So here I am, almost finished with my second week of training for the Illinois Marathon, which is going towards training for the Racine Half Ironman in July. I remember saying a year ago in a SWRC newsletter article how I would NEVER participate in triathlons. This is why Cory rolled his eyes at me when I said that. He knew. He knows I am stubborn. I found a way to get around the doctor's suggestion of not doing running races. HAHAHA! Yah. This is going to be a little harder. So stubborn as I am, I have my work cut out for me.
So far though, I am enjoying eating, I mean training... I do eat ALL THE TIME. I am not into actual heavy duty training yet. I hate to see the grocery bill then. Seriously, what's up with all these skinny triathletes? Do they not have the appetite I do? They obviously have a secret because when I am not working out I am eating or sleeping. I have gained back 4 of the 4 pounds I lost. Yep all 4 dammit. Here is when you tell me it is muscle and I tell myself that too, but really, it has been two weeks so I think it may be the 15 meals I eat a day, just saying. Haha.
So besides that side effect, it is seriously going well. For the marathon I am using a plan from a book a few friends suggested. The book is my new best friend. Seriously I take it everywhere, It basically is a guideline for every workout. My buddy Aldo gave me the best gift last night and told me there is an APP for the book!! There is an APP for everything! So now I will just carry my phone around and that works because I do that anyway! So this book, Run Less Run Faster, gives you a plan that you run 3 days a week and do 2 cross training days. I added in another cross training and a strength and core workout, which the book says is ok to do. Now I am sure all my running buds are thinking that this is a doomed plan because that won't give me enough mileage. We will see, but besides the people who I know made it through with this plan and that I idolize, many others have said this plan works and works well!
So for the plan you base off a recent 5k time, and the book gives you charts for all your runs. The three runs emphasize quality over quantity so there are no wasted (fun/recovery) runs. They refer to them as wasted miles. I am a runner so that term I didn't really care for, but understand what they mean. Instead of doing a slow easy recovery run, they fill it with cross training. This works well for me since I am supposed to be doing just that :)!!
My week looks a little like this:
Monday: Swim Training. Late last year I happened to be wearing my Stoneman Sprint swim cap one day at the Y when another swimmer asked me how the tri went. Since then Mike Hall and I have become friends and he has given me great advice and even takes the time to teach me some swim drills. He has his hands full, I am stubborn and my damn elbows do not want to do what they should haha! But he has taught me some drills that I practice (they are hard) and I can't wait till I can start swimming as fast as him! Because I will Mike. You just wait ;)
Tuesday: Speed work. First week was 3 x 1600 at 7:02 pace. Second week was 4 x 800 at 6:42 pace. I swear on the treadmill I feel like I am sprinting. I have a feeling I may fly off of it one of these times!! They are supposed to be challenging though and I can tell they will help me in the long run. Heehee get it, see what I did there? Long run! haha!
Wednesday: Spin and Core day. The book gives me some spin workouts that making spinning just a little more tolerable. Now a 30 minute spin only feels like an hour of history class with a monotone teacher instead of 3 hours. After spin I do some planks, bridges, dead bugs, etc.
Thursday: My double workout day. In the mornings I practice swim drills and do a combination of swimming and kick boarding activities I get from the book. The evenings I do a tempo run. The first week was hard. I was exhausted from work and working out and eating. I had to do 2 easy miles, then 2 at 7:30 pace (yah sure I did 7:47 on the treadmill) and then 2 easy again. I hated that day more than any day so far. This week my swim went well and for the run I had 1 mile warm up, 5 at marathon pace which is 8:50 , and 1 mile cool down. I ran with my bud Aldo, who is also starting the plan I am using so that is super awesome, and we averaged 9:00 for all 7 miles so we called that a win since there was random ice patches and cars that wouldn't share the road! This run went well!!
Friday: Day off. Yes I get a day off and yes I am taking it. I will eat A LOT and drink a beer and enjoy every minute of it.
Saturday: The "man I wish I didn't eat so much all week before my Long Run" day. Yes this is the long run day. The book gives you different paces but since I am a pace leader for a training group I am sticking with 9:00 minute pace. The book gives two long run plans. One is super easy and the other has 5 - 20 mile days. I am going somewhere in the middle because the easy plan is too easy and I am crazy but I am not crazy enough to do 5 - 20 mile days, are you serious?
Sunday - easy spin warm up or jump rope and strength training.
Then it starts all over.
I am keeping a journal of how I feel, what I eat (this part is only what I eat while working out because they do not make a book that big), and how my workout goes. I am seriously enjoying it so far. Some days I wake up and want to shut my alarm off but I know this is NO WHERE even close to what I will have to do for the full IM so I better get my butt in gear. Actually my IM friends probably do this plan when they are not training, right Mike?? haha!
The one thing I was seriously worried about was being alone for this training. I missed my crazy friends a lot last year while I was out with my hip stress fracture. It has been the opposite. Almost all my workouts I have had a friend join. V came to swim, Mike is there for half of my swims and my speed works, Cory rows while I spin and do strength / core, and Aldo and Michele have also ran with me. My SWRC and Y friends are there on the other times! I think this is good for me. I think this is the start of a wonderful thing! If I could just stop eating! and BEST OF ALL......
NO HIP PAIN!
See you in a few weeks..... :)
