Week 1 Training (Feb 24-Mar 2) - aka: Getting Up at What Time?

And away we go!

Training scheduled for this week (Monday, Feb 24-Sunday, Mar 2):

I'll update with what the actual training hours (and miles, because honestly, the plan may talk about training in hours, but in my runner's mind it's still all about miles) at the end of this week. I'll also try to post a few emotional and personal stats each week:

Total hours scheduled: 6:00

Total hours logged: 6:00

Total running miles this week/total: 10.67/10.67

Total biking miles this week/total: 27.95/ 27.95

Total swimming yards this week/total: 4900/4900

Weight: X (okay, I'm a woman in my 40s. I'm not secure enough to put my current weight on a public blog. We'll just keep it X +/- whatever amount, each week)

Level of IM enthusiasm: 8/10 The thought of doing this another seven months is pretty overwhelming, but I was ready to get started on an official training schedule!

Nutrition elements: nothing fascinating, no workout was long enough to need nutrition. I have been concentrating over the last few weeks on eliminating coffee as the very first thing I need in the morning in order to survive. Have been pretty successful in that regard.

General notes: I am a night person. Blame it on being a writer or whatever, but my "natural" awake hours are from 10am - 2am. So adjusting to waking up at 6am-ish to get my workouts in before hubby goes to work has been TOUGH. Hopefully that will get easier.  Next week I'm going to talk about using the HR monitor, because that is flippin' killing me also.

The Post Where I Can't Really Count that High

So training officially begins next week on Monday, February 24 -- 36 weeks out from the race. Everything fitness-wise I've been doing up until now (which honestly, due to life and other responsibilities, hasn't been very much -- mostly core strengthening, swim technique, and basic bike awareness) has just been extra.

This week I finally pinned down my training plan. It's a hybrid born out of the free TriFuel Supercoach triathlon program, some input from a local triathlon coaching team, and Don Fink's IronFit plan (as found in his book Be Iron Fit).

I go into my training fairly confident in my running and swimming abilities. Swimming... well, I grew up in South Florida, where they basically throw you in a pool a couple weeks after you're born, and you never get out again. I've also been a pretty avid scuba diver over the years. So even though I had to work on technique (in my swim clinic), I am not overly-worried about the swim.

The same is true about the run. I've been running for four years. I've completed two marathons (see that write-up here), and multiple Ragnar Relays (200-miles split between a team of 6 or 12 -- my most recent one here). Don't get me wrong: I'm not fast. I'm never going to be fast. But I know how to run.

But cycling. Heaven have mercy. I've never been a big fan of cycling. It's all new to me and it's all a challenge. December was Month O' the Bike for me to just get me accustomed to being on Shane West all the time.

Taking the above factors into account, I've made my IMFL Training Plan. You can see the overall mileage chart (actually really more of a duration chart) in the link near the top "My Mileage Chart".

But here's where I got a wee-bit worried:

 

The totals.  By the time November 1st rolls around in 36 weeks I will have spent over 90 hours swimming, 182 hours biking and 138 hours running. For a total of  410 hours.

(I told Capt Awesome that number and he just walked out of the room shaking his head muttering, "Just wake me when it's over...")

Btw, those numbers don't include the IM race itself, the Half Iron or other triathlon races I have scheduled this spring and summer.

This training plan is in time rather than distance (except for the swim part), which is new to me. I've always trained distance-based, but based on multiple areas of input I'm going to try this. I'll keep you posted.

But HOLY CRAP: 410 hours???? The equivalent of 10 weeks in a full time job.

Just wake ME when it's over.

The Post With My Hardest Event Yet

I had my hardest IM training event EVER today, and it didn't involve running, swimming or biking. As a matter of fact, it only involved a couple of clicks of the mouse.

Today I officially cancelled my acceptance into the 2014 New York City Marathon. Due to the (now-defunct) "three-strikes, you're in" policy where if you signed up for the lottery but hadn't been chosen for the race three years in a row you received an entry for the following year, I had guaranteed entry into 2014.

