Twenty Weeks

My fellow Louisville triathlete, Jenny underlined the passage of time when she iterated that we had ONLY twenty weeks left till race day. Gulp. Twenty weeks sounds so much shorter than five months! And, actually, that was last week. Now, we have only nineteen weeks.

Training has been going okay. The mild winter has afforded the opportunity to get outside on the bike several times. Last Saturday, I got in a 41-mile ride on a beautiful sunny day with temps in the upper 40's. Criminy, the weatherman just announced that it will be in the 70's on Monday. Good grief. I would be totally enjoying this wonderful weather, if I wasn't terrified that the trend will continue through the summer.

Going back to the training topic, I decided to rejoin the Reds. I missed the gals a lot, and felt a little isolated. So far, I can't say that it's felt that much different so far, except for I now get a lot more email. The training schedule has a bit more volume, which mentally makes me feel better, though I wonder a little if I'm better off physically.

We had a group swimming lesson on Sunday, where the coach managed to find everything wrong with my form, as usual <sigh> I am never going to be a fast swimmer. And, according to her, it's doubtful I'll ever be a good swimmer, either. I guess when I look back from where I started, I am just grateful to survive the swim.

My bike rides, while I've felt pretty good, I am astoundingly slow. It's hard to believe that I've been spinning pretty intensely 2-3 times a week since November, by my average speed on those rides! I keep reminding myself that I am stronger, even if it doesn't appear that way right now. That's my story.

Tonight, I've been fighting the guilt of taking the evening off. My mood has been low, and I have been tired, stiff and sore. I had two big weeks back to back with only one day off. I am not a spring chicken any more, and it's been hard to know what the balance is between tearing down/rebuilding or tearing down/wearing down. Regardless, I didn't do anything tonight, so what's done is done. I have to fight to remember not to compare my training volume with someone else's. If I was totally slacking off, that would be one thing, but just because I got in ten hours this week and someone else does twelve doesn't mean that her training is ultimately any more effective than mine. I read somewhere that allowing someone else to impact the way your feel about yourself or your enjoyment of the sport is immature. (I think that came from Active.com). It's a good thought.

Reds

Red Ladies

As the last three months have progressed, I have felt a little isolated and well, downright lonely! I know that partly, it's just the time of year. I think we all are off doing our own indoor things. However, it went deeper than just training buddies. I really missed the Red Ladies, my training group from last year. For a group of varied women in age, professional background and athletic experience, we gelled into an extremely close group.

So, I'm back. :)

February

It's February 1st...well I guess technically it's February 2nd, and according to my New Year's Resolutions, I should be asleep right now. Oops.

I am having a bit of a slacker week, though I didn't start it off intentionally that way. Monday, I went to yoga and SHOULD have gone swimming after, but did not. Tuesday, I talked myself out of spin class. Julie and Amy were both going to be gone. Who was I going to share my pain with? Tonight, I went to the gym a little earlier than usual, intending to swim, only to find that all the lanes were filled with swimming lessons for another 40 minutes, to be followed by a triathlon class. So...even though was in my swimsuit at the time, I bagged it.

My reluctance with getting wet doesn't seem to be getting better. I don't know what's up with that, but Stella needs to get her groove back, and soon! I've had a tough time getting my head back into it the last couple of months. I have great intentions to do 2,000 yards, but after ten laps, I start watching my lap counter. Then, I'm ready to be done after 1,000 yards, barely managing to push myself through to 1,500. I have definitely got to get over myself, as I've got a lot further to go that a mere 1,500 yards. Kansas 70.3 is really NOT that far away.

So, part of my distraction tonight revolved around looking at a "new" bike. I swore that I wasn't going to get a tri bike this year. Tri bikes are too specialized and who knows if I will continue with this crazy, self-absorbing, prohibitively expensive hobby after this year? Well. Just like my "Get 7-8 hours of sleep every night," my resolve has flown out the window.

Reasonable facsimile of bike w/out Zipps

It's really not my fault. How was I supposed to resist when I see a Facebook friend advertise her '09 Felt B12 for sale? That just happened to be my size (I'm a little vertically challenged and good, used small bikes do not come up for sale that often). That came with Zipp 404's. That was pimped out pretty darn well. I took a little test spin tonight and knew it would be mine. I thought I'd crossed over to true tri geekiness when I bought my set of Zipps. Now, I know I have with this bike AND Zipps.

I really, really am almost done with gear purchases.

Sure Happy It's Thursday

When I was in college, one of the fraternities had Sure Happy It's Thursday (S.H.I.T.) parties. And, it seems to be true, S.H.I.T. happens before T.G.I.F.

I am having the hardest time forcing myself into the pool. I'm not finding it to be relaxing any more. Perhaps because since I had my last swimming lesson, I have been working on pressing more water with my strokes, and frankly, that is not relaxing. It's downright exhausting. So, when I am in the pool, my attention span wanes somewhat quickly, and getting in at all has been a struggle between good and evil. Evil seems to be winning.

It's been a long week. I had a delicious day off on Monday for the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, and have paid for it during the following days. Tomorrow is Friday (YAY!) and I WILL get in the pool and do more than 1,500 yards!

