The race is complete! I am relaxing, tending my wounds, and composing my thoughts to put together my race report, but I thought I would share a synopsis of my Half Ironman training.
In January of this year, after the Charleston marathon, I began officially training for the half. Training for this distance was unexpectedly difficult. On the surface, I knew it would be time-consuming, but in reality I thought I’d have more free time. It was a major commitment, and even the day before the race I questioned if I did enough. I followed a simple plan catered to those who want to finish; for my first race, I didn’t have any major time goals. My running, though, followed the plan given to me by my Omega team, and I juxtaposed the two.
To truly prepare for the 13.1 mile run, after a season of 26.2 training, I raced a series of half marathons: one a month from December on, with the exception of the Charleston marathon in January. With four half marathons under my belt, I felt very confident going in to the run portion.
Mistletoe Half Marathon. I ran a PR in a Santa hat.
NC Half. My amazing pacer, Mike, is doing the Macarena. I am suffering. Mostly because of the running, partly because of the Macarena.
Most of the bike training was done, early on, on the trainer in front of DVRed episodes of The Biggest Loser. Once the weather warmed up, and more importantly, the days became longer, I started incorporating commuter cycling, evening rides, and longer weekend rides with some of my closest cycling friends.
Cycling to yoga is the best brick workout ever.
With the solitary exception of a wetsuit swim against the current of a natural spring in Florida, I completed all of the swim training in the pool, with a planned main set and self-imposed drill sets. The swim has always been my strong suit, so I didn’t give it the attention it deserved, favoring time in the saddle or running, which I knew would impact my race more heavily.
For cross-training, I discovered yoga. More on that later, but yoga has become a permanent fixture in my schedule.
Race report coming soon!