Worst inaugural ride ever? Sunday weigh in.

Ok so the title is misleading, I'm sure it wasn't the worst inagural ride, but is sure as heck wasn't the best. Let me back track a bit... We had a fantastic weekend in southern Ontario, the weather was pretty much perfect, sunny with highs around the 24C mark. Bascially, perfect riding weather. I'm pumped. Friday was nuts. Work, swim 4.8k, eat, do house chores, run 7.5k, eat some more and prep bike. A very full day. Alot had to accomplished to get a clean slate for Saturday's first ride of the season. Fast forward to Saturday:
On the road at 8:40, want to start the season of with a bang and get 150 to 160k in. 10k into the ride, flat tire. Change tire, but now I dont' have a spare. I figure I'm only 10k from home, I'll zip back and get another. So I head home and figure that while I'm here I'll change the rubber in the backwheel to something a little more newer. Pump up the tires and I'm good to go. Ding Ding. Round 2:
8k into ride number 2, ssssssssss... damn, there goes the air - voila flat number 2. Ok, so obviously I'm having an issue. I take the rubber off the wheel and inspect the wheel - can't find a single thing wrong. No nicks, foriegn objects - nothing. A fellow tri-wienie stops and we shoot the breeze while I get back up and running - we end the conversation with maybe we'll meet up later and do some time trialling work. I think 'great!', I just maybe able to salvage this ride yet. Since I'm only 8k from home, I zip back and grab my last spare tube, refill water bottles and eat a banana.
Ding. Ding. Round 3:
I'm on my last spare, so I decided I better swing by the bike shop and grab some more. Better safe than sorry. So as I'm getting ready to leave the, who drops in? My fellow tri-wienie from round number 2. His workout was done and was about to do an easy ride home. I'm not into that. I came out today to log some K's and damnit that's what I'm going to do. I get 90 minutes into round 3, you guessed it, flat numero 3. Ok now I understand the Normann meltdown of Kona '05. Actually, I didn't go balistic at all, just kinda laughed, sat on the country rode and took my tire apart for upteenth time for the day. Flatted in a different part of the tube and still could find NOTHING causing it. That's the only part that cheeses me off - not being able to find the cause.
Ding Ding Round 4
Uneventful. Made it through the rest of the ride without flatting, had at least 150k on the agenda and in the end only manage to scrape togethor 115k.
Ding Ding Round 5
Got home, finished my chores just in time for the arrival of my M.I.L. Hehe, actually my mother in-law and I get along fine, I agree with everything she says and then Sally straightens her out. Hey, it works. :)

So the weekly weigh in is 24 hours ahead of schedule. Why? Tomorrow I must report of jury duty. Hey, I'm all for doing one's civic duty, but deep down I'll breathe a sigh of relief if I don't get picked. I also plan on re-taping the inside of my offending wheel, with the hope of that will solve my flatting problem.

Last week's numbers:
Swim: 6.8k
Spin: 3 hours
Bike: 115k
Run: 64k
Weight: 157

Once or twice this week I had to remind myself that I'm still recovering from being sick. (I can still feel residual crap in the bottom of my lungs) So overall it was pretty good week.
Stuff to think about this week: run 6 times, fix wheel and contact HED in regards to race wheels. I've been putting that last one off, but I promise, promise, promise to do it this week. Oh yea, must finish off taxes too. Oh joy.

The funk is out! The funk is out! Monday weigh in.

I think the last of this @#%%%^! bug is over with. Three weeks to the day.. zoinks. After my 1.5 hr 'nap' on Fri, I crashed early and got 9.5 hrs of sleep. This put me in good shape for Saturday and I ground out 3:20 on the computrainer. I had 3 hrs on tap, but since I'm in Colorado, I have some good climbs to contend with and I never stop halfway up a climb, so the total time for Saturday spin session was 3:20. I asked myself, 'is the funk out?' I say to myself, 'I think so.'
So I crash on Saturday night and get 10 hours of zzz's. Yea baby! Next on tap, a 2 hour run. This will be the real test, as long runs always leave me feeling a little beat up. The good news is I got er done and it actually felt ok! Woo hoo... the funk is OUT! I'm so frikin happy to be healthy again. :))

So, here's the numbers for last week:
swim: 7k
bike: 4hrs 30min
run: 52k

Training wise, it's been a brutal last 4 weeks. Easy week, followed by a week of crappy-sickness, followed by 2 weeks of slowly-getting-progressively-better-sickness. Not exactly going according to plan, but now that that is all behind me, what now? The one thing I must resist to do is try to 'catch up' on lost training. Oh yea I'll be starting to crank out some good mileage, but I'm not going to jump into right away - so the next 10 days will just be a build period and by May I'll be going full bore.

