So, just to get everybody up to speed: last Saturday (the 1st) I had a minor bike crash and suffered a minor concussion.  This is the first diagnosed concussion in my life.  I’m sure there may have been times in the past (like when I got checked in the head with a lacrosse stick and blacked out…for example).  But, this is the first time that I have gone to the doctor for head trauma.

I didn’t go to the doctor until a couple days later when I realized something wasn’t quite right.  I had a killer headache and could barely stomach any food.  And yep, my brain got a little scrambled during the accident.

Despite suggestions by a judge and coworkers, I just kept on trucking through the week.  Because I still operate on the rule my parents had when I was a kid: If you are too sick to go to school, you are too sick to go to sports practice.  I, of course, always thought I was too sick for school, but oh so a-ok for sports.  So, if I wanted to keep training, I had to keep working.  So, I kept working.

I had some times where I nearly fell asleep in court.  I had some (many) times where I got lost in a conversation with a client.  I had times where I was just so foggy I didn’t know what was going on.

But, I kept working and I kept training.  Because, in my heart of hearts, I didn’t think the concussion was causing all of this.  I have lamented before my belief that all of my ills stem from dehydration.  So, I thought, ok, this is just me being dehydrated.  This is just me needing a bit more coffee. None of it worked.

And then, this Sunday, I woke up.  And I felt normal.  And I could think again.  And my head wasn’t killing me.  And I wasn’t so tired that I just wanted to lay on the couch all day.  It was pretty amazing to get the normal function of my brain back.

And that’s when I realized I was pretty concussed all week last week.  I probs shouldn’t have been working…or training…but…hey, hindsight and 50/50 and all that.

Anyway, the training was rough this week because I really did want to sleep all week.  And I probably needed more recovery.  Hopefully this week will be better!

Monday

• Recovery Spin: 45 minutes easy on the Trainer
• Abs: 30 minutes

Tuesday

• Run w/ Strides: 5.32mi in 45 min @ 8:27/mi (super hot and humid…)
• Swim Intervals: 3400 m in 85min (WU, CD, Drills, with 10X100, 10X50)

Wednesday

• Bike Tempo Ride: 66min total.  30 min warmup, 30min tempo @ 21.2mph

Thursday: Rest. The training through the concussion started to catch up with me and I really needed the day off…

Friday: Rest.

Saturday: Brick Workout!

• Long ride: 59mi in 3:30 @ 16.8mph.  This was ROUGH.  I was sooo tired, my body just wouldn’t move.  I did a lot of drafting just to get by…
• Brick Run: 3mi in 23:57 @ 7:59/mi.  Since this was run after the long ride, it was about noon and SOOOO FLIPPING HOT.  I seriously thought I might die.

Sunday:

• Longish Run: 7.28 mi in 60 min @ 8:22/mi. It is so surprising to me that (despite my crappy-ass showing at the marathon in march) my easy runs are now consistently at BQ pace.  Makes me confident that I will re-BQ in the fall to solidify a 2012 qual.  As long as my brain doesn’t get in the way.

Totals:

• Time: 11:40
• Run Distance: 15.6mi
• Swim Distance: 6768yds
• Bike Distance: 92.1mi

Now that I’m in my right mind and see that I was impaired last week, I realize I should maybe have been more scared about the circumstances.  Oh well, I’ll know for next time.  Though, hopefully there won’t be a next time.

Anyone else have head trauma stories?

You remember this?  The whole “ironman” thing?  Yea, I haven’t posted about it in 3 weeks…oopsies.  But I have been training…A LOT.  Which is also why I’ve been kinda MIA.  So, here goes updating (in brief) three weeks of training so I can catch up…

The highlights: my first race of the year, my first bike crash of the year, my first concussion of the year.

My training was a little all over the place week 5 and 6 because I had a stomach bug right before my race and missed a double workout day…and then week 6, I missed my 2 hr long run because of the concussion.  So, both of those weeks should have had more like 14hrs of training…

WEEK 4: APRIL 12

• Total Time: 10:32
• Swim Distance: 5301 yds
• Bike Distance: 92.91 miles
• Run Distance: 18.00 miles

WEEK 5: APRIL 19

• Total Time: 11:35
• Swim Distance: 3300 yds
• Bike Distance: 105 miles
• Run Distance: 13.6 miles
• Race: Langley Pond International: 2:40:44…bad swim, great bike, goodish run…

WEEK 6: APRIL 26

• Total Time: 9:52
• Swim Distance: 6124 yds
• Bike Distance: 91.50 miles
• Run Distance: 8.98 miles

You know you have a skewed perception of “a lot of training” when you look at a week of less than 10hrs of training and think “man, what a light week”

Also, I’ve finally started updating the IronPerson page.  Most of the info is in the subpages…with more to come!

And now, I need to go crash so I can get up at 6am for a long ride followed by a 6mi run tomorrow…followed by a make up swim sesh.

It was a testy testy testy week.  Good bye recovery.  Time to work.  In fact my coach’s email last Sunday said “Ready to work?”  Never in my life have I don LT testing (Lactate Threshold Testing).  I usually just run and try to get faster.  All of my workouts are based on speed.  But, not anymore.  The LT test will give an idea of my actual max heart rate and and then workouts will be based off of HR zones. Ideally, by the end of the season, my max HR will go up and I’ll go farther faster with less cardiovascular effort.

So, also, there was no long run scheduled for the weekend, but I had registered for a half marathon in Columbia that I wanted to run.  My coach gave me the ok but it was going to be on top of all the already planned training.  So, I decided to not race the race.  But, to run it, enjoy it, etc.

Monday: Rest…supposed to be a swim day, but I was off in Atlanta getting sworn in to the Supreme Court so I had to improvise.  There was a lot of it this week.  It was frustrating and exhausting.

