Quest to Kona

Been awhile, sorry

2009-11-02T08:41:00.002-05:00

Wow it's been a couple months since I have posted to my blog. Busy training I guess. This Ironman build I would mostly characterized as "weather challenged". Lot's of rain in Atlanta with lot's of flooding this Fall. I did an epic 120 mile ride / 8 mile run in what ended up turning into a record rain fall day, 10 inches. About 4 hours of that ride it was raining so hard I couldn't see the road more than 10 feet in front of me. At one point I had to carry my bike through thigh deep water as the roadway had flooded. It was crazy and I only came across 1 other biker the entire day. I was biking of the Silver Comet Trail, which is a rails to trails bike path which goes from Atlanta to Alabama and connects with another one there which goes all the way to Anniston, AL. Just to dangerous to ride on the roads with cars in these conditions. I typically see probably 500 other bikers on a Sunday ride, so yeah, I had the place to myself. A mental toughness day for certain.

The other epic workout, my longest run of this build, was a 22 mile run and yes you guessed it, it was raining. The Alpharetta Greenway (a paved running path) I typically run on was flooded so I had to run a route on the streets. It was 50 degrees and raining and to say Atlanta is hilly is an understatement. Over 1800 vertical ft of climbing for this run. The run course for Ironman Florida is pancake flat so I certainly have not been training the hills for I just don't need to. The cold, rain, and hills really stuck it to me on this run and it took a lot out of me. I had to travel that week and sitting on a plane for 5 hours to CA the next day wasn't a treat. Another mental toughness day for sure. If it rains during the race I will call upon these two day's to use as an advantage.

All told this IM build was pretty good, however the weather and shorter day's did prevent me from getting all my training in, especially on Thursday's which is a longer bike ride. As the training goes on the rides become longer, but the day's become shorter so by the middle of Oct. I was having to cut those rides more than an hour short. 4 hr rides turning into barley 3 hrs rides is not a good thing.

I think I am going to have to take some risks on the bike for this Ironman and push miles 40-90 a little harder than typical to stay in the hunt for my ticket to HI. The trick is to leave enough in your legs for the marathon you are about to start running. The problem is you don't know the answer to that question until mile 20 on the marathon. The first 20 miles leaves you thinking....did I leave enough, did I leave enough. If you didn't all kinds of hell starts to break loose and things start going wrong (cramps, stomach problems, amongst a whole host of others).

We shall see!

Ironman Florida Training build

2009-08-17T08:55:00.002-04:00

It's been awhile since my last post....sorry. I started my volume build for IMFL August 3. I had a great couple weeks of training with one more big one before my first recovery week. This will be a tough week for training, not only because it is a max week before the recovery week, but because I am in meetings across town M-Th and the extra 3 hrs of commuting comes out of rest time. It will be very important not to get injured this week with the reduced rest! Most would say just back off on the training, but sorry that just isn't in me. Undoubtably there will be train until 10pm, shower, do to bed nights this week. Terrific fun.

Ironman Couer d'Alene

2009-07-21T09:14:00.005-04:00

It's been awhile since I posted, sorry. Race has come and gone. Overall a pretty good race, but not what I had wished for. The weather through some major curve balls and I through in one myself the day before the race.

Arrived in CDA on Thursday afternoon, checked into cabin, picked up bike from Tribike Transport. Met up with my friends Chris, Jerry, Toby, and a few new friends from Atlanta on Fri morning at 6 am for a swim at the race site. 6 AM is 9 AM Atlanta time so it wasn't that early to us. We were the first to arrive, and we were running a little late to boot. It was cold with a nasty wind. The temp was mid 50's with 15 mph wind. Rain was in the forecast for the day, but wasn't raining at the moment. My Dad come with us to walk along the Lake while we trained. Got wetsuit on and swam about 20 mins. We were then going to ride an hour and I was going to run 20 mins. Chris and I got out of our wetsuits and got our bikes ready and headed over to Toby's hotel to get everyone else. There was an issue with a car and Jerry and Angela had to take it back to their hotel. We waited awhile for them to get back. It was now very cold and I only had a long sleeve t-shirt on with my wet tri shorts and wet tri top on under. The wind was whistling and I was freezing. We finally got started and rode the first out and back section of the course which was about 13 miles or so. I saw my Dad on the way out and slowed to tell him I'd meet him at the car at 9:30. I decided I'd run from the cabin later that day instead of making him wait. Well, it started to rain a little on the bike and an hour later it rained for the rest of the day. I didn't get my run in and should have just skipped it.

