Challenge Roth Training: Week 0

26 weeks to go.

Strap yourselves in, y'all, because ironman (note the little "i") is back on the schedule. Challenge Roth (an ironman-distance tri, but not an Ironman Corporation-branded tri) will take place on July 20th. If everything goes according to plan, I will be swimming, biking, and running 140.6-miles through the Bavarian countryside with Kristi, Mike, and 2000 new friends.

I'll be using the same format to document this journey as I did the last time (at least for as long as it makes sense). I know most of you (see how I made it sound like there are still lots of you out there?) don't care about the day-to-day--or week-to-week, I guess--of endurance training, but I like looking back on this stuff, and it's a good prompt for me to actually do some writing on a regular basis.

With that said, here we go again!

Week 0 totals:
Swim: 1. 1100m, 35min
Bike: 1. spin, 35min
Run: 2. 6.25mi, 1hr 26min
Strength: 1. 30min
Total time: 3hr 6min

Challenges:
Getting back into the swing of things is hard, you guys. Regular early morning workouts are back on the schedule, which, combined with my perpetually late bedtimes, means I'm getting very little sleep. My goal for next week is to be in bed by 10 every night. Baby steps.

Accomplishments:
Actually got up for all but one of those early morning workouts. An alarm clock all the way over in my bathroom and a kickass IM Partner in Crime meeting me for said workouts deserve all the credit. And since said Partner in Crime had The Black Lung *tiny cough* and couldn't meet me for the swim, I pushed it back to Saturday afternoon, which makes way more sense than Friday morning at 5:15 anyway. So there.

Surprises:
I knocked out a 3:57 for the all-out half mile during the run field test, followed by an 8:17 mile. #zoomX3 #itsallrelative #ihopeyoureadthatlasthashtaginthevoiceofross

Bonus:
All of this week's workouts were field tests to establish a baseline for upcoming workouts. These will be repeated every other month to gauge progress. Bike and run I feel okay about. My swim (first time in the pool in approximately 6 months) set the bar very low.