I’m So Far Behind & What’s Next!

Yep, that’s me.  I’ve had a blah two weeks and thus I’m so far behind in updating you on training etc.  Rest assured that I’ve been getting it in… for the most part.  So a quick update!

Weeks 5 & 6: 

The good – 

• I started a new swim “class” with Excel Aquatics.  Since I’ve been doing triathlons I have never spent much time improving my swim.  I’ve gone to masters but they don’t work much on form, but rather just give you a workout to complete.  So this class is all about improving form, proper technique etc.  I’m two weeks in and thus far loving it.  Fingers crossed that it pays off!
• Despite a busy work schedule I’ve been getting most of the workouts in.  Things have been nuts but minus a small workout here or there, I’m still getting it in.  It’s a balancing act at times, but I’m managing.
• I have my first “race” of the season this weekend.  Well, it’s a relay so not really a race.  Myself and six of my crazy friends are participating in the Seneca 7 relay this weekend. We are a bike team so while our runner is out running, the rest of us will be biking for exchange point to exchange point.  This will make for 77 miles of switching between biking and running.  My fingers are crossed that the weather forecast remains good otherwise it could be a very long day!
• I also enjoyed a beautiful hike on a blustery day with one of my greatest friends.  We covered something like 6.5 miles at Mohonk Preserve.  I love it there and I loved having the chance to talk and catch up.

A beautiful ray of sunshine at Mohonk.

The Not So Great – 

• Work has been crazy.  The kids were all on vacation from school last week and that was followed up by a conference out-of-town.  I’ve struggled a bit and a few workouts have been dropped.  This is ok, but I struggle with it because I was doing so well hitting every thing.  I just keep reminding myself that it’s OK as long as it’s not a habit.
• I’ve been having wonky things going on with my sneakers.  I bought a new pair and I think they’re a 1/2 size too big.  So, my feet feel really weird.  Because of this I dug out an older pair that hadn’t quite outlived their life, but I have to figure out which shoes are going to really work for me.  The never-ending shoe shuffle makes me crazy.
• I still haven’t found (made) the time to get to yoga.  I haven’t mentioned it here but I really miss going to yoga.  I haven’t been in ages.  I’m hoping to find a time once a week to get there.  I just have to make it a priority and thus far I haven’t done it.  Hopefully next week.
• I still haven’t gotten my bike outside.  My schedule has been too nuts and/or the weather has been uncooperative.  It seems that spring is here to stay and since I have that little relay this weekend, this will be changed for sure!

A hotel bike ride… must get outside!

So overall things are on track.  I’ve had a few little bumps and I clearly need to get some new sneakers but otherwise things are going well.

Week 5:

Swimming: 3500 yrds

Biking: 51.5 miles

Running: 14 miles

Week 6:

Swimming: 7525 yrds

Biking: 87 miles

Running: 9 miles

When you look at the numbers you can sort of figured out what I missed each week.  As someone in my house reminds me, it’s in the past.  Move on from it.  So, I’m moving on … into this week.  Onward! Right into Seneca 7.  What are you up to this weekend?

Week 4 {Tinman Training}

I’m a day or two late on this one.  As I had mentioned last week, week four was a recovery week.  After three solid weeks of training, I was ready for a little bit of a step back and the chance for a catch up on all things life.

I’ve been pretty happy to work hard, but I was definitely ready for a little mental recharge. I think that this is something that I have underestimated in the past.  Previously I’ve had recovery weeks, but with less structure and guidelines.  This time, the parameters were clearly defined and even when I was training, I wasn’t allowed to push hard.  So, here is the week in review!

