Gonna be a long six and a half months

Finished the first full week of training with a coach, and let me tell you, its going to be a long 6.5 months. First, let me say, it was great to have my hubby home, back with me. But he didn't start joining in the torture until this weekend! As we were driving to start our morning bike with a local bike group, he mentioned "its going to be a long six months, getting up this early for long workouts, huh?" UM YEA! Top it off, coach doesn't feel that "days off" are really necessary. He mostly wants frequency and "active recovery," so not a lot to look forward to. He said expect 1 or 2 days PER MONTH off! OUCH...Gonna be a long six months!

Felt pretty good all week, though a bit tired by the end. Did 3 swims, with one great threshold workout, 4 bikes (one Sat. and one Sun.!), and 4 runs. What am I most proud of this week? I had to work a swim meet this week. And though that sounds like nothing much at all, it typically means, I spend ALL DAY at the pool during the weekend. It means I'm exhausted by the time I'm done, mentally and physically...and it typically means, I don't get much workout in!

I worked Friday night, but got my swim and run in in the morning. Saturday, I worked from 7-4! I was BEAT by the end, so I convinced Christian to have the bike ready to go by the time I got home. I knew if I got inside and sat down, the bike ride would not happen...so we went right out and got in the 1:30 ride before it got too dark! Then Sunday, my boss decided that he would work the first session, so I luckily didn't have to come in until 10:45a.m., so we got up and went to the tri club bike ride...I got in a 2 hour bike ride, and showered and went straight to the meet. Made it home by 4ish, and again, knew if I sat down, I wouldn't go for our 30 minute run, so we went right out for our run! Why am I proud? I talked myself into doing some workouts that I could so easily talk myself out of! I think that is partly thanks to having HUBBY home! If I say, lets do something, (as I mentioned in my first blog) he helps make it happen! LOVE YOU HUBBY! KEEP IT UP!

VINDICATION

So, this won't be one of my regular updates! This is a quick story of a little bit of vindication.

As many of you know, I'm not a big fan of Miami. I mean, I've been here two years, and the best thing about it...being able to train outside year round! It is wonderful...its great to be at an outdoor pool year round (especially when its 40 and windy as its been all week...that really makes you want to get in)...ANYWAY, one of my biggest pet peeves about this place is that even though you CAN train outside year round, most people don't. Hence, Miami being one of the fattest cities in the country...What do they do? They drive everywhere, VERY poorly! And they are NOT nice to people actually trying to work out outside, where it is nice outside. I really thought people were exaggerating when they told me how bad the driving was when we moved here...they were not exaggerating enough! Seriously, its bad.

Anyway, so I was running this morning. I was doing a big circle, so when I hit halfway I started circling back, but it happened to end up on a road that is quite busy and no sidewalks. Why does it have no sidewalks? Because the rich people would not like the sidewalk to ugly up their lawns, so they just tore them up. As I'm running down the road, this truck is coming towards me, and he decides to AIM his truck at me, until he's right on me, and then just stops! So, I "wave hello" in my own little salute, and run by only to see 2 cars back, a COP CAR! He asked what happened, I told him, he said "his ass is mine!" NICE! Its about time! YEA!

Getting started

Well, this week was the first week that someone else created my training plan. Worked out okay. Nothing too crazy right now as we are apparently "foundation building" for the next three weeks. What did workouts involve this week:

• 3 swims - one easy, lazy one, one middle-of-the-road workout, and one 1000yd time trial. Did a 14:17 on the 1000 yds...mostly 1:27 pace. A little slower than I'd like to be, but didn't hate it.

• 3 bikes. Two of which I did on my trainer b/c I'm a wimp. 1:00, 1:15, and 1:30. The 1:15 I did outside, into the wind. BOY, do I hate wind. Definitely one of the worst things about Miami...but considering everyone else isn't able to train outside b/c there is snow on the ground, I guess I shouldn't complain.
• 3 runs. 2 at 30 minutes, and 1 at 1:20. Still having a very hard time with easy heart rate runs. I have a hard time convincing myself that I should be running slower than the already VERY slow pace to keep my heart rate down (already about 12:00/mile!). Had a discussion with "coach" and he says slow down, drink more. UGH. That's another annoying thing apparently about Miami...I have to hydrate A LOT MORE than I have had to anywhere else. I just don't know. I don't understand why I just keep getting slower. Everyone keeps saying I'll end up getting faster. I'm beginning to have my doubts.

So, that's it. Nothing too exciting. Did the Miami Red Dress Run as one of my 30 minutes! HEE HEE! I know, hashing shouldn't count, but oh well. Considering how little I go now, I'm gonna count this one! Still haven't made any decisions about whether having a coach is going to be worth it or not. I do already worry that maybe this guy is a little too involved with too many things to give me the attention I would like, for what we are paying him. We'll see.

Best news of the week though! CHRISTIAN IS COMING HOME! YEA! Now he can join in the torture with me. Hopefully he'll be back in his bed by tonight (Monday).

Slow Starter

Well, Jess and James make this blogging thing seem so fun, I thought I would give it a try.

Here's how it starts...when Christian and I were getting married we had to go to some marriage counseling sessions with our pastor who was going to marry us. All in all, it was rather uneventful, but one of the things he made us do was to write out a timeline of things we saw happening in our life in the next ten years, then we would show each other at the next meeting. Well, I've been racing triathlons for over 10 years now (on and off) and we had both gotten pretty consistent in them since we met. We had both done at least one Half-Iron and so, me, being not the smartest or fastest, wrote that I would like to complete an Ironman in the next two years. Didn't really think much else about it. However, here's the thing about my husband...he's a write it down, make it happen kind of guy! And next thing I know, we are signed up for IM Louisville, August 29, 2010. YIKES! I'm terrified...but excited.

So, now is the time to get started. We've been fairly consistent in training for a while now. We did the MiamiMan 70.3 in October, and then did the Disney Marathon in January (Christian did the Goofy Challenge, b/c he's crazy)...so we've been steady running. However, during my MiamiMan focus on running and my marathon, I've managed to do nothing except get SLOWER and SLOWER in running. Frustrating, to say the least. I expected the "get slower before you get fasters" thing, but I didn't know it was going to be 9 months of getting slower and no faster! The only good thing I did during the marathon, was not walk!! But, frustrating when the time was slower than the marathon I did where I walked quite a bit!

So, because we have an IM in August, and I'm sucking at running, and I'm terrified at the whole prospect, and my husband is currently stuck in Haiti for we don't know how much longer...we decided to bite the bullet and hire a Coach. His name is Lee. He owns Bodyzen. He's apparently the most well known in the area. AND I had NO IDEA however HOW EXPENSIVE its going to be! WOW! We'll definitely be broke at the end of this...but I'm hoping it'll mean that I can finish this IM confidently! I should be getting started with him next week (though I am back to regularly swimming and FINALLY got back on the bike this week too)...and Christian plans to start when he gets home (which is hopefully sooner, rather than later)...For now, Christian is running on a treadmill and swimming (sans goggles) in the Embassy pool.

On here, I'll update you on our progress as we go along and hopefully we can figure out how the tortoise can actually beat the hare.