Ironman Training - Training with Bambi

During our Spring Break Vacation, we headed to the Happiest Place on Earth, Disney World!  This time we stayed at the Wilderness Lodge.  The first thing I asked the person checking us in was a running map.  Basically there is a path from the Wilderness Lodge to the Fort Wilderness Campgrounds.

The first morning we woke up, my coach planned out a bunch of drills.  So we warmed up and found the dirt trail that followed the waters edge of the Seven Seas Lagoon.  We did a bunch of A-Skips, High Knees, Quick and Short Intervals, Cariocas, and a bunch of other stuff.  And in Disney Magic, Bambi decided to join us.  So glad that I brought my phone :)

During Midweek, Coach Danielle scheduled a 90 minute easy run, which turned out to be a 2 hour tour of campers and deadends as I got lost in the Campgrounds of Fort Wilderness.  It was interesting seeing all the RV's that were parked and one day I plan on owning one!  At another section people had pitched tents.  The campgrounds is located in a large area and your not driving your RV once you park, so you have an opportunity to rent a golf cart which I saw many of.

I finally got a swim in at the pool.  It was early enough not to be interrupted in the pool.  A few kids slide down the slide and ran back up to the top to slide down again.  I got a chance to do a little open water swim since there the pool was shaped like a small pond.  No lines to follow so I had to work on my sighting.  I sort of made circles going back and forth.

During my last run, I found my self not noticing the Cast Members Only sign and found myself in a fairly wooded area for about a 1/2 mile until I noticed some parked cars.  I thought this was interesting.  I just happened to be in the "backstage"  So this is where the Cast Members park their cars for work.  Before I knew it, I was passed the curtain and into the front stage for the show.

Overall we walked at least 8 miles per day at the parks and I ran about 25 miles during this stay.

Staying at the Wilderness Lodge is a good choice if you want to run around with some trails.

Ironman Training - Longest Outdoor Bike Ride - April 5, 2014

It's been 2 weeks since my 50K, and I am so glad that I have a coach to dial back my workouts so that my body can heal and recover.  Normally, I would keep pushing and trying to beat my previous time or distance.  This time, I messaged my coach and gave her an update on how my body felt and if anything hurt.  Coach Danielle Sullivan from IronFit Endurance adjusted my schedule, moving the workouts around.  During my 50K I slipped and got whiplash, so my neck was stiff.  She moved my recovery swim to this week.  I know that if I attempted to swim, I would probably not be able to swim for another week.   After my 50K, my foot did not hurt until a few days later.  So she had me do easy spinning on my bike, and eventually I got to test my foot this past Thursday.   The foot felt good, almost 100% and enough to run for 3 miles.

With the the help of Champion Performance, they released some trigger points and broke up some adhesion in my neck and foot, that helped me a lot.  My body feels so much better and more prepared to workout.

I remember when I started out running, I was totally clueless,  I would run through pain, have bad form, workouts alone about 99% of the time, and did many crazy training ideas that no one should do.  Fast forward to 2014, I have a coach, a team of health professionals, supporting family, and more friends who are endurance athletes that I can talk to.  Not sure knowing what I know now would have made a difference in 2014.  What I do know is that I have a lot more friends who are getting healthier and fit because I decided to sign up for the 2008 NYC Marathon.

Getting back to my longest outdoor ride of 2014, my guess that with each month, I will get to say that this is my longest ride of 2014 :)  I was a little anxious about riding today, since it was misty last night.  The roads got drier by the time I headed out this morning.  I rode around my hilly neighborhood, getting lost and making a few u-turns because of dead end streets.

Plenty of shifting, getting use to the aerobottle between my handlebars, and testing different nutrition.  Today, a combination of coconut water, heed and ice for my hydration.  For food, I tried the HoneyStinger (Strawberry) and Nature's Bakery Fig Bar (Blueberry).  No belly issues today!  Usually I don't have GI issues in general, and my coach wants to make sure I am prepared!

I was concerned about the saddle, and the Cobb Plus seemed to be good.  I've been trying out different saddles and riding outdoors versus on the indoor trainer makes a difference.  We shall see when the rides get longer and longer.

Based on my stats today, it will take me 7 hours and 45 minutes to finish my bike portion of the Ironman.  Working on getting that down to 6.   29 miles in 2 hours, now I can beat the Kenyans!

Wipe down the Tardis and off to be the taxi for the kids!

Ironman Training - Bike Handling Clinic

Today, I got to ride with my coach.  She invited a few others to be part of the group ride, including Irene.  This is actually the first time I ever rode with other triathletes.  It was a different experience.  I was really concerned about crashing into any other riders. As in the beginning of the ride, my wheel got caught in a pavement groove and down I went!

We did 2 loops around Hecksher State Park.  It was nice and flat and there were headwinds and tailwinds on the ride.  

It felt so much easier to pedal than it does on the indoor trainer.