I’m already in Week 3 of Ironman training… I think. I say “I think” since I’m not really sure how to count it – I basically started on Wednesday, December 8, midway through what was supposed to be Week 1 with my new coach. I know some people count it “officially” and blog it and log it and tie it all up with a bow – but I’m not those people.

I’m 31 weeks out from Ironman Lake Placid, which seems like a long time, I suppose… but it’s not. It’s not because I have a lot of work to do in the “off season” to stay in shape, keep the fitness I built during my two half Ironmans this fall, and to gain momentum into the new year.

My training recaps are going to be more consistent as I get into the new year, but right now I’m just trying to balance my life. As December got underway, other things started to take priority. Work is busy, I’m behind on Christmas shopping/prep, I’ve had travel and some side projects going on, and then to top it off my youngest turned 5 this week! So instead of typing up training recaps this weekend, I was busy baking cakes and buying presents.

#priorities

Oooh also I have to confess that I have some fun projects I’m working on in my “spare time” – one is a podcast that will launch pretty soon. I’ve been 80% done with it for… ummmm…. let’s just say for a while. I have to carve out time to get past 80% and wrap up a few things before I can share it with you.

So here’s my pseudo-training-recap for this week, which I’ll break down by sport instead of by day:

I swam:

I had my third lesson/coaching at the SwimBox in Northern Virginia, and it was really helpful. I’ve been learning a lot – correcting form and increasing efficiency.

This week’s lesson was focused on fixing breathing issues – becoming more streamlined and correcting some timing issues with my breathing.

(If you can’t see the video, click here)

See the paddle on my head in the video? I was trying to keep that on the crown of my head while swimming – and then taking a breath. It was tough – I had been lifting my head out of the water and turning in a very inefficient manner. Now I’m practicing just turning my chin to breathe and it’s taking some getting used to.

I have “homework” after the lessons and need to practice tapping my head when swimming and adjusting my breath timing. Fun times!

I biked:

Right now I’m getting things organized with my indoor bike training system between my Wahoo KICKR and TrainerRoad and my Garmin watch – I was a bit of a mess for a while with the gadgetry and every bike workout was syncing twice to Training Peaks. Oops.

I biked on Monday last week for 1 hour & 15 minutes on the trainer, then Saturday night for another 1 hour & 15 minutes. Those were my only two bike workouts this week, and they were very specific TrainerRoad workouts my coach had prescribed.

Yay me for getting both in.

I ran:

Twice I ran – once at track Wednesday night with the running club’s half marathon training program.

I’m coaching the 9:00/mile group again, even though with my weird schedule I can’t get there every week for the track and the long runs. The track workout was successful, but at the end I started to feel some soreness in my groin area. Ugh.

So then on Sunday I did my long run on the treadmill since I was a single mom all weekend. My coach planned 7 miles indoors or 8 outdoors, so here I was, running away watching this crazy kid play Pokemon for seven miles on the treadmill.

He’s so smiley and cute that it made the time go by quicker. The only problem was that he asked me a lot of questions, which are hard to hear when you have headphones on – and hard to answer when you’re running!

The groin issue started again after Mile 5, so I’m going to keep an eye on that this week.

So that’s it – I had one day off planned, and one day off I took that was unplanned. Because…. life.

But hey – working out 5 days a week is not too shabby so I was mostly on track with my Ironman Training plan. After weeks of sprained ankle recovery and general busy-ness taking precedence over my workout time, I’m feeling pretty good about how last week went. I do a lot better when I’m following a plan and have a goal.

My two big goal races for 2017 so far are Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga on May 21, and Ironman Lake Placid on July 23. With other races TBA.

Are you running indoors or outdoors these days?

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