-up drill. Gives you less time with both arms ahead but requires you to work on hand entry instead. It's good stuff. Coach K is also a big fan of kicking on your back. BOOOOO. Hate it. Need it. Probably why I hate it. Noelle, another one of our swim coaches, is also selling this kick right now. So, I get it, core strength, streamline. Fair enough.

Finally, I have to say that we have a great group. All backgrounds are represented but the energy is all the same. We're in it for the long haul and we'll carry each other to the finish. What a great thought to have going into this season. I like it!

DAY ONE!

Well, this morning marks the official beginning of Madison Training. I debated about saving time for this entry until I have more time to write and reflect, but the reality is clear to me after 9 weeks of preseason: there really will never be time! What I do want to share is that I'm ready for this to happen. I've cleared my mind (and my calendar) and prepared my body for full-time training to begin. There will be late practices until 10:30 on weeknights, early swim practices that will require me to rise at 4:45 am every friday, long rides a hundred miles and more with transition runs to follow, aching muscles, tears of fatigue and tears of satisfaction for accomplishing something more than I could ever imagine. My white board for Week 1 is color-coded, my favorite warm-up and cool-down clothes are washed, better bike shoes have been ordered and my bag is packed. I will be praying for personal strength and physical strength and welcome the challenge of Ironman starting today!