Showing posts with label half ironman training plan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label half ironman training plan. Show all posts

Monday, September 16, 2013

I Confess - I Turned The Alarm Off And Went Back To Bed (And Other Important Things)


What a week! I don't even know where to begin. The Murph's job offer in St. Pete? The Boy's eviction notice from his college apartment? Phantom, the cat's, bad, good, trying to get him to eat, drink and take his pills and supplement days? My half ironman training (that's not) days?

The 15 hours of continuing education real estate license classes I have to take so I can activate my Alabama license, so I can then get a reciprocal Florida real estate license without having to take the 60 hour pre-license class again. Searching online for a place to live in the Tampa/St. Pete area before we head back down there in a couple of weeks so we can see them in person.

That doesn't include all that's coming up next week. We are going back to Birmingham to clean out and pack up the house and then turn it over to a Birmingham realtor to sell for us. Hopefully, she will sell it quicker than we were able too. Being there to show it is key. That's hard to do when you're 4 hours away like we are. We weren't all that concerned about it until we discovered we were moving several more hours away. Any way, that's all next week.

This past week the Boy, who has Asperger's, called me from college while we were still in St. Pete saying he got an eviction notice from his apartment. This is after the fact that the Boy had gone down to the office several times to get this vendor form filled out for Alabama Rehab. AL Rehab has to have the form before they can pay the apartment complex. The Boy is eligible for a part of his rent to be paid by Alabama Rehab. Without their help, the Boy can't afford to live there. There have been a series of phone calls, emails from the Boy, me and Alabama Rehab to the apartment complex, but nothing has been done. I even called the corporate office and the Boy has been to the apartment office several times. Despite all of this, since rent is past due because the form hasn't been filled out, the Boy got an eviction notice.

This has FINALLY been straightened out (I think) so the Boy's okay for now. His classes were dropped also, when his financial aid wasn't applied to his account because of me. That was back a few weeks ago when I didn't know the difference between an income tax return and a transcript. This was taken care of as well so he's okay there too. Finally!

The Murph accepted the job offer and we are still waiting for everything to be finalized. We should know something this week. We already have a realtor trying to help us find a place to rent in Tampa/St.  Pete and I've been looking online. What a headache!

Me and Miss Mary
Phantom is doing pretty well. We had dinner with Miss Mary, an energy healer, who has been helping Phantom, last night. She's been sending Phantom healing energy and giving me other suggestions for him. She thinks he might be dehydrated. He was drinking tons of water when we were in St. Pete and not so much now that we are back in Pensacola. If you want to keep up with how he's doing he has his own facebook page here and blog here.


The Murph and Miss Mary

I had to upgrade my computer system so I could take the online CE Real Estate classes. That was a pain since I thought I could do it myself and wasted several hours attempting it. Who knows what all I've downloaded on this thing now. I have a dinosaur of a computer! I've only gotten halfway through the first risk management class and have 5 classes (15 hours) total that I have to take. Boring!

Half Ironman training? Well, uh, yes, I'm sucking at it! I haven't swam in a couple of weeks or been on my tri bike. I've been indoor cycling, weights and lots of running, but shorter runs of between 3 - 9 miles. Okay, mostly just 3 miles.


Sunday was the Trigulfcoast's club members only practice triathlon for the Santa Rosa Island Sprint that is coming up in a couple of weeks. I was signed up to do the practice race which was going to be officially timed with a chip and everything. It would have been a great practice race and good overall brick workout. The night before I pumped up my bike tires, set my tri clothing out and packed all my gear into my transition bag. I set the alarm on my IPhone for 5:30 a.m and was all set to go!

My alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. just as scheduled. It was still dark outside at 5:30 a.m. That totally sucks because I terribly dislike getting up when it's still dark outside knowing that I have to swim. In the ocean!!

I got up, turned my alarm off, fed a snack to two of our curious, demanding cats, who were probably wondering what the crap I was doing, then I crawled back into my nice warm bed between my sexy husband (he has incredible body heat at 5:30 a.m) and our other four legged furry kitty, Ed, who likes sleeping on my side of the bed.

