Road to Kona: Update
I feel like I say this every week but holy cow where does the time go?! I was realizing during my swim yesterday that it is already the middle of May and I only have about 6 weeks until Couer d'Alene 70.3. While it feels like it has been forever since I have raced, Ironman Arizona was the last time, by the time I toe the edge of the Couer d'Alene lake on June 25 it will have been about 7 months since I last raced in a triathlon. While it has been a while it also feels like there is not enough time to get ready. That 5-6 week mark is always a slight panic for me because it goes so fast, and at the moment I do not feel ready.
Now that the race season is upon most of us and coming up for me I wanted to quickly share what is what is coming up:
Couer d'Alene 70.3 June 25 Whistler 70.3 July 30 Ironman Kona World Championships October 14
For each of these races I have big goals that I have touched on previously in other posts. One thing I have found is it is important to always remind yourself of your goals, keep them in the back of your mind at all times so that you keep reaching for them. The second you loose sight of your goals is the second you won't reach them, my husband and I talk probably at nausea about the goals I have for each of these races and how to reach them. I don't want to bore you so I will share again at a later date.
Since I last gave you an update I was struggling to get myself back on the training horse. I was training and being fairly consistent but I was also making excuses to skip workouts, move workouts, or just get through them. It wasn't until the Bend Marathon and a quick reminder from my good friend Anna that I only had six months until Kona that I was able to get my ass in gear.
Swimming
I am very proud of myself because I have successfully been getting myself into the pool 2-3 days a week for the past three weeks. The unfortunate thing is I still can't seem to increase my speed in the pool. It is the one aspect of triathlon that I struggle with a lot, not only mentally but also just straight up improving in. It seems as though even when I throw the intervals in and hit my times during the intervals it does not transfer.
Next Monday outdoor swims with a local tri team here in Spokane starts up so I am hoping that the challenge of swimming with others will help to improve my speed. My goal is after the first couple swims to put myself in the fast group (in the back because I am slow) and just chase people, push myself outside my comfort zone.
Biking
I have been biking about 3-4 days a week and working hard to get at least 120 miles a week in, the goal will be to increase that here coming soon. Still keeping the 3-4 days a week however increasing the distance a bit.
The weather has been really up and down here in Spokane, and very cold for this time of year. While I have been able to get outside plenty of times it is a lot harder to motivate to ride when you have to put on a million layers just to do so. Despite this biking has been a lot of fun lately.
I am very excited because we just put a power meter on order with our local bike shop and it should be here in the next week or so. Currently I do most of my training outdoors by feel and monitoring my speed. This works for the most part, however whether I am being efficient or not I have no clue. So I am looking forward to using the power meter to increased my efficiency and in turn power output on the bike in the next coming months moving towards Kona. Training with power outdoors will be new to me so if anyone has any helpful hints of how to make it useful and not just a number let me know! I'm looking for advice. My husband bought me the training and cycling with power book which has been helpful getting the basics, but there is so much information it is hard to figure out where to start.
Running
As usual this is my love, though I am only running about 25 miles a week at the moment right now.
The half marathon at Bend was great for my confidence as I went into it with zero speed training and lower miles than I normally put in. It also allowed me to put some numbers around where I want to be for a half marathon in a 70.3. I have been throwing in a couple of fast paced miles into some of my longer runs and am very pleased with how they turn out. Starting this week it is time to actually do some structured run workouts.
What's new?
Since the last blog post I am excited to announce that I started a new job, and I absolutely love it. It is a challenge because it is very new and something I have never done before so I am learning a ton which is always fun. For the first time in a long time I absolutely love going to work and doing my work which not only makes the day more tolerable I'm finding it gives me more energy throughout the day.
We have also put our house up on the market; exciting but terrifying because it will mean if it sells we will be in an apartment until we can start building.
My favorite thing that we recently did was purchase recovery compression boots. These things are magic! I think between the two of us (husband and myself) we use them almost every single day of the week. I still have a bunch of issues with my ankle that was broken during that accident, specifically in the peroneal tendon where swelling builds up around the tendon causing serious stiffness and discomfort. The recovery boots have helped to decreased the after hard workout discomfort, I am loving them!
I am looking forward to the next couple weeks, for even though I do not feel ready at the moment getting ready is the journey and it is the journey that I fell in love with from the start. Here's to many more days of awesome training!!!
How many of you train with power? How did you find it help you improve? What is your favorite power workout?