I Want to Be an Ironman….Am I nuts?

I have taken a bit of a hiatus posting on our blog and I have to admit, this break mirrors the break I have taken working out.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I have done absolutely nothing – however, I have enjoyed a nice break in the past week and 1/2 and plan to continue the break through this week.  You see, our team will start our “official” training plan on January 4th and it does entail 6 days per week.  So… I figured what a better time to take a break than now, when I will eat more than ever, drink during the week, and most importantly of all – spend some absolutely wonderful times with my friends and family.

Christmas Eve was spent with Rob, Pam, Mike, and two of our other running friends.  Great food, great company, and a really fun time playing “Catch phrase.”  Christmas Day brought a 6.5 mile run with the running club followed by brunch hosted by one of the club members, presents with my kids and stepchildren, the movie “The Fighter” (highly recommended), wonderful dinner and more games.  My cup runneth over!!

As I write this, having NOT gotten out of bed to run with the running club, I am getting more and more excited about our journey this upcoming year.  I am grateful for the full life I have with the best friends and training partners a gal could ask for.  And….. one of them happens to be my husband – bonus!  To whoever is following our journey, may you be half as blessed as we are and a very Happy New Year!!

…. I think. With about 8 weeks until our “official” start of the training plan, it is time for me to start making a pre-plan, plan.  Coach Maggie told us we should be cleaning up our eating habits in preparation for the training to begin.  Really?????  Clean up our eating habits during Thanksgiving and Christmas, is this some sort of a sick joke?  Well – Pam, Rob, and I had no problem “cleaning” up the rest of a Pecan Pie yesterday 🙂

Seriously though, I agree with laying down some decent habits now.  I am committing to only have wine on the weekends, and no more than 2 glasses in an evening (I guess the day time is free game then…. kidding!).  I am stating this publicly to keep the pressure on myself to keep to it.  Starting tomorrow I plan to be more disciplined in getting in my workouts.  I had a terrible dream the other night that I was swimming in the pool and I could not get my arms out of the water to complete a stroke!!  I guess these 2 weeks of not getting up to swim are playing some mind tricks on my head, huh?  I am really looking forward to Paul and Brook’s return from Mexico next weekend!  The team will be getting together to discuss goals, race calendars, etc….  I am compiling a list of questions for our coach.  The first and foremost, which I think of often, is how to train to balance my efforts amongst the three disciplines.  How does one gain in one area without losing in another?  I sure hope she has words of wisdom!! And…….. how do I get that washboard stomach at age 45 and 3 kids later?

This week’s long run was not only a physical breakthrough, but an important mental one.  Remember when I mentioned a while back that I needed to get ok running by myself?  Well I have continued to avoid it, until I was kind of forced to run alone Saturday.  Most of our running club was participating in the Turkey Trot 5k, Pam is still on limited mileage, and now that we have all heard from Paul – we know where he is.  So, I did the first 3 miles with Pam (great job with the pace Pam!) and completed the last 7 by myself!  I continue to use the 10 minute run, 1 minute walk method to mentally deal with the longer mileage.  WOW am I encouraged that I will be better tomorrow.  I completed the 10 mile run/walk with an average pace of 8:45 and felt great.  Physically I was strong, maintained my form, and felt super efficient.  Mentally, I managed the “only running 10 minutes at a time” really well.  The bonus was, I did not feel totally wrecked after the run, as I have for the past 5 weeks with these double digits runs.

I have had two appointments with Dr. Potter (the chiropractor Pam recommended) and my foot pain is definitely improving – yeah!!  Thank you Dr. Potter.  As our Wednesday evening speed group continues our winter training of plyometrics, form drills, and kettle bell strength training I am anticipating improvements for all in leaps and bounds.  I am convinced my feeling so strong on Saturday’s run is due to the strength training and power work.

My motivation to get up and in the pool continues to be a bit of an achilles heal.  I am not too worried about it though, as I truly  believe that during this time of the year it will be important to rest as to not get burned out before the “real” training starts.

