Chasing My Joy

My journey to becoming an Ultra Runner and Ironman

Week 27 Ironman Coeur d’Alene Training

Less than 50 days to go…..GULP!

This week is another “Peak Week” but it is a little less than last week. I am still a little sore from this weekends workouts but spin felt pretty good this morning, hopefully tonight’s hills will go well too.

Around mile 25 and feeling good
This weeks workouts looks like:

Monday: 30 minutes weights and 60 min yoga.

Tuesday: am 75 min spin class
pm- 8.5 miles of hill work and hip/core exercises

Wednesday: am- 3100 m swim practice
Also am (have late work meeting)- 8 mi progression run

Thursday: am- 32 mile bike ride outside(hopefully)
pm- 3000 m swim

Friday: 80 min pilates and hip/core exercises

Saturday: 80 mile bike ride with 3 mile transition run

Sunday: 16 mile progression run and 60 minute strength session

Totals for the week:

Swim: 3.8 miles
Bike: 130 miles
Run: 35 miles
Strength: 4 hrs
Totals:  21 hours and 168.8 miles

My goal is to not miss any workouts, sounds easy enough but with workouts happening so often it’s easy to miss one or two. For example last week we missed a swim workout because our dog kept us up most of the night and I just couldn’t get out of bed to swim after 4 hours of sleep and running 10 miles the night before. There really is no time for “make-ups” so if I miss a workout I just have to move on to the next one.

I just ordered Chrissie Wellington’s book and I can’t wait to get it!

 I think reading this book will help keep me motivated in these last few weeks of training.

Read any inspirational books lately? One of my favorites is The Long Run by Matt Long.

April Recap and May Goals

I know this is a bit late seeing as we are fully into May now BUT better late than never, right? Go with me here.

April went by quickly, time seems to be accelerating towards June 24, I wonder if July and August will go by very slowly. April was a bad blogging month, I posted a total of 7 times, FAIL! I wish that I could look back and say that April was a great confidence building month but it wasn’t. I am trying to look on the bright side and hope this was my chance to get through some difficult situations and that everything will be much easier going into Ironman.

April started out with a trip to Portland for a family funeral and a PR at a half marathon. It was nice to see family and enjoy a race in my favorite city even if the circumstances weren’t great.

My mom turned 60, and asked for events instead of presents. My event doesn’t happen until June but my brother decided to take us up the Cog Train to Pikes peak. Cory and I needed to get in a long run so we got up early, ran 16 miles, took a quick ice bath and got ready to head down to Colorado Springs. We had a great time even though we couldn’t make it to the top because of high winds.

Work was extremely busy, but spring is always our busy time so I should have known.

Then Cory and I drove to Las Vegas. The week leading up to RAGE I was a ball of nerves, I was nervous enough about my first triathlon of the season, but add on top of that it was a half ironman, a really difficult course and forecasted to be in high 90s.

On the bright side, the swim went well and the bike was easier than I thought it would be. The run on the other hand was awful. I was not prepared for the heat, I jog/walked the half marathon and there were many times I wasn’t sure that I would finish the race. I did finish but it didn’t build my confidence that I could double the distance. It was surprising how I wasn’t very sore after this race, nothing compared to the half marathon from the beginning of the month . Goes to show that not being able to run hard and recovering correctly makes a big difference.

After getting home we had to say goodbye to the sweetest dog in the world this was not an easy time for my family but it was time.

Overall April was not the worst month but I am glad to put it behind me and hopefully move onto a better month that will help my confidence.
May is lined up to be an exciting months of Personal Records, most of these will be distances or amounts of time training but I am kind of hoping to PR in a race as well. Here are some highlights I am looking forward to and goals I am hoping to reach in May:
• Starting Peak training and putting in 20+ hours a week swim-bike-run-yogaing
• PR-ing at Greenland 25k (guarantee since I have never ran a 25k before)
• Riding my first over 100 mile ride at Boco Loco
• PRing at the Colfax Marathon, this is not an A race so I won’t be devastated if I don’t but I would like to beat last years time from the Colorado Marathon
• Not IM related but I am looking forward to spending sometime in New Mexico visiting a ranch where we will be doing some conservation research

• Completing a metric Ironman supported by my coach as one of our last big training weekends

• But most importantly I hope to consistently nail my training so that I can go into June feeling confident about my efforts and looking forward to taper

What are your hopes for May?

My first century

I don’t have much time to go into all the details of todays ride, but I am here to report that I survived my first ride over 100 miles. The course was great, scenic, rolling and well supported. I only wish there had been more riders, there were times that I felt we were the only ones out there. Many more people did the 30 or 60 mile rides. More details later but now I need to rest, a century after an 18 mile trail run can really take it out of a girl.

Greenland 25k Race Recap

This morning Cory and I got up bright and early to head down to Greenland Open Space for our first 25k.

 We got to the race easily, with plenty of time to wait in line for the port-a-potties and watch the 50k start. One of the coolest things about this race was being out on trail with people racing an ultra. I also liked that this was a no frills race, we picked up our packets that  comprised of a number, chip and a tech-t, don’t need much else.

