M2 Begins, training continues

Hard to keep up lately with starting my second year of medical school and training. We have our first exam already in less than 2 weeks from today so I need to stay on my game. Training has been going well, I have been doing the workouts as best as I can but I have had to cut some a few minutes short. Definitely getting anxious for race day: 18 days, 7 hours and 51 minutes from now I will hear the cannon to start my journey to becoming an Ironman.... NOW THAT, is insane.

4300 meter Swim and 45 minute run

Today I did my long swim. Unfortunately the pool at the NAT was closed but that made me use the 50 meter pool at the SERF on the UW Campus. It was a great work out...and easily the farthest I have swam non-stop = 2.7 miles! :) I'll take it, still not my favorite. I felt pretty good until about the last 500 meters and then I noticed my form just started to crash.

I then ran in the warm weather. It is and will always be my favorite thing to do. Now I have my feet up and am watching CBS news / Channel3000 WISC-TV Channel 3 for a story featuring my work with the arthritis foundation and my journey to Ironman. Overwhelmed by the support of the community and the spotlight.

23 miles today running at a really great pace!

I have never felt as strong as I do right now with running. I stopped today because of the time that I needed to hit not because I was tired or couldn't keep going. It was a pretty big realization for me on how far I have come in my endurance training, maintaining a 7:30 pace. That is faster than my first and second full marathon. On another note, I got a high-five from an awesome little kid on the bike path. He was so excited to see me running by and he kept looking at his parents to make sure it was okay that he stuck out his hand for a high five. It made me smile. :) Thanks buddy. The best part is he had no idea how long I had been running or awesome his little gesture was to me.

1:45 -- Bike

Well, headed out today and it was a warm and windy one. Great day though so just tried to soak in the sun. I installed my aero-bar hydration system for the long run to get practice using it on my 112+ mile ride tomorrow. I was not prepared for the sound of the liquids sloshing around so that was something to get used and going over any bumps in the road. The back of my leg also is a little sore, right on the tendons but looking at these past three week how could it not be with this volume of mileage.

This weekends work outs are a doozy. Tomorrow I am going to ride the full Ironman course from the Monona Terrace out to the loops so am looking at doing around 112 miles. After that I will have a 45 minute recovery run. On Sunday I have a 4125m swim as well as a 3 hour run (which will be 20+ miles). Then next week, I come off the gas pedal to have my body absorb some of this crazy training. Go back up for one more hard week featuring a 5 hour brick and I will already BE TAPERING FOR IRONMAN!! I can't get over it.

In other news, I am being interviewed by a TV reporter on Tuesday morning where they are highlighting my Journey to Ironman through the UW Health Marketing and Public Relations Team. Needless to say I am nervous, but happy to that my journey and this blog are finally serving a larger purpose other than me reaching my goal. I am definitely really embarrassed by the attention but know it is for a really great cause.

Keep on keeping on everyone!

1:45/40 Bike/Run Brick High Intensity

Today was all about pushing the whole time. It was hard to do with the traffic not the bike but on the run, I averaged a 6:30 min/mile and finished my last mile running 5:30-5:15. Needless to say, my legs are sore and I am tired!

3300 meter Swim and 2 hour bike

After a long day at research office trying to tie up all of my lose ends by August 12th, I finally headed out around 4pm to try a new swimming pool. The Shorewood Pool located to the right of La Brioche...now as a warning, I discovered that this is a membership only pool and they do not let people swim there every day. Lucky for me, I had called earlier and the pool wasn't busy so the manager said he'd let me "test it out today" to see if I wanted to buy a membership. I will tell you something, having that 50 meters and a relatively open lane (shared at max with 4 people) was amazing. It was great to go the whole time without stopping and only using the wall to push out. I feel like I got a way better work out that is for sure and definitely have some sore upper arms!!

After that I went on my two hour bike ride which was great. I found a new loop going out on Old Sauk that plops be down right on the Ironman bike course so that I could climb two of the "three bitches" aka massive hills that I will need to do twice come race day. It started to get dark so I had to take off my glasses today and unfortunately had a ton of bugs in my eyes which is never pleasant. I finished the workout strong, feeling like my legs are stronger than ever. I was incredibly hungry though so I think I got a bit behind on my nutrition today. Need to keep in mind with me working out at this high of a volume that I should be eating something almost constantly through out the day.

Also got my Bib Number yesterday so say hello to #455. A guy from the Ironman Wisconsin Facebook group was creating these awesome Facebook cover photos. Thanks Erik!

12 hours of sleep and a 12 mile run!?

Well today I ended up sleeping in a ton. Since my last flare I have been trying to give my body what it wants with high training while I can until school starts again on 8/18. Last night I ended up doing 2:10 on the treadmill which is just as horrible as it sounds and I fell asleep around 11:30pm. I woke up this morning at 11:45AM...that is 12 hours of sleep. I could not believe it, I had slept straight through without waking up.

For a workout today I ended up doing my Wednesday run in combination with the 20 minutes from the run yesterday I missed so it ended up being about 12 miles of running at a 7 min/mile pace which was really great considering I ran about 17 miles yesterday. I also just felt like I wanted to run today with music so I decided to switch up the workout routine. I also made the mistake of looking ahead, and the next three weeks of training are absolutely rigorous. I thought they might be winding down but it looks like I stay at this intensity until August 26th. It will definitely be tough to juggle with school but for now it is full steam ahead.

I also received a lot of great news related to the Arthritis Foundation and Ironman. Drum roll please, say hello to BIB NUMBER #455 at the 2014 Ironman Wisconsin! I also found out that I will be serving as the Medical Honoree for the Arthritis Foundations Run/Walk to Milwaukee Irish Fest on August 16th. In addition, the AF intern Molly has reached out to UW Healths Marketing and Public Relations Office and a staff person there seems really interested in my story and recently asked me if I would be okay with a TV interview. To be honest, I am extremely overwhelmed by the spotlight and humbled. I finally feel like these six months of training and all of my good days and bad have a deeper meaning beyond myself reaching my dream goal of completing an Ironman. Hopefully I can inspire and raise awareness for the millions of people living with arthritis. Feels good to do good.