Making Progress
Posted by Admin on November 17, 2010 in Training
So I’ve been at this for a week and change now, and while there’s been some weight loss, or so the scale tells me, I’m still seeing an amorphous blob of a trunk when I look in the mirror. I’m also struggling with translating motivation into action, and believe it or not, I’ve not yet ventured into the water because I’m afraid of being mistaken for an orca. Nonetheless, I am doing my runs and bikes, albeit with a fair amount of effort to actually put on my cycling or running shoes. As I see progress, I know I’ll be motivated to push the envelope. It’s just a matter of time.
On a lighter note, after a pretty challenging workout I designed for myself last night on the bike trainer, one that involved a number of slow-cadence hill climbs, my legs felt great this morning when I went out for a 4 mile run. An ability to quickly recover has always been a hallmark, for me, of good fitness, so this is a good omen. On the run, I don’t seem to be able to consistently keep my pace down as indicated by a high heart rate and an obvious high effort level, but I don’t feel the level of fatigue or angst that I felt last week. If I work on literally slowing down and enjoying the scenery, I might have a shot at improving faster. Hard to imagine that running slow would be so difficult.
I’m trying to keep things into perspective. The Ironman is still a full eight months away (and change), so there’s plenty of time for me to get into long course shape. But, this portion of the training season is key for developing a good core and for becoming strong enough to withstand the rigors of 80+ mile rides and 15+ mile runs. Oh yeah, it’ll help with swimming too.
I have all these delusions of what I could do in the race. If the training works out the way that I think it will, I could get the swim done in 90 minutes (hopefully a good 10 minutes less), do the bike in 6 hours (hopefully 30 minutes less), and do the marathon in 4.5 hours (if not faster if I can avoid walking much). That would get me in under 12 hours which would be a HUGE accomplishment for someone like me. It’s all possible, I’m sure of it. I just have to put in the work. Speaking of which, I might as well get on with training. Ciao for now.
P.S. As if finding the perfect woman wasn’t enough, after Roya moves in, she’s committed to cooking me the best foods to accommodate all of this endurance training. We’re sharing websites, recipes, etc. What an amazing person she is.
Subscribe
Follow comments by subscribing to the Making Progress Comments RSS feed.