The good –

• Recovery week means extra sleep! Always yeah for extra sleep.  Anyone who knows me knows this.
• I’m continuing to not only get to the pool but to also see gains.  They’re not huge gains, but in my book a gain is a gain, especially when you consider that I seldom ever see them as it relates to swimming.
• I got meds for my skin issues.  I finally broke down last week and went the doctors for my pool induced itchiness.  Of course they had no clue what the cause was but with some steroids and some additional allergy meds I can report that it’s all cleared up.
• As much restraint as it took, I didn’t over do any of the workouts.  I completed them as written by the coach.
• I even had the pleasure of doing a run with no time requirements, no pace or zone timers and just a distance goal.  A luxury I hadn’t really seen in almost four full weeks.

The not so great –

• I felt a little lazy all week with the decreased training load.  I recognize I wasn’t being lazy, just felt that way.
• I was so excited to do a 6 mile run with no parameters that I ran outside even though it was forecasted to rain and be cold.  It rained most of the way and it was cold.  I was pretty miserable by the time I finished that run, which was a bummer because I had really been looking forward to it.
• And on that super special rainy run my left foot started to hurt.  Again, fortunately for the recovery week I’ve been able to keep the mileage super low and it definitely hasn’t gotten any worse and after running a bit yesterday I can report that it’s feeling better, but really?  I mean.  Come on.  No need for hurt.

Looking forward… So this week we are back at it with the recovery week being completed.  The volume is a little less than it was before I headed into recovery week, but the intensity is up.  In fact I got an email from my coach just last night telling me to “have fun the next three weeks.  Bwahahahaha!”  Not gonna lie, this makes me a little bit nervous, but I’m hoping that I am up for the challenge.  So here we go.

Week 4 Totals:

Swimming: 3800 yrds

• I did miss one swim due to some life stuff happening.

Biking: 31.9 miles

Running: 9 miles

Whoa…. So how’s that for some decreased volume?!

Week 3 {Tinman Training}

WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I made it and I’m still alive.  I finished week three and I’m here to tell about it.  Ok, ok, so this is a little dramatic, but I was NERVOUS.  Many of you are reading this and thinking… It’s week 3, what is the big deal.

Let me back up.  During the off-season I fell back to my roots a bit.  I basically hung my goggles up and racked my bike and stuck mostly to running for the winter.  I personally find it to be quite an accomplishment, especially when you consider the ridiculous winter that we had… I mean are still having here in Upstate NY.  So any way, I ran.  Not a remarkable distance but enough so that when my coach was laying out the beginning of my training plan we were able to start with long runs at 10 miles.  (According to the coach… He was “given a gift!” haha!)  What does all of this mean?  All of this means that my long runs and long rides for my HALF Ironman training are already pretty long.  So each week I’m a little nervous when I look at those particular workouts, hence the major celebration about completing this week.

You can tell training is back in full swing just by the dishes!

Ok week 3 reports are as follows: 

The Good:

• I swam A.LOT! Yep.  A lot.  Honestly, I’m getting in all of my swim workouts and this continues to be a huge deal for me.  Swim has always been the first thing that I skip and/or shorten.  Knowing that my coach is going to be looking for the actual data from my Garmin keeps me swimming whether I always like it or not.  I’m also pretty sure that all of this swimming is making some improvements for me.
• I ran strong.  I’ve been a bit hesitant about these long runs that I’m given. They’re written as a one mile warm up followed by intervals and a one mile cool down.  I have never done this on a long run.  Long runs have always been LSD, long slow distance runs.  So they make me a little nervous because I’m afraid I’ll peter out before the end.  But I’ve been quite enjoying them.  Using the interval format makes the workout go faster mentally as I’m only focusing on that 3 or 5 minute interval and not how many miles I have left to go.
• I think I’m figuring out some of my bike saddle issues.  As many of you know… spending a lot of time on your bike trainer is not something to be taken lightly.  I’m working on my comfort.  One ride at a time.
• My training peaks account is all green with completed workouts!
• And I got to  virtually meet my Swim Bike Mom Ambassador Teammates via some funny facebook videos we made this weekend.  It was so much fun.  These ladies are incredibly inspiring.

