21 weeks away

Among work, training and trying to function domestically, I have no time to write this week. I'll try to find some time next weekend. 

22 weeks away

Week one of base one is just about done. I’m sitting here before 6 am Sunday morning mentally preparing for a three-hour trainer ride in the basement because it’s too cold to ride outside. I’m super thrilled to report that so far week one has been a glowing success! After today’s workout, my total training volume for the week will be 18.5 hours among lifting weights, swimming, biking and running. As you can see, base one is where the real training begins, and to be quite honest, I was kind of anxious going into it because it is so much. Running has contributed the most to my anxiety because I have a history of minor issues with my right knee. Fortunately, careful attention paid to stretching and warming up have left me pain free.

Scheduling this quantity of training hours into my week has been a challenge, as right away Tuesday morning I had an hour of each sport scheduled.

23 weeks away

It's that time again. Time to cross another week off the schedule as my A-priority race draws nearer. When I was crossing off weeks preceding the prep phase and then the ones in the prep block, I was feeling good that another week was done and I was that much closer to actually doing this thing.

Now I make sure each and every workout is done exactly as it was designed and I don’t miss a single one, because I only have 23 weeks left! I knew the weeks would fly by, and they are doing that, but I feel so rushed—I get up, work out, prep for work, work all day, drive home and go to bed. Lately I’ve been eating a little something before I hit the sack, but other than that, my day is pretty packed. A part of me is wondering how long this will go on before I need some kind of release; something completely different in me is feeling like I won’t have time to feel like that because in the blink of an eye it’s mid-July and I’m putting together the logistics of my trip to Colorado. Ahhhhhh!!!

Deep breath.

24 weeks away

I made it to the "rest" and test week. Woohoo!! Okay, so it's not really a rest week compared to the weeks leading up to it so far. This is, after all, just the prep block. The hours I'm logging this week are really similar to those I've been investing each of the last three weeks, but with one difference: This week I'll do lactate threshold testing on the bike and the treadmill. The swim one is optional; it's a 1000-meter timed swim. The idea is my times will come down month after month doing that one. Okay, the LT tests: These are 30-minute efforts as hard as I can go. The last 20 minutes of each effort will give me an average heart rate that I understand will be a pretty good estimate of my LT, and I'll use that number to make sure I'm in zone two when I do the majority of my training in the base phases.

25 weeks away

This post should have been written last week. But…I really don’t have extra time to write blog posts during the week, and last weekend was really short due to work that ended up coming home with me from my day job. I’ll let my readers ponder the effects this training is having on my personal life.

In the meantime, guess who’s making strides in the right direction? Yep, Lois is definitely taking advantage of the earlier mornings to get her own workouts in, and I can attest to her improvement. She’s never been a real runner, but the other day I saw her RUN on the treadmill beside me while I rode the bike, and she kept running way longer than I thought she would. It just goes to show she hasn’t just been sleeping in the whole time I’m at the gym every morning. What a trooper!

26 weeks away

I didn't get to bed early last night, which is likely no surprise to anyone. Go Seahawks!

Actually, I wasn't rooting for either team. I'm not that much of a football fan, but my sister lives in Seattle, so if I had to pick one, I probably would have chosen the Seahawks.

Week one of the prep phase is now complete. Today's workout is weight lifting and core work, and tomorrow I'm hitting the pool early again. It's February, so it'll probably be cold when I go to the gym, and I'll hate it. When is Spring again?

Fixing Issues Up Front

Wednesday morning last week I was unable to finish my entire workout session. I had to cut my weight training workout down to 30 minutes, and my bike ride was capped at 30 minutes too. I had 45-75 minutes scheduled on the bike but couldn't handle it. I was sore getting ready for work and had a nagging, constant, dull pain all day at work, so I made an appointment with Dr. Brad Hochstein at Synergy Chiropractic in Lincoln.

