Training is going OK

Lans Ironman training is going well. This week he is taking a break and getting a LOT of work done around the house; electrical right now, prepping for the wood floors.

For a month he was very serious about his training and now hes slacking off but that's OK, I built slacking time into his training plan. I'm very proud of his efforts and hes trying hard. His one downfall is pain in one calf so he can't run but hes been swimming and biking to his hearts content.

 

It seems like a lot now but the days will fly past and soon hes going to be thinking

'Shit man, where has all my training time gone? I'm not going to be ready!'

 

But I'll keep him on track as best I can.

 

Swimming 100's

I'm not doing my own Ironman this year but I'm helping Lan with his training for IMAZ.

 

Tonight I timed his 50's & 100's:

 

WARM UP

600 easy swim, holding proper form and letting your HR rise to 70% by the end. (ALTERNATE SET: Trim this to 400 Swim)

Intermediate set: 4 x 50 hard (@80-85%) w/15 sec rest after each

1. 39.00

2. 44.09

3. 43.17

4. 42.95

Average 42.73

MAIN SET -- BIG TARGET!

10 x 100 @race pace (85+%) w/10 sec rest between each

1.   1:30.09

2.   1:38.32

3.

4.   1:39.58

5.   1:33.51

6.   1:38.20

7.   1:39.02

8.   1:36.14

9.   1:41.34

10. 1:39.55

Average 1:37.10

-- keep track of your total time (add up the time for each of the 100's) and record the average pace per 100 in your log book, for future reference.

(ALTERNATE SET: 8 x 100)

COOL DOWN

6 x 50 @60% w/10 sec rest after each

 

 

He was supposed to follow up with a 35 minute run but his calf has been bothering him. If its not better in 2 weeks I'll insist he goes to his doctor.

326 Days

Lans IMAZ is in 326 days and training starts in 1 week. I gotta admit, I'm kinda jealous and excited for him. As long as I am not to bitchy about his training and he DOES it, he will be golden. Here is the 1st days workout:

Monday
We begin easily enough with one short swim. Nothing too crazy here, just allow yourself some time to get used to the water again and be patient with speed.

SWIM 0:30

WARM UP:

200 Swim - 2 x 100 Kick -

4 x 50 Choice, w/10 sec rest after each

MAIN SET:

5 x 200 w/:20 rest, done as follows:

(50 right arm only - 50 swim - 50 left arm only - 50 swim)

COOL DOWN:

2 x (50 Kick/50 Swim)

See, pretty damn easy. The following day is a 50 minute bike and a 35 minute run, both easy. In fact, so easy that the bike is in the small chain ring. AND HE BETTER DO IT RIGHT.

Ironman Arizona 2017

I'll find a way to get there, even if I have to call in sick.

 

Lan will be racing and I'll be damned if I make him go alone. I'll drive the car down and probably back or he can drive it back and I'll fly...

 

But this next year is going to be dedicated to his race.

 

He asked a local coach to help him but as far as I know Lan hasn't heard back yet. I'll be pissed off if the coach doesn't at least tell him personally why not, if he doesn't want to coach him. Lan has tons of potential to do very well at IMAZ, even in the largest A/G.

 

At Vineman he was 96th out of 217 in his A/G and he admits to being under trained. If he had a coach, someone that would demand accountability, then he could get into the top 25% and that's HUGE. He won't listen to me though so I can't help him at all and he's going to have to speak up when he has a problem, any problem.

Holding My Breath

Suzie hasn't gotten back to me yet about her early registration slot for IMAZ so I'm still not 100% sure if I'll be getting it or not but I'm already planning things. Diet, exercise plan, logistics.

I'm TRYING to lose weight now but that's just not happening but I am slimming down. Shakeology once a day plus 4-5 other small meals with some protein at each meal. Some of those meals might just be 12 almonds but that's keeping my metabolism going. Lan thinks I need to eat less but I've been reading more and more about menopausal women needing to eat more. I'm eating less but its better for me food more often.

I'm once again going to use the plan I had for my previous Ironmans. I'm not going to hire a coach and have them give me a plan that's just like this one or not as good and I only have to be accountable to ME. I'm not going to lie to anyone or myself and say I've been riding 76 miles when I only went 45. If I don't do a workout it will only be ME who suffers.
The plan is really good, it doesn't say RIDE YOUR BIKE 45 MILES or RIDE FOR AN HOUR, it actually gives me a workout to do, most on the bike trainer.

