Venturing into Ironman Training

Well, after an incredibly long blog absence, I figured an apropos time to return to the blog was when I start my journey to Texas.

Here is a summary of the past few months.  I trained for a half ironman, and then in one fell swoop, had this pain in my knee.  I backed off a bit, but anytime I tried to run, it would swell like crazy and stopped me from training on the run (not a great thing given the fact that my run has always been my weak leg despite learning how to cycle a mere year ago.)  I kept chugging along on the bike and the swim though, uncertain of what would happen, and whether I would even be able to race.  I ended up finding out that I had a strain of a ligament in my knee (a small tear, but no full-thickness).  Two weeks before my race, I got clearance to "give it a try."  And since that is kind of my motto, I figured I might as well.  I treated the huge decrease in my training like a massive taper, and went to the race.  (I was out the money anyways- might as well go get my t-shirt, right?)  Right up until the morning of, I didn't know if I would just finish the swim and drop out, or the swim and the bike, or if I was really going to do this thing.

Let me tell you, once you wake up at 3 am to get ready and get the the park, the air is absolutely infectious- there was no way I was not going to try to do the whole thing- mind made up just by getting out of the car.

I set up transition and then wandered around for a bit, updating facebook, jamming out to Pandora, and trying to keep my nerves under control.  That is the funny thing about walking around with 2500 people about to partake in a 70.3 mile race- there are different variations of emotion/panic on everyone's face- very entertaining to observe- until of course you realize your face must have the same look of, "holy shit, what did I get myself into?"

Race time- my wave started an hour after the pros, so I got to watch Andy Potts et al come flying out of the water and into transition (running faster than I would the entire course of the race).  If that doesn't get you psyched to race, I don't know what will.

Swim start is always so much fun, so much nervous energy and so many people just standing around ends up leading to making lots of new friends (one guy from Toronto originally whose father was training for Whistler and was quite literally training across Canada- took a leave of absence from work, hooked a trailer behind his bike and started riding to Whistler, swimming and running and camping along the way- how cool is that?)

By the time my wave was in the water, I was ready to get this thing going, knowing that once I fell into my stroke there would be no stopping me- and there wasn't.  I just kept turning over my arms and I think I smiled the entire time.  I was incredibly inspired at one point and had some space, so I flipped over and took a few backstrokes to stretch out my shoulder, and staring at those clouds was one of the best parts of my day- how fricking awesome is this??

Out of the water, onto the bike and wolfing down food.  Clipped in and off we go.  Bike was strong, girl in my age group three bikes away from me in the rack would later tell me (great bike!  I had to work my ass off to catch you the whole race!-  What an awesome compliment for a completely mediocre triathlete and cyclist)  The truth is, the bike wasn't hard, I probably could have pushed a little harder, my fluids were good, I probably didn't have enough calories though- all little tweaks for the future.

Off the bike and on to the run.  Well... we knew this was going to be bad- and well, maybe it wasn't bad, but it also wasn't pretty.  I ran 2, walked 30 sec for a while, then ran 5 walked 2 for a while, and then any semblance of organization fell apart, I forgot to keep eating, I hit a wall, and just kept trucking.  By this point I knew I was going to finish, and finish well within the time limit, and so really, that was all I wanted, and that kept me going.

And finish I did- what an incredibly feeling having people screaming and yelling your name starting a half a mile out from the chute.  You may have only been running 12 min/miles up until that point, but after that, you're dropping below 10's, I guarantee it- or at least you feel like you are :)  Coming across that finish line, there were so many emotions, so much feeling, and really, just pride.  And my first thought?  I can't wait to do it again!  That thought quickly followed by, yes, I can absolutely do a full Ironman.

And here we are, after the race I did very little training, or even working out.  There was 26 days between my race and our wedding... the only working out I did was for the sake of stress relief.  Then the wedding came, honeymoon followed, and married life commenced, followed closely by a new job.  Crazy few weeks with very little working out, but one thing was for sure, I was doing an Ironman.  I signed up before the wedding, I wanted to commit, I was in it.  I didn't want to wait, I wanted to do one as soon as reasonably possible, so Texas it was.

After some recommendations and reviews, I picked up Be IronFit, and am currently working my way through it.  But today I started week one of thirty.  Thats right, less than 30 weeks now until the race.

Reading this book really changes your training.  When you train for a shorter event it makes sense to push hard all of the time, working to the max and getting your heartrate up, for an Ironman, that won't work.

I feel good after a double workout today, and am ready for tomorrow.  I am so grateful for my new job which makes this training possible (or at least easier to fit in.)  I am grateful for my husband who not only doesn't think that I am crazy, but gets excited for me, and does what he can to help get me going.  (He seems to be the only one who can fix the cadence sensor on my bike.)

For now, I am excited, not hurting too much, and simply ready to get going.  Hopefully you will follow along with me as I stumble my way along this path- it should be fun :)