Tag Archives: IMCDA

Well would you look at that, today marks day one of a gradual three week TAPER! We have reached taper…uninjured (knock on wood). The past two weeks haven’t been as long in duration as originally planned (life got in the way), but I still got in some solid training.

Unlike last year’s IMAZ training, IMCDA training has consisted of two 20 mile runs, two 2.4 mile swims, three 100+ mile rides, multiple double bricks and the big triple brick. All of which are far more than I got in before because of my knee injury – phew! With that, here’s a look at the past two weeks…and I’m going to abbreviate it as much as possible.

Oh, and more importantly, BIB NUMBERS ARE OUT!

Week 19

Mon. 5/20: Rest

Tues., 5/21: Swim & Competitive Eating

I am continuing to work on my incredible eating skills, including this taco salad that will only set you back $12. Life is good.

Wed., 5/22: Run

Thurs., 5/23: Ride & Run

Fri., 5/24: A Special Visitor

Guess who came to visit… only the most adorable nephew in the world’s best t-shirt ever!

Sat. 5/25: TRIPLE BRICK!!!

Once in the training cycle we complete the infamous triple brick. This daunting day starts in the early a.m. and by the time you’re done, the rest of the world is getting ready for dinner.

While the triple brick (bike-run-bike-run-bike-run) makes for a long day, I actually think it’s quite manageable as you mentally break it up into chunks. Rather than “I have almost 100 miles of cycling and over 15 miles of running to do in one day,” you break it into the chunks and celebrate each chunk’s completion. In fact, the worst part of the day is the fact that you have to load your bike into your car three times for the run.

I thankfully rode with my friend Tom, where we commiserated about the heat and rejoiced in its completion. I felt strong, probably didn’t eat enough, but was happy to have that epic training day under my belt.

Sun., 5/26: Long Open Water Swim

2.4 open water miles with practically no anxiety. I’m happy to say that I think I’ve beat this whole open water anxiety thing!

I’m about to throw my Garmin against the wall as it keeps malfunctioning, so some of this data is an estimate, but I believe I closed out week 19 with:

12 hours and 13 minutes of training:
8,300 yards swimming
109.22 miles cycling 
24.16 miles running

Week 20

Mon., 5/27: Rest

More R&R time with the world’s cutest nephew who demands to hold my finger (well, I may place it there myself)…

Tues., 5/28: Run

This week I struggled to find the balance between training and life, and on this particular day,  life won and I missed a swim.

Wed., 5/29: Ride & Run

Thurs., 5/30: Ride

Fri., 5/31: Yoga & Open Water Swim

Sat., 6/1: Long Ride

Holy mother of all that’s summer. 111 miles in 95 freaking degrees, plus a special guest appearance by the wind. Sure it was heat training, wind training, mind training, yada yada yada. But by the end, I was ready to never see the sun again.

Sun., 6/2: Run

Confession time: I overslept my 2.4 mile open water swim. GAH! But alas, I made it up by getting in 13 miles where my legs proceeded to feel heavy from Saturday’s ride. My body is tired and ready to do this thing.

I closed out week 20 with:

12 hours training:
2,200 yards swimming
135.73 miles cycling 
21.41 miles running
15 minutes yoga

So there you have it. Not a lot of volume, but some solid workouts. Taper here we come!

Happy Running!

The IMCDA training flight has officially taken off and we are now safe to remove our seat belts. Week five was packed with training and personal life balance, but I finally saw a few glimpses of getting back to where I was. From my first group ride back, my first double brick back, Valentine’s Day, birthday runs and more – high five to week five!

Here’s how it went down:

Monday, 2/11: Swim & Yoga

I’ll never get sick of looking at the Club Sport Pleasanton adult, saline pool.

An 800 meter marker in the pool and once again, my swim pace isn’t where it used to be. Maybe it’s my scrawny arms and lack of any shoulder muscles — most likely. I guess we’ll just have to keep working on that. Oh, and 30 minutes of flexibility yoga on The Yoga Studio app.

Tuesday, 2/12: Ride/Transition Run & Strength

I’m back at doing actual workouts on the trainer (not just riding to ride), followed by a 25 minutes transition run.  Later that night: 30 minutes sweating with Nike Training Club.

