Week 9 of training...

One of the most exciting days of the week was Thursday. Why??? You may ask. I know I don't work A LOT, ok I don't work very much at all. But I do "work" almost everyday. For most of you that know me, I don't like listening to people complain or have any type of drama. Well, most of what I do has some of this, though I do try to keep it at a minimum. Even the days where there isn't drama, there are people and when your "job" is to deal with people, you don't want to deal with anyone. Anyway, long story short...I had NOTHING to do on Thursday besides my own training. It was so nice to wake up and know that I didn't have to get anything done before a certain time. I didn't have to talk to anyone that I didn't feel like talking to, it was a WONDERFUL day!

In fact, the weather proved to be nice on Thursday and after a very leisure morning I went for a run. To make the day even better it was a nice aerobic run and I ran somewhere around the 8:40min miles. Ok, again I know what you are thinking. How can this be exciting?? Well, when you do a WHOLE season of Ironman training and do not get faster...then you take into account your whole life of training and realize I was fast..and I wasn't tired when given a lot to do. Maybe it is the fact I have trained pretty much my whole life. I went running as a kid, just so I could be faster...lifting..practicing bball..just so I could be better, faster and stronger. MY WHOLE LIFE. Now I am not so sure how many people have had lives where this has been their entire focus. Again, I digressed, but I changed my training plan to make me "suffer" more. I have been getting faster each week (on the run, no real biking outside).

Today I ran 7 miles at an 8:14 pace with an avg hr of 166. This is above my supposed max that I keep more than 70-80% of my training under. But it was the fastest I have run in the last two years on a 7 mile run. Sad?? Maybe...but as long as I keep getting faster by the time my race comes around I am hoping I am FAAASSSTTTT!

Put it this way..if Kory were at my race he would probably miss me because I would finish the race before he had expected me to (or hopefully before the "slower" people come in). For those of you that do not know, Kory is famous for missing me cross the finish line and begins to worry when "slower" people have finished and I am nowhere to be seen!

Training this week:
Aerobic Run: 1hr 35min (6.91 on the road and 30min on tred)
Anaerobic Run (the focus for the long run this week): 2hr 50min (19.2miles = 8:51 avg)
Aerobic Biking (currently all of my biking even my tempo bike b/c done indoors): 7hr 25min
Swimming: 8,200 meters (I missed my short swim of 1000).

Total of 15 hours plus
45min weights and 1hr30min of additional cardio.

17hrs and 15min of training for week 9/20 of Half Iron training.
(84% of the week was aerobic training)

The exciting part of the week for Pedro is that he starts work tomorrow (Sunday). He went to bed around 7:30pm because he has to get up at 3:00 am to leave by 4:00 so he can be early to work! I packed his lunch which cosists of quite a bit of food:
Yogurt with fresh fruit and a side of kashi cereal
Pastrami Sandwich (with spinach and mayo) on some amazing cheddar roll thing
Sun Chips
two cut up tangelos
bottle of coke
bottle of flavored sparkling water
choc covered pretzels
popcorn
two protein bars
banana

We are hoping this gets him through his first day of work! He is very excited and I can hear him (sniffing lol) while I am writing this so he must still be awake...probably excited for his first day!

Long two days of training...

Yesterday, I decided I was going to do my moderate run and my long swim. So, I headed outside for my run and found a new trail. Once on this new mysterious trail (even though it was cement) I decided to keep running. I looked at my watch and realized I was at about the half-way point of my Long run and should turn around. This is a recovery week so everything was cut down...so the long run wasn't feeling like a loooonng run. In the end I ran about 10miles.

After the run I still had a swim to finish. I decided I wasn't tired so I would go ahead and do my long swim. Again, remember it is a recovery week so it didn't seem too horrible. For the swim I did the following workout:
100 warm up
Main Set:
500 meters
5x100 meters
400
4x100
300
3x100
200
2x100
100
2x50
75
3x25
50
2x25
Followed by a cool down of 400 meters rotating kick, pull and swim.

That was it for yesterday...then today.

This morning I had swim club, where nobody showed up, at 545am. I got my swim of 1500 meters in and showered and went home.

After a brief nap (2.5hrs) I got up at 1030 ate and went to the gym for the second workout of the day. I lifted and had an easy run of 30min.

Went home ate, watched tv, made dinner (to be cooked later) then off to the gym for the third time. This time we had run club. Instead of running outside we decided to take a class. Now, this isn't any class. It is a ridiculous class, which I have taken before and was sore for over a week! I thought maybe my memory of the class was not correct...hmm. The class consists of stations that last 2min for the first rotation and 1min 15 seconds for the second rotation (though I am pretty sure he went over every time!) The stations were as follows:
Bosu ball pushups, switching between two bosu's.
Stepups with a medicine ball and raising and lowering the ball (not slowly either)
Standing on a bosu ball and doing front and side shoulder raises with a cord
Running sideways on bosu balls (which is difficult for me to go towards the left, my weaker leg)
Tricep pushups on a bench
Wall sits on a ball extending one leg at a time (nearly impossible to extend when my left leg stabilizes, but he kept telling me to do it..so of course I did)
Laying on a ball on your stomach and doing rows and reverse fly's (the easiest of all)
Jumping up and down continuously holding a medicine ball overhead
Running from mat to mat
Squat jumping with a medicine ball
Bridging on a ball while rotating legs kneeing the ball, followed by situps

Let's just say it was KILLER...I'm definitely going to be sore. I am not use to anaerobic work and the whole class is spent being anaerobic!
After the class I had tri club...so today I had them do biking. I did the bike with them but as an easy spin for 45min.

