The Evolution of an Ironman

Progress

A wise man I know once said (I think he has said it more then once actually because Jeff has heard it before) "Length before strength, strength before speed." So with that said, I have been slowly increasing my miles and hours over the last two week. When I started back about 4 weeks ago, I think I started back too quickly. Thankfully, my body lets me know these things before I take it too far. Got all the kinks worked out and now I am started to increase my hours and mileage slowly-but with the overall goal of consistency.

With my first priority race not until spring of 2010, I have the time to build a strong foundation for the upcoming race season. I have chosen to make some changes in my training and race this year, therefore, I am starting to learn more about why and how I can train to be as efficient, strong and fast as possible. With this come the added knowledge of nutrition and recovery as well. I did not pay much attention to how or why I trained last year. And to be honest I could have done a better job at being more dedicated to many aspect of my training. But it was a great season with good results in the end. I have set out a new challenge for myself and now I am going to go for it-with the help of a few good men (and women)

Length before strength. Over the past two weeks, I have started to work into full training again and working full time. That requires a lot of creativity. All this is completed in an aerobically base heart rate cap and working on my form. Additionally, I have worked on getting my upper body strong (for reasons I will mention later) and working on my core strength. Over the next two weeks, I will increase my volume as much as I can do given my motivation, the weather, and how much my body will let me do. Thankfully, I have great friends (and a kick-ass hot husband) who are doing the same things--make training partners easy to come by!


Rock On
JK

Skirt Chaser Savannah 5k

Pictures from the Skirt Chaser in Savannah!

Jax and I has Love Bugs

I am praying before the start of the race

Wings are on and I am doing ok.

This is what sub 6 pace looks like. What was I thinking?

A great friend and fun times in Savannah

Wings

In a span of 24 hours, I went from 27 degrees and 2 feet of snow to 80+ degrees, high humidity, and full sun. My body was in shock. I decided to add onto that shock my attempting a 5K. Not so smart, but I was trying to see the advantages of racing from a training stand point. I was trying. My training has been going alright for the last two weeks. This week, not so much do mainly to the snow on Wednesday and Thursday, then all day traveling on Friday. I have just been logging SLOW miles and trying to ride 3x a week. I get to start swimming next week and as sick as this may sound, I am looking forward to swimming again.

Jax and I headed over to Savannah Friday afternoon. I was excited to get out of town for a few days with her. I had never been to Savannah, but have heard great things about the city. I just know some historical facts from my AP American History class in 11th grade (Thanks Mr Gardner!). The trip was uneventful on the way over minus the SCREAMING child on the small regional jet from Charlotte to Savannah. But we survived, got the rent a car and turned on the AC.

Saturday morning was race day. But the race was at 5pm. I ran in SportSkirts 1st race about 2 years ago. That is also the 1st time I meet Jax. 2 years later, we are together in Savannah supporting Nicole in her SkirtChaser race series. The SkirtChaser race series puts on 5K races in about 6 cities right now (with more to come in 2010). The women start off 3 minutes before the men and then the men try to catch the women. 1st person across the line wins money. The night is capped off with a fashion show, dating game, music, drinks, food, and a ton of fun! Jax was excited that I was going to race. I was not so excited.

As I warmed up, I was dripping in sweat. It was so HOT out. The course was a simple layout, mainly flat, around a race course. I guess some wealthy people had built a F1 style race course years ago, but the concept never took. Now they have just local races on the track...and a 5K race. The loop around the track was 2.1 miles and then another half mile on either end for a nice 3.1 miles.

We lined up. I looked around. I was the only girl in the front wearing a costume which included a pair of wings. Hmm...this should be interesting. The gun goes off and the girl take off. And I mean take off. We were flying the first 1/2 miles. I looked down at my Garmin a few times and saw 5.30, 5.20, and even a 5.16. Shit. This was not going to be good. Then someone yelled "You are flying with your wings." For now I was. I decided to be smart and back down a little with the pace. I wanted to run a certain pace, but I knew it would be ambitious given my current state of fitness and training, but hell, I had wings. That had to given me an advantage.

