Jackie D - Week 23

Week 23 - starting Monday 19 February 2007

Scheduled hours: 11hrs 15mins
Actual hours: 8hrs 36mins

A bit of a semi- emotional training week this week for me, or perhaps I’m just thinking too much!

It started with coach giving out some homework! This was to think of 3 to 5 athletic goals, could be short or long term, to write them down and to also write the reason why. Well I have put together some notes, after far too much thinking about it but, unlike when I was at school (and a real goodie goodie) I confess to not having submitted my homework yet, even after a first reminder.

I found this more difficult than I thought I would. Triathlon is only a part of my life, admittedly it becomes a larger and larger, obsessive part of my life as time goes on, but it is only my hobby, not my life. It made me think about the reason I started doing these things again (not the initial dare to do the first one). If I am really honest with myself there are two major contributors - food and depression. At the end of the day I like food and have had a hate relationship with my body and yo yo dieting etc for the best part of 20 years. When my kids came along I convinced myself to be less obsessive and that worrying about a few pounds here and there was not worth the mental stress and self indulgence, especially how it affected my moods. There were (and still are!) much more important things in my life. Together with this I often had times when I got pretty down with everything. Fred is such a laid back angel really and just takes me as I come, knowing that even when I was horrid to him I didn’t really mean it and I just had to let it run its course. Well after some research I decided I didn’t want to be labelled as depressed so I chose the self help technique of endorphins ie exercise. So, I knew I needed and wanted to do regular exercise but I also wanted it to be enough to allow me to eat without getting worried about gaining pounds. I needed a goal to aim for, to keep me steady and consistent and triathlon was that goal. Ironman is just an extension - I want to challenge myself, prove I can do it, become the fittest I have ever been, be one of the few and eat what I like!

So, my first goal of course has to be the Ironman this year.

It is very easy to get caught up in wanting to achieve a great time and somedays I think this would be great and some days I think it would just be nice to finish with a smile on my face. I’m hoping the cut-off time of 17 hours won’t be an issue. I am viewing this as a once in a lifetime experience and I want to give it my best and not end up feeling I could have given it more but I want to enjoy the experience at the same time.

I’m still thinking about other goals but they aren’t really relevant to this Ironman journal anyway.

Back to training - the above doesn’t explain the discrepancy in training hours now does it! Well, somewhere along the week I picked up a bad cold/ bug / who knows. Monday to Wednesday I was fine and did a great BT bike workout including riding 40mins in z3 within the workout. I usually struggle on the indoor trainer to keep my HR up in z1 & 2 so I was very pleased with myself. I discovered the key is cadence though. My other bike workout was various gears at 100rpm and it made me wonder how I ever had a problem getting my heart rate up!

I didn’t enjoy swimming. I went to masters and it is the same old story - my times aren’t improving and people are just whizzing past me who didn’t a few months ago. I find this very frustrating. People keep telling me you have to swim minimum 3x a week to improve but as I can already swim the distance is this justifiable if it takes time from bike and run? I don’t know - will have to talk to Mary about this (again!)

Strength work has changed this week. Instead of just doing sets of 12-15 reps, I am now doing a set of 12-15 reps, then choosing a weight that will take me a max of 5-7 to fatigue. This is a completely new ball game. I am amazed how much I can increase the weight and still do over 7 and it makes me wonder if I should have been pushing myself more before - I thought I was pushing myself but……..anyway, I hope I don’t get too muscly.

Thursday came and after a sleepless night not feeling too good I decided to not go for my planned morning run, thinking I could go swimming later. With it being Presidents week recess and the kids home from school my “training gap” is before of after Fred goes to / returns from work. Anyway I decided in the evening that run was more important than swim so I went and did that at the gym instead - it was a BT one with hills and HR z1-4+ so I enjoyed it. A couple of hours later I knew it had been a mistake as I felt awful again (I truly felt OK during the workout) and I ended up feeling sick Friday and spending the day in bed on Saturday still feeling awful.

What with last weeks easy schedule and then not doing the scheduled amount this week I reckon I must have used up any slack built into my training plan now. Eekk. What worried me most about this week was that because of the timing I hadn’t done my 2 key workouts (long bike scheduled Fri and long run scheduled Sun). May have to think about this and try and do them earlier in the week in future. However, on Sunday I was beginning to feel better and whilst Fred took the kids sledging I snuck onto my bike trainer and did a couple of hours really easy pedalling - all time in the saddle is good right? Fred wasn’t impressed that I had been training when he got back - and it was so close - just a minute to go and I would have been done!

21 WEEKS TO GO