A few hours later, the Murph woke up, looked over at my sorry sleeping ass, laughed and asked me how I did on the race.

I told him it was an incredibly tough race! I had to stumble 10 feet to turn my alarm off, followed by a couple of hours of some marathon sleeping. It was grueling, just grueling! I even shortened my Sunday long run because of how exhausted It was from getting up at 5:30 a.m.

And did I feel guilty about being a no show?

Heck no!

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Falling A Little Behind Again On Training, But Not Too Bad

My weekly comparison of my half ironman training is below. The column to the left is what the plan says to do and the column to the right is what I actually did last week. Not as good as the week before but not too terrible either.



  The 70.3 Plan                                                              What I actually did that day

Monday           1250 yd swim                                          1250 yd swim
                         25 mile bike                                             22 mile bike

Tuesday           2000 yd swim                                          6 miles spin bike
                          60 min run                                               30 min run = 3 miles

Wednesday      30 mile bike                                             2 miles run aprox 20 minutes
                                                                                       

Thursday         1500 yd swim                                          8.5 miles on spin bike aprox 30 min                             
                          50 min run                                               5 mile = 50 min run

Friday               20 miles                                                  8 miles spin bike = 30 min

Saturday           80 min run                                              16 mile spin bike = 1 hour
                                                                                           30 min run = 3 miles

Sunday             50 mile bike                                             1 hour 40 min run = 9 miles

I did core, about 20 minutes last week and weights, about 1 hour which is not included on the 70.3 plan.

Total workout hours on plan = Swim           5750 yds aprox 3 hrs 
                                                   Bike             125 miles aprox 6 - 7 hours
                                                   Run              3 hrs (no mileage included in plan on minutes run)

                                                     Total aprox 12.5 hours

Total I actually did last week = Swim             1250 yds aprox 30 min
                                                   Bike               60.5 miles aprox. 4 hours
                                                   Run                20 miles aprox 3 hrs 30 min
With weights and core added. 
                                                     Total aprox  10 hrs

As usual I am way behind on swimming, a little ahead on running and somewhat behind on the bike, but not too terribly behind. I really need to get a 50 plus bike ride in and a 2500 yd swim in soon and continue with my regular training. I think I'll be okay if I can do that. Especially if I continue to increase my long runs in preparation for the November marathon I plan to do.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

I Feel Way Better About My Half Ironman Training Now!

First of all I just wanted to say that I volunteered again for the Portofino Sunset Triathlon series race number 6 or 7 or something like that and guess what?

That's right! I directed traffic again wearing the super sharp, orange vest, although this time I didn't get a flag and I was at a different traffic stop (See the orange fashion statements Here). This time I was at the main entrance with three other volunteers, where the bikers were coming out of the resort from the transition area and then coming back in as they finished the 7.5 mile ride.

After making sure the cars all stopped when the bikers came out and then waving the bikers back in, I had to make sure the runners stayed on the sidewalk. You would think stopping the traffic would be harder than merely directing runners to stay on the sidewalk, but no. By the time the racers got off their bikes in the heat and humidity, some of them were a little delirious, I guess, and they were trying to go everywhere but stay on the correct sidewalk. It didn't even matter that I was wearing the bright orange vest!

My spot directing traffic/bikers and runners
It just so happened that one runner got past me and ended up on the road and had to be directed back to the sidewalk. The Murph witnessed this and shook his head at me like it was all my fault I let the delirious, sweaty racer get past me.

What? I TOLD him to stay on the sidewalk. I even pointed down the sidewalk in the direction he was suppose to go. Was this my fault?

Hey, I didn't even have a flag!

