I had to do a lot of switching around my workouts this week to accommodate a weekend getaway where I rode on Florida mountains.  Yes you read it right, Florida has a few, small hills and riding them was part of my Under Armour What’s Beautiful Challenge.  I’ll be writing more about that soon enough …

But because we would be away on major training days in this IronMan journey, my whole training week was a juggling act.  I did get the key stuff done. I told a friend recently that IronMan is not a race you can cram for.  Endurance has to be built step by step over a long period of time.  IronMan training is then a test of patience and discipline for someone like me who has trouble staying the line.

Good news is that I now believe I can finish this thing where last November, when I signed up for the race, the thought of completing it seemed daunting.  However, the thought of finishing in about fourteen hours, my goal, still seems out of reach.  I am SLOOOOOOOW and I seem to be SLOOOOOOOW in all that I do.  But I know that just because I can’t do something now, it doesn’t mean I can’t do it tomorrow if I continue putting in the work and trust in my Wolfpack training!  Unless of course I get a flat tire and all timing goes to hell!

My training isn’t monumentally long yet, but I am doing them to the best of my ability here it goes:

Monday: SPINNING. This was more a traditional class but I kept the bike heavy and practiced hill climbing.

Tuesday: RUN. 50 minute tempo run which is proving to be my most difficult training.

Wednesday: SWIM. 2 mile open water swim, choppy water but good training.

Thursday: LONG RUN. 13 miles in the midday Miami heat.  And I don’t mean basketball … I finished at 12:30pm in the sweltering sun.

Friday: It was meant to be a swim day but between weather and packing for our weekend getaway it never got done.  Unplanned but welcomed rest day.

Satuday: BIKE. 50 miles in the hills including the Sugar Loaf Climb (I DID IT!!!) and several other climbs that made this a challenging but fun ride.

Sunday: BIKE. 30 miles.  I had to take advantage that we schlepped 5 hours in  car to get to these hills so I road again, doing repeats on Sugar Loaf and on another hill  around there.

Downers this week were I only had one swim as I am prioritizing the bike, and strength training? Oh yeah … not yet. Maybe, hopefully, someday.  But positives are outshining the negatives right now, and that is fine by me.

How about you? How was your week?