Sally always asks me 'what do you think about on your long ride/runs?' To which she gets the standard male response ' I dunno.' What do I think about? I had some great topics I was going to bring up on my blog, I mean some good, serious, deep stuff - but that was 24 hours ago and can I remember it now? No. I think I just enter a quasi dreamlike state and just think about stuff. I really should carry a voice recorder so I don't forget all this stuff.

C'est tout for now. Cheers!

Get the funk out!

I can tell I'm slowly coming out of my 'funk'. Still not 100%, but improving, and that's what is important. The workouts since I've been sick have been rather uninspired, physically I'm probably around 80-85%, mentally, I'm still in a bit of a rut, but it will come around. As an example today, I had a 4k swim planned and physically I felt quite strong in the water but I was feeling tired mentally and doing a workout when you are not 100% into it is rather taxing. I did get the job done, went home, ate and promptly fell asleep - for an hour and half! Needless to say, my 2nd workout, which was to be a short run, promptly got tossed out the window. I hoping by the start of next week I'll be back to 'normal'.

Tomorrow I'm going to grind out 3 hrs on the trainer and Sunday I'll see if I can run for 2 hours. Hopefully all goes well. Have a great weekend!

Monday weigh in..

I wish I stuff to report, but I don't. I'm still not 100% and am now starting to get a little worried. I know I'm on the mend as I'm sleeping much better, but I'm still have congestion issues, especially at night. Damn, I've been fighting this bug for 15 days now and it appears it's going to be hanging on for a few more yet. I can hear you now: "why don't you go to the doctor??" Ok, got me, I'm guilty. But seriously, what's a doctor going to say? 'Rest, eat well and here take some drugs.' So, I'm batting 2 out 3 - that's not too bad. Joking aside, if I can't clear the last of this bug up in the next few days, I will go - promise.

I did keep last week's promise of only working out for an hour a day, for Monday to Friday. As a result, last week's totals are messed up. Here's the low down:
swim: 7.6k
spin: 4hrs
run: 12k
No, that run total is not a misprint. My whole schedule is messed up due to this damn bug and I've had to take multiple days off during the week to get the extra rest. The long run got moved up a day (which made it today- hence it's not in last week's total - oh and by the way, it was crappy - had 2 hours on the schedule, felt terrible so cut it down to 1.5 hrs).

So that's basically the situation, it looks like this week is going to be yet another easy week and hopefully I can shake the last of this illness. Hopefully the workouts that I do are enough to maintain fitness because I'm sure the heck not gaining any. Gotta run... err make that sleep. Cheers.

Another brick in the wall, monthy totals.

So my big bike turned out to be a big bust. Hey it happens. Not much I can do except re-examine the coming month, tweak the plan and soldier on. The good news is that I'm slowly winning the battle over the bug that sidelined me. Last week I ended up putting all my efforts into 'getting well.' I like to do that, focus on one thing and do it the best I can, then move on. So how did I focus on getting well? Pretty simple, try to think good thoughts (this can be tough, being sick just makes me feel sorry for myself), eat super-well and get lots of rest. Positive thoughts and meditation looks after my mind and soul, eating well and getting lots of rest looks after my body... 100% health is sure to follow!

Naturally I asked myself if I was over training. It can be hard to be objective about oneself, but after looking at the symptoms and the data I decided that I wasn't. Here is why: I wasn't displaying the usual symptoms of overtraining ie: chronic inflamation, messed up sleep patterns, phsyical injury, GI distress, high resting HR or sugar cravings. Actually this months totals were LESS than last March's totals, so I truely don't believe I was shelling myself. For now, getting sick twice in 8 weeks I'm going to chalk up to 'one of those things.'

