Road to Ironman Texas // Update

It's been a while since I posted a training update.  With my little event countdown staring me in the face on the homepage of Where Your Feet Take You I am reminded that Ironman Texas is a mere three months away, and if your brain works like mine that means that you really only have 2.5 months of work left since the last two weeks the hay is already in the barn.  Kind of crazy that it is coming up so fast, in fact this morning I had the little Ironman email in my inbox reminding me that I am only 90 days out.

Despite the fact that I spend most of my training indoors, besides the few runs I've been able to get outside, it has been going fantastic.  When I signed up for Ironman Texas coach Heather and I had a conversation about how I wanted to train for this race.  I wanted to be coached as more than just a recreational age grouper and I was willing to put the time in.  Basically I said give it to me, hit me with it, and I'll make it work.  While we are still in a bit of a base building stage I am really loving the higher intensity and volume that she has been hitting me with.

Swimming

I have been working so HARD at this discipline, and I think I am finally seeing improvement.  Swimming is so frustrating as you work so hard for only a few seconds of improvement per 100 and it takes so long to see that improvement come through.  Coach  has been having me do a lot of kick sets, drills, and we have slowly been working on my endurance.

Here are some of the things I have been focusing on:

• my catch - I like to cross over the mid line in my catch so I have been working on straightening it out
• finishing my stroke - despite the cross over I do have  strong catch but it peters out near the end and I loose all of my power.
• core and butt up - I like to sink... I don't float, so I have been focusing on keeping my core tight and my butt up haha
• my kick - kicking through my glutes and pointing my toes.  Due to my ankle not being very flexible from whatever issues I still have with it from the accident I kick with my toes pointed straight towards the pool bottom.

I am still having good and bad days, haven't had two good days in a row, but I am having more solid and strong days in the week than bad days which I believe is a good thing.  So for now I will keep working my ass off, taking the good with the bad, and remembering that I LOVE SWIMMING.

Biking

Luckily I'm not bored of the pain cave just yet, though I will say I am missing being outside.  I did get some cold weather gear this year for Christmas so I am hoping that in the next couple weeks it will dry out enough that I can get outside.

Just recently I took a new FTP test that went really well, I went from an FTP of 246 to 260.  The piece I was more proud of was that I held the watts steady during the 20 minute time frame compared to other tests where I would dip up and down.

Increasing the FTP from 246 to 260 made things very interesting on my most recent three hour ride.  Lets just say the leg's said "um what the hell are you doing?" Despite that I loved it, it was more of a push and the strength I felt when I got done was amazing.  I am excited to see the gains that come from training at much higher FTP.

So far the longest ride I've had to put in on the trainer is three hours, and it has been manageable.  I do hope to try to avoid having to spend more than 3.5 - 4 hrs on the trainer and can do my five to six hour rides outside.

Besides spending large amounts of time in the pain cave and my FTP increasing there isn't much else to report from the saddle.  I'm just enjoying pushing the limit.  Though I am running out of Netflix shows to binge watch so if you have any recommendations.... I'd love to hear them.

Run

Thankfully running allows me to get outside sometimes.  We had a span of time around Christmas and the New Year where it was just plain old to cold for me to be outside and the snow made it difficult.  The snow is almost gone and even though its been a bit rainy I've been able to pull out most of my longer runs outside, even some have been in the sunshine!

Running is going really well, and I am really excited about it.  Even my runs off the bike are strong.  After such a disappointing marathon at Kona for myself I am looking forward to a bit of redemption at Texas.  On top of my running I've gotten the husband signed up for the Bend Half Marathon again which means he gets to get outside and put the pedal to the pavement.

I have this dream to be able to put together a 3:15 or better marathon at Ironman Texas, so we have been doing a lot of training at my 70.3 run pace.  To run a 3:15 I have to average sub 7:30 minute miles during the marathon;  so I run the fast splits right now and dream about crossing the finish line and the day I can run in just shorts and sports bra.

What else am I up to? 

Besides training I have been working hard on growing my triathlon and run coaching business.  I have touched base on this through my social media and briefly here on previous blogs.  Coaching has been the dream since as long as I can remember, back when I was headed off to college my mom and I had this dream of creating a personal training clinic together, that has morphed into run and triathlon coaching and I couldn't be more excited about it.  I am also super excited to share that Where Your Feet Take You has its own gear, thanks to Wasatch Apparel for helping me design it.  It's bold, bright, and fun and I can't wait to rock it at Ironman Texas.   It is available to the public if you would like to rock it too!!

The rest of the time I just sit around dreaming about summer and keeping my eye on the fact that the days are slowly getting longer and that warm days are hopefully right around the corner. :) This time of year is a tough time of year for me, I miss the sunshine and warmth, but I think that is often a universal thing if you live in the Pacific Northwest.

I'm looking forward to the next 90 days of training on this Road to Texas and the road to being #unstoppable.

CHEERS!!!! Kayla