Ironman Training Week 16

15 weeks to go

Oh sweet baby cheeses, this is the first time I've sat down and figured out exactly how long I have been/will be training for Ironman. On the one hand: hooray, I'm halfway done! On the other hand: son of Jor-El, I'm only halfway done... Ah well, I figured maybe I should be documenting this whole crazy journey, and since I'm sure I'll want to look back on this someday and wonder what the hell I was thinking reminisce fondly about that time in my life when I voluntarily went to the gym at 4:45 in the morning time, I'm going to try to make recapping the previous week's training a regular Monday occurrence.

So. Week 16 went like this:
Swim: 2 workouts, 1hr 55min, 4400m
Bike: 3 workouts, 7hr 25min, Saturday ride - 71miles (elevation gain 3329 ft)
Run: 4 workouts, 3hr 20min, 18.8miles
Strength: 2 workouts, 30min
Total: 13hr 10min
(bike totals include spin/trainer time, but not spin/trainer distance)

Challenges:
The WIND. Oh, geeze, the wind was just brutal on the long bike ride Saturday.

Accomplishments:
Longest ride followed by a run to date. Ever try getting your legs to run after a hilly, windy 70 mile bike ride? Holy moly.

Hilly. OH so hilly. That part at mile 20 made me want to punch someone.
Also, I forgot to start my Garmin until 3 miles in.

Surprises:
I signed up for the Mountain to Fountain 15k on Saturday and ran it on Sunday - surprise! It was a great race that started in McDowell Mountain Park and ended 9.3 hilly miles later at the "world famous" (really?) Fountain Hills fountain. I felt really strong for the whole race - even powered up all the hills without walking - and kicked it into the finish in 1:34 and change. Not too shabby for Kristen - especially after that Saturday ride!

I passed SO many people on that hill at mile 7 :)

**EDIT** A lesson in the dangers of signing up for a race at the last minute: I was 27th in my age group, which--apparently--was Males 25-29. Surprise!
**EDIT 2** I informed them via email that the last time I checked, I was very much not a man. They fixed it posthaste.

Bonus:

This made me laugh so. hard.