Road to Kona: Week 1

Officially on my way to Kona!!! Well technically I was on my way when I handed over the credit card and paid for my slot but its more fun to say I'm now on my way since I started training.  In typical triathlon fashion despite my excitement to get started the week decided to blow up a bit and derail my plans slightly. I have a really big project (well a couple really big projects) going on at work right that have been keeping me at work later than I would like and zap my brain power, it really is amazing how worn out you can get after a crazy day at work.  Between traveling, traveling for work, long meetings, and fighting all of the fires at work it was very hard to get all my workouts in this week.

Monday

Lift: 45 minutes Shoulders Run: 5.50 miles

My dad and I returned from our trash the hip ski trip to Jackson Hole Monday morning.  During the trip we both realized we had been going on those for upwards of 15 years , this one was a little bit bittersweet as my dad goes in tomorrow morning to have his hip replaced and it may be a little bit before we get to go on another one.  So in typical fashion we skied until we could barely walk.  I love Jackson Hole, its one of my favorite places to not only ski but just be.  The mountain is amazing (one of the most challenging to ski at), the town is super cute, and it is down right beautiful there.

Since we got home fairly late on Monday morning I had to get straight to work, but since I was at home working it made it easy to get to the gym after work.

I started my week out with a solid lift and run, so even though it had been a full weekend of traveling my training week started off strong.

Tuesday

Bike: 28.8 miles - VO2 Max Intervals at 25 Watts over Threshold

I had a flight to Seattle late that night, after work, so I knew I wasn't going to be able to get a workout in that evening.  So early morning it was for me. I'm working to do two interval workouts and two steady state endurance workouts a week (to an extent).

Today's workout turned out to be a great but brutal workout.  Intervals at about 20-25 over threshold really kicked my butt, especially doing so early in the morning.  I actually thought after the first one there is no way I am going to be able to hold this, and repeat this again and again.  Surprisingly, my body held up and I managed to make it work.

Wednesday

I ended up taking Wednesday off, unintentionally it was just the way it worked out.  I had flown over to Seattle the night before to visit a customer and had an early morning meeting that I needed to try to prep for.  In spirit of trying to prevent becoming to worn down I did not get up early in order to get a workout in, especially since I was anticipating being back home by about 5 pm.  This got slightly derailed since my flight home ended up being delayed and instead of getting home at five I ended up being home around 8 pm.  After a very long day full of meetings I was totally drained and decided to take the night off.

Thursday

Swim: 44 minutes - 2700 yds

Honestly, I don't remember turning my alarm off  this morning but apparently I did. The plan had been to get up and do an hour ride, apparently my sleeping brain had a different idea (I need to start getting a handle on that sleeping brain..).

That evening I had planned to do some legs and follow that off with a swim.  It seemed as though doing legs was on everyone else had the same idea and all the leg machines, squat racks, etc were taken.  Now could I have gotten creative with my workout? Probably, but my brain didn't want to think outside the box so I decided to just head over to the pool early and get a good swim in.

I always find that when I take a week off swimming the next time I swim it goes very well, and this swim did not disappoint.I am not the strongest swimmer, its my weakest discipline, but I am working on it.

Friday

Run: 3 miles

Wahoo!! It's Friday!!

There must have been some sort of cosmic power going on this Friday that made everything a bit on the crazy side.  So by the time I got off work I was toasted, brain totally mush and all I wanted to do was cuddle with my husband and doodle puppy.

But... we made it to the gym and I decided I would do what I could.  I would run as far and as fast as I wanted to, just see what my body wanted to do.  While I didn't get as far as I would have liked it did feel good to spin my legs and I ended up running my way from overwhelmed, cranky, and tired to a much better mood than when I started.  That is one the things I love most about training, is how it can take you to a much better place than you were when you started.

Saturday

Lift: 40 minutes - back Run: 46 minutes - 6 miles Bike: 2 hours - 43 miles (4X15 min FTP intervals)

After my crazy work week derailing my workouts I was excited for the weekend with no plans so I could just hang with the husband and get some really solid workouts in.  The plan had been to do a ride/run brick however I decided that morning that I wanted to go to the gym with the husband, so I switched things around and did a lift and run in the morning and planned my bike for a bit later in the day.

I knew that it would mean my legs would be a bit sluggish for my ride but I really wanted to go the gym with Brandon so I decided I would just make it work.

Had a great lift and since I had only gotten the chance to really put the weight up once that week it felt great to  be able to put up some heavy weight.  I am really looking forward to when the roads clear up because I am getting tired of running on the treadmill. I will run outside in almost all weather as long as I have a safe place to run, and right now with the side walks being completely covered in ice I don't have that.  So treadmill it is..

Later that afternoon I hopped on the bike for a second hard bike workout of the week.  Today I had a long interval workout planned with 4X15 minutes at FTP or just slightly over.  OH MY GOD was that hard! I struggled to hit one of my intervals.  I'm not one to throw up from exercise and I seriously thought I was going to at one point.  Let's just hope that it pays off in about 9 months.

Sunday

Bike: 45 miles - 2 hours 12 minutes

Ahhh Sunday!  The husband wasn't feeling great today so we took it easy this morning.  I like lazy Sunday mornings.  A long low key bike ride was up on the books today to round out my first official week of training.

It seems as though whenever I try to do an easy low key ride I end up accidentally on the hilly route on Zwift.  So I spent the first 45 minutes of my ride climbing.  My legs were a bit tired when I got started.  I could tell that I had worked them hard the day before and honestly after about 45 minutes I had wanted to cut it at 1 hour.  Then that one hour mark hit and something change I remembered the strength that comes when you start to push your limits, when your legs are on fire, sweat pouring off your face, and lungs are burning I was reminded why I love doing this and why I got started.  At that point the second hour went a lot faster and felt a lot stronger.

Totals Bike: 5 hrs 27 minutes - 117 miles Swim: 44 minutes - 2700 yds Run: 1 hr 50 minutes - 14.5 miles Lift: 85 minutes 1 rest day

Despite the derailing that came from work this week it was still a decent way to get started on my way to Kona.  I have 9 months to put together the best athlete I can be, with some stops at Couer d'Alene 70.3 and Whistler 70.3 along the way, and I hope to do just that.

CHEERS!!! Kayla