Basically, today consisted of 4.5hrs of working out...

Tomorrow may be a full day off since I plan on getting a massage later in the day :)

Riding inside...

Continuing to LOVE Colorado weather...this was today's workout after my two games and lessons.



A fun 2hr ride indoors. Where are good television shows when you need them??

More Picts!

Here are a few more pictures of Pedro in his uniform! I am not in any of them because I am currently the new professional photographer! Polar is very photogenic.

Training...

Long time no posting about my training. I figured the big news was Pedro and his job so I was waiting for his HUGE news before I updated my training.

Training has been going well. I am now on week 7 of training. Starting tomorrow is week 8 and it is a recovery week (I'm excited to get my massage!).

I have changed my training from all aerobic work. I have been doing "true" tempo runs during the week, of short duration, where I run without watching my heart rate. Most of these short tempo runs are done with run club because I have other people to push me. I have also added in some LONG tempo runs and LONG tempo bikes.

Most of my biking has been done indoors, thanks to the wonderful Colorado weather (not so much). I have been doing indoor biking with harder gears and spins. Inside I cannot get my heart rate up high enough to become anaerobic, so I try to get my legs some good strength inside. I have also added LONG tempo bike rides. During these rides, I do my long ride time for the week and do a warm up and then begin gear changes, where my cadence drops to 55 to build strength, then change about every 1 or 2 min to different cadences. So, I go from cadence of 55 to 75 to 90. This helps keep my leg speed up and builds strength while I am inside. I have been doing my full rides inside, even though because they are on the trainer you can do less time. I want to continue to increase my endurance. Currently, my long ride is 2hr 45min.

Running has been going well! I have actually noticed a big change in my speed aerobically and anaerbically. So, to explain a bit more. Every third week I have added in a Long Tempo run. This means that I go for my long run of the week (by myself, without stella to pull me) and I run for time without watching my heart rate. This is a difficult run... this last week my long tempo run was an 8:40 pace for 12 miles. It is not as fast as I was "pre-heart rate" training, but a lot faster than all of last year's running. I have then noticed that I have been getting faster aerobically. Meaning, that I noticed on my heart rate controlled runs, that I am getting faster each week! Currently, my long run is 1hr 45min.

Swimming is going...I am still slow but endurance is doing well. I have been getting all four swims in each week. My long swim is currently 4,000 meters. The race will only be 1,920 meters. I am hoping by over distance swimming I will be able to go faster during the race! I am also doing over distance to help get in more swim time during the week.

I have been thinking about my training and I read other people's blogs and I read this and I wonder if I am working enough:

Fitness and fatigue trend similarly. You may not have thought about this before,
but it is important to understand. There is a strong link between fitness and
fatigue. If you are fatigued from training then you stressed the body adequately
enough to create the potential for fitness. If the workout did not cause any
fatigue at all then it also did not produce the potential for fitness. So, when
fatigue is rising you can expect the same thing from fitness.

So, I am hoping that I am doing enough. There are a few days where I am tired, but overall I am not physically fatigued. Maybe it is the amount of time that I sleep that makes a huge difference??

Anyway, I am hoping to put more updates now and maybe even some pictures!

Our First Pictures!

We now have a camera! Yes, we purchased our very own! Of course our first pictures are of our beautiful children.....
Polar is always giving kisses, so I thought this was a great picture of him!

This is them sleeping together on the sofa, they have to sit next to me when I am on the computer...just in case something exciting happens.

OFFICER MALAVE (as he likes to be called!)

Pedro modeling his new uniform today! As of today Pedro is officially a Ft. Morgan police officer! We spent most of the day up in Ft. Morgan going through his final hiring paperwork. After that we went to pick up the rest of the things he needed for his uniform. There are a million things for their uniforms. Gun belts, things to hold up your belt, taser holster, gun holster, ankle holsters, flash light holsters,radio holster, baton holsters, pepper spray holster...bullet-proof vests, long-sleeve uniform (which you have to wear a tie with), short-sleeve, winter jacket, and finally a stocking cap. He also got one of those police hat's that nobody likes to wear. We also got a holder for his off duty badge.

For his hiring present I got him his flashlight that he wanted (and needed, they do not provide one). It was a very exciting day!

He also got his schedule for working. He starts on Sunday the 22nd of Feb and then has Monday and Tuesday off. He then works Weds and Thurs but has the WHOLE weekend off! The next week it rotates the days off to days on, and days on to days off. Each week it rotates until the middle of March. This is when he will change to a new training officer, but his schedule will always remain similar. They work 4 days a week of 12-hour shifts and then have every other weekend off. His first month is working the 6am to 6pm shift.

We are very excited for his new job!!

Here is another picture in his uniform, we couldn't have Polar in the picture because he was worried about his white hair!