Sunday  RUN 1:10

You might find it helpful to mentally break this run into 35:00 chunks. I always find that to be more manageable than a full hour, for some reason, and it helps maintain the focus throughout this longer duration.

             Spend the first 20:00 getting into it, watching your HR slowly get above 60%
            2 x 20:00 @75% w/5:00 @60-65% in between
            BIKE 0:30  Immediately after the run...hold the intensity @70-75%
            RUN 0:50  I'm going to ask you to really challenge yourself here -- time to up the tempo and close out your week with a bang. Remember, you've got tomorrow off, so go out there and make this a strong effort. 
You'll be starting with a fast tempo right out of the blocks:  2 x 15:00 above 80% w/10:00 @60% after each

Run  6.6 miles / 1:20
Bike 14 miles / :50  
Run 4.0 miles / :50

The above workout was in week 27, which was a 'competitive season' week. Not only did I use the training plan but I also kept track of how much time & miles I completed, and for the bike I rode more than 2283 miles between Christmas and IMAZ 11 months later. About 400 miles run and only 20 miles swam.

I'll be honest here, I could have trained a lot more, with my work schedule all jacked up due to working odd hours, I missed a lot of workouts. This time it can be different. If I just do 50% of the missed ones in addition to the ones I did, I'll be flying high.

But this fucking plantar fasciitis needs to get better. This is so fucked up.

112

Today I did something I never knew I'd do in my life, never even imagined it. I rode my bike on the CompuTrainer for 112 miles. It took me nearly 8 hours but I didn't turn off the timer for all potty breaks.

 

Here I was still on the first lap of the Ironman Arizona 3 lap course, still felt pretty good.

 

And here I am at about mile 106, my hoo haw was SCREAMING and I wasn't looking forward to doing a run afterward.

 

Here is my awesome Helmet Hair

 

And the run.

I wasn't happy to start, I was scared it would be miserable but it wasn't.

 

So I was happy to be done, even though the run was only 1 mile.

 

Here is my nutrition table which doesn't show the bacon or the chicken sandwich.  I drank 5 bottles of water and 3 bottles of Gatorade.

I wore my helmet for the entire ride so my neck could work on carrying the weight.

 

I'm really tired but have to stay awake for The Walking Dead.

Run. Swim.

Today I run and swim.
Tomorrow I run and Bike.
Saturday only about 5 hours of running, biking and swimming.
Sunday Running and biking. Monday biking and running.
Or I can swim Saturday and nothing else but we're getting so close. Only 4.5 weeks away now.

On the home front:
Lan and I went to Olympia and met our new family member, a Brazilian Mastiff puppy, a little girl. I think we're going to call her Jenny.

88

Yesterday was 88 miles of pain on the bike. I rode 56 outdoors, until I almost got killed when some asshole pulling a trailer cut me off and almost hit me with his fucking trailer. Since I was doing laps out on our own road, I just decided to come home and finish on the bike trainer. Took me longer to go another 30 miles than it did the 56. And then it was getting dark so I couldn't run.
There was a lot of tears and frustration involved.
I do not want to train fro Ironman any longer, I just want to stop it and be ME, not some dumbass triathlete thinking they will do anything spectacular. I won't, I never will. I hurt all the time and never have time for anything else.

Exhausted

I'm not the only one, I've read several reports from other FB people that they just can't get enough sleep. This is when injuries happen so I'm being very careful. This morning I slept in until 9am, unheard of for me lately.
Today the only exercise I got was a 22 minute walk at the YMCA after I renewed my membership. I need a place to swim and the Y in Bremerton is so close to work that I can't go wrong. I'll swim before and/or after work. But I need a new bathing suit, my old one that fits is threadbare and see through, my others are too small since I've gained weight in the last 9 months.
This morning I did weigh in at 149.2, the least amount I have weighed in about 3 months.
I am enjoying having the CompuTrainer, its getting used a lot. The bummer is that if I take my bike outside for a good weather ride then I have to reset the CT and I'm too lazy. So last week I rode the trainer for a 3 hour ride, and I've ridden it several times for 2+ hour rides. They say indoor training is better for you than outdoor.

So Much To Do, So Little Time

I have a half Ironman Distance race this weekend; I'm pretty sure I can do it but what if?? I still haven't gone farther than 60 miles on any of my rides. That's NOT good enough for an Ironman. Tomorrow I'm going out to Enumclaw to ride the bike course, one lap of the 2 lap course. Then I should run for a while too, since my training plan calls for it. I could run around the lake. I'm such a slow swimmer that I'll be last out of the water of all the racers of the day.