Saturday morning came and it was clear and crisp out. Mom and Dan went to town to walk along the lake. I decided to get that easy run in. I was planning on just a 3 mile run. About 2.5 miles in disaster struck. I was running on the oncoming traffic side of this windy lakeside narrow road carved into the side of the mountain when a large pickup truck approached. I moved as far over to the shoulder as I could to leave room for the truck. The edge of the blacktop was jagged and broken up a bit. As the truck was passing I stepped down and a piece of the blacktop broke off and I rolled my ankle. Next thing I know I am rolling on the ground as the truck wheel passed just inches from my face. At first I thought I may have broken my ankle as pain shot up my leg. I decided to get home as fast as possible to get ice on it. I was able to slowly hobble home, luckily only 1/2 mile away. I was in complete shock and disbelief that this had just happened. I iced and gobbled ibuprofen the rest of the day. The pain that night was intense and it woke me up about every 30 mins. A poor night of sleep before an Ironman for certain. The worst part of it was the distraction it created. The day's leading up to an Ironman are incredibly mental. You have to focus on being positive in your mind...you have done enough training, you are strong enough, you can endure the pain, YOU WILL DO THIS. Having a kink in your armor wrecks havoc in this mental preparation and I was the least prepared mentally for this ironman. Probably the most prepared physically, but at mile 20 on the run, it isn't physical - it's 100% mental. To say I was disappointed is a major understatement.

I'll copy and paste the details from the race from my race report in my training blog.....here you go...

Pre-race routine:Typical pre-race breakfast, nothing different. We were staying up at Lake Hayden (by the upper part of the bike course) so it was about a 15 min drive to the race site. Found a parking spot and walked about 5-6 blocks to the park. Planned on getting there at 5:30 and I was right on time. I had a very detailed list of todo's (I'm a list person) on my Blackberry and got right to it. Pumping tires was the frst on the list as if you don't find someone with a pump you have to get in line for one of the support pumps and that can take 15-20 minutes. Guy next to me who I met at the Cheah Challenge Century in May (he's from Atlanta) had a pump and let me use it. Then off to get T bags set up. Then drop off bike special needs bag which they had all the way on the other side of the park and required walking alone the waterfront sidewalk. This sidewalk was VERY crowded and it took about 10 mins each way moving through like a herd of cattle. Now time for the morning potty break. There were at least 300 (not exaggerating here) people in line so I went looking for another bathroom. I knew there were bathrooms on the other side of the park and headed that way. Of course there was a line but I got in it and waited. Pro start went....still in line, they they announced to start moving to the swim start. It was now 6:40 and I was still in line without wetsuit on. Finished bathroom and ran to get my wetsuit on. Found my parents and got my wetsuit on and headed back through the crowds. At 6:57 I stopped being polite and waiting for all of the non-racers moving through the crowd and just pushed my way through to the timing gate, which you had to walk over to register your chip into the race. Made my way over to the far left, inside the buoy line, got my goggles and hat on and 10 seconds later the cannon went off. Um, yeah, zero warm up. Not even any arm stretches.

Swim-

So no warm up and off I go. the wind was coming from the South, which is typical I understand, which means we were heading straight into the waves on the way out and with them on the way back. Going out was tough. About every 3-4 breaths a wave would come over my head just as I was inhaling and I would get a mouth full of water. I ended up swallowing a bunch of water on the first loop. I got much better at sensing the waves on the second and would just skip the breath when I could tell the wave was over my head, but the damage was done at that point. More on this later. The trip back to the beach on each lap was actually nice as I was riding the waves and I really stretched out my stroke and took advantage of the glide. This enabled me to bring my HR back down.

T1-

Ironman doesn't allow shoes clipped into bike in transition. wetsuit strippers took forever to get my suit off. I think I was laying on my back for about 15 seconds. I told them just to pull it off of my ankle. She kept trying to use her fingers to work it off. That's a tough volunteer job so I was nice. They had a shortage of volunteers at some of the stations and this was evident in the T1 tent. It was self serve all the way. I had to put everything in my bag and even find a volunteer to hand it off to when I had it loaded with my wetsuit, cap and goggles. Resulted in a slow T1. I was hoping for a sub 3:00 T1.

Bike-

In Ironman it's all about the bike, not just because it is the longest, but also because it is where you set up your run. I knew coming in that my nutritional plan needed modification. The low temperatures meant I wouldn't be drinking enough and therefore I wouldn't be getting those liquid calories. I made adjustments and packed more gels and bars. I started off fine and then about mile 20 my stomach started cramping. When I got on the bike my stomach was very bloated from the lake water I had taken in. I am guessing that upset things. I tried to get the calories in but things were getting ugly. I decided to switch over to water from GE and that helped, but made the caloric deficient even worst. I supplemented the lack of GE with salt tabs (1 per hr instead of the usual 3/hr I take while racing). All told I was about 3/4 of a bar and 4 gels short on calories at the end of the bike (about 600 calories).

T2-

forgot to take off bike race belt and replace with run race belt and had to turn around (still in the tent) to switch them out. Probably 5-6 seconds.

