Magical Beans

I am not a good sleeper. That is putting it mildly. I have my phases. I can go a month or two of good sleep, which for me would be about 6 hrs a night or so. Then all of a sudden a light switch gets turned on and I'm doomed. I get about 3-4 hrs. of sleep total during that phase. I have absolutely no trouble falling asleep, just ask my husband. But unfortunately I wake up usually around 2-3 hrs later. That's when it all goes to hell. I toss and turn for the rest of the night. I drift in and out but I'm never really back to a deep sleep. I have lived this way for years. This brings me to last night. After a week of basically no sleep, I must of crashed. I slept a whole 5 hrs straight. That is a rarity.

I got up at my new time of 5:45 am to get my first son up. This morning felt different. I realized after being up about 15 mins this is what if feels like to most people when they get up. Tired but they feel like they slept. I very much enjoyed that feeling! After getting the first off to school I jumped on the treadmill ready to run. I had run yesterday and biked 25 miles so I figured I should be able to run a 4-5 mile run without much trouble now that I was "rested". WRONG.... I ran the first mile and quickly realized that my body felt very very tired. What up with that? I managed to run/walk 4 miles. I would guess I walked about a 1/3 of it. Later that morning I went to spin. Of course it was an AT intervals. Can't get much harder than that. Again my body wasn't up for the challenge. I made it through the class. But I made it more of an AT interval minus 10 beats. I'm a spin class cheater.

Swim was up next. I was ready to just go home. But bagging a workout is worse than at least trying and seeing what I can do. I had some sport beans, maybe half a bag in hopes I would get some energy from somewhere. In the pool I went. My father was there. Ready to out swim me and gut out 1200m. I was hoping for an 800 today. Slow and good form was the theme. Only the second time to be back in the water. I think my father was done at about 800 or 1000m. He stopped a few times. Trouble with his foot cramping. I on the other hand breezed right through 1200m. With a pace of 9:30 for a 400m. It wasn't fast but certainly acceptable considering I'm a newbie again. Maybe swimming is my strength and I just never knew it. Maybe it was the sport beans. I decided I should buy some stock in that company. I'll be eating a lot more of those in the future.

I Gotta Feeling....

It's official...I got back on a bike and in a pool today.

Took spin class this morning after 9 weeks of being off a bike. I was so hopeful that it wasn't a hill climbing day or a sprint day. Someone was watching over me this morning, as it was aerobic endurance day! Thank god. I didn't know if I would of made it through an hour if it had been all hills. My knees throbbed all night long. This getting back into shape thing is not easy! It will take another week before my knees start to cooperate and not ache so much. For now I'll have to suck it up and deal with it. Spin class actually wasn't too bad. I think the music collection for the day is what kept me happy. The instructor had a mix that was exactly what I would of picked. Always makes for helpful motivation.

So after spin I struggled to get on my bathing suit over a hot sweaty body. Always a workout in itself. As I approached the pool I took a look around. It was quiet. The lap pool looked like a piece of glass. Only a few in the hot tub where I so wanted to go. My thoughts were....

"Ok, it's been 2 1/2 months since I did my last swim. Don't expect much. Hopefully I'll get out 100m without drowning."

I remembered back when 2000m seemed effortless.

"I can do this.....I have to do this....I will do this!"

There have been times that I have missed a week or even two of swimming while training. I always felt like a fish out of water the first day I would get back to it. Today the first lap seemed smooth. I can't believe it. I ended up doing a 400m in 9:15 and a second in 9:05. Still around 30-45 secs slower than before, but hey, I'll take it.

Today I saw myself making progress.

It's a 6:30 wake up call

The kids are at their first day of school today. It's only a half day. I think they plan it this way just to tease the parents. My oldest will be home by 11am. Does that even really count as a day of school?

I completely hate my morning routine with the kids in school. I have one in middle school and one in his last year of elementary school. My oldest leaves the house at 6:20 am. The other one is still sound asleep until 7:30. That's a good chunk of time that last year I didn't know what to do with. Still tired myself, I usually plopped down in front of the TV. Seemed like a waste of time. I'd rather be sleeping, but once I'm up out of bed there is no sleep to be found for me. So I tried something new today.

Since I'm getting back into shape I decided to try and utilize that hour in a better way. I was on the treadmill by 6:30 and stayed on until 7:30. Didn't matter to me how far I ran or walked, just as long as my legs were moving for an hour. Today I did 4.5 miles. I hope as my body remembers what it is like to be a triathlete, that it will turn into a 6-7 mile run most mornings. That will ultimately be a warm up. For today 4.5 miles was plenty.

Walking Cliche

I gave myself 5 days before I started back to the swimming, biking and running. That would make my start on Wednesday the 26th. Today is Monday the 24th. I decided that I should start on a Monday. Isn't that what everyone thinks? How many Monday's have gone by that I started a new diet or training program? Too many to count. Why do we all feel compelled to start on a Monday? I thought about this over the weekend. My husband went running on Sunday. I could of laced up and headed out with him, but no I was starting on Monday.

So here it is Monday afternoon and I'm proud to say that I'm ready to hit the ground running. Or in the case of this morning, hit the treadmill running. Ran 3 miles and walked 1. Nothing spectacular compared to what I was doing back in May. But you have to start somewhere. I have to take this slow. I have until December to get myself back to where I was. Then I have 6 months to get even better.

It's Monday and I'm a walking cliche.

Getting Ready

This is a first for me. After running countless races, including 4 marathons, I have entered into the life of a triathlete. I have 3 sprint tri's under my belt. Right now I'm probably as out of shape as I was when I first started running again back in 2004. I got burned out. I had numerous injuries. I needed the summer to not do any training. But I slacked off too much and now I'm a couch potato! That is all going to change. I have set my new goal of a 1/2 iron man in June.

This summer has been busy with my two boys. I'm a stay at home mom who would like to get back to being a triathlete not just Mom. School starts this Wednesday. So does my new attitude. This time around I will train to get stronger not faster. I have never claimed to be a fast swimmer, biker, or runner but for some reason I feel like I need to let go of times and speed and work on my strength, mental and physical. If all goes well I will be stronger, faster and ready to kick some butt by June.

5 days and my new life is about to begin.........