WEEKS 13-19
Well, I skipped a few weeks of recording my training. I DO have a large amount of excuses though. A few of these excuses are: we started homeschool (whew!!), my baby got into the "I'm a 1 year old - I want to get into everything-but I might kill myself" stage, we remodeled the house a little bit, there was a bit of drama, I worked hard at putting a strong effort into my marriage (just because we love each other!), and more. All in all.....it has been a CRAZY few weeks. Good weeks....but super crazy!
Throughout the craziness, my training has been wonderful!! I have been enjoying my workouts and beginning to really feel "athletic". I actually ENJOY and WANT to do my workouts! I have been waiting so long to finally get to this point!!!! So what have I been doing??? Well.....
I have to begin with MY FIRST TRIATHLON!!
I completed the Memorial Herman Houston (TownLake) Triathlon on September 2, 2013. I had a GREAT time doing my first sprint triathlon! I swam great (it was my favorite part), rode pretty well (I did almost fall!), and did the best I could on the run ( I am definitely heel striking). All in all, I was proud of my accomplishment!
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| The hubby walking me down to the swim start to get out all of my pre-race jitters!! |
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| Here I am coming up to the finish line!! Look at that SMILE!!! |
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| Finished and PROUD! |
After my sprint...I was PUMPED to continue training for the half-ironman (and full Ironman). My schedule for these past few weeks pretty much looked like this:
Monday: rest
Tuesday: run 1-1.5 hours
swim 30 min - 1 hour
Wednesday: ride/run combo )1.5 hours
Thursday: swim 1 hour
spin class 1 hour
Friday: run 1 hour
Saturday:
run or ride
(2-4 hours)
Sunday:
run or ride
(2-4 hours)
Total Hours ~ 10 hours - 15.5 hours
My swimming has gotten better!! I am getting the technique down, however; I am still not swimming as fast as I want to be! I am getting my swims down to 54-58 minutes for the half-ironman distance. That is still so darn slow!! Sigh.....I HAVE only been training for 19 weeks. :)
We finally got to go to this place to get in open water swim practice! It is a small lake dedicated to open water swims (and scuba diving). We swam around for an hour and had a BLAST!!!!!
The biking is just ok. I have a hard time going on my long rides outside. Again, I have tons of excuses! I have to coordinate all four kiddos, birthday parties, baby-sitters, and life in general. It's so super hard!!!! The hubby and I DID finally get our 56 mile bike ride in.....and it was SO fun!!! I hurt afterwards. Boy, did I hurt. BUT it was fun!!!
My running has gotten better. I have learned that I am MENTALLY UNABLE to push myself to run fast. If I am by myself (which is 95% of the time) my runs stay around 11 min/mile. I CAN run fast. The other day I ran 3 miles and each mile was UNDER 10 MIN!!! However, my hubby ran next to me and he pushed me to run faster! I need that outside push that I just cannot do for myself!
Which leads me to my next AWESOME update:
MY HUBBY IS GOING TO STAY BY MY SIDE FOR MY FIRST 70.3!!!!!!!!
I am soooooo excited about this! He came to me one day and asked if I would like to have him by my side during my 70.3 race. I couldn't believe he wanted to do that! My hubby is SUPER competitive and to think he would give up an entire race to stay at MY pace.....well, all I can is, he loves me! (A part of me thinks it's almost cheating.....he REALLY helps me push myself to go faster than I normally would go...but I don't care!).
Our 70.3 race is The Oilman on November 3, 2013. I cannot wait to cross the line with the love of my life by my side. Knowing he will be there with me has really helped me train hard and get ready for that awesome moment!!!!
