And it Begins - Ironman #2 Training

And It Begins…..

So, I’m at it again. Training started yesterday for Ironman New Zealand: Race Date March 7 2015. Gone are the mornings of sleeping in until 5:30 and going to bed late at 9:30 J And I couldn’t be more excited or nervous.

 

Things to be excited about:

• We’re going to New Zealand!
• Kelly (BFF) is in New Zealand!!
• Kelly’s family is coming to the race site to spend the whole week with us and cheer me on!!!
• Tanner and I get to stay and explore NZ for an additional 2+ weeks with Kelly and her boys!!!!
• OK, enough about NZ and Kelly. Can you tell how excited I am about that – I’m typing faster just thinking about it.
• Attempting Ironman #2 and getting it in the books – hopefully a tick faster than IM #1.
• After giving birth to a child, pretty sure I’m invincible or at least that my aerobic capacity has increased by about 5% because of my increased blood volume – The ‘new’ blood doping.

Things to be nervous about:

• Traveling with a toddler half way around the globe – ‘nuff said
• I’ll have 3 days to be on a bike on the actual road before the race to make sure I can still balance on two wheels because I’ll have been strapped to a stationary bike trainer for all my bike riding.
• For IM #1 I trained for 6 months with a ridiculous amount of volume (time spent swimming/biking/running). For IM#2 I am training for 3 months at a reduced volume (by almost 40%) – three reasons are 1)I’m a mom and I don’t have much extra time, hence wakeups will now start between 04-04:30 every day, 2) I’m a wee bit older and need more time to recover and spend on stretching instead of training and 3) I live in the Nordic North so all of my biking and most of my running will occur indoors, in a basement, so two multi-hour rides on the trainer over the weekend will reduce my brain (and other parts) to complete mush….not good when training for an IM, when you need all the head space you can get.
• Attempting Ironman #2 and getting it in the books.  I haven’t completely forgotten the amount of work and pain required to get me to the starting line and through the finish line. 
• Race Start time for my body because of the time shift = 12:00AM……yup Midnight. So not that far from typical wake up time of 4 AM right??? No big deal…..
• Setting goals – My husband asked me the other day what my race time goals were…..I told him I don’t’ know . He said I was lying. He was right – but I’m scared to say them out loud…..or write them down.

So all the above being said – I’m beyond over-excited for this trip, for this race, and for this experience for my family. It is an opportunity I’m glad we grabbed at first thought, and I’m so glad that I have a husband who encourages me and pumps me up every time I come up from that basement, or home from the pool. And the voice that I can hear as I'm coming up the stairs or open my car door “Mommy!”  - with that face and those little feet running so fast to get to me - never fails to keep me moving. 

I'm back!!

So, I figured it was time to dust off the Try Mom, Tri blog in pursuit of my first Ironman distance triathlon.  I was hoping to have a profound first entry, but as I started making notes, I realized that each idea deserved a post of its own, so I’ll start with a quick update of where I left off at the end of the 2013 season – Yes, It’s been that long – sorry.

This blog came to be out of a sense of obligations to Moms, triathletes or not, TO TRY.  After I became a Mom for the first time, I had no idea what I was in for.  Almost two years later, I still feel the same way.  I’m someone who has always tried to fill all my time, multiple jobs, extra University – then I found triathlon, and soon after – Ironman.  I still do other things, but I LOVE focusing on Triathlons, training, helping others train, plan their training, race calendars, swim form, run speed – anything to keep me ‘moving’ in the sport of triathlon.

When I was pregnant, I took that season off as my son was due around Christmas.  Fortunately for me, I got my husband hooked on triathlon, so I still got to go on the beginning, easy, part of his rides until I couldn’t reach the handlebars anymore J  And I still got to get up stoopid early for race days.  It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be to watch a race.  Don’t get me wrong, I would have loved to race.  But as you Moms know, being pregnant is a different kind of ‘purpose’.  I wasn’t one of those women who loved being pregnant, but it was pretty cool and I did love the focus it gave me.  And of course, now looking back, and looking at my son, knowing that his little body started in my body – is still completely amazing to me.

OK, enough about pregnancy, back to tri training.

Pretty soon after my son was born, I started thinking about what that tri season was going to be like.  I really thought I would just get after it, lose the pregnancy weight, may be shaped a bit differently, but overall, just focus on training like I had before…holy crap…obviously I knew nothing about being a mom.  A nursing Mom.  A stay at home mom who also had a full-time telecommuting job.  So I signed up for a half ironman distance, near my folks home (built-in babysitters for race day), in early September.  And I did it.  And it was hard - Not just the race - Everything about getting to that race.  But I did it.  And you can too.  Whatever it is that gives you purpose outside your family/kids.  Find a bar, and set a goal above it, and then do it.

2014 season was pretty cool too.  My husband completed his first Ironman distance race at Lake Placid, New York.  My son and I got to go on the adventure with him.  As hard as an Ironman is, lemme tell ‘ya, spectating one with an 18 month old is no piece of cake.  In fact, I think I’d rather race than spectate J  Thankfully we had some AWESOME friends and family members help us with a roof over our head when we arrived, get to the race, through the race, home from the race, in general ‘crewing’ us.

I still raced in 2014 and finally reached one of my long time goals – Top Three Female overall.  It was an Olympic distance  - which is a very good fit for me. The swim is longer, so it gives me more time to get a head start on the bike (where everyone starts passing meJ ) but the race is shorter, so at the end, I can truly race the run.  Plus the training is doable with a family and not so much that you feel like it’s too much.

Now, I’m training for an Ironman in March 2015.  In New ZEALAND!!!!  Thanks to wanting to visit my BFF, who moved her family there over a year ago, I figured, why not do a race while we’re there – how cool would that be?!?!?!!!  So I signed up last March, and it’s already within 5 months of race day – how did that happen?  Currently doing out-season training (usually done in the winter months), and will start my official IM training load in early December…LOTS AND LOTS of time swimming, biking, and running indoors L  I also am using a coach and racing with a team this time around - more news on that to come as well.  More reasons to blog about it and pass on all the knowledge I will gain through this adventure.

Thanks in advance for all the support and I’ll start outlining my ideas for each week of progress!!