Ok, I admit it...I suck a blogging lately. Or for the past several months. But, I think that is probably ok because I doubt the lives of many people hinge on my regular blog posting. I think a lot of it is that my life is a little more full now as compared to when I started blogging, and I certainly like it better this way.
I know many of my readers are sitting on the edge of their seats though just waiting to hear about my most recent swim, ride, or run, so here you go.
Swimming
Have not been feeling it too much lately, but at the same time I have been having some decent workouts. My Lonestar swim stuck with me for a while - I did not really have any answers for what it was so slow other than that I am now slower than I used to be. That assumption was reaffirmed Friday before last - I did a 300yd time trial at the pool just to see where things were. I had done one in February 2008 (~2 months out from IMAZ) and was about 2 months out from IMCDA, so thought I'd compare. FAIL. Eleven seconds slower than February 2008. Well, that sucks. I thought the swim might be the one place where POTS hasn't taken an ugly hand on things, but apparently that, too, was not left untouched. However, there is better news on the swim front as of lately. I swam a few seconds faster than last year at Gulf Coast and I am happy with that. Granted I had only swam a few times in the four weeks before the race last year, I had done an Ironman four weeks before, and would have considered myself still in pretty good swim shape. So, that makes me feel a little better about the whole swimming thing. I also got in a good 3600yd workout last night and realized that is the farthest I have swam since April 13, 2008 (IMAZ). It was not any more taxing or tiring than any other workout lately, so I will take that as a positive.
Biking
I feel like I am still lacking in this area, but does anyone ever feel like they really bike enough? I only have one century ride under my belt right now, and that was two months ago. I have not ridden nearly enough hills, but there is only so much one can reasonably do about that living in Houston. I have three more weekends for long riding, and hope to do century rides on two of those weekends. Losing day one of the MS150 kind of stinks because that would have been a fairly easy way to get a lot of riding in. The weekend before last we headed to Chappell Hill and I had hoped to maybe get around 80 miles in, but was going to see what the day brought. Well, the day only brought 50 miles...and lots and lots of rain...and no shoulders on the roads...and lots of chip seal surfaces - as in at mile 25 I threw the towel in and said I was done because I felt beyond unsafe, yet sadly still had to go another 25 miles to get back to the car! Oh well, you just have to take what you get sometimes. So this weekend I am heading into a 6-7 hour ride and only have ridden 3 hours each of the last 2 weekends...this weekend may hurt a little bit...as in more than I want it to, but I guess that is all part of ironman training. My Lonestar bike split sucked too, so that was still fresh in my mind. My bike splits for last year and this year at Gulf Coast were almost exactly the same, so that makes me feel a little better. I think my rides on the next three weekends will really give me a better picture of how my biking is going, as they will all be hilly rides, similar in terrain to CDA. I feel like I should already have a picture in my head of how things are going to be, and I do not, so that is a huge reason why I feel so unprepared for the bike portion right now. I feel like I am cramming last minute for a test...but then again, that is how I always studied and I generally ended up just fine, so maybe that is just the way I roll. Roll...get it? Ha ha.
Run
My run has been up and down...the up being that I have not worried too much about it and it seems to be going ok overall, and down being that I have not consistently been getting in sufficient weekly mileage. If I were training for a stand alone running race of any kind I'd be very worried right now as I know I am no where near as fast as I was during all of 2008, but as far as training for the run portion of an ironman, I actually feel just fine. I will feel even better once I get the next three long runs under my belt, but overall I think I'm in a decent spot. Tim and I had an awesome long run the weekend before last - we even ventured into the Houston hills. We had planned to run about 16 miles, and 3 miles of that was up and down in a 12 story parking garage. Boy do we know how to have fun in Houston. We averaged around 10:45 pace which was faster than my other training runs had been, but I felt good. We sped up over the second half as well, I think because the garage was behind us. I passed some friends walking as part of my friend Ruthie's Hard Core 10k Fun Run on our way in from our run and figured I'd turn around and catch them and walk a bit with them after my run for a "cooldown." Tim and I got back to our cars right at 16 miles and I turned around to catch my friends. Apparently they were further away than I thought - I ran a 9 minute mile to catch them, bringing my run distance to 17 for the day. I was very happy that my legs had a 9 minute mile in them after 16 miles of hard running. What was surprising though was that the next 2 mile walk did not so much feel good! I figured it was good IM training because let's face it, most people walk at some point during an ironman, just a matter of whether it was planned or not. So I ended up with 19 miles total for the day, feeling strong. I'm planning to do around 18 or so this weekend, but I think it will be the day after our long ride, so I will have to see how everything feels. I'm planning for my longest run to be Memorial Day weekend in Austin - new scenery and mostly soft trails to run on. Awesome.
So that's basically where I am right now. The swim and the run will happen and they will be ok regardless; I'm still scared to death of the bike. So far I think my POTS is generally under control. I did have an episode Monday night on my run, but it was almost to be expected after racing in such hot conditions over the weekend. Monday I felt pretty lightheaded and nauseous a mile or two into my run so I walked most of the rest of it, but had no problem doing that either - I was not super interested in running as it was. And Monday was also around 90 degrees with high humidity when I was running, so the heat is here to stay and I need to be aware of that.
I know many of my readers are sitting on the edge of their seats though just waiting to hear about my most recent swim, ride, or run, so here you go.
