Happy first day of March!  Man is time flying… that means that I only have 2.5 more months to train before my first race…and I DO not feel very prepared, mostly because I’ve been doing all of my biking on my trainer, and the course is *very* hilly.

Things have been busy as usual since my last post.  Last week I managed to have a solid week of training, got in all of my workouts for a total of 8.5 hours of training (my coach had estimated 9.5 hrs, but I finished my run and swim workouts faster than the time she listed on my workouts).  It’s scary to think that by September/October the number will be closer to 18-20 hours for several weeks…wow.  I’m going to not even think about that right now….too far ahead 🙂

This week was an easy week training-wise, I had a 5 mile run on Tuesday, an hour Trainer ride on Wednesday, 1800 y swim on Thursday and a 5 mile run today.  This weekend isn’t too bad volume-wise, but Patrick has his vet appointment Saturday morning, so it will make things a bit hectic.  The plan is to get up early and be in the pool around 6a to swim 1700y, take Patrick to his appt at 8a, and then pack up and head to a group trainer ride at 9a (although I might be late).  I have a 1:30 planned trainer ride followed by a 3 mi run brick.  Phew!  Then I get to hang out with JMR the rest of Saturday and the only other thing I have left on the workout agenda is an easy 5 mile run on Sunday.

JMR loves his sports, so this month, which is March Madness, is a pretty special one for him.  In fact he used to take off work during part of the tournament just so he could watch the games.  Wow.  Which inspired me for the title of this post.  I’ve decided to do my own ‘March Madness’ competition, but it doesn’t involve basketball.  My eating during the weekdays is pretty clean, but at nights/weekends it’s hit or miss.  There is a lot of grazing, as well as having more than just one adult beverage on the weekends with JMR.  Over time, all of that, plus still not working out as much as I was before my hip injury, has really added up and I am starting to be very far from racing shape!  So as a result, I’m going to try to eat clean the entire month of March, which means eating pretty strict Paleo (with the exception of dairy occasionally and the nutrition I need while training, such as gels) and no alcohol.  Hence the ‘Madness’ part to my ‘March Madness’!  To make things even a bit more difficult, I am going on vacation in less than two weeks, and to me a vacation isn’t a vacation without a few festive drinks, but this time around I will have to do without!  After March I plan to follow more of a ‘everything in moderation plan’ (while still trying to stick to mostly eating Paleo), but for now, I think I just need to go cold turkey with my eating habits because I can’t seem to stick with it!  I’m blaming Whole Foods for their delicious oatmeal raisin cookies….they are so good.  And so addicting!

Additionally, JMR said he would try to do it with me which will help because the weekends are the most tempting for me and that’s when we spend the most time together.  We also agreed to not eat out this month (we have been spending way too much money on eating out on the weekends), so I am really going to be cooking a lot this month!

So far so good…. but it’s only been 9 hours of day one 😉