Yay for a recovery Week!

Whew! It was a great week because it was my first recovery week! Training has been great, but it's always nice to have a little bit of rest so my body can really recover from the beating it had taken the previous 3 weeks.  I was happy, and so were my legs. :) My stats this week were: Total hours 6:20, 56.96 miles, in 9 workouts and 3,157 calories burned.  :) Now I'm ready for week 5 of training! Sunday was exactly 27 weeks until Ironman Louisville,  186 days!!

A look at fundraising.

I had a great week of training. I'm feeling healthy, and things are beginning to click, but this week I really realized how much fundraising for Team In Training means to me. After such an amazing, first fundraising event with my Superbowl party, I became even more motivated to get the dollars rolling in for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. With the help of very generous friends, I was able to raise $482 Superbowl night!! This past Saturday I participated in my first ever road block with Team In Training. If you don't know what a roadblock is, I've included some pictures form Saturday. Basically, we set up cones at the intersection of Hursbourne Parkway and Taylorsville Rd. Once the light turns red you carry your bucket down the lanes, and hope people roll down their windows and drop money into your bucket.  When I first arrived at the roadblock and received my vest, bucket and cones, I was a bit nervous. All of a sudden, the intersection appeared to be HUGE, and the cars seemed to be speeding through. Once, the light turned red, I set my cones up, and faced traffic.  I took a deep breath in and started walking down the lane. And it happened pretty quickly, a generous soul rolled down his window and flapped a dollar bill at me. I never thought someone holding a dollar bill out a window would make me that happy, but I briefly remember skipping over to him, thanking him and placing my first dollar in the bucket.  The day was a huge success. I eventually developed a plan. I didn't like getting stuck in the middle of the lane away from my cone when the light turned green, so I would walk the lanes, until the turning lane light turned green. This was my cue to turn around and head back to the cone, and usually I made it in time. Standing behind the cone with the light green, made me feel safer than when I was without it. Still, standing behind the cone and watching cars drive by you on either side, could be a bit intimidating. I have to say though, it was all worth it. I met a lady that donated, and then talked to me until the light turned green. Her husband had died form Leukemia. He didn't live long after his diagnosis. She thanked me, and drove off. I noticed my eyes get a bit watery, and I realized even more how important, not just completing the Ironman is to me, but completing ot as a part of Team In Training, knowing I'm making a difference in some small way. Three hours, 4-5 miles at least of walking up and down the road, and tired legs later, I raised $184!!!  I again have so many people to thank. I'm at $1,942 in fundraising.  I'm so close to 50% I can taste it!  I have a large fundraising event planned for April 13th at Gerstle's Bar here in Louisville from 5-8. Bridge 19, a local band has agreed to donate their time to an amazing cause. 10% of the food and drink sells will be donated to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. A $10 cover at the door which includes a free drink ticket, a silent auction, and raffle will all be taking place. Mark you calendars! I am ecstatic about this event.

As far as training goes, I had another great week. My totals were 8 hours and 9 minutes, 74 miles, in 10 workouts. Bike=59.5 miles, run=13.1 miles, Swim= 2.64 miles. 

Marathon Sharks Sat Am run at the new bridge

The group of roadblockers and our loot!

Standing in between traffic at the roadblock!

My first fundraiser!!!

 Last night was my first ever fundraising event! I had a Super Bowl fundraising party, and it was a huge success!   Thanks to my generous friends, I raised $482 to help with cancer research!! I am on cloud 9 today not only due blowing my expectations out of the water for amount raised,  but I'm feeling very loved. I am very lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful people. We gave out some fabulous prizes,  had a great silent, and we even had  a celebrity half time show of our own! :)  Thank you to everyone that has donated so far. We're doing a great job chipping away at the $4500 mark!!

Tuesday is a swimming day!

What a week! First Tornadoes, then snow & ice! I sure hope that groundhog didn't see his shadow yesterday. I need spring soon, and not 6 more weeks of cold weather! My 2nd full week of training is over! 29 left to go!  So far so good! Only 202 days until Ironman!  My week was a mix of great training days and some frustration along the way, but I'm learning from it all.

Every Tuesday and Thursday I meet my Ironman team, and  the Memphis in May tri team for swim practice. Tuesdays are strictly drill work for those of us that need our strokes to be fine tuned. I loved this picture I took. The water feels as cold as it looks, and just just like the sign says "I'm hungry." :) Tuesday's drills were great. I really feel like my stroke is coming together, Finally! Tuesday was an "aha" day for me with my stroke which is nice to have. This has been my Achilles heel for too long. Thursday I decided to do a workout Coach Dee and I discussed. My endurance is not great in the pool right now, and I need to quickly build it. So Thursday I set out to do a 5x200m set. Thus far 100m was the longest I could swim without needing a break. This was definitely going to be a test. I warmed up with 500m in drills, and set out for my 5x200 set. It was going really well. I finished the first two sets and felt really good. I was surprised. I decided to switch it up and do a pull set. Third 200 finished. Holy cow, I might be able to finish this. My 4th 200 was a struggle. I slowly started to feel myself fatigue, and I could tell the stroke was falling apart. After 150, I was toast. On my last set I decided I needed my form to stay in tact so on the fins went. (These help you swim easier. They're a great training tool to be able to build your endurance.) I pushed off the wall. 50 done. Onto the next 50. I almost had 100 under my belt, and I was feeling great. I pushed off the wall to start my 3rd lap. I finished 25;pushed off the wall. I'm almost done I thought in my head, when it happened. I felt my calf start to tense, in my head I said, "No, no come on, " but it did full on muscle spasm so bad I had to grab the lane line for fear of floating to the bottom and drowning. I couldn't straighten, my leg out, I couldn't take off my goggles. I could only squeal in pain, like a child that dropped her ice cream cone on a hot summer day.  Thankfully, one of my teammates swam over and straightened my leg out for me, and I was able to pull myself in. I had never experienced that before, but apparently it's coming when you're trying to build up your fitness. 

