Two weeks in and I'm already setting time goals - 9/6/14

Okay, so it's been about a week since my last entry, so I'll do my best to recap. Swimming took a back seat to biking and strength training (aka Jillian Michaels' "No More Trouble Zones" DVD). In part because I needed it and partially because my left shoulder was a bit sore. I did some of my shoulder rehab and will have to keep at that as best I can to keep the pain at bay. I did swim this morning though, did 4400 yards and felt slow but okay. Definitely don't want to take another 6 day break from the pool for awhile though. I feel like I loose so much in a very short period of time. From the strength training, definitely need that and will try for 2-3 times per week now if I can. It definitely kicked my butt the first day and my abs were feeling it this morning at practice, so I'm assuming it's working. The DVD takes 45 min to an hour to do, but it's worth it. Fell off the "good nutrition" wagon a bit this week, so I'll have to get back on track there as well.

I did an unplanned bike ride of about 30 miles total (approx. 2 hours) on Wednesday and aside from the lack of power for a ride that long, I did pretty well. Surprisingly, I wasn't all that sore after either. I bought a new helmet and water bottle holder today, so I'm all set there. I just need to get a tire changing kit. Laura said she'd teach me how to change a tire, so I may just take her up on that (or find a video on Youtube) instead of paying $45 for a class at REI. All-in-all, my first ride out on the roads was pretty good. Scary, but good. Getting over the fear of getting hit will probably take some time, if it ever does go away. It'll get better when I can start riding in groups, but I want to be a bit more conditioned before I commit to that.

My watch and heart rate monitor came on Thursday, so I'll get to try that out on my 10 mile run tomorrow. I'm very curious to see where my HR is while I'm running.  I know my resting HR is pretty low (<40 bpm), so we'll see how that impacts my HR during activity. Oh, and I paid off my 3rd of 4 student loans this week, which is a great feeling. Hopefully the last one will be paid off by the end of next summer, if not sooner. I bought some stuff from Fuel Belt yesterday, water bottles and a belt, which will come in handy during long runs and races. I saved 25% on everything because of the USAT membership, which is pretty awesome!

I'll apologize at this point, this entry starts to get a bit scatterbrained.

I started looking up some quotes today on brainyquote.com.
1) "If you can dream it, you can do it!" - Walt Disney
2) "Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will." - Gandhi
3) "Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." - Aristotle
4) "Confidence comes from discipline and training." - Robert Kiyosaki
5) "I am not afraid...I was born to do this." - Joan of Arc
6) "In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure." - Bill Cosby


I'm not entirely sure how realistic they may be, but I put together some time estimates and made some goals for both the 140.6 and 70.3 Ironman distances. They may need some adjusting along the way, but it's important to have some kind of goal in mind.

70.3:
Swim:  0:30:00
Bike:   3:05:00
Run:    2:05:00
Trans:  0:05:00
Total:   5:45:00

140.6:
Swim:  01:00:00
Bike:   06:55:00
Run:    04:40:00
Trans:  00:10:00
Total:   12:45:00

The swim splits I'm fairly confident in, the rest is unknown territory for me. I've never run a marathon or half marathon...yet. I've also never practiced transitions. I also have no clue what kind of average speed I'll be able to maintain on the bike section, so these goals are really big estimates. I'm gonna shoot for 6 hours in the 70.3 and 13 hours in the 140.6 and just see how that goes.

Getting a little ahead of myself, but looking at other 70.3 races I'd like to try eventually, assuming I like that distance. Florida, New Orleans (possibly as a relay with some friends), Syracuse (around my Bday), Timberman, and Austin, TX. I'd also like to try some non-Ironman branded races, like B2B and the Finger Lakes Triathlon.

It would be really cool to do the New Orleans 70.3 as a relay with Brad and Nate since they live so close to there. Maybe in 2016 or 2017. Obviously swimming is my strongest, but I could do whichever specialty they don't want to do or train for. The biking is the most expensive to get started on. I think it'd be a lto fo fun. Maybe Chris could do some if one of the guys doesn't want to do it. (He'd probably just do the running part though).

Some other event goals:
Triangle Open Water Championships: (2.4 mile) - 1:00:00, but realistically under 1:10:00 for where I'm at training-wise w/o a wetsuit.
Rex Wellness Spring Tri: Swim (250 yds) - 3:10; Bike (12 mi) - 00:50:00; Run (2 mi) - 00:18:00; transitions - 04:00. Total time goal 1:15:00.


Training log for the week so far:

	Swim	Bike	Run	Strength	Yoga
M
T			45m		20m
W		2h 0m
T			41m		20m
F
S	1h 20m