Is it March yet?

I hate not following an official plan yet. It's just random biking and swimming right now and training for the Petit Ice Breaker 1/2 Marathon. I went for a nice ride yesterday and now that my seat was adjusted I can really begin to enjoy the new bike! Rest day today and I'm itching to get a workout in. Early mornings and late morning workouts the rest of the week, YES!

My first date with "Bruce"

First week of official training for the IceBreaker 1/2 marathon and my first official date with Bruce (Bruce is my new bike...Bruce as in Bruce Wayne). Yes, I named my bike...don't judge. :O)

3 mile run this morning and then about a 45 minute ride on the bike. It was chilly but not too bad. Mostly just my toes were cold. I really need to have my seat or my set up adjusted. My crotch was not very comfortable on the bike. I'm having my biking heartrate threshold tested this Saturday in preparation for biking classes at the Bike Doctor in Dousman. I will have Jeff check out my positioning and fix it up! Other than that the ride was pretty sweet!! Temperature outside was 44 and sunny. I can't imagine riding with it too much colder we'll see I guess.

"Sick"

So my son said he was sick this morning....right now he just finished a PB&J and bag of cheetos.. Sick my arss! With all the crap going around I figured I'd keep him home when he complained of a tummy ache and cough. I'm thinking it could be a candy tummy ache! Either way whatever it is it kept me home from my gym this morning so 2 weeks in a row I'll be getting 2 rest days in a row. It's probably a good thing though. Rest is good.

Got my Bike!!

I picked up my new tri-bike on Saturday. I bought a Felt B12. I really love the color (black) and I like the aero design to it. I rode it on the trainer for an hour yesterday but haven't had time to get outside with him yet.. YES, the bike is a he. I named him Bruce as in Bruce Wayne and then he turns into Batman when I need him most! ;O) I think I"m going to need to put my old bike seat on this frame. The seat is really hurting my crotch! I'll make an adjustment on the tilt of the seat and if that doesn't help we'll go with what the crotch knows..the old bike seat. Not much exciting going on right now as far as training goes. Today I lifted weights and then only had time to run 3 miles before I had to get home. Tonight I have a boot camp to teach. Looking forward to a long run on Saturday (9 miles) and possibly to a bike ride on Sunday afternoon... if I'm not too hungover from Halloween night! :O)

Starting P90X

First day of P90X today. A chilly 4 mile run on Saturday morning but it felt great to get outside and run. Sunday was a rest day. So my P90 is done for the day now it's time to head to the club for spin class and a short run. I'm already sore from this morning's workout! My husband is pimping our basement out to make it more like a fitness room. It's an unfinished basement and he's putting gym matting on the floor a sweet TV with DVR and DVD player on the wall and the trainer is down there. Pretty cool set up actually! Should be picking up my new tri bike this weekend!!!

On the road again...or treadmill anyway.

Ran yesterday for the first time since the marathon. I ran 3 miles and walked 1 mile. My run felt good but I know I shouldn't push it too soon. I also swam yesterday and I could have stayed in the pool for hours. Just had a really nice rhythm and felt great.

Today I did an hour long spin class. Fun class and packed today too! Burned about 725 calories so I know I was pushing myself. Tonight we're heading out for a beatlemania concert and I have to be careful not to have too many drinks. I'm meeting some girlfriends at 5:30am tomorrow for a 5 mile run and then I teach my boot camp at 7:00! I can't wait until I have to start eating more to avoid losing weight. This happened to me once before and I have a feeling it may happen again over the next year of training.

I'm reading a book right now called "Becoming and Ironman". What a fantastic book. It's 4-5 page stories about first Ironman experiences. So inspirational!

Legs are feeling pretty good!

Well it's 3 days post marathon now and my legs are still a little bit tender but feeling better than they have all week! Just in time because tonight I start a new boot camp. I'm so excited to be able to start strength training again! Today was the last full rest day and tomorrow I'll be able to get back in the gym and get a run and swim in.

My friend who is also doing IM next year sent me a copy of his training plan that was put together for him. Good stuff! I can't wait until March to get into the real meat and potatoes of the schedule but for now it looks like about 7-9 hours of maintenance training through the winter along with my bootcamps and P90X.

