Well I managed to get my bike workout in yesterday after all.  I did 3 x 20 min pace work holding my heart rate between 140-160bpm with a cadence of 80-85rpm with 4 x 1:00 iso leg drills in between each pace round.  It was a solid workout but it was definitely hampered by my rib injury.  I could only hold a certain position on the handlebars for so long before needing to switch due to the discomfort.  After the ride, I struggled with a lot of pain, to the point that during coaching I could hardly talk above a casual voice which made it a challenge to work with the swimmers.

This morning I feel a little bit better and I'm definitely favoring that side a lot more to keep from aggravating the injury any further.  I think I have learned my lesson that I can't be so reckless over the course of the next year.  With that said, I am now being forced to stall my training and just waiting for my ribs to heal enough to resume all my training.  On the bright side, it will give me the opportunity to re-evaluate my training plan and improve it with more knowledge and information that I am gaining from my research.  I'm still going to conquer and become and Ironman!

So training last week became a derailed mess.  The plan was to get some nice long workouts in on the weekend and also knuckle down with my run training and get my legs back.  Neither of these plans panned out.  The first issue I had to address was the pain I was dealing with in both legs.  My every day shoes were well beyond their lifespan and causing a lot of discomfort in my Plantar Fascia and ankles making running for me incredibly difficult and painful.  So, to combat this I went out and bought myself a new pair of shoes and what a difference!  The pain and discomfort has already subsided after only wearing the shoes a couple days!  I still plan to take a few more days of recovery before I start running back up again.

The weekend was an even bigger mess.  On Friday morning I went to play floor hockey with co-workers before classes started and was having a great time.  Near the end of the game there was a loose puck that me and another player went for and collided.  I got the brunt of the impact right up in my ribs.  The pain was instantaneous and sharp.  For an instant I thought a rib had been cracked but was quickly relieved of this fear when I could still breath comfortably.  All weekend though I couldn't do anything due to the soreness and discomfort I was getting whether I was lifting something heavy or took in a very deep breath.  It is now Monday and the discomfort is still there.  While in class I did take a stretch and heard a pop with a sudden rush of stabbing pain back through the right side of my rib cage where I got hit.  Now I'm sitting hear in more discomfort than I was before and its frustrating!

My goal today is to try and get about an hour in a half bike workout in on the trainer.  My hope is that my ribs won't bother me during the ride and since I'm working on keeping my heartrate lower, I won't have to worry about taking deep breaths.  We will see how it goes.

Yesterday marked the first full day of training on my training calendar.  It was exhilerating to be working out again!  But, I must admit, I am utterly shocked at how out of shape I have become since my race at Steelhead.  As I write, I realize, I don't think I was as ready as I could have been for Steelhead.  I got too soft and lost focus more often then not.  

This time around I feel as though I'm more dedicated.  Getting back to yesterday's training, I started off with getting up earlier than I'm used to (5:00am) and got in a morning ab workout with my new stability ball.  Saying that it was an adventure is an understatement!  I managed to get regular crunches down pat, but when I attempted stability crunch combos, I kept falling off the ball much to the dismay of my neighbors beneath.  To simplify the situation and to stave off getting frustrated so early in the morning I resorted to doing 3 sets of standing russian twists and 3 sets of bent knee v-ups and called it a morning.  

During lunch, I have figured out that on Mondays and Fridays I can squeeze in a quick swim at the high school at which I work at.  The swim, as much as I dread the first shocking moments of cold, felt strong.  I cranked out 1500yds with most of the yardage coming from warm up and drill work.  I definitely need to put more emphasis on my core as my stabilization in the water was not where it could be.  The only crummy part about swimming during this time is how rushed I am to get dressed and grab a quick bite to eat before finishing up the work day.

After school, I went ahead and set the bike and trainer up in the cardio room of the high school.  I got a bit of a boost with having the HS swim team in their working out and blasting the music.  With all the bodies in their though, the heat definitely spiked.  I haven't sweat that much in almost a year!  The bike workout was good overall, but I pushed it too much in the beginning.  The workout mainly consisted of a 10 minut warm up and rolling hills for 45 minutes.  I finished up with 5 isolated leg spins for each leg and a nice 5 min warm down.  With all the sweat I started freezing and fortunately had a spare shirt in the car (what a livesaver that shirt was!)  Time to go and finish work and get my next workout in tonight.....boo for running!

This blog was originally created to chronicle my journey to becoming and ironman.  A journey I began two years ago to honor my late father and to prove to myself that I could do something so physically and psychologically demanding that only 1% of the population would dare try it.  Although I have not posted in a while, the final chapter of my journey begins now.