Wednesday, 2/13: Tempo Run

 

Have to give a quick shout-out to my Oakley TwentySix.2 glasses c/o Oakley. Cute glasses that fit my wide face and actually don’t bounce by running. BONUS: I don’t look like an alien. 

You guys. A TEMPO RUN. And not just any tempo run, but a TEMPO RUN IN A TANK TOP! Whaaaaat? My ankle was curious, my heart was rejoicing and my arms were thankful to be fabric-free! It felt great to push myself and my speed, even if it did mean I was gasping for air. Oh how I’ve missed you, tempo runs.

Thursday, 2/14: Ride & Valentine’s Day

Sure there was an indoor trainer ride in the a.m., but Chicken Face told me to not come home until a certain time as he was prepping a simply amazing Valentine’s Day dinner at home for us.

I’ll leave our Valentine’s Day between Chicken Face and I, but he did surprise me with the medal rack and my hurst burst with glee!

Friday, 2/15: Rest

Sleeping in and relaxing during the evening. A perfect way to chillax from a busy week.

Saturday, 2/16: Double Brick #1

It was far too easy to slip back into my normal Saturday morning, pre-bike routine: wake-up too early, tea, breakfast, messed around on the computer for a little bit and final bike prep. It was my first group ride/double brick back and all went seamlessly.

20 mile ride, 10 minute run, 20 mile ride, 10 minute run. I was tired afterwards, but everything held up leaving a solid smile smeared across my face.

Sunday, 2/17: Long Run

Sunday was Kristin’s birthday celebration where all of us crazies (i.e. her runner friends) met at her place to sip, celebrate and run around San Francisco.

Me, Aron, Kristen, Alyssa, Sima, Kristin, Jess, Angela, Layla, Jojo.

While the rest of the girls ran 10 miles, I was determined to stick to my plan and not do anything stupid as I am building my strength/increasing mileage. I ran the first 3.5 miles with Jojo and Jess (two of my faves) and then ran the rest home by myself as the other girls went on. I waited for them to all arrive back and then what we do best: EAT.

I brought ridiculously easy peanut butter and jelly muffins to the party — you can get the oh-no-she-didn’t recipe here.

I closed out week 5 with:

 8 hours and  55 minutes of training: 
4,300 yards swimming 
 68.41 miles cycling 
 17.5 miles running
30 minutes yoga
30 minutes strength

 Happy Running!

This week, I was reminded the importance of warming-up. You’ve heard it before, warming-up prepares the body for physical activity, gets the blood pumping and can help prevent injury. For me, warming up is paramount to getting my ankle ready for activity that it’s definitely not ready for/used to.

 

I should have smiled for the photo — I AM that person taking a photo of themselves in the gym after all.

For any run or ride, I always do my ankle balance/strength exercise, followed by either walking briskly for five minutes of the treadmill, easy pedaling for 10 minutes on the bike or 15 to 30 minutes of flexibility-focused yoga with my new best friend: my Yoga Studio app. After these warm-ups, I can absolutely telly the difference in my ankle’s range of motion. It’s not to my good ankle’s level, but I’m definitely in a better place for activity. Speaking of which, here’s a look at my slow-but-sure IMCDA Week 2 training:

Week 2

Monday, 1/21: Swim

1,400 yards, with the entire main set using the buoy. At least my pull buoy is pink… it makes it a little easier.

Tuesday, 1/22: Indoor Ride

50 sweaty minutes on the trainer, but guess what… SMASH is coming back! Ah yes, the ridiculous show that kept me company on all of last season’s training rides. Oh Katherine McPhee… I can’t wait until we ride together again.

Tuesday was also when my ankle decided to be a biatch again. Like pain going down the stairs, biatch. Trying to be safe, I pushed out all of my runs until later in the week as the pain went down each day. I have a feeling that going for my second outdoor run and my longest run yet may be the culprit here.

Wednesday, 1/23: Swim & Yoga

More time soaking up the sweet saline pool at Club Sport (hello underwater speakers!) and a bit more time getting with the Yoga Studio app. I’ve been alternating back and forth between the flexibility and balance classes: flexibility to loosen things up and balance to get the neuromuscular strength back in the ankle.

