Chugging along

I'm chugging along.  That's kind of how I feel life is going right now.  Nothing new and exciting, but busy as ever.  I guess I shouldn't be disappointed by that should I? :)

I finally decided to break out of the "I'm going to work out every day but just do what I feel like" phase of training.  I can't complain really - January was a slightly slow month for me. February picked up a bit.  But I have a half  marathon in 26 days that I'd like to live through and then right around the corner is the REV3 Knoxville half Ironman (are you doing a REV3 race?  You should...).  Part me of keeps thinking "what the eff was I thinking signing up for a half IM in May" but I'm actually quite excited.  Now if it can just warm up enough to not have to wear 8 trillion layers just to run (and don't mention biking outside... ain't no way) I'd be happy.


I digress...

So I finally pulled out the ole' Ironman training plan (since yeah, that's in 187 days too... which means I'm officially training for that as well).  I'm actually sticking with the plan for once.  We've always followed this plan, but mainly gone by hours and miles, versus drills, heart rate, pace, goals, etc. 

Hum... sticking to a proven plant to be 100% prepared come race day?  Novel idea for a self coached athlete who wants to get better.

Today's swim was awesome:

• 300 WU
• 200 Kick
• 4x50 increasing each 50
• then something I loved 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, 4/4, 5/5, 5/5, 4/4, 3/3, 2/2, 1/1 meaning that I would swim 1 lap hard, 1 easy, 2 hard, 2 easy, etc. 
• 6x75 decreasing each 75

If it weren't for the ladies in water shoes waiting to get their groove on with the mardi-gras-masked-high-top-and-bathing-suit-wearing water aerobics instructor, I probably would have kept swimming.  I just felt good. (Those women though... freaking crack me up.  They annoyed me a little today because I wasn't quite done with my workout and they were in the water, in my lane, waiting for me to finish, with water weights (you know, the foam ones) in hand.  I got annoyed because it was only 9:15 and the class didn't start until 9:30 so I should have had to rush, but it made me swim faster so I shouldn't complain.  As soon as I was done with my laps, they swarmed the pool, bobbing up and down likes ducks in a row to warm up.  The swim instructor begged me to stay, probably because I would have been the youngest person in there by about 20 years! And although it looked like an absolute blast, let me tell you, I passed.  Oh to think of the "people of the gym" post I could have written about that.  Maybe someday...)

Came home to sun and warming temps.  This is Ohio right?  We decided to run outside.  First mile was 8:50 and we felt like we were booking it.  I didn't have my Garmin but know where the 1 mile mark is.  When we got home, we had done 5.4 miles (it's a common loop that we do and have garmined a bajillion times so I know the exact distance) in 45:30.  That means that we ended up managing 8:25's for the run.  Miles 1-5.4 were obviously very fast.  I felt great.

I'm liking this plan.  I'm going to get fast.  Or at least not die when my races come.

That's success in my books!