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. :)

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...

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.

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.

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. :-)

April Round-Up

Despite how the month started out, April ended up being okay.

The very start of April was the last of the final death plagues and was then spent driving to Minnesota. We managed a few workouts in Minnesota (two runs, a cycle, a lift) and a few after we got back, but it took until the middle of the month to somehow kick-start ourselves and get going.

For me, I think it was my miserable bike commute to work one day. The weekend after we got back from Minnesota, I found out I was filling in at another store. As said store is still a decent haul away (about eight miles), it is nicely accessible off a frontage road and I wouldn't have to get on the interstate like I would if I wanted to bike to my normal store.

Of the three days I filled in, two were commutable. The first got thwarted due to nasty, nasty winds, but I forced myself to do it the other day. It was hard - I hadn't done that ride since last June - and I forgot just quite how bad some of the hills were. Still, I did it.

And from that point on in the month, I was a (relative) machine which is now making me feel pretty good.

Onward to numbers!

Running: 23.31 miles (average went down about eight seconds/mile)
Swimming: 1.86 miles (first recorded mileage! swim times seem kinda fast, but are deceptive as i stop my watch a lot so i can breathe)
Cycling (outside): 71.63 miles (average speed went down about half an mph from feb, but loooook at the miles)
Cycling (trainer): 19.92 miles (including one of the most miserable sessions ever on skippy)
Lifting: five sessions
Other: fail. but that's okay.

For not really doing much the first half of the month, the numbers for April turned out pretty well. May should see those numbers climb a lot higher, as we're three months out from Boulder 70.3.

We do have a few 12-week training programs for the half-IM distance and are considering following them, but I don't know if I feel like they're going to provide enough for me. Swimming twice a week with my craptastic swim right now does NOT feel like enough. That and those seven days a week training plans don't really work all that well with people who have non-traditional jobs (like both of us have). The plans have the off day as Monday ... well, what if Brandon can't work out at ALL on, say, a Wednesday because of a long day of flying? It happens. Then what? Therefore, we're probably going to have to tweak some stuff.

That, and the plans don't account for other races and we've got several (as you can see by the handy dandy sidebar).

Anyway, very glad to have salvaged April and am looking for good things out of May.

B: Tempo/TT

Coach Troy made me cry (as part of an asthma attack) today.

That is all.



In other news, besides the above, training is going well. I think. Hopefully.