The Not So Great:

• I’m in the midst of battling a really annoying rash.  I attribute this to all of the swimming.  I have never had a skin issue in my life ever before.  I’m hoping it will get sorted out soon.  In the meantime, I’m swimming at a different pool this week and arming myself with Vaseline prior to getting in the water.  (Anyone else have this happen?  Suggestions?)
• This weather.  Upstate NY has not gotten the memo about spring.  It’s making it difficult to get outside for training.  So far this hasn’t been a huge issue and I’m managing to rearrange my schedule for outdoor long runs etc, but come on weather, just shape up so we can get outside full-time ok? OK!

And yeah I think that’s it.

I can say that I’m standing here on day one of recovery week feeling pretty darn good.  I feel confident in my training.  I am really enjoying my new coaching relationship as I’m being pushed a bit more than I’m used to and thus far my body is rising to the challenge.  And I am feeling great because my training is a bit less intense this week… ala recovery week.  Trust me, I enjoy the high weeks where it’s all go go go, but taking a minute for the recovery and having a chance to look around is going to be great.

Week 3 Totals:

Swimming: 5700 yrds

Biking: 77.8 miles

Running: 19 miles

The Man, The Myth, The Legend {My Coach}

I’ve talked a bit in the last few weeks about having a new coach.

I do! I do have a new coach.

This year I really wanted to push myself a bit harder in training than I had before.  I feel like previously I’ve always been training to finish and this year I am hoping to force myself out of that comfort zone and see if I can push the bar a little higher.  The important thing to note here is that I’m not competing with anyone but myself.  I don’t need to finish in a certain percentage or anything of that sort. What I need is to push and to see that push pay off for me.  It’s a sense of accomplishment and a firm belief in myself and my abilities that I’m seeking.

I want a finish line like this one, but better!

This year is the perfect opportunity for me to take this different approach to training because I’m not training for a full distance Ironman and I feel like I can really focus my workouts rather than being overwhelmed by the sheer number of them.  So that’s a quick glimpse into my thinking.

As I was thinking all of this, I decided to email a friend of mine.  I knew that he did some coaching and was, from what I had seen, really good at not only pushing his athletes but at also being a real person and recognizing that I do have a life that involves kids and a family as well as work commitments.  He seemed to be able to manage that pretty nicely for some of his other athletes so I figured it was at least worth a conversation with him.  After a few email exchanges we got together and reviewed where I was in my triathlon journey and where it is that I’m hoping to go.  And like that a deal was struck.

After three weeks of having Jeff as my coach I can report that thus far things are going really well.  We’re communicating nicely about workouts.  He only thinks I’m a little crazy with my texts each week as I finish my last workout of the week.  (BTW, who doesn’t want to receive obnoxious texts with hashtags about winning every Sunday afternoon! LOL)

In fact last week when I wrote about self-doubt still creeping in, he commented on my blog with this:

“The moment you choose to listen to your doubt it wins. Believe in yourself and what you’re capable of and you’ll find you’re capable of so much more than you ever dreamed of.

I was spinning after work and I wanted to quit so bad on my 5th interval but I knew you were working hard too. You impact and inspire people even when you don’t know it.

Believe in yourself, doubt kills. Keep going Sarah.”

 Good words Coach.  Good words.

I mean, does he know how to party or what?! Doesn’t everyone do an IM like this?

And it helps that Jeff is a pretty inspirational athlete himself.  You can read more about the athlete he is here.  It’s a great story.  Jeff has since raced in some pretty cool races including Worlds last year in China.  And every time I struggle in a workout I remember a conversation that we had in our “athlete in-take” meeting.  We talked about not quitting.  I had written about it on the coaching form.  Of course if you read Jeff’s story that’s just how it goes with him.  And in that meeting I promised that I wouldn’t quit and I would always work my hardest.  So yeah, so far so good!

How about you?  Do you use a coach?  What’s your relationship like?