April Totals

Funky month between tapering for 2 races, getting a stomach virus, and scratching a race.  Good times!

Bike: 10h 46m 46s - 144.93 Mi (3 hrs were spinning)
Run: 9h 15m 08s - 47.38 Mi
Swim: 6h 45m 57s - 16962 Yd
Pilates: 1h 00m
Yoga: 5h 45m

Check-in on goals for the month (even though this is pretty much a joke at this point):
 
April goals:

• Do not get injured. That would be very bad. I didn't get injured, but I did have a pretty good bike crash a week before my HIM and I got a stomach virus.  Lucky that the crash only bruised me.  Stomach virus..... not lucky at all on that one.
• Keep working on running endurance and speed. Done and Done.
• Get race-day nutrition ironed out. I've been very bad lately (read: since November) and not drinking everything on my bike. Considering I get 100% of my calories from liquid sources, its very important that I either drink everything, or mix my drinks stronger, in anticipation that I'll not drink as much as I should. HIM nutrition was spot-on.  If anything, I had a bit too much but caught it in time.  Setting my Garmin to beep at me every 15 min on the bike was the trick to drinking more.  Also supplimenting w/Hammer Gels worked well.
• Have fun racing. Its starting to get hot, and generally my fun level is a directly inverse of air temps. Here's hoping I can figure a way around that. Goal met because I had fun at the HIM.  Didn't really find a way around the heat, but I modified my race plan and expectations to "finish with a smile on your face".  And that I did.  And I'm still smiling about it.
• Should I put goal times here? Oh, why not. April 11 Oly race - 3:30; April 25 HIM race - 7:00 (6:30 stretch goal).   hahahahahahaha.  Yeah, not even close here.

Oooook, here comes May!  And looking at my training schedule, its a doozy!

May goals:

• Recover from the HIM.  I'm climbing the walls, but I've been told by many people to "respect the recovery".  So I will do my best.  Still, its frustrating.
• Theme word for Team Erin is "Chappell Hill".  Lots of riding hills to get ready for Boise.
• Get acclimated to the heat.  Easier said than done, but well, its getting hot out so I don't have much of a choice here.
• No injuries.  And do not let the training schedule kill me.  Easier said than done.

Galveston 70.3 this Sunday

Hopefully my stomach will cooperate.  I finally felt 100% last Sunday - a full WEEK after getting sick.  Weather report is looking warm.... 80 degrees for my run.  Nothing like starting a half marathon around noon in the sun and heat!

I'm number 1332.  You can track me Sunday on http://ironman.com/.  Hoping to post Monday with a good race report.  I feel ready and am excited to race!

The race that never was

No race report.  Unfortunately, I decided to pick up a stomach bug and spent Saturday night puking every 30 minutes from midnight to 6 AM.  It was pretty much the worst night of my life.  And to complicate things, I was staying at my friend's mother in law's house (with my friend), so I was in a strange place, trying to puke as quietly as possible so I didn't wake my friend up.  Plus, I drove us down there, and there was no way I could even drive to the race site.  So when it was time to get ready, I told my friend the situation (she honestly thought I was playing a joke on her), gave her my truck keys and timing chip, and wished her luck.  I managed to sleep until 8 and then had Will come and rescue me.  That's twice now he's had to drive over an hour because of me.  He gets mega husband points.

Not the best way to start a race season.  I was hoping on getting kinks worked out and to play with some pacing elements.  Now it seems I'll just have to do all that for my HIM.  Fortunately, this race was just a training race, and I've been training a ton and feeling good, so I don't think this will set me back much.  At least once I can get to the point where eating sounds good again.  Right now Jamba Juice is my friend.

Race Prep and Other Miscelleny

Taper week!  Well, sorta.  Sunday's Oly is really a training race so I'm not doing a true taper.  Workouts this week are easier.... 3(ish) mile track workout tonight, 60 min bike tomorrow, 2 pre-race bricks (each about 50 minutes long). 

