First day back

Today was my first day back in training. It felt great! I woke up at 4:48 this morning and hit the pool. I swam 2000 yards. Here's the breakdown:

300 warm up

8x50 drills (SO boring!)-- I worked on swimming with fists to help my pull

3x125

2x175

3x125

100 cool down

I was supposed to do another set of drills and a 200 yard cool down, but I skipped the last set of drills and cut the cool down short because I was feeling a bit mucusy...probably just residual illness.

I got home while it was still dark and wanted to wait until sun up to run, so I laid back down to nap for a few minutes...and woke up 3 hours later! Best sleep ever! I was snuggled up with the boys and woke up with Hanky completely on top of me with his head on my shoulder, his body across my chest and his back legs over my shoulder; the catface, Ramses, was on my pillow, holding on to my head with his paws, and Rudy was on top of my legs. I felt soooo good when I woke up and what a great surprise! Pretty amazing, since I'm not a great sleeper.

After awakening, I bundled up and took the boys for a 3 mile run. It was a cold, crisp late morning run but there was no run. The boys were especially happy to get to exercise again! It was a blast.

Then I spent the rest of the day writing :( Blah! Took a quick lunch break to my favorite Indian restaurant for a delicious treat. Fabulous food topped off with mango soft serve ice cream for dessert. Yum!

I'm so happy to be training again and am very excited about this Ironman journey.

super pumped

I'm baaaaaack! And super ready to train. I feel great and anxious to get moving. This illness was great for my motivation. Here's the schedule for the week:

Monday: rest

Tuesday: swim 2500 yards, run 30 min

Wednesday: Brick 30 min bike followed immediately by 15 min run

Thursday: 2500 yard swim, 30 min run

Friday: run 45 min

Saturday: bike 1 hr 30 min

Sunday: run 1 hr

So excited.

Also, just found out about a bike ride in May called L'Etape du California. It's stage 7 of the Amgen Tour of California...and you get to ride it a week before the pros. 100 miles with 10,000 feet of climbing. I know it's crazy but I have to do it. It will be epic! And a week after my half-ironman :) I love the insanity!

The antibiotics are working

Woo hoo!!!

Back to training Tuesday. Can't wait!

That is all :)

Bronchitis+pneumonia+laryngitis

No fun. I have antibiotics and an inhaler to reduce the inflammation in my lungs. Hoping it's bacterial so the antibiotics work. I swear grad school has hurt my immunity. Stupid. Hope to be back to training/living next week. Pretty bummed but hopeful.

I hate being sick

I really, really hate being sick. I miss training and having energy and being able to talk....and I look like crap. Not good. I will do everything in my power to get back to training tomorrow. Here's the schedule for the week:

Monday: rest

Tuesday:Swim: 2500 yards, straight (this probably won't happen)

Run 45 minutes

Wednesday: Brick bike ride followed by 15 min run

I'm going to ride long outside, if the weather permits. Best way to celebrate a birthday!

Thursday: 1 hour run

Friday: bike 45 min

Swim: 300 wu, 8x50 DR, 12x100 with 20s rest, 8x50 drills, 200 cd

Saturday: Bike 1hr 45 min

Sunday: Run 1 hr

The weather here has been pretty rainy and cold but I'm hoping to have one nice ride outside this week.

Must get back to training, ill or not.

Still blah

Ugh...still sick. I sound like a phone sex operator (which is kinda cool) but I don't feel so hot. I slept for 12 hours last night and skipped both of my workouts this morning. I'll do them next week. While I don't feel 100%, I'd say I'm back up to 60%...much better than the 15% I was at last night. Hopefully, I'll feel better as the day wears on.

Must conquer illness

Rode the trainer for 30 minutes today. I was supposed to run in the afternoon, but I woke up feeling terrible today and then had an insane day in the lab. Last night I was so tired I fell asleep around 8:30, but then woke up and midnight and couldn't fall back to sleep. Hoping this illness I feel is just exacerbated by the exhaustion and that I'll feel better tomorrow. Going to swim and run, too, hopefully.

And that plan about swimming today? I realized that was just too much too soon. I have to trust my plan.

longest swim ever

Yesterday, I joined 24 hour fitness so I could use their pool. I went for my first swim in over a month today. It was awesome! Since I'm officially IM training, I had my workout on a notecard inside a ziploc bag and I actually finished the entire thing: 2500 yards! This is officially the longest swim I've ever done. I feel great. A little sore in the shoulders but overall very good. So good, in fact, that I'm going back tomorrow to add an extra swim workout to the week. I need as much swimming as I can get!

The pool was fine. Small, but heated and inside. It's very shallow--less than 4' deep at all points. As such, there were lots of elderly and obese people walking and doing strange exercises in the pool. In fact, I was the only person swimming more than 5 or so laps. It's pretty weird to be the "swimmer" at a pool, since I'm used to being the slowest person...but I'll take it! Still trying to figure out how to turn in such a shallow pool. I'm used to 8+ feet. When I tried to do a flip turn, I wound up doing a handstand. Apparently this means my turns are not tight enough. I'll practice tomorrow.

