Halfway

It has now been five months since I started my formal training program for Ironman and I have five more months to go until the race.

My training encountered a few bumps along the way in the first few months but things have been much better since December, when I started working with my "gurus."

I keep a log of my workouts and a running total of what I've done. Here are my totals for the last five months:

Swimming 73,300 metres
Cycling 1275 kilometres
Running 377 kilometres
Weights 43 workouts (each about 45 minutes long)

In the first 3 months of my training, I had almost no cycling in my schedule and swimming was mainly technical instruction rather than distance. Now there is a better balance among the three sports. In the second half of my training program, I will be building even more and I will do much more than these distances in the next five months.

I do get tired sometimes but it's not all because of the training. My working life has been stressful and it's the dead of winter, which, at least for me, is not a high energy period. I am taking care of myself and carrying on.

I feel that things are going well and I am starting to have more confidence that I can do the race. I struggle with confidence so it's nice to feel a glimmer of hope every now and again.

To top it all off, I have lost 18 pounds since I started training and that feels awesome!

Holiday Survival

Christmas can be hard on diets and exercise routines but I am very happy with how things went for me this year. I went into the Christmas season with very high motivation to focus on a good diet and keep my training going. I was faithful with my workouts and I even lost a couple of pounds. On Dec 31, I went to spin class and then quickly rushed home so we could head off to the airport. We went with my dad and his wife on a week long cruise in the Caribbean. We saw Honduras, Belize, and Mexico. The Caribbean is lovely, of course, and the ocean is warm and clean and wonderful. I swam in the ocean in Cozumel and could easily imagine myself doing an Ironman there someday...But I am definitely getting ahead of myself with that thought!

Of course there is food everywhere on a cruise but I ate very carefully and I also worked out every day. The fitness centre on the ship was excellent. I did a couple of spin classes and used the treadmill a few times. Try running on a treadmill on a ship that is rocking in rough seas! Now that's a challenge! One second you feel like you're running up a huge hill, the next second you are slammed into the front of the treadmill. Put that together with constant side to side motion. It's definitely a skill to be learned and perfected. I am happy to report that I did not gain any weight on the trip and I managed to keep my training at a respectable level while we were away. I even swam 100 lengths of the very freezing cold 10 metre pool at our Florida hotel, just to get a little swim in.

I am happy to be home and back into the routine of training and teaching, although the weather here is not quite as nice as it was down there!