Sunday, March 20, 2011

This is for the (naked) birds

If I haven't mentioned it lately, Ironman training has begun. What? This is my first post in march? But it's the 20th already? yea......

The 5:30 am workouts and 4:45 am alarm clock is just plain wrong. I'm abandoning that plan already, only 3 weeks in. I've done plenty of 2-a-days before without that crap. New schedule has the RAM swim team workouts tuesday and thursday nights at 7:15 pm, and sunday mornings at 8 am. This will finish in time for the 10 am group bike ride with the IOSDT team, and may be followed with a run if I'm really feeling ambitious. I missed the sunday morning swim 2 weeks ago thanks to the time change and today missed it because I was a bit under the weather this weekend.

Happy St Patty's day! From the department of "the company I work for is cooler than the company you work for" we brought a keg of Guinnes into the office thursday. It was actually as awesome as it sounds. Tuesday night the swim practice was great. I left with kind of a strange scratch in my throat. Wednesday the scratchy was still there. Thursday I got in a good run before work and then really enjoyed the beer thursday afternoon. About 5:30 pm the sinuses kicked in hard. Friday I ended up working from home, no workouts and saturday also had no workouts. Felt like my head was going to explode.

But today is the first day of spring! I don't like to medicate my way through a cold, and this time I didn't. It was gone by the time I woke up Sunday morning. Love the vitamin C! I felt ok enough to try a run this afternoon.

Now I have a previously unpublished goal to run a half marathon every month this year. I know the toughest is going to be december after Ironman. but this month is right up there. This weekend was the Tobacco Road marathon that I ran last year and absolutely loved. Couldn't do it this year thanks to the schedule. It's a good thing I didn't sign up anyway, being under the weather and all. Also the Wrightsville beach marathon was today, my friend Jon from the MB half marathon fame set a sweet PR today at 1:42 in the half. So today was my day to put up a 13.1.

I didn't plan for it very well since I had no idea how my lungs would hold up after the cold. So I grabbed one gel, filled the camelbak with water and took off. Turns out, it's only 5 miles to the state capital building from my house. That's really cool to know.

Also, turns out the entire run back to my house is uphill. Next time I'm bringing cab fare. Actually I tooled around downtown Raleigh some and looped through the NC state campus and Meredith college campuses to tack on the extra miles I needed. Getting downtown I felt so refreshed, and full of energy. It was fantastic, so I decided to finish out the 13.1.

I was slowing down for sure. Finally about 11.5 miles in I hit the wall. Dizzy, getting hungry, it was not cool. So I walked straight to the house from there. I did hit the driveway at exactly 13.1 miles and 2:13:39, which is still not my slowest half marathon. I still don't know why I thought I would finish a half happy and feeling good with only one gel and water. Really? 100 calories for a 2 hour workout? Should have been more like 300 or 400 calories. Rookie mistake? Nah, I know better.

So going into week 4 of ironman training I'm feeling ok. Still losing some weight, def losing some body fat. The first 3 weeks have kicked me in all the right places and I think I've got the kinks worked out now. So it's just a matter of execution. Time to roll!

12 comments:

Lisa from Lisa's Yarns said...

Good job getting the 1/2 in. Esp when you are recovering from a cold and probably weren't properly fueled! A half a month is an awesome goal!!

sarah said...

WOW! A half a month? Dang!! That is amazing!! Woohooo!!

Sun Runner said...

"we brought a keg of Guinness into the office Thursday."

Sigh...thanks for reminding me...again...my office sucks.

Georgia Snail said...

nice work there sweet tits...at least you are making the fueling mistakes in training so you will have it all worked out by the time the full iron rolls around...although, one gel should have been enough(IMHO)...perhaps it was the spring like weather. I know my run on saturday (82 degrees) was a lot harder than it has been.

it's all about pace said...

nice work... sounds like you are right on track

Wes said...

sweet titss

I like that, and I think I'm jealous...

Al's CL Reviews said...

Georgia Snail made me giggle.

I do like the keg of Guinness. Nice!

joyRuN said...

I did an 18-miler this cycle on one GU - I didn't bonk too hard, maybe because my fueling leading up to the run was pretty solid.

Our Tuesday night swims are at 8:30pm - I'm soooo tired by then - 7:15pm would be perfect.

Being Robinson said...

ironman training. BAM! maybe your body just wanted a break this week. regardless, your company IS cooler than most. a keg of Guinness? JEALOUS!

Unknown said...

I love the half a month goal! Great job getting though this half - sounds like it was a tough one.

And I need to know where you work... bringing a keg of Guinness on St. Patrick's day is awesome!

Jess said...

I wanted to do a half a month too, but for a variety of reasons I shelved that goal for the time being. I'll get back to it at some point though.

Glad to hear that IM training is going well!

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

Unlike teh Peachy Escargot, I've always thought yer tits were kinda meh. Let's face it, on this blog you sure show them enough - more than a whoo-wer at Mardi Gras determined to come home with the most necklaces AND an STD. It's disturbing to me that P. Es'got could look at them and be sitting there going, "Hmmm, need an adjective here ... what works best? 'Saggy'? Nah. 'Doughy'? ... Nope. 'Blindingly white'? ... No, that's two; that's overkill. ... SWEET! Yeah, SWEET TITS!"

I used to respect Teh Peachy Escargot, but not anymore.

Hahahahaha! Just kidding! I never respected him!

Guinness is over-rated (when it's at YOUR office; if it were MY office, it would be awesome).

Good job getting the half done, Sweet 'S@ck!

(OMG, I just vomited.)