Peak Week: Like the Bike

Happy Bike Peak Week Everyone!

       SO I survived peak run week. Capped off with my LONGEST.RUN.OF.ALL.TIME!

Topped that off with the coldest ice bath of my life. 

Mad props to my super amazing hubster who surprised me at mile 16 of my 20 miler and rode the slow way back home with me just to keep me company! Yep...He's a keeper! Seriously don't know how to thank this guy for all that he's done for me during my training. 

On that note - on Friday, some hood-rat jerk-wad broke into my car while I was out watching hubster race at the track and stole all my stuff in the car - to include my tennis shoes, garmin watch, HR monitor, one of my fave lululemon tops, K-tape....not to mention my wallet and my flat iron. #holybadhairdaybatman 

I hate all people who steal. I mean come on - it's a commandment and everything, you thugs!

So Saturday morning I slept in, took care of bank stuff, bought new tennis shoes, found a new watch on craigslist and sat on my trainer for 5.freaking.hours. 5 HOURS GOING NOWHERE PEPOLE! 

If that isn't commitment to training I don't know what is. 

Ok so on to this week...its MAX BIKE PEAK WEEK! 

Today (Monday): OFF! THANK YOU JESUS!

Tuesday: AM-3300m swim; PM - 1:30 bike; 35 min run

Wednesday: 1:10 bike; 45 min run

Thursday: 1:20 run sweat test; 3800m swim

Friday:1:00 bike; 1:00 swim

Saturday: 5:30 bike (LAST LONG BIKE! WOO!)

Sunday: 1:45 run; 2:00 open water swim

It's supposed to rain all week so we shall see how everything actually pans out. Stay tuned!

Also on another happy  note - BIB NUMBERS ARE UP PEOPLE! 

This is really real.  33 days people and we.are.doing.this.

Let's get it! Have a great week! See ya for max swim week next week!

Peak Week: Episode RUN

So we've hit max fun run week people. This is week 1 of 4 consecutive peak weeks...one more day closer to taper and race day!! So here's what this week looks like:

Monday: 3700m swim
Tuesday: 1:10 bike+45 min run brick
Wednesday: 3400m swim+1:30 min run
Thursday: 1:15 bike (recovery)+45 min run brick
Friday: 2200m swim+1:30 min run
Saturday: 5:00 bike (shooting for 90ish miles)+30 min run
Sunday: 3700 swim+3:00ish run (shooting for 20 miles on this guys - this will be my longest run in training! Plan is to run consistently for 2 hrs then do 1 min walk intervals at each mile to simulate walking through the water stations)

So that's this week! Next week will be max bike (I think), followed by max swim with an open water swim practice on the course then one more peak week after that!

On another  note- I haven't gotten new cycling shoes in nearly 3 years people. 3.YEARS. For those that don't cycle - this is a long time to wear the same shoes (especially since you typically wear tri shoes without socks). Well this one lucky girl got a great surprise from the hubs.

Voila! These ruby slippers are the tri/cycling equivalent of a perfect fit Louboutin (and everyone knows the love of a red bottom (or top) shoe!). I was so surprised and excited and couldn't be happier to have these lovelies out on the road with me the next 6 weeks!

So we are on our way! I have my race diet dietician appointment on Friday so I'll be getting a VERY specific diet plan leading up to the big day so I"ll update on that afterwards too! Let's just say I think my easter basket candy is going to be continuing to tempt me from the high shelf for the next 6 weeks...

Hope you all have a great week! See ya for max bike!!

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!