Week One- Back in the Saddle.

This is my Journey into my Return to Ironman- 2018. It's my journal/documentation of the ups and downs of what it takes to be an age-group athlete training for an Ironman triathlon. This is more of a way for me to remember what I am doing over the course of the training season.   As any Ironman Athlete can tell you, sometimes the days can blur into one training day of swim, bike, run after another. So, while some may not find this at all interesting, those that wonder...could I do an Ironman? Do I have what it takes to do an Ironman? I give you a peek into my journey and days to complete my next Ironman at Madison, Wisconsin on Sept. 9th, 2018.  Forgive any misspelled words/awkward sounding sentences. I'm pretty sure I'll be be happy just to get them down on the blog. Consider it a test of your mental skills to figure out what I'm saying. I hope you enjoy reading my journey. 

Overall Training Totals:

Swim       3400 yds                   1:41  hr/min

Bike         ?? Miles                    3:24  hr/min

Run          10   Miles                 2:05  hr/min

Other/                                        0    hr/min

Strength

Overall  Training Time:              7:10  hr/min

Week One/ Day One-  5 AM  Swim:  Being my first EVER AM swim, I was slightly nervous about waking up and getting to the pool on time.  But I had all my gear packed the night before, clothing strategically layed out to grab it on as I got up so there was no way I could be lazy.  Memories of my colleges days flashed through my mind of when I slept through my alarm, and had to be woken daily by my throwing coach  calling me on the phone for every AM session in Track and Field. Thank God for my Day Light Clock.  I actually woke up a bit early, and was up and ready to go by 5AM. The dogs however give me a weird look of "what the hell was going on", most likely followed by,  "awww, crap, here we go again" and wandered out to pee, and then crawled in their crates as I headed out the door.  I am thankful for my auto start as it was chilly and my car was warm as I jumped in to head to the pool. It was quiet driving down the streets. Felt like the only one awake in this tiny little town, until I hit the club, there were 10 cars in the parking lot. And I was not alone. Hmmm....okay, this could be interesting.  As I sat there and  briefly decided to take a picture / video of my first day back for my training.   I grabbed my gear and then went to get out, only to set off my car alarm.  Perfect. Well that sounds about right for a memory for the first start of my day.  Bring it.  

Headed in and got my stuff situated and then out to the pool I went. I was not alone. There were two people in the hot tub, and 1 person in the pool. Nice.  Through the course of my swim, 5 people came and went in the pool, several in the hot tub.  

For my first official swim back.....Can you say.  J-E-L-L-O  Arms!!!  (think Bill Crosby jello ad tune).  I had high hopes for getting in the swim distance Coach wanted, but by 1600 yds, my form was so poor, I decided to drop it and cool down, and then enjoyed a blissful 9 minutes in the hot tub.  This is now my motivation for getting up early.  The earlier I get to the pool, the more time I get to have in the hot tub after. Score!!

Musing and Fun Facts:  

                   The pool is a salt water pool.   

                   Even at the supposed 82 degrees temperature, it sure was cold.    

                   And that it is more cold on only one half of the pool. Made for faster swim times     

                   on one direction. Slower coming back.  Hee Hee Hee. 

                   Did I mention the Hot Tub was Heaven? 

                   My swim time for 100 yds.... Sucks. I realize that it would be for being out of  
                   the pool for a year, but I know it will only pick up better with every practice. 

Off to take a shower and head home, walk the dogs and get ready for work. First AM swim a success.  

PM BIKE:  I don't have my bike with me yet, I was true to not doing any training for a year, and had it stored safely away. I'll be picking it up in Prescott next week. 

I had my very first Spin class ever!!  After work, I headed back to the club and got ready fo spin. The class was FULL.  I'm glad I got there 15 minutes early.   The instructor, Lisa was awesome!!  I am so glad this was my first ever introduction to spin. I also got her music list as I would need new songs for 2018.   I had a good sweat inducing and heart pumping workout.  Got invited to start doing circuit training/lifting on Tues/ Thur at 6 AM and maybe do some Spartan races.  I was introduced to some of the locals. And I have to say, I've have loved working in this little town. Everyone has been super nice, and helpful. I am glad I made the decision to do most of my training here.  

