Slow. Very.

I saw a shirt at the half marathon expo last week that said, 'Race Strategy, Start Slow, Then Back Off'. I thought, aha! I can relate. So despite all of the years of training, I'm just not fast. Even when I was training right on schedule and doing speedwork, the best I came up with was 8 minute miles and really my usual pace was 8:30-9 minute miles. I have a lot of fast friends but me, not so much. Those of you that know me from growing up, you probably remember me as a tennis player, not a runner, swimmer or cyclist. That's probably the best I've been in a sport but darnit, I'm just not into tennis anymore so I've rationalized my lack of talent by saying that as long as my paycheck doesn't depend on how fast I am or how high up in a race I place, I'm NOT worrying about it. Have fun, meet new people, see new things and take it all for what it is, a release of stress. The day I get overly concerned about it, it fails to be a stress release and becomes a source of stress which kind of defeats the purpose, no? Don't get me wrong, I can be competitive as a person, just not for running or triathlon. If I stay injury free, meet some cool people along the way and give it the best I've got that day, I'm a happy girl for my races! So sorry to disappoint you if you were thinking this was going to be the blog of a super athlete putting in a million miles at a 6:00 minute per mile pace. I'm SO not your girl if that's what you need to be motivated by and read.

Training. So I was building up my miles for the half marathon and completely got sidetracked with a trip to Malaysia for a few weeks, 12 hour time zone difference and hectic schedule so I must say I didn't get a good training base before the race. Over the training cycle I had just a few long runs - I jumped from 6 miles to 9 miles to 10 to 13 - I know right? My knee was tweaked no doubt because I didn't complete the cycle properly but I went for it anyway. So over the last few months, my weekly runs have averaged 4-6 miles per run with a weekend long run anywhere from 9-13 but again, not consistent at all. I missed a few weekends, missed a few weekday runs, just a mess really. My plan now is to follow a 3 month pre-IM training routine and then enter the 'formal' ironman training 9 months out. Rather than follow pacing for runs, I'm going to try to follow my heart rate zones no matter what the pace. I've tried this in the past but have always gotten frustrated by how slow I have to go to 'stay within my zone' but I'm really going to try to stick it out this time. I've got a forerunner 405cx so I've been using that to track everything, including my heart rate. I've really figured out over the last week that I'm pushing my HR every run, no matter what the distance is so I'm going to also use these 3 months to get my mind wrapped around HR training and give up my dependency on a certain pace that I have to maintain. I'd like to get a good base going following my HR and then right before the 9 month cycle maybe get my VO2max tested to really hone in on the right zones as I enter the new training.

Back to work everyone, tomorrow on my lunch time, I'm going to get my training swimming pool all settled so I can get my pasty butt back in some chlorine.

A quick catch up on training the last week:

Sunday - 9 miles
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 4 miles
Wednesday - 2 miles
Thursday - 13 miles
Friday - 3 miles
Saturday - 45 minutes on Computrainer (just as trainer, still can't get it to function with my computer...)
Sunday - 5 miles

Thanks to my friends for following and the comments here and on FB, I love having the support and added accountability of knowing that people are reading and checking on me. Please feel free to share the blog with anyone you think might be interested - the more the merrier!