Peaks Weeks

Oh man guys....We have OFFICIALLY hit peak week(s). Building it up to Max power. Max Distance. Max time.

Last week was my first "peak" week. This is what it looked like:

Monday: 3500m swim
Tuesday: 1:10 bike, 3.1 mile run
Wednesday: 3300m swim
Thursday: 1:20 bike test (this made me want to vomit and pass out but got me higher HR zones for race day!), 5.4 mile run
Friday: 3300m swim
Saturday: 112 mile bike (first time all the way around the Ironman course! Lots of chip seal for like 50miles, tons of rollers, and head/cross wind for at least 75 miles made this a doozie!), 2.5 mile quick brick run right after
Sunday: 13.1 mile run, 3500m swim

Needless to say by Sunday afternoon I was WIPED!

So then my coach very kindly gave me a "recovery" week this week before going into the rest of max peak weeks. I literally laughed out loud with what a "recovery" week is now as compared to my pre-Ironman life.

"Recovery" week:

Monday: OFF! Praise Jesus!

Tuesday: 1:10 bike (which I missed because of a family dinner), 2500m swim
Wednesday: 45 min/4.2 mile run, 2400m swim
Thursday: 50 min/4.5 mile run, 4500m swim (this was one long.a**.swim!)
Friday: 1:30 bike
Saturday: 2:30 bike, 3200m swim
Sunday: 1:20 run

So after this week we are up for 4 more "peak" weeks, 2 weeks of taper, then RACE DAY! Ya'll...it's almost here... 44 days. I can't freaking wait. Partially because I'm just so ready to race this crazy thing and put training behind me. More partially because I'm ready to have my life back!! Either way it's getting close and I'm excited! Here we go!! One week closer to TAPER WEEK!!! Let's do it!

Please, Thank you's, the more you know and 60 days...

Welp...we are keep on trucking' it over here. 

60 days... it's almost here. 

I am full on in overload phase and it.is.a lot. 

Seriously.

Ya...you know my safety goggle style swim goggles are the sexiest thing you've seen since the VS runway show. Don't lie. I can't help it that my eyeball sockets are bigger than regular goggles so regular goggles make me feel like my eyes are being gouged out with dull spoons. But I digress..

So anyways... to reference the post title...here we go (insert **deep breath**)

I hit a wall this week. Everyone I know that has trained for this has told me they hit a wall at some point. At some point you kind of feel like you're going crazy and becoming the most boring person in the world. All I feel like I do right now is work, workout, eat, and sleep...for real. And this week it's gotten old, and I cracked a little bit. But thankfully I am surrounded by some pretty amazing family and friends and an even more amazing hubster. So here we go...

The Please(s):

One sweet friend asked me this last week what she could do to encourage me - and my honest response was just to still love me and be my friend in 60 days. If you are one of these people in my life and/or know someone training for this - know that we LOVE you and we MISS you and we absolutely do not want to be exhausted, over extended, MIA messes but we did commit to this crazy thing and we are too close to it now to back out (for sure). For most of us (definitely for me) this is the only time I will try to accomplish this so this is it, our one shot. Please know you are so much more important to me/us than our training schedule. So please be patient, know we will return from the cave of I-Only-Exercise-Outside-Of-Work shortly and be much better friends/family/spouses. It's coming. We love you. 

The Thank You's:

If you are one of those awesome friends/family/my super hubs - thank you. Thank you for supporting me/us ins this crazy journey. Thank you for putting up with the waking up way too early, staying up way too late, hungry all the time, not picking up the phone, not making the phone call, SO boring version of ourselves we are right now. You are the reason we keep going. Thank you for still loving us and being there even when we are totally MIA. Only 60 more days...thank you for bearing with us! 

The More You Know's:

Now that we are 60 days out....a few things I wish I had truly known and appreciated about this journey (so far...)

1. the house will be an unmitigated disaster. cleaning and laundry routines will cease to exist.

2. training for this is hard on relationships. be on point and be intentional about making this a better known fact with your family/friends/spouse/coworkers, etc. before you're too far in...and make a plan for keeping these relationships priority over your training schedule because that's important

3. if it doesn't go in the crock pot or can be cooked/put together in less than 5 minutes - it's not happening. A lot of pizzas have/will be ordered. 

4. I should buy stock in K-tape. For reals. K-Tape and compression socks/sleeves are the shiz. 

(ps - got my Baylor kit in...it's also the coolest. But I already own stock in the good ole BU)

5. 4:30AM is a real time that you will wake up at on a regular basis ON PURPOSE...and not only that you will STILL BE WORKING OUT THAT AFTERNOON/EVENING. Oh Ya! And go to work too! And be a functioning human being that runs errands and stuff on top. For Real! Never did I ever think I would see a day that I would wake up pre-5:00 for any reason except that I am going on vacation. Much less to work out...consistently. I don't even know myself anymore! Who is this crazy?!?

