Amen to Amanda's sentiment!

Grab 'em and go!!

She beat me to a post today, but agree that the hardest thing about sticking to this plan this far is every day regularity (minus the one rest day, of course), and that, if nothing else, is a good habit to get in to as it will pay of down the line, I have no doubt, with the regular building of a base versus trying to cram in long, hard training sessions in to our schedule with not much in between.   I know Amanda and I are both guilty of this with our schedules! Leading in to that half marathon, I had probably run three times the two weeks prior to that due to a media tour, etc. and all three times I was panicked about the half and just gutted out a hilly 10-12 miles each time, haha.  So much for a slow build!

And since the workouts have not been terribly challenging, I'm combining a lot of the swim workouts (the easiest ones for me) with either a run or bike.  It has been COLD as a mofo the past week in NYC, so all bike rides have been on the trainer.  The hardest workout thus far has been a 35 minute aerobic spin, followed by the six times the following: 5 minutes on the smallest chain ring (aka, the highest gear), 5 minutes recovery.  It sounds like nothing, but dang.  And today I did a mile swim straight (booooring, but I was short on time) and then the 60 minute timed run, plus some squats, lunges, stretches, knee stuff afterwords.

I feel like some adjustments will be neccessary even as we move into the real meat & potatoes of the plan--putting rest days when we need them, schedule wise--and a fellow I met in the pool the other day (former Cal swimmer who had done IronMan France) gave me some other sample "test sets" that sound just insane to me:

2 hour swim, 2 hour bike, 2 hour run--nice easy Saturday, right?!

Or the "David Scott:" 2 weeks out from raceday: 20 mile bike, 5 mile run.  20 mile bike, 4 mile run.  20 mile bike, 3 mile run. 

So basically, if TIME is an issue for us now, we need to sort our shit out now, because those two workouts above definitely take more time than we usually sleep!  This 8 week training block (we're in week 3), is the "Adaptation" block, so adapted we'd better!  Or as my father has eloquently put it, "drop your cocks and grab your socks," the official wake-up call of the U. S. Marine Corps, and if that doesn't get us out of bed in the morning, nothing will, even if we don't have the former element of that phrase in the first place!

Bike, Run, Swim!

One of the biggest problems with this training schedule is that it requires some semblance of schedule regularity, which is rare in medical school.  Some days I have nothing in the afternoon, some days I go until 4 or 5 pm.  Now you would think that working out after 5 pm would be just as feasible, but at that point in the day, I need to get dinner and think about heading to the library to try to learn all the things I was supposed to learn that morning.

Anyways, the point of that rant is that on days where I actually have free time, I want to really workout hard, but, at least right now, the workouts in our training plan seem insufficient.  One such day was yesterday.  The plan called for a swim,  but I decided to take advantage of the day and did a bike/run workout instead!  30 miles on the bike plus 3 miles running.  I haven't done that kind of mileage in a really long time and definitely felt it today during class and trying to swim this afternoon.  Today was one of those loooong class days from 730 to 4pm, so I decided to do the swim workout from Wednesday instead of lifting (pretty convenient because I didn't want to lift anyways!), and I even got to swim with some of my classmates, which is always an extra bonus!

This is a pretty short post (got to get to studying and all that), but I'm going to have to solve the problem of my schedule soon because once the workouts get longer and harder, I actually have to do them when assigned, which means likely BEFORE class.  Just the thought of getting a workout in and getting to class by 730 makes me shudder...but the potential result of doing awesome during the IronMan is an excellent motivator!

Swimming day!

So I've been off to a great start with this IronMan workout packet, skipping the first week of "Adaptation" for a zillion tests in school...whoops...but so far for week 2, I've kept on track.  Like Jessica said in her last post, I'm trying to stay on the Pro level for as long as possible, but during today's swim workout I realized that I'll likely be going down to the Elite level sooner than I think, at least in swimming and biking.  I'm pretty sure the two Masters swimmers in the lane next to me thought I was going to die at the end of my main set because I was breathing so hard in between my last couple 100s and then essentially floated my warm down.

Definitely felt like this the whole swim.

Today's swim workout was:
Warm up: 100
Drill Set:
Side Kick Left: 4 x 50
Side Kick Right: 4 x 50
Streamline Kick: 4 x 50
All with 60 seconds of rest in between
Main Set:
100, 30" Rest
4 x 50, 30" Rest
8 x 50 Kick, 30" Rest
6 x 100, 30" Rest
Warm Down: 100
Total: 2000

All in all, this second week has started off well!  I even got new running shoes today because my old ones were starting to give me blisters.  It was a BIG step for me to not go with Mizuno shoes, but hey, with the starting of my training, why not try something new?

Week 1 down!