THE REST OF THE WEEK: 

Tuesday and Thursday.   Nothing to exciting, Mainly a evening run on the treadmill. Had some minor tweaks on the left leg with running, then right knee. But the new shoes feel good.   I choose to sleep in the AM.  But I can say I wish I didn't. So....the future may being with more AM workouts.  The foam roller is already my friend. And one of my co-workers does massage on the side, she is already going to be on my rotation for training. 

Wed.  AM SWIM. I have to say, I think I'm going to like this AM swim. Granted it's week one. but I like having one of my workouts done before I go into work.  And not have to do a full 2-3 hour workout all in the evening.  Kinda nice to have a job where the times finally allow me to split it up. Still got JELLO arms. but I did get a full 15 min at the hot tub today. Score. And I was early enough to stop off at Starbucks and get my Iced Cold Brew for the day.  YUMMMMMM!!!

Friday was my Day off. I enjoyed it by walking the pups at the beach and beginning one of my 43 list items.  

Saturday Bike was nice. I went to the Spin Class, had the entire room to myself and hammered out my workout. I had to go by feel for my zones, and realized when I got home, while it felt really hard, My Zone was off at the start.  But I know this will get better.  

Sunday- Run on the Ocean, now this is going to be one of my favorite things to do.  I look forward to when there is more daylight before/after work so I can go run on the ocean on week days, and on weekends.  Any time off the treadmill is fine by me.   

My first week over all was a success. I stayed true to my Whole 30 plan too.  My plan is to pay better attention to my nutirition this time around and I truly believe this is why my first week back with zero training went so well with only a few niggles on my body.   Day 30 is on the Wednesday. I already feel pretty awesome, I've had alot of non scale victories with my month of clean eating. So much so that I'm not quite sure if I want to jump on the scale and see what I have lost. I can already tell I'm close to my previous IM Training weight from 2016. But I still have work to do, and I'm looking forward to getting it even better.  

Week One officially in the books.  On to Week Two. 

And the Return to Ironman begins....tomorrow at 5 AM. What was I thinking?

This is my Journey into my Return to Ironman- 2018. It's my journal/documentation of the ups and downs of what it takes to be an age-group athlete training for an Ironman triathlon. This is more of a way for me to remember what I am doing over the course of the training season.   As any Ironman Athlete can tell you, sometimes the days can blur into one training day of swim, bike, run after another. So, while some may not find this at all interesting, those that wonder...could I do an Ironman? Do I have what it takes to do an Ironman? I give you a peek into my journey and days to complete my next Ironman at Madison, Wisconsin on Sept. 9th, 2018.  Forgive any misspelled words/awkward sounding sentences. I'm pretty sure I'll be be happy just to get them down on the blog. Consider it a test of your mental skills to figure out what I'm saying. I hope you enjoy reading my journey.


Returning to Ironman:

So here I go, back at it. I've signed up for my next Ironman in Madison, Wisconsin on Sept 9th, 2018.  I will be doing this race with a crazy amount of wonderful people from my triathlon family.  Erika, Marc, Adrienne, Laura (her first ever Ironman!!!),  Ocky??  (subtle hint to see if he is going to consider it yet?)  and I know I'm missing others, but this makes me excited to get back into training, and have a awesome amount of friends out on the race course with me this time.  

It's been a interesting year not doing any training/racing in 2017. My body was in much need of a physical break.   I was just so burned out mentally and physically that I was not loving it any more. I took a full year off to just do everything I felt like I have missed out on and just get back to taking care of the basics.  And I thoroughly tried to enjoy every minute of it. But I still had fun cheering on my friends  this year watching and following their progress on Facebook.

In June last year, I got the chance to go volunteer at the BASE Aid Station in Santa Rosa IM, the only event I was at, and I have to say, it as always, was a blast.  I got to see some friends I haven't seen in a while, Dave from AZ,  Matt and Lauralee, Jay and Liz, and others.  I wasn't quite sure how I was going to feel.  It was good to get back in the "tri family" and realize that I missed it, and I still wanted to do it.  So I decided that I wanted (key word here)  to do another one in 2018.   I couldn't decide which one. I was leaning toward WI because I was supposed to do it in 17 with my friend Ocky, we shook on it after all .  Then fate decided for me in the way of  Erika and Marc who, booked  their rental with me as the person taking the spare room, my teammates from IMAZ13 and IMMT16.  And since it's only 6 hours from my family home, maybe... someone will actually want to come watch me do this crazy race and I won't have to always answer,  "no I'm alone, will you be my emergency contact?".  Luckily, I've had wonderful friends that have stepped in and was  willing to do this for me so I at least had someone who knows if something happens. 


