Weekly training summary: Wk7 of Longhorn

This week was week 7 of the training schedule for the upcoming Longhorn half-ironman. The race will be held on Sunday October 7th. It's a 1.2mi swim, 56mi bike ride, 13.1mi run.

So what happened to the first six weeks of the training schedule? Well, a few bits of training here and there but nothing very structured and so I find myself a little bit behind the training plan. But no worries. I'm not trying to win Longhorn, just want to use it as a way to keep training and keep my fitness level high so that I can cruise into Ironman training in Dec/Jan with a much higher base fitness than when I started Ironman training last November.

This week was my first real week of training since Arizona - I actually hit 8.5hrs! For the past couple of months I had been hovering around 4-5hrs per week and just trying to aim for consistency. This week I stepped it up and started working out according to the training schedule. Although, I did skip the 1hr ride + 7mi run this morning, in favour of a 3.3km swim, as I am feeling a slight hint of soreness in my right arch. If you recall, this is what I first started feeling during Arizona training prior to developing a bad case of shin splints. So, with the benefit of hindsight, I stayed off my feet and swum this morning and I plan to visit Performance Wellness this week (if they can fit me in!) and get working on some strengthening exercises.

Highlights of the week:
- Wed. night track workout in 100F heat!
- Tough spin class plus post-spin yoga on Thursday night.
- Awesome hilly ride on Saturday (Fitzhugh).

Hours this week:
Swim - 2h
Bike - 4.5h
Run - 1h
Core - 1h

Truly back into the swing of things ...

Gordon and I raced "Jack's Generic Triathlon" today. It was our first race since the Ironman back in April. Since April we haven't been working out that much - in fact, the first couple of months were very lazy and this past month we have started picking things up again but on a much smaller scale than Arizona training. We're both pretty excited to be back into training and today at Jack's we were reminded how much fun (pain/sweat/hard-work) it is to do a race. The adrenaline, pushing yourself hard physically and mentally, and of course the camaraderie and socializing with our T3 training posse.

Jack's Generic has also become our annual "head to head". Last year I won bragging rights, and despite the fact that I think nearly everyone in our training group wanted Gordon to win, I managed to pull off another win again this year!

Both of us were a couple of minutes slower than last year, but given the lack of recent training we were both pretty stoked to have done so well. I didn't come away with any hardware this year (last year I won my age group) - I ended up 4th in my age group this year, even with the same time as last year it would have only been good enough for 3rd ... it was definitely a tougher showing this year.

It was a fun race and a fun day and I'm even more motivated to get back into full training. We both have a half ironman in early October, so time to get some long runs and long bike rides under our belt!

By the way, I think summer is officially here!

Fast forward to 20th July 2008 ...

Getting back into the swing of things ...

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.

31 is not agreeing with me so far

So I turned 31 on Monday. It wasn't too bad of an experience, really. Had a great weekend in Houston with Gordon, Kate and Tim, then went out for dinner with Austin friends on Sunday night - went to Mars, it was fantastic. I wasn't able to take Monday off from work, but it was a good day. A co-worker brought in a cake for me, and Gordon cooked a delicious dinner. Then we capped off the night by watching a few episodes of Grey's Anatomy, Season I. It was a b'day present from Kate and Tim. I am hooked already!

I flew out to Boston Tuesday morning. The plan was to meet with a bunch of New England customers Wed/Thu, fly to Toronto Thursday night to meet up with my boss, for another customer meeting Friday morning. Then back to Austin.

The Boston trip went really great. Jam-packed with meetings, but they went really well and it was a successful trip all around.

Fast forward to the American check-in counter for my Thursday night flight to Toronto. "Passport please"... blank look from me, then an "oh, shit" as it hit me that I had forgotten to pack my passport.

Can you really believe that I forgot to bring my passport with me? I'm Australian, for gods sake, I travel internationally all the time, how the heck could I forgot my passport???!!!

Well, I did. Apparently turning 31 is not agreeing with me so far.