Besides, one of the volunteer coordinators congratulated me and gave me a high five after the race telling me what a great job I did. Of course, he was the one who totally stuck me and a couple of others out there until the last runner came through.  It's funny how even the most delirious, heat exhausted ones had no problem at all knowing which way the finish line was! Amazing what the promise of vodka shooters will do. (and that was a lie because there was no alcohol at the finish line - sorry!)

I  know that feeling of getting to the finish line! Sweet! Sweaty and sweet!

I sort of like the power that comes with directing traffic. This kind of power could go to my head. All the vacationers really appreciated my help crossing the road too as they made their way back to their condo at the end of a beach day. It's been a lot of fun volunteering and the racers are great and appreciative, which makes it totally worth it, but next time I'm racing, not volunteering!

Not bad when you are looking across the road at this as you're volunteering!

Once again I decided to compare what I should have done according the training plan this week with what I actually did. First, let me start by saying I haven't been getting much sleep lately which has directly impacted the intensity of my training. Second, I've had to go back to inhaling my steroid meds because of my asthma and trouble breathing. Third, my weird vertigo/motion sickness, whatever it was the other day decided to linger around and screw me over.

So there are the excuses and there's more of them where those came from! See...

image from showmestrenght.com

Here's what the comparison looked like and I had to estimate how long it would take me to bike the number of miles that is on the plan since it goes by miles, estimate how long it would take me to swim the number of yards on the swim, and estimate the number of miles on the run since the plan goes by number of minutes run, not miles. It's all way too confusing which is probably why I stick with my own plan or lack of plan. Whatever, here's what it looks like....

                    The Training Plan                                            What I Actually Did

              Yds/Miles                Time                                     Yds/Miles                 Time

 Swim     3500 yds                 1 hr 45 min                             BIG FAT '0'              '0'

 Bike       80 miles                   5 hrs                                         49 miles                  3 hrs

 Run       14-15 miles             2 hrs 25 min                             14 miles                  2 hrs 30 min

Total Overall Times:          9 hrs 10 min                                                            5 hrs 30 min

So not surprising I am way behind on swimming, half-way there on biking and right on target in running. While it seems like I'm way behind in overall training time, if you add the strength training (weights), core training, stretching and time on the elliptical I did for the week, it brings my overall workout time to 9 hrs and 22 min. This is clearly more than the training plans 9 hrs and 10 min, although not by much. I  would say according to this comparison, I am not as behind as I think I am. I have plenty of time to make up the swim and bike hours before October. No worries!

I think this training plan seriously lacks in core and strength training anyway. Although I think it does say somewhere on there that you should do strength training at least twice a week for an hour. That would make the training plans overall time 11 hrs and 10 min. Hmmm...



I'm still going to remain positive. I mean it's not like I haven't had painful races before when I didn't put all the training hours in that was suppose too. Two races to be exact and I finished both of them swearing I would never do another race without proper training ever again. They were the slowest races I've ever done, as well as the most painful. Being slower, I had a lot more time on the course feeling the pain.

My motto is: "It's all mind over matter.  If you don't mind, it don't matter!"

I think I better get to work!

Image from graphics99.com

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

How Far Behind I Am - A Comparison

Image from iamtri.com

Last week was the 2nd week of my Ironman 70.3 training plan. I didn't exactly do a great job following it. To see just how far behind I am in training, I decided to do a comparison of what was on the plan to what I actually did that day.

Below is the comparison of the actual training plan and what I actually did...

                          The 70.3 Plan                                        What I actually did that day

Monday           1000 yd swim                                          8 miles on spin bike = 30 minutes
                         20 mile bike                                             Treadmill brick run .5 miles = 5 min.

Tuesday           1250 yd swim                                          Nothing
                          45 min run

Wednesday       25 mile bike                                             2 mile run aprox 20 minutes
                                                                                       

Thursday          1000 yd swim                                          6 miles on spin bike aprox 20 min                            
                           35 min run                                               4 mile = 40 min run

Friday                                                                              .5 mile run on treadmill = 5 min

Saturday           55 min run                                               Run 1 hr

Sunday             30 mile bike                                             Bike on spin bike 1 hour = aprox. 17 miles

I did core and weights on Monday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday which is not included on the plan.

