Ironman Canada - 19 weeks out

	IMC: 19 weeks to go (Mar 16-22)	Challenge: 19 weeks to go (Apr 7-13)
Total training hours	8:29	16:50
Swim	3:07 / 6700m	4:24 / 8900m
Bike	1:26 / (trainer time)	4:04 / 97.9 km
Run	2:56 / 30.1 km	4:52 / 47.8 km
Strength training
Yoga	1:00	3:30
SBR Total	7:29	13:20

OK, I’ll admit it. Comparing my IMC 19-weeks out summary with my Challenge 19-weeks out summary makes me feel lots of things. None of them particularly positive. Swimming more. Riding more. Running more. Everything more. And for a gal who gets caught up in feeling less than, this causes me to panic slightly. How can I be doing half as much? Half! The logical, rational voice in my head is telling me that I’m recovering from a marathon and that at this point pre-Challenge I was ramping up for one, and that I was also coaching myself at this stage last time around and so some might argue, over-training that far out from race day. The problem is there is a much louder voice in my head yelling MOVE!!

This was an on-call week for me which always brings its own set of challenges: yoga & swim limitations, long runs to be kept close to home, no spin classes. I do what I can to make it work and this week, that included taking a half day off so that I could fit in my swim with some other personal appointments on Thursday afternoon… You know what they say…

This week also included a wee race. As I mentioned in mylast training week recap, while killing time at the Bellingham airport, waiting for our flight down to Cali for the Napa Valley Marathon, I’d applied to be one of the Scotiabank Half Marathon digital champions/event ambassadors. One of the perks that the ambassadors were to receive was a free entry into the Spring Run-Off. They had to delay making their final decision and given how close it was to race day for the Spring Run-Off, they offered everyone who applied free entry! Nice! And while they didn’t pick me, I was selected to participate in an online popularity contest for one of 5 more slots. Yeah. There are still a couple of hours left so if it isn’t yet midnight on March 31^st and you want to cast a vote my way…  http://www.canadarunningseries.com/svhm/svhmDC-vote.htm

So the Spring Run-Off…  my 8K PB was 45:14 and I headed down with a goal of sub-42. And you know what? I finally broke the curse whereby I miss every time goal by the equivalent of 2s/km! Yes, finished with a 41:49. Whoo! The Hub had signed up to race as well leaving me paparazzi-less. His goal was sub-40 and he ran 40:12. OK, so I didn’t break the curse, I passed it on. Let him carry it for a while!

Post-race Selfie

Week 19 deets:

Monday	Hatha Yoga Class
Tuesday	2400m swim before work 7.5 km tempo run at lunch
Wednesday	1:26 on the trainer at home
Thursday	2300m swim 8.6 km run
Friday	Rest day
Saturday	2000m PRM swim 4.8 km treadmill run
Sunday	Modo Spring Run-Off 8K!

Do what you love

I had a great swim this morning. Yes, I said that. Fast for me, and fast compared to my lane-mates this morning. And since I am compelled to compare myself to everyone, over everything… well, it’s nice to come out on top once in a while. And it comes at a good time because I’ve been struggling with motivation and a sense of being stuck or being “less than” with all of this swimming, biking, and running stuff. So much so that, as I touched on briefly in another post, I have been considering doing the unthinkable. No, I’m not talking about wearing flats. I’m talking about the Q-word.

Yes, these last few weeks, I have been doing a better job of rah-rah-ing others than I have myself. And somewhere my language shifted and instead of saying things like “I’m doing Ironman this year” when people asked about it, I said “that’s the plan… ”. Post-race blues? Lack of endorphins through recovery weeks? Dunno, but I was feeling dangerously close to returning to the sofa from which I had dragged my super-sized self not that many years ago, and eating my body weight in tortilla chips.

I told Coach I needed a pep talk and so we had a little long sit-down where he indulged my neuroses, tried to be a voice of reason and encouragement (I think that’s what he was doing) and left me with some options to consider… “And you don’t need to decide anything right now.”

So I took the time to carefully consider what he said about 5 hours later… this happened:

Partially influenced by this:

Yes, a new coffee mug I’d felt compelled to pick up the day before. I don’t need another coffee mug but this one wouldn’t let me leave [the bookstore] without it.

So I’m in. Committed. And now also broke.

