6 months out

Today is exactly 6 months until Ironman Arizona. To me, this means it is time to face the music. This is really happening!

I've had a great week and am really looking forward to the long Memorial Day weekend. I missed one workout only but made up the time in other stuff.. I know it's not the same thing but oh well. I had to be flexible to accommodate life and I think it worked out fine. The thing I missed was a swim and it was because I'm having this weird problem with my ears. I think the water is getting deep inside my ear and screwing with my hearing. It has been off and on the last couple times and is like a humming or reverberation. It's really annoying. Zach bought me some ear plugs to use but I still skipped the second swim of the week just to be safe. Hopefully the ear plugs help and this problem stops for good! It's not horrible or painful or anything, just irritating. Also it makes my own voice sound very loud to me and I don't like the idea of talking less. :)

Here's the summary of my week so far:

Monday: ST

Weights with Zach at the gym

Tuesday: run

7.0 miles/1:06 ish/9:30 ish pace

This was the day I was supposed to run 30 minutes then swim. Instead I ran for a little over an hour and didn't swim. I ran without my Garmin and just wore a regular watch. I kept the pace really slow and that felt good. I ran into Alisa and Erika with about a mile to go and we all ran over the Steel Bridge together and back up into the Pearl. Yay for Portland runner friends! :)

Wednesday: bike

Spin class/1:00:00

Alisa met me at about 4:00 and we hopped on the bikes and chatted while waiting for the 4:15 class to start. I did my pushups in the meantime too. The class was good but I didn't like the instructor as much. Right after the class we hopped on treadmills for a brick run. It was Alisa's first ever and she rocked it.

Wednesday: run

1.85 miles/15:00/8:06 average pace

I ran the same distance in the 15 minutes as last week! I started off at 6.5 MPH like last time but ended up finishing the last minute at 9 MPH (vs. 8.5 last time) which means I must have not increased the speed as quickly. Whatevs! It was awesome. Alisa headed off to the pool in the gym and I went to meet Zach for masters.

Wednesday: swim

2000 yards/1:00:00

Masters. We did a lot of pain in the ass drills like sculling and catch-up drill holding a baton. Sheesh! Then we did 15 x 50 with like NO rest. We were doing them on the minute. So at first I got a leisurely 5-7 seconds rest but by the end I wasn't resting at all. I got some good tips on my stroke so I was trying to think about that stuff which I think slowed me down! After the class my ears started bothering me again, but it went away by the next day.

Thursday: bike

13.0 miles/51:02/15.2 MPH

Springwater Corridor with Zach. Have I mentioned that the weather has been amazing here lately? We went for this ride after work and it was gorgeous out- 70 degrees and sunny. And it's light here until like 9:00 already. I LOVE IT. Anyway, this ride was great and Portland is great.

Thursday: run

1.0 mile ish/9:00 ?

Zach had a brick run scheduled and it was so darn nice out I couldn't stay inside. I was just going to walk around but I figured what the hell. I ran really easy up and over the Broadway Bridge and met Zach for the run back. I def. picked up the pace when I joined up with him.

Friday: run

7.0 miles/53:56/7:42 average pace

Forest Park. Probably the best place to run in the world. Here's my splits:

8:55

8:00

7:37

7:49

7:30

7:23

6:39

I have to admit that I am probably cutting that last mile about .05-.1 mile short.. the actual mile marker is several feet past this narrow entrance gate, that I can't possibly negotiate at 9 MPH or whatever. And I know I've said that it's a f-ing rippin downhill. Probably like 100 ft loss over the mile. Combine that with the fact that I always like to finish strong, I get going pretty fast. Weeee! The rest of the run is pretty rolling. It's so beautiful though. It's just such a fun place to run. I can't wait to show Maritza!!! (she's coming to visit soon!!yay!!). Here's a picture for reference.

File Photo (it wasn't that muddy today):

Friday: ST
Weights with Zach at the gym

So all in all, a great week. I am loving it. My diet has been really healthy and clean and I FEEL so much better. I've got a plan for the weekend- I'm going to need a lot of food and it's tough coming up with healthy stuff. For tomorrow's long bike ride I will have: oatmeal, banana, clif blocks, clif electrolyte drink, larabar.. and more probably. Then try to stay balanced over the long weekend. I'm going to a party for Deana - she got her LEED certification(!!). It's also the first night of the Rose Festival down on the waterfront so I'm all over that. My goal is to have fun but not overdo it. With our training plans and every thing else going on it should be a fun long weekend. Hope everybody has a safe and fun holiday.