Tuesday: 40 min Swim drills. Tried to make up the Monday swim that I missed the day before…but the aquatic center was closed.  So I ventured over to my gym pool…and did the 40min drill set…but, like before ended up seasick from the workout.

Wednesday

• 1hr Swim: Benchmark Testing: 2800yds.  Main set involved 100yd repeats that were avged for time.  This time will be used to gage my swimming progress over the season.  This time my BPA: 1:31/100yds. I have no idea what this means.  I have no perspective on swimming times.  But my coach who is a swimmer told me that it was pretty good for a non-swimmer.  So I’m stoked.
• 33min Run: LT Test: Warm up 10min, 8 min all out, 15min cool down.  Avg HR for mid section: 180.  Hit avg pace of 6:59. This was tough.  I did the swim workout right after work.  And I was pooped.  Swimming is my worst discipline so it always exhausts me when I go all out.  So, I took a nap after swimming and headed out at 8pm to do the run LT test.  But, my legs felt

Thursday: Accidental rest. Yea…shoulda been a run.  But, since I would be adding a half marathon to the training plan on the weekend, I decided to give myself a little rest.

Friday: More Accidental rest. Shoulda been the bike LT test…but, I was running late after work and was trying to get the test in between work and leaving for Columbia, SC for the half marathon the next day.  It just wasn’t happening if I was going to make it to Columbia in time to pick up my packet.

Saturday:

• Palmetto Half Marathon. 13.1 mi in 1:47 at 8:12/mi.  This wasn’t a race race…I ran the first 5ish at tempo pace (7:30/mi) and the last 8 at long run pace (8:30).  My legs were not feeling it.  Those first 5 miles should have felt like cake.  But it was ROUGH.  But, I finished with a smile on my face and ready to hop on my bike later in the day.  Success.
• Bike LT Test: 15min warm up, 8min hard, 10min easy, 8min hard, 15min cool down.  Did this on my trainer…wasn’t so bad, but struggled to get my heart rate up.  It’s hard to cycle really hard.  My Avg HR: 161.

Sunday: Long Ride: 48miles in 2hrs 30minutes avg 19.2mph.  This was a great ride!  I went out on a group ride with a bunch of fast dudes and my sole goal was to not let them get away…so I gutted out the first portion of this ride.  They were riding just 33mi-ish and we avged over 20mph for most of the ride (save the warmup).  That is HUGE for me.  I had to draft most of the way to keep up with them, and I sure I could not have pulled at that speed, but, if I keep riding with them, my cycling is bound to improve a lot!  I had to finish out 2hrs and 30 minutes, so I went home and hopped on the trainer for some more time/mileage.  But, it was far slower at this point (hence the dropped overall avg.)

Totals:

• Time: 8 hrs 4 minutes
• Run Time/Distance: 2hr 20min/17.11mi
• Bike Time/Distance: 3hr 20min/63mi
• Swim Time/Distance: 1hr 39min/4500yds

I felt like I was playing catch up all week, with missing Monday and adding a half marathon into the mix.  I’m glad that I’m starting out with a fresh slate this week.  I have a big swim tonight. 3300yds.  Y’all I’ve never swam that much in my life. Eek.  (Meg, don’t mock my wussiness…5K on an easy day?  Sigh. )

So, if you guys miss a planned workout, do you reschedule or just cut your losses and move on? I feel an obligation to complete all of my workouts to the fullest since I have a coach now…I mean, I’m paying him, why wouldn’t I listen to him?

…even in my Ironpersoning decisions.   I know, I’m working to be an Ironman, which despite the usage of the gender non-neutral “man” is a gender neutral adjective/noun.  But, I really prefer IRONPERSON-ING!

I met with my COACH for the Ironman last week.  After an extensive decision making process, I decided to go with a coach here in Augusta who has made the USAT National Team twice.  And, I knew I made the right decision when he told me that when he was training for his last ironman, he would listen to NPR podcasts on his long 6+ hour bike rides. Which is totally what I would do.  Anyone who incorporates NPR into Ironman training is the coach for me.

The big countdown to the race will begin soon, because as of this coming Friday, the race will be 6 months away.  It is the widely accepted rule, the you need 6 months to train for an IM.  So…here we go.  However, given that my marathon is 2 weeks away, and I’m about to hit the taper hard core (hallelujah!) I won’t get official workouts from my coach until the week after the marathon.

And, just a brief recap of my already taperish week (30mi total):

• 3-3-10: 6mi in 49:05 @ 8:10 pace
• 3-4-10: 5 mi, 3mi tempo in 20:57 @ 6:59 pace
• 3-6-10: 12mi in 1:39:00 @ 8:14 pace
• 3-7-19: 6mi trail run in 54ish

And lastly…the big important Ironperson update: the early morning wake up and workout routine.  I’ve finally gotten accustomed to waking up at 6am.  BUT…I can’t quite get myself out of bed to workout at 6am, yet.  I missed swim practice this morning (le sigh, especially since I’ve been challenged by William…), but, I have two more days this week to make it to the pool.  And, honestly, for the next two weeks while I’m tapering, two swim days a week is all I need.  I need to start getting up at 5:30 to make sure that I get to the pool by 6, so hopefully the next couple of days I can start working my way down to 5:30.  Tomorrow, I aim for 5:45.

I am using my early rising this morning productively, if not aquatically.  Foam rolling, laundry, blogging, snuggling…

But seriously folks, if I don’t go to swim practice on Wednesday, please chastise me.  Say nasty things about me.

FINALLY, as a part of my initial coaching meeting, I had to tell my coach what 3 things I wouldn’t give up for Ironman training.  I said: quality time with the fur children, coffee, and being social once a month.

What three things would you not give up?