Week 20: 2/3 of the way there!!!

4/9/2012

Well I'm pretty sore and sun burned from my long bike and run yesterday.  From now on I'll reapply sunscreen if I'm going to be out for more than an hour and I'll buy/pick up more Gatorade and water.  One bottle of each was not enough for 4 hours on the bike.  I only ended up taking in 177 calories/hour on the bike, everything I've read says to take in at least 250/hour, and I definitely felt the deficit on my run and during the rest of the day.  I did my long run (1:30) today on the way home from work.  It was the first time I've run in 75 degree weather since last summer, and between that and yesterday's workout I struggled the whole way. 

4/10/2012

I swam 2 miles this morning! It was in an 85 degree pool without a wetsuit or anyone hitting me, but I'd never done that before, so its nice to know I can.  My wrists and ankles started getting sore towards the end but otherwise I felt fine and like I could have kept going.  I ran 20 minutes afterward and felt much better than yesterday, so it seems that I've recovered.
I was planning on running another 40 minutes later in the day, but I ended up in lab until 9 PM and was too tired and hungry when I got home to do anything useful.  Training is going to have to take even more of a backseat for the next couple of weeks.  I'll find out if I get in to the lab I want to join on the 27th, and until then classes and lab need to be my top priority.  I'll do enough to be well prepared for the half Ironman in 11 days (!) but I've done all those distances before so I'm not too worried about it.  I should probably stop swimming in the warm pool and just start taking ice baths to really prepare myself.

4/11/2012

Didn't do any training today and that was okay with me.  It appears that the experiment that kept me in lab late last night didn't work (again) so the day became really stressful as I forsaw myself spending all my time in lab at the expense of classwork and training, only to not accomplish anything.  Maybe working out would have helped me de-stress, or at least been a better way to de-stress than eating a bunch of mini Reese's cups...

4/12/12

I slept through my alarm and didn't get any training in before class.  I managed to leave lab by 4 though and headed straight to the gym when I got home.  The pool was really full, so I did weights and core for an hour and then swam.  I nearly talked myself out of getting in the pool but I finally stopped thinking about it and just did it.  I only swam for half an hour, but I did 50 and 100 yd sprints and really pushed myself.  I figure I'm 3-5 times more likely to make it out of bed and swim tomorrow morning because I made myself do it tonight.  After a quick haircut I went home rode the trainer for an hour, a decision I also think was helped by my brief swim.  I also put the rest of the Reese's cups in a Ziplock bag, in a container full of water, in the freezer.  So at least now I'll get a workout chiseling them out if I want to stress eat again.  Funny how good (or bad) decisions snowball.

4/13/12

Well my prediction was wrong, I did not make it to the pool this morning; I don't even remember my alarm going off.  I went for a run in the afternoon with one of the guys who works on the same floor as me.  It was nice to have someone to talk to and I pushed myself pretty hard; he's doing a half marathon next weekend and I didn't want to slow down his training.  At the end he said I'd kicked his ass though, and since I'd kicked my own ass as well, I guess that worked out pretty well.

4/14/12

Once again I meant to get up early to swim and once again I slept through my alarm.  Maybe my body's trying to tell me something?  It was threatening to rain, so I went to lab for a couple of hours and when it still hadn't cleared up I decided to switch my long bike and long run days.  It felt good to run on relatively fresh legs, I put in 13.75 miles in 2 hours and 5 minutes, much of it fairly hilly.  I weighed myself before and after the run to see how much I need to be hydrating.  I lost 4 pounds over the run, 5 once you account for the 16 oz I drank during it.  That seems like a lot to me, given that it was cool (42-51 degrees) and cloudy (with 70% humidity).  I don't think it was too detrimental though, I had some oatmeal when I got home, waited 45 minutes and then went and swam for an hour.  I did a 200-300-400-500 ladder for my main set and aimed to average 2 minutes/100 yards through each distance.  I was at 6 and 8 minutes even for the 300 and 400, so I was a little worried about the 500 (especially since I was getting a little tired by that point) but I did it in 9:56!  4 seconds isn't that big of a deal, but I was excited not to be 4 or even 40 seconds slower.  Then I lifted weights, but by this point even really light ones were a struggle, so I headed home to eat more.

4/15/12

I did my long bike ride (4 hours) on the trainer today, mostly to save time and avoid getting sunburned or dehydrated.  I wore my minimally padded tri shorts to make sure I could handle them for that long, I'll be wearing them for the half Ironman and the longest I'd ridden in them before was 1.5 hours.  They were...manageable.  They should be better when I'm biking outside and standing up to climb some of the hills.  I felt really good on my 45 minute run right after the bike ride, drinking enough Gatorade really made a difference. I'm feeling ready to taper and get to the race!

