A Roaring Start

So what happened in January?

Swim: 4400 meters, 3 swims
Bike: 158 miles, 10 rides
Run: 29.6 miles, 8 runs
Strength: 16 workouts
Yoga: 16 sessions

Cast Iron Club (30 ironman distances)
Swim: 72 miles (2.5 down, 69.5 to go)
Bike: 3360 miles (158 down, 3302 to go)
Run: 786 miles (29.6 down, 756.4 to go)

This is all surprising since all I was trying to do was get ready for the ironman training plan.  158 miles on the bike is a pretty decent month.  It felt really good to get back in the pool again for the first time since September.  My form is coming back.  Running felt good after taking several weeks off after the ultra.  My endurance and form and overall comfort level in all three sports is starting to show up again, and that feels great!  Also I didn't expect to see exactly the same numbers of strength training workouts and yoga workouts.  that's kind of freaky.  I'm in a 30 day ab challenge group on the bookface that has me doing lots of core work right now - 15 minutes a day for 30 straight days to be exact.

Ironman training begins!
The first weekend of Ironman training is in the books.  First I did some core work and yoga saturday morning, then got into badass mode.  That means finally getting rid of all that crazy hair.  The end result was this:

Those are *seriously* before pictures.  Good thing I'm not easily embarrased.  I also picked up a couple of new swimsuits for the season, and this blue tiger striped numbers happens to be the most outlandish. 

After all that shaving and picture taking (it took about an hour) I got out to the pool for the first workout of ironman training.  Ended up being a 1200 meter swim and a 20 mile bike ride.  Felt pretty good, it's been a while since I've done a brick that long.  And I finally felt really fast in the pool again.  To feel that water blowing by me, my stroke count was finally back down to 14 or 15 strokes per length instead of the 18 to 20 strokes that I've been seeing.  Taking fewer arm strokes to reach the other side of the pool means I'm getting more distance per stroke = faster swimming.  The bike ride was uneventful.  I hopped on the stationary for about an hour.  1 brick down, 75 bricks to go before B2B.  And I probably shouldn't mention strokes while you know I was wearing that suit.  You wouldn't believe some of the looks I got walking into the pool in that bad boy.

Sunday I got up in time to get in a nice brick before church.  I ended up hitting the gym for a 12 mile ride on the stationary there followed by a 5 mile run.  I could have used another half hour or so to stretch the distances a bit, but it still felt great.  I haven't been running much over 3 miles since the ultramarathon so it gives me a sense of confidence to have 5 feel that easy.  Two bricks down, 74 to go!

(I'm doing two bricks every weekend, swim/bike on saturday and bike/run on sunday for each of the 38 weekends in this training plan)

I made it home just in time to get ready for church, get the kids ready and get out the door.  I literally came running into the choir room throwing the robe on as the rest of the choir was lining up getting ready to walk in.  It ended up being a great service too.  We had communion, and they actually mentioned that there was gluten free wafers available.  It takes a pretty open minded church to do that.

So week 1 is a warmup week with short small workouts just to get my body used to the rigor of two-a-days.  Being in ironman training again feels familiar.  I'm already anticipating much napping.  I can't believe January flew by like that, it's already February, and this is a journey that won't end until the end of October.  It's going to be a wild ride!

MMNW: 181.2 lbs, 20.4% bodyfat