Since the Ironman I have been pretty lazy on the workout front. Not including this past week, I can count on two hands the number of workouts I have done. I just haven't felt the motivation to get up and run, swim and bike on a consistent basis. I have much preferred going out and drinking wine, sleeping in until 10am on the weekends, and just generally relaxing and being lazy. I've also been spending a lot more energy on my job and have done a bit of travelling as well. This is all well and good, but I don't like the extra 5lbs on the scale, feeling lazy and unfit, and I miss that post-workout feeling!
Last week I decided it was time to put a stop to the laziness and sign up for a couple of races. For me, I need the motivation of a race to get some consistency into my training. I'm a goal driven person. Also, as a good friend recently reminded me, I can no longer use the Ironman as an excuse for not working out ... it was over 2 months ago!
I signed up for Jack's Generic and the Longhorn Half Ironman. Jack's has become our annual "head to head" race. Last year I beat Gordon by about 1:45s. I intend to beat him again this year! I am also very excited about doing the Longhorn Half Ironman in October. It will be Austin's first half ironman distance race and it is going to be awesome. We had originally talked about doing the half ironman in Cancun, but we've decided to spend our money on a trip to Hawaii instead (and we're going to time it so that we can volunteer at the Ironman World Championships = AWESOME!).
So I am back on the training bandwagon, but I'm being careful to ramp it up slowly and not overdo it with 10hrs of working out in the first week! So this week I did 4 workouts - 2 swims and 2 runs. They were hard enough. The running is pretty brutal, I feel like a big fat slowly lazy runner, and in the pool I am working much harder than I used to, to keep the same pace. But I knew that it would be tough starting up again. Sure, I've lost some fitness, but it will only take a few weeks before I get it back and the important thing is that I am excited and motivated, for the first time in a couple of months, to get out there and start training!!!
Weekly workouts:
Tuesday (19-June): Swim 2.6km (1.25hr)
Thursday (21-June): Run 4.7mi (.75hr)
Saturday (23-June): Run 7mi (1.15hr)
Sunday (24-June): Swim 3km (1.25hr)
Total time: 4.25hr
Next week my goal is to add a core workout and at least one bike workout.
