Operation Detox and Recover

As I mention over at The Journey, I was in Urgent Care today, and found out that I have both bronchitis and laryngitis.  I have zero voice and a horrible cough, runny nose and am just plain out fatigued.  My body is fighting this virus, and I need to respect the fight.


So with that I am start Operation Detox and Recover.

Step 1 - Detox diet

Vegan/vegetarian/anti-inflammatory/no sugar

Step 2 - Rest

Stop training for the week (technically for the 2nd week, now) and allow my body to fight off the virus and to heal heal heal.

Step 3 - Recover

Once it is OK to do so, I will ease back into my training.

This is going to mean tracking my foods and making sure to eat clean, healthy and allow my body to spend the resources on fighting the illness rather than having to pull nutrients from poorly made food.

Hopefully I will be up for training mid-to late week.  However I feel that if I can be back in the saddle by next week I will be happy.  The doctor told me that it can take between 14 and 21 days to get over this illness, and I need to respect that.  My coach has my training plan reduced greatly this week to allow for rest and recovery, so if I need to take it off I know that it is OK.

I have a long road ahead of me to Ironman.  I need to make sure that I take every step with the intention of getting to the start line healthy, fit, and ready to accomplish something amazing.

*cough* *snif* *sigh*

I am sick! 

Again.

*sigh* 

Training has taken a back seat this week to get healthy.  Small sacrifices today so that I can awake and fight again tomorrow, right?

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I decided to be more diligent in this blog since I really want to capture the journey to Ironman on this space.  I am going to post up weekly (Sundays or Mondays) to see how things are going, accountability, as well as so that I have a record of the emotions as well as physical outputs that went into the making of IronJennikins.  Since I am so early in my training I guess this will show that I have been focusing on consistency.  This blog is to stand alone and once 11/3 comes and goes so will this blog. 

As of Monday this week I had trained for 10 days straight!  And then promptly fell ill. 

March is my no excuses month so this means outside of illness or death I must make every single workout work.  I am starting this on Monday since I want to allow myself the weekend to fully recover and not dig myself into a hole.

Let the fun begin!

Again!

For real!

I love Brick Repeats!

Dynamic Warmup for 10'

Then Perform multiple sets of 30:00 Bricks as time permits.

Swim Bench or Stretch Cords 5 X :30" pull w :30" rest @ TE effort

Then Bike for 15' [5' @ EN, 5' AR, 5' EN]

Then Run for 10' [5' EN, 5'AR]

This was such a great workout today!  Torched 1000 calories and got home only to realize that I did 30 minutes too long of a workout.  :-( Oh well!  More repeats for me and getting me ready for next weekend's 2:30 brick workout.  :-)

I am feeling better, the saddle is soooo wonderful. I am feeling good and getting excited to put this effort into training consistently.  COMMITMENT.

There are only something like 267 days left!  better make them count, right?

Training with power... time to get some!

I tested on the bike before I left for Germany and let me tell you... my functional power is 160.  OMG.. this is so sad.  :-(  I took too much time away from the bike!  plus I never did this before (training with power) and had no idea how to really go about testing. 

This week I am in the lab and back on the bike.  OUCH.  I am getting a new saddle as this one has caused some serious soft tissue damage.  I got my bike fit and the saddle pressure did not change, so we opted for a new saddle.  I have never been more happy!

Cobb V Flow Max

Oh what a difference!  The saddle supports you on the sides, not the sit bones, and is a real difference in feeling from the traditional saddles. 


So looking over my power outputs I realized that the thing that has changed, outside of just not having the time int he saddle I am used to, is that I am focused on RPM now - 90+ RPM all the time, at each power unless otherwise instructed.  This has put me into the lower chain ring, whereas I usually mash through on the big ring.  What I need to do is to get back into the big ring and get into a high cadence here... this is where my power comes from.  The big gears + efficiency  +cadence. 

I really want to improve my power this season and perform on the bike, nit just coast in my comfort zone.  This power training is putting me out of the comfort zone and into a performance zone and while I am not performing very well right now, I know that in time I will. 

My training for the week is pretty normal, but I have missed all swims much to my own promise to get back into the pool.  Ugh.  This winter has sapped my desire to swim, which is funny because usually I want to live in the pool.  I think it is because more people are at the gym and thus I have a harder time actually getting into the pool.

Mondays and Wednesdays I am riding in the Lab with the rest of the lab rats, and then Mondays I am at the HS pool with the team for some drill work.  Saturdays I am back in the lab for either an endurance ride (2.5 - 3 hours) or 2.5 - 3 hours of brick repeats, swim bike and run.

Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays are my swim days  Now I just need to swim.

My commitment, I will not say promise, to my self is that I will be back in the pool 100% next week. 

So next week my schedule is as such, and I am committing to hit 100% of it.

Monday: 1.5 hour bike, 1 hour swim drills
Tuesday - run
Wednesday - 1.5 hour bike ride, stretching/foam rollering
Thursday - swim and run
Friday - rest and stretch
Saturday 2.5 hours of brick repeats
Sunday - swim and run


I posted over in my day to day blog about how my weeks are going with planning and prepping.  You can find the post here.