Thursday, 1/24: Indoor Ride & Run

50 minutes on the sweaty trainer and then back on the treadmill to see how the cranky ankle was doing. I was uber-nervous on the treadmill as it was stilly being a pain, but I managed to warm it up enough and get my run in.

This was also the first “Oh dear God did I sign up too soon?!?!” melt-down I had with my coach. He assured me that I’m going to have my highs and lows, and yes, it will take time. But we need to listen to my body, communicate a lot, and it will all be ok. Oh the mental mind-games of training.

Friday, 1/25: Yoga, Run & Strength

A little pre-run yoga to warm-up, and then another outdoor run where I ended up taking the same fateful road. F-YOU MANHOLE COVER!

Later that day, it was time for some lower body and core work. It sounds like a lot, but with the small increments that I’m doing, it was totally manageable. Chicken Face and I even managed to make it to a date night. SCORE!

Saturday, 1/26: Long Ride

An hour and 15 minutes on the trainer is a lot indoors. With Chicken Face insisting that we watch Gold Rush (ugh), I struggled maintaining my zeal. Lola and I later made our way downtown to look at overpriced vegetables at the farmer’s market — it was delightful.

But later that night, the amazingness that was the gut bomb above happened. It was dreadfully unhealthy but amazingly delicious.

Sunday, 1/27: Yoga & Long Run

Hmmm…I wonder why I felt like a sloth on this run? Oh wait. See photo from Saturday (still worth it).

I warmed-up with yoga then went for my longest run yet, 4.7 miles, outside and it was much better than the runs earlier in the week. Still working on my fitness and still not trying to freak out at every twinge, but it was a step in the right direction.

I closed out week 2 with:

7 hours and 9 minutes of training: 
2,875 yards swimming 
46 miles cycling 
10.21 miles running
30 minutes strength
1 hour and 15 minutes of yoga

Do you regularly warm-up? If so, what do they consist of?

Happy Running!

Well, week one of IMCDA training is in the books! It was a chilly week one for California, but nothing too crazy. In fact, I must admit that it didn’t feel so much like Ironman training, but rather a week of completely manageable, yet scheduled, workouts. They were all short in distance and time as I get my ankle (and body) back up to speed.

It’s frickin’ freezin in California!

Week 1

Monday, 1/14: Swim & Long Run

Hot damn it was cold that morning. Shivering on the ledge I took the plunge and just jumped in. Soon I realized that I have a lot of swimming work to do to regain my old fitness and I need to take it easy on my ankle. A majority of the 1,400 yards used the pull buoy.

Also, Mondays (for now) are my long run days to ensure that I have at least one weekend day to spend with Chicken Face. But this “long run” was just 3.5 miles.

Tuesday, 1/15: Indoor Ride

Simply 40 minutes on the trainer, all at 90+ RPM. It still got me nice and sweaty.

Wednesday, 1/16: Swim

Lola is not impressed with these workouts.

1,400 yards with the a mix of regular swimming and the pull buoy. Pretty standard.

Thursday, 1/17: Indoor Ride & Run

Another 40 minute ride on the trainer at 90+ RPM and a 2.5 mile run on the treadmill. Like I said…the turtle wins this race.

Friday, 1/18: Run & Core

With the approval from my PT earlier this week, I got the approval to run outside for the first time in 10+ weeks! I was nervous and frightened that I’d slip and eat in on secret, evil black ice, but alas, I survived 2.5 outdoor miles. But hot damn do I have a lot of work to do. What the hell happened to my speed?

Saturday, 1/19: Long Ride

If only all “long rides” could be an hour on the trainer at 90+ RPM.

Sunday, 1/20: Long Run

As mentioned earlier, all of my long runs are scheduled for Monday. But it was finally a beautiful day and Chicken Face said he’d go with me, so I couldn’t pass it up. We ran 4.2 miles outside, together, very slowly. It was lovely being with him, but the mental games I’m playing on my lack of speed are quite frustrating. Le sigh…patience young one, patience.

I closed out week 1 with:

5 hours and 14 minutes of training: 
2,900 yards swimming 
35 miles cycling 
12.8 miles running   

 How do you prevent getting frustrated when coming back from an injury?

Happy Running!