Mini Goals, The Small Picture

WEEKLY WORKOUTS
SWIMMING 1:15 (2 days)
BIKING 3:55 (2 days)
RUNNING 2:30 (4 days with 1 brick)
WEIGHTS 1:00

Obviously the major goal through my training is for IMLP, but I've decided that I should make smaller, weekly goals. With all of the training I'm doing, there's no reason I won't cross the finish line. I think making weekly goals will make me stronger mentally and physically. I've been told by a few friends who have done multiple Ironman races that they break up the races into smaller pieces. I have one friend who made a deal with herself that if she makes it to the next water stop without walking she gets a gummy chew as a treat. Last week my goal was not to have open water anxiety. This week I tried not to brake on curvy downhills when riding. Straights I'm fine with, but I am petrified of going on downhills with a curve. Seriously my heart races and I can think about is crashing. A lot of people get a high from it and can't wait for them. I however am not one of those people. I picked the absolute wrong time to set this goal since I had an 8 mile downhill with curves galore on a rainy day. I did let go of the brakes a couple of times for a brief second. Other times I braked before the curve to slow down and prayed for the best. It's more then I've done before.

There's not much to report on my swim. The good news is my dreadful St Anthony"s swim didn't make me hate swimming. I still don't love the open water, but I wasn't afraid to get into the water. It was a recovery week, so my swims weren't too difficult.

I did my toughest ride to date this weekend called the GAPS. WOW! It sucked the life out of me, but it was awesome! There was an 8 mile climb and a 6 mile climb, with a lot of smaller, gradual climbs in between. I'm amazed at how well I did on the 2 climbs. I just focused and kept pedaling. I managed to keep my cadence up and surprisingly averaged 8 mph on the 1st climb (1,632 feet climb) and 9.5 mph on the 2nd (1,235 feet climb). Go me! The downhills were another story as I stated before. I'm working on it, but baby steps for now. I actually think I did something to my groin during this ride. I'm pretty sure it's because I had the huge climbs and then I held on for dear life on the brakes and not pedaling that I think my groin just stiffened up. I was in a decent amount of pain right after the ride and most of the night. Luckily today It wasn't too bad and I was even able to get a run in without any pain. My confidence is gaining on the bike and it's such a great feeling. I want to do the GAPS again, but next time do the harder, steeper ones. It's such an OH YEAH! feeling when you accomplish something like this.

My runs were ok this week. 2 of them were with a jogger stroller and man did they kick my ass. I couldn't wake up in the morning before work so I had to do it during the day with a kid. I guess that's my punishment for not getting up. My 30 minute run consisted of 4 10-12 second accels. How I managed to get to a 7:45 pace with that jogger is beyond my comprehension. It was tough, but I did it. Today I was supposed to have a speed workout, but after yesterday's ride I just did it at recovery pace. My legs were beat and I also wanted to be careful of my groin since I didn't know how it was going to react.

Next weekend is my 1/2 Ironman. I have 2 goals, only walk for 30 steps during the water stations and no open water anxiety. Hopefully I have a decent time, but I have to try not to think about that.