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View albumNo longer a triathlete, but time to get in shape!
December 15
December 14
- 55m
- 16.00 miles
- 17.45 Mi/hr
- 43m 15s
- 6.00 miles
- 07m 12s /Mi
Well, that will wake you up in the morning. Up early for Spinervals - Hillacious. RPE = 7. One of the things I need to work on over the next couple of months is to train my body to enjoy morning work-outs. :)
Run at lunch today and possible (???) swim tonight.
Wow, I just realized that I haven't run since Saturday. That is probably my longest time off from running all year (including marathon recovery). Decent nooner run. I wanted to stay out of my comfort zone due to my relative inactivity all week. Overall, it was a beautiful December day to be running in SE Virginia. This is why I no longer live up north. :)
December 13
- 1h 00m
- 18.00 miles
- 18.00 Mi/hr
Travel update - I finally made it to St. Louis around 2 am last night (11+ hours travel time) and had a 6 am wake up call. So, training this morning was out. Now, I get to try it all again in reverse tonight. Hopefully I will make it home without killing someone from the airline industry. I wonder if I can log that time. :|
Either way, I need to find some big holes to make up for missed training over the next couple of days.
The airlines were good to me tonight. I even got home to spend some time on the trainer. RPE = 3, plus 1 leg drills.
December 12
TRAVEL. DAY. FROM. HELL............and I'm not even there yet! Stuck in Chicago and I don't expect to get out of here until Midnight. Ugghhh! Training might just be on hold for 2 days.
December 11
- 45m
- 13.00 miles
- 17.33 Mi/hr
Plan for today was an easy recovery run at lunch. However, my mind has been all over the place lately and I forgot to pack shorts in my gym bag. So, my options were to skip a workout, run nekkid, or head home. I opted to head home as the first two options didn't really make sense. Once at home, I figured time on the trainer would be more valuable than a run.
I broke out the Spinervals Hillacious DVD and did the final 45 minutes. Ummm, ouch! That was actually quite fun. I will start using that as part of my regular training. RPE = 6
I'm not sure what the next three days will look like from a training perspective. Tonight is my holiday party for work, and I am out and back to St. Louis on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Oh, an update on my back - I slept without the Icy Hot patch last night for the first time in a couple of days. It is starting to feel normal again. I am not sure what the problem was, but I am now drinking the Icy Hot kool-aid.
December 10
- 1h 20m
- 24.00 miles
- 18.00 Mi/hr
- 45m
- -----
- -----
Swim tonight - drills, drills, drills. The good thing about being such a new poor swimmer, is I don't really have any habits. So spending time enforcing proper technique isn't much of a problem.
Now I am going to spend some quality time with my trainer watching Kona on tivo. :) RPE = 3
December 9
- 2h 43m 06s
- 20.00 miles
- 08m 09s /Mi
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GREAT run today. Not because of the easy pace, not because of the beautiful weather; rather some philosophic life/balance/training issues came a little more into focus for me. RPE = 2.
(more later)
So, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about the IronMan, training for the IronMan and how I am going to balance 20 hour training weeks with work, my daughters, and a personal life. While trying to figure out this balance, the first question I asked myself is why do an IronMan? Well, I am attempting this for very selfish reasons. I am going after an IronMan because I want to grow my physical strength, while expanding my mind and spirit. I am doing this for me and no one else. Talking to IronMen (and women) and reading blogs and books by IronMen has helped me to learn that this ‘growing’ process will not only occur on race day, rather it will occur over the course of training and continue well after the race is over. That sounds like the experience I signed up for.
Which leads me to training..........
I’ve really been struggling with my approach to training as I am not the type of person who does well with a rigid schedule. I don’t like it for work, I don’t like it in my personal life, and I sure don’t like it for training. In running I’ve been quite successful following a training ‘blueprint’, while adding and subtracting depending on my work/personal schedule. I never skimp on the time or miles, but I certainly do better when I take things as they come. For some reason, I’ve felt an external pressure to follow someone else’s IM training program to the exact minute and detail. Well, during today’s run I finally decided that is not going to work for me. I decided that I will not be a slave to the HR monitor, but I will use it as a guide from time to time. I decided that I will continue to use RPE as my evaluator, as I understand the need to train your body to be efficient at lower heart rates. I decided I am going to design my training schedule with help from numerous sources.
My new mantra is “training revolves around my life, not the other way around”. Actually that has been my mantra for quite some time, but I never formalized that thought.So, here are things I will do over the course of the next six months:
I just won’t do any of this on someone’s schedule. If this training philosophy costs me 15, 20, or 30 minutes at IM CdA (which I don’t think it will), that trade off is well worth it. I am not looking for a Kona slot. My only goal is to expand myself and become an IronMan. This IronMan experience will be a part of my life, but it will not consume my life. There are too many other things and people to appreciate. :)
So, that is why today’s run was SO GREAT. I am going to update some of my short term goals to reflect this philosophy. I expect that my training goals and training philosophy will change numerous times over the next 6 months. This is only how I feel today.
On a separate, but related note – I decided to run Disney for time. I know I have a sub 3:30 marathon in me. I won’t give Disney the typical taper/recovery time, but I think my body will still be ok. I will also use the race to practice nutrition, which after 5 marathons I still don’t have quite right. If I can avoid the mile 23 bonk, I will run sub 3:30. Again, I do this only for me. :)