Swimming
Have not been feeling it too much lately, but at the same time I have been having some decent workouts. My Lonestar swim stuck with me for a while - I did not really have any answers for what it was so slow other than that I am now slower than I used to be. That assumption was reaffirmed Friday before last - I did a 300yd time trial at the pool just to see where things were. I had done one in February 2008 (~2 months out from IMAZ) and was about 2 months out from IMCDA, so thought I'd compare. FAIL. Eleven seconds slower than February 2008. Well, that sucks. I thought the swim might be the one place where POTS hasn't taken an ugly hand on things, but apparently that, too, was not left untouched. However, there is better news on the swim front as of lately. I swam a few seconds faster than last year at Gulf Coast and I am happy with that. Granted I had only swam a few times in the four weeks before the race last year, I had done an Ironman four weeks before, and would have considered myself still in pretty good swim shape. So, that makes me feel a little better about the whole swimming thing. I also got in a good 3600yd workout last night and realized that is the farthest I have swam since April 13, 2008 (IMAZ). It was not any more taxing or tiring than any other workout lately, so I will take that as a positive.
Biking
I feel like I am still lacking in this area, but does anyone ever feel like they really bike enough? I only have one century ride under my belt right now, and that was two months ago. I have not ridden nearly enough hills, but there is only so much one can reasonably do about that living in Houston. I have three more weekends for long riding, and hope to do century rides on two of those weekends. Losing day one of the MS150 kind of stinks because that would have been a fairly easy way to get a lot of riding in. The weekend before last we headed to Chappell Hill and I had hoped to maybe get around 80 miles in, but was going to see what the day brought. Well, the day only brought 50 miles...and lots and lots of rain...and no shoulders on the roads...and lots of chip seal surfaces - as in at mile 25 I threw the towel in and said I was done because I felt beyond unsafe, yet sadly still had to go another 25 miles to get back to the car! Oh well, you just have to take what you get sometimes. So this weekend I am heading into a 6-7 hour ride and only have ridden 3 hours each of the last 2 weekends...this weekend may hurt a little bit...as in more than I want it to, but I guess that is all part of ironman training. My Lonestar bike split sucked too, so that was still fresh in my mind. My bike splits for last year and this year at Gulf Coast were almost exactly the same, so that makes me feel a little better. I think my rides on the next three weekends will really give me a better picture of how my biking is going, as they will all be hilly rides, similar in terrain to CDA. I feel like I should already have a picture in my head of how things are going to be, and I do not, so that is a huge reason why I feel so unprepared for the bike portion right now. I feel like I am cramming last minute for a test...but then again, that is how I always studied and I generally ended up just fine, so maybe that is just the way I roll. Roll...get it? Ha ha.
Run
My run has been up and down...the up being that I have not worried too much about it and it seems to be going ok overall, and down being that I have not consistently been getting in sufficient weekly mileage. If I were training for a stand alone running race of any kind I'd be very worried right now as I know I am no where near as fast as I was during all of 2008, but as far as training for the run portion of an ironman, I actually feel just fine. I will feel even better once I get the next three long runs under my belt, but overall I think I'm in a decent spot. Tim and I had an awesome long run the weekend before last - we even ventured into the Houston hills. We had planned to run about 16 miles, and 3 miles of that was up and down in a 12 story parking garage. Boy do we know how to have fun in Houston. We averaged around 10:45 pace which was faster than my other training runs had been, but I felt good. We sped up over the second half as well, I think because the garage was behind us. I passed some friends walking as part of my friend Ruthie's Hard Core 10k Fun Run on our way in from our run and figured I'd turn around and catch them and walk a bit with them after my run for a "cooldown." Tim and I got back to our cars right at 16 miles and I turned around to catch my friends. Apparently they were further away than I thought - I ran a 9 minute mile to catch them, bringing my run distance to 17 for the day. I was very happy that my legs had a 9 minute mile in them after 16 miles of hard running. What was surprising though was that the next 2 mile walk did not so much feel good! I figured it was good IM training because let's face it, most people walk at some point during an ironman, just a matter of whether it was planned or not. So I ended up with 19 miles total for the day, feeling strong. I'm planning to do around 18 or so this weekend, but I think it will be the day after our long ride, so I will have to see how everything feels. I'm planning for my longest run to be Memorial Day weekend in Austin - new scenery and mostly soft trails to run on. Awesome.
So that's basically where I am right now. The swim and the run will happen and they will be ok regardless; I'm still scared to death of the bike. So far I think my POTS is generally under control. I did have an episode Monday night on my run, but it was almost to be expected after racing in such hot conditions over the weekend. Monday I felt pretty lightheaded and nauseous a mile or two into my run so I walked most of the rest of it, but had no problem doing that either - I was not super interested in running as it was. And Monday was also around 90 degrees with high humidity when I was running, so the heat is here to stay and I need to be aware of that.
Comments
Keep up the training and good luck with your Ironman!
Jamie
dilzi
I just recently stumbled on your blog, but immediately bookmarked it as one of my favourite websites.
Your blog and reports of races, ... work as an inspiration for me as a beginning triathlete. I never used to be very sporty, but enjoy it so much! I don't yet have a training philosophy, I just run, swim and bike and try to have fun doing it!
Thx for your reports, ... and the inspiration you are to me.
Good luck with your training.