Life lately has consisted of a lot of swimming, biking, and running.

Life lately has consisted of hours and hours in my car, on planes, and in meetings.

Life lately has been a bit of a hectic race to finish one task to move on to the next thing on my life.

Life lately has me a bit worn down…

And yet, amid all the craziness of work, and friends, and classes, and graduations, and training. I am SO glad that I am working toward my Ironman goal since somehow, in some strange way, the crazy training schedule is helping me keep everything all together. Just like glue.

So, what have I been doing on the training front? (Since my last post was a month ago – like I said, life’s been crazy busy.)

Week of March 23rd (week after the Syracuse Half Marathon):

• Monday – 60 minute recovery bike
• Tuesday –
  • AM – 3100 yd swim
  • PM – 1 Hour sports massage – because I’ve learned that I cannot stretch/roll/ice enough on my own… (and for those that have not had a deep tissue/sports massage – let me tell you, this is not a relaxing event. This is more of a mini torture session that helps you feel better after the fact since it loosens and aligns everything back to how it should be… PS for any Syracuse Area peeps, Armory Massage Therapy is awesome – especially Samantha.) 
• Wednesday – 50 minute run
• Thursday – 90 minute bike – zones 3/4/5
• Friday – 3300 yd Endurance swim
• Saturday – 3 hour 30 minute bike
• Sunday –
  • AM – 3300 yd swim
  • PM – 1 hr 45 min Run (11.5 miles)

Week of March 30th:

• Monday – 60 minute recovery bike
• Tuesday – day off/travel to Pennsylvania for work meeting
• Wednesday – sick… missed a 2100 yd swim
• Thursday – sick… scheduled for a 60 minute run (w/ speed work)
• Friday –
  • AM – still not 100%, slept in, skipped my 3300 yd swim
  • PM – feeling better, got my 60 minute run in from Thursday
• Saturday – Brick Session: 3 hour 50 minute Bike/30 minute Run
  • First OUTSIDE bike of the year… it was freezing and I even saw snow… not the best experience.
• Sunday –
  • AM – tried to get my 3300 yd swim in that I missed on Friday… pool was closed for Easter – time to let this workout lie on the cutting room floor.
  • PM – 1 hr 50 min Run (11.5 miles of cold, wind, and an unsettled stomach.

Week of April 6th:

• Monday – 90 minute bike 2×10 zone 4
• Tuesday – day off/travel to Pennsylvania to visit a customer…
• Wednesday – 3200 yd swim
• Thursday – 60 minute Run (w/ speed work)
• Friday – 1 hr 45 minute Bike
  • was able to get 60 minutes done with travel that I had…
• Saturday –
  • AM – Rode my CX bike as race support – 1 hour 15 minutes
  • PM – Brick Session: 2 hour 30 minute bike/30 minute run
• Sunday – 2 hour Run (13 miles w/ some speed work)
  • Outside & it was glorious! What a change a week can make! 🙂

Week of April 14th (aka the week the wheels fell off…):

• Monday – Travel to Washington DC for the day – left at 5:30 am/return at 1:30 am… yea…
• Tuesday – 90 minute bike 2×10 zone 4
• Wednesday – Travel to Syracuse/3800 swim planned
  • Break in at the apartment, decide that staying in Syracuse was not the best option… drive home and skipped the swim
• Thursday – 70 min recovery ride planned
  • Ended up completing the 3800 yd swim from Wednesday
• Friday – 2500 yd swim
  • Due to travel to Syracuse & Ithaca and my graduation from LEAD NY, missed the workout
• Saturday – 30 minute run planned
  • Called my coach and regrouped due to the craziness of the week… ended up swimming 3×1000 yd at TT pace
• Sunday – Seneca 7 with Team Beer and Oreos! Biked and Ran 77.1 miles around Seneca Lake
  • Biked 65.1 miles
  • Ran 12.6 miles at an average pace of 8:40/mile (fastest times since injury!)

And that’s where I’ll stop, since it has me mostly caught up. It’s been a month of ups and downs on the training front as I’ve navigated a quick cold and a couple crazy travel weeks – but overall I feel like its been a good month of training. While every workout has not been good – because you have to have some bad ones to appreciate the good ones – I’ve made progress in the pool (increased distance, maintained speed), progress on the bike (increased distance, strength in zones), and progress on the run (increased distance, some speed building in)!

I promised myself that I would not blog until I finished my LEAD NY video for graduation… I thought it would help motivate me to finish one project before moving to the next, however I just procrastinated anyway! Since LEAD NY graduation was last Friday I’m finally back to keeping up with my little journey to Lake Placid – however I will be writing a little post later this week (hopefully) about LEAD NY. It was such an amazing experience that I just want to share it, I’ve just been having a difficult time putting it into words since it was very emotional, life changing, and just overall awesome. However, I think the awesomeness comes in from the classmates that I shared the experience with. I seriously would not have wanted to go through that class with a different group of people. Everyone was so great, and I’m going to miss meeting up with everyone once a month!

Anyhow, more on LEAD NY later, now I’m just going to close out with a few of my favorite photos from the past few four weeks:

Photo Recap…

 I know, I know… late to the party, but SO good!

Um, my coworker makes works of delicious art.

Happy National Puppy day from these two…

May just be the best gift I’ve ever been given. Stretches my calves SO GOOD!

Dog in Socks.

Plaid Lab Studio, sprocket & bike chain earrings. (With bonus Betty bracelet!)

Big winner @ the casino.

Hanging with my main man J.

Long brick. Lots of food options to keep me going…

I mean, who doesn’t love a pizza party followed by a dance party to the Disney Christmas Favorites Record… in March…?

Bracelets, bracelets, bracelets.

Guess where I am…?

Yes!!! My OWN Sheetz card!

Always on the lookout.

…

He cracks me up. Little mini old man.

Another reason I’ve been MIA from my blog…

Giant Salad anyone?

Near the end of a long crappy run… at least I can still enjoy the scenery.

Dessert with the girls. Holy yum.

And every once in a while… fancy coffee is SO good.

Bacon Hill Bonanza 5K/10K 2015… fun, fun, fun!

Chicken BBQ anyone?

The cutest runner ever…

Determination.

Riding as race support, love that the photographer snagged this pic of me. 🙂

Gorgeous weather, and a long run to enjoy it in.

Bronco waiting patiently for the vet. He’s so good… until they enter the room.

Ha, loved being on this team for Seneca 7.

A few quick pics from Seneca 7… more to come on this!

 

Whew. That was a lot to shove into one post. Hopefully I’ll be posting more often again going forward.

Hope you’ve all been enjoying what little bits of spring we have seen so far…

Cheers!