Shark!

As my fingertips hit the water, I strongly pull it back, keeping my elbow high… I feel my body whoosh forward and I find myself at the end of the pool within seconds!  Well, maybe seconds is an exaggeration but I killed my swim workout this morning.  Killed it!  I felt like I was a hunter in the water, confidently catching up and overtaking each one of my competitors.  (and winning my age group – hah!)

I don’t know if it was just one of those days where I got lucky and felt great in the pool… or if I am actually getting stronger and faster!  I’m gonna go with the latter.  This was my fastest 3000 yard swim and I loved every minute of it.  I never got bored, tired (well maybe a little tired) and I was fast – fast for me! I held a 1:40 pace on 2 400’s, a 1:38 pace on 2 200’s and I swam 2 300's in 5:15 which didn’t take any extra effort!  To put that in perspective, my “test 300’s” came in at 5:15 where I was huffing and puffing.  I’m so glad my first workout of Week 5 was a confidence builder – it means I’m headed in the right direction and I can’t wait to see more results!

Speaking of results, I had my second tempo run yesterday and I improved on that as well.  I made it a point to keep my 2 mile tempo intervals consistent and I was able to do just that! I warmed up for approx. 16 minutes, 1.72 miles, then ran 2 miles tempo (8:30 & 8:25), 2 minute walk break which was actually a 2:30 minute break since I had to strip off my top layer in the hot 30 degree weather, ran 2 miles tempo (8:34 & 8:29), 1:30 walk break, then the final 2 miles tempo (8:27 & 8:17) plus a 1 mile cool down.  Look at those intervals – pretty consistent if you ask me.  I had no idea I had an 8:17 as the last interval in me either!  I’m really happy with that workout.  What a world of difference 3 weeks of consistency does to your run! 

Overall I still have a lot of work to do, faster splits to swim, bike & run… but I know I’m headed on the right path!

Here’s my full month of January numbers:

Swim: 7.93 hours 21,130 yds (28.96%) - fyi... that's 12 miles of swimming!!

Bike: 8.33 hours (30.42%)

Run: 8.12 hours 51.4 miles (29.65%)

Strength: 3 hours (10.95%)

Total hours: 27.38 hours - I can do this!!  

This week will be another test for me... not only is it supposed to snow AGAIN, but I'm working crazy long hours this week so my 530am wake up call is a mandatory one.  Fortunately, my longest workouts this week are scheduled for Sat/Sun so I should be ok.  I just have to make sure I'm getting my beauty sleep!  Which by the way is hard to get when you're reading an insanely good book.  I'm currently reading Unbroken: an Extraordinary True Story of Courage and Survival.

Many of you Runner's World readers are probably familiar with this story after they published an excerpt of it in the magazine.  This is a fantastic read and I highly recommend for any type of reader.  What this man went through in WW2 was just unthinkable.  I feel like I learned more history from this book than any high school or college class taught me. (Yeah I wasn't a history buff... I got a C in my last college history class).  So when I hit the hay early, I pick this book up and the next thing I know it's 1230am!  Whoops.  I'm learning to control myself though and am only allowing one chapter per night.  So far it's working.  Happy Training Everyone!

MIA? nah, I'm here

Hi there folks!

Week 3 of IM training has come and gone so quickly, that I didn't even have a minute to post about it!

Here are the totals:
Swim: 5800 yards in 1:55
Bike: 2 hours
Run: 12.4 miles 2 hours
Strength: 1 hour
TOTAL: 6:55

It was another enjoyable week and it helped that work was a normal 45 hour work week.  Week 4... well... let's just say I'm still at work as I type and probably will be til about 10pm.  Yay for 13 hour days!!  =(

But this goes to show why I need those 530am wake up calls, like I had today.  I know my area of work can be unpredictable and I can't guarantee I can squeeze an hour long workout or more after work.  So I am giving myself a pat on the back today **pat, pat** for waking up at 530am and getting my indoor bike done.  I did not have time for strength today but I know I'll be able to get it done sometime this week.  I've actually been doing my second strength workout on Saturday after my bike.  I know this will change once I hit the road (ah, I can't wait!!) and I will have no desire to strength train after a 5 hour ride.  But for right now, it works.

There's one thing I want to post about, but I'm not sure if I should.... it's about a desire I have... a pretty sweet desire, I might say... but I'm just not sure if it's in the cards for me.  Sunday, a close friend reminded me about her "vision board" and how it activates the laws of attraction.  That pretty much sums up this blog, since I am envisioning myself running through the lake Placid finishers shoot with my arms raised, most likely tears streaming down my face and a huge smile.  So I have something new that needs to go on my very own "vision blog board." I will pretty much do anything to activate the laws of attraction on this beauty.

