Training Change - Need advice!!!!

Ironman Louisville 2013 prep is coming along nicely.  I've spent the last 2 weeks stepping back and truly focusing on "base" training in my aerobic zone.  This has been a major adjustment for me.  After being told countless times by Jay that my base training should be long and slow I finally decided to listen.  Seems as though most of my running was on the grey zone.  Even though I was seeing improvement I wasn't working my aerobic engine and teaching my body to burn fat as fuel.

Given that I had a good season last year and was seeing improvement this year I feel a little silly changing anything at this point, but I believe it's best for me long term.  They say for burnout, over training and recovery this is how you should do it.  And given my history of injury and Asthma it made sense to me.

The biggest challenge with this new focus is that my training pace is VERY slow compared to what I had been running.  It's embarrassing for one, but scares me that ill also race slower because of it.  Last thing I want to do is change something that makes me slower.  The goal is to get faster at the lower heart rate, I'm just not sure how long that should take.

If anyone has any good experience with this please let me know!!!!  TriFest is this weekend and I'm racing the Olympic distance.  Hoping to see some improvement from last year.  Should be fun!  I'll post an update after that race.

Half Marathon PR

This has been a PR kind of season so far. I finished the KDF Half Marathon in 1:35 and totally blew away my expectations. I hadn't really even been training for the distance so I wasn't sure how it would go and it went great. As you may know I've never considered myself a runner and not to long ago I hated running. It wasn't until recently when I lost the weight and got my Asthma under control that I was really able to work at it.

My brother and I got great starting spots near the front of the race. With 12,000 plus racing that's a good thing. I didn't have to spend a lot of energy dodging slower or walking participants. With the starting position and the perfect weather I was geared up to go hard.

When the race started I told myself to hold back and stay within myself to save something for the last half of the race. I thought I was in trouble when I looked down and saw that I had averaged 7:05 through the first 2 miles. But I felt great so I just kept on truckin.

About mile 8 you go through Churchill Downs and as cool as that was the little climbs coming out of the tunnels really spiked my heart rate. I think those 2 little hills hurt me for later in the race. I pushed it hard through this section and paid for it in the last 2 miles. But I embraced the suck and pushed through to a time I was super happy with.

Really hoping all these early season race results mean I'm on track for an awesome Ironman Louisville in August!