Another Great Week of Training and Beginning of the Apocalypse

I had another great week of training.  There were a few rough spots, as I was making the last of the design decisions for the remodeling project.  I decided I am calling my family room, once it's remodeled, the Den of Iniquity.  I might even have some sort of custom bar sign made for it.  The lamp above is my odds-on favorite.  I considered a ceiling mounted disco ball, but this will be just as nice.

Here's what I did last week:

That is a hefty amount of training!  Coach is scheduling the workouts perfectly, with the right mix of intensity and volume, so that I'm able to recover and move on to the next one.  I had an absolutely fantastic long run yesterday.  The plan was to run 2:20, with most at an easy pace 30-45" slower than marathon pace, and then building last :30 ending at marathon pace.  Right now, based on my fitness, my marathon pace is 9:21.  It was cool-ish outside, and I am still working on holding my run paces down, so I decided to run for 1:30 on the treadmill at home and then head outdoors.  I did 9.1 miles in 1:30 at home for a pace of 9:53, then I headed outside and just started running at an easy lope.  Mile 1 was 9:12, but felt pretty easy, and I knew I would be climbing soon enough, so next mile 9:32.  The next mile has a slight uphill and then big downhill, so I ran another .7 or so of it at an easy 9:16 pace, then turned around and decided now it was time to work harder.  Since I had to go uphill right off the bat, with just a little more work I completed the .7 or so miles 11 sec. faster.  Nice.  Then the next mile with a slight downhill I did in 9:02.  The final mile includes 1/3 mile nice downhill towards home and the rest is flat, so I typically can run it fairly fast, and I did, in 8:39!  So the outdoor part of the run was at 9:05 pace, pretty nice!  A bit faster than marathon pace, but it felt great.

Now mind you, I'd swum 4,000 yards before this run, and Saturday's workout was a :50 run and a 4:00 ride, so that's solid work, I think.  If you just look at the training I did for Friday through Sunday, it included about 26 miles of running, 4,000 yards of swimming, and about 110 miles of biking.  Do those numbers sound familiar?  Yes, that's right, I'm doing an Ironman in 3 days on the weekends now.  In May, I will do it over 2 days at Triple T, and then of course in August in one day at Ironman Canada.  I'd say my training is pretty dialed in at the moment.  Thanks, Coach!

This week I get a bit of a break on the training, although here come the long rides--Sunday is 5 hours.  Yay!  I hope I get that one in outdoors--coach said the same, but I told her no big deal if I have to do it indoors.  I've done that before ;)

This week also begins the formal work on the remodeling project.  We start with the exterior stuff this week, then next week we do the interior prep, and I also start my night class.  The week following the destruction/reconstruction begins.  I can visualize what the room is going to look like now, and I am just so excited about it!  My biggest concern is that the room is finished according to my schedule.  I keep receiving reassurances that it will, but you know how that can go.  I did tell my guy that there is a $500 cash bonus to him if he finishes on time.  This was suggested by my friend, Susan.  What a great idea!  By "finish," though, I mean soup to nuts.  All the pictures are on the wall, all the electronics are hooked up and functioning, all of it.  It means that I can move all my crap back into the room that is now located elsewhere.  The finish date is May 14, the week of Triple T.  I want it finished so I can plan a party!  And party I will after my first major race, I think!  I will still have 2 more night classes after that, but gosh, once that's over it will be like I have almost nothing to do!  NOT!

Oh yeah, I formally registered for Ultraman Hawaii.  Assuming they accept me, I'm going!  I am now starting the process of scouting for my crew.  My dream crew that's first on my list is semi-confirmed--that would make me SO happy!  It's a huge commitment for someone to make to crew for this--I only hope I can make them look good by racing well!

So, my life will begin to spin slightly out of control this week, and I will try my best to hold it together and complete my training and keep my sanity.  But it's only 2 months--I've gone through much larger visits to Hell, so this time should be a relative snap!