On September 14th, 2015 I awoke at 5:30am in Madison, WI and joined a quietly growing line of individuals who, just the previous day, took part in the 2015 Ironman as volunteers.  We represented a large chunk of what will be the participants in the 2016 Ironman on September 11th.  At 7:30am, the doors for registration opened and before I knew it, I was standing at a table providing my regristration information and handing over my credit card.  After only a few minutes, it was done.  As of this post I am 350 days away from competing in my first full Ironman.

Since registering, I have been experiencing a flury of emotions.  Everything from excitement, to fear, I plan on being prepared for this race more so then I had been for my previous half-iron distances.  This coming Monday is when I begin to hit my training again with an emphasis on strength work and core work to help in prepping my body for the toll that a full Ironman will take on me.  It will be a long journey, full of twists and all the highs and lows that one would experience, but I am ready.  I am ready for this.  I WILL BE AN IRONMAN.

Training season is off and running! (literally)  This past week I have hopped back on the bike and breaking in the new shoes which I love so far!  I didn't realize how much I missed working out until I was doing it this past week.  I will confess that I am starting off then I did last year but I figured that since I am starting earlier I have the ability to start out a little slower and ease my body back into all the training.

My runs have been fairly short and incredibly slow!  That would be the one thing that is really bothering my right now.  Then again, I have to remind myself that I will start out being out of shape and that it will take a little time to get back into it.  My runs consisted of an easy rolling hills run on Monday, a Fartlek run on Wednesday, and today will be a long aerobic run with maybe some rolling hills.

A lot of changes have happend with regards to my bike.  I have dropped the handle bars/aerobars about 1.5", raised the seat post a few centimeters and I've noticed a huge difference in my positioning.  It's not the perfect aero position but it is certainly an upgrade from how I was positioned at Racine.  It will take some getting used to but I think it will help me with overall speed down the road.  I'm hoping to get a long bike ride in either Saturday or Sunday, depending on when I will have time and the weather.

That's the major update for right now, hopefully I'll have a few more interesting updates to give next week!

So it's been quite a while since my last post.  I have to say that I have enjoyed my off-season to the absolute fullest!  It didn't take me very long to start getting a serious itch to start training again but I forced myself to take more time to really let my body and mind rest.  Getting a chance to watch the Madison Ironman in person last weekend and volunteering drove me to the point that I need to get back to training.  So, here we are, training season has begun again!

Coming off of not feeling well, today will be my first official training day.  Although the past few weeks have been filled with strength training, my aerobic training combined with strength training begins today.  With that said, we will see how long I can go coming off the bug I had over the weekend.

My goals for this upcoming year are fairly straight forward.  First, I want to compete in a couple more triathlons then I did last year.  I would like to do a couple international distances, Chicago Triathlon perhaps?  Second, I want to compete in my first half and full marathon runs.  Not sure which ones yet but will be doing research in the coming days to pick two.  The full marathon definitely won't be happening until next fall.  Finally, my plan is to race the Muncie 70.3 ironman.  I considered a repeat of Racine again but decided that expanding to another race would be a more enjoyable adventure.  So there it is, my plan for this upcoming year!  Will update soon on how I plan on going about succeeding.  Stay tuned!

It's been a few days since my last post so I figured it was time to post some updates on what is going on.  I'm still running on a huge high from my first big triathlon race and am still awe struck at what I am truly able to accomplish.  This past month has given me an incredible level of confidence in what I am capable of.  Now it's time to translate that into eother aspects of my life!

I have now begun to set my sites on next year's races.  I plan on doing a significantly greater load of races then I did this season ( I only did one sprint tri and the half-ironman).  Next year, I would like to do 1-2 sprint triathlons, 1-2 international distance races, and 2 half-ironman races.  I am eyeing the Muncie 70.3 and Steelhead 70.3 races.  They seem fun to me and, most importantly, relatively close enough to where I live.  Gotta make sure to keep things as inexpensive as possible!  With that plan of races semi-set, I managed to layout my upcoming season training plan.  It is still ongoing but I have broken down the next several months into the various training stages for myself.  Next step is to try to begin planning out when to do swim, bike, run workouts within each week and when I will have time to also get weight training/core training in.

Along with my planning out training for myself over the next several months, I have begun reading a really great book that I already am going to recommend to anyone looking to get healthier or wanting to compete in a triathlon.  It's called Beyond Training: Mastering Endurance , Health, and Life by Ben Greenfield.  Very insightful on how the body fucntions and how to maximize your training.  So, for now, my plan over the next few weeks is to continue reading the book, planning out training, and making sure I'm stretching everyday to achieve one of my main goals for this season, which is to gain more flexibility.  Later!