6. You will learn that your body is capable of so much more than you ever knew. I am just praying it's enough to get me to that finish line. If I DNF this - I will need to be committed. And not the good kind....like the straight jacket kind. But that's not gonna happen...I'm finishing this. Coach said so. The end. 

So workout wise we are doing 2.5-4 hrs/day during the week and 4+hrs/day on the weekends...sooo ya. Coach and everybody I know that has done this says just get through March/get to Easter and it's all downhill from there so I'm counting down people! Almost there! Thanks for hanging in there with me! You are loved and appreciated!! See you all again soon!

I'm Training for an Ironman... what this must sound like to other people

zone training and a book review...so...random

Hi friends!
   So it's only been like 2 weeks since my last update...I'm getting better...slowly but surely. But truly in this season some days really just come down to...

Sooooo how was your Valentine's day? Hubs and I don't typically do Valentines Day so ours was blessedly low key after our whirlwind week the week prior coming back from vacation, going to Austin for my cousin's wedding, going to Dallas to celebrate my brother in law's engagement to his fabulous new fiancé (so.pumped.for.them!) and getting back to work and adding working out on top of all that.

After all our travel and work and such I was truly exhausted and it definitely reflected in my training. My heart rate was up and my times were down with major fatigue and just general weakness across the board.  My coach definitely took note and gave me a "recovery" week two weeks ago. My reaction upon opening up my workout schedule for that week (keeping in mind "recovery" week is still like 12 hours of workouts)...

Then things have been ramping up for sure. I'm going to do a half ironman (The Tall Texan Tri) in the metropolis of Boerne, TX in 5 weeks as a "tune up" race so we are definitely on a 7 day training schedule now people! It's intense! Pretty much every day during the week is at least 2-3 hours with 4-6 hours on the weekend. I ended up pretty much riding solo this weekend since hubs was in Austin for a race and it was head and cross wind  and rainy the whole.time. Dedication people. It's real. So is training hunger. I just want to eat all the things.

And I ordered by race kit from Baylor...yep I'm sporting the green and gold full force. I am so. excited. Tell me this isn't the coolest kit on the road....just try.

My coach also started my really doing heart rate zone training. This is a new thing for me and pretty much all I am getting out of it major'ly is 1) I am a lot slower when my heart rate has to stay super low for  a super long time and 2) I really hope this gets me to the freaking finish line.

I'm also starting 5am workouts...ummm....ya...

And not to be shown up or anything - but my super amazing bike racer husband totally dominated and got 3rd place in his race in Pace Bend this weekend. He amazes me. Congrats hubs! So proud of you!

So let's get to this book review. Between everything I finally finished the Legend series. I posted a long time ago that I was reading it and I finally finished it. In short its a total young adult novel series in the post apocalyptic'ish. It's completely predictable and the characters are fairly developed but I was just not drawn in by the characters or their developments through the trilogy. It felt very "fluffed" up and overly extended and pretty much just kept reading it to finish what I started. That being said it was somewhat entertaining and a super easy read - I give it a 4/10. Decent beach read if you're into that kind of genre...and like 19. Or almost 30 and just looking for something easy and mindless to read...

On a second book review - my amazing Aunt Phylis (Phylis Caskey) wrote and has published her first book Skinny Dipping in Cane River. I just started reading my copy and am so excited to get a first glimpse into her introductory novel. It's available through amazon so be sure to pick up a copy too! Here's the link in case you need help :-)

http://www.amazon.com/Skinny-Dipping-River-Phylis-Caskey/dp/0692362711

Ok I think that's it - lets ramp this thing up! Have a great week everyone!

100 days...

So I suck at updating this...sorry guys. But just to update you...

100 days...for reals...100 days until I drag my hiney 140.6 miles around The Woodlands, Texas. It's real. I mean in the same time as it would take an unrelentless collections agent to call me about some unpaid bill - I'm doing the Ironman.  Woah.

So since I am...shall way say less-than-consistent lately on updating this lovely little bloggy blog - here's the workout highlights.

- My coach changed for reasons outside of my control. So that's been a transition but a good one so far! 

- workouts are 6-7 days/week for at least 1-2'ish hours/day during the week and typically 3-4'ish hours/day on the weekend.  

- max ride distance has been 62 miles w/ a short run after; max run has been 9 miles with a swim afterwards. However - have been warned that up to this point workouts have been a cake walk and now that we are sub-100 - that everything really seems to ramp up! I'm ready (I think...gulp)

- workouts are some compilation of speed work, endurance work, strength circuits, bike/swim bricks, run/bike bricks, and run/swim bricks

- diet is going well and long workout nutrition is still being "tweaked" to keep me from retaining a lot of fluid/gaining major weight during my long workouts - so there's that.

In summation...

