Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2021/2022 - Pregnancy, baby, return to racing

WOW. So much has changed since I last posted in here. About two months after that last post I found out I was pregnant!  I spent 2021 in various phases of life: First trimester I was super sick and actually unable to even get much movement in! I don't think I've ever worked out that little in my life! Every day just felt like a struggle to survive. Second and third trimesters I was able to swim, bike, run and lift. I was able to run up until a couple days before I gave birth! I mostly ran and lifted - I hated biking pregnant and wanted to limit my covid exposure so I didn't go to the pool super consistently until the very end of my pregnancy. I spent the rest of 2021 fumbling my way through learning how to be a mom and take care of a baby! It was months of living in a haze of no sleep, hormones and tears BUT with all of that in the rear view, it was an amazing time of growth and learning so much. I had 4 IM branded deferred races from 2020 that rolled to 2021, then to 2022....
Post a Comment
Read more

2020

Since I usually use this blog for training and race reports, clearly haven't had much to update in 2020! This years' calendar was supposed to include: Victoria 70.3 CDA 70.3 Santa Rosa 140.6 WA 70.3 70.3 WORLDS in Taupo, NZ! Clearly, none of these were a reality this year. It's been a rollercoaster of a year but I think I've done a decent job with coping. I never stopped training, still keeping up an average of 12-15 hours a week. It's kept me sane despite everything going on in our country and our world. In the absence of racing I've picked up some new hobbies, one being gravel riding (thanks to Rosanne Kelley!!)! I am a SUPER newb but have had fun exploring some new places and learning some actual bike handling skills (which is for sure a weakness of mine).  Otherwise, I feel pretty fortunate this year. I'm able to work remotely for my job and have a nice setup in the townhouse now. I miss my work friends SO much but we've found some ways to spend time...
Post a Comment
Read more

Week 5: Build

Another build week. Hit all my workouts AND added an extra bike on Wednesday morning. I've been pretty busy this week, lots of nights where I'm not done working out until 8pm or getting home around that time. I have only been getting about 6 hours or so of sleep during the week so my energy wasn't super high. One good thing that starts to happen the better shape I get into as we build in this training plan - no matter how low I think my energy is, as soon as I start working out my body shifts into gear and seems to have limitless potential. I love that. It's just the mental battle to get started despite my muscle fatigue, mental fatigue, soreness... which luckily this week wasn't hard at all. I've hit that point where I don't think about wanting to workout or not - it's not an option, it's just what I do, "sometimes you just do things"... Feels good to be getting back into that mindset instead of dreading going to the pool or getting o...
Post a Comment
Read more