For this week of Thanksgiving, always remember to keep in your mind and your heart that “Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow” – Melody Beattie

Happy Thanksgiving to all and cherish the time with your family, friends, and loved ones!

Ok. I have never been more inspired as I was this past week.  For the past two years, I have led a group of running club members at the track on Wednesday nights.  As a track coach, I have been able to provide input on running form, warm-up drills, and speed work sessions. This past summer, Dave and Mike joined us (Dave is in his early 60’s and Mike nearly 70)….. and stayed with us.  Let me interject that we have had a lot of one-timers on the track – we were starting to get a complex.  Well, Dave and Mike have improved their running immensely and are sticking with our core group on the track.  During this winter, we are continuing to meet on Wednesday nights for form work and strength to help our running form and efficiency.  This past week I  set up plyometric boxes that these two guys were hopping on and over like spring chickens, or rabbits. Then I took the crew into our fitness center and had them doing kettlebells.   Anything I ask them to do, they do without question and with zest.  It warmed my heart and reminds me that we can all do anything we set our minds to.  Next time  I am struggling mentally, I will conjure up an image of Mike jumping over those boxes, seeing two of them as he struggles with double vision.

This afternoon, at a meeting to put together our at risk girl program, Pam and I re-lived some of our hot training sessions for the Door County Half Iron last summer and giggled and laughed like crazy.  I am truly looking forward to creating all new memories to make me laugh from deep in my belly like that.  However, I am not sure how to top the pee fright in Door County Pam!!

lazy?? I don’t think so!  Our fearless leader and coach Maggie completed New York City ING Marathon today in 3:20.  Unbelievably, this is her first marathon that was not part of an Ironman.  What a fabulous  showing!  Rob suffered a relapse of his back injury about 3 weeks ago and finished the Rails to Trails Marathon in 3:43.  I am continually humbled and amazed by him.  His plan was to run 4 hours, just to get back into a long run – but, he started running with a woman (Mom of 3) at mile 5 who was trying to qualify for Boston.  She needed a 3:45, so he ran her to a 3:43 and a Boston qualifying performance. Mike ran the Rails to Trails Marathon with his long-time running partner today as well.  Paul checked in from Mexico and it sounds like he is staying on track with his workouts while he is there.  So….. because Pam and I did not race, she thought we were being lazy.  I think not.  I managed to get 13.2 miles in running yesterday and a nice recovery run with Pam this morning.  She is doing well with her piriformis recovery and will be putting in the longer workouts before we know it.

Even though I am enjoying the laid back nature of this off-peak training, I miss and am looking forward to the close knit feeling of our team sharing in the pain, sweat, and sweet recovery of those tough workouts.  I have never had so much fun as I did while we were waiting for the delayed start at Door County Half Ironman in July.  We were all confident in our training and were able to giggle about the silly things we do.  I am smiling now with the memories.  Looking forward to creating all new heartwarming memories this year.  Bring it on!

I took longer to post this than I had intended… just like Pam mentioned, life does get in the way sometimes.  I was feeling a bit like resting last week, so I did.  Did not swim on Monday, forgot to set the alarm for Friday’s swim.  I did bring Pam a Mocha as a peace offering for not being there.  Our very wise coach did tell us, during this off-peak training, sleep when you feel like sleeping, rest when you feel like resting, because come January—- you won’t have the option.   Oh Maggie, you are so wise!  Speaking of Maggie, she is running the New York City Marathon this weekend, so everyone out there send her good energy.

Continued the run/walk method this past weekend.  It is truly the ticket for me!!  Got in 12 miles at an 8:55 average pace, including the walking!!!!  If I can do this method to a 9:00 mile for Door County Half Iron, I could cut 20 minutes off my last year’s time and get closer to a 5:30!!  I am encouraged and excited about my potential.  In addition, I am teaching two spinning classes per week at the High School I teach at ( I know, we never had a fitness room like this when I was in school either), and I am having a blast!  Today, there was not an empty bike in the place.  A great mix of students and staff.  Very cool to see the interaction and relationships being formed outside of the classroom.  This fitness thing accomplishes so much more than we ever realize.

Have a great week!