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Ironman Arizona Training - so far

I am two months into my six month training block for Ironman Arizona! (11/19 in Tempe). It feels so RIGHT to be back into triathlon specific training. I've spent the first half of this year focusing on my nutrition, working out as much as I could to drop some weight before training started. I dropped 15lbs but also gained a lot of muscle! Looking forward to seeing how these changes in my body composition affect my training and race times. Also, would love to drop 5-10 more pounds during training to get to my ideal racing weight. Which shouldn't be hard now that I've figured out my macros and gotten everything nutritionally dialed in! (and will be working out 2 hours a day during the week and 4-8 hours each weekend day...) I've already gotten faster on my average run time, will be fun to see what I can do speed wise when I race a couple shorter tri's the next few months.

I'm using TrainingPeaks this time around for training - a training plan written by D3 Multisport. I picked an advanced plan (and it is TOTALLY out of my league, but I'm managing) and I'm hopeful this will help take me to the next level. I want to get faster on the bike, be able to put together all three sports and not blow up on one. In Whistler I didn't push hard enough on the bike but ran ok (super slow, but considering it was my first Ironman I was pretty happy) and last year I overdid it on the bike and fell apart physically and mentally on the run. I want AZ to be different. If I could get a decent marathon time and have a solid ride (I know it's bad but I just don't worry about the swim) then I think I can piece together a 13 hour Ironman. That would be AMAZING. I know better than to think I have an Ironman race all figured out because you just can't predict what is going to happen during such a long day, but I would be SO thrilled to get sub 14 and maybe even around 13 hours! I'm certainly getting fast enough to pull it off, if I can piece it all together! 

I have a couple shorter triathlons coming up - the Lake Meridian Tri in a couple weeks and the Black Diamond half distance in September. Then October will be the BIG, heavy training month, and before you know it we're headed to AZ!

 The second half of this year, besides a lot of training, has a LOT of travel. We just got back from 16 days in Europe which was SO wonderful. I ran 14/16 days while we were there and got to really see every city we were in (Paris, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Nuremberg, and Munich!). As amazing as vacation was, it was nice to get home and back to training (and back to Wilson!) In less than two months we'll head to Maui to celebrate the Bean/Edwards wedding!!! Cannot wait to be back there, Maui holds a special place in my heart AND is my happy place. THEN Ironman Arizona will be another trip in November! Lots of travel, which I love.

 I'm going to try to write here more often now that I'm training again - I love being able to go back and reflect on different phases of training, how I was feeling, and even just remember things I forget.

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