Weekly recap!

A short recap this week…I know, you don’t believe that, my posts are never short.  I’m not sure I even believe it.  Except that I just feel like doing a training recap and check-in with how I’m feeling about my preparation.

NUTRITION

Diet has been poor.  I was doing really well…and then I wasn’t.  I got down to my lowest weight in 4 years…and then I went back up.  I know what I need to do to change this, but I’m struggling.  When I make the time to prepare for the week and have an abundance of healthy food choices, I do well.  But as my training increases on the weekends, so does my level of fatigue.  Napping with the dogs has had a greater pull than grocery shopping and cooking and prepping food.  This needs to change, especially since I have less than 4 weeks until vacation when I know I will be indulging in poor food choices.  So I am buckling down for the next 3 ½ weeks and making good choices.  Preparation is key.

SWIMMING

I have been consistently swimming 3 times per week, and I feel like I am getting better.  Coach Cory is trying to get me to push my pace so I can get my mile time where I want it, and therefore my Ironman 2.4 mile time where I want it.  Clearly I have some challenges in the open water swim, evidenced by my still relatively poor performance in the swim portion of the half ironman this month.  I think what I need to work on is breathing and kicking.  My kick slows me down instead of helping me forward, and I still get a little panicky about being out of breath, so I have to figure that one out.

BIKING

Must get better on the rolling hills.  This will require road trips to Clermont more frequently, which is of course a scheduling challenge as it eats up half a day, not to mention that it makes getting things done in the second half of the day a challenge when both Brian and I are tired.  This past Saturday I actually sat on an indoor trainer for 3 hours and pedaled through 46 miles of the Louisville Ironman course.  While this is certainly not an exact mirror of what it will be like on the course, at least I have an inkling of what to expect.  I hope to do this twice more before the race and get further along to “preview” more of the rollers and climbs.  I have also started a little bit of higher intensity biking to work on strength, so we’ll see how that continues.  However, the more and more I learn about the Louisville bike course, the less confident I am that I can meet my 6 hour bike goal in the IM race.  We’ll see.

RUNNING

I am feeling pretty good about my run.  A great 15K and a strong half marathon in the triathlon this month have given me quite a confidence boost.  What I don’t understand, however, is why I can’t run my weekly runs at a faster pace.  I am fairly consistent at a 9 minute mile pace in heart rate zone 2, yet my races have been much faster.  I know that racing is always faster than training runs, but should it be THAT much faster?  I don’t think so.  I’m just imagining that if I can run my training runs at an 8:30 pace, then my race pace would get even faster.  Frustrating.

REST

I love rest day Mondays!  Towards the end of the week I do not get enough sleep, and Fridays are really tough as I’m typically really tired.  And as I mentioned, the fatigue creeps into the weekends and I tend to let the house work, yard work and other responsibilities lag.  I’m not sure how to combat this, other than to just “get’r done!”

FUN

I am still having fun!  I mentioned in an earlier post that triathlon training really can be lonely.  But I am managing to get some group training in that helps with the feeling of isolation.  I participated in a run clinic for 6 weeks with my triathlon club, and that was social and motivating and fun.  Starting this week I will do my mid-week brick workout in a group ride (followed by a solo run), which will help decrease the monotony.

So with 17 weeks to go (holy crap that doesn’t sound like very long!!!!) I am feeling good.  I have confidence in my plan, I know what I need to work on, but I also know it has to be now.  No more slacking off.  I’ve got two vacations planned between now and Louisville, so those can be my “reward” weeks.  Other than that, it’s game on!  I just have to keep repeating in my head, “You can do it!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hjqrxfvJ0A