They Call Me Seashell

Today I hit 'send' on my race season form with my coaching team.  I decided to do a 2-part season, one in focusing on my return to racing, the other on focus on prepping for the work ahead of me in 2018.  We will see what coach says about my part 2, however for now I have a solid race schedule for my grand re-entrance into triathlon! Triceratops Tri - June 21st Motor City Sprint - June 25th Pterodactyl Tri - July 19th Ironman70.3 Ohio (Relay) - July 30th The Bavarian Inn Experience - August 5th Swim to the Moon 5k  (Open Water Swim) - August 20th T-Rex Tri - August 23rd Detroit Marathon - October 15th It feels good to have something on the radar now, some goal to work for. The hardest part of coming back from a long time off is taking that first step knowing that it is going to hurt, that it is not going to feel the same as it once did, that it will be something I have to work at and that it is not going to be easy.  Nothing worth working for...

  I used to create playlists for races, music for training, and spend hours crafting the perfect mixes of tempos and beats to get me rocking on my feet.  (See what I did there?)  These days though, with the increase in popularity of podcasts and streaming music services like Pandora and Stitcher we can almost outsource the heavy lifting and reap the rewards of another's musical curating.   So here are some musical tools that I use to get going:   MUSIC AND OTHER PODCASTS PODRUNNER: Workout Music (and a subset of that is PUDRUNNER INTERVALS PODRUNNER is great in that DJ Steve  organizes each track (episode) by BPM of the music.  It ranges from 120bpm (great for walking and easy efforts) to 180 BPM - that is what we call WORK!  Some tracks (episodes) contains an interval based workout where he takes the music and starts at a moderate tempo and then adds in faster tempos to sustain a nice workout, ...

I belonged to a motivational Facebook group that was about helping each other get a jump start on any New Year's resolutions.  One of the sayings that I picked up from this group is Always Win Monday.  It serves as the reminder to start off the week on a good foot, get in that workout and win the day. Part of wining Monday for me will be taking in yoga and finally getting my butt back into the pool!  Ironman70.3 Ohio is fast approaching at 145 days away and I will be going from couch to 1.2 mile swim / 13.1 mile run in that time. I can do that by winning Mondays.  I find that it really sets the tone for the rest of the week and I am to the point now that if I miss going to the gym during the week I get cranky and feel out of sorts.    My Monday Win looks something like this: Get in a workout even if it is Yoga or stretching Stick to the meal plan Get a good night's rest These things help me set the intention...

I am on near 2-year return journey to the Ironman.  I am finding it difficult to wrap my head around the new me.  What I mean about that is when I decided to go back to school to pursue a dream, I put my triathlon and endurance training on pause.  Well now that I am un-pausing I am struggling with the fact that my fitness did not pause along with it. I am really feeling like a totally new runner, struggling to find my pace and my level.  I keep thinking that it should not be this hard but the truth is that it is.  It is not because this is difficult, it is hard only because I am comparing it to when I left and I am not at that fitness level anymore. Lesson learned that you cannot rest on your last achievement.  I am embarrassed to even claim to be an Ironman at this point only because I can barely run a 5k. So this is where my health coaching comes into play and I take myself on as a client.  The struggle is mental and because I am comparing ...