No, I didn't swim/ride/run off the edge of the planet!!

 

Wow, did time get away from me there...and it's not like I don't have anything to blog about either! So let's get to talking.

Happy New Year 2012!!

Seriously...It's March 6and I'm finally writing my New Year's salutations?!? I honestly started writing this blog February 3rd...what the heck?!? It's looking like it's going to be a rockin' year (and rollin' too)!

My New Year didn't start off exactly how I had planned. I decided to take the week of Christmas to New Year's off from my Half Ironman (HIM) training plan I was working on for a little break before starting up on the Portland Triathlon Club Race Team HIM plan from coach Jeff Smith. That plan would have worked great had I not come down with strep throat January 2! So my one week hiatus grew into a nearly three week break, which as I've learned from Jeff, is where "detraining" starts to occur. DRAT! It took me a while to get back on track from the detraining and recovering from being sick, sicker than I realized strep would make me. I did get going again was really glad I started my training in November so I had some reserve built up.

January 1st also brought a new fire station assignment, which has turned into a great thing. I moved from the ultra crazy busy station in Rockwood, where I've spent the majority of my 18 year career. Station 74 is actually one of the busiest stations in all of Multnomah County, averaging 15 calls per 24 hour period, the majority after 8PM. My new station is in a primarily residential, improved socioeconomic area and runs about three calls a shift, all during the day and usually sleeps all night! This is turning out to be a great thing for my training, allowing me time to train on duty, get sleep, and be rested enough to workout the next morning when I get off duty rather than going back to bed at home.

This new station had just finished an earthquake preparedness remodel and required quite a bit of work to get things back together and the project wrapped up when I got there, which took a lot of my attention. Now it's pretty much done and I can get back into a routine!

Half Ironman Training

The Portland Tri Club Race Team's training plans were released the first of January, so I transitioned from the generic HIM plan I was working on to the race team plan that fit with my Vineman 70.3 timeline. It's been great, a lot of work, averaging about 12 hours of training a week now. It's been a lot of work to shuffle the plan around (and learning the Training Peaks program we're using to facilitate the plan online) to work with my schedule and life, but it's working out. I did take a week off last week because I just got exhausted from the juggling and needed a break to get life stuff done and have some semblance of a social life! I have read and heard a lot about the difficulties people have juggling Ironman training and family/relationships/work and hadn't appreciated how difficult it could be to juggle Ironman training as a single person, not having anyone to pick up slack to help do simple things such as grocery shopping, household chores, errands, etc. Heck, I couldn't get my blog done! That week helped me get things reorganized and now I'm ready to get back on track.

Firefighter Stair Climb

This weekend is the Scott Firefighter Stair Climb in Seattle. I've very excited for it! My tri training has been the bulk of my prep for it. I have added some stair stepper and stairmill training with my SCBA and turnouts/SCBA the past few weeks. I have decided to go with a larger capacity SCBA bottle so I don't have to stop halfway for a bottle change; it does add about 3.5 pounds to my pack, but I think it will work out ok. My plan is to have a 1 step/second pace, which gives me a projected 18 minute overall time. We'll see how it goes race day! My start time isn't until 3:10 in the afternoon. After one firefighter starting every 10 seconds since 8AM, the ambient temperature in the stairwell should be at least a balmy 100 degress or more with all that body heat. Yay....!

There's still time to make a tax-deductible donation on my fundraising page. I appreciate all the donations that have been made in memory of my father and grandmother, and in support of my climb. Thank you all!!

Shamrock Run

The weekend after the stairclimb will be the Portland Shamrock Run. You may recall that last year was my first Shamrock Run and that it was part of a girls' weekend with high school BFFs Seriny and Patty. Well we've decided to make this an annual event, so we are all running this year; Seriny and Patty will be doing the 5K, I'm going to do the 15K again. And this year....we won't be hungover for the start of the event...I'm pretty sure...

So, it's been a long update. There a ton to write about, but I'll break it up into other posts. My next post will be next week all about the stairclimb. I can't wait!!

Train well!

Cindy