Friday, June 17, 2011

Week Four 70.3 training check in...

Or maybe it is week 5... Here is what I did this week:

Saturday: Ran 10 miles @ Stone Mountain. First time for double digits in quite a while.

Sunday: Biked 35.3 miles on my new favorite route. Have started to feel more comfortable taking in food and drink on the bike. I also got a bike rack from a friend so no more taking the bike apart to load it in and out of the car. Hooray!

Monday: Off day. CR is off on Mondays now. We are thankful that he finally has a predictable schedule and 2 days off in a row. Previously, his off days might be a Tuesday and a Thursday or something along those lines. It is surprising how much difference he has in his energy level being off two days in a row.

Tuesday: AM 2000 meters. We have another new swim coach. She just got back from spending 5 years in Costa Rica surfing. Ah, youth... PM ran 3 miles and tried to control mild lane sharing chaos with my swim group.

Wednesday: AM 2500 meters.

Thursday: AM 1800 meters. New coach likes breastroke. 1400 of the 1800 meters were breaststroke sets. Lucky for me, I like breastroke too. Let's see if I feel just as bubbly next week if we are doing butterfly sets. PM 20 mile bike ride.

Friday: Off. I had planned to do my long run tonight instead of tomorrow since I have tennis in the morning but there were thunderstorms. I took it as a sign.

Lessons Learned:
I have learned a lot in the past month of training and feel like I have made a lot of progress but I suppose that is the point of training, isn't it? A month into training, I have noticed two things:

1. I am tired.
2. I am hungry.

In looking over my workouts for the past month, I guess I should be tired. I have done more in the first two weeks of June than I did in the entire month of May. The past two weekends, I have not been able to sleep in due to early AM workouts. Once I did get home, I was operating on that workout high to take care of household chores and did not nap as I had intended. It probably is good that this happened because it caused me to look at my training plan and revamp it a bit to allow for more off time. Realistically, there isn't a lot of off time but any little bit will help. I feel a little better rested already.

There are days when I feel like I cannot get enough food. Rather than just mindlessly shovel food in my mouth, I want to make sure it is good food. I can't think of a better time to clean up the diet than now! I am enlisting the help of one of my former boot camp instructors to put together a meal plan for me. he is a nutrition superstar which is just what I need. I am kind of in that frame of mind where I need to be given a road map. I feel like I am exerting more calories than I am taking in and not sure how to compensate for that part of the equation. I can't wait to get my plan and share my experience with you.

So that is what has been going on with me. How has your training been going?

5 comments:

Julie said...

Great job this week!!!!

Tina @GottaRunNow said...

I noticed recently when I ramped up the miles that I was more tired and hungry, too. With the Kona Marathon coming up (6/26), I want to eat right and get enough rest, too. Looking forward to seeing what your meal plan is like.

Detroit Runner(Jeff) said...

I cna't wait to hear your progress. A 70.3 is quite the feat.

Jill said...

Busy girl, girl!! :)
I feel the I am hungry pain you have, I'm shoved my face with food for a solid week after my century last week...and it's not melting off either. bleh. Good job with the training, keep it going strong!!

Amanda said...

I've been struggling with the tired and hungry problem too. The more I increase the miles the more I feel like I need to eat and that's tough when you're trying to take weight off too. Very difficult balance for sure. Hope you get a plan that works for you!

Great job on the training.