How Hard Can It Be? 5.0

I've got 11 more days to be a slacker as March 12 is 20 weeks out from my HIM.

I really like training for this distance. It's a long enough race that I have to train, but not so long that training becomes my life. I don't know if I'll ever do a full IM since this mostly makes me happy. :p

I've run once in the last two weeks since I hurt my foot. Once I realized that it had not recovered enough for me to make my monthly mileage goal I decided to just let it rest and REALLY heal. It's not even like I have a cool story for how I hurt it. I got out of bed while still kinda asleep and lost my balance and stumbled. I didn't trip over a cat or shoes or anything, just being klutzy. I'd say it's about 90% recovered.

This year I'd like to actually swim once a week, justify my gym membership if nothing else. :rolleyes: My running has come so far, and I've learned so much about myself as a runner. Maybe this year I'll have a decent run and break 7 hours. I'm not going to worry about going super fast on the bike this year, just get through it and run well.

Four weeks after my HIM, Thom and I are doing one as a relay in Maine, with our hometown crowd. That is going to be fun! I'm going all out on the swim because I'll have a couple of hours to recover before the run.

I've got a few smaller races planned before the half. I'm excited about it all.

Veronica

Love following your journey!! Hope that foot heals up soon. I'm sure it will realize that you are training and it will shape up soon!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Veronica

I've got 11 more days to be a slacker ...

---

You're a slacker?? :confused:
Heck. What does that make the rest of us?

Good luck with training. Make sure you allow that foot to get the other 10% back. That's the hardest part, I think.

Week 1 - pretty much a bust. :(

I have not been "healthy" since Valentine's Day when I hurt my foot. It seems to have recovered - just stiff now when I first get up. March 5 I crushed my right middle finger between two parts of a moving wall. I didn't break anything, but did a lot of cell damage. It's still pretty ugly and swollen.

This past week I caught a cold and had three major projects - 2 presentations and an outline for a third - to finish as part of a Math grant I'm participating in. I was not thrilled about having to do so many "dog & pony" shows and left the prep to the last minute. Stupid, I know. :rolleyes: All three did go well, but it was stressful and sucked up a lot of my free time.

No swims, no bike rides...

But I did do this really fun exercise on Wednesday with the TRX and a set of steps. Put one foot in a stirrup, put your hands on the step and jump backwards on the other foot. Jump forward and stand up, then jump onto the step and jump back off. I did 15 on each foot with I think four steps. Took a minute break, added a step and did 15 more on each foot. I really worked my glutes and of course all the little stabilizer muscles are firing. I REALLY enjoy balancing and plyometrics. :D

And I did do 30 minutes of intervals on the treadmill yesterday, after a ten minute warm up. Intervals were 50 seconds of running at a 7:30 pace, followed by a 1:50 walking. I was aiming for 1 minute and 2 minutes, but it takes me 10 seconds to change the speed on this treadmill.

Hopefully, this next week will be better.

Veronica

Week 2

A little bit better than week 1. Still no swim, only bike ride will be today, 90 minutes in the trainer. Morning workouts are so much easier to get in than afternoons. :rolleyes:

I did my first "long" run in eight weeks yesterday - 7.5 miles. At first I was pretty unhappy with it. My pace seemed slow and that last half mile felt like a death march. I had my HRM set for my long endurance zone and for the first five miles, I was right there, but the last 2.5 I could not keep it down there. Once I factored in how much wind I had, huge storm has blown in, and 8 weeks of minimal running to allow for recovery, it really wasn't that bad - only 10 seconds off my pace on my last good long run.

I had thought I might swim on Wednesday afternoon, but I could hardly lift my arms over my head. Tuesday Shawna had me do bicep curls into an overhead press with the EZ curl bar and just ten pounds added to it. Oh, it was just 3 sets of 50 reps. OUCH! Muscle endurance work can be so much fun.

Wednesday was mainly a plyometrics day. Jumping with a twenty pound weight vest on is entertaining. It took about 5 jumps each round to get into it. I think we started with 7 steps and added one each set.

I need to work in a yoga session on Sunday because by Monday I really feel the need for it and I want to make Monday afternoons my swim day.

