Baby it's cold outside

I haven't disappeared.  I did my first Turkey trot with my husband, mom and mother in law.  It was fun and cold. My pace was 8:56 per mile, which is good for me, but definitely something I will be working on. I've been keeping up my training.  This week I did spin on Monday, swam Tuesday, kickboxing on Wednesday, rest Thursday, ran/jog Friday, hiked Saturday and I plan to swim tomorrow.

I bought a calendar for a dollar at Target last night, so that I can plan out some of my goals for next year.  It helps me to jot down on paper where I need to be in terms of my run, swim and bike every three months so I can actually get in shape for the HIM. I'm sure there are training plans I should be using, but right now my goal is just to stay busy for the winter and work on my fitness level and in the spring I'll find a good plan to follow.

Swim Drills

Yesterday I did a good spin class.  There were moments I felt close to god as I was “climbing a mountain”.  Today I am going to the gym after work to get in a swim and whatever else I can talk myself into.  I have been doing strictly freestyle swim without any skill drills besides a kick-board and pull buoy, today I want to bring along some drills so I can work on improving my catch and pull.  There was about 30 seconds on Sunday when I was swimming and I felt I got into a rhythm, more than likely it was a rhythm with bad form, so I think now is the time to address that.  I’m also going to see about swimming lessons at the gym. I think they have group lessons for free or I could pay a personal training some ridiculous amount to do a couple trainings.  I’m sorry, but no I don’t think $85 a hour is a fair wage, I need to work for 4 hours to pay for one lesson.  What happened to $25 a hour for someone’s time being a good deal for both of us?

Here are the drills I found online. I have a plastic page protector that I put my workout in and I'll put the drills on the back. 

Weekend workout plan

I went for a run with the dog.  It was a 6.5 mile loop around two lakes.  We sneaked into a boat club so Rudy (the dog) could drink some water from the river.  We also stopped at the end of the run at the lake and he splashed around and sat in the lake. It was so beautiful out I could have worn shorts and a tee shirt and been perfectly comfortable. After my run I was starving so I had a little chicken and tons of veggies.  Then I spent the next 5 hours cleaning the house and doing laundry.  Now I think I am going to go to a wine tasting.

Sunday the plan is to workout at the gym and go for a swim.  I'm not sure if I will run, bike or lift, but I'll do something before I swim. Sunday night I am hanging out with the girls at Cooking Light Supper Club and then we have a makeup party. By the time that is over DH should be back from NYC and Saturday Night Live. 

Take advantage of sunshine

Today and tomorrow we are suppose to have some nice weather so I rearranged my workout schedule to take advantage of the sunshine and I am going to go on a 5 mile run at lunch and a 7 mile run with the dog tomorrow.  I took a day off from exercise yesterday, and feel really disappointed in myself because I had been planning to swim and then I realized I wasn’t really accounting for any days off so I just skipped my swim workout.  My body does a good job of telling me when I need a day off, but mentally I need to learn to accept that sometimes it is ok to rest.

While listening to a Simply Stu podcast they were talking about measuring power on the bike.  There are all these fancy power meters; they can cost thousands of dollars.  I was thinking it would be nice to at least know how fast I was going and how far I’ve been, and to my delight there are very simple bike computers that you can get for $20. They give you all kinds of data including speed and distance. Here is one that I found, but I didn’t look at any others so I’ll continue on my research and maybe add this to my Christmas wish-list.

Rainy

Tonight was a rainy, dark (just turned back the clocks), lonely (DH out with friends) so I had to work hard to get the motivation to drive to the pool.  I just tried not think about it and started collecting my stuff and got out the door.  I did a 700 yard swim and I was planning on doing a 800, but I am happy I made it there. Monday I did a spin class and it was a great workout.  It was 45 minutes of sweat. 

1.5 weeks down

It has been a little over a week since I signed up for my half ironman and my training is going well.  I ended up taking Friday off because I had a meeting at lunch time and had to miss the lunch time spin class.  Saturday I went for a run with my dog Rudy and today I am going to do a 800 yard swim workout and maybe some weights. 

Swim Workout #1 Week Two  800 Total

• 200 warm up swim

• 6x50 (25 kick/25 swim)
  With :30 seconds rest between each 50

• 8x25 swim
  -With :30 seconds rest between each 25
  -Swim #1 easy, swim #2 a little bit faster, #3 a little faster, #4 faster
  -Start over and repeat for #’s 5-8

• 100 cool down

This week I found some useful websites.  For interesting triathlete podcasts checkout SimplyStu. I listened to an interview with Linsey Corbin who is a pro triathlete that came in 12th at Kona, but she learned to swim only a few years ago, just like me.  Linsey has her own blog that is cool too, I guess a lot of the professional triathletes have their own blogs, so it will be interesting to check them out and see what it takes to really be at the top of your game.