Run-

Not happy with this run. The lack of calories on the bike caught up to me about mile 8. I couldn't turn my legs over and I couldn't even get my HR into zone 1. I finally stopped at mile 11 aid station and pitched a little tent and had two hand fulls of pretzels, some chicken broth, 2 cookies, and some water. I was going to see if I could keep it down. Started running again and did the same thing at mile 12 aid station. Started running again and I could tell that stuff, to my surprise, was starting to help. Ate a bunch more at mile 15 aid station, then again at 20, but this time just jogged through them. My ankle was hurting, but I told myself the night before I wasn't going to allow it to be an "out", so I just mentally shut off the nerves in my left foot. If I focus everything I have, I can do this. It is very weird but my whole left foot was numb (like if it were frozen), not just my ankle, so I guess it worked.

Mental toughness wasn't there for me today on this run. First races can be like that as you just are wasting mental energy trying to figure out what the course will throw at you and the conditions were doing the same. My ankle took my head out of the race on Saturday. I need to spend the day before the race without any surprises, and man was that a big one. Calories, or lack of, was the issue. I'm not sure why I couldn't get my gels in. I may need to do some experimenting with run fueling?

My finishing time was 10:30:24, 178/2200, 32/362 in my age group. My friend Jerry, who missed Kona by 4 minutes at this race last year finished 18 mins faster and took the last Kona slot in our AG. Overall the AG was 18 mins faster in much tougher conditions. Every year the races get faster and faster. There is a lot of controversy brewing on whether AG athlete's who accept Kona slots should have to take a drug test (performance enhancing drugs) when they accept the slot. Many races are at the point where the last Kona slot winner's finishing time (typically, 12th place for my AG) would have won the AG just 4 or 5 years ago. Times have come down 25 or 30 mins. It is quite common for the 40-45 AG winner to finish the race top 10 overall (amongst the Pro's). That is just crazy, and in my opinion begs investigation!

So now it's on to Florida in November. I am feeling very good about this race. My recovery has been great and I am ahead of schedule and ready to hit it hard August 1!

The Hay is in the Barn

2009-06-17T14:53:00.002-04:00

The hay is in the barn is a saying which means the training is all done and there is nothing more to do but execute on race day. I started training for this Ironman on December 1, 2008 and here are the training totals:

Bike 219h 51m 4231.48 miles
Run 151h 58m 1275.76 miles
swim 43h 43m 160,371 yards (91.12 miles)

16 rides over 90 miles, 10 of those over 100 miles, 5 of those over 115 miles.
34 runs over 15 miles
3 swims over 2.5 miles

Just need a little luck with the weather and the Ironman God's to be kind and I'm in good shape!

Where to Start?

2009-06-13T10:31:00.003-04:00

Developing my starting strategy for the swim. Thinking far left inside buoy-line? What do ya think? :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLQUZwrH-kw&feature=related

In Need of Some Inspiration?

2009-06-12T12:48:00.002-04:00

A couple clips to get the racing blood flowing! Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo-nbnw8zSI

If this next one doesn't get you going....check your pulse you may not be alive :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTn1v5TGK_w

Trainings All Done

2009-06-08T08:27:00.002-04:00

I just finished my last scheduled workout before my taper begins for IMCDA. For those who don't remember what a taper is, it's when you back off your training intensity and volume to give your body a chance to fully rest. I do this before my "A" races. You can only effectively do a couple tapers a year.

All told the training leading up to this Ironman was:

Bike: 4136.68 Mi.
Run: 1225.46
Swim: 149107 yds.
Strength: 43.25 Hrs.

Now you know why they say triathlon is a lifestyle, there is no time for anything else :)

Some Last Minute Bike Tweaks

2009-06-06T13:24:00.004-04:00

Completed some last minute bike tweaks today. The first was to replace my XLAB rear bottle holder with a new carbon Beaker Concepts hydro Tail. The theory (supported by wind test results) is that if you lower your bottles the wind flows off of your back cleaner. Results in wind tunnel = .5 mph faster over 112 miles, which is huge. Not sure I am completely drinking the koolaid on this one, but even .25 mph faster is over 4 minutes (.5 mph is almost 9 minutes). Either way that is serious time. Here is a picture of it. Notice how low the bottles are. My XLAB, the bottle were about 6 inches higher.

For those of you who read my Ironman Florida race report and several other race reports for that matter, you may remember my issues with salt tabs and my lack of a good system to store them. Well I've solved that. I added something called a "salt stick". I have one on now and another later today. Each holds 6 salt tabs. You just simply turn the end of the unit and out pops a salt tab for you to grab. I used it during my Half Ironman last weekend and it worked perfectly!