I was also supposed to run this afternoon, but it's freezing and rainy, so I rode the trainer for 30 minutes instead.

Brick workout

Today I did a brick workout, which is when you do one sport and then immediately move on to the second. I rode the trainer for 30 minutes, then ran 1.63 miles with the pig ninjas. The transition time (the time between the sports) was a bit long, as I had to interrupt the dogs' wrestling match to get their leashes on and then they pooped a lot, but we had fun...and there will be no pig ninja pooping during the IM transitions.

I had an early morning in the lab today, including 2 mosquito pupae collections (gross, hot, smelly, no thanks) and then the department's holiday lunch, complete with a thanksgiving buffet (sadly missing pie) and a white elephant gift exchange. It is my opinion that all holiday work functions should include alcohol, especially if there's a gift exchange involved. The hot item everyone wanted was a polar bear stuffed animal that played music. I wanted to give a loaf of velveeta for my present, but decided against it...not everyone gets my sense of humor. Next year. My advisor's gift contribution was a can of monkey butt powder. She would understand. Anyway, the point of this is that I biked and ran after filling my belly with thanksgiving. Side ache city during the run! Now I know not to eat stuffing during the IM.

I was supposed to swim today, as you know from the schedule I posted, but it has been really cold and rainy here and I'm just too much of a wuss to swim outside in that weather...that's one excuse, another is that I hate, hate, hate the pool on campus where I swim. However, I cannot avoid swimming, so I joined 24 hour fitness, which has an indoor heated pool that's open for lap swim 24 hours. Pretty sweet and only a couple of miles from my house. So, I switched today's workout with tomorrow's and switched Thursday and Friday.

Feeling really great, motivated and excited about training.

Monday

Ran 4.31 miles with the pig ninjas in the rain today. Nothing exciting to report. The sun started to come out as we were finished, which was nice. This was the longest run I've done in quite some time, at least a couple of months. The last mile was definitely the best. My legs felt nice and warmed up. Looking forward to some longer runs soon.

December 6-12: week 2

Each week, I'm going to post my training schedule...that way if I slack you will all know about it :)

This is week 2 of my 30 week Ironman training plan. The first 10 weeks are the base phase, where the primary goals are: "(1) to acclimate to the type of training that will follow, (2) develop an aerobic base, and (3) develop technique" (Fink, 2010).

Here's what's up for this week:

Monday: 45 minute run. In the future, Mondays will usually be rest days, but I'm making up for Saturday.

Tuesday: 300 warm-up, 8x50 drills, 16x25 with 10 sec rest in between each length, 1x400 with 60 sec rest afterward, 16x25 with 10 sec rest, 8x50 drills, 200 cool down. This one is gonna kill me!

Wednesday: Transition workout: 30 min bike ride followed immediately by a 15 min run

Thursday:30 minute bike ride and this swim workout: 300 warm up, 8x50 drills, 1x300 with 40 second rest afterward, 3x200 with 30 second rest after each set, 1x300 with 30 sec rest, 8x50 drills, 200 cool down. Yikes!

Friday: 45 min run

Saturday: 90 minute bike ride. I'll be in San Diego and can't wait to ride along the ocean!

Sunday: 1 hour run

Other thoughts: I really need to take some swim lessons. Maybe I can sign up this week.

1 hour trainer ride. I'm pretty impressed with myself for doing it because I didn't start until around 9:30 pm, after going to a friend's party, where I drank sangria (not too much, though) and ate a bunch of snacky food and lots of cheese. Made it happen and that's what counts :)

I can't wait to get back on the road and out of the house. Hope the weather turns around soon.

I didn't work out yesterday, because we went to our friends' wedding, which was an all-day event. We had a great time!

45 minute trainer ride today. Bribed myself with The Apprentice. We're going to a huge, all-day wedding tomorrow, so I will probably take the day off from training :)

Officially Ironman training!!

I'm baaaaack!

Moved my bf and all of our household goods to San Diego over the holiday. Now I'm back in Sac with my two dogs, an air mattress, a table and that's about it. Can't wait to go to SD for good, myself, but my advisor is being a crazy, crazy nutjob, so I'm not sure when that will happen. Until then, I'll just focus on the positive...such as: I'm not crazy, crazy isn't contagious, I'll have more time to train, someday soon she'll have to let me go, SD is nice and I get to live there for the rest of my life.

So, yesterday I realized that I screwed up when putting the 30 week Ironfit IM training plan into my calendar and missed two weeks somewhere. I thought I was starting December 14. Turns out I was supposed to start December 1. Oooops! I went through my calendar and redid the entire thing so it's now accurate

I was supposed to swim today, but couldn't so I switched the Thursday and Friday workouts. I'm officially IM training!!!!! WOOO HOOOO!!!!!

40 min 38 sec trainer ride while watching Law and Order SVU today. I hate the trainer but it's cold and drizzly and I'm a wuss, so it works for short rides.

Now I just have to record my daily workouts! I've been recording on the BT website, but have to record here, too.