Pants (almost) on the ground?

Man, this has been a good clothes week. My pants are all fitting really well! At this rate... if they don't end up on the ground; maybe I'll need some new smaller pants within the next couple of months!? Not like I have time to go shopping. It would really help me to hire an assistant for this year to take care of all the little stuff I no longer have time for like grocery shopping, cleaning, yard work, etc. My little Ella is too short, and too busy being the cutest thing to walk the earth, to do my chores for me. Here is the adorable little Ella I am referring to.

 

This is week 8 of training and this will be the hardest week yet; 15-17 hours of training this week. Last night was an hour and a half run and it was TOUGH. I'd say it was actually my toughest workout yet, and I can't really explain why. I guess I am just tired. I was sick last week so I think that may have played a role, but last night I couldn't get my body to move any faster. We ran about 1 million stairs and tons of hills. I worked as hard as I could but I could feel it last night and today after the run. My body is just exhausted. The next two nights are 2.5 hours each, so if I can just get through those and make to it to my 'easy' (swim) day which is Friday... then make it through the 4 hours on Saturday... then the 4.5 hours on Sunday... then make it through the next 6 months of training like this... it should be smooth sailing!! :)

Here's to 199 days left, and counting, until THE big day!

Training for Ironman is now a habit.

They say it takes 21 days to form a habit, but I have also heard up to 6 weeks. Nonetheless, I am 6 weeks into my training, so I like the thought that training for Ironman is now habit. Good thing too, because this is tough!

We had a building phase for the first 4 weeks, then on the 5th week we bumped down our training hours by almost half. I had to be in Philadelphia for work so I am thankful that trip ended up on the week it did. I only got 7 hours of training in that week, and that was mainly due to working two 17 hour days surrounded by a 14 hour day and a 13 hour day. There just aren't enough hours in the day some weeks!

Last week we started a new 5 week phase where we will continue building our strength and endurance base. I think this last week was the hardest week so far. I put in 15 hours of training. This included 3 hours of swimming, 6.75 hours biking, and 5.25 hours running. Saturday and Sunday consisted of 3 hours and 45 minutes each day!

I am certainly not accomplishing much on my weekends, besides getting my training hours in. If I even let my butt hit the couch for a minute, it's a matter of seconds before I'm passed out. I hear this will get better as my body gets used to this rigorous schedule. I will hope it does.

Overall though, I am feeling stronger and more confident each week that I accomplish more, especially after a week like last week. There is nothing better for the human spirit then to push yourself to limits you never before thought achievable!

My job as a stripper...

An interesting thing about Ironman that may come as a surprise to some; A LOT of people are doing these! Meaning they are not the easiest things to register for. Each Ironman allows approx. 2500 competitors and those slots fill up immediately when registration opens a year prior to the race, the day after the current year's event. One way to guarantee a spot in the registration line is to volunteer at the event. That way you are actually onsite the day following the race when on site registration opens up. The volunteers get in the first line, and are guaranteed they'll get to register for the following year's race.

I signed up to volunteer at the 2009 race in order to be first in line to get registered for 2010. I signed up to volunteer as a wetsuit 'stripper' or 'peeler' which means I got to take the wetsuits off of the athletes after they were done with the swim portion of the race. What a blast!

A fellow 'stripper' took some video that day which included the start of the swim, some of the athletes exiting the water, and also all of us volunteers:



It was also neat that the morning after the race, we were looking at the local Madison paper and low and behold, my 'stripping' partner and I were on the front page!

This is us on the right side of the picture taking the wetsuit off of this athlete. You can tell it's me because that is my leg in the bottom right corner of the picture! I will autograph this picture and send it out for any interested. :)

I was thrilled to be able to partake in the event the year before doing it so I could get a feel of what it was like. Needless to say, it was amazing. The whole time I was standing in the swim exit area, I had a hard time holding back tears. In those few shorts hours I got to see the start of the Ironman swim. I got to see the athletes finish the first leg of the race and be able to help them out of their wetsuits. I was able to be there for at the cut off time (Ironman rules, you have to finish the swim portion of the race within 2 hours and 20 minutes) which ended up being exhilarating then heartbreaking as I witnessed a few people who did not make the cutoff and could not continue on with the day. The Ironman officials actually take their timing chip off and walk them away. I only hope I can train hard enough this season to make all the cutoffs and finish with a big/very tired smile on my face! The picture above is me with my registration form once I finally got officially registered.

More posts coming soon about my first month of training!