Total workout hours on plan = Swim aprox  1 hr 15 min to 1hr 30 min
                                                   Bike aprox    4 /12 to 5 hrs
                                                   Run  aprox   2hrs 10 min

                                                     Total aprox 7:30 to  8 hrs

Total I actually did last week = Swim aprox   0 hrs
                                                   Bike aprox    1 hr 50 min (all on spin bike)
                                                   Run aprox     2hr 10 min
                 
                                                     Total aprox 4 hrs

With weights, core workouts and elliptical added in I did aprox 7 1/2 hours last week so I got the number of training hours in, but not in the areas I was suppose to be working on. (which is very important when you are in the middle of a half ironman.)

It's clear I've got a lot of work to do especially swimming and biking. Not surprising that I have the run hours down plus some (since I ran 13 miles a couple of weeks ago already), but 0 swim hours.

That's so me!

Actually I don't feel so bad now that I've done the above comparison because I'm not as behind as I thought I was. The training plan doesn't include weights, which I do four times a week and core too. The plan also doesn't include brick (bike then run) workouts which I do every Thursday and sometimes after I do a long bike on Saturday or Sunday as well.


The 70.3 Ironman isn't until the end of October so I still have plenty of time. It was tough for me to focus last week because I was so worried about my cat, Phantom. He is doing great this week and seems to be handling the chemo drugs well. I've actually gotten some sleep the past three days. And when I sleep, everybody around here sleeps, husband and cats. (well maybe not the cats at 5 am).

Image from quotesvalley.com

Sleep helps me train better too. Maybe I should add it to the training plan!

Image from zazzle.com

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Back Home And Already Behind On The 70.3 Training Plan!





We drove back home from Birmingham yesterday and I have to say it's great to be back. The sunset last night was incredible as well as the sunrise this morning. Phantom is doing great, but I'm an anxious mess. I've developed a huge, painful cold sore (I call it fever blister) from all the stress and worry about that cat! I've been putting Abreva on it in large amounts, too large according to my husband. It's suppose to work fast, but I can't tell right now that it's done anything.



What do you do when you have a cold sore? I'm getting desperate!

One good thing about the fever blister is that my lip is all nice and plump. That's a bonus! It's not going to be nice when it gets all crusty and scabby though!

Cadence and Ed are sure glad we are back! Here's Cadence looking at me right now as a type. This is where he hangs out except when he's on my lap, walking all over my keyboard, sticking his tail in my face.


Why do cat's love sticking their butts in your face? Or swatting their tail at you?


The vet shaved the hair off Phantom's belly to do the ultrasound Tuesday. He doesn't seem to mind though. It's probably cooler for him with all that hair gone. Also, less hair to cause hair balls or in his case, hair logs. Huge ones!


This week starts week 1 of my 18 week Ironman 70.3 training plan. I've already missed two swims and a bike ride. Not starting off so good! I don't even have my Google calendar all filled out with the work outs yet. This may be a good thing because I'm not getting email reminders of all the work outs I'm missing!

I may need to look for a 16 week to Ironman 70.3 training plan!

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

My Half Ironman Training Plan - Because I Need One Now...


Image from tbtriathlon.com
Last year at the Coastal Triathlon in Orange Beach, AL, I came in first place masters category, which qualified me for a slot into the USAT Age Group Nationals in Milwaukee this August. It was the first time I've ever qualified for anything like that so I had planned on doing the race this year. Unfortunately, we have too much going on in August so instead of going to Milwaukee and doing an Olympic Distance Triathlon, I signed up for a half ironman 70.3 race in October.

Image from triradar. com

That means I have to start regular triathlon training. Not the kind of "regular" do what I feel like doing kind of training that I do now. I have to come up with a plan and I have to follow it. I have to somewhat follow it fairly regularly whether I feel like it or not. I have to start swimming and biking more consistently again. It's been a nice break but now it's time to buckle down again and get serious.

