Tuesday-Thursday

Catching you up on a few days of training.  Once my first day was over, and I semi-knew what to expect it was a lot easier to head into my next two days with a more positive attitude.  For instance instead of thinking, "I'm going to drown," instead I thought "when I make it through this I will need some Ibuprofen." A step up? I would say so.  Here is what my Tuesday looked like:


Bike: 60 minutes avearge speed
Run: 30 minutes-easy


I just now realized that you guys don't even know what a half ironman consists of, big blogging mistake on my part!  So I'll break it down for you quickly.


Swim: 1.2 miles
Bike: 56 miles
and if your still alive
Run:13.1 miles, also known as a half marathon


So on Tuesday in 60 minutes, going at a medium pace, I completed about 15.5 miles, using the gym stationary.  Now when I looked up on google "How long does it take to complete a half ironman"  the results were 5-8 hours. Blah. That's quite a long time!  I have work to put in my people.


The run, once my legs remembered how to put one foot in front of the other was pretty average. Coming in at about a 9:40/mile pace I finished the 30 minutes completing a little over 3 miles.


All in all Tuesday was doable, although I couldn't walk very well, I still made it upstairs to my bed without using Brad(my husband) as a walking stick or human carrier.  Promptly after making it up the stairs and brushing my teeth, I was dreaming.


Wednesday


I work at a hospital, where 12 hour shifts are the thing to do.  Unfortuantly that means from Wednesday to Friday I'm working from 7am to 7pm with little time for hours of training.  So strategy is what it's all about.  My pool has open swim from 7-9pm so when I arrived home from work on Wednesday night Brad and I went straight to the pool for day two of swimming.


First things first, wear a swim cap. CHECK (although not pictured I also brought 20oz of water).

 I honestly don't know why I didn't wear it in the first place, it's really quite attractive, yes?


The workout:
Warm Up: 4x100 meters, last 25 of each 100 backstroke
Main: 3x 400 increasing speed with each set
Cool Down: 150 easy, working on form


I have concluded after this swim, that taking lessons in order to better maintain my stroke and breathing would probably be quite benificiary in the long run, and really help me to stay away from that 8 hour mark google said it could take to finish the TRI. Although looking up videos on youtube may have been a good idea, when your swimming you can't really see yourself....surprise!  This is also the reason I have decided I will have Brad film me on my next swim, I know you will all anxiously await that post! All in all, I really felt stronger swimming on Wednesday than I did on Monday, which was a great feeling.  Although it is silly to think I could have improved in one day, I would say my confidence was up, plus Brad was there so I tried to show off by not stopping every lap. After the swim.....I was done!  Can you believe it?  Done for the day with only one kind of workout, pumped I was (Brad made me watch Starwars after we got home)! 


Thursday:  I concluded this day to be my off day, as a meeting for the Groundhog marathon (a Grand Rapids Marathon event) was on my agenda after work, which  meant I would probably not be home until around 9, and since the training for Thursday was supposed to be a long run, I decided to switch up my days so I could do the long run with my squad on Sunday, take Thursday as my off day and pick up Saturday.


Fun life fact that has nothing to do with the TRI, I won tickets from my local radio show on Thursday morning on my way into work for the remodel home show this weekend near my house, which my mother in law and I were already planning to go to. SCORE, I took it as a sign that this was my reward for almost completing the first week of training without giving up.  Thank you for taking the time to read my story, love you all!


xo, Kara

This cutie decided to show up and help to motivate me, so I had to snap a pic. He told me I looked cute in my swim cap so I decided to keep him around if only to pay me compliments when he knows I need them.

I like the idea of adding a recipe a day, which I just made up in the last post.  Hopefully you find it as delicious as I do:)


Healthy Parfait
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt or plain natural yogurt
1 cup mixed berries: I used razzzz and black berries
1/4 cup oats or muesli (which you can find in the cereal aisle near granola)


This is very filling and goes well with a nice green drink, see post from yesterday, for breakfast.