Last week was our first "official" week following an Iron Man training plan that we downloaded from Triathlon Geek.   So far, so good! In fact, it was not that difficult...not that it won't be extremely challenging down the line, but I was pleased that the first week was really quite straightforward...it meant that I had been doing a good job staying in shape/keeping my fitness level up these many months, despite work and the move's best efforts to sabotage me!

The training plan is broken down into "Adaptation," "Endurance" and "Competitive" segments over the course of 37 weeks, with a "Taper" leading in to the race, as well as "recovery weeks" between the three main segments.  So obviously "Adaptation" is going to be the easiest, helping us build up to things like "90 mile bike ride followed immediately by 10 mile run with a break after 6 hours"....HAHA I don't even understand that, that is how crazy that sounds!! I don't even get to SLEEP for more than 6 hours often enough, so there's that to add in to my bewilderment.

Within each daily workout, there are also three different levels: Age Group, Elite and Pro.  I am going to try and stick with Elite/Pro for as long as I can/as long as I feel comfortable doing so, especially for the swim, as the Age Group swim is definitely too easy for me, but I'll adjust the run/bike as the distance/time begins to build. 

Run, Sasha, Run!!

Today's workout for the Elite/Pro is a 45/50 minute timed run, with some sprints thrown in mid-way, and an ab session afterword.  One thing I like about the plan is that it forces me to do some strength work that I would never do otherwise.  As I've said before on this blog, Amanda loooves to lift weights/has to keep up a certain level of base strength for her Army fitness tests, etc., whereas I am happy to stick with push ups/squats/carrying Sasha around and telling her what a wiggle worm she is.  I don't see that listed as a workout in the plan, ha, but I may have her join me for those springs today out in the park! She is a speedster!

And so it begins!

Tomorrow begins our official training!

You might be wondering what we've been doing this entire time since we first signed up for the IronMan AZ in November, but it's what we've been calling "building our base," and trying not to get too crazed or burned out in the process.  We've both taking some longer-than-we'd like hiatus' from consistent training, which is just life, but now the real McCoy begins!

We have picked a training plan from Triathlon Geek and while a lot of people understandably invest a lot more in a coach (either through a team, personal, virtual, or some amalgam of all three), for our lifestyles and budgets, we feel secure in the decision that this will be the best plan for us.  We may decide otherwise when we really are amp-ing up the distance and doing doubles this summer (haha, I see that one Sunday way out calls for an 80-90 mile bike ride, with a 6 mile run immediately afterwards), and while I get sweaty palms and a nervous, rumbly gut just thinking about a workout like that, I feel confident that when we get there, we will have built up to it effectively and safely.  

Additionally, having both been competitive in other sports throughout our lives, we do have a pretty good bead on what our bodies need/can do/what is just exhaustion/soreness versus a real injury/issue, but thankfully we both have triathlon friends/team-mates to turn to for advice, and Amanda at least should have a growing cadre of doctor friends on hand!

As a last hurrah for freestyle fitness, I went for a 10 mile lope in Prospect Park.  No pace, just a strong run, and enjoyed the sunshine (until the last 3 miles, when the sun started to fade and it got COLD very quickly!)

Tomorrow, the plan calls for a 50 minute L1 run (L1=low intensity, near warm-up/cool down levels, and able to carry on a conversation easily).  Onward and upwards we go!

One last workout before the CRUNCH!

As I'm sure most of you know, it is almost time to start of our 8 month CRUNCH!  i.e I actually need to start training regularly instead of this willy nilly workout schedule I have going on right now.  As one of my last workouts before I start actually following a training plan, I went on a bike ride this morning.  There were actually a lot of cyclists and runners out this morning even though it wasn't that warm.  This can be nice and not so nice...nice because I'm not as afraid of getting run over by a car, not so nice when a zillion cyclists pass me (many of them old white haired men and women).  In every bike ride, no matter how many people are out, my adrenaline is always pumping due to my constant fear of making a HUGE fool of myself on my new Cervelo by falling over.  I try to tell myself it doesn't matter, but apparently it doesn't work because I can already feel my shoulders and back are tired from being so tense the entire ride...although maybe I'll tell myself that it's because I'm not used to riding in aero...bahh I wish. 

In case you've forgotten how wonderful my bike is...

It was a short ride (around 30 miles), as I needed to get back to the library to study for all my exams this next week (who knew the lungs and renal system could be so complex!), but to try to compensate for the short distance, I tried keep a pretty good cadence the whole time.  It was really nice to get my legs going for those 30 miles, and yes, the Cervelo is still very exciting.  I still get giddy talking about how beautiful it is, and I'm sure my friends are tired of hearing about it, but I'm pretty sure the novelty of owning such an awesome bike will never wear off.  

Once Jessica and I finalize our pick for the training plan, the real fun will begin!!