Return of the Triathlon Nerd

I'm so geeked out on triathlon right now. I am such a dork, I know! I think everyone around me is probably sick of hearing me blabber about triathlon this and that, so now I turn to blog world! First off, bam: I have another Ironman locked into my future! Ironman Lake Tahoe, set for September 2013. John and I were pretty much committed to signing up for IMC 2013, but when Tahoe came on the radar it was totally appealing, especially because the travel situation would be easier... never mind the altitude and potentially freezing water at Tahoe (crap).


I will be talking about some altitude-related blogs coming up so stay tuned... It's funny because everyone keeps saying to me, "Ya better start breathing through a straw in all your training." Sounds logical, but that's not really the way to adapt to the stresses of altitude. But we'll save that for later....

I also signed up for Oceanside 70.3 for next year too. Thank god blogging is free because those two race entries set me back over a grand. The price we pay to suffer together. Thankfully in both those races I'll have John and several of my athletes and friends out there too.

Brought the bikes on our trip to SLO for some epic riding!

But before I get all wrapped up in 2013, let's focus on the present. I've had the biggest race envy from everyone out there who's been tearing it up, but this year I've had to have patience for many reasons. Thankfully, it's my turn now. I get back to 70.3'ing at Vineman in a just over two weeks. It couldn't come at a better time because I feel like I've finally achieved some balance between work, training and "other" life (social, etc), and the biggest benefit of that has been quality training, lots of smiles, and some good recovery (see compex photo, pizza, etc lol).

In the midst of some crazy/fun training days a la Lucho, this is the last big week before taper starts and it's an important one, so I'll share the deets. I've done a handful of key 70.3 workouts -- pain cave to the max because I'm anything but "fresh" right now haha. (Granted I had a couple ez training days last weekend, but that's mostly because I was in Vegas for a bachelorette party, ouch. Btw, what's with Vegas? Even though I was totally the grandma of the group, Vegas still has a way of sucking out all your energy and leaving you feeling d.e.a.d.)

Compex. Recovery. It works.

Anyways, back to the training. Monday was tempo ocean swim/ez spin. Tuesday was a swim with a race-pace main set, followed by my favorite run workout ever: mile repeats. I haven't done mile repeats in a long time, and to be hitting sub-7 miles on a local trail in the heat of the day felt so good and motivating. It's been tough to make a quick comeback after being off running for most of Feb/Mar, but we've taken a smart approach back to running well.

Then yesterday it got even more gnarly: Long bike with 4x30' TTs on 5' recovery with a hard t-run. I've done this workout before, and wanted to do even better this time and really dial in race pace intensity/watts/speed on the TT and then follow it up with a race-pace run. So, the output I had during the TTs was especially pleasing. Let's just say my watts are way up from where they were last year (thanks MTB'ing!) and I felt efficient. Oddly I rode exactly 56 miles, which I didn't plan, and I did it in 2:43, including the easy WU/CD and recoveries. Onto the t-run. It was hot. Good practice because we all know Vineman can be dang hot! I held a 7:35 average pace for just under 10k through the rolling roads around my house. It was a successful workout, minus hydration/nutrition on the run. I got sloppy and didn't carry a bottle with me on the run, well in that heat that got me depleted quickly. Still a successful day, with a nice reward at the end....

I don't often get cravings for this, but when do and I've earned it, I give in :)

Today (Thurs) was a semi-easy day of swim/run. Tomorrow a hard bike/t-run. Saturday is a long race-pace swim and long tempo run, and Sunday is another day of TTs on the bike with a t-run. Oh joy! Actually, I can't wait because for once we have no other plans this weekend so I can just bury my head in the training and then die on my couch!