Good couple weeks of training

It has been awhile since I have posted, but I will say that the past few weeks have been great. I have started running again and everything is going real well. I have not had any pain during my last two or three runs. I have gone up to 4.5 miles. Char said once I hit 5 or 6 miles, I can return to my normal program. I am real excited about that. Therapy has been going well. We are working through the strength training phases now.

The bike has been going great too. No problems at all. Actually I had a real good ride today. I went with a friend Matt and he took me on a new route. We made it 40 miles. My legs were fine. Actually I wanted to keep going to 50 be he wanted to cut it off a little early since he did 47 on Saturday. We spent much of the time riding two wide talking. We still averaged 16.75 mph. It took us 2 hours 25 minutes. Since he knew the way, he was in front and I was on his wheel the entire time, often times hitting my brakes to not get to close. My hr is normally in the mid 140's. This ride my average was 130 bpm. That is real low and means I was not using as much effort as usual when I ride. This ride really gives me some positive reinforcement for my time goal of under 3 hours in Augusta.

Back to training

I feel like I have missed quite a bit of my training time with my busy work schedule lately. I have part of it past me, but not all of it. My biggest event is over. Overall it went very well. I managed to get into my training routine for the past couple days. I did my scheduled 90 minute ride on Sunday and my scheduled workouts for both Monday and Tuesday. I decided to do them in the warm SC heat. It was over 90 yesterday but I stuck it out and did my scheduled 3 mile run. Today (Tuesday) called for a bike then run. I decided to make it a brick day. I did the 60 minute ride then did the 30 minute run. The temp today was 88 degrees. Yesterday it pushed 90. I wanted to get it in today because I want to see how I stood on my hydration. As hot as it is here, hydrating is key. I was spot on. During therapy, Char and I both agreed that my shoes could be a major contributor to my AT. Yesterday, I decided to eliminate those from the equation by getting new shoes. I ended up with the Mizuno Wave Elixir 4. I put them on and immediately I knew they were the ones. They fit me like a glove and were extremely light weight. I should have broken them in before running in them, but I read on runnersworld.com that they are good to go right out of the box. I threw them on and sure enough, no blisters. They felt great yesterday and even better today. I even managed to average 9 min/mile today after the bike and in the heat. This was all with very little Achilles pain. Tomorrow calls for an early swim but short swim because of my therapy at 9:00 and work at 11:00. Mentally I am getting back into it and getting real excited about the upcoming weeks. They are only going to get harder, but I am up for the challenge.

Swim / Run day

I had a decent training day today and recognized something of slight importance. I did a 2500m swim today with only a little fatigue near the end. I was getting tired, but overall felt good. After eating dinner, I had a 30 min run planned. I figured it was going to either be 30 or 2.5 miles. Whichever came first. I was hoping it was the 2.5 and it did. It ended up being a 24 minute run. I am trying to ease back into my runs and not overdo it. This is my longest run since my race. I had a little achilles pain in my left foot. Nothing in the right, but a little in the left. That's kind of strange because I had the least amount of flexibility in my right foot.....hmmm. About the "recognition of something of slight importance," I checked my workout today and saw that I was supposed to do a 3000m swim. That was a ton of mileage especially for only being in the second week of training. I looked at my scheduled distances for the rest of the week and they were crazy!!! I mean like swimming another 3000 and riding for 2 hours. Okay, something was not right. I took another look at my plan and realized that I somehow downloaded the "Ironman Training Plan" into my training log. So, I've been doing some Ironman training for a couple weeks. What a relief. There is no way in the world I am ready for anything like that..................YET.

Small milestone

I ran two miles tonight pain free. It's gotta be the old shoes!

Ugh.........

Training has been very difficult to fit in lately. Work has really been getting me frustrated. 12-14 hr+ days. I need to figure out my schedule and get my workouts in. PT has been going pretty well. I am seeing some increased range of motion in my ankles which is allowing me to get a better stretch in my calves and achilles. I feel really good about my swim workouts and can feel I am getting stronger already. The bike and the run are another story. My bike time has been limited for two reasons~ lack of energy and lack of desire to get on the trainer. The run time is mainly due to PT, but that will come. I have found my desire to run seems to effect the rest of my training. I can't wait to get back to it fully. I have a feeling that once that returns, the rest will follow. I did get a little good news from work and that is that we hired another person to work on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Hopefully that will ease some of the load. The next two weeks are going to be very stressful. We have our Member Guest tournament on May 28-30. This typically means very little sleep and lots of work. Hopefully after that is over, things will improve and I can get back to focusing better in all areas.

HIM training has begun

My HIM training has begun. Things seem to be going pretty well. I thought the scheduling of training days may be difficult to work out, but I may have found a solution. My PT, who raced Longhorn 70.3 in Texas last year, told me she followed a plan, but occasionally changed the days. Her main goal was to make sure she reached the total hours per week. She finished the race in 5:40. I think this might work well for me too. That is the plan. I have been following her orders for my run, but have been all in on the swim and bike. The first day called for a 2500 m swim with a 1500m main set! What a way to start. I timed the main set and did it in under 27 minutes.

Augusta Update

I just got an email from the Race Director for Augusta 70.3 stating "Due to on overwhelming response to this inaugural event, we will be expanding the field and are still expecting a sellout." The original field was set at 2,000 competitors. Apparently they will be expanding it to 2,500+. WOW!! That is a ton of people! There are 296 racers in my age group alone! It will be interesting to see how they start everyone. 3000 people for a swim and a two loop bike course is pretty tight. We'll see how that goes.

I was back in the pool today as my first form of exercise since Langley. It was a short 1000m swim. I felt real good the entire time. The only set I timed was my main set of 400. I did that in 7 min 42 sec. 400 is the additional swim portion in a 70.3 vs. an international distance. That would put me at the 35 minute mark for the swim portion for Augusta. I hope to get it down to 30 min or less come race day. Definitely possible. My achilles are still acting up. Actually at times, they hurt. My next PT session is Wednesday morning. I am still stretching. I got in a good stretch today after my swim, while in the hot tub and a little more during my weight training session. My scheduled training begins Sunday, May 10. So, really, I guess it is Monday. (Sunday is Sara's birthday.) She will be 29+2. I am going to get back on the bike tomorrow for a short ride, so we'll see what that holds.