30 for 30

Posted by Katie

Well hello blog world. As you might have guessed I haven't been posting because well... I haven't been training. January got off to a shaky start with my back strain injury (nerve root impairment between the L4 and L5 vertebrae in case you were interested) flaring up so I was restricted to low impact activities (swim and stationary bike). Even though I did not intentionally limit myself in those activities... I didn't end up doing much either. Ah well, C'est la vie.

But wait... there is still that whole I-signed-up-for-an-IRONMAN-thing... fear not blog reader, I am on it. And by "on it" I mean I have started swimming more and have tentatively decided on a plan (20 weeks and it was free).

Onward to the title of this post, 30 for 30. Yesterday I turned 30. I still have a hard time typing those numbers in reference to my own age. For some reason other people turning 30 seemed like no big thing, but me? 30? No sir, I am a 20 something thank you very much. I eased into the idea by spending the last weekend of my 20's skiing some steep and deep powder in Colorado (which was ahhmazing!).

Two guesses as to what ridge we lapped all day...

Yesterday (my actual birthday), I wanted to do some sort of hard swim workout. I read about the "birthday" workout... 100x100 and was very tempted (minus that whole it would take me all day thing). I would love to do 100x100 at some point (maybe next year?) but seeing as how my prior longest swim was 2000 yards... the 100x100 did not seem like a good idea. Instead I decided to face my fear of 30 head on and swim 30 laps (1500) continuously. Also somewhat of a big jump from my previous longest interval of 500 in this training cycle. Also the first swim of my newly adopted training plan has 1500 continuous so it sort of seemed like fate.

The workout started with a 400 warm up and then it was time for the main set. I wore my Garmin 910XT for the first time in a while and realized how great it is for lap swimming. I almost always forget how far I've gone so it is really nice to have the watch keep track. It did count one length as two different lengths... but that was user error, I had taken a weird breath and needed to do the breast stroke while I choked and regained air. The watch counted this as breast stroke for 25y and then when I composed myself and went back to freestyle mid length, it counted that as a new 25y. Pretty impressive if you ask me (the watch... not my swimming/choking).

During the 30 laps I tried to think about what happened or what I did for every year of my age. In retrospect it would have been better to have looked at some old photo albums or yearbooks before starting this.. years 6-10 all blend together. And of course years 1-4 are just memories based on stories family members have told. I have to say though, it was very distracting and the workout flew by!

My total time was 29:32 so just about 1:57/100yards. I'd definitely like to knock that down a bit, but it gives me a good starting reference for this training cycle. Even if my times don't improve and I assume a 2min/100 pace for the ironman that would be 1hr 20min, well below the cutoff time so I am pretty content with that!

So with that, it is on the to the next decade and the next big goal... the ironman!

Birthday tradition meal: Spaghetti Carbonara