Well I've been doing a poor job of keeping up my blog so thought tonight I'd recap the past several weeks. So far we are about 10 weeks into training and things are going well. I'd say I hit a bit of a lull with my training during the holidays but that is pretty normal for most. My fundraising is coming along slowly and I'm chipping away at it. I just surpassed $1,000 about a week ago to hit my first deadline so I am super excited for hitting that milestone. I've committed to raising a minimum of $4,500 by race day in June so now only about $3,500 more to go which I KNOW I can reach. I also recently finally got around to OFFICIALLY registering for the race in June and paying for my own registration. All that is left now is to purchase my flight ticket soon and I'll be all set!
This past weekend I got sick on Saturday so I had to miss practice. I was disappointed for this because our team had its first "physical recommitment" on the bike which I will have to make up for next Saturday. Since the swim, bike and run all have time cut-offs on race day, our coaches are tracking our progress in each and making sure are on track to continue on with our training. For the bike, our coaches want us to be able to complete 25 miles in no more than 2 hours. Having done a few races in the past I'm familiar with my bike times so I should be able to comfortably reach this goal. On Sunday I felt much better so I went out on a run on my own and tracked my progress in order to meet the "physical recommitment" for the run portion. We had to run 90 minutes total and at least have completed a minimum of 7 miles during that time. I was able to complete 9.8 miles over that 90 minute span so I am clear now with the coaches for this event. Later this week at our team practice I will have to complete the physical recommitment for the swim and complete 1000 yards in the pool in no longer than 30 minutes. Quite frankly, I hate swimming so this will be my most difficult event. I've got a lot of work to do in the pool with my mechanics but I should be able to crank out this 1000 yards in no more than about 22-24 minutes...well...hopefully...jaja!
Last weekend on Saturday January 7th our team had its longest practice to date. We completed a 2 hour bike ride followed a by an immediate 20 minute run off the bike. This is the first of many long "bricks" where we will practice getting our legs used to running after being on the bike so long. Below is a quick video of Coach Brad providing some wisdom on recovery beverages as we wrap up our practice.
The week before that we had our unique New Years Day bike ride on January 1, 2012 at 9am. Yes...that is 9am after a long but fun New Years Eve night. I won't go into too many details but I rang in the new years with great friends and had a great time before putting my spinning head to bed at 5am. Two and half hours later I was up and out the door on my way to practice as scheduled. Kids--don't try this at home. A 2 hour bike ride is much more fun with a full night of sleep. :)
I rang in 2012 with a beautiful 2 hour bike ride along PCH from Santa Monica to Malibu and back. The battery on my phone was dying so I was able to capture a few quick seconds in the video below. I wish I could have filmed more of the scenery because the views were spectacular.
Let's rewind back a little over a month and talk about The Las Vegas Marathon on December 4, 2011. This was my 17th full marathon, but one of my most unique. This was the first ever marathon run at NIGHT which made things exciting. In addition, the strip was closed to cars for the runners so I got a chance to run up and down the strip at night--how cool is that. I wish I had taken more pictures but I was out there trying to soak in as much of the experience as possible. I managed a few quick photos and even a quick video clip which you see below.
I look forward to the weeks ahead of training and the challenges that await. It's time to crank things up a notch and make it HAPPEN!
Thanks for reading. GO TEAM!
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