Half Ironman is One Month Away

Holy Crap. How times does fly. I looked at the calendar yesterday morning to find that the Boulder 70.3 Half Ironman is exactly one month (31 days) from yesterday. Here’s where I currently stand:

• Currently 23.5% body fat. I started at 24% with a goal of 18%, so I have made almost no progress. I even suspect that that .5% was actually the scar tissue surgically removed from my knee.
• 2.75 miles run in the past week. Give me a break, I had surgery.
• Approximately 645 glasses of champagne consumed. I attended a wedding with an open bar and celebrated the birth of our fine country the best way I know how.
• 20 hours spent laying on the couch under the influence of anesthesia and the after effects of that champagne.
• Watched the Tour de France. Does it count when you watch people ride a bike?

Not feeling great about my progress over the past week. I’m going to have to be a lot more disciplined. Here are my goals for the next 31 days:

• Eat whole foods as much as possible and cut back on sugar and alcohol.
• Be disciplined about my training. Focus on strength building and good form to avoid injury.
• Get more sleep to help with recovery and motivation.
• Do a few strength training exercises to balance out these huge muscles I’m developing.
• Get used to my wetsuit and do a couple of open water swims.
• Pick out race day outfit and wear it a few times to make sure it fits in all the right places.

Am I missing anything? Should we start a “Will Lindsay Survive” pool? Which way would you bet? Would you bet differently if I told you I was considering going to Mexico for 5 days?

Lindsay Brust

Needing to Make Some Lifestyle Changes

I’ve come to a point in my training where, in order to put in more time and more miles, I need to change my lifestyle. So far, I’ve been training about 3 times during the work week and for about an hour and a half to 3 hours a day on weekend. Some of the “workouts” during the week deserve quotes as they are pretty light.

All in all, I’m probably spending about 7 respectable hours a week swimming, biking and running. The Ironman 70.3 Boulder is about 3 months away and since most people spend 5-7 months training for an event like this, I think I need to be doing about double the work I am right now.

During the week, I’ve been training mostly in the evenings. The problem is that by the end of my workday, I’m emotionally and physically tired. Going home to have a glass of wine and watch TV sounds like a more attractive option then staring at the bottom of the lap pool. What I need to be doing is waking up in the morning to get in a training session. I used to do this for marathon training and it really helped. I would have more energy for my day and I would be more likely to be active later.

The thing is, I’m tired in the morning. I haven’t been able to motivate myself to do it. My lifestyle is going to have to change for working out more to be realistic. I’m going to have to start going to bed earlier and have my glass of wine (just one) earlier in the evening so I have time to drink some water and not feel dehydrated in the morning. Then, I just have to do it a few times. I know I’ll get in the habit and feel good about it but I just have to get started.

Anyone have any suggestions for getting started? What works for you?