Ironman Training

Off With a Fizzle

/ Amanda / Leave a comment

Ironman Raleigh 70.3 training started this week! So did winter! These two things do not go together! So instead of starting training off with a bang, it’s been more of a fizzle. Oh well.

Mondays are off days. So I took full advantage of that and lazed.

Tuesday….I woke up and went down to the trainer to get a 40 min ride in

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It was supposed to be in Zone 2 (heart rate) so I kept it pretty slow and did about 9 miles. When I finished, I walked up to take a shower and saw this!

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Surprise snow! A quick check of the weather app said that the snow would stop by 9am so I decided to head in to school with stuff packed for an afternoon swim. This was a mistake. The roads were worse than when it iced!

This time, I wasn’t the only crazy grad student who showed up to work, Shake and David did too 🙂

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Grad school is waaaay more fun with friends, btw.

Since it didn’t stop snowing…

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and the roads were a mess, the afternoon swim was canceled and I went home to spend the rest of the day with Lisa, Steve and Indy.

Wednesday…aka today…is long run day. Luckily the GIANT SNOWSTORM OF RALEIGH isn’t supposed to start until later tonight, so I did 7.5 miles in 1:07 (the schedule said to run for 1:10)

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The swim tomorrow will likely be canceled and I plan to spend the day in warm and pleasant ways. We shall see what happens!

Lazy Mornings

/ Amanda / Leave a comment

Good morning! I don’t know about you guys, but I did NOT want to get out of bed this morning. So I took full advantage of grad student life and slept in a bit.

Yesterday ended up being really busy and productive! I stayed at work pretty late since I wanted to head straight from the office to the pool for a swimming lesson. If you’re anything like me, it’s been since the YMCA swimming lessons when I was ….like 5? since I had a lesson. With training season approaching, there’s no better time than to get your form looked over by a pro.

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Note: the pool was definitely not this empty. I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen it this empty….

Anyways. Good news is that my form is actually not at the super beginner level I thought it was! Bad news is, I can’t blame my slowness on bad form anymore (sad trombone). Slowness is entirely due to laziness. Sooooo looks like there will be quite a few pool dates in the near future with some speed work.

We worked on a couple drills (Catch up, fingertip drag, pulls, kicks, etc) and I think the total yardage ended up around 600-800? Idk. Totally wasn’t counting.

Steve stopped by and picked me up and we went straight to a Hurricanes game. The Hurricanes are North Carolina’s pro hockey team, fyi. We were waaaaaay up in the nosebleeds this time, but it’s surprisingly easier to follow the game when you can see the puck.

 

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I still have no idea what official hockey rules and regulations are but it sure is fun to watch! Especially when you go with a great group of friends 🙂 Sadly the ‘Canes lost 2-1, but it was still a great time.

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Gotta love the photobomb in the back!

See you later!

Life as of Late

/ Amanda / 1 Comment

Hi friends! How is your Thursday morning going?

Posts have been a little sparse this week since grad school has amped up. Right now I’m frantically trying to finish up 2 journal papers. One is bad enough, but two on completely different subjects is a whole ‘nother ball game! One paper is on some silver nanowire research (can you spot the nano?) and the other is on some thermoelectric and heat sink research (not very nano, but will be in the future).

A huge misconception about research is that we spend all day in lab coats/gas masks plotting to take over the world (MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA)

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While this is a major bonus to research, we actually don’t spend as much time in the lab as you would think. I made this handy chart to show how a typical day breaks down…

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A good portion of time is spent writing, reading, drinking coffee, or doing all three simultaneously. Obviously the drinking coffee and actual research parts are all the fun. As is playing on the spinny chairs in the lab (wheeeeeeeeee!)

In other news, I’ve starting increasing the amount I work out because…..my training for Ironman Raleigh 70.3 starts in less than 2 weeks! -insert freaking out- Here’s a pic of me and my mom (HI MOM) from right before the race last year.

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It was an ok race. I finished in 6:47 which isn’t horrible for a first time, but I felt like I was capable of more. I made a few newbie mistakes which will probably be talked about later, and overall I felt like the course ‘beat’ me. SO I signed up again, found a training plan more suited to my totes cray schedule and am ready to take it on again!

Today is more writing, more research, swimming lessons, and a hockey game! Should be fun!

Have you ever had a race that ‘beat’ you?