But then, by some crazy chance, Princess, Hippie and I all were able to register for IM FL 2014 -- which sold out in minutes. And since IM FL is November 1, 2014, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to run the NYC Marathon on November 2, 2014.

The good news: I am able to defer my acceptance into the NYC Marathon to 2015. The bad news, I've got to wait another year to cross that off my bucket list. But I'll be there.

The Post Where I Do One of the Things I Swore I Wouldn't Do

Okay, I'll just go ahead and admit it. I got all my hair cut off. And 85% of the decision came because of my IM training.

I had super long hair that I've been growing out for about three years. But honestly, lately it has looked like this most of the time:

When I signed up for IMFL, I promised myself I would not cut my hair just for the sake of training convenience. That promise lasted less than two months.

The effort to make my hair look nice was more than the time I had available to do it. So, when I found myself saying "You know, I just straightened my hair this morning (which took two hours), so I'm not going to work out today. Or tomorrow" -- I knew something needed to change.

Let's face it, when you're swimming 3-4 times a week and running and/or biking about the same amount of times, there's not a whole lot of time left over for hair styling.When Captain Awesome saw me attempting to tuck that mass of hair under a swim cap one day, he also encouraged me to get it cut.

So I did.  The result:

It's pretty, but I already miss my long hair. I'm not worried about it. It'll grow back. And it already takes 1/4 the time to style it as it used to.

Most importantly, I don't hesitate to jump in the pool for a 30 minute swim because it will mess up my hair. That sort of stuff is for girls.

The Post With the Ironman Christmas Presents

I didn't get too many IM specific Christmas presents this year. For one, Capt Awesome and I don't tend to buy each other Christmas gifts. since we both buy ourselves whatever we want to throughout the year.

Plus, I just purchased Shane West and my entry into IMFL2014 in November, so I wasn't due any real presents.  But the IM-training Santa brought me a few cool things.

SportCount Lap Counter 

This is a ridiculously simple little piece of brilliance. You wear it on your finger and hit the button every time you touch the edge of pool after swimming a lap. And it keeps tally of how many laps you do.

That's it. Some people think that's not worth $25, but for me it totally is.

There are other models and gadgets (probably made by Garmin) that will keep your times and splits and make you a pancake or whatever, but I just wanted something that allowed me to swim without having to keep up with the number of laps I've done. This was it. It is great. Seriously.

Now I don't have to worry about whether this is lap 46 or 47 or 52, and can concentrate on my swim form. If I could figure out how to multiply by 25, then I'd know how many meters I'd swum.  But alas...

I bought mine on Amazon here, but you might find it somewhere else cheaper.

Waterproof iPod Shuffle

This is totally a luxury. But I have found that having music while in the pool has made my life much more pleasant. I wouldn't dream of running for 1.5-2 hours 3-4 times a week without music and now I don't have to swim without it either.

It's a regular iPod shuffle that has been sprinkled with fairy dust and super-duper waterproofing technology stuff. I also got the waterproof headphones because I didn't have any, downloaded my favorite playlists from iTunes and I was good to go. If music is worth spending $150 for and you can afford it (or are willing to eat Captain Crunch for a month instead of real food), I would definitely suggest this purchase.

Again, I got this on Amazon here, but if you shop around...

My Training Wedding Ring

I found that my wedding and engagement rings were giving me problems: coming off accidentally when taking off gloves, poking holes in my swim caps as I put them on, snagging on my running and cycling shorts.

So I decided I wanted to get a ring that wasn't very expensive that I could wear over the next 10 months while I'm training. (You know, to prove to all the guys that I'm married when they try to hit on me after I've been running 15 miles or cycling 50... because I look *so* good.)

I found Jim Little Jewelry on Etsy and really liked his spinner rings (one band that spins on top of another wider band). Classy. I contacted and asked if he could fit the phrase:  I am not afraid of this. 140.6  He could and I love it. Cost was about $50.