For reals - if you train for this - as you approach this mark and training continues to ramp up - be prepared. This becomes the thing at or very near the top of the daily priority list. For me - life is literally hubster/family>work>working out>fun times with friends>sleep. Sooo....ya...I'm sorry to all my family and friends. I am officially entering MIA land. See ya in May!

In other fun news - in between all the lift and workout craziness -I got to go to Baylor University (may awesome alma mater) to lecture to their graduate students. That was pretty awesomely awesome. I really went into it anticipating their response to be something like:

 To inspire the next generation of speech pathologists to be all that they can be

But I'm pretty sure their impression was something more like

But all in all it really went well and I was very pleased and think the students got a lot out of it. 

Then we went skiing this week (to add to the reasons I was MIA). Someone please just move me to the mountains. Now. For reals. We went to ski Park City and The Canyons, Utah and both resorts were amazing, the weather was lovely and I followed the best ski advice ever given. 

So basically I'm totes amaze balls at skiing. Yep. 

Or not. But I did have a blast! And came out of it injury free! 

Wins for us all!

Ok friends...I'm just  about 

So I'm headed to dream land! Hope you all have an amazing week and I can't wait to update you all again soon! It's ramping up so let's hit it!

G'night!

And it just keeps going...

HAPPY NEW YEAR FOLKS! Oh man, 2015. The year of the Ironman. 18 weeks. And the training continues. For reals guys...it's only January...JANUARY. If training is this busy now - what is freaking March going to look like?

Oh well, I'm already paid the massively overpriced registration fee committed. Here's what I've been up to the last week and what's coming up this week! Get ready!

Last week:

Monday: Easy Peasy 20 mins of core/strengthening exercises. I did this in my living room and looks like the coolest kid on the block. LemmeTellYaWhat.

Tuesday: 3 mile run w/ tempo pick ups followed by a 25 mile ride w/ the hubster w/ intervals too. I did the first 3 sets on my own and hubs pulled/challenged me for the last interval to get my closer to my top threshold. It's so nice to have your spouse not only understand your training but be able to push you harder and farther than you went before. I am so thankful.

Wednesday: NEW YEARS EVE! PARTY RIGHT?...wrong...2400m intense swim intervals.

Thursday: HAPPY NEW YEAR!  Run 6 miles and swim 2000 meters in intervals. The first two miles of the run were in the rain but actually felt good. Swim was a nice zone out and I feel my times in the water are getting better.

Friday: I was SUPPOSED to run 6 miles. I feel like I have the worst allergies in the world with all this weather change and wasn't feeling great and just felt exhausted so I listened to my body and took a break. I sat around in flannel PJs and read a book. It was glorious. Praise God from whom all off day flow.

Saturday: It was cold. And wet. Gross. 8 mile run and 2000m swim w/ drills and intervals. The only nice thing I have to say about this run through the mud and cold was that it was the first time I ran this kind of mileage without taking interval breaks. In that same breath, however, my left ACL repair site and hips were SCREAMING by the end of this run so I think intervals are still going to happen.

Sunday: Today was SUPPOSED to be a 45 mile bike ride and 1 mile run immediate following brick. I was also SUPPOSED to practice race day nutrition. Well if by race day nutrition you mean completely fail go ride on pretty much an empty stomach with only half an omelette and about half a cup of grits in your system from 4 hours ago, nearly forget your water bottles and completely leave behind any and all other nutritional supplements then I NAILED it. And since I nailed it so hard - I had an AWFUL ride. It didn't help the temps went from a comfortable 53 to <40 in like 2 hours with a constant headwind. So my 45 miles turned into 30 w/ a 1 mile comfortable run after (and by comfortable I mean I couldn't feel my feet or fingers, felt like I was running on cinder blocks and somehow managed to still keep a respectable time. Wonders never cease.

In talking to my coach about how I am feeling a little worn out/fighting some kind of something w/ this weather/something is going on because my splits this week just got consistently worse -  we are taking it back a scooch so allow me to hopefully return to my better performance.

So here's next week's plan:

haha just kidding...I SO wish I was at that point. Mainly the goal is to avoid burning out into something like...

So this week we are doing:

Monday: 20 minute comfortable endurance swim. (which I skipped bc I was still feeling poopy)

Tuesday: 20 mile tempo ride with the hubster. (I actually ended up solo riding and had a GREAT ride thanks to my lunch that was made of mostly of rice and bread. Thank you Jesus for carb loads)

Wednesday: 2500 yd swim and 5 mile run.

Thursday: 20 mile bike

Friday: OFF! HALLELUJAH!

Saturday: 45 mile easy endurance ride.

Sunday:  7 mile long easy endurance run.

So that's the plan! Man I feel like it's ramping up fast but May will be here before we know it people! Get Excited! I know I am (or at least I'm doing all in my power to be)!

Preach it. 

See ya next week!