I left my camera at home so I don’t have many pictures from the day(whoops) but I did catch  few before the start on my phone.

The race started on time and was small, all things I like. We knew that there wouldn’t be a lot of support on the course so we both carried our own water. There was an aid station at mile 3.5 and 7.7 of each loop. The volunteers were super nice and took great care of us. This race is made up of a 7.5ish  mile loop with a little added to the beginning and the end. So the 50k racers had 4 loops, we had 2 and there was an 8 mile race that ran the loop once. I realized that I liked running the loop twice but would have gone crazy having to run it four times (two loops good, four loops bad). It was fun to be out on the trail getting passed by the wicked fast 50kers and a few 8 milers bringing it in and cheering on the 50kers making it happen out there.

The race went fairly well, I had some pains in my legs and feet but that shouldn’t be surprising at the end of a high volume week. It was also hotter than I expected, but it was nothing compared to RAGE. I finished in just under 3 hours and added a few extra miles to round out our day. I enjoyed the race and would do the 25k again but I don’t think I would want to do the 50k.

After the race we went to packet pickup for Boco Loco, grabbed lunch, some ice for ice baths and my first mocha coconut frappuccino of the year, SOOOO good!

Now it’s time to recover as much as possible for tomorrows 102 mile ride. I did squeeze some Mexican food in today but no margs for me today, maybe tomorrow!

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!

Greenland Trail Race Recon

Instead of going into Saturdays race completely unprepared (like I often do) I decided to do a little recon work to know what I am getting into.

So I looked up the weather:

Looks like PERFECT running weather, SCORE!

Then I looked up the course and elevation:

Nice wide trail, gentle elevation without being too flat, sounds good to me! Two loops also doesn’t seem bad, IMCDA has a two loop run so it will be a great trial run in that way. The 50k is 4 loops, I don’t think I would want to do that! There is a drop bag station at the turn around (aprox. Mile 8) so I will need to think if I want to leave anything there. Aid stations are at miles 3.5 and 7.5, I am more of an aid station every mile kind of girl so I will need to carry my own water and gels.

The race starts at 7:30 and we are picking up our packets race morning so that means an early start for us.

The only thing I need to figure out is how we are going to get our additional 5 miles in. I don’t feel right continuing to run on the course when we only paid for the 25k and I doesn’t feel like it counts if we get too long of a break before finishing. I may have to suck it up and run on the trail. Now I am really looking forward to this race, all except the 4:30 wake up call.

Big Race Weekend

Cory and I have two races this weekend. It is our first time doubling up events on a weekend. I wouldn’t think this was a good idea but these Races are just fun ways to get our miles in. On Saturday we are running Greenland 25k trail race

They also offer a 8 mile and 50k. I have heard this is a great beginner ultra marathon since the trail isn’t too technical and there is a reasonable elevation change.

We have trained at Greenland before, last year when training for the Colorado Marathon we ran our longest training run of 22 miles there. It is a nice trail.

We do need to do some planning before heading down to this race as true to most trail races there is less support than you see in road races so we will have to carry our own water.

On Sunday we will be riding the Boco Loco century in Boulder. This also really isn’t a race, there is no official timing, you can start any time between 6:30am and 10:00am.

There are some other big races happening this weekend as well. It’s kinda sad that this year will be the last year of the full Ironman at St. George Utah. Ironman announced that next year they will drop to a 70.3.

 “We’ve listened to our athletes and they’ve told us that while they love St. George — the people, the community and surroundings — St. George does not work for them as a full-distance Ironman,” said Andrew Messick, Chief Executive Officer of Ironman. “Our belief is that St. George will flourish as a 70.3 and we are pleased that we are continuing our relationship with St. George and with the state of Utah.”

Story can be found here.  

One last race on my radar this weekend is the Colorado Marathon. This was my first marathon last year so it has a special place in my heart.

Also one of my employees is running it as her first so I am enjoying sharing in her excitement.

Anyone racing this weekend? Tell me about it!

WordCount Challenge

I love a good challenge but I have been avoiding them since really focusing on ironman training. I just felt like I couldn’t focus on another thing. Run to the Finish has been hosting some really fun monthly challenges that I hope to participate in post ironman. But I have decided to participate in one challenge during the month that will be the biggest training block of the year. Seems silly I know but I have been slacking on updating my blog and I really want to capture what these weeks leading up to Ironman are like so I can look back and remember this time.

So I decided to sign up for the WordCount Blogathon challenge. It’s simple, the goal is to blog once a day for all of May, 31 days in a row. I love this, it’s simple and it encourages me to take more photos and post more and not push it off, day after day.

 
 I am excited and already have a list of things that I would like to post about to keep me going when I don’t feel inspired but it’s a far cry from 31 posts. Are there any topics you would like to read about?

Do you enjoy these types of challenges?

Week 26 Ironman Coeur d’Alene Training

The weeks are quickly ticking by, I can’t believe that IMCDA is SOOOO close, just eight short weeks away! I am getting nervous but also looking forward to post ironman life.

