Monday, May 30, 2011

Rocking It

Not going into too much detail right now, but we ran the BolderBOULDER today. While this race (10k) was by no means an A race - we've got one and only one of those this year - we were thinking that we might be able to do pretty well.

We had three main goals going in:

1.) Beat last year's time.
2.) Break a 10:00/mi
3.) Crack 60:00 total.

Well, we accomplished two out of the three which, for right now, we'll take. We were less than a minute off of goal number three, too, but I'm not sure that we would have been able to do it. I know I couldn't have found an extra 52 seconds anywhere else.

But, more about this ... hopefully tomorrow, but, knowing me, probably in another week or so. Still, yay. :)

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Week One is in the books

Last week, we officially began our 1/2 Ironman training program. It's not a program that's going to put us at the top of our age group (which is fine) but it will get us across the finish line, and right now, I'm willing to work with that.

Our weeks will consist of two cycles, two swims, three runs, two lifts, and one off day. After BolderBoulder, we'll up the cycling to three days a week. We're sticking with the Mark Allen lifting plan, which, in my opinion, is keeping us afloat after a very rough early part of the year. Running is coming back quite nicely, and we're both looking to have a fine BolderBoulder.

1 down, 11 to go...

Friday, May 20, 2011

6.16

After a few miserable days here (rain! hail! clouds! no sun!?!), we finally got a nice sunny morning. Or, I should more aptly put, I got a nice sunny morning, as Brandon's flying. Anyway, good thing, too, as I had a long run scheduled for today.

Of course, since Vegas training, we've been laaaaaazy, so said long run was six miles, but y'know.

It's somewhere in the high-40s and I considered wearing short sleeves (you dress for mile two, remember), but at the last minute I chickened out and went long-sleeved. And in mostly all black. Within mile two, I was thankful for the long sleeves because I was going into a headwind and it was COLD. Right before the 5K point of the run, though, the sleeves had been rolled up. Live and learn.

Finished 6.16 miles in 1:04:50 for a 10:31.49/mile ... which, if you harken back to last year's BolderBOULDER, is about a whole two seconds faster per mile. Which means, even though that this year's BB10K is not an A race in any way, shape or form, I still might be headed for a PR. So yay. :)

Other than that, we are now officially 12 weeks out from IM 70.3 Boulder and training is going ... okay. It'll be better when it's not raining. We're going a little more run-intensive than we should at the start as well due to the aforementioned BB10K, but I think we'll be okay.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Finding Motivation

It's easy to train when it's 70 degrees out, sunny, with little wind. With conditions like that, you feel like you can go forever and ever. It's a lot harder when the wind is howling at 30 knots, the temperature falls rapidly, and the next morning, you wake up and it's snowing!

Yes, that's what we're dealing with in good ol Colorado this morning.

After cycling yesterday in 30 knot winds and 50 degree temperatures, we woke up this morning to a nice rain-snow mix. Even when living in North Dakota, I only encountered snow this late in the season one time. Maybe training would be better there?

Regardless, it's difficult to find motivation when I should be dealing with too much heat rather then no heat at all.

So how do I deal with today? I'm not sure yet. Thankfully, my workouts aren't planned until later in the day. We'll see what today brings. Stay tuned.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

April Round Up

You all know I didn't do a March round up for obvious reasons; there wasn't anything to round up. April, the way it started out, was looking to be about the same. Yet even though we were still fighting off massive illness at the beginning of the month, we salvaged it and did alright.

My totals are as follows:

Swim - .68 miles. Swimming was obviously neglected
Cycling (outside) - 56.93 miles. Not too shabby. :-)
Running - 19.89 miles. I'll take it, honestly.
Lifting - 4 sessions
Cycling (trainer) - 3 sessions

Honestly, given that I was sick a lot of April and still getting readjusted to working out consistently, my April wasn't too bad. May will be even better, so long as I can stay awake for it!

Thanks for all your support, everyone, in our journey. :-)