There's my girl!  You're my girl, Pink!! (a little Old School anyone?)  A pink CAMO TT bike, I mean, I have no words as to how much this bike suits me.  It was love at first sight.  Take a look at this review.  See, she's not just another pretty face, she has brains too!  Will I get her?  I honestly don't know.  The last thing I want is to have a fancy TT bike just to get passed left and right on the bike course because I'm not strong enough.  That would be embarrassing! So I'm working right now to get leaner and faster on my current bike.  If I happen to do that (she's a good incentive) then the Cd.01 will be the first bike I try out. 

Another 530am wakeup call for me tomorrow... so I better get out of work soon!

Trainer Tuesday

Hi folks!  The alarm went off at 5:53am today.... yes 5:53.  I don't really have a reason why the odd number, except it meant I could sleep in an extra 8 minutes and that's all I cared about.  After looking outside and seeing the icy, wintery mess... I got myself dressed, and the dog dressed (don't judge! she's little and I don't want her to get soaked) and prepared for an icy walk.  We got outside and there was seriously a one inch layer of ice everywhere!

View from my window wasn't as nice as last week!

After our brief walk... well actually pull... she despises the rain and I have to drag her out the door.  We were back in our apartment in a hurry and I got ready for my trainer ride.

Meanwhile, Ollie went back to sleep

Today's ride was all about cadence... 90 rpms, 100 rpms, 110 rpms and then 120 rpms.  The goal is to persuade my brain that when I get on the bike I should have a higher cadence automatically.  This was a great drill for that reason.  The first round of 100,110 & 120, I thought there was no way that would feel natural.  When the second set came around, it felt easier.  120 was still really tough to do without bouncing in my seat, but by the 3rd set, it felt almost natural.  Well, maybe not the 120 but the 100 & 110 had my legs working but not in a frantic, I can'r keep up pace. What a surprise!  I didn't realize my brain & legs would catch on so quick!

It was a strong hour and I'm looking forward to more training!!  Tomorrow's a long swim focusing on technique so I'll probably be in the pool for about an hour.  Happy training everyone!

Teetering Towards a Trifecta

Trifecta you ask?  This ain't no horse race!  I am controlling this thing called Ironman training and I have hit every single workout for the first two weeks. Week 3 is coming up and I'm ready to lay the smack down on the training! Before we move forward... let's take a quickie look at week 2.

What a week!  Work was pretty hectic but I didn't miss a beat when it came to my training.  My 3100 yard swim Monday felt pretty good.  Actually it kinda hurt, but not for the reason you're thinking.  We got the Xbox Kinect and I was determined to beat Simon in every even in the Track and Field game. Including javelin. To say I was sore is an understatement! And to make it hurt worse... my planned swim was a Force workout.  I.E. about 2800 yards of straight pulling!!  Yowzas.  Anyways, Trainer Tuesday kicked off at 6am.

NYC sunrise from my window

Not a bad way to start a morning

Another large snowstorm managed to mess up the city streets again on Wednesday.

Little Ozizzle taking a weeizzle in the snow

I counted 9, yes 9 plows go by on 3rd ave at 530am!

But that didn't mess up my workout plans cause I hit up the pool for 2800 yards.

Thursday brought another run test out on the East River post work.  ** side note... I kinda forgot what it was like to work 50+ hour weeks This time it was warming up 15-20 minutes, then run 3 miles all out and note my HR and the time it took me to run it.  Phew, it was a toughy since my speed has declined in the off season.  But it did feel good to "leave it all out" on the East River Path.

Friday was a rest day - hooray!  Saturday I got back on the trainer for an hour speed session then stayed on my feet for another 6 hours (yes 6 hours!) shopping for presents.  Si's heading back to his homeland for two weeks so we had to get some belated Christmas presents for his family.  One zip car and some NYC traffic later, I picked Simon up from his flying lesson in Jersey (I'm not the only crazy one... he's getting his pilot's license!) and we hit up my old mallrat haunt, Willowbrook.  By the time we got back home from the shopping extravaganza, we were pooped!

Then came today... I knew it was gonna be cold, so I slept in.  I finally got bundled up....

lotsa pink!

and headed up to the park to get in my 8 mile tempo run.  Plan was to warm up 15-20 minutes, run 2 miles hard, take a 2 minute walk break, then repeat two more times.  I wound up running 8.6 miles and was outside for 1:20.  Even though it felt like 21 degrees, I got hot fast and took my pink gloves off and unzipped my top pink layer.  I really enjoyed being out in beautiful Central Park today.  There were lots of runners, walkers, bikers, strollers and tourists!  I have a little confession... I was nervous running this far and this fast! I wasn't sure how my body would feel since I haven't been doing very long runs.  But right now, it's all about intensity and strength and when I was done, I felt great!  Hours later, I'm not sore, I'm not overly tired and I'm looking forward to week 3!