Last week I thought I had a few more before peak training started but when coach sent updated schedules I was shocked to see peak starts TODAY! Yikes, this means that the next six weeks (with one recovery week in there) are peak training, then taper, then race day. All this means it’s focus time, now is the time to get really efficient with my time. My goal is to execute this training block well so I can go into taper knowing that I put in all the training and I am ready to go. I want to hit every workout as best I can , no skipping (unless injured, knock on wood) no excuses. There are also some fun events to look forward to in the next 6 weeks to keep me from going crazy, including a trail race, century ride, marathon, mother’s day run, olympic triathlon, and a metric ironman put on by coach.

Here is this weeks plan:

Monday: 30 minutes weights and 60 min yoga.

Tuesday: am 75 min spin class
pm- 10 mile track workout and hip/core exercises

Wednesday: am- 2800 m swim practice
pm- 60 min fartlek run plus hip and core exercises

Thursday: am- 32 mile bike ride outside(hopefully)
pm- 2850 m swim

Friday: 80 min pilates and hip/core exercises

Saturday: Greenland 25k trail race (plus an extra 4.5 miles for a total of 20 for the day)

 

Source

Sunday: Boco Loco – century (100 miles) bike festival

Source

Totals for the week:

Swim: 3.5 miles
Bike: 154 miles
Run: 36 miles
Strength: 4 hrs
Totals: 193. 5 miles and 24(ish) hours

This will be a personal record for miles and time training in a week for me, wish me luck! Two “races” in one weekend should be fun! I use quotes because I don’t plan on racing either of these events, they are just fun ways to get the miles in.

What does your week look like?

Prepping for RAGE

I have been a bad blogger (I don’t know how many times I can say this before I just have a BAD blog). But I am trying to be better….
The build up to RAGE was stressful I will admit. Work has been crazy, this time of year is always busy but add that we are opening a new exhibit and it pure insanity. So taking two days off to drive to Vegas and race was a challenge. So when I saw that the weather was forecasted to be in the high nineties I went into full stress ball panic mode. I seriously thought about skipping the race (then I could have joined my club for a long training weekend in Moab) or dropping to the Olympic race to avoid meltdown. In hindsight the weekend could have been a lot more fun if I would have relaxed a bit and rolled with the punches, but that the story of my life. But here is how the long weekend went:
Wednesday: Get home from work at 6pm and try to start packing, find Triathlon pack list on Google documents and laugh when I see it hasn’t been opened since September. Who’s idea was it to start the season with a half ironman? Mine?!?! Oh yeah…well I am an idiot. Finish packing late in the night and assume I have forgotten many important things, go to bed feeling very unprepared for a out of town race.
Thursday: Pack everything into out tiny car (it gets great gas mileage)
throw our dogs in the back and head to my parent’s house. Drop the dogs off and hit the road on time (YAY) then realize we forgot a bag at home and have to back track (boo, but hey it could have been way worse). The drive was about 13 hours if you don’t count the detour or the hundreds of bathroom stops that we had to make. 

Since we were trying to hydrate for a very hot race we were drinking more water than we would normally on a road trip. We listened to audio books and tried to relax on the way, overall it was fairly enjoyable for being trapped in a car for so long. We pulled into our hotel around 8 pm thanks to gaining an hour from the time change. The hotel was nice enough but it was weird rolling my bike into a hotel!
Friday: We were able to sleep in and wake up with no  alarm (bliss) before packing up and heading out to Lake Mead. Since I hadn’t been in my wetsuit in seven months or done any open water swimming in just as long I was ready to get some practice in. Thanks to liberal use of tri-slide I was able to get my wetsuit on comfortably and jump the water. It was very easy to get in the water and very comfortable to swim. I guess that’s the one bonus from the warmer than normal weather. The down side of that was that RAGE was supposed to be an opportunity to practice swimming in COLD water like CDA is likely to be. After sighting to some “no wake” buoys I was feeling like the swim would be the easiest part of the day. We then hoped on our bikes and did 30 minutes of easy riding. 
We figured out that transition would be long and difficult, it was up the boat ramp and that starting on the bike would be a challenge too. Good thing to note and make sure your bike was already in an easy gear. 
We threw our bikes on the car and headed out for an easy 20 minute run. The run headed out on a dirt (sand) trail and headed up the hill pretty quickly, I realized that footing may be difficult especially on the way back on fatigued legs. But mostly I noted that at 10 am I was already very hot and it was just going to get hotter.

After running I was excited to be done with the recon work and do some touristy stuff. Since we were at Lake Mead we decided to drive over Hoover Damn, I would have liked to get out and see more but we couldn’t park the car in the garage with the bikes on top.

We did get a chance to walk out on the Pat Tillman Memorial bridge and get a great view of the damn that way.

We then headed back into town and grabbed lunch on the way. We dropped the bikes in our hotel room and took a quick nap before heading out to packet pick up.

Packet pick up was surprisingly small but made up for it by being quick. There was one small room where you picked up your numbers, chip and goody bag and a few tents outside trying to sell stuff. After we had our packets we stopped at Red Lobster for a carb-loaded dinner  before heading back to the hotel where luckily we got a good night’s sleep.

Race day info coming soon in a Race Recap…..

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