30 Weeks To Go

Yesterday marked 30 weeks until Ironman Louisville.  This seems like forever and tomorrow at the same time.  It is forever in the sense that the formal training calendar hasn’t begun yet and it’s 10 degrees outside today.  It is tomorrow in the sense that I have to get myself ready for 140.6 miles in 30 weeks!

Age groupers starting the swim 

Training last week was minimal because we had to head out of town for a funeral and the weather in Ripon, Wisconsin featured a high of 2 degrees and a low of -17 degrees.  Needless to say there was no outside running happening.  We were also pretty busy during the trip, so there was no trip to the hotel gym either.  I did spend about 45 minutes walking the hall of the hotel one night in an attempt to register as many steps as possible on my FitBit. 

Monday:           Nada  (last minute errands and shopping for clothes for our trip)

Tuesday:           Zilch   (decided to play Monopoly with my son instead of ride after work)

Wednesday:      Swim 1,800 yards

Thursday:          Zero (in Wisconsin)

Friday:              Nil (in Wisconsin)

Saturday:          Nope (got home after midnight, son's Pinewood Derby, and daughter's basketball tournament)

Sunday:            Bike 20 miles

Needless to say that these excuses need to STOP.  This won't be a problem once formal training begins, but may, at times, be a struggle while in the base phase.

Okay - back to the FitBit.  I have been using the FitBit since November and I really like it (except that you don't get any credit other than "active minutes" for time in the pool or on the bike).  The iPhone app works well, and I don’t even notice that I’m wearing it.  In fact, the only time I take it off is while swimming.  The daily step goal that I have established is 10,000 steps per day, which is a challenge on work days.  I found that my step totals on work days are typically 2,000-3,000 (unless I work out).  Yikes – that’s a lot of time on your rear. 

In order to get 10,000 steps outside of my scheduled workout, I have been making a point to get up and move around at least 3 times per day.  At the same time, I wanted to find something that will help in terms of the Ironman, so I’ve been using these 5 minute breaks to walk the down the 9 flights of stairs from my office to the underground tunnel that connects some of the buildings on our campus and back up again.  If this continues, I should have huge quads and calves!

Does anyone else use the FitBit?  If so, let’s connect through the app and compete!

One last note (not sure if I mentioned this before) - two more Honey Badgers (my running/multisport team) signed up for IML so I now have more training partners.  Hoping to pick up one more soon.

Here’s to a more productive week!