I have done several half ironman triathlons in the past and for all except one of them I have followed a training plan I found on the trinewbies.com website. Here is the link to the training plan below:

18 Week Half Ironman Training Plan

If you are new to half ironman training and don't want to hire a coach, I highly recommend it. I started using it in January several years ago for a half ironman that was in May. It starts out very easy, especially if you're like me and don't swim or bike much during the off-season which for me is November and December. All I do during those months is run and whatever I do in the gym. No swimming. It's easy to start with the swims in January and build up from there. I usually am way ahead of the run part of the training plan.

I find the race date on the calendar and count back 18 weeks and then start filling in the workouts on a blank calendar. I use to use a paper calendar, but this time I think I will use Google calendar. When I was training for Ironman Canada in 2010, my coach had my training plan on Google calendar and he could change things as needed and we could both access it. I still have some blank paper calendars that I can fill in the dates and my workouts if I want to do it that way too.

Below are my times for all the 70.3's I've done with the fastest being 5:42:18. My first 70.3 was 5:43:35 and in both of those races I used the above training plan.


All Years » Triathlon & Multisport » Half Iron
Best:5:42:18Gulf Coast Triathlon 2005 / Half IronHalf Iron (5/7/2005)
Latest:7:23:522011 Ironman Hawaii 70.3 / Half Iron (6/4/2011)
Average:6:09:476 races completed over 9 years 1 months 6 days 

My slowest 70.3 was the most recent, Hawaii 70.3 in 2011 and the only only one where I did not use the 18 week training plan. (or any training plan)

Reason's (aka Excuses) for my slowest and latest half ironman results other than the fact that I'm just older and slower...

1. I followed no training plan and actually did not "train" at all for the race except for running and   
    getting on the exercise bike at the gym and weights.

2. I only swam twice before race day after taking 9 months off after doing Ironman Canada.

3. I only biked on my tri bike 3 times in those 9 months with my longest ride being only about 20 miles 
    since I was "burned out" from all the Ironman training.

4. I had to get stitches in my hand and elbow while in Hawaii after doing a practice swim the day 
    before the race.

5. My bike didn't show up until the day before the race and I wasn't able to do any practice rides before 
    the race. I barely got it checked into transition in time for the race. My bike fit was totally screwed up 
    with my seat being too low. (I actually realized I ride faster that way after I got use to the weird way 
    it felt.)

 6. Due to my inept packing of my bike, some bike parts fell out of the box during transport and I was 
     running around trying to purchase replacement parts after getting the stitches mentioned above.

7. During T2 when I was about to put on my running shoes, I realized that I had two un-matching 
    shoes (Here). I had packed them up, flown them all the way from Birmingham to Hawaii, then put   
    them in my T2 run bag, never even realizing my mistake until the middle of the race when it was 
    time to put them on and run. Luckily, I had one lefty and one righty, otherwise I would've looked   
    even stranger than usual.

Those are my excuses and they are pretty darn good excuses I think. There were so many times during that trip/race that I thought about calling it quits and not doing the race. Especially while getting stitches and worrying about getting my bike put back together in time. I was totally depending on the bike shop guys who were putting the bikes together at the host hotel to get it right the first time. There was no time for errors or for test rides. My test ride was riding the bike from the hotel to the transition area and that was about it. The bike guys did great!

The doctor who did my stitches was wonderful even though the tetanus shot and the numbing shot hurt like hell. Even the Murph had to look away.

This time a training plan is very important because I am going for a faster time not just "to finish". My goal is to finish in under 6 hours. With the above plan, I think I can do that since I've done it before with that training plan. I know I can already jump into week 1 and follow all the workouts pretty close and work my other races (sprints, 5k's, half marathons, marathons) around the training as I did in the past.

The key is to not get injured or burned out. Two things that have also happened to me in the past! 


Also, if anybody has a good training plan that they recommend, I am open for suggestions.