The Iron Diaries

[emilyj]

Feb 16, 2019 18:43:05 GMT -5 @vtcupcake said:

Dear Diary, 

There are 70 days between now and the next Ironman start line. 

Ten weeks. TEN WEEKS. 

Well, TP says 9 weeks today for me so...yikes?

I had a really good recovery week last week. It feels so counterintuitive to scale back, and I really had to force myself to truly go easy (spoiler, it didn't always happen).  But then I come back in to a build week like the one I just had, and I think "Oh. I get it." We'll see if my next recovery week I actually do go easy on everything. 

This week is going to throw in some interesting challenges. I have to go to an academic dishonesty hearing tomorrow, and the B1G Swimming and Diving championships are shutting down my pool. Which means a) I need to waste 2 fucking hours tomorrow morning dealing with that hearing bullshit, so no normal double workout Monday, and b) I'm going to have to swim in the other pool on campus which is warm. GROSS.  Plus, all my annual review stuff is due at the end of the week.  My coach recently said I should be shooting for 9-10 hours of sleep a night.  

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, ok. I'll get right on that.

However, it's exciting to see that I'm still making gains.  When I did my run on Friday, I realized that not that long ago it was a BFD to be able to juuuuuuuust hit 5 miles in an hour.  Now, I'm regularly running 5.5 in an hour.  This is pretty cool, especially given how weak my run was. 

Now, questions

- Fill in the blanks: Roses are CLICHE, violets are NEVER GOING TO COME BACK BECAUSE IT JUST KEEPS SNOWING , when I think of Ironman, I think of THAT TEXAS COURSE THAT I WILL BE OWNING. 

- What's been your latest favorite workouts in all three disciplines?
The long run.  It always has been, likely always will be. There's just no variety to keep it interesting to me. 

- What's the first bite of food going to be after your next workout?
Let's see. Tomorrow I'm either doing speedwork or a coached session to do run testing after work.  So the first bite will be dinner, which will be Shalane's honey balsamic chicken thighs from her Run Fast, Eat Slow cookbook. 

I'm adding in another question for you - 

Are you planning your kit yet? 

[emilyj]

Clearly, I wasn't reading well last night. I thought you said least favorite workout of the 3, not latest favorite.



Latest FAVORITE:

Swim - any of my speed sets.  Because holy shit, I can't believe I'm currently swimming the paces that I am.  
Bike - The quick and dirty strength sets. Getting off the trainer after an hour and my legs feeling like jello is kind of awesome.
Run - Speedwork ladders - I am so determined to run a whole workout, and not have to walk. I'm getting closer, but I like these kind of runs because it's constantly changing throughout the workout.

Least favorite- 
Long runs
Bike - Eh...not really anything? My coach builds really good workouts for my long rides, so it's constantly interesting.
Swim - Anything with a lot of paddles. The other day he put in 2k of pulling with paddles and I was cursing. A lot. 

[irene adler]

So. Much. Awe at the feat you are undertaking.

And I appreciate and approve of the inclusion of poetry this week.

Roses lull me to sleep
Violets greet me when I get up
When I think of Ironman, I think of you two, ready to F*** shit up.