JANUARY 13
CHATTY COUNTDOWN: 127 Day. KONA COUNTDOWN 266 Days: 15 Hours: 33 Minutes: 52 Seconds.
It’s been a pretty great week of training. I missed swim Thursday (I ended up coaching instead of swimming) but, I hope to make it up on Sunday. I’ve gotten in most of my other workouts including a session on my own on Friday at the gym. I was scheduled to go to PT, but also needed a change of scenery. Heading to the club gym was a fun little field trip. The equipment is different and that helped me mix it up a bit. I’m trying to strengthen my quads for the hills of Chatty 70.3 in May.
My biggest win of the week was a run on Wednesday. For the first time in probably a year-I ran a mile without a walk freak. It seems crazy, I know, but IRON MAN has ruined my run. I am a big believer in planned walk breaks for an ultra distance. It resets form, it allows me to take in nutrition and it helps me break my mileage into bite size instead of blocks. But, I've relied on it so much that it has stolen some of my run performance — and confidence. I have done 4 minute run + 1 minute walk pretty consistently since Cozumel in 2021. That includes training runs. Add on an injury and that means almost a year of training my body to run/walk.
So, I need a change. My goal for this year is to run a 10k without a walk break. Again — crazy to think about — but, I've been lazy. In order to build my endurance I need to build my endurance.
Will I take walk breaks in Kona? Absolutely. For now, I’ll train myself to run long (and maybe fast) again.
This is how I feel after a week of training. Don’t tell Honey that Sunny is on the bed.