Week 13

This week has been going great. Foot pain was gone and I haven't felt this great the entire week for my workouts. Monday, I did feel slow at first when I got in the water, but after I did a few sprints I felt really smooth. I added some intensity this week to the bike and run. Wednesday night I did the bike and Thursday I added the Run. The swim always seems to be more intense to me because I just want to float around and not really try. I was worried that the Wednesday night bike would wear my legs out for Thursday, but I felt really good in the swim (that is usually where I notice I am tired) and the run was awesome. I did 2 sets of: 1200 @ 75%, 800 @ 80-85%, and 400 @ 85%. I was really surprised at how fast I had to run to get my heart rate to get that high and stay there. I did this on the treadmill and for the 400, I had it at 6:15/mile pace. The treadmill did not like that. It was shaking all over the place. I could feel my foot starting to hurt when I was doing my cool down. This morning it was a little achy so I iced it and it seems to have gone away. It is not completely healed. I decided that it is a muscle/tendon weakness. When it acts up, the next day, the muscles that support my ankle are tired. I just need to strengthen that area. Tonight I am going to do my long bike. I am up to 3 hours. How nice would it be to get outside for it, but that won't happen. I am hoping that in 2 weeks it will be nice enough out to get outside because that is when my 3+ hours start. Saturday will be my day off. Heading to the Casino for my grandpa's birthday. Sunday will be my long run for the week: 1:45. It is going to be awesome out for that run.
Yesterday I got an interesting post card in the mail. It is from the Colorado Springs Sports Corporation and it says that I qualified for the 2009 State Games of America. I qualified by getting 3rd in my age group at the Iowa Games last summer. The race is August 1st, 2009. I was planning on doing Big Creek that weekend, but have not signed up for it yet. The State Games of America are in Colorado Springs. If I did not need to save up my money for Louisville, I probably would do this race. I looked up the times from prior years and it looks like I would be very competitive in this race. Maybe a top 3 finish. For sure a top 3 in my age group (based on prior year times) Anyway, it is only a sprint and it is far away so Big Creek is still the plan. Big Creek is going to be a very competitive race this year being the midwest regional championship race. This will really give me a feel of my talent or lack thereof in this field of great triathletes. It is going to be a great year of racing and I can't wait to get started!

Week 12 Overview

This week was very productive until this weekend. My foot pain came back on Tuesday, but now it is a different place. Still on the top of my foot, but now further down so atleast I dont think it is a stress fracture. It definatly isnt as painful as it was the other week, but it is enough to keep me concerned about it. I swam Monday night for 1:00. Good tough workout. Tuesday I ran first and then biked. I pushed myself harder Tuesday than I normally do. It was just so nice and I felt great. I finally actually got my heart rate up to the 75% mark. Usually I am sitting about 10 beats below that. I ran 5.28 miles in :42. = 7:57/mile average. Awesome! That was including my warm up mile too. Then I came in and did an hour bike. My legs were shot from the running. I am learning that if I have a bike/run combo in the same day, I have to do the bike first if it is anything other than spinning my legs out because if I have to get my heartrate up, my legs just wont put out enough power to do it. I have also noticed on some of my runs that my legs start to get tired, but breathing tired. Now it is starting to occur on the bike. I need to some how get my legs to rest more so that they are fresher so I can get the quality workouts in that I need to. Atleast with the run, I can push through it, the bike I cant get my legs to get moving if they dont want to. Wednesday I had a :45 swim and an hour bike. Fairly easy workout. I did have a good bike that night. Thursday, I switched my Sunday long run and my normal Thursday workout (swim, run) to Sunday so that I could get some recovery time for my foot. I ran 1:25 Thursday night (gorgeous night) and followed that with a :45 bike. Friday is my rest day. Saturday I had planned for a 2:45 bike, but only got 2 hours of that done. My legs just were not going to have it. I couldnt get my heart rate up so I felt I would skip the last bit of the workout instead of just sitting there and not really trying. Today my plan was to switch the run with a bike for extra foot rest time. I am not doing anything today. I am having trouble getting motivated today. It has to be the weather and the time change. It is now noon and I just got out of bed. I didnt even want to make breakfast and that is usually the only reason I get out of bed is because I am starving and want to eat breakfast. I think that is my favorite part of the day - eating breakfast. So today I am not working out. I just dont think my mind will be in it or my body. Maybe not being able to get my heart rate up yesterday was a sign I need to take a break. With these short workouts today, skipping them wont hurt my progress, probably only hurt it if I did them not 100%. So with that being said, I am continuing to ice my foot and trying to stay off it. Not really a problem. Monday I will start in with a swim and Tuesday I will be up and running again. Hopefully pain free.

Week 11 Total Time: 12:30:00

This week I completed the longest workout week so far. 12 hours and thirty minutes. In that time included a 2:30 bike and a 2 hour run. I told myself if I finished my entire weekend workout I could get a blizzard Sunday afternoon. It was an awesome blizzard. Extra sweet. Just about half of my total time came from my weekend workouts. Had the 2:30 bike plus a :40 run Saturday and a 2:00 run followed by a 1:00 bike on Sunday. I was very pleased that I was able to finish it, with no foot pain and still feeling great today. Tonights swim workout will really let me know how much energy I have left, but as of right now, I am feeling good. Little stiffness, but nothing that shouldnt go away after stretching tonight. My feet are really happy with me for throwing out my old shoes and starting in with a fresh pair. Up until now I never really felt the effects of worn out shoes. I also decided that I am going to not use my Zoots for the Ironman. I just feel I am going to need something with a little more cushion. I checkd out the new Asics Nimbus 10s. That is totally what I am going to wear. Just waiting for the price to come down. Hopefully by midsummer I can find a sale on them some place. This week I am going to start adding some intensity to my bikes. I tried to do that 2 weeks ago and I just about died. It was to much. I will start with a few 15/45 sprints just to get my legs use to it again. I think after I get outside, it will come back to me. For some reason I have a hard time riding "easy" when I am outdoors. :)