Post Chicago Marathon

What a fantastic weekend! I really love Chicago. I haven't been to many big cities but it's just the most beautiful city I've ever seen. I was in New York City when I was 13 but my memory is fading of that trip. So, how am I feeling 2 days post marathon you ask? This was my third marathon and I'm not as sore as my first but I think a little more sore than my second. It all just depends on how much you push your own physical capabilities on the day of I think. I realized by mile 17 that my gooal of 4:30 (still trying to get back to where I was pre-second child) was a little too ambitious. I found myself questioning that capability from mile 1 through mile 17 though I was right on pace for those 17 miles and by right on I mean exactly to the minute. I also wasn't taking any walking breaks which I had been doing for all my long training runs. Every 5 miles I would do a gel and water and walk for at least a minute of 2 but not during the marathon. I think I was scared of being trampled by the mob of runners! :O) Chicago was definitely my favorite marathon so far. So much to see! People lining the entire route and you are in a crowd of runners the entire race. The 2 other races I did were Appleton and Green Bay and the crowd is very spread out very early and it can get pretty lonely. Not this race!

Anyway, by mile 17 I started beating myself up mentally. I was angry that I wasn't going to get my goal time of 4:30 (although the more I think about it now I didn't earn that time anyway since I didn't train to hit that time) and I was also angry that I strongly needed to walk for a little bit and stretch and didn't like that my legs were fatiguing already. I pretty much counted down every mile from here on out just walking for a minute at each mile marker. This makes for a long finish when you just keep looking to the horizon for the next mile marker. You can do this at Chicago to because it's a remarkably flat course! That was another reason I expected to hit my goal time I had been running hilly long runs through all my training and expected to be able to clip along a bit faster without the hills. Ah well, all in all it was a fantastic experience and it was the fall marathon I needed to do for my Ironman training.

Speaking of Ironman... There was a point toward the end of my marathon that I began to tear up and felt if my legs are this dead after only running today how the hell will I accomplish an Ironman finish. I had to remind myself that it's still a year away and I have a lot more training ahead of me. People have trained with far less base training than what I have done and I know in my heart that I will finish IM if I need to crawl across the finish line with 1 minute to go! Although I'm hoping for a much more honorable finsh than that. :O) I plan on doing a walk/run training method for my Ironman marathon. I'm not a strong enough marathon runner in my book to be able to run the entire thing so I had better train with the walking breaks so I don't set myself up for disappointment!

Okay, now what... on to a 90 day strength training with P90X starting next week and I'll be continuing my boot camps which I always participate in. I'm also contemplating an indoor 1/2 marathon in January.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Okay, today is where my nervous energy has really no place to go and the coffee probably isn't going to help. No running, nada, zip, zero, zilch running until Saturday morning. No exercising, nothing! My tummy is already starting to get that nervous feeling and I'm already reflecting on my training and trying to think if I could have done anything differently. If I'm feeling like this for Chicago how am I going to feel leading into the Ironman next year?! I'll have to be on lithium or something! ;O) Today I am going to put some nervous energy toward shopping. Kids need winter gear (hats, mittens snowpants etc.) so I think we'll head out and look at that. I also really need to figure out what I'm wearing for this sofa king cold marathon! I know I'll warm up a lot but until I do I don't want to be quivering like crazy.

Trick for the next few days is to not nervously eat and to eat less than days when I'm burning 1000 calories. Very tricky!!!

Not much to post about his week. Ran my 3 miles yesterday and my 2 miles today. Now it's RELAX time until Saturday when we run one last 2 mile run and then the idea is I should be all rested up for the marathon Sunday! Weather is looking a little better now they took the showers out of the forecast anyway!

Lots of spin today!

I did back to back spin classes today (hour and 45 minutes total). I didn't push it very much and made sure to keep my heart rate in the 70-75% zone so it was really just an endurance ride nothing too crazy. The rest of the week I will be a good little marathon taper'er..

Go Pack Go! Tonight is the "Big" game between Favre/Vikings and the Pack. I have my money on the Vikings. Secretly I will be happy if the Vikings win because it's a little bit of a stickin' it to the man moment for Brett I think if that happens.. or at least that's how it plays out in my head. :O)

One week to go!

Only one more week until the Chicago Marathon. This is the week that I have wayyyyy too much time on my hands. I will be obsessively checking the weather in Chicago for the weekend (as of now it's looking like sunny and 55!) and crossing my fingers for no rain and no wind! The Milwaukee Marathon is about to kick off this morning and I hope all of my friends have the run they hoped and trained for. As for me today it's either a rest day or maybe a bike ride later. We'll see. All I know is I can't remember the last Sunday when I could make a pot of coffee and sit around in pajamas with the family so I'm actually pretty excited for that!

"Do you really want it, do you really want it..go, go, go Ole, Ole, Ole!"

