Good Things Happening

I have had some great workouts the past couple weeks.

I swam 2.8 miles in 2 hours!  The Ironman swim is 2.4 miles with a cutoff time of 2 hours 20 minutes.  My very first blog post was about my swimming expectations (read about it here) and how much trouble I was having with my swimming.  There were 2 reasons I picked Louisville for my first Ironman – 1.  My brother and his family live about an hour from Louisville and 2.  The swim is done in a river with the current (mostly).  I really wanted the river swim because I did not think it was possible for me to make the cutoff time without the aid of the current.  So the 2.8 mile swim, in 2 hours, in a pond without current is a HUGE accomplishment for me!  It is a great mental boost!!! :)

The other big accomplishment was an 81 mile bike ride, my longest ever with an average speed of 16.5 mph on a hilly course.   I started out planning to ride between 50 and 60 miles but, when I got to the point where I could have turned toward home I was still feeling really good so I decided to add on some more distance and included about 10 more miles of hills.  I really wanted to do those hills on tired legs and it was TOUGH!  My initial thought when I got home was “$%^&, I didn’t average 17 mph”, and I was  disappointed at first but, after a few minutes of beating myself up, I was able to appreciate the effort and accomplishment of riding a tough 80 mile course.

A little windy for this ride - check out the flag

I had another great workout day today.  It started with a swim in the pond – 43 minutes, followed by a 62 mile bike ride – 3 hours 39 minutes, followed by a brisk/short walk.  The bike ride began with about 15 miles of hill work, followed by a 20K Time Trial (at very hard effort), then followed with another 32 miles of my choice of route and pace.  The 20K time trial effort was 2 minutes faster than the last time I did this in April (same 20K course).  And in April, when I did it, I only had to do the time trial – no swimming or hill workout prior to the TT.  2...MINUTES...FASTER!!

 For the last 32 miles of the ride I decided to keep the effort “moderately hard” so that I could get done! :)  Getting done is a big incentive to work harder!  My coach has me working on my cadence – he wants me to keep it around 85 rpms.  I normally like to ride with a cadence in the low 90s but, the goal is to build more strength.  So to keep my cadence at 85 rpms, I have to use a harder gear which works my legs/butt more. 

Next up:  The Vikingman 70.3 (half ironman distance) triathlon was on my plan for 8/22 but, since I can’t run right now (2 more weeks until I can try running), I have changed events and am now doing the Aqua Bike at Vikingman.  The Aqua Bike has the same swim and bike distances as the 70.3 (1.2 mile swim and 56 mile bike) – it just skips the running.  I am really excited and looking forward to this race.

And actually I am really excited about everything that is happening with my training right now.  It is going great and I am seeing some awesome results with key workouts.