Chasing My Joy

My journey to becoming an Ultra Runner and Ironman

A day in the Life of an Ironman Athlete in Training

I LOVE Day in the life posts…seriously, you all should do one, they are so fun to read. I decided I wanted to do a day in the life post to capture what a day looks like for me during Peak Ironman training.
 
Are you getting sick of hearing about peak training yet (and I am only on day five)? If so, you should probably stop reading until mid-June when I will start complaining/going crazy about taper.

So this was my day yesterday, it was a fairly normal day for me so I think it was a pretty good representation.

3:55 am – Alarm goes off for the first time, groan, hit snooze and try not to contemplate “accidently” turning off alarm.

4:15 – Second and third alarms go off, crap, must get out of bed NOW!

4:20 – take dogs outside, feed dogs, get down a cup of coffee and half a luna bar for first breakfast (yes I am a hobbit), find workout clothes, incidentally they are still sitting in a laundry basket not folded or put away but at least they are clean!

4:50 – Leave house and head to gym for 75 minute spin class, bring along second cup of coffee

6:50 – Get home from gym, make second breakfast of instant oatmeal (I know, wish it was steel cut) and peanut butter.
Shower, pack lunch get ready for work. Write and read as many blogs as I can before freaking out because it’s getting late.

8:00 – leave for Work. My schedule at work is very different every day. Today’s main task was finalizing the scope and sequence for a new masters degree program we are going to offer. Thrilling stuff I know.
10:00 – without fail I get hungry again every day by 10, most of the time I eat the same things so I don’t have to think too hard about it. Today was Fage and raspberries, Soooo good!
12:00 – Talk to staff member excitedly about her first marathon that is coming up this weekend while heating up my lunch, Healthy Vodka Pasta Recipe can be found here.

2:30 pm– afternoon coffee…love it!

5:00 – leave work and make a mad dash home so I can let my dogs out and feed them. Stuff down some Sharkies since I would really like to be eating dinner at this time. Yes I am a senior citizen and yes I have eaten dinner at 4:30 before. Go ahead and judge.

6:00 – Head (back) to the gym for interval workout:

  • 3 mile warm-up
  • 10 x 800 at half marathon pace with 3 minute recovery
  • Cool down 1 mile
Total of 10ish miles for the day

8:00 – Head home, heat up leftovers, stuff face

9:00 – Stuff myself into my compression pants and fall into bed.

Exciting life no? Really it seems like all I do is train, eat and work (a little)and guess what I am doing today. Same thing just replace the spin class with swimming and the interval run to a farlek.

I’m dying to know what your day looks like!

Comments

  1. Awesome and so much fun to read. I do have a question,what do you mean about the compresion pants at 9:00? Im mmotivated reading it and seeing your hard work!!! Erica

    Reply

    • Hey Erica- The compression pants are my recovery tights, I have a pair from 2XU, I wear them overnight after hard training days. I would feel sorry for my hubby but he is usually in his compression tights so I don’t feel bad.

      Reply

  2. Hi Beth – I just found your blog not too long ago…
    This post was fun to read especially since I’m training for my first half Ironman and I feel like all I do is train, eat and work! Half Ironman training is challenging, so I can’t even imagine training for an Ironman and working full time! Way to go!

    Reply

    • Hey, it’s always ok to complain 😉 This will not be the norm, I am looking forward to dropping back to a more normal training load in a few weeks!

      Reply

  4. Great post! The only thing similar to my schedule is the getting up before 4:30 and going to bed at 9. 🙂 I also think maybe it persuaded me to NOT try a full ironman. I am however enjoying reading about your training.

    Reply

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