Half Iron Training

First today's blog is going to be broken into two totally different subjects.  Triathlons and Running.  

This Monday, Jan 28, I started my half iron training program.  I have been doing a variation of this training program for about a year so I am familiar with the schedule.  The difference now will be the intensity.  My goal is to not only to improve my endurance, but to also improve my speed.  

I plan to incorporate more speed drills and tempo runs/ride/swims.  This is going to be fun.  As always when I go into a new season, I plan out my races and then work backwards from there.  This year, I have actually rated A races.  I have incorporated a couple of sprint tri's as B/C races just to work on transitions and to keep my focus.  

An 18 week training plan can tend to get a little monotonous, but with less intense races scattered, I think I will be able to make it.  I love racing.  

Now about Running.  I have a love/hate relationship with running.  For me running has always been easy.  I can quickly zone out while running.  I never really worked on it.  

I am currently reading "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall.  This book is mostly about ultramarathons and ultra racing.  While I have run a couple of marathons and I enjoyed the challenge, I have not been bitten by the ultra bug.  While some would consider an Ironman an ultra event, I don't.  Not yet anyway.  

While I am finding some of the book very interesting and good, other parts seem to be dragging on.  Way too much background on each person.  I am struggling to finish it.  More on this once I actually finish it.  

Monday Morning

Good morning.  I am one of those weird people who do not really mind Monday mornings.  There are very few things in life that I really dread .  

Last week I took a recovery week and finally went for a run on Friday.  It was great.  I took the weekend off just because it was busy and I had a list of chores a mile long.  Today, I am back at it full force.  I have a 7 mile run at lunch.  It's going to be interesting to see how my legs feel.  To see if I can maintain my normal pace for the entire run. 

I will let you know how it goes. 

Finally Friday

So this is what it's like to take time off.  This week has been really different.

After racing on Sunday, I was really sore and stiff the earlier part of the week so I decided to rest and recover.  No real workouts all week.  I have to say that I am dying.  I have way too much energy and I am dying to get out and run.  

I was able to spin a couple of days but I didn't really spin enough to count it as a workout.  I just wanted to loosen my legs.  It feels like it worked.  As a final wrap on my Disney race, I want to say that I really want to go back.  I feel like this course is great and I also think I can definitely PR the distance there.  I am hoping that I will be able to do the Goofy in 2014.  

Now I am looking forward to my next race.  Tobacco Road on March 17.  I really love this course and am excited to race.  I still feel like I can do much better, so I am going to train even harder and work harder on my long runs to ensure that I do not die at mile 18 again.