And this morning while eating my usual pre-swim breakfast of toast with nut butter and banana, sipping slurping coffee from the mug that gave me permission to click that Register button, regardless of how slowly I might traverse the course, I was cruising through Facebook and happened upon this video…

There’s a moment where Mirinda talks about the selfishness of being a professional athlete but that the point, the reward,  is in influencing or inspiring others to take control of their lives and live them more fully (I’m paraphrasing). And it’s good messaging to hear right now. That it really isn’t about how fast or slow, but about tapping into the best that you can bring, and perhaps inspiring others to make whatever changes they need to, to live their best lives. Or maybe that wasn’t what she was saying. But it was my takeaway.

Now, I'm not sure about you, but I think this post has gotten much too serious. So let me end with this topical thought: 

Marathon Number 6 & Olympic Dreams

OK settle down. It’s not what you think. Before you consider an intervention, or perhaps recommend some medication, hear me out…

Probably the best of the medals. Coffee cup & glitter.

Back when I was a young lass of 39, I had this crazy idea that I would push back against turning 40 by running a marathon. Because really, there is no better way to feel young and sprightly than by subjecting yourself to a physically and mentally punishing ordeal that will leave you shuffling like an octogenarian for days afterward. (So just in case you are again thinking about interventions and medication, let me just mention that I now celebrate my birthday with a day at the spa with two women I covet as sisters.) But crazy ideas are a specialty of mine and so the Seattle Rock’n’Roll Marathon (2010), falling within a couple of weeks of my 40th birthday, became the Bucket List & Birthday Big Idea. I talked my bestie into doing it with me and after months of training together, off we went, and ta da: a few hours (way too many) later, we were marathon finishers. I took an eternity to finish (6:56), finishing just ahead (barely) of the sweeper vehicle, and really getting my money’s worth out of that race fee. Actually not really, because by the time I finished, all the bands had gone home and they were packing up the water and other finish line stuff. Rock-and-roll, not so much. And I swore I’d never run another marathon... in Seattle. And high on endorphins and post-race-afterglow (probably dehydration), I declared I would run a marathon every year thereafter.

Despite my hate-on for Seattle marathons, for “41”, in 2011, I went back to Seattle and ran the “regular” Seattle Marathon. Because if you don’t love Seattle hills, interstates, and 40-million out & backs on a sunny June day, you’re probably going to feel much better running a hillier Seattle route on a rainy, windy, November day. I know. Rain. In November. In Seattle. Who could have predicted that? I had manipulated convinced my bestie to run this one too, waiting for the right time (read: emotionally vulnerable) to pop the question: Wanna run another marathon? We both ran big PBs (6:11 this time for me) and declared our Seattle Marathon days were over.

For “42”, I stayed home and ran the BMO Vancouver Marathon in 2013 (4:31). For “43”, it was Whidbey Island (4:21), my favourite (so far). And of course for “44”, if you’re not new here and have been paying attention… Napa Valley (4:11). But that was like weeks ago and within a few days of finishing, I started trying to pick #6. Something between June of 2015 and June of 2016. And something that would work timing-wise with IMC this year and whatever IM I might be thinking about next year. Because Coach says recovery is important. Sure.

So after working out a Plan A, B and C that all hinged on race lotteries, I ran these by my Coach and then scrapped all of them and went with Plan D: LA in March. Only guess what? LA moves to February next year. Why? Something to do with allowing time for recovery between the marathon and the Olympic 10K trials… yeah I think that’s it. I didn’t pay too much attention because (obviously), I’m not looking for a spot, lol. And speaking of the Olympics, LA is hosting the Olympic marathon trials the day before the LA Marathon.

So registration opened today – for 2 days only – and then it re-opens in September with a higher price tag. And I might have accidentally signed up. So number 6: LA Marathon, February 14, 2016. Sub 4 is the goal.

And speaking of the Olympics… Recall in my last post, I mentioned that my swims were sucky. Suckier than usual. So today, I was repeating one of last week’s workouts and feeling pretty good about it. This was my workout:

• 200 swim, 100 kicks 
• Main – on 15s rest: 
• 4x200 @ 70% 
• 4x100 @ 80% 
• 4x50 @ 90% 
• 4x25 @ 100% 
• 4x100 with pull buoy & paddles, on 10s rest. 
• 100 easy 

So I’m feeling good. Lane to myself, no rage, and I’m pretty sure I’m swimming it faster than the previous week (which I did, 2 minutes faster FWIW). And then I’m doing my 4x50s and I’m just finishing my 15s rest when an elderly Asian lady in the next lane, doing breast stroke and keeping her hair dry, comes swimming up. I head off for my next 50 and am just finishing my 15s rest at the wall when she comes swimming in again. WTF? Suddenly I’m not feeling so much like Ariel. As I head off, I think I catch a glimpse of flipper and I think “riiiight, of course… this is why her leisurely breast stroke is not much slower than my 50m @ 90%”. After I’m done my main set, before I head off with paddles, I duck my head under and have a look: no flippers. Damn it!