May's in the book's

2009-06-03T15:47:00.002-04:00

The month of May was a huge training month. Swimming and running was nothing special, but it was my biggest month on the bike by over 350 miles. I raced 2 weekends in the month, which normally cuts into my training time as I typically train more hours on the weekend than a race takes up. These races were 'no taper" races so pretty much normal training resumes the next day. My Friday long run day's suffered though as I just can't race after a 24 - 30 running day the day before. This is why the running miles were not that great for the month. Here were the totals:

May's totals:
Bike: 60h 04m 56s - 1200.18 Mi
Run: 23h 11m 05s - 196.86 Mi
Swim: 9h 27m 03s - 35982 Yd
Strength: 3h 15m

I'm hoping the big bike month will pay dividends at Couer d'Alene! First week of June is a big training week, then I taper for the next 2 weeks (taper week 1 = 50% normal volume, week 2 = 25%). This sharp drop off in volume should have me climbing the walls for sure. Over eating will be a major concern. The amount of food I eat when the training is big like this is ridiculous. I have to try to pair the eating down with the volume, which is VERY hard to do.

Rock N' Rollman Half Ironman

2009-06-01T09:23:00.002-04:00

First Half Ironman of the season. It wasn't quite as hot as it has been in recent years for the this race. It was about 85 degrees, where in the past it had gotten up in the low 90's. Ended up 12th overall, 2nd age group. I beat my personal best for this race (5th time racing this one), by 18 mins and last years time by 20 mins. Last year I won my AG (go figure 20 mins slower). I was fighting to catch a guy the last 2 miles. I didn't know if he was in my age group or not because he was about 100 yds ahead of me. I saw him keep looking over his shoulder so I knew that he knew I was coming, which isn't good. You want to sneak up on them and catch them off guard. I could tell he was fighting to keep the gap. I closed it to about 50 yds, but was running out of real estate as it was mile 12.5 (13.1 miles in this run). There was a hill coming up at about 12.75 and I was watching him for signs of weakness. If he struggles up the hill, I would put the hammer down the last 1/4 mile and get him. Well he powered up the hill. He was a smart runner! That sent a signal to me that if I pushed, he would just push and we'd be in the same place, only with a ton more pain and potential for injury. I was already running on the verge of hamstring strain as I could feel my right one tightening. The announcer said his name when he crossed the line, "John Stein". Could that be John from Eau Claire, whom I swam with for aver 10 years on the YMCA swim team? Well he was in my AG and it was John. I went over to him and re-introduced myself as we hadn't spoken in over 25 years. We chatted for over 30 minutes and plan on getting together during the Augusta 70.3 (Half Ironman) in September. What a small world. Was disappointed about taking 2nd, but was happy to behind John.

Overall I am happy with my race. This was a no taper race, which mean you train hard right up and through the race. My "A" race is obviously Ironman Couer d'Alene, so I couldn't taper twice so close. Fresher legs would have lead to a different result for sure.

First Tri of the Season in the books

2009-05-22T11:18:00.002-04:00

So my early season running has had some success this year. I started my Triathlon season with an International Distance race (basically the distance raced in the Olympics), .93 mile swim, 25 mile bike, and 6.2 mile run. I beat my time from last year at this race by about 6 minutes, which I am pleased with, but some pretty fast folks showed up this year. I was 10th overall (8th last year), and won my Age Group (Masters Champion last year). Funny how that works, 6 mins faster and placed lower. I was happy with my swim and actually a little surprised. I was 1st in AG and 6th fastest. I haven't done a lot of speed work in my swim so I was happy with this time. My bike was disappointing. I was faster than last year by missed my goal. The bike was hillier than I remember and I just didn't have any juice in the legs. I ran a 38:03 10k, which was the second fastest run, which I was very happy with. I ran a bunch of people down on the run. Overall a good race and pretty much where I had hoped to be at this point in the season. Bike was disappointing and will be the focus over the next 3 weeks leading into Ironman Couer d'Alene.

Peachtree International Distance Triathlon

2009-05-15T09:50:00.003-04:00

First Tri of the season for me tomorrow. I raced this race last year and won the Masters Division (also would have been 1st place 30-34, 35-39, 40-44). I think I was 8th overall. This year may be a different story as I don't have any speed with all the of the Ironman training and the fact I haven't been able to do any speed work on the run due to my calf. This weeks training has been a bust. The past 2 weeks volume has finally caught up to me. Last week was 24 hours and the previous week was 25 hours. Wednesday's workout I cut short and didn't even do the run. Thursday's workout I cut about 30 mins short due to lack of daylight. I'm trying to get some rest on the legs as workouts where I am just pushing to "just get it done" are not quality workouts and lead to injury. You don't get faster that way. It's better to rest a little and get quality training in. The race on Saturday will be a good quality speed workout (2:10 speed workout). I am still hoping to beat last years time, always looking to improve. I plan on focusing on the bike. Last year I averaged 21.7 mph on the bike and am looking for 22.5 mph this year. I may fry my legs for the run, but I want to see where my bike legs are at. Yeah, I plan on being one of those guys who potentially leaves nothing left on the bike and suffers through the run. I normally avoid this like the plague because I see so many ppl go out too hard on the bike, but I want to test it out. I may find I can still run after a really tough bike. Don't know if you don't try right. We'll see how it goes. Oh, I am super nervous about how the calf is going to hold up on the run. I hope I don't have to stop and massage it. That would SUCK!

