Half Ironman Training Officially Begins….

…. Tomorrow!

I am excited/scared/nervous!  I found a 28 week plan that I am going to work on.  The plan calls for 3 runs, 3 bikes and 3 swims per week.  It’s not going to be easy to fit it all in.  My goal is to do 3 runs (with maybe a 4th one thrown in since I’m also preparing for a half marathon in Feb), 2-3 bikes and 2-3 swims per week.  Also, I’m planning to continue my core class and hoping to find time to fit some yoga in there as well.

This past week was a really strong week for me!  I ran 5 times (I did next week’s long run today) for a total of 48 km; biked twice (once on my trainer and one spin class) for an estimated 63 km and I swam twice for 3150m.  I also did over an hour of strength (core class) and 50 min total for stretchng (which is 30-40 min more than most weeks!).  I’m pretty happy about this.

I was really starting to get worried about my half marathon in February since I have been doing a lot of my runs on the treadmill due to the ice.  Then I looked back to the weeks leading up to last year’s hypothermic half and I was doing a lot of treadmill runs then as well and less mileage/time in total than I am now!  So that makes me feel a little better about it.  I would love to be able to break 2 hours.  I know I can do it, just have to keep training.

In other news, I gained 4.5 lbs over the holidays.  This makes me sad and a little ashamed that I once again, allowed myself to eat pretty much whatever during Christmas and New Year’s.  I also drank a lot of alcohol.  My first week “back on track” resulted in a total loss of ZERO.  I was hungry all week to be honest!  I have pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I will probably be hungry until July!  Also, we had take out last night.  Boo.  I think it’s time to start tracking my food and calories again for a while to get myself back on track.  Luckily, I’m still down 4.5 lbs from where I was in October, so I will just hold on to that and just keep on trucking!