Yep, that's the song that got my run groovin' today. I'm goofy that way I just never what song in my iPod will be the kicker! 8 mile run today and sadly the last long run before Chicago. This week is going to drag and suck arss. Only a 3 mile, then 2 mile and then 2 days off and another 2 mile run and then sweet home Chicago. My run was great today. Ran on the treadmill because it was supposed to be cold and rainy and I was meeting a friend who runs a different pace than me so figured we could run side by side. Turns out I probably should have run outside. The weather is cold but it wasn't raining! boo, oh well. HR was around 146 the entire run so that's great too. Looks like I'm ready. No pain in my body and that's always fantastic going into marathon week! Did a bunch of situps today too and biceps... Time to enjoy the weekend!

Rest Days = Lazy Days

Yesterday I did my 4 mile run on the treadmill and some sit ups at night because my 6 six pack is finally coming back and that's the one thing I'm not going to take a break from during taper. I'm too afraid to lose what I've gained over the past month. Today is a rest day. Hanging out at home with friends and going to watch TV and let the kids run around!

It's funny, I was thinking yesterday how my first Ironman experience is like being pregnant all over again in so many ways. Waiting in line for registration fearful that I wouldn't be able to register because maybe there were too many people in line in front of me was like waiting for the result of a positive or negative on the pregnancy pee stick. Seriously nerves and excitement and the fear of what to expect next. Now I'm in the beginning of the "pregnancy" I'm reading a ton doing lots of research and preparing for the year ahead. As the year progresses and the training gets harder and more uncomfortable so would a pregnancy. Finally, the day of Ironman family and friends will be there and I will have to endure pain and keep my mind in the game to get me through to the finish where the birth of a new Ironman will occur. Pretty deep, I know! HA!

Okay, gotta run... well, not really.. not today anyway. Sit-ups though! ;O)

Hungry, hungry hippos...

I'm so hungry today. I think it's stress hunger maybe...? I dunno. I ran my 3 measly miles at the gym today. Would have been a great day to run outside but I have to use the free daycare at the gym during the day since my husband gets the early bird workout. Run was pretty boring, fast but boring. Going to revamp my iPod over the next week for sure. Making shake and bake chicken for dinner and a baked potato. Oh how I loooooovvvve baked potatoes. Good thing I also love to work out. I hate not being able to lift weights right now. I feel like I can actually see my muscle definition that I've gained the past 2 months slipping away right before my eyes.. I know it's not and I know the break is good but I feel tired and lazy without a little more workout in my life! I better have a good marathon or it was all for nothing! ;O)

Fine I'll rest!

Okay, so last night I pushed it along with all the boot camp class. I am feeling it today...phew! From here though to Chicago Marathon it's running only or light swimming. Worked my friend/client Arran this morning and for the first time did not do the workout along side her. It's really hard to do that!! I can't wait until I can go back about my normal routines. I'm really not a fan of tapering... Today I'm heading to the gym for a 3 mile run, that's it...just 3 little treadmill miles. I don't even know if I can find a song to listen to in that amount of time. Speaking of, I really need to update my iPod. I literally flip through about 20-30 songs before I find one I feel like listening to.

4 miles done already??

Today was a 4 mile run at the gym as I taper down for the marathon. Amazing how fast 4 miles goes by when you're body is conditioned to run 20+ miles. When you first start to run 4 miles can seem to take forever (especially if you're a 10 minute/mile runner like me!). Later today I'm teaching my boot camp class and for this week and next week I'm going to be taking it easy and not doing all the drills with the class. This will be so hard for me. I love working out and I can't stand watching the class do the workout without me!! The more I think about it I can probably do the drills this week. ;O) After all, the marathon is still 2 weeks away.. I'll take it easy next week.

Today's Workout

Great workout today. I started with abs (which is typically the last thing I'll do in a workout). I spent about 40 minutes on core strength just doing various exercises with a 10lb medicine ball and pilates ball etc. Probably did about 300-400 ab exercises in total. Moved to arms and used some free weights to focus on biceps and triceps and also used the lat pull down bar. My swim was really great. I pushed it pretty hard for a 1/2 mile swim using the pull buouy for the first 10 lengths just to focus on my stroke and then for the last 26 lengths I just pushed it on speed. Not too much today since I had a lot of training over the weekend and it's taper time.

Yesterday's ride was fantastic. I'm so glad I had a chance to see the IM loop once before snow falls. I hope to see it once more when I get my new tri-bike. It was pretty crazy windy which made any fast flats along the Madison loop ridiculously slow and annoying. I really can't stand biking in wind. I think that may be worse than heat or rain for me. I have a year to find out which I hate more I suppose.

Today I'm heading to the club to swim for 30 minutes, stretch, do some ab work and some light upper body weights. I really need to stay focused on tapering the next 2 weeks for the Chicago Marathon! Tapering can be pretty difficult when you have Ironman OCD!

Checking out the bike course

Today I'm heading to Madison to ride the lolipop portion of the IM bike loop. It's a 39 mile ride and I couldn't be more excited!