Before I post a race report for 2013 I find it shocking that I am yet to post much from my offseason. The last 6 weeks have been nothing but PANIC in preparation for this early season Ironman.
With winter weight lingering and motivation low due to crappy weather I had to step things up a notch!
First I had to go back to the Core Diet. The goal to lose 6 pounds in 6 weeks.
I do not diet but the core diet is just going back to basics by eating lots of fruits and veggies and lean protein.
I find it awfully hard in the winter to resist the snack cupboard. It seems to be the first and last thing I open and close every time I enter and exit the kitchen. I don't believe in denying my kids of sugary nummy snacks but it makes me have to be super disciplined!
With weeks going by in the 20's I settled for the warmth and convenience of my bike on the trainer. Never a flat tire to worry about and a constant stream of tv or music.I did get a few cold snowy run days!
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| Long run , many layers , lots of cold wind! |
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| Just another day on the trainer! |
Before I knew it a month had gone by and it was time for our first ever QT2 pro camp in Claremont Florida. I was a little nervous as I had not done any speed work of any kind and my training had been a bit slow in Dec/ Jan.
Camp started Feb 15th and it was just what I needed. A blur of insanely hard but fun challenging sessions. Coach Jesse made sure to touch on every aspect of what goes into being and racing on a professional level.
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| Track day at the end of a long day! Mile repeats! |
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| My awesome room mates Kim and Stephanie |
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| Loved this sandy loop across from our Vacation Village accomodations. Miles and miles of dirt! |
With days such as grit, endurance, chaos over confusion and intensity days! We were tested both physically and mentally!
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| One of my favorite pools at the NTC |
Thankfully we got some good recovery in there to absorb the huge workload.
I survived a 40 hour training week filled with intensity and daily long swims. I biked a ridiculous 350 miles in 4 days including finishing with a 6.30 hour hard bike in the rain. Following this was an epic night run where coach Jesse sent us a text preparing us to bring fuel for a 4.5 hour run. Only to learn in a quick minute that we would be running 20x1 mile descending repeats with a partner. If you failed to descend you would have a 15 minute penalty. My run due to my partner being injured would end up be 8x1mile repeats and then 8 descending miles. Doesn't sound too bad...try doing it an 10.30 at night after 10 brutal days at camp!
I survived camp and was equally impressed by my team mates who got the work done day after day with both enthusiasm and a sense of humor all the while keeping up the intensity.
When a perfectly executed camp was over, I was sufficiently tired and ready for a taper into IM Cabos.
Big thanks goes to Coach Jesse who ran the camp with such organization and such passion for his athletes. I am always impressed by his ability to connect to each and everyone of his athletes and his attention to detail in training and racing!
Well sadly I returned from camp with the intentions of riding outdoors but a snow/rain/snow/cold weather once again got in the way of that.
So with great anticipation of some beautiful weather I head out to Mexico in a few days!
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| I got to spend a few days in Disney with the fam before camp! |
So until my post race report I wish you all an amazing 2013 season filled with health, friendships, good races and balance!!!
Here is a cool video that team mate Pedro Gomes (http://www.pedro-gomes.com/wp/) made from camp! Enjoy!
1 comment:
Totally relate to the winter training- it's been a very long, cold and snowy winter. Training camp looks amazing definitely wish you could have stuck me in a suitcase and snuck me down to Florida sunshine with you. Know you've already raced and had your week of mexican sunshine- I'm hoping you bring back the Florida and Mexico weather with you!! :-)
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