It’s so obvious what’s going on here. Clearly this woman is a former Olympic medalist. Next time I’m there, I might ask her to sign my swim cap.

Ironman Canada - 20 weeks out

	IMC: 20 weeks to go (Mar 9-15)	Challenge: 20 weeks to go (Mar 31-Apr 6)
Total training hours	11:17	10:43
Swim	3:13 / 6350m	2:53 / 5750m
Bike	3:29 / Spin class + 55 km on trainer	4:34 (trainer time + 112.9 km on road)
Run	2:30 / 24.1 km	0:51 / 8.4 km
Strength training		0:55
Yoga	2:05	1:30
SBR Total	9:12	8:18

20 weeks out. Yeah, if you were planning to do Ironman, but hadn’t really started your training with any focus, right about now I’m thinking you would be. I was looking forward to seeing this week’s plan from my Coach. To this point, it’s really been all about the marathon. Which was great, because I love the run. Nothing like the run for your exercise endorphin boost. But… then the marathon came and went it was a dreaded recovery week. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind a recovery week on the schedule when it greets you after weeks of hard training. And when I say I don’t mind, I mean I will be living hell to live with as my appetite ramps into overdrive and I try not to give in to it on account of the fact that I’m not burning anything. But the thing with post-race recovery week is that it comes right after the race, and before the race comes the taper. And so. You know. Let’s get busy. That’s what I was expecting. Instead I got 2 rest days and less than 8 hrs of training assigned. I know my Coach knows what he’s doing. But that doesn’t make me any less cranky.

Monday, I packed myself off to yoga for the first time in weeks. It was bliss. Happy to be back on the mat and stretching out some of the aches and owies that I picked up on race day.

Tuesday morning, I was supposed to swim but just couldn’t make it work with my work schedule so instead, I got up at 4 and headed out for an early run. “I’ll swim tonight.” I lied to myself. I hate swimming at night. Actually, to be more specific, I hate leaving the house after I’ve been home to go for a swim at night. I especially hate it if I’m having to swim in the frigid waters of MR pool. Back when I was coaching myself, I sometimes chased the PRM Spin Class with an hour in the pool, ‘cause it’s so dead at 9 pm, you’d really be hard pressed (and pretty damn uptight) to muster up any lane rage swimming at Hyde Creek at that hour… and bonus idea: wine in your water bottle = a great little [secret] to reward yourself with at the end of the swim. No, I haven’t done that. But where was I going with this? Oh yes, I had no intention of swimming at night and I knew it. Instead I decided I’d swim Wednesday morning and take the opportunity to resume strength training on Tuesday night. Yeah, that never happened either. What is wrong with me??? I think I’m bored with my strength workout.

So Wednesday and Thursday morning, I swam and is it just me or am I getting slower? Or at the very least, not faster? These swims felt sucky. Let’s just leave it at that. Or not. On Wednesday’s swim, I asked myself “why am I doing this?” which progressed to “why do I want to do another ironman? Why am I doing ANY of this?” I mentioned this to my son later, before heading off to Spin class, with tanking motivation. His reply, a very casual: “why don’t you take a break?” Because #fat, that’s why! Which lit just enough of a fire in me to go sweat all over the bike and the floor at 360.

Thursday, I snagged a free entry into the modo 8K Spring run-off after applying to be one of their “Digital Champions” [no, they didn't pick me] and with renewed enthusiasm, headed out for a run at lunch with one of my work friends and… ran it way too fast. Yeah, not 5K fast but not easy-recovery-run either. I loved the run… but activated all of the post-race grumpies, prompting a desperate text to an almost-RMT-extraordinaire friend to help a gal out. And she did. Because she’s awesome like that. Working my hips, glutes and rec fem and sending me off with instructions to stretch. And I have. I have!! Is stretch plural?

Saturday I had a moment of extreme inadequacy at my Club swim followed by bitter jealousy and resentment, which was, OF COURSE, an awesome start to the day and fed into all the angst of the week. So it only made sense that I would do my Saturday easy 1-hour run by running uphill for 4.5 km and then downhill for 4.5 km, at the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest. As preparation for Yakima. Yeah, it hurt. Glute med, TFL, rec fem. And crampy calves. I came home, watched the Yakima video and felt better.  

Yakima Skyline Rim - 25/50k - 2014 from Project Talaria on Vimeo.