Last week I stumbled onto a website where you can order customized silicone wristbands and next to nothing. Today, I received my bands, embossed with "I shall overcome" on the front and 140.6 on the backside. I guess I need to overcome more than just 140.6 miles...I have to overcome my reluctance to get in the water!

Weather Warp

Even though I had decided yesterday that I would use today as a rest day, I woke up this morning with the sun streaming in my windows. I checked the Weatherbug app on my iPhone which stated that the temp was 51 degrees. 51 degrees at 8:30 a.m. on January 16. What a gift! How could I not take advantage of this amazing, beautiful day in the middle of winter??

Since my road bike was held hostage at Velvet Creme (not really hostage, but I didn't expect this brilliant weather so I didn't take it with me after my spin on Saturday), I dusted off the hybrid and headed for the Trolley Trail. It was so nice to be back out in the sunshine and outside on a bike. I keep thinking that it might be the last opportunity for the next three months, but next Saturday is forecasted to be in the mid-50's as well. Wow.

Happy New Year?

The new year started with a bang. I didn't have my January training plan yet, so I continued to do what I had been doing. Monday was swim day. I checked the pool schedule at my gym and saw no classes scheduled, so I decided in the sake of being efficient, I would try to squeeze it in prior to my chiropractor appointment, which is located across the street. Unfortunately, I got to the pool to find that not only was a water aerobics class in progress, they had taken half of the lanes down to hold it. Another lane had three people walking in it, which left only two lanes left for lap swimming. Arg. So much for efficiency. I did manage to eke out a swim, even if it was a short one.

Tuesday was the first night of KC Multisport Power Hour spin class. Then, Wednesday, I was struck down with the flu. It hit me quite suddenly and like a hammer. I left work early with a headache, chills and back cramps that were so severe that I likened them to back labor, not that I've ever experienced those. I rarely ever have a fever and was somewhat surprised when my thermometer kept climbing well above 98.6. Of course, I misread the dang thing and proceeded to post in Facebook that my thermometer was reading 106. Yes, I know that 106 is probably fatal, and I assumed it was wrong, but it did make for a little drama. A few hours later I realized that six tick marks past 100 was not 106, but 101.2. Hey, I had a fever. How was I supposed to be coherent?

Happily, my fever was almost back to normal by 10:30 that night, so it was also short lived, thank goodness. I did end up missing three days of workouts this week, so my normal off day on Sunday, will be filled with at least a swim. Too bad my bike and trainer are at the Power Hour location and I can't do a spin...

I'm crossing my fingers that I got my sick-y out the way for the year and can get down to the business of training!

2012 - And so it begins

January 2nd.

I guess the "off season" is officially over. It is now time to face the reality of what I've done, signing up for a full Ironman. Eeek!

After playing around with various training plans that I found on the Internet, I decided that I would be more comfortable having a live someone tell me what to do. It just seemed too easy to edit those plans to what I wanted to do instead of what I needed to do. I had another conversation with Duston last week and we lined out our expectations of each other and some key races that I should put on the calendar.

KC Triathlon - May 20. He suggested the Olympic distance, but since I'm a little leery of the swim that early in the season, he okayed the sprint distance. The Redman swim blew my confidence a bit. I think that May 20 may be a little early for a 1500 meter swim in a cold, choppy lake. Of course, now that this race has been included as part of the WTC 5150 series, I kind of wanted to do the Oly. But, I am going to err on the conservative side on this one. I don't want another DNF for my first race of the season.

KS 70.3 - June 10. I am not terribly excited about doing this race. I don't really have a reason except, I just didn't want to do it. But, it makes sense. It's a good training race as well as it's the right distance out from LV. Ugh. I need to sign up for it before the entry goes up again on January 10th. I just need to keep in mind that I'm doing it for experience and that it is NOT my "A" race.

Summer Roundup Oly - June 24. This race was my very first triathlon in 2009. It consisted of a 250-yard pool swim, 15-mile bike and 5K run. I did it again in 2011, where it was moved to Joplin from Carthage and the pool swim expanded to 500 meters (bigger pool). I was coming off my Topeka Tinman disaster so it was a nice redemption that I won my age group there. For 2012, they are moving it to a lake near Jasper and adding an Oly.

Then, I was silly enough to mention the Eurekan to Duston. It is two weeks out from Louisville and I thought it might make sense to do the 58-mile bike ride there. I did the full event (short sprint tri, century bike ride, 10K run) in 2011, and I thought that the century ride was the hardest thing I had ever done physically. He seems to think that doing the full event again (two weeks before LV) is a good idea....but, I may challenge him. That event sapped me last year. I don't know that I want to put out that much of an effort two weeks before the new biggest event of my life...

That takes care of the multisport races. Throw in Big Sur marathon and Hospital Hill Half Marathon to round out the roster and we'll call it done. Except for the Austin 70.3 cooldown half in October. :)

I have got A LOT of work to do. Again, I have one word for it. EEEK!

I downloaded my totals for 2011. It's pretty awesome, for me. 1,500 miles on my bike? What is most astounding is the 91 miles I put in swimming! That's almost incomprehensible. Wow. Plus the fact that I only missed two complete weeks all of last year when I didn't swim at all. Whoa. I've come a long way, baby.