Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Training High....

I'm sure this says something about my personality being wonky or something, but I'm a totally different person when I am training hard, with purpose. The sun shines a little brighter. The birds chirp a little more gaily. The air is crisper and I am just overall .... better. Week 2, Day 2 of real, honest to goodness tri training and I feel like $100M!!! Yesterday was a hard interval day on the bike - an oldie but a goodie, 3.0 Suffer-O-Rama (gotta love these titles!).  Even though I did this last week as well, I had blocked out how tough it is. After the warm-up, we jump right into Troy's patented "5 Killer Minutes" and killer they are! YEOUCH. Save the two time trial efforts where he mercifully lets us *sort* of catch our breath a bit, it's all 100% full out effort work. I actually love this kind of workout, because you really can just bang it out and go for it - playing little games with yourself to try to beat your wattage numbers from the last rep. The reps are short - a minute max - but by the end of that minute your legs and lungs are screaming and you are seeing heart rate numbers that begin to frighten you. I finished the workout with a 110% effort that yielded 410W, which is an all time high! Woo Hoo!!!! What a great way to start the day.


Post Run Sweaty Happiness
After a long day at work (still adjusting to being back after the holidays after a short week last week), I had a 40 minute run on the schedule. The plan is always to get home and immediately head out, but that never, ever happens. What really happens is that I get home, feed the kids, help with homework, yell at the dog for attempting to steal the aforementioned kid's dinner, empty the dishwasher, load the dishwasher, start a load of laundry, etc. It's often easy to cry uncle and just go to bed at this point, but nope, it's Game On time. So I left the house after digging out my headlamp (SO damn hot, I know....), and hit the road. I took a route I normally only take to start really long runs, and did an out and back, which I almost never do. This was a GREAT choice as there was minimal traffic, the moon was nearly full and it was a beautifully clear night. One of those nights where it feels like all is right with the world - the playlist chosen was perfect, the temperature was perfect, everything was just ... perfect. What a great way to end the day - I got home 50 minutes later feeling fantastic and crashed into bed after a quick shower and slept like the dead.

Today started with a pool workout - these are particularly rough days because I like to get to the Y *right* as it opens which means a 4:15am wake up alarm. But I was able to get up and out the door before my brain could register a complaint, and was waiting at the door for the 5am opening. By some miracle, I feel like I am swimming well after a LONG time away from the pool. Perhaps the UB strength work I did all Fall  did some good here? I don't know, but I felt great today and was banging out my workout feeling fierce. After a lot of drill work and a long pull set (I hate pull sets), the real work was 10x100 at an anaerobic pace. I typically go out too fast for my first one or two reps and then pay for that over exertion with an inevitable slowdown by the last few, but today I was a rock star. I was a solid 5 seconds FASTER than the fastest time prescribed by my coach for these reps, and I held that pace for all 10 reps, finishing with the last two reps the fastest of all, a full 8 seconds faster than specified. Niiiiiiiiiiiiice.

Tonight I again get to end cap the day with a run, and it looks to be as nice a night as last night - I can't wait!

Life is good.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Back at it in 2012

Where did I leave off? Day 20 of the Challenge? I kept it going, missing a day or two here and there with the holidays, but the Spinervals 32 Day Challenge was JUST what I needed to help me find my bike mojo again. I truly loved all of the trainer sessions and am really jazzed about my 2012 athletic goals and training.

In January, I started back with my most AWESOME coach, Will of Tri-Hard Endurance Sport Coaching. Way back when, chatting with Troy at the Tucson Tri Camp I attended, he suggested if I was serious about this triathlon thing I should get a coach. At the time I thought he was insane. Seriously, I'm a regular joe, middle aged, with a full time job and kids. A coach? Really???? Well, after my first race when I realized that I could really, really love this sport, I also realized that training myself in 3 disciplines without 1) killing myself or 2) getting burned out seemed impossible. So I found a local coach and hit the jackpot. I started working with Will back in .... '07 I think? and he's been a lifesaver. Late summer/early fall of '11 my work schedule was brutal and I needed a little break from structured training, but now that '12 is here, I'm back at it in full force! I didn't realize how much I missed receiving my training plans - the anticipation of opening them up to see what Will has in store for the month. What will my long bike built to this month? What about the long run? And those tempo sessions! Can't wait to see what they will look like!!!!!!! It's like Christmas at the beginning of every month. We tweak here and there, I report back after particularly interesting or eventful workouts ("Dude, are you trying to KILL ME?!?") and I feel myself getting stronger and more confident every week. Good stuff. Good good stuff.

If you are thinking that you'd like to try something new, try a new race distance, or set a new time goal but don't know where to start, think about getting a coach. Sure, it's a bit of a luxury, but it's SO worth it if you take your training seriously. And if you want the best coach EVER, give Will a call. :)