Ironman Training - 2 Months In

I'm now two months into my Ironman training and things have been going swimmingly. Though I was exercising prior to January, the new year marked the start of my structured training. Currently, I'm doing some prep work, which should create a foundation for me to build on in the Spring. The goals I've set for myself are: become comfortable training 6 days a week for a minimum total of 7 hours, incorporating strength training, going to bed early and waking early to workout, getting more sleep, and eating as healthy as possible. Also, every fourth week is a recovery week in which I limit myself to about 50% of my regular workload. Here's a look at an average weekly plan:

For the most part, I've been spot on, doing between 7 and 9 hours a week and consistenly getting up between 5:00 and 5:45. Sleep has been my weak point, but I'm getting more rest than I have in the past. Currently, I'm getting between 6:30 to 7:30 hours a night. It's been the hardest convincing myself that 9:00 is my bedtime, especially when it used to be midnight or 1:00.

Another big change has been increasing my veggy intake. I think I've eaten more vegetables in the last two months than I did during my entire childhood. I remember vividly meticulous eating just the chicken out of my Mom's stir fry. I would start by getting the highest ratio of chicken to vegetables that I could with the serving spoon. Then, picking through any vegetables that did make it onto my plate, I'd eat the chicken. I may have eaten a few water chestnuts by accident, but that was about it. Now when I eat Chinese food, it's only vegetables and brown rice.

Overall the discipline has been a positive change for me. I have set some very lofty expectations of myself which have been the impetus I've needed to make some personal changes I've wanted to make. The progress I've made already is very noticable both physically and mentally. The first two months has been a bit of a honeymoon period though and I expect that my dedication to my plan will be tested as I progress through the season.

On a side note, I never bothered to mention that I tore my left achilles tendon back in the beginning of November. I had a MRI which indicated that I had a 4mm intersubstance tear. I wasn't able to walk comfortably on it. Stairs were painful and I had to drive Amy's automatic since it hurt to press the clutch in on the WRX. It took about 4 weeks before I was able to walk comfortably. Since then, I've been slowly rehabilitating it. Things seem to be going well and I will be scheduling another MRI for sometime in April to determine if it's healed completely.