Veronica

Week 3 - another week of base building. :)

This is the week I decided to take charge of my diet. Over the winter I had gained 5 pounds and I was okay with that since my body fat percentage was still under 19%. But I am not light at 120 pounds of lean body mass, so the leaner I can get, the better - within reason of course. :D I do have quite the sweet tooth and I am not good at moderation so I went cold turkey on sweets. Bummer because my local grocery store had Ferrar Rocher chocolates on sale this week. However, I've already dropped two pounds. :D I want to lose 5 more for sure and maybe as much as ten by the end of July. Ten pounds lost would give me 12% body fat. That's pretty lean and it's more important to me to stay healthy and have the energy to train well.

I got my March running goal this month by doing another longish run on Saturday - 8.4 miles. It was another blustery day and I finished up just as it started pouring. It was a really good run, as always a bit slower than I'd like. But Thom remarked that I didn't seem beat up at all and I felt like cardio wise I could have kept going. My legs were getting tired though. :rolleyes: Maybe because I did a killer hamstring session with Shawna on Wednesday...

Veronica

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Veronica

Week 3 - another week of base building. :)

This is the week I decided to take charge of my diet. Over the winter I had gained 5 pounds and I was okay with that since my body fat percentage was still under 19%. But I am not light at 120 pounds of lean body mass, so the leaner I can get, the better - within reason of course. :D I do have quite the sweet tooth and I am not good at moderation so I went cold turkey on sweets. Bummer because my local grocery store had Ferrar Rocher chocolates on sale this week. However, I've already dropped two pounds. :D I want to lose 5 more for sure and maybe as much as ten by the end of July. Ten pounds lost would give me 12% body fat. That's pretty lean and it's more important to me to stay healthy and have the energy to train well.


Veronica

---

Veronica,

12% body fat for a female is not "pretty lean." Essential fat for women is estimated to be between 8-12%. Please consider a more healthy goal.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by roo4

Veronica,

Please consider a more healthy goal.

---

I appreciate your concern, however, I am a fairly athletic person and 12% is a reasonable goal. I work with a nutritionist and I am not starving myself. I am well aware of my athletic performance and how different things affect it. That is why I said in my post 12% was the goal only if I could stay healthy and train effectively for my Half Ironman.


Veronica

I wish you a healthy triathlon season.

Thom asked me on Sunday why I hadn't signed up yet for any of my early season races. I had two reasons. 1) Angels Camp was COLD last year. The swim was freezing and I did warm up on the bike and the run, but after the race I couldn't stop shivering. I think that's why one of my Christmas presents was a heated car blanket. :p 2) Racing stresses me out. I was a mass of jitters pre-race last year. I think I had set my expectations so high, that it really got to my head. The jitters would go away a hundred yards into the swim, but still it wasn't fun. And as I get older, I have to wait longer to start. It occurred to me that what I really like about triathlon is the training and I need to just have fun when I race. So that's become my goal for this year - to have fun at all my races.

Change of topic...

Somewhere along the way, I've developed some serious abs! So, I'm one of those weird people who just keeps track of numbers. My jump rope record is 323 jumps in a minute sort of thing. Yes, you can count that fast in your head! :p I have always hated ab work that involved lifting my legs. My legs are large, heavy, immovable objects, especially when I have to work against gravity. We use to do a lot of decline leg lifts - sets of 15. I would do 7, then 5, then 3. I was very excited when I could do 12 straight, but I never got to 15. We haven't done them in a few months. Today, Shawna says do 20. O.... kay.... to my surprise, I did 20! And I did 20 on round 2 as well. Then we moved to bicep/tricep work.

Yep, I definitely like my training and triathlon just gives it a focus. I think it makes me a more well rounded athlete.

Veronica

Yay Veronica!! It sounds like you are doing great. I'm always happy to hear about how your training is going.

Keep up the amazing work. :cool:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Wahine

Yay Veronica!! It sounds like you are doing great. I'm always happy to hear about how your training is going.

Keep up the amazing work. :cool:

---

+1 I enjoy reading about your training. :-)

Ugh; decline leg lifts are my nemesis (along with about 50 other exercises). Great job! I'll try to channel you the next time my trainer has me do them.

My abs are still slightly sore. :rolleyes:

Today was my first day of spring break. I had thought I would go for a run... but I've really enjoyed hanging out with the kitties, reading Robbie McEwen's book and working in my back yard. See, this is why I can't ever do an IM... :p

We're spending a good chunk of the rest of break mountain biking the White Rim. It's been awhile since I've mountain biked; I hope I have forgotten how! We're taking our running gear and plan to get in a trail run. That will be a nice change of pace.

Veronica

Have fun V!!