TYR Endurance Sport Drink

I have discovered that during any given week now, I don't have much time to write blog posts. I wake up, work out, shower, eat, work and sleep. So here I am on the weekend catching up on the week's highlights. I ran into Andrew Venrick last Sunday at HyVee promoting TYR Endurance Sport Drink. Andrew is a sales representative for Mahaska Bottling Company in Norfolk, Nebraska, and here's why it was so cool to run into him. Earlier this month Elkhorn Valley Cycling Club announced that "The folks at TYR...are committed to TYR Endurance Sport Drink and were happy to promote their product through EVCC."

How cool is this new sponsor!?!?
TYR is a company all over the swimming and triathlon scene, and I just happen to have recently started training for a very well known triathlon! I'm definitely keeping in touch with Andrew (@AndrewVenrick on Twitter) as I progress through my training so I'm well hydrated. What's more, my stop before HyVee last Sunday was at Scheels, where I found a pair of swim jammers that I was sure would be faster in the pool than my bulky, beachy swim shorts.
And a day or so earlier I had been online looking at some equipment highly recommended by a world class swimmer. I ordered a silicone swim cap and a TYR mesh pool bag. For me it's too cool that all this came together only shortly after the announcement about EVCC's new sponsorship. Oh, by the way, if it wasn't obvious enough, I am a part of EVCC. I've been with this empowering group of people since 2006, and I couldn't be more proud to wear our team colors this August in Boulder. Clearly, I'll be representing our new sponsor well too. This image is of our cycling kit; I'll be wearing a tri suit for the Ironman, but it'll look pretty much just like this.

Just a few more words about EVCC. If anyone is looking for a competitive cycling team they can be a part of that mandates strict workouts and event attendance and required purchases to support the team image, you better look somewhere else. What you'll find with EVCC is a group of people perhaps less concerned about the race itself and definitely concerned with the promotion of cycling, swimming, running...whatever you do, really. With EVCC you'll run into people like Dan Zieg, a triathlete in Lincoln, Ne, who couldn't be a more inviting, humble, approachable workout partner and handsome guy, if I do say so myself. Don't worry, Valerie, he's all yours ;) Whitney Porn is one of our mountain bikers; if you want to talk about a driven woman, she's the one to talk about. She balances being a registered dental hygienist with a family, training and I'm sure many other things. And you know what? She makes it to the podium when she races. Look her up if you have a commonality with her; I'm sure she'd be glad to get to know you.

27 weeks away

I'm going to spend a little time on the bike today just getting my legs loose and maybe watch an episode or two of Friends. Other than that I have some housework to do and a few things for my day job. Somewhere in the day, though, I intend to reread the chapters in my Ironman training book about the prep phase and its objectives; I want to refresh the objectives of some of the "Ae" and "Ss" workouts. I've come to grips with several adjustments leading up to this moment. Some have been too easy to make, while others are going to be a big challenge.

Oh the madness

On Wednesday morning this week I woke up feeling like maybe my training plan wasn’t what I thought it was. For some reason, I felt like the prep phase I was about to begin was the entire plan laid out for base fitness before the higher intensity stuff began. I have no idea what I was thinking, because I pulled out my book and found the prep phase is only four weeks, and then I have a four-week base I phase, then a four-week base II, and even a four-week base III phase to establish a foundation for the later stuff. 

28 weeks away

It really does feel like it’s been forever since I actually signed up for this daunting race. As I think back to signing up in late July last year, my thoughts immediately dwell on the amount of potential progress I could have made since then…progress I kind of lament not making even a little bit. Yeah, that’s right. I was a complete bum! The start of this 27-week training schedule is one I look upon as a definitive starting line. That said, I’ve begun my transformation from layman to Ironman…

29 weeks away

The time has come for me to buckle down and start preparing for my Ironman in Boulder, Colorado. I’m really quite excited about the whole experience, even though I know it’s going to be rough going the first several weeks as I adapt to working out again. I signed up for the race late in July last year, and I had in mind at that time a training plan I wanted to follow to prepare. My training plan is a 27-week block of time that begins on Monday, January 27.