Be Iron Fit by Don Fink
Hippie, Princess and I all got this book for Christmas (well, actually I got it a few weeks ago). I've found this book to be the most useful of the ones I've looked through so far dealing with IM-specific training. It's got three 30-week training programs geared towards either competitive, intermediate, and "just-finish" IMers. (So think: willing to put up to 20 hours a week in training, 15 hours a week or 10 hours a week, respectively)

Lots of tips and secrets in this book and written from a perspective that we all have lives outside of IM that somehow must continue. Definitely should be on the shelves of any newbie IMer.


So I didn't get any critical training gear for Christmas, but I love all I did get.

The Post Where Janie Becomes Intimately Acquainted With Shane West

December has been the month o' the bike for Geek. For all of December I tried to get on the bike for 10 miles every other day. Not really to improve my cycling fitness, but to get my butt accustomed to being on the bike.

A pain in my @ss -- figuratively and literally.

I bought my bike in November, immediately after registering for IMFL. I wanted to get it as soon as possible knowing the bike would be my nemesis. (Putting over a hundred miles on it this month has just reinforced that opinion).

I did a lot of research, got some experienced tri-ers to help me out, and decided to buy a road bike rather than a tri-bike. It was much less expensive, and since I plan to only do one Ironman I didn't want to put thousands of dollars in that one purchase.

So I ended up buying a carbon frame road bike. I outfitted it with aerobars, got clipless shoes & pedals, and a trainer (for riding indoors).  All for the bargain price of about $1700. (Actually that really is a bargain. Distance triathlons are not an inexpensive sport.)

So here's my bike:

Don't have my clip-on shoes, so no actual riding.

 What I like most about it is that it is so light I can lift it with one hand:

It really is amazingly light

But what does all of this have to do with Shane West?

In case you don't know (shame on you!), Shane West is a gorgeous actor, currently staring in the newest version of Nikita.  He's my writing muse -- the character I have in my head when I write my romantic suspense novels. 

Hottie Hot-Hot - Shane West

 I heart Shane West so much. 

And I've decided to name my bike Shane West. Because if I'm going to ride thousands of miles over the next 10 months, I'd like to be able to say really inappropriate things like:

I hopped on Shane West and took him for a nice ride today.
Shane West has made me sore in some pretty unmentionable places.
I spent three hours on Shane West this morning.

I'm already thrilled at the thought of it. Um, being able to say those things, not ride all those miles (about 3000miles are in my current training plan)

So here's to Shane West -- may we always be good to each other.

The Post with Week 4's Swim Homework

Week  4 Homework  12/3 – 12/10  

(Completed 2-3x before next week)

 

Warm-Up

200 Easy swim – no equipment

Set #1  ( Core Rotation Drive- Hand Hip Connection)

4 x 50m 12 Kick Switch w/ fins:   main focus on powerful switch drive  RI: 10

200 m swim w/ fins focused on hand –hip connection

2 x 100m One Arm freestyle drill w/ hand paddle – no fins   RI: 15

200 m swim w/ fins focused on hand –hip connection

Set # 2 (Focus Set)  - Complete on 50 at a time – only moving on to the next 50 if you have been

successful in being mindful of assigned areas and feel that your performance in those areas was accurate.

 2 x 200m???  (complete the set twice IF you have not had to repeat too many 50’s during the first set)

1^st 50m – Focus on Complete Rotation( Stretching into glide  & finish)

2^nd 50m - Complete Rotation + Front Quadrant Timing

3^rd 50m - Complete Rotation + Front Quadrant Timing + Hand/ Hip Connection

4^th 50m - Complete Rotation + Front Quadrant Timing + Hand/ Hip Connection + Catch position accuracy

Set #3 

3 x 100m Build  by 25’s  RI: 15

Cool Down

100 Side Kick Drill – no fins

100 Easy Swim

Total: 2000m ???