Workout Wednesday – 179 Days to Go

I think I am over my six month slump. I’m back on track with my workouts and feeling good about the almost six months I have ahead of me to get ready for this!

5/18/16

Mid-distance walk/run

We decided to try adding more hills into this workout.  I did four small hills over the course of the workout.  Uphill is a challenge cardio-wise but physically it’s easier in a lot of ways, I don’t have any of the cramping and ankle pain that I normally have when it’s flat, so I can work a lot harder.  I’m excited to do more of this.

5/19/16

Strength Workout

Complete.  Not feeling well, but I got this workout in.

5/20/16

Day off!

5/21/16

Long Walk/Run

I decided to try the trick of using shorter distances (as in – just go as fast as you can to that next thing, then pick a new target.)  I did that and it helped a bit, it definitely made the time go by faster.  My brain decided that each time we reached one of the smaller goals it would think “Got it!”  It seems like that would get annoying but it really didn’t. What did get annoying was that three separate groups yelled anti-fat slurs at me, and a member of the last group threw a plastic bottle (and missed.)  Sigh.

Strength Workout

Complete!

5/22/16

Bike Intervals

This was rough – my legs were still tired from last night’s workouts. I tried using bigger gears and I think I may have overdone it because by the third set of intervals my lower back was killing me and that’s never really happened before.  I also had a new experience – an off leash dog that chased me for quite a while trying to bite me and/or Phyxius.  Good times.

5/24/16

Long Swim

This was super tough.  The wind was blowing pretty good and the current was headed out so I was fighting them the whole time.  Also there were actually little white caps in the chop so often when I would try to breathe a little wave would catch me and pour sea water into my open face hole. Stupid nature. My arms were basically dead by the end, but I finished it. Also, a couple of weeks ago a fish touched me (fuck a bunch of that, it took me like 5 minutes to pull myself together) so now any swim where the live nature doesn’t touch me is a good swim. (So glad that the swim in Tempe is in a lake that nothing could survive in.)

Hard Single Mile

This went fine –  I used it to break in some new shoes which sucks but once they are broken in I’m sure my feet will be much happier.

Strength Workout

Done and done!

5/25/16

Walk/Run Hill Work

I feel great about this workout.  I found a place last week that is perfect for this and therefore worth the drive. It’s a street at the base of a hill, so I start down the street and then every block I turn and go up the hill, then I come back down, walk a block down the street, turn and do the hill again. Last week was supposed to be just to try out some easy hills so I did 4 half hills (half-way up the full hill).  This week coach said to try to go a little farther up the hills. I decided to embrace the suck and go a lot farther. I did the full hill four times, and then 6 half hills.  I did more elevation in this relatively short workout than I will do over the entire marathon in the IM (which isn’t saying a lot, the run course is incredibly flat at IMAZ)

It was difficult and glorious. In a “fun” twist, the hills have the same elevation but different steepness – for the first two the elevation is spread pretty evenly over the full hill, over the next two the first half is relatively flat and then it climbs gradually until it gets really step for the second half of the second half.  At one point it felt like someone was literally pulling me backwards. There were any number of times that I thought I would need to stop and rest, but I set a goal of not stopping until I hit the top of the hills and I met that goal each time which felt really good. I also decided to do the full half hill on the 6th time, even though it meant that I would finish my mileage before I got back to my car – I willingly did extra mileage. Yes, I want a medal for that.

Yup, I’m definitely feeling back on track! Thanks to everyone who sent me kind and supportive thoughts during my slump, I really appreciate it!

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