Breaking It Down

08 Mar 2012 1 Comment

by jnkmiles.org in monthly miles, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , ,

February has come and gone and I’ve finally had a chance to crunch the numbers.

I’ll do my very best to keep it short and spare y’all the long write-up about my every thought, while training, this past month.

Suffice to say, it has a lot to do with the wind, humidity, and “what the hell was I thinking last year when I signed up for this?”

Swimming: 10 miles/ 5 hours 44 minutes

Cycling: 430 miles/ 21 hours 14 minutes

Running: 93 miles/ 13 hours 53 minutes

Core/Weights: 3 hours 7 minutes

Total: 533 miles/ 44 hours 47 minutes

So, with 3 weeks left until we head to TX, it’s FINALLY time to test the waters.

Tomorrow we travel to Covington, Louisiana for our 1st official race of the season…

It’s just a little sprint (I can’t believe I just wrote that) to shake off some adrenaline, work out any transition kinks, and basically get back into the flow of whole process.

And lets not forget, it’s also to have a little fun…..

the whole reason we do this in the 1st place, right??!!

Y’all have a great weekend!

Train Happy, My Friends!

Kickin’ It Off Right

01 Feb 2012 4 Comments

by jnkmiles.org in General BS, monthly miles Tags: , , , ,

Happy Ground Hogs Day!

January is officially in the books.

That means it’s that time again…

Time to look back on the work that’s been done and decide what, if anything, needs to be changed.

So here’s how the month played out:

Swimming: 10 miles/ 5hrs 50mins

Cycling: 299 miles/ 15hrs 04mins

Running: 83 miles/ 12hrs 35 mins

Strength/Core: 6hrs 40mins

TOTAL:  392 miles/ 46 hrs 34 mins

The very 1st thing I noticed, when I was working on these numbers, was the 299 cycling miles.

REALLY?

Apparently I don’t study this often enough, because I was on the bike yesterday and I would’ve CERTAINLY gone another 3 minutes or so to make that an even 300, but….whatever!

My time in the pool has stayed pretty level all year and that’s just how I wanted this winter to play out. There’s nothing too exciting to report other than it’s really nice to already have my swim fitness and not need to get out and work on it.

January was our first race of 2012 with The Louisiana Marathon. While I was thrilled with my results given the set-backs with my quad injury, the recovery was far longer than I anticipated. Truth be told, I’m just now getting back to my former running self. I read somewhere that you should give your body 1 day of recovery for every mile covered in your race. Well, I’m a believer.

There are 59 days until we climb in our wetsuits and walk to the water’s edge in Galveston to take on those 70.3 miles.

I’ve left the kind and cozy world known as base phase and I’m now deep into the 2nd week of the building part of the plan. Why is the 2nd week always the hardest??

The biggest part of February will be miles in the saddle. It’s my goal to build to 150 miles/week by the end of the month.

I’ve got to find my running mojo and so that is a big objective of this month. I’m running a shorter long run and more frequent medium distance runs (6-9 miles) to hopefully regain some happiness out there. I seem to be most comfortable and remain injury free when running between 90-100 miles/month. I’m tweaking my plan, each week, to fit these runs in where they work the best and where I can squeeze the most out of them while still trying to log as many cycling miles as possible.

A tedious task at times, but one that will pay off no doubt.

All in all, I was quite pleased with January. Despite the setbacks, I was still able to get in a lot of work and move on to the next training block. What more can a girl ask for really? ;)

How ’bout you?

Have you taken a few minutes to study the past month…see where you’ve been and made a plan for where you want to go?

Run Happy, My Friends!

Miles and More

10 Dec 2011 7 Comments

by jnkmiles.org in General BS, monthly miles, Reports Tags: , , ,

I’m a few months behind tallying up my miles.

What can I say…Been kinnda busy ;)

Working backwards, this what keep my busy a good chunk of September-November.

November:

  • Swimming: 5 miles/ 2hrs and 49 minutes
  • Cycling: 273 miles/ 12hrs and 58 minutes/ avg pace 20 mph
  • Running: 83 miles/ 12hrs and 39 minutes/ avg pace 9:11
  • Total: 361 miles/28 hours and 27 minutes

October:

  • Swimming: 5 miles/ 3 hrs and 6 minutes
  • Cycling: 274 miles/ 13 hrs and 11 minutes/ avg pace 18 mph
  • Running: 77 miles/11 hours 47 minutes/ avg pace 8:36
  • Total: 356 miles/ 28 hours and 4 minutes

September:

  • Swimming: 8 miles/ 4 hrs and 23 minutes
  • Cycling: 283 miles/ 13 hours and 17 minutes/ avg pace 21 mph
  • Running: 63 miles/ 9 hours and 46 minutes/ avg pace 9:11
  • Total: 354 miles/27 hours and 26 minutes

All in all it appears to be a fairly strong base as I look to ramp things up in January. I should have a nice foundation to build on as I start the 10 week block focusing on 70.3 preparation.

I can definitely tell when the weather started to cool as my run paces improved and distances increased. Just the same, my bike paces decreased and the miles fell off slightly as I finished the season.

