June is for storing Hay

I debated about blogging in June.  No race reports.  Nothing exciting.  It was just about filling the barn with hay...as Meredith reminds us in her ironman journey.  It doesn't matter how fast you fill your barn compared to others.  It's about doing it, day in and day out, at your pace, without injury, all the way to race day.  So I decided to reflect on my stats because sometimes the mundane routine requires reflection so we just keep moving forward with the reminder of how far we have come.

It's kind of jaw dropping when I looked at my June mileage.  I have no sports background. But whatever I bite into,  I never let go for sure.  The finishline is UBER important to me. Childrearing was a serious endeavor for 18 years.  I gave it my all and worked full time.  I was super involved in everything and then it stopped because my job was done and suddenly, I had a lot of time on my hands.   I picked up tennis.  I took a couple classes at a Jr. college and I was horrible and so was the teacher according to Marcus who played in HS.  He took me to a nearby tennis club and I became obsessed and gave it my all for 4 years.  I took lessons, competed in singles and mixed/women's doubles and grew fast but I plateaued and didn't feel the reward any longer.  I felt every loss like a stab in the eye.  I had to move on.  I found it was healthier to compete against myself in triathlons.  Physically, it was better to have variety.  My feet are always a problem.

Now when I think I have plateaued, I can reflect on my Training Peaks and Garmin stats.  I am meticulous about logging details so I can compare notes. It's so nice to visually see the improvements when I feel like I suck at everything.

During June I averaged 15 hours a week of Swim/Bike/Run time.  I swam a average of 5.6 miles per week (combined with pool drills and open water), biked 130 miles per week (combining flat and hills), and ran about 16 miles a week.   I started getting a little ankle pain midmonth so Julie turned up the bike and turned down the run.  In five days, all was good and I am now back to painless running.

	avg wk miles	Ttl Miles	Ttl Hours	time allot
swim	5.6	22.44 mi	13.5	23%
bike	130	523 mi	34	60%
run	16	55 mi	10.5	18%

Of the 3 disciplines, I think Swimming makes me the most crazy.  It reminds me of tennis.  The tiniest improvements are made  in the slowest rate of time. What's worse is that gain in technique can be lost overnight without realizing it!  My swimming pace has slowed.  I put in the miles, the time, the drills but something happened.  It all seemed good but not when Mason videoed me at the Swimlab.  His best analogy was that swimming is like Whack-a-Mole.  Check off one problem and another one pops up.  Solve that one and the old problem comes back with a friend...UGH!!!  He showed in video that I had basically forgotten my entire one-time lesson and then added a breathing problem I didn't previously have. Good news... I'm improving again.  Bad news...this is going to cost a small fortune but I am committed long term.  I have to visually see my issues otherwise I'm drilling incorrectly and that's a waste of time.  I also learned that my technique isn't really all that bad but because I'm so fearful of not finishing, I don't give my all.  I just won't increase cadence unless threatened by Julie as she hovers over me.  So I bought a wetronome called the Finis tempo trainer pro, so I can hear a beep when to enter my hand in the water rather than singing the merry-go-round song which is apparently too slow for me!  It allows speed changes up to 1/4 of a second!

http://www.swimsmooth.com/finis-tempo-trainer-pro.html

I'm hoping this will  be my swim buddy coach cracking the whip audibly so I can improve cadence.  I haven't received it in the mail yet but it sounds promising for July's improvement.  The Aquabike full is July 26 and I would really like to have a good swim. In three years, I have never been proud of my race swim time. If all is not perfect, all my swimming wheels fall off and I feel like a duck out of water.  It will be crowded and warm so that will be a distraction but hopefully I can find my rhythm with a quicker cadence once I get some space.

The highlight of my month was watching online Alexis Barnes finish her first Ironman at CdA. I was so happy for her.  She was so calm at the club meeting that it calmed me for my Full Aquabike!  I cried reading her blog as I could visualize the finish chute and the exhilaration of accomplishment.  I hope we see each other on the IMAZ course so I can feed off her mojo so I make it to the finish line too!  The best part about IMAZ (besides Mike Reilly calling me an Ironman) is there are so many TCSDers there to cheer you on.  It's gotta be easier to accomplish this goal in a mass of supporters!