Operation Regain Ironman Level of Fitness

It had been way to long since I've both written an entry and also been consistent on my own fitness training. If you remember back in 2012 I prepared for and finished my first Ironman Triathlon, I was in the best shape of my life and in addition to the Ironman also participated in many other triathlons of varying distances and podiumed in several even winning one. That was a very busy year training, eating properly and balancing my personal and work life. Today I still feel that was my best year health wise and since then have significantly declined.

There are many factors into why I fell off a consistent training regimen, over trained by the time the Ironman was over, hadn't prepared for the emotional stress and subsequent depression that happens with training for such an event and family issues which I had put on the back burner. To train for the Vineman Ironman took nearly 20 hours of exercise a week near the end. Yep 20 hours! At that point your personal life is nonexistent and you work, eat, workout, eat, sleep, eat, workout, sleep, work etc.

A typical week for me during the last phase of training looked something like this.


Monday: 1 hour swim, 1 hour kickboxing
Tuesday: RECOVERY, Stretching day, Easy 1.5 hour bike ride/or 3 mile easy jog
Wednesday: 1.5 hours Ladder lap Swim, 35 miles ride with intensity (Los Altos Hills day)
Thursday: Run 6-9 miles, 1 hour strength training
Friday: 1 hour long intervals Swim, stretching
Saturday: 200k bike ride day at 18mph pace.
Sunday: Brick day Swim 30-45 minutes, Run 15-20 miles (increasing each week up to 20)
**I never ran longer than 20 miles before the event even though the run is a full marathon.**

My body composition was the best it had ever been, my average before all the training was 125 pounds and 16% body fat.  I now weighed in at 116 pounds, and had 12% body fat (and yes ladies my thighs rubbed together even then). I was holding a steady 18mph pace for 100+ miles on the bike, and my runs up to 13 miles were averaging 7:30 pace. I felt invincible. I felt GREAT!  I loved all the energy I had, and didn't feel tired during the day.  When it was time to go to bed I was generally falling asleep by 8:30 pm 9:30 at the latest, and out all night. I always woke feeling refreshed and ready to hit the workout again.

After I finished my last event that I had planned that year I took 2 weeks off completely.  I needed it. I allowed myself to sleep in on the weekends (no more wake up calls at 5:00 am), I enjoyed more libations, and tried my best to catch up with friends that I hadn't been able to be in contact with much during that intense training period. That 2 weeks turned into a month, and by that time I was feeling depressed.  I couldn't figure out why. I had an amazing year and was looking forward to 2013 and more triathlons but no longer than a half Ironman, at least that what I was telling myself.

In January 2013 I began my training for another Ironman event that summer. I started off slow due to lack of motivation (still having post race depression issues) so my training would be 2-3 hours a week. Being I had finished such a long event only 5 months prior I should have been able to do more, but I just couldn't. I started having severe IT band issues, and had a pretty bad back blow out in February that derailed me for a month. After recovering from the back injury I was having lots of trouble swimming, and couldn't run for more than 2 miles without a flare up.  Because of this I was frustrated and often would skip my workouts and go sleep or over eat. Before I realized it I was feeling worse than ever.  One day in the pool I was getting tired of touching the side to turn around and decided to practice my flip turn in hopes to be more efficient in my swims and gain back my fire.  Well on my first try I didn't flip over enough and when my feet touched the wall they were way above my head and I pushed off only to have my feet slide up the side of the pool wall in slam into the under side of the pool wall lip.  Instantly I knew I hurt it bad.  But being stubborn and frustrated with my lack of training and motivation I shook it off and kept going for another couple laps.  I finally stopped when during kicking it felt like a toe was flopping instead of being under my control.  I stopped and checked it out.  Oh my!  Let's put it this way I was very lucky I didn't break the skin open on that break. My big toe took the initial hit and was bruised pretty badly but then my second toe was the one that got the bad break.  It was several shades of purple, swollen larger than my nose and the nail was pointing down instead of forward. OUCH!!!

I never went and had it reset as I was too frustrated and foolish to deal with it. Instead I used my broken toe (which I had to wear flip flops for a month because of its size) as my new excuse not to exercise. This went on through the end of 2013, I ate poorly, slept poorly and felt worse by the day.  At my highest I weighed in at 138 pounds and was at 22% body fat. Lets say I was so very disappointed in myself. Through all this, not only was I letting my body deteriorate, but my career was falling to shambles.  I was tired, or sick so much that i was home in bed more than I was at work, or at least that's what it felt like.  What would get me out of my slump? How can I get back to a reasonable feeling me? How can I eat better on a consistent basis, along with sleeping, exercising and the ever important getting myself to work? What would it take?

It took taking care of a very large skeleton in my closet, one that happened back in 2011 and I still hadn't dealt with fully.  The dealing with came in the form of therapy with a licensed professional and doing something to let go.  That letting go came in the form of going to Ireland. Why?  I lost my father in 2011 due to circumstances I still just do not understand. I hadn't let go. I hadn't accepted that he really was gone. I was in serious denial, and turns out that was in itself killing me inside. Over the course of the past 3 years has been a significant change in me, even was noticed in my clients.  During those 3 years I was on a few different cocktails of drugs to help deal with my pain.  What I didn't realize is that they were covering it up and my subconscious was fighting it those years. So needless to say the combination of talking to a therapist, and getting myself off the cocktail and actually feeling my emotions and dealing with them head on had been a huge step for me in being able to move forward in my letting go process. I know the pain will never fully go away but I am much more able to face that reality whereas 3 years ago that wasn't even possible.

So where does that leave me now?  Well I am on a mission to IRONWOMAN 2015. I haven't decided which one, though I would like to get a redo on Vineman 2012.  Not that I did bad for my first Ironman finishing in 12 hours and 46 minutes is a very respectable finish.  Besides its a huge accomplishment to finish those things in day light and I did just that with my amazing Aunt Lori and her best friend Missy waiting right there at the run turn around and then at the finish line cheering me on every lap.  The run down of that event looked something like this...

Swim:  2.4 miles in 1 hour 34 minutes
Transition 1(swim to bike): 8 minutes
Bike: 112 miles in 5 hours 58 minutes
Transition 2(bike to run): 10 minutes
Run: 26.2 miles in 4 hours and 56 minutes

I finished 230th out of a total field of 900 starters, and 9th place out of 29 finishers in my age group.
Looking back on that I feel I would like to go for a sub 12 hour event. It is possible by taking 56 minutes off my run if nothing else.  I have lots of time to take off my run because I walked half of it.  If I prepared myself properly this year and into next I can have a 4 hour marathon and achieve my sub 12 hour goal.  Its possible, and I am going to make it possible.  In order for me to stay on track I plan on posting all my eating, training and sleeping habits here for all to see and comment on.

Thank you for reading and stay tuned for training updates. Cheers!