Getting Back to Basics...Again!

First of all THANK YOU to Zina LB. & Ellie H. for the donations towards my "$20,000.00 Ironman Lake Placid - Team FIGHT Challenge" in support of the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults! If you want to make a donation too - CLICK HERE!

This weekend was the first time, since mid January, that I found myself doing a Long Bike and Long Run workout back to back. Here is what my weekend looked like:

Saturday: 31 miles with Team MMS (local TRI team) and my husband Jim - I was thrilled to average a 15mph average pace since I really thought that I would be looking at 13mph average, max. The course was moderately rolling hills and simply great company! There were a few times that I was pushing well outside of Zone 2 but I really just wanted to keep up with the group and not be the cyclist holding everybody back so I would say that most of the ride was in Zone 3-4. Not very efficient heart-rate training but it was my first Long Ride back and "ego" took over. (I paid for that hubris...)

Sunday: 1-hour of Run/Walk intervals (4 miles total) on legs that felt more like "waterlogged driftwood." There was no making my body go any faster.  I even gave myself a break and skipped every steep hill in my local running route. The goal was TIME and not DISTANCE but of course I was hoping to average closer to 12-13-minute miles as opposed to 15-minute miles.

Monday: Rest Day

Tuesday (Today): I did my "Holly's Hilly H*ll 5K" [* = e] route through the neighborhood across the street with 2/1 Run/Walk Intervals and it took me 50-minutes. There was some recovery from taking a rest day yesterday but not very much - I have done this 5K route faster in weeks past, but it was not meant to be today...ARG!!

SLAP OF REALITY IN THE FACE!

I am so out of condition and I have such a long, long road ahead over the next 14 months.  I mean on paper, I already knew that I had a long road ahead, and I knew that I was really out of condition when it comes to my fitness but that was "on paper"...there was a part of me who was going along, happy, skippy, dumb singing "Nah, Nah, NahNah...I'm going to do another Ironman....Nah, Nah, NahNah...I have not been on my bike in six months...Nah, Nah, NahNah...I am 30 pounds heavier...Nah, Nah, NahNah...I ran/walked 2 Half Marathons this year so I'll be just fine."

Let me tell you something: (that some of you will undoubtedly already know) there is such a thing as the hubris of "resting on your Ironman laurels..." and over the last 2.5 years I have definitely succumb to it. Did I have a hard year this past year? Yes, I will cut myself some slack for July 2011- Jan 2012 (A period of time filled with a nasty case of Plantar Fasciatis, a week in the hospital with multiple pulmonary embolisms, 6-months on blood thinners, which meant 6 months off my bike)

HOWEVER...the place that I find myself now is cumulative. While many of my TRI friends have been taking a month or two off and then jumping back into the cycle of Swim/Bike/Run - I've spend the last 2.5 years dabbling in my sport. Holding onto just enough running fitness to be able to pull off a few Half Marathons - the motivation for which came solely from helping my wonderful friend Amanda reach her own goal of a first Half Marathon. (Thank God for friends like Amanda or I would probably be hurting even more now than I do!)

So I find myself in a place where truly, I must start over.  Not quite from "scratch" but pretty darn close. There are two things that keep me upbeat and motivated [despite the down tone of this post] and those are:

1.) I have the tools, the knowledge, and the love and support of my family and friends to get back my fitness, to regain a fit body, mind and soul...

2.) This is so much easier than anything that I had to go through in 2005 & 2006... (Not very much is hard when you compare it to a year of Chemotherapy...) This is so much easier than what many of my friends and teammates from CANCER to 5K and the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults have gone through...

I may be slow right now but my "fitness" glass is still HALF FULL!

Life is Good! LiveSTRONG!