Another Soggy Day on the Bike

2009-05-12T07:46:00.004-04:00

Got caught in the rain on the bike again this past Sunday. 4.5 hours in the rain just wears you down. If it weren't 41 day's until IMCDA I can guarntee I wouldn't have been out there, unless it was a mistake. See how lovely my bike looked.Grit and muck in the gears grinding away for 75 miles. What a lovely sound.

On a separate and awesome note, I opened the mail on Monday and noticed an envelope from The ING Marathon. In it was this certificate that I actually was 1st place in the 40-49 Age Group. I thought I was 3rd Masters, but who knows how they place Masters, sometime they only take the 1st place Masters, which has me puzzled because then were would the person I thought got 2nd place Masters have gone? He wasn't over 50 and the Masters Division is 40 and older? Oh well, I'll take 1st AG.

what it Takes

2009-05-09T09:31:00.003-04:00

Many of us, especially athlete's, ask ourselves "what does it take to be the best"...pictures say it all. Team Astana (the team Lance is now on) training for the Tour of Italy, called the Giro. A 3 week race in Italy starting today. GO ASTANA!

Why Ironman???

2009-05-06T10:20:00.002-04:00

The other day someone at work asked me why I put myself through all this "Ironman stuff". It's certainly not the first time the question has been asked. It reminded me of these comments from Scott Tinley. Scott was one of the original pioneers of triathlon back in the early 90's and was a World Champion. Here are his thoughts.

"You ever wonder what regular people think when they hear that close to 20,000 people are trying to get an entry into Kona? They're thinking all those people must have a screw loose, that's what. Yet, I'd bet 1,000 sit-ups that more than a few of them dream about crossing the finish line, all tan and trim, the crowd screaming, their toothpaste commercial smiles caught and beamed out over the airwaves. And I bet that when they wake up in the morning, more than a few roll over and try to hide from the gnawing desire that they, too, could have that same screw loose. Maybe they are realizing that too many of us die too young or too late. Maybe they know that we pull ourselves up by making money, making the grade; all the while taking less and less time to face the fact that there are some things in life we need to do. Just because.
I think the Ironman is one of those things. For all those people, I can't pretend to know why. Hell, I barely have an idea why I did close to 50 of them myself. But I know people are changed by an Ironman. Ironman finishers leave a mark on the world.
Try to define that. Go ahead. The words will never come. It is enough to hear the stories, to watch the returning smiles. Witness the metamorphosis.
Yeah, there is a price--relationships, jobs, sunburns, missing toenails; there always is for the good stuff. But the call of the distant drum is too loud to ignore, too powerful to pawn off as some midlife crisis of the middle manager or desperate plea of a soccer mom. All they want is their one day. One day full of enough feeling and emotion to last an eternity.
But like war, marriage, tight jeans and stick shift cars, the Ironman isn't for everybody. As much as it can give, it can take. If it were easy, it wouldn't mean the same. Even dreams are fair game in the forecast of one's decisions.
I know there are ways to validate one's life. There has to be. The Pulitzer Prize winning author Katherine Anne Porter once said that salvation can only be found through religion and art. I believe that great feats of physical endurance include both those traits.
And in a world that tries its hardest to separate us from what matters, the Ironman helps us to reconnect with the pulse of our lives. As long as it does that, we will be happy to have made the decision to even attempt the dream."

Expanding the Capacity to Suffer

2009-05-04T10:51:00.004-04:00

Tough training weekend on the bike. 188 miles and about 15,00 vertical feet. All in all, I handled the volume well. The climbing certainly expanded that area of my training but I think I got the biggest expansion from riding through Saturday's conditions. The ride was almost entirely in the rain. The ride started at 8:00 and literally it started raining at 7:57. Moderate rain for the first 10 miles (enough to feel the rain puddle inside your shoes from it running down your legs into them). We started the first climb at about mile 12 or so. Nothing to bad and actually I was looking forward to the climb to warm up. We lined up in the middle of the pack at the start....A big mistake. My HR wasn't even close to zone 1 until this climb (wasted time in my mind). We passed about 100 or more riders on this first climb. As we started to get to the top the rain really started coming down. I'm talking the really big drops which actually hurt when they hit. Water was gushing down the road surface like a river. Riders started to turn around in droves at this point as the decent down the other side was a steep one and there was a lot of nervous energy in the air. I started to push harder to keep my HR up to produce more heat to fight off the shivering. My skin looked like a lizard it had so many goose bumps on it. Once at the top the rain was still pouring down. We started coming down and it got really cold (55 degrees). Without pedaling my body temperature started to plummet and I started shaking uncontrollably. I was pulling as hard as I could on my brakes just to get enough grip on the wet rims to keep the speeds under 30 mph. My shaking was leading to "speed wobbles" on my bike where the bike shakes side to side. I couldn't help it. I thought for sure I was going to crash an any time. The decent took about 15 mins or so I guess. I didn't time it but it seemed to last forever. About 2/3 through the decent my upper body started to cramp up. My arms and chest just got tighter and tighter. Now I really thought I was going to go down.