Saturday will consist of packing my stuff up, heading down to Kemah for the manditory check in and transition set up.  This race is a bit different, as they do body marking the night before and they make you leave your bike in transition overnight.  My friend C has been gracious enough to let me stay at her mother-in-law's house down by Kemah, so that saves me a hotel or 2 x 100 mile round trip drives.  And I get race company :)

Sunday's Oly consists of:

• 1500 m swim, where the bring you out on a boat 1500 m and you swim to shore.  I'm in the last wave, which sucks, because I get to weave my way through all the old men.  I hate that.  My coach and I have also decided to sandbag my swim a bit.  I'm usually top 10% out of the water in the swim, but I'm thinking I could slow down a bit (say 75% effort as opposed to race effort), saving energy for the run later but still putting in a respectable swim time.  I'll try it and see how it goes.  Instinct (or hubris) may take over though and I'll go faster.  We'll see.
• 40 km bike (25-ish miles).  Pretty simple course, except for this stupid bridge we have to go over, do a sharp cloverleaf turn, then go under, do another sharp cloverleaf turn to go back OVER the bridge.  Lame.  Other than that, bike should be simple.
• 10k run (6.2 miles).  Key here is to stay in zone 2 early on and save some for the last 2 miles.  Temperature will be warmer, so the key here is to control my heart rate and my "its hot, I hate heat" attitude.  When I'm hot and cranky, my running suffers.  I need to get over that before LoneStar.

Next week is a partial recovery / partial heavy week, in preparation for LoneStar.  The following week is a true taper.  Woot.

May will be interesting, as that's my training month for the Boise 70.3  Team Erin will be headed up to Chappell Hill as much as possible to get in some hills.  And my coach has promised me a "hell week".  7 straight days of killer workouts, which should get me set up for Boise.  Should be interesting, to say the least....

March Totals

March was a BIG MONTH.  I am ready for a taper.  I hope it comes soon....

Bike: 19h 52m 33s - 266.1 Mi (only 2.25 of those hours were spin class)

Run: 11h 58m 53s - 63.79 Mi
Swim: 13h 45m - 34550 Yd
Pilates: 3h 55m
Yoga: 4h 00m

That's an average of 12 hrs per week.  Wowzers.

Lets check on those goals I posted a month ago, shall we?
Goals for March:

• 3 long bike rides (~50 miles). Each long ride will be a brick with at least 3 miles of running.  Done!  Did a 46 mile, 42 mile (with major wind), and a 58 mile ride.  Bricks w/3 miles of running for all 3 rides.
• Speed/interval training for running  Done!  I have had my ass kicked (in a good way) by the track workouts.  Last week's 2x 1 mile repeats were a huge confidence builder.  This week's 6.2 mile pyramid (half of it was sprinting) will hopefully result in more speed.
• Swim faster. My times are crappy due to my off time and swimming indoors. The only way I can race faster is to train faster. Well, I'm trying on this one.  Its hard to swim fast on the day after a long bike ride.  But I did manage to pull out a 3:00 200 free, after swimming one on 3:10 (which I thought was hard).  Still not where I was at the end of last summer, but I think I'm ok with that.  Or at least I say that now.  We'll see how things change when I race.

Goals for April are a bit tricker.  I've got 2 BIG races this month.  Both are my first times at these distances.  Funny how last year's Quarter Ironman was a big deal and now this year's Olympic (similar, but a bit longer on the swim) is a "training race" to get me ready for my HIM. 
 
April goals:

• Do not get injured.  That would be very bad.
• Keep working on running endurance and speed.
• Get race-day nutrition ironed out.  I've been very bad lately (read: since November) and not drinking everything on my bike.  Considering I get 100% of my calories from liquid sources, its very important that I either drink everything, or mix my drinks stronger, in anticipation that I'll not drink as much as I should.
• Have fun racing.  Its starting to get hot, and generally my fun level is a directly inverse of air temps.  Here's hoping I can figure a way around that.
• Should I put goal times here?  Oh, why not.  April 11 Oly race - 3:30; April 25 HIM race - 7:00 (6:30 stretch goal).

I've got my work cut out for me this month....