Swim: 5900 yards approx 1:50
Bike: 2 hours
Run: 14.1 miles 2:10
Total = 6:00 (I kinda wished I did 5 more minutes of something to get the 6!) **I recalculated from my work log and I got my swim time wrong... so I hit 6 hours - wooo!

188 days til Placid!!!

Gimme Gimme More!

Yes, I did steal a song title from Miss Britney Spears (don't judge, you know you like her too).

Week one of Ironman training has been completed! And this blog title says it all.... I want more!! **ask me in May if I still feel this way!  This week was all about testing and getting back into structured training. While the week hasn't been super big or long I am proud of what I accomplished.  I hit every single workout to the T and I am actually a tad sore.  Probably because all my holiday eating and drinking finally caught up to me!  The testing was in each discipline.... 3x300 time swim, 1.5 mile run staying at a certain HR, and a 10 minute Lactate Threshold Heart Rate Indoor Bike.  That last one was pretty killer.... but I didn't get as sweaty as I did yesterday on my in door hill repeats!

Signs of a good workout... red face, check! sweat dripping, check! **Please ignore the cleavage...

And while I was sweating away, my little animal was either sleeping in her new giraffe print bed, or staring at me like, "wtf are you doing mom??"

Olive trying to sleep to the sounds of my trainer

Here are Week 1 stats:
Swim: 4480 yds approx. 1:30 min
Indoor Bike: 1 hour 50 minutes
Running: 11 mile approx 1:45
Strength: approx 1 hour

Total Week One Time = 6:05

This is perfect as my "intro week" to Ironman!  Happy Training!

Resolutions and Reality

One of my favorite pro triathletes put up a great post and a great challenge the other day.  Instead of making January 1st resolutions, try writing out your long term goals.  Instead of "I want to lose 10 pounds by March"maybe change the attitude of it to "I am going to make healthy decisions on a daily basis".  Don't get me wrong, I think it's great to have short term goals but I also think it's healthy to have long term ones as well.

Remember being a senior in college and your professors, or your parents, asked what your 5 year plan was?  I remember specifically my parents asking me, especially after I got out of college and didn't have a full time job for a couple of months.  I said I wanted to be a producer in 5 years.  Five @ss kicking years later in network news, I was.  So what's my 5 year plan now??  To be honest I don't have one.  But what I do have is a goal for 2011.  Here's what I wrote on Hillary's comments section.

1. Have Fun! It’s a huge year for me… I’m training for my very first Ironman – IM Lake Placid!  Enjoy the journey! Enjoy the structure! *I heart structure* I know there’s going to be a lot on my plate and one of my fears is coming out from under the Ironman rubble in July with zero friends left (non-triathlon friends).  I can’t let this happen.  I want to live my dream and celebrate life with my dearest friends.
2. Be Consistent! I gotta nail my workouts and make them count.  No fluff miles. I’m paying good money to have an awesome Coach lead me down my IM path.  So follow it!  That sense of accountability, aka catholic guilt, really works on this gal.
3. Embrace the Pain! Right now I’m loving week one of official training…. But it’s week one for goodness sake!  It’s gonna get tough, I’m gonna have to get down and dirty, and it’s gonna take a lot out of me.  If I achieve #1 hopefully it’ll help me achieve #3.
4. Break Out!  I love my job, love my coworkers, I feel comfortable… but the uncomfortable challenges and changes people. And this girl needs to be challenged! (hence my 1^st IM!).  So if change doesn’t come to me, I gotta make it happen!

I am a huge fan of Hillary Biscay's and her work ethic inspires me.  Check her blog out when you get a second, it's super cool!  I also read that she's racing Rev3 Quassy half - so am I!!  I would love, love, love to meet her in person - even just see her race by me on the course is gonna be way cool!  **yes, yes, I know I sound like a teenager fawning over a boy band!

3...2...1... IRONMAN!

Happy New Year folks!

The confetti is finally washed out of my hair...

The 80's pink scrunchy and leg warmers have been laid to rest in my dresser...

Just the thought of eating one more Cheeto or Dorito makes my stomach flip.... yes our 80's themed NYE party was totally rad!  The MJ, Madonna, Bon Jovi dance sessions, the games of Twister (I think that counts as a workout),

the jello (shots), the drinks, the food and of course the people made it a great night.

But now...

the REAL party begins!

My 7 month journey to IM begins early TOMORROW at 6am!! WOOHOO! Happy New Year to me!  I can't wait to kick off my training and I can't wait to be immersed in ironman.   Day 1 starts in the pool with some testing and this week will be a re-introduction to structured training.  Which I am so happy for!  Let's get it started!!!  202 days til Placid!