Finally the road flattened out and there were EMT and police cars all over the place helping riders. Chris and I decided we couldn't stop because we would never get going again and decided to push hard for the next 10 miles to get produce some heat. We pushed pretty hard, zone 2 and some zone 3 for the next 20 or so minutes, passing tons of riders. It was a catch 22 situation, the faster you rode the more body heat you produced, but the more the rain and air cooled you down. I tried to stay in my aerobars and much as I could to shield my upper body from the rain and to try to use the heat my body was producing. It stated to work. Everything was warming up except the tips of my index fingers. I still couldn't feel them and wouldn't be able to for about another hour or so. We stopped at the 30 mile rest stop to get some food and refill bottles. A cup of coffee really would have hit the spot :)

The last climb of the day, Lookout Mtn. was the toughest of the weekend. The final 1/3 mile is a 20% grade, with the entire climb of 1200 ft coming over just about 2 miles or so.

As I said the climbing was good, but the mental toughness I got from suffering through the weather conditions will be worth it's weight in gold come race time. You see racing for me is all about "he who can suffer the most wins". It isn't natural to handle the suffering. You have to train yourself to do it. Once a co-worker asked me if my legs were burning when I went on my 5-6 hour bike rides. Seemed like a strange question to me, but I answered politely, yes they are on fire the entire time (in my mind I was thinking, what would be the point if they weren't...just wasting time). Long rides are all about training the body how to handle the suffering, although there a different levels of suffering and the long bike days are the least intense, but none the less still a lot of suffering. Oh, by the way you still have to run a marathon when you are done suffering on the bike, so you better manage that too :)

April's in the Book's

2009-05-01T16:14:00.002-04:00

April all in all was a month plagued with my left calf injury. Run mileage was off over 100 miles. Mileage has just recently come back up in the >50 mpw range. I have been training with the pain, which gets mentally exhausting. I wish so badly this would heal up, but rest is the only thing which will do that, and frankly I don't have the time. 7 week's until race weekend. Big bike weekend starting today with >200 miles and ~16,000 verticle feet.

April's totals:
Bike: 37h 18m 26s - 736.76 Mi
Run: 17h 38m 10s - 148 Mi
Swim: 10h 03m 52s - 37883 Yd
Strength: 7h 10m

Hoping May will be >1,000 miles on the bike and >230 miles running. It will all depend on the calf. Also, I start racing in May which will take my mileage down some.

Putting it all Together

2009-04-26T11:50:00.002-04:00

The biggest challenge, and frankly what makes triathlon a great sport in my mind, is putting all three sports together. What I mean by this is crafting your training to make sure one sport isn't lagging behind the others. I hear so many times at the end of races...."dude I had a personal record (that's called a PR) on the bike by 5 minutes." What they aren't talking about is that they had to start walking at mile 3 on the run because they had nothing left in their legs. All three sports have to progress at the same, or at least at race time you have to try to get your fitness as close as you can. This often means training your hardest on the sport you are the weakest in. Sounds easy, but for most this means they have to spend the most amount of time doing the sport they like the least. For me, I guess I'm lucky in that I like all 3 of the sports, but like running the best. For me they all are so different it is refreshing. Like yesterday I trained for 6.5 hours, doing a long bike, a short run, and a short swim later. It didn't feel like 6.5 hours of "training" because each sport is so different.

So speaking of training more on your weakest sport, which for me is biking. April and the first 1/2 of May are all about the bike, meaning biking is the focus. I hope to get 800 mils in on the bike in April and about that in May (I start racing in May so that impacts total miles by lowering them....which I know sounds funny). My calf injury has greatly reduced my run mileage in April to less than 1/2 of what it typically is, which is ok as I am in bike focus mode.

Speaking of the calf, I still haven't pinpointed exactly what is going on. I believe it is a strained muscle, but at times it has the characteristics of tendinitis. It is slowly healing and with any luck will be healed for my first Tri race mid May.