Wednesday morning around 3:45 AM I awoke to the sound of the tornado sirens. Meg, Tucker, Jack, and I marched our selves down to the basement and waited out the storms. I got back in bed around 5AM and decided to switch my off day to Wed this week instead of Friday.



Mother Nature is a bit confused this winter. One day it's 70 degrees and the next it's 20 degrees and snowing. Many runner's choose to run on the treadmill on days like Saturday, but I throw my Yaktrax on my running shoes and head out. Snow days are my favorite to run in. These runs become some of the most peaceful, surreal ones that i experience, and Saturday was one of these runs.  I crested the hill at Seneca golf course and had to catch my breath it was so breathtaking. Everything was covered in snow, noone was around, and it was fluttering snow. I wish I'd taken a picture, but it wouldn't have done it justice.

Sunday was my longest spin so far. A tough 1:50 minute spin. It was supposed to be 2 hours, but I had a flat tire fiasco that took a while so 1:50 it was. :)

Totals for the week are 7 hours and 40 minutes of training, 64 miles, 3,343 calories and 9 workouts!

I also wanted to include my monthly stats for January. This will be fun to look back at at the end of every month.  In January I swam 4.28 miles in 7 workouts for 4.5 hours.  I biked 92 miles in 8 workouts for a total of 5 hours and 52 minutes, and I Ran 33.8 miles in 8 workouts for a total of 5 hours and 43 minutes for an overall total 130.8 miles, 16 hours an 57 min of training!!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/ky/louisir13/bpitcock

http://avalucille.tumblr.com/

                   

Week 1 down, 31 more to go :)

Well 1 week down and 31 to go. Oh man saying that makes me nervous! :) I trained for 7 hours and 36 minutes this week for a total of 56 miles in 11 workouts.  Oh and the fun part, I burned 3327 calories! My lesson learned this week...EAT MORE! Seriously, I was hungry all week, and it was the first week. Training just gets longer from here on out, how am I going to feed myself?! :)
 Saturday I ran for 60 minutes, and then went to swim for 40 minutes right after. I made a huge mistake though, I didn't eat breakfast before my run. I'm in a habit of not eating before a run of 6 miles or less, and that's always been fine since my workout ended there. When I went to swim right after though, not ok. I sputtered out on my swim. I had no energy, and was tired halfway through. I need the most help in the swim portion. I'm not great, and this area leaves me with the most anxiety, but I know with my great Coach Dee, and the Memphis in May Coach, Jan,  I'll be prepared.

We had our first group spin at Coach Dee's house. We are going to be meeting at her house every Sunday to spin on our bike trainers until it's warm enough to bike the Ironman course every Sunday.  It's great to have a coach there while we're spinning to provide feed back and instruction. I really want to improve my bike skills. The bike portion of the race to me s the most important. It will make or break your Ironman race.  If you finish the bike section quickly, you can relax a little bit on the run portion.  On the flip side if you have a bad bike,  you gotta move it on the run so you finish by midnight.

Coach Dee and I decided that I'm going to switch to 4 swim sessions each week for a month, and reduce my run workouts form 3 to 2. I need more time in the pool to improve my stroke. We'll see how week 2 goes this way. Bring it on!

Don't forget to visit my fundraising page!  http://pages.teamintraining.org/ky/louisir13/bpitcock

And take a few minutes to visit Ava's page documenting her struggle!  http://avalucille.tumblr.com/

Thanks so much for taking time to read! 

Training has begun!!!!

Early morning spin before work

Training officially kicked off on January 19th, with a Team IN Training kickoff event. I met most of my fellow TNT, LLS teammates and coaches. We listened to two survivors of Cancer that are our fellow TNT teammates in other events. 1 was a 7 year old girl named Vivian. She survived ALL, a form of Leukemia. A very energetic, sweet child. Then I headed off on a 5 mile run, and an hour spin on my trainer on Sunday. Each week I'll update the blog with pictures of a few workouts, and the total miles and hours I trained that week. Follow if you'd like, but remember, I'm not a writer so take it easy on me :)  Please visit my fundraising page, and the blog of dear Ava Lucille. Thanks so much!!!



http://avalucille.tumblr.com/

http://pages.teamintraining.org/ky/louisir13/bpitcock

IT"S OFFICIAL!!!

Well it's official as of 12/8/12 I am registered for the 2013 Ironman Louisville!!!!! Geez,  I get chills simply thinking about it. I told Meg last night that I haven't wanted to do something this bad in a very long time. I think about it non stop. You might even call it an obsession. I want to cross that finish line! I'm one step closer now :) I'm also thinking of signing up with Team in Training for the IM. They are organizing a group. I can commit to raising $4,500 for Leukemia, and Lymphoma research, and they will provide coaches, organize training sessions, and assist with fundraising. I've heard such amazing things about TNT. I'm going to think about it a bit more, but right now I'm 75% sure I'm going to work with them. I love using my races as a means to fund-raise for a bigger cause. Makes my selfish addiction a little less selfish.