The Mary Sellke Year of Fun 2013…

April 14th, 2013

Yeah, what the hell does that mean?

For the past three years I have taken to spending much of my extra time (and money) training for Ironman and or marathons (those however seem to be more of a bi-product of Ironman training than actual ability to be a solid marathoner). Those years took a tremendous amount of dedication, time, focus and energy. At certain points in training, it took me away from my family, eight hours on a bike in Wisconsin can do that. It also took a great deal of support from my family, to which I am so grateful, I could not have done it without them.

All that said, I would not change anything about those three years, with the exception of I wish I had been fast enough to make it to the World Championships in Kona but you can’t have everything, right? Or maybe let’s just say, that fight might not be over yet. But, it is for this year.

This year is all about encompassing adventures I like, have wanted to do in the past, training that doesn’t take up too much time and most importantly these events must be done with my friends. Events and races are great but sharing them with friends is so much more satisfying.

Yesterday started off the year of fun with the Fred Kurz 10 mile run.

It is a small little race out in Wayzata that fit perfectly into training for a half marathon in a few weeks. The only problem, our spring has left us with snow. The Luce Line ended up being a single track snow compacted trail run. It was hard, kinda horrible and absolutely great to be out there with Becca and Di.

The hardest thing about this year, I have no idea how to put it all together into a solid training plan. It’s diverse to say the least. Here’s the schedule so far:

Year of Fun:

Minnetonka 1/2 Marathon

Lake Minnetonka Sprint Tri

Tough Mudder

Ragnar

If you wanna join in a piece of that, I would love to have you. If you have an additional race you wanna do, let me know, I might be game.

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Kinda like swimming

March 28th, 2012

I’m head long into week two of ironman training. All has gone reasonably well so far. This week I have about 120 miles on my bike, random running which includes a track workout and three days of swimming.

My plan was to lift, do yoga and swim all winter long. I have weaknesses and I was suppose to hone all that stuff right to the perfect tip. Did I? No!

Which brings me to this morning and the pool and the time trial. Time trials always makes me nervous. It’s hard freaking work. I don’t really like going balls to the wall for that long of a period of time. This morning’s time trial consisted of 3x300s as hard as you can. You time each 300, get 30 seconds rest between them and then they better be within 15 seconds of each other or the time trial isn’t valid.

The entire “deal” with warm up and cool down really only takes about 30 minutes, but it’s hell while it’s happening.

Here is the breakdown of what went on this am in my head:

1st 100: Oh yeah, feeling good, no problem, you are liquid fast and sleek and efficient and super quiet…keep it up.

2nd 100: Ummm, it’s getting hard to breath in here. Can anyone see my arms, I can’t really feel them as the blood is starting to pool in my core. Oh but my legs, wait my legs, I feel those and they seem to feel like logs that are dragging me to the bottom of the pool and drowned me slowly and painfully. Are they even moving right now? Am I swimming or just flailing? Clearly flailing. Is the lifeguard coming yet?

3rd 100: Oh good, the feeling is back in my arms but I really can’t breath, is there something caught in my throat? Why is there no air? Why am I moving so much slower? Come on, you can go fast. Who are you talking to? You. What? Fuck off, this sucks, where’s my coffee? You should have stayed in bed. No…no…no you can’t talk like this right now, you have 50 more to go. Shut it, just tell Welle to F-off. It’s only 50 more, come on, suck it up and don’t be so weak. Done.

30 second rest: Arms flopped up on pool deck, DEEP LABORING BREATHS, quick drink, repeat all over again 2 more times, ONLY WORSE.

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Summer 2011: Day 61

August 8th, 2011

Monday morning ride…Lake Minnetonka 6 am.

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Summer 2011: Day 41

July 18th, 2011

Racine at it’s best.

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# 614

July 15th, 2011

And so it’s here…the big race of the season.

I am packing up to head to Racine later today. The race is Sunday. My wave kicks off at 7:30 am. My bib number is 614, that feels lucky!

I have spent a lot of time training, I’ve come a long way this season, maybe even more mentally than physically.

This race…it will be a fight, a fight for how badly I want to go to Vegas. The planets, the training, the weather, may it all come into perfect alignment.

Of course there are people who think I’m crazy and in no way can attain my goal. To you, I hope to prove you wrong.

The hard work is done, now it’s time to put it all together and have some fun.

As my coach simply put it: “YOU CAN DO THIS. Believe in yourself.”

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