Yesterday's bike workout was in the mountains in North GA. and yes there are mountains in GA. 86 miles and 11,300 vertical ft of climbing. We did 6 gaps (mountains), think lot's of switchback and 7 miles of steady climbing and 2500 vertical ft. 40-42 mins to go 7 miles means you are just grinding. I am happy with my climbing ability and now believe it will be an advantage at IMCDA. I have been telling myself that for a couple months, because I have the perfect physical characteristics for a climber (very high strength to weight ratio). My lean build will wreck havoc on the big guys who are suited for pushing the big gears on the flats. I can get up the mountains faster with less effort. Hopefully this will all lead to less stress on my legs going into the marathon.

The biking is coming together! Need to do a little more work on the swim, which I am starting on today....4000 yd swim on the books for later today.

Epic Bike Weekend

2009-04-11T11:56:00.006-04:00

A couple days ago a friend of mine who is also racing Ironman Coeur d'Alene called and suggested we do an epic bike weekend the first weekend in May. A century bike ride is a 100 mile ride. There is also something called a metric century, which is 100 km (about 62 miles). He suggested we do the 3 State - 3 Mountain Century (100 miles) in Chattanooga, TN (about 90 mins for Atlanta) on Saturday, and then the Cheaha Challenge in Piedmont, AL on Sunday. Both are major climbing century rides. Here are the profiles:

All told, 200 miles of riding and about 15,000 vertical ft (3 miles) of climbing. Oh, and yeah we plan on running after each ride. That outta do it.

Love the New Bike Setup

2009-04-06T09:24:00.004-04:00

Rode my first ride on the new and improved bike a couple days ago. I moved my Sunday long ride to Saturday on account of crappy weather forecasted for Sunday (which never really happened). From the start I couldn't believe how much more power I could produce. I have spent a bunch of time thinking weather my legs were just fresher due to no running (my calf has sidelined my running this past week), or whether it is the new bike set up. At any rate I was faster. At the one hour mark I was about where I was a couple weeks ago, 21.1 miles, but no tail wind this time, and I was solo. At the 40 mile mark I was about 15 mins faster than I have ever been, and at the 45.5 mark I was over 13 mins faster than my previous record. I know this spot well as it used to be the end of the trail until they finished the connecting 5 mile section. You can now go from Atlanta all the way to Birmingham, AL on the trail system. I haven't been all the way to Birmingham, but I have rode 12 miles into AL from Atlanta on a 140 mile ride last fall. So it took me 2:10 to get to the 45.5 mile mark, where I turned around. I continued at this pace until about mile 69, when I started to crack. I didn't bring enough food and my heart rate was much higher than usual, which means I am burning more fuel. I stopped at mile 20 for a bottle fill....fountains still not turned on, rats. So, out of food, extremely low on Gatorade and now I have to ration drinking for the next 20 miles. Well it all caught up to my with 6 miles to go. Complete BONK! A bonk is when you have emptied your glycogen store and you muscles have no fuel. Your only source of fuel is fat and it is harder for your body to break that down, which results in you slowing down. There is nothing you can do at that point. Physically, it is a limitation there is no work around for. The training is to teach your body how to avoid this. I've been over this before. Well I am not really sure how I made it back to the car those last 6 miles as it was all I could do to not pass out. I too about 30 minutes once at the car to try to eat something, but I just couldn't get anything down and even water was a chore. I felt this same way after each of my 3 Ironman's. The drive home was a blur as I was in a haze. I made sure not to set the cruise control as passing out with the cruise on wouldn't be good. Not that passing out while driving with the cruise off is all that great.

When I cycle it has been VERY difficult for me to get my Heart rate out of zone 1 and to hold it in zone 2 required such mental focus it was just mentally too exhaustive to do for more than 10 minutes at a time. This has puzzled the hell out of me for months and months. Why can I not push on the bike and get my heart rate up? Well with the new set up I realized within the first 15 mins of my ride Saturday I was able to get my heart rate into zone 4 and hold it there relatively effortlessly. I was able to push hard and keep pushing without it taking complete mental focus. I am amazed at what some small tweaks to my body position can do for my power output! Simply amazing. Oh, finished my ride at 20.25 mph average, even after my complete collapse on the last part of the ride. Up until mile 69, I was averaging over 21 mph, which is smokin' fast for me on that course with 4200 ft of climbing.

My Baby's Back

2009-04-03T14:43:00.004-04:00

Got my bike back from "he who know's all things bike" today. Here's some bike porn for you, all be it a little blurry (probably because it is so shiny). :) New cassette, new chain rings, new chain, new aerobars, which I'm hoping will solve the speed wobble issue. New front and back wheel bearings when they arrive in the next couple weeks. Should be set for another 10,000 miles.