Sunday, I played coach and cheerleader and cowbelled the Hub through his first race (well, first one he’s ever trained for) and watched while Sporty Spice shattered my 10K PB after only a few short months of running. Yeah! #notaboutme  I spent the afternoon, escaping the rain on the trainer, spinning through the TrainerRoad Big Squaw workout, made bearable by 3 episodes of House of Cards… House of Cards! “I’d push him down the stairs and set his body on fire just to watch it burn.” Oh Frank Underwood. We be samesies.

The week in summary:

Monday	Hatha Flow Yoga Class
Tuesday	6.4 km run before work
Wednesday	2300m swim before work PRM Spin Class after work
Thursday	2350m swim before work 8.6 km run at lunch Hatha Flow Yoga Class
Friday	Rest day
Saturday	1750m PRM swim 9 km run
Sunday	2:30 on the trainer (Trainer Road Big Squaw work out)

Ironman Canada - 22 (and 21!) weeks out

I’m in catch-up mode so right now I bring you not one, but two, training week recaps on my IMC journey: weeks 22 and 21. And what’s interesting here, from part-way through week 20, is that someone had posted an update in the IMC Facebook group, rallying fellow racers with the sobering announcement: 20 weeks to go! And 20-weeks out from Challenge, I remember thinking “OMG it’s so close!” and yet this time around, it has still felt very far away. Maybe I am building on a better base? Maybe it’s because I started focusing on Challenge 40-weeks from race day so at 20 weeks, it was akin to crossing the halfway mark? Whatever the reason, this time around, it still feels a long way off. And I find that unnerving. In fact as I type this, I’m reminded that I said to the Hub today that his Fondo is 4 short months away, and I was going to break that down and tell him if he factored in tapering and recovery weeks, that’s only a dozen or so long rides… and it occurs to me now that IMC is just a couple of weeks later… Ah so maybe it is not too soon for me to commence with the worry, self doubt and panic!

So training recap…

	IMC: 22 weeks to go (Feb 23-March 1)	Challenge: 22 weeks to go (Mar 17-23)
Total training (and racing!) hours	8:13	15:34
Swim	1:48 / 3800m	2:06 / 4200m
Bike		3:10 (spin class + trainer time)
Run	6:25 / 63.6 km	8:18 / 75.8 km
Strength training		2:00
Yoga
SBR Total	8:13	13:34

This week was all about the marathon… a couple of swims, some short runs, including one in California the morning before the race, and then the main event. You can read about it here.

Here are the deets:

Monday	1800m swim before bed (And I struggled through every bit of it.)
Tuesday	8.5 km run
Wednesday	2000m swim before work
Thursday	6.2 km run
Friday	Rest & travel day
Saturday	6.3 km California run
Sunday	Napa Valley Marathon

... And then...

	IMC: 21 weeks to go (Mar 2-8)	Challenge: 21 weeks to go (Mar 24-30)
Total training hours	9:41	17:58
Swim	1:56 / 3450m	2:55 / 6150m
Bike	7:01 / 141.6 km	6:35 (spin class + trainer time)
Run	0:44 / ~7 km (Garmin malfunction)	5:23 / 50.8 km
Strength training		1:35
Yoga		1:30
SBR Total	9:41	14:53

The following week continued to be all about the marathon, or more specifically, recovering from it. Coach gave me 3 rest days in a row. I’d warned him that I intended to do some easy riding checking out the wineries post-marathon – thinking of a short cruiser/hybrid ride. But that’s not really my style is it?

Instead, the Hub and I rented a couple of road bikes at the CalistogaBikeshop and headed out for a great day of riding in the sunshine, taking in some beautiful sights. The guys at the bike shop were great: got us outfitted quickly, reminded us to pack some fuel, and recommended a route. While the 86km ride with a 10 km climb might not have been an ideal post-marathon recovery activity, it was a fantastic ride and I regret nothing! ...OK, I maybe regret not bringing my own bike shoes and pedals and ...some warmer clothes as it was chilly in the shade and on the descents... and more than one Clif bar.

And speaking of the Clif bar people... they have a Napa winery. That's right, they do. In a funky little shop with cycling memorabilia and friendly staff that will indulge you in all the triathlon, cycling, and running conversation you care to engage in. We visited this place the day after the marathon. Good times.

This is how marathon recovery week looked:

Monday	Nothing but some winery visits & tastings!
Tuesday	86 km California ride!
Wednesday	Rest & travel day
Thursday	1 hour easy spin on trainer after work (House of Cards!)
Friday	2000m swim before work
Saturday	1450m PRM swim 7 km run post-swim
Sunday	41.9 km easy ride in the sunshine

Seriously... how could we leave here without doing a ride like this?