4/16/12-4/19/12

Its been a really stressful week (as usual), I've been constantly on the verge of tears and had no energy to do much besides lab work and the homework that immediately needed to get done.  I'm feeling better today, I got a presentation out of the way and finally put some words on paper for my grant proposal (due next Friday).  I'm all packed for Vegas; this will be the first time I'm heading there without any high heels in my bag.  I'm not feeling too nervous yet, but I'm sure I will be tomorrow, especially after seeing how hilly the bike and run courses are and doing a test swim in the reservoir.  My goal for the race is 6:30 (0:45 swim, 3:30 bike and 2:00 run with 0:15 for transitions and a bathroom break or two), but the high that day is in the 90's, so that could substantially effect my time.  I'll post an update on Saturday or Sunday!

Weeks 17-19

Sorry for the absence of posts, I've been really busy with school and once I get out of the habit of writing things daily, it's hard to start up again.  Anyway, here's a brief recap of the last few weeks.

Week 17

Things really seemed to come together this week.  I met someone who works in a lab on the floor as me who offered me the use of his kayak to practice open water swimming, someone else who's done several Ironmen (including CdA) offered to actually do some open water swimming with me, and on Friday I met a group of people at the pool all training for Ironman CdA.  I was with them for part of my workout and was pretty shocked at how different it was to swim right behind somebody.  I swam harder than I normally do by myself and while I still had a hard time keeping up, I didn't get lapped and I didn't feel like I was in anyone's way.  I'll probably try to swim with them a couple more times if it works in my schedule.

Week 18

I felt a little down this week.  I was technically tapering for a mock Olympic length race (that I did by myself on a course I made up) but I was lacking in motivation and didn't swim all week.  I had a hard time pushing myself to finish my rides and runs, and for the first time I started to worry that I wouldn't have the mental strength to finish an Ironman.  In spite of those things my "race" went pretty well.  I got up at 4 to have a bowl of oatmeal, went back to bed for an hour and got back up and started swimming at 6:15.  I showered quickly before getting on my bike so I wouldn't be all itchy and smelling like chlorine, and I had to take my bike off my roof rack, so my transitions were very different than they'd be in an actual race.  There was a fierce headwind on the way out on the bike, so it took me more than an hour to get to my turn-around point (12 miles) when I had hoped it would take me more like 45 minutes.  There was also more climbing on the ride out; that, coupled with the wind was pretty disheartening and made me wonder how I'd be able to finish 112 miles in a couple of months.  The way back felt much better though, and I started to feel pretty optimistic, until I got a flat tire with 5 miles left.    I hadn't practiced changing one since October, so it took me 20 minutes, but I did it all by myself despite numerous offers of help from people running or riding past.  The run part of the "race" felt alright, my legs were definitely tired and it didn't help that the entire route was either uphill or downhill but fighting the wind.  I still averaged an 8:13 pace over the 6.2 miles and felt pretty good about that.  I don't think I could have finished the whole thing much faster, but my energy levels were fine the rest of the day, so I probably could have held that effort longer.  Since that's the eventual goal, I'm happy with it.

Week 19
Grant writing class and the approach of lab-joining decision day made this week really stressful; I think I averaged 5.5 hours of sleep a night. I only made it to the pool once, but I got my weekday bikes and runs in just fine.  On Saturday Sarah and I headed down to Utah Lake so I could practice swimming in my wetsuit.  I borrowed that kayak mentioned in week 17 and she paddled around next to me so I could hang out, calm down, and warm my hands and feet up a little.  The water had been 52 degrees the week before I got in, but it snowed on Friday, so it might have been a little colder my then.  At least I'm hoping it was colder, because I could only stand it for about 20 minutes before I was too cold and had to get out.  After initially getting in the water and hyperventilating because of the temperature and feeling somewhat constricted in my wetsuit, I did okay.  I could pick a dock or other destination about 20 yards away and swim to it without feeling panicked.  It wasn't much of a workout, but I think it boosted my confidence for at least the swim portion of my half Ironman in Vegas in 2 weeks.  I ended up taking the rest of Saturday as my rest day; I was cold and stressed out about getting things done.  Today (Sunday) I'll go for a 4 hour bike ride (about 60 miles) towards the Great Salt Lake Marina and follow it up with a 45 minute run (about 6 miles).

Stella - looking like a badass.