March is in the Books

2009-04-01T09:19:00.003-04:00

Overall March wasn't as big a month as it should have been. My calf injury, bike mechanical issues, and my marathon all reduced training in the last week of the month. Numbers were as follows:

March's totals:
Bike: 24h 15m 22s - 474.37 Mi
Run: 27h 36m 53s - 235.09 Mi
Swim: 6h 02m - 22218 Yd
Strength: 9h 05m

Run volume was pretty good, but the injury and race took about 15 miles off. A 250 mile month would have been amazing, but I"ll take 235. The bike miles were pretty pathetic, and should have been at least 150 miles more. April will be bike month for sure. I hope the weather holds out. If I have any chance to nail Ironman CDA, April has to be a big bike month, both quantity and quality. Swim volume is still way low, but planned that way. April will be about 12,000-17,000 more yds.

I've decided I'm not racing the Gulf Coast Half Ironman this Spring as my bike repairs cost a chunk of cash and the travel, registration fees, hotel for this race are pretty expensive (probably about $600). I may substitute a local Sprint distance race instead. I haven't raced a Sprint since 2005, so it should be interesting. They are usually like 600 meter swim, 12 mile bike, 3.1 mile run. I'd race it ALL OUT the who thing...as fast as you can go. Even though it's a short race, your HR is pegged for about an hour and it hurts for sure.

2009 ING Georgia Marathon

2009-03-30T16:49:00.003-04:00

Race went nearly perfectly as planned. As mentioned below my super stretch goal was sub 3 hours. Well I went 3:00:16 officially. My watch had :09 faster, but still not under 3 hours. My pacing was nearly perfect as I was never more than 70 seconds off of the mile splits. I have a complete race report up on my training blog - race report section, which goes into further detail. In summary it was a tough course with lot's of hills late in the run. It is said, and I agree, that mile 20 marks the half way point physically and mentally in a marathon and to throw hill after hill in those miles is brutal. I was fully expecting the hills so I was prepared. The really long one at mile 19 that was 1.3 miles. That took me about 40 seconds longer in that mile than my pacing chart called for and wiped out my time advantage I had built up.

I placed 3rd in the Masters Division which was a nice surprise and 29th overall. I'm pleased with the placing for this race as it was a large regional race. All 50 states represented and I think 23 countries. 15,000 runners, including the 1/2 marathoners. A personal recond by over 24 minutes!!

Georgia ING Marathon in 4 Day's

2009-03-25T15:24:00.004-04:00

So I haven't run just a marathon (that wasn't the run part in an Ironman) in 5 years, nearly to the day (3/27/2004). That was my first endurance event and I won my age group, which I guess is what started all this madness. If I had taken last in my AG, who know, maybe I wouldn't have caught the "bug", but I have always been competitive so I am guessing the bug would have come sooner or later :) I ran 3:24:26 back in 2004.

I have set a super stretch goal for myself of 2:59:59 for ING Georgia marathon on 3/29/2009. :24:27 is a lifetime difference in time, let alone being 5 years older. ING is a tough course. A buddy on mine, who ran Boston, New York, and Georgia last year said Georgia is by far the most difficult. Hill's baby, Hill's, I believe were his words. We'll see how it goes. My calf still isn't healed as it was bothering me on my Monday long run. I'm staying off it as much as possible this week. I'll probably only run 5-6 miles on Thursday, then the marathon on Sunday. Overall it will be a pitiful run volume week, but it is probably best to rest it anyway and I'd rather rest it before a marathon then to just rest it during normal training.

For this race I need to average 6:52 / mile, which is only :08 / mile faster than my long training run pace. Simple right.....well the "real" hills start at mile 18 and don't let up until the end. I've read last years race reports from folks who ran it and the main theme is BRUTAL. I'm scared for sure. Fatigue really starts to set in about mile 18 and then to start climbing....should be a real suffer fest!

March 3rd Week Summary

2009-03-22T22:34:00.002-04:00

Well last week was eventful. Monday's run was hampered by what I've now diagnosed as a fatigued left calf. This is a condition of an over trained muscle and can be pretty common in Ironman training. A muscle gets very fatigued from a workout and the following workouts start to add up as recovery just isn't happening. This last week was a recovery week. Training gets progressively longer / harder each week, every 4th week the volume backs off so your body can recover. Ironically, the Monday run of a recovery week I feel has a high chance of injury. Your body doesn't know it is recovery week until the run ends (shorter than usual). Well this is exactly what happened, at mile 7, I fell the calf. I think it is pretty much recovered at this point, but will keep an eye on it. I missed some training this week, as well. I took Wednesday's bike and run off to recover the Calf, also, Thursday's ride was cut about 60 minutes short due to rain. Sunday's long brick (a bike and run workout), was a total bust. I had planned 112 mile bike and a 6 mile run. 8.5 miles into the bike I noticed something wrong with my bike. I decided it best to turn around rather than get 55 miles out and have a real problem and not be able to ride back. I bumped my run up to 10 miles. All told 6 hours on the bike lost, about 2 hours on the run lost.

Weekly totals:
Bike 102 miles
Run 60 miles
Swim 4800 yds

March to date
Bike 429 miles
Run 189 miles
Swim 15,544 yds
Strength 6:20