Recent Posts
-
Looking for the mojo
I’ve really been struggling with motivation for the last two months. The “I should probably just quit” kind. I can feel my fitness slipping. I’m weaker and slower and can’t go as long. My eating habits aren’t helping either.
I’m really hoping to turn this around in March. If I had the funds to sign up for races, this would be less of an issue. Without something to train for, it’s so easy to turn off the 4:00 am wake up call.
My goal is to at least match the time and/or distance from last March’s workouts. I’m going to need your help, guys.
-
Mini-breakthrough swim
Lately my workouts have been few and far between. We’ve had illness in the household including my husband’s pneumonia + I’m lacking motivation & planning because I don’t have any races to train for.
I’ve been feeling pretty terrible about my training (if you could call it that), my weight, loss of strength, lack of progression. But it takes but one good workout to help right the ship.
I’ve had the “Swim Workouts for Triathletes” book for over a year on my shelf collecting dust and have finally gotten over the intimidation of using it. While my workouts aren’t very frequent, they have actually been a lot more enjoyable and I finish them instead of leaving early and getting frustrated. Just the idea of having a plan instead of swimming randomly is a huge lifesaver. It’s nice not crying in the shower of the Y anymore.
The workouts call for “easy”, “moderate” or “hard” swimming. I really only have easy and moderate, and there’s little speed difference between the two. Hard is just me flailing about more, but I do raise my heart and ventilation rates, which is the key for being at threshold.
What I noticed today is that my hard is becoming less flailing and more controlled. While swimming hard I was more aware of my form and pulling while still speeding up my stroke rate. My arms were actually getting sore & tired which I think means that I was pulling the water better. They rarely get tired and never are sore.
I’m still not sure I’m swimming any faster, actually I’m pretty sure I’m not. But I feel like this is a little bit of a breakthrough for me. There’s still a lot of work to do. I’m so slow I think there’s something wrong with me. I see people with worse form going faster and I see people weaker than me going faster. I have no idea what the deal is.
I know that consistency is the key, so I need to just be sure I stick to a more frequent swim schedule and keep up with full workouts I might actually be able to do something with my swimming this year.
This one workout has erased the shit that has been my training this week. Time to look forward ,not back.
-
How shoveling your driveway is like triathlon training
1) You need a plan. The bigger the job the more a plan is necessary. Otherwise you end up going over the same spot over and over again with little progress.
2) Proper fueling. Be sure that both you and your snowblower are properly fueled. You may be out there for MUCH longer than you anticipate, be sure you eat well before hand.
Although snowblowing is primarily a low-intensity activity and will mainly use your fat stores, some bursts of high-intensity from shoveling will be necessary. Be sure to have proper glycogen and glucose stores available.
Also be sure to bring hydration & nutrition along with you. Apparently you can’t expect someone else to say “Hmmm, she’s been out there for a few hours. Perhaps she could use a granola bar?”
3) Wind: Much like cycling, the wind will either work for or against you.
4) Consistency: There will be times when it seems like there’s no end in sight and you’ll never get out of this hole you’ve made. You may feel the wind whip the snow into your face and want to cry (many times). Endless back & forth laps.
Its at these times when your mental fortitude is tested that gives you the wisdom to know that your body can handle a lot more than you think.
Stick to your plan and focus on what you’ve already accomplished rather than the piles of work ahead of you.
5) Equipment: While high-end equipment may help to improve performance to a certain extent, it’s ultimately your engine that will determine your success. The most expensive snowblower won’t make up for your lack of physical fitness.
Sometimes your equipment may fail or can’t perform the job at hand. You need to have the stamina and strength to use a good, old-fashioned shovel when necessary.
6) Be persistent: Success is the culmination of many training sessions. You can’t expect results after one workout. You may need a day or two to complete your shoveling job.
7) Enjoy. People may be impressed with what you do, but they will never fully understand the trials and tribulations you went through to meet your goal. That’s ok. It’s you against you out there.
And that, my friends, is how you remove 2-3 feet of snow from your driveway.
-
A triathlon of epic proportions
15 mile swim, 300 mile bike, 100 mile run. Wow!!!
-
Updates to my 140.6 challenge
Just a few updates to the 140.6 Iron Distance Challenge I posted last week.
Here’s the Facebook group to join:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/386219808138100/If you don’t swim at all, you can move the 2.4 miles of swimming to running just as if the swim was cancelled. That’s 28 miles of biking and 7.15 miles of running each week.
I’m going to keep track of everyone’s distances and announce all of the Ironmen as they finish.
A lot of great triathletes have already joined. There will be a lot of support and people to answer questions and a great way to meet some new people as well.
Join us today!!!
-
January iron distance 140.6 challenge
My workouts lately have been a mish-mash and disorganized. I’ve been just focusing on the holidays and some other things.I’d like to get back on track with my schedule and diet in January, so I’m challenging myself to an Iron Distance challenge.
My main goal is to get back into a consistent schedule.
Over the course of the month, I’ll do the equivalent of a full Ironman distance triathlon. It’s actually quite achievable for people of all abilities.
The total distances are 2.4 miles swimming, 112 miles biking, 26.2 miles running.
If you break that up over 4 weeks that’s:
- 1050 yards swimming
- 28 miles biking
- 6.5 miles running each week.
Depending on your speeds, you can swim that in 1/2 30-minute sessions, 2 1-hour biking sessions and 2 40-60 minute run/walk sessions.
If you walk/run and are a beginner swimmer, that’s around 4-5 hours per week max! Probably less.
Anybody want to join me for accountability? It will be fun and a great way to start off the new year.
————————————————————
Updated:
Join this group here: http://www.facebook.com/groups/386219808138100/
We have a few experienced triathletes so if you have any questions there are a lot of people here to help you out. I want to see everyone succeed.
If you positively, absolutely can’t swim, we can add the 2.4 miles to the run portion and turn it into a duathlon for you.
-
Christmas comes early
Every year we travel for Christmas so Santa makes an early visit for us. We stayed up late last night wrapping and getting set-up.We usually wake up before the kids so we can see their reactions, but I thought it would be fun to let them get up on their own and rush up to wake us up.
I heard my son wake up first. He went downstairs and on queue rushed back up to get his sister. They both went downstairs and we waited for them to come back up. But they didn’t.
They were quiet at first, but slowly got louder. We heard laughing and then we heard “Thank you, Johnny”. Since they weren’t acting the way I had planned in my head, I got up and yelled down the steps “Why are you guys up so early?”. Abby appears at the bottom with a puzzle she’s already unwrapped.
-
Hardest Ironman Course? Easiest? RunTri's 25 Toughest Ironman Races
For all of you data-hungry, Ironman statisticians. This should take up your whole Thursday. Enjoy!
-
High Res
Summers are earned in the winter
(Source: attimesiramble, via penguinsareourfriends)
-
Strength training and running economy in female runners
I was researching something last night and ran across this great study that I wanted to share with all of my endurance sisters.Strength training in female distance runners and impact on running economy (Johnston, Quinn, Kertzer, & Vroman, 1997)
12 female distance runners were either assigned to a 10 week endurance-only training plan or an endurance + strength training program.
