The Endurance Pig: A Third and a Half

Before you start saying I don't understand fractions, or my math is terrible, let me explain. First, my training plan consists of 30, 9-day cycles, plus a 31st cycle of 2 days, one of which is race day. I just completed my 10th cycle, hence one-third of the way through my training plan - which is absolutely crazy to think. I still feel as though I have a ton of time to prepare for this race. In reality, I do have a considerable amount of time remaining, but at the same time - not really. Now, where does the one-half come from? My Ironman adventure began last September 10th, or just about one calendar year out. The day of the race is on September 8th, 2013, which was 6 months out from March 8th, this past Friday. So, you can see, I am in the exact middle of my journey from when it officially began on September 10th, 2012, hence the one-half.

Waiting in line to register.

It's absolutely mind blowing to me that 6 months have come and gone since I stood in line for several hours with a 2 year old and a 14 month-old to register for the race of my dreams. It couldn't have gone any better. The girls where amazing and the people around me helped me out too. But that was 6 months ago. Today, I have been training not only for the Ironman, but for several other races, for 90 days or 3 months. I have about 180 days until I toe the line in Madison. It's tough to wrap my mind around that fact, because in reality, it's 6 months out, but then I look back and see how fast the past 6 months have gone and I know that race day will be here before I know it. So, I need to stay dedicated, motivated, and positive, and keep on keepin' on.

The past cycle had a lot going on outside of my training. As I eluded to last week, my birthday fell on day 1 of cycle 10. I took 2 days off from work at the start of my rotation to enjoy my birthday with my family and friends. On my birthday, I got in my morning birthday workout (which I'll touch on later) and spent the afternoon with the the family at the mall, where I got to pick out my birthday present from Sarah. I got some new shoes...that weren't running shoes. I got a new pair of Croc Canvas shoes and a Brewers T-shirt. After the girls took their afternoon nap, we had arranged a babysitter for the girls and spent the night out with our good friends at one of my all time favorite restaurants - Titletown Brewery in Green Bay, WI.

If you know me at all, you know I am a HUGE fan of craft beers, and enjoy nothing more than going to the breweries themselves for truly hand crafted fresh brews. I also mentioned in my last post about cycle 9, that I had been eating like absolute crap - but it was my birthday weekend, so I kind of accepted it. Well, that continued right on through the weekend. I splurged and ordered a sampler tray of every single brew Titletown had available (13, plus a root beer). My overindulgence continued right into dinner. I ordered a hamburger. Now, let me explain something here, this was the first burger I've ordered at a restaurant at least since Maya was born 3.5 years ago. It could even be longer. I have made hamburgers at home before, with grass fed beef or other game meats, which were harvested locally, but never a normal restaurant hamburger. Not, only did I order just a hamburger, but a PB&B Burger. That's right, a peanut butter and BACON burger! Oh my god! It was so freakin' good. It was worth me splurging and getting the hamburger. After dinner (and a few more beers) we headed back to our friends house for some carrot cake (yes - more carrot cake), drinks, and games. It was such a fun night.

To finish off my birthday weekend, we went to Cold Stone Creamery for dessert on Sunday night. Cold Stone is by far my favorite place for ice cream treats. It's ironic that it's also probably the most unhealthy of all ice cream places. It was a great way to end my birthday weekend. But, I knew that Monday morning it was right back to reality. Yes, there was no breaks, it was right back to eating properly, training hard, and work. The best part of my past week of work was I took 2 days off at the start of my rotation leaving me only a 4 day work week. The downside was I had court on one day and two midday trainings on top of the 4 day work week. The trainings didn't go as long as I thought, but the fact that I still had to wake up in the middle of my sleep to come in for training and then return home only to catch some more sleep before going back to work, still makes for LONG days. In my 4 days of work, Monday-Thursday, I had to make 7 separate trips to and from Oshkosh, which is about 25 miles from our house.

At the very end of this post are a bunch of pictures from the past cycle, including training and my birthday weekend.

Brief Recap

This past cycle went really well. My volume continues to grow and my body continues to adapt to the longer stress. Recovery is still top priority, even though I have been slacking in my daily foam rolling and stretching. I was pretty happy with the minimal weight gain from my birthday weekend and found it pretty easy to get back down to were I was before my weekend food "bender." In my opinion, the weather in Wisconsin has finally made the turn to start feeling like spring. All of days which would normally be snowy days have turned into rainy days. The temperatures are now hovering just above freezing, which is having a significant impact on the standing snow. We also got to spring forward this past Saturday night/Sunday morning which, if anything, has a mental effect. Make no doubts about it, it's Spring time (at least that's what I'm telling myself). I have put away all my winter coats, I am no longer shoveling, and I am doing everything I can to do all my workouts outside again. I got outside for one bike ride this past cycle which was a breath of fresh air - no pun intended. It was cold, don't get me wrong, but even though it was 12* with a light wind when I started, it warmed up to 27* by the end of my 25 mile ride. The sun was out and the birds were chirping, so even though it was cold, my ride even had a spring time feel to it.

Favorite Workout

I knew what my favorite workout of this cycle was going to be even before I did it. On my birthday I planned a workout of 29's, since it was my 29th birthday. I planned a 2900 yard swim followed by an indoor bike ride of 1:27 minutes - or the duration of a 29 mile outdoor ride at a 20mph average speed. I caught a back-to-back spin class at the Appleton YMCA to get in my 29 "mile" indoor ride. My intentions were to head right into the lap pool after. I changed out of my cycling gear and into my swim suit and headed to the pool, just to find out there was a huge swim meet at the Appleton YMCA all weekend and all the pools were closed for the remainder of the weekend. Of course something had to go wrong... I was left with 3 options - 1. Go to the Neenah-Menasha YMCA and use their pool; 2. Go to the Heart of the Valley YMCA and use their pool; or 3. Skip the swim workout all together and just enjoy my birthday without the swim workout. Obviously, #3 was a viable option, considering how much I was looking forward to this workout. So, it came down to the Neenah-Menasha or the Heart of the Valley YMCA. I had to go out of my way and go down to the N-M Y as the HOTV had swim lessons all day Saturday. I was able to get my swim workout in which is pictured below. It was a great workout. I couldn't help but think about my life as I progressed through my workouts. I would think about each year of my life for every 100 yards I swam. It was actually kind of neat. I would try to think of a big event that happened during that year of my life. From my golden birthday when I turned 2, to getting engaged when I was 21, and having each of my daughters at 25 and 27.

Moving Forward

This upcoming cycle is a scheduled recovery cycle. My volume is being cut by 12.5% or 1.5 hours. I have scheduled a couple of fitness tests during this week because of the decreased volume to allow adequate recovery from each test. I have a scheduled run test along with a swim test. The weather still isn't nice enough to schedule a bike test yet. If that changes, my 30 mile bike ride on day 8 will be changed to a bike test. Depending on my work schedule (if I get out on time), I will do a quick 5k road race on day 7. The 5k is just down the road from our house, which makes it pretty difficult to pass up. The route actually runs right past our baby sitters house. I had a 6 mile run scheduled for that day, so my plan is get in a quick 1 mile warm up before the race and follow it up with a 2-3 mile cool down. So even though it's a recovery cycle, the intensity will still be there, but the volume will take a significant hit. My goal this cycle is to use my foam roller and stretch more frequently, which will be needed with the higher intensity work outs.

Below are all the pictures from this past cycle - enjoy!
Be fast, be strong, and carry on!