Mile 1 rolls by and I am sitting in 4th place. A little after mile 1 I catch 3rd place. Ok. This is not as bad as I think. I am still holding my ambitious pace. Then it happens at mile 1.85 (according to my Garmin). My wings all off. And from there I stop flying and start spiraling to the ground quickly. 2 girls pass me. One has my wings and asks if I want them. I smugly dismiss her and my wings. I don't need wings. Reality was I did need wings. Maybe even 2-3 sets of wings. Mile 2-3 was 20-30 seconds slow then than first 2 miles. Ouch! I cross the line, still able to break 20 minutes and finished as the 5th female, but wondering what I could have run if I was fit. Oh well. It is October. I don't need to be fit. Right?

During the awards ceremony, someone complained to the race crew that people wearing wings had an unfair advantage over those who didn't wear wings. Interesting concept. I wish it was true. I would be sporting the wings at every event regardless of whether it was Halloween or not.

Rock On,

JK2

Fall Snow Storm 09

Over 18 inches of snow...in October. That led to 2 snow days. 2 days for me to go stir crazy. I baked. I cooked. I rode my bike inside. I ran inside. I did core work inside. I read. I worked. I watched Nip/Tuck. I went to Target (more then once). I went to Starbucks (more then once). Jeff laughed at me because he knows I need a day off and I need to relax and I can't. I couldn't stand being inside any longer, so I bundled up in my winter SKINS and took some pictures during my run.

Thankfully, I am leave for Savanna tomorrow with Jax to help Native out at the Skirt Chaser 5K. We have the costumes planned out and put the final touches on them today with a trip to Michaels!

Harvest Muffins

The fall season brings out the chief in me. I have also been inspired by watching Top Chef Las Vegas. I grew up watching my mum make amazing dishes and desserts. I seem to be the only one who inherited her skills (my sister specialty is cooking rice in a steamer and my brother cooks at McDonald's).

This morning I had an idea to combine some healthy options with some of Jeff's favorites-pumpkin and chocolate chips. I call these Harvest Muffins.

HARVEST MUFFINS

Prep Time: about 20 minutes

Cook Time: 15-20 min @ 400 degrees

Ingredients:

• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 cup buttermilk (if using powder 4 TBS and 1 cup of water)
• 1 cup unprocessed wheat bran
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2+ cup chocolate chips

Prep

1. Whisk eggs and brown sugar in a medium bowl until smooth. Whisk in pumpkin, buttermilk, wheat bran, oil and vanilla.
2. Whisk whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the dry ingredients; add the wet ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips, if using. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups.
3. Bake the muffins until the tops are golden brown and spring back when touched lightly, 15 to 20 minutes.

Happy Baking

Rock On

JK2

Back to Basics

With my first full triathlon season behind me, it is now time to go back to basic and focus on my weaknesses. At the same time it is a period of some unstructured workouts, cross training, indoor workouts, and most importantly having fun!! After taking 3 weeks of almost no training, I am building back into some higher running miles and working on my strength on the bike (this is my biggest weakness!). Swimming is put on hold right now due to a case of costochondritis-also known as inflammation of the chest cartilage. This came about from my allergies and coughing. So no swimming for 2-4 week. I have mixed feelings about this.

One of my goals for the off season is building and developing more strength on on the bike. My strength has gotten better this year, but it is still not where it needs to be in order to complete at the level I want to compete at. Now is the time to begin building my strength base by keeping my bum in the saddle during the off season. One of the key workouts I will do at least once a week will be some big gear or muscle endurance work. Starting out I begin with a broken 15min worth of work, then work up to 30min total of broken big gear work on the trainer, ie- 6x 5min BG with 5min easy between each. I will with something like 5x 3 minutes with equal rest between sets. The target RPM will be 50-60. As I progress, the sets will become longer and the rest shorter.

Here is an article by Wes Hobson that explains it in greater detail.

My trainer is calling! (I am going to rewatch Twilight in prep for New Moon!)

Rock On

JK2