Do you like Sia? Do you like Dancing? Read on!

March Update:

Howdy folks! I’m posting a monthly update on life and training, since I’ve only got the Ironman planned this year, and I wanna fill you in on more than just one race. Read on for a few exciting items.

Yesterday was the 3 year Cancerversary for my mom! Meaning, 3 years ago on March 5, her life changed forever. She was given 2 years to live, and it was a dark time for all of us. Thanks to a lot of perseverance, strength, love, and Epic Experience, we’ve all pulled out of that place and live our lives fully. I am so so thankful and blessed to have my mom for another year. Take that, cancer! She wrote about it on her Caring Bridge Site, which you can find here.

Mom, Dad, and Friends at Hearts and Hope
In other news, even sweaty triathletes clean up nice. February 18th was the Epic Experience Hearts and Hope Gala! This was an exciting culmination of the year for Epic, and I was so honored to attend and be a part of the celebration. I brought 3 of my girlfriends to join me for drinks, auction, and dancing. We had too much fun (thanks to the open bar and getting up on the stage to show everyone how to whip and nae nae… is that even how it’s spelled?) but most importantly, I was able to show my friends why I’m so passionate about Epic as a cause and charity. The entire ballroom was filled with cancer thrivers, along with their friends and family, who had been impacted by Epic. The link in the upper right of my blog takes you to my fundraising site, which is a great way to directly help in sending more people with cancer to an Epic Experience in the Rocky Mountains.





Also, it’s March! That means warmer weather, biking outside, and sweating! Saturday I was able to get out on the roads for the first time this year. I was joined by a couple of people from Foothills Running and Cycling Club, a great organization based in Golden that has supported me and provided me with training partners and friends over the past year. We went for a hilly 55-ish mile ride and immediately ran 2 miles after. The legs, neck, and back always hurt on the first outside ride of the year as you re-learn to recruit all those muscles to balance on the road bike. If any of you have done a trainer ride with me, you know I spend a lot of time with my head hanging between my arms, checking my phone, or sitting up with no hands on the bike and eating food. This doesn’t work outside on the roads.  Not to mention, I was so excited to be outside in the sun, I may have gone out a little bit too hard! Oh well, I’ll learn to pace in the coming weeks.

Test Results! The last week in February revealed a test week in my training. Coach Tess gives me tests every 5-7 weeks to get an accurate marker on how I’m improving and reset my workout zones. Let’s not get any wrong ideas here, the tests are not exciting. I dread them. I dread them so much that sometimes I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach before I do them. Some of them are, to put it lightly, incredibly uncomfortable. But you can’t know your new limits unless you push them. And while the tests themselves can be painful, I am so proud of myself to see the improvements I’ve been making. All of the hard work is shaping me to be stronger and faster. My heart is able to put out more work and my strength training is paying off. The table below shows my results at the start of IM training, and results now. Fingers crossed that I continue to improve and get stronger, I’m gonna need every bit of it for this race in June!

Test Description
Results (DECEMBER)
Results (FEBRUARY)
Swim: 10x100 yards FAST with 10 sec rest. Best average will be taken
Average Pace: 1:28/100 yd
Average Pace: 1:18/100 yd
10 seconds dropped from pace
Run: 2x10 min Tempo (~70% effort) pace will be averaged
Average pace: 9:05/mile
Heart Rate: 182 bpm
Average Pace: 8:28/mile
Heart Rate: 177
30 seconds dropped from pace, HR lower
Bike: 20 min ALL OUT POWER
Average power: 147 Watts
Heart Rate: 189 bpm
Average Power: 166 Watts
Heart Rate: 182
~20 Watts added, HR lower

Excuse the crazed look on my face, I was just super excited to be done!
And here’s my last item. Just for fun, I’m sharing my 10 current favorites from my workout playlist. NEVER underestimate the power of a great playlist when you’re spending hours on the trainer and just need to feel like you can’t be conquered! You’ll notice that 6 of the 10 songs are by Sia, BECAUSE SHE IS MY FAVORITE RIGHT NOW. She sings a lot about defying death, being unstoppable, never giving up, all good things for Cancer Fighters and Ironmen in training. I’d recommend looking up lyrics to a lot of these songs if you haven’t heard them, they speak to me and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!


Thanks for reading, and happy racing! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ironman Boulder 2017

Image
In the aftermath of all of the soreness, hobbling around, and celebrating a job well done with photos, phone calls, and text messages, I'm finally sitting down to reflect on my first Ironman. :) In the two days prior to the race, what I found most surprising was the overwhelming sense of calm I felt. I expected to have butterflies in my stomach and a feeling of dread or fear, but instead, I only felt a desire to dive in (literally). I was so ready to begin my race day journey. On Friday, Mom and I drove up to Boulder so I could get a wetsuit swim in the Boulder Reservoir before packet pickup. The water temperature was perfect, and honestly, that was the clearest water I had ever seen in that lake. Ever. It was nice and refreshing, and my love for open water swimming resurfaced after a long winter of pool swims. We then rolled to packet pickup and athlete briefing, where the officials warned of a weekend with record heat. Even as we sat out there in the sun, I felt relatively calm...
Read more

Moab Trail Marathon

Image
In the bright sunlight and crisp air of Moab, Utah, my calf starts to cramp up. I yelp in surprise, and pause for a second during my unrelenting climb. I’ve been hiking up the “Scorched Earth Wall” for about forty minutes now, and the steep ascent up the cliff isn’t ending anytime soon. My muscles are tired and I’ve already run 14 miles by this point. Somehow, I’ve still got a big grin on my face, especially when I turn to look around. The La Sal Mountains are capped with snow, and below them is an endless stretch of brilliant red rock, cliffs, and plateaus sprinkled with bright yellow aspen trees. I take a deep breath. God, I’m so lucky to be up here. This weekend I raced the Moab Trail Marathon to close out a year of racing for Epic Experience. I use the word “race” loosely, because that really wasn’t the point of this final training milestone. Since becoming a triathlete, I’ve focused heavily on the aspects of becoming as fast and as strong as I could be. This time around, I wa...
Read more

The Grind and How to be Crazy

Image
A recent Monday I came into work and my coworker asked me about my weekend. “It was pretty good, I had a really fun brick workout this Saturday!” He proceeded to say, “I assume every workout you do is fun to you though, right?” “Well, no, some of them really suck. And some of them I just don’t want to do at all.” This was when I got a slight smirk. A smirk that said “I knew you were crazy for training for this Ironman, but you must really be crazy if you don’t enjoy all of it.” Reflecting on the word “fun” is like reflecting on the word “happy”. When I think of the word fun, I think of roller coasters. I think of playing games and laughing. It’s a state of being that, in all actuality, is rather fleeting. Just like how the word happy implies a state of permanence. Am I unhappy? Absolutely not. But I don’t sit at my desk at work all day with a grin on my face. I really felt that this concept was opened up to me by The Oatmeal’s Cartoon: How to Be Perfectly Unhappy. You ...
Read more