Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Raising The Bar

July 1. My friend Mike called today the start of "Over-Training Camp". Ha! Good thing I have a coach to keep me from doing all of Mike's workouts.

I think it's something like 14 weeks til Kona. I'm looking at it as 3 months of training- July, August, and September... Because October will just be 9 days of taper and then race day.

So even though I've been training plenty over the last few weeks, in my head, Ironman Training started today. It's more of a mental shift than anything so far because my actual training schedule isn't yet altogether different from what I was doing leading up to Honu. Although I would suspect that it'll become bigger here shortly.

I'm no stranger to IM training. This will be the tenth time I've trained for an Ironman. I have no idea how many 100+ mile rides I've done over the years. A lot. Last time I trained for an Ironman (Kona 2007) I did eight long rides (95-115 miles) and ran after every one of them.

The thing is though, last time I trained for an Ironman, I didn't have to be a mom as soon as I got home from those long workouts. In fact, I think most of the time I was able to just eat and shower and eat and stretch and eat and then sleep. By myself. So it'll be interesting this time around to see how I do with what will likely be some compromised recovery. Already I've dealt with some of that... like when I do a long run in the early AM hours during the week... I walk in the door all sweaty and thirsty with my heart rate still up above 150 and before I can blink I get handed a baby as my husband is rushing out the door to work. It's like Tag Team parenting around here when I'm training a lot.

Luckily Scott is supportive and understands that this big stuff isn't year round. Though I'll probably owe him every Saturday all winter long so he can surf and play soccer...

Anyway, Nalani and I have a new swim training partner. Just when you start to think you're swimming pretty fast, along comes an ex-collegiate swimmer to serve you up a piece of Humble Pie. Quinn is awesome, in a lot of ways. Nalani met her at the swim race last weekend and invited her to join our AM training sessions. She showed up on Monday and then again this morning. I really like her. But Nalani and I just about died trying to keep up with her. There actually is no keeping up with her. Maybe just trying not to get lapped by her is a better description of what we're doing. It's good though. Swimming with Quinn is raising the bar for me. No getting complacent and thinking my swim is good enough...

Which makes me think about a lot of the other people I surround myself with... I definitely feel some sort of magnetic pull toward people who are faster than me. I like to find them and train with them. They push me. They also make me feel slow a lot of the time, which is okay. When I am constantly comparing myself to the fastest people around, it's inevitable that I will feel "slow". But where's the drive to get faster if you're always the fastest one around?

9 comments:

Rebecca DeWire said...

I am in awe that this will be your 10th IM! WOW!!!!! I know what you mean about the lack of recovery after hard training. I bet you will continue to do awesome with your training since it seems like your body has adapted so well and you have a great coach to make sure you are recovering.

BriGaal said...

Yeah, wow 10 IM's! All those years of experience definitely add up and your body knows what to do.

It's such a small world; when I said on one of your previous blogs that I had been to Hudson to visit friends, it was the Radkewich's, and I saw your friend's with Jody on fb. Her younger sister Katy and I have been friends since we were 7 years old!

GetBackJoJo said...

Wow. 10 IMs. I am seriously, seriously in awe.
But yeah, it is a little harder when you get handed baby with the hr still at 150.!I definitely feel your pain there. A whole new type of IM training! And then you'll have another, and another... (jk).
The good thing about parenting while training and vice versa is that kids don't allow you to TOTALLY and completely give yourself over to IM. They keep you in the real world enough so that you are more balanced. Your partner might not think so,--but well, I think it's true. :)

Lisa T said...

So true that it's good to surround yourself with fast people. I swear there are some people around here that I recognize better from the back!

Molly said...

Wow, what a way to do IM #10 too! :)

Agree with you on the fast people being good for pushing yourself...but that's easy for me since I *am* slow!

Katie A. said...

Good luck with #10 training! You rock! You might have begun to light a spark in me to try a mini tri someday...:)

Angela and David said...

Good luck with the recovery. I think that's a big part of why I keep getting sick. Between work and Zach there is no recovery. I never appreciated how important it was until it bit me in the ass.

And 10 IMs - that's amazing.

Regina said...

10, you said 10, right? Excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor. Geez..I'm just trying to get through my first set of sprints and Oly's while, like you, dealing with motherhood.

You'll do it though. No doubt. Can't wait to watch!

Clare said...

it sounds like IM training is a full-time job! that it's #10 is amazing!