It's my fourth year representing BASE Performance Supplements as a Ambassador.  And I'm excited to be wearing the BASE Kit this year for my racing. I might actually say I'm slightly jealous I didn't go with the blue and pink kit.  Yep, I know, me embracing pink?  Well, shades of pink are becoming more accepting in my world, but I'm still overall anti pink.  I'm also excited to get the chance to meet more of my new teammates as the year continues.  I only wonder, if I discovered BASE before my DNF in Boulder, would I have not had my DNF in 2014?  Of course, if not for that DNF and having horrible electrolyte imbalance, going south by the way of heat stroke,  I wouldn't have found BASE, and been successful with my races ever since.  And because of it, I've made some incredible lifelong friends along the way.  (way too many to list here, but you know who you are!)  

So, my biggest change, is I had to make the tough decision to switch coaching, only because I could not afford the one I had anymore.  I will always be grateful for FC Coaching, taking a chance on this random triathlete from somewhere in AZ  who answered a random facebook video and jumped in on free group coaching for IMAZ13, and then stayed with them through Boulder 14, 15 and IMMT 16.    I have made some lifelong friends from this decision and I will never regret it and always be grateful.  I hate the idea of leaving my coach that has been nothing short of amazing with me, that knows me , knows how to push me, and I have truly loved having her as a coach.  While she may no longer be my coach, I have her as a friend for life. That sounds like an even better deal. :)


So, this year, I branch out into new territory. And I am signing on with a coach that my teammates Erika and Marc have recommended and are using and gave the seal of approval.  TriPower Multisport out of California, Coach Mike Plumb.    I'm looking forward to this new transition to see what new eyes and a new coach can do for my training.  

I'm also, after having a solid year off. Working hard at revamping my nutrition. It has always been one of my biggest issues. Each time I do the Whole30 it gets a little better.  This year, I am very motived to make it a much higher priority then years past.  So this will be a journey that will only help me in my life, not just in Ironman.  

A big decision to say here in California, was that I only have to make one move during training with my traveling job before IMWI. I has some really great opportunities to work in CO and in AZ again, but it was going to increase to possibly 3 moves, and after careful consideration of weighting all pros and cons, remembering how challenging that was on my training and overall mental health (and pocket book).   I decided I will l be here, training on the Pacific Ocean at least through June.  Then I will either be doing 70.3 WI or 70.3 Coeur d'Alene.  I haven't quite figured out exactly which one I want to do.  But training on the Ocean, sure doesn't suck in my opinion.  


So here I sit, on the eve of my first official training day for Ironman 5 (and 2/3rds, I did get over 102 miles on my DNF race in 14). I spent the last four hours food prepping, as I'm on week 4 of my Whole 30 reset, and can only eat Paleo. I've gotten my training plan for my first week. And I'm slightly freaking out about my AM swim before work at 5 AM, mainly due to I've never been a early riser to workout for training.  But, I have very limited times to swim in my tiny little town I'm working for my travel assignment. So, I will learn to embrace the early morning training sessions. I've always wished I could do it, but I always had to be at work by 6:30AM at all my jobs, so it was never a possibility. My current job, I am not in until 8:30 AM.  So here is my perfect opportunity to get one of my workouts done in the AM.  Swim in the AM, Bike/Run in the PM.    I kinda feel like I was doing a mini transition as I attempted to  pack my two bags for my workout sessions tomorrow.  Then figure out what I'd have to transfer  from AM bag to PM bag. I have a feeling I'm going to decide really quickly, that extra 20$ a month for the locker, may just be worth it.    

I'm excited to start this next Ironman Journey. I am excited to be doing IM #5 (#3 for us together)  with Erika and Marc. I'm excited to see what this year holds. I already feel a change from taking a break, and I can't wait to see how the journey goes this year from my previous IM years.   

Now, I'm off to recheck my bags one more times and get to bed early.  I can't sleep in.  







“The adventure of life is to learn. The goal of life is to grow. The nature of life is to change. The challenge of life is to overcome. The essence of life is to care. The secret of life is to dare. The beauty of life is to give. The joy of life is to love!” ~William Arthur Ward.

#6 Write My Name in Sparklers!!!