This isn't my first rodeo of training for an Ironman but life has presented me with an incredible opportunity to take my training up a notch with the professional guidance of my coach, Cait Snow (with the JD crew). Having already qualified for the Ironman World Championship at IMWI last September, this upcoming Ironman is an opportunity for me to remember what it's like to race an Ironman. While I have processed-driven goals for the race (which are keeping me motivated, patient and disciplined with my training), I have no time goals. With ~8,000 feet of elevation gained on the bike and unpredictable weather, my goal is to simply put together a race with the fitness that I've accumulated over the past 8 months and to cross the finish line feeling like I made good decisions for all 140.6 miles.
With my 15th Ironman distance triathlon approaching in just 41 days, I thought this would be a good time to share some feedback on this Ironman journey.
HEALTH
My health is the most important thing to me. Therefore, in order to ensure that my health isn't compromised by my training, I keep the communication going with my coach. She knows when I'm predicting my menstrual cycle each month, I leave detailed feedback on my execution of the workout, weather and any niggles/concerns in Training Peaks for every workout and if I have a concern, I text or email her. I also don't neglect the things that I can do between training sessions to ensure that I can perform well and recover well between sessions. I sleep between 8-9 hours a night, I eat before every training session, I use sport nutrition for every training session, I have some type of recovery snack/meal after every training session. I've learned that I can not neglect daily mobility so I make sure to spend at least 5-10 minutes before every run workout on mobility and strength for my hips/glutes and I spend 5-10 minutes on hip exercises from my PT before bed. I try to get a massage once a month but sometimes it's twice if I am feeling extra tight - prehab is worth the investment over rehab. I've also had several dry needling sessions which I feel really helps my tight spots. There's nothing magic or secret about keeping my body in good health - it's just the daily decisions that add up to optimal health - otherwise, when these little things are neglected, health becomes compromised. I still get my period on a monthly basis, I have not been sick in well over a decade and I haven't had an injury since 2013. I have my share of niggles but in knowing my body, I've managed to keep something minor from turning into something major. This comes with experience as in the past, I wasn't so good at listening to my body. I feel extremely fit, healthy and strong. I do love this feeling but I know it takes a lot of work, commitment and effort and it's not something I take for granted. I constantly remind myself that I only have today - tomorrow is not guaranteed.
DIET
Nothing has changed here. I'm still a lacto-ovo vegetarian (been one for the past 27 years) and my diet consists primarily of real food. With the more frequent training and longer training sessions, I don't see my diet as Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and snacks between but instead, I'm constantly focused on eating to keep my calories up. I incorporate more processed foods like granola, pretzels, salty chips and fig newtons as they are more energy dense foods to compliment the many nutrient dense foods in my diet. I'm a great water drinker, I salt my food and I don't believe in off-limit food. I don't weigh myself or worry about what I look like but instead, I'm focused on how my body performs so food is my nourishment and fuel. Some meals are thrown together pretty quickly but I still enjoy cooking on a daily basis.
TRAINING
I wish I could give a typical training week but my training varies each week. I do a lot of repeated workouts that are familiar and sometimes there will be a minor tweak in distance or effort. Most of my workouts are at or below threshold and if the workout is intense, it's typically short in duration for the interval/workout. So in other words, I don't find my training as "too hard" to complete. The biggest thing is training through fatigue. This requires me to be constantly in-tune with my body and to also trust the training that my coach has planned for me. There are easy sessions built in so I make sure to keep these sessions easy so I can go hard when needed. I am not a slave to my metrics so I use them for guidance. Most of all, training is fun for me. It's an escape from my busy life and I remind myself that training is something I "get" to do - not have to do. When I train, I love it. I feel grateful and thankful for what my body can do and I constantly remind myself that I am in charge of the workout and what I can do during the workout. I try to make everything training session a productive one - not defined by metrics or distance completed but I try to finish each session feeling like I executed the best that I could on the day. My training is challenging but not so much that I am so smashed that I can't function in life. It's actually been a lot of fun to push myself to new limits and I feel my coach really cares about my health and joy for sport so it's a nice mix of workouts that I like and workouts that I need.
I do a lot of frequency with my training (2-3 sessions a day), I have 3 scheduled strength sessions a week that I can do any day during the week (I try to do them on my hard days of training to keep the easy sessions easy), I run three days in a row but never run more than 5 runs a week), I do a lot of brick runs, my longest run so far has been 79 minutes, I swim a lot (4 days a week) and I bike a lot (like - a lot!). My longest bike has been 5 hours.
I have been averaging around 20 hours a week of training for the past two months and the break down typically looks like the following (for reference, here was my last week of training):
-22:18 hours of training
-4:34 hours of swimming (19,390 yards)
-11:50 hours of cycling (191 miles)
-4:28 hours of running (33.7 miles)
-1:15 hours of strength
RELATIONSHIP
Life with Karel is always entertaining but we certainly have our ups and downs when we both train for the same events. The ups include having great workouts and sharing them with each other, being able to train together (mostly biking outside as we often have different swim and run workouts and Karel is too speedy on the run for me to hang along) and to live an active lifestyle together. We hold each other accountable and support one another. The lows include having an off-workout, working through a niggle and feeling overwhelmed with a lot on the daily plate. But the highs absolutely outweigh the lows. There's a lot of communication between us so that we both know how the other is feeling and the upcoming training, day of work and other to-do's that need to get done. There's a great sense of teamwork in our relationship as oppose to you or I need to do this. Campy still gets a ton of attention with lots of walks. We try to include Campy in our training sessions, even if that means one of us walking Campy around Furman when the other one swims or finishing a run workout with a Campy walk. But once our workout is over and we chat about the highs and the lows, it's back to normal life. I try not to bring my training life into my work life so once a workout is over, it's behind me and I focus on the present without dwelling what's in my past. I feel like our training is really working for us and we both see it as something good in our life. We both communicate with our coach to make sure training makes sense - this also helps our relationship so that training fits into our life. For example, next week is our endurance training camp so our training will take a backseat for 4 days so that we have enough mental and physical energy for our campers.
LIFE
Life is busy. Although I put a lot on my daily plate, I try to not overload myself so that I can still have some downtime - even if that means an hour of watching TV before bed between 8-9pm. I turn off "work" in the evening so I can go to sleep with a clear mind, while getting excited about another day of life. Right now I am working on two books (just finished one and writing the second one) but I actually love the combination of training and writing (writing a book is much more demanding that Ironman training!) as it keeps me focused and structured. I still have several nutrition consults throughout the week, coaching athletes and other work obligations for Trimarni so I think of my job(s) as flexible but non-stop. I work 7 days a week. For example, I had my long ride on Friday (5 hours). I woke up before 6am, worked for two hours on the computer, did my ride, worked for another 3 hours, and then went for my evening swim. Over the weekend, I had about six hours of training but worked on the computer for about 12 hours. I am not complaining as I look forward to every day of the life I created. I make sure when I am doing something, I am 100% focused and present. So when I train, it's all about training. When I write/work, I don't think about training. Most of all, training is a compliment to my life - it's not something that takes over my life. It has it's place and I feel my training makes living that much more fun and meaningful.