My goal was to maintain 4-6 miles/month in the pool during the “off season” and so far, so good. There is really nothing worse than re-developing the “gills” after months out of the water.

I’ve also been training for the Louisiana Marathon which will take place in Baton Rouge, La on 1/15/2012. I’m only running the half, but really needed to focus on working in some longer runs and I’ve been fairly successful at accomplishing that while continuing to average 60-80 miles/wk cycling. I really hope to break 2 hrs, at this distance, this year and so far the majority of my race pace runs have been on target. However, as my legs fatigue this gets more difficult to accomplish. I only hope proper preparation, adaptation, and a good taper/rest the week prior does me right in the long run (ha!).

In the end, it’s really all about 4/1/2012 ….the Half-Ironman.

I’ve grown accustomed to running on tired legs day in and day out. If I don’t break 2 hrs in January I know that I’ll live to fight another day….10 weeks later to be exact.

And that’s when the true pay-off will be felt. Or at least, that’s what I keep telling myself as I run in the cold windy weather, day after day, after spending hours on the bike and/or in the pool.

In addition to logging these miles, it’s been a busy time around here as well. From keeping up with all of you, to playing Santa, to making the really big decisions in my life…like, should I grow my hair out? maybe change the color? :)

AND since I’m still practicing my slide show skills….

Remember…I’m still learning, and I’m short on time, AND I have yet to sync my iPod so the music choices are very limited!

Y’all have a Great Weekend!

August Data

13 Sep 2011 6 Comments

by jnkmiles.org in General BS, monthly miles, Reports Tags: , , ,

Better late than never I suppose.

I have finally gotten  my August numbers ready to share and they explain so much!!!

August was my heaviest in volume thus far this year. When comparing it to July, it’s not hard to see why things went from good to bad as quickly as they did.

  • Swim: 11 miles (July 6 miles)
  • Bike: 339 miles (July 280 miles)
  • Run: 81 miles (July 53 miles)
  • Total Miles: 430 miles (July 338 miles)
  • Total Time: 37 hrs 20 mins (July 24 hrs 24 mins)

While this week my mental mojo has returned, the week prior was awful. I had lost my zest for training and quite frankly was wondering if I even wanted to race in October. I KNEW something was up.

My pulse was normal, I was sleeping fine, but I was having trouble hitting my numbers during workouts and I was becoming increasingly evil. Not to mention, my hormones were all jacked up.

A girl can tell these things you know. And so can her husband! ;)

So I cut back on the long sessions a bit, decreased the intensity a smidge, and went back to 1 full rest day a week.

Guess What?

I felt better almost immediately.

This sport requires so much tweaking and one of the biggest thing we all have to realize is that if it isn’t working, it needs to be fixed and needs to be fixed sooner rather than later. I was headed down a dark road. Luckily I’d been there before, recognized it and knew to correct it ASAP.

Now I’m back on track and feeling great!!

3 weeks till race day!!

Train Happy, My Friends!

Looking Back

04 Aug 2011 10 Comments

by jnkmiles.org in General BS, monthly miles, Reports Tags: , , ,

This week I’ve been reading everyone’s monthly training summaries and decided that I too, should be keeping up with this data.

I mean, I keep up with it. I log and track everything! But I tend to review my training data after a race and I really think that may be too little, too late. A monthly review will allow for any concerns to be identified and corrected before they become BIG issues. Then new goals can be set for the next month, reviewed, and so the process goes.

Plus, it’s just plain fun to see how may donuts DailyMile says you’ve burned to date!

Here’s what kept me busy in July:

  • Swimming: 6 miles
  • Running: 53 miles
  • Cycling: 280 miles
  • Total Mileage: 338 Miles
  • Total Time: 25 hours 24 Minutes

At first glance I thought, “huh, kinnda slacking a bit this month.”

Then I stepped back for a moment and took a few more seconds to recall the month as a whole.

I had a mid-July race and while I normally wouldn’t taper for a sprint, I had been unable to work in any reduced volume days because the block was only 5 weeks long. Since I hadn’t enjoyed a break in over a month and it had been so hot & humid, I went ahead and cut my mileage back a bit before the race to give my body a chance to recover.

Then, the actual event itself proved to be a Suffer Fest of epic proportions. It took close to a week to fully recover from racing in the heat and humidity of south Texas. There was not a lot of training going on upon our return to Mississippi.

Despite all that, I managed to put up solid numbers on the bike continuing to gradually build my base so that come January, I’ll have a nice foundation as 70.3 training jumps into high gear.

My run is suffering because of the heat. I hate to train in the evenings and when I’m forced to wait until 8pm or later, I just don’t do it. Once we get some cooler weather and I can get in some lunch runs or even my morning back to back run/swim sessions then I’ll feel a bit better.

Which brings me to my Short Term Goals:

  •  increase my running mileage by 10% without any focus on pace until it cools down
  • now that school is back in session, return to swimming at least 12 miles/month
  • average 105 cycling miles/week

Lets see how I do….

Till next month

and by the way… 541 donuts since February!

 

Swim Happy, My Friends!

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