Two weeks later I have the Race For A Soldier Half Marathon in Gig Harbor. Its my favorite half because the proceeds go to a good cause, to soldiers with PTSD. At the race, they call it Permission To Start Dreaming. The lady who founded it lost her soldier son to suicide and this helps more soldiers to deal with the bad stuff. One of the ways is by supporting a horseback riding program and it helps a lot of them.

Ironman Arizona is only about 10 weeks away. I don't feel ready. Today I was stressing out about that and a whole lot of other shit.

Like, the old farm hasn't sold. It was supposed to close on the 10th but the appraiser didn't get the shit done in time. Now they need ANOTHER extension. This bullshit is stressing me out and I'm gaining weight.

I've also been working full time and that cuts into my working out time and makes me more tired. We do have a new bid out and I'll find out in a week or so which position I'll be in. They have made two more shifts at my dock, a 38 hour and a 31 hour, both have graveyard shifts, one has two graveyards and 2 swings. All selling hours so they will be paying $25 per hour. Of course I bid on them but I don't really want to get either of them. I also bid for the Point Defiance positions, one of which is Monday - Friday, 11:30-6:30 mom & tues and 1:30-6:30 wed thurs fri. I could ride my freaking bike to work!

Competitive Season

I just spent a week doing some pretty hard workouts and lived to talk about it.

 

Swim 1.73 miles in 1:20 with an average 1.30mph / 46:09 min/mile

Bike 103.45 miles in 7:25 with an average of 13.95mph 4:18 min/mile

Run 24.52 miles in 5:00 with an average 4.90mph / pace 12:14 min/mile

 

13 hours 45 minutes of working out that ended yesterday, right before my 10 hour shift at work.

 

 

I lost ZERO weight. I did rearrange workouts so I could get in a long ride (60 miles) on Thursday instead of the weekend and didn't do a bike ride so that I'd save energy for a long weekend workout.

 

In the coming week I hope to keep up the good work.

 

Today I made a trip over to Seattle and purchased a new CD for my computrainer, Racermate One. Its got all their current courses with video so I can RIDE THE COURSES. Of course, it will be here, in my own home. I'll get a better workout than if I were riding on the road. Can't wait to try it out.

Today

Today, because I needed to, I rode my bike.

 

Still Moving

We are STILL MOVING. Its been 8 years since our last move and that was with 1 horses that was boarded out & only stuff for one horse, a 1 car garage and a 916sf house. Now our house is bigger, I have a big barn and Lan has a big garage and he hasn't even touched the garage yet. Every day I take a load over and every day I feel a bit more over whelmed.

Today I borrowed corral panels

 from my friend and made two temporary stalls for Sunshower and Wifi inside the arena. I'll put Joey in the big stall and call it good for a while. He will have access to a huge paddock & his stall is 12x24. The girls will be turned out into the front pasture.

 One stall is 12x12 and the other is about 12x20, Wifi will have the bigger one.

I wanted to put the stalls into this corner but Lan left the mower there and I couldn't even begin to budge it but I can very easily move the stalls over there once its out of the way. I already had to move the wire fencing that Lan left sitting in the other corner and that wasn't fun. Heavy shit.

I ordered some stuff online for the barn: 6 bucket holders, 40 T post caps, and something else that I cant remember... had to go to the local store to purchase 3 corner feeders because they were more online.

I signed Wifi and me up for a 12 week challenge, 40 hours/30 rides. I haven't ridden her yet but hope to do just that once I get her moved to the other farm. This is still the first week and I spent an hour washing her tial & brushing it out, nothing else. I'll take 15 minutes for the walking we did today because she's been such a brat at turn out time.

I hope Joey doesn't freak out because he can't see the girls when I take him over there. I suppose I could turn him out with them since its a big pasture but only if I'm going to be there with them and can keep an eye on them. I'd hate for him to chase one of the girls into the fence or the road.

Hagen isn't doing very well now. She's missing Tank, her belly/tumor is getting bigger and she's getting more tired. I have her on 4 pain pills in the mornings and 3 at night with half a prednisone each evening. She stresses out when we take her to the new farm but she is getting used to being there and the other day Lan was working on the tractor out back and she was standing on the front porch waiting. I'm glad she didn't wander off, into the street. One thing I will miss about this farm is the entire perimiter fenced.

I bought a new to me  Canon camera tonight, I hope it works well. paid $115 for it. We'll see. Now maybe I'll get 2 nice shots out of every 100.