It hit me

When I did my last half marathon it hit me, the race was only 2 hours, but the part I liked more was the training I put in over the weeks and months to get ready for the event.  Right now I just want the half ironman to be here.  I don’t want to wait 10 months, I want to be physically ready for it NOW. I feel like Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU7nG3KvZDA

Today my fortune cookie said, “Nothing will get in the way of your desire to succeed. Keep at it!” Well today I will have to keep at it a little longer because I went by the Little Debbie Million Smiles van and got two cupcakes then proceeded to eat them both.  Haha. Tonight the plan is to do a swim workout, I think I will add a 20 min run, to work off one of those cupcakes.

Training plan

As I am starting out on my journey I have found a few websites helpful.  The first is beginner triathlete.  I like the articles, training plans and the forum.  You can do keyword searches on the forum to see all the posts on a given topic.  I’ve already done a search on “Timberman” to see what other people have to say on the race.  The day after my spin class I had a lot of pain in my stomach muscles and I was trying to see what muscles you use during spin class and livestrong.com had the best articles about spinning and the site in general provides good information on exercise, and nutrition.

I swam yesterday and took a kickboxing class today.  My schedule for training is:

Monday- Spin
Tuesday- Swim
Wednesday- Kickboxing
Thursday- Swim
Friday- Spin
Saturday- Swim and lift
Sunday - rest

This is significantly more than I am used to, before I registered for the race I would workout 2-3 times a week.  Actually registering and having a date that I am training for has really motivated me.  I’ve started to research sprint and olympic distance races I can do before the HIM, and I’m even trying to convince my mom and husband to do a Turkey Trot with me.  I haven’t lost any weight (no surprise there it has been like 4 days), but I hope to lose about 20 lbs before the HIM.  I workout at lunch so I have to pack a lunch, I have been taking a can of lentil soup with a piece of bread, and as of now, I like how full it makes me.

Getting started

Saturday I went sailing for the first time.  It was an adventure and caused a mini heart attack because we came within inches of hitting the pylons 2 times as we tried to get out into the harbor.  Thankfully we were rescued. It was very windy (30mph) and cold so I had on my skiing gear.

Me all bundled up.

Husband and the Captain of our boat.

A different view of the city.

Saturday afternoon after sailing I worked up the motivation to go to the gym in Lexington. The gym is huge with great facilities and is more like a spa.  I swam a total of 750 yards. I am only comfortable with swimming about 75 yards continuously, this has me worried because the swim for the race is 2000 yards. I did find a good article online that has a workout plan for a beginner swimmer, it includes 3 workouts for each week and the first month it has you swimming from 600 yard to 900 yards.

Today I did a spin class at the gym across from work, they have a good schedule of lunch classes that I try to take advantage of.  It was a 45 min class and I could definitely tell I was out of shape compared to the other people in the class, but I am an optimist so I'm not worried.

Why am I doing this?

I set a goal four years ago to finish a half ironman before I turn 30.  Over the past 4 years I have been very slowly making my way closer to achieving the goal.  I did my first sprint triathlon in May of 2006.  It was a 250 yard pool swim, a 10 mile bike ride and a 3.5 mile run.  I had a great time competing and it helped to cement the idea that I could do a triathlon. I had never run a half marathon so in 2009 I signed up for my first half marathon and finished that.  I did another half marathon in June of 2010.  2010 was also the year that I got on my bike and went further than 10 miles, but as I look back on the year I really wish I would have put in some long rides so I could at least say I know I can finish 56 miles.  In terms of swimming, I suck at it.  I learned to swim at age 20.  Up until then I got away with the doggie paddle.  I have a lot to learn over the fall and winter and the pool is going to become my best friend because I know for sure that right now I am not capable of swimming 1.2 miles. So back to the point, why am I doing this? my time has run out, I’ll be 30 in late 2011, I set a goal and I want to accomplish it.  I want to put in the miles training for it, and get in the best shape I’ve ever been in.  I want to push myself to a level I have never even imagined possible and succeed. I also want to tell 30 I can kick its ass.

Day One: Sign Up

Today starts day one of 10 months of training for my first half ironman.  I forked over $300 for the Timberman 2011 registration.  The fact that it is all coming together means I need to get in shape.  I'm sick, just spent 4 days on the couch, so I won't be doing any actual training today, but I did start to lay out my plan for the next couple months.