We've Moved!

No, not this blog, but we are moving to another farm.

 

All summer I worked and did some training for triathlons, then we went to Phoenix for Ironman and I got signed up for IMAZ2015, then we cane home and spent a month trying to buy the new farm & for the last week its been work, packing, moving and Christmas. OMG, so busy!

 

This next week I don't have any more work days scheduled so I *should* have plenty of time to get my shit packed. But now the cold weather is coming, UGH. I'll be working extra hard in the barn to keep horses watered, waters thawed, and pipes not bursting. I'm going to borrow 3 horses from a friend, close them in at night to keep the barn warmer. When the air is in the low 20's, I need all the help I can get.

 

And since we're moving, I haven't been doing any workouts, not any at all. No walking, no swimming, no biking, no running. We are going to give up our YMCA membership that's about $85 monthly because 1, we aren't going and 2, we need to economize to save for two farm payments. I can swim at SKHS for $3.25 but its COLD and I can ride my bike trainers and run from home or on my own treadmill. I can watch yoga videos if I need to, I can do a weights workout at home.

 

Here is a photo of the workout area I have set up so far in the new house.

Plenty of room for more equipment

 

 

 This is a view from the other direction before I got it all arranged, piles of stuff everywhere.

This area used to be the original kitchen but a new one was added back there, you can see the fridge. I'm going ot have my Computrainer right here facing the window so I can look out and day dream as I ride. I'll also have the CyclOps set up here so I can just ride without a planned workout. The treadmill will be here somewhere too.

 

 

I haven't moved the horses to the new place yet, we need to work on the fences first but getting there.

Dying... I mean dieting

Today is the last day of my diet again. I was pretty good until Brandan brought home a PIZZA!  I actually ate 1.5 slices. It wasn't good and I wasn't hungry enough for the whole 2nd piece but I ate it anyway.

I started out at 148.6 and lost 7 lbs. I'm totally happy with that. I look and feel better. I'll be getting on the Computrainer tomorrow and feeling better than I wouldn't have otherwise.

Today I got my hair cut and it feels so entirely light again. Amanda was there, its her mom that cuts it for me. Amanda and I like to ride mtn bikes together, shes got the strength and I have the skill so we are even. I hope I can ride with her a lot this winter, its so much fun.

Weather man has been saying its going to be super cold or else warmer than normal. Well then. 

Windy will be running her 1st marathon on Sunday, the Portland Marathon. Shes going to do amazingly well. Shes so sweet, she dedicated mile 19 to me because shes never gone more than 18 miles before and 19 is where she will think about me. Its humbling when someone says they have been inspired by you.

I bought a new used saddle for Sunshower; Cassie sold me her Circle Y Park & Trail leather cordura saddle. I've used it before on my mare and it fits her very well, way better than her previous saddle. So I cleaned up the old one & have it on Craigslist to sell. I paid $250 for the new one, asking 250 for mine and hope to get 200.

Today Lan & I tore the roof off the carport and tomorrow we will put a new roof on. I certainly hope it all goes easily. LOL.

 

 

We're going to put plastic corrugated roofing on the top now with some clear ones to allow more light into the house. That will make this a much happier home.

 

My road bike seat has been returned to me, last weekend someone brought it here and left it on our gate. Lan found it. I'm pretty happy, I can now ride that bike outside and have my tri bike on the computrainer.

Chattanooga



This morning while at work, my friends Suzie & George showed up. They were on their way to Chattanooga for Ironman Chattanooga next weekend. Suzie is racing, George is the Sherpa.

I made Banana Bread for Suzie because when she raced in Canada I had made some then and she absolutely loved it and ate some on her run. I hope this stuff is as good as that other bread was.

So I've been thinking about Ironman a lot lately, sometimes I'm like 'I don't need to be doing that stuff' and other times Im all excited and cant wait until I get myself into another one. I do have IMAZ2015 in my sights and am planning on going down to Arizona this November.

Oh, GREAT NEWS: I forked over $1323. somethingoddcents for a COMPUTRAINER. So excited, can't wait for it to get here. Used, on eBay but Windy bought one for $1800 new and got the same thing. So once it gets here I will start riding and she and I can ride together in the comfort of our own homes.

In horse news:
Just my horses in the barn now, no more favors for friends. Sarahs horse stomped on my foot, it hurt like hell, I told her to take that horse out but Renata could stay but she freaked out & took them both out.  Fine by me, my horses will be fine just themselves.