I imagine my immune system is like a wall, after it's been compromised I must rebuild it. How? 1) estabish and stick to a regular sleep pattern. Super important for the coming 4 months. 2) I need 8 to 8.5 hour every night. 3) Be hyper aware of the diet. Fruits, veggies, quality protein, whole grains and healthy carbs - my junk food allowances are: pretzels on occasion and a daily handful of chocolate chips.
(and yes the title of the post is a Pink Floyd reference:)

March totals:
Swim:27.3k
Spin: 31:30hrs
Run: 160.5k
I give my current swim fitness a 'B'. Bike fitness a B- and run fitness a C. The goal for April: maintain swim fitness, bring bike fitness to a 'B' and run fitness to a B-.
How?
This week for Monday to Friday, I PROMISE not to work out more than 1 hour a day. I must finish building up my 'immune system wall'. The following weeks will be cycle/run focused, but I'll still be swimming at least twice a week, getting 7+k in. I wanted to start a running 'tempo cycle' and get a weekly tempo run in for the next 6 weeks - that plan is currently on hold.

Lastly, I updated the race schedule, it's on the left. There are a couple of more I've got my eye on, but the important ones are up. Somehow I think this year is going to be dedicated to "building the base"... That's all for now,
Cheers!

Kinda bummed..

Ever have something you were looking forward to and it turned out not quite like you expected? Yea, I was looking forward to my big bike/training week, it's the end of winter, the weather is great and I've been looking forward to a week where I could just focus on training, sleeping and eating. Saturday starts of rather well, a solid brick workout weighing in at 3.5 hrs. Sunday was similar, but a bit longer - 4 hrs in total. The thing is, I felt awesome, bricks are notorious difficult workouts and I just plain old felt good. What a great start to my little epic week.

Sunday night roles around and I start feeling kind of funny. "oh oh.." It's now Tuesday I'm just coming out of a little 24-48hr bug that reaked havoc with my system. This has me bummed as it was only 6 weeks ago when I was sick, now I've been nailed twice in a short period. Not good. So now the priority is getting back to 'normal', eating well and getting 8+ hrs of zzz's every night.

A hearty thanks to Sally for putting up with me, I'm really a cranky sot when sick. Big hugs to my wife. :)

301W, T-minus 25 minutes.

Training camp officially begins in 25 minutes, so I figured I would do a quick blog update.
The last 5 days have been very easy, I want to make sure I'm 100% rested for my mini camp because I know I'll be rather shelled by next Sunday. Recap of the week:
Mon: Swim 2.5k
Tues: off
Wed: Swim 4.8k
Thurs: Spin 1hr (LT test!)
Fri: Swim: 3.1k
Even though it was an easy week, I upped the swim mileage. I figure getting the extra swim time still counts as 'easy' since it is time that doesn't involve leg work. Nice endurance set on Wednesday: 4X400, 8X200, 16X100. Booya.

It's been 2 months since my last bike LT test, so Thursday's workout was dedicated to that. What's interesting about doing the test is that it provides concrete data on whether or not your improving. Here is a brief synopsis of my last LT test numbers:
Time: 28:20 Avgerage speed: 38.1 Watts: 283
And the latest numbers are:
Time: 27:40 Average speed: 39.0 Watts:301 (yay!)
Good stuff, fitness level is increasing and I'm getting faster. Whoever said "It doesn't get easier, you just get faster" is so right on the money. It's difficult to describe just how tough a LT test is unless you do one. These are done at 100% effort, all out, leave nothing behind. Its funny though, when your done I always say to myself 'hmm, I bet I could have gone faster...' But during the test you tsay things to yourself 'oh my god, I've got 10 minutes to go... or.. I should do this test on another day.' Time seems to slow down too, in the last couple of minutes the seconds are taking there sweet time. You should try it sometime.

Lastly, here is the plan for the week:
Sat: 3 hr ride, 30 min run
Sun: 3hr ride, 30 min run
Mon: 1 hr ride am, 7.5k run pm
Tues: 2 hr ride am, 2 hr ride. pm
Wed: swim am, 1 hr ride pm
Thur: 2 hr ride am, 2 hr ride pm
Fri: 1 hr ride am, 7.5k run pm
Sat: 3 hr ride, 30 min run
Sun: run 2+ hrs.
Ok, it may not be EPIC, but that will be a solid/tough week.. Every workout will be in primarily mid/high zone 1.
Eep, 2 minutes until the official start, gotta go!
Cheers!

Monday weigh in. Long term planning..

Last week was the end of a 4 week build and it was a good week. The first 2 weeks were moderate volume of all 3 sports, the 2nd week I cranked it up a notch and last week it was cranked up yet again. Here's the numbers:
Swim: 5.6k
Bike: 8hrs 30min
Run: 67.5k
Weight: 157
Due to March break, I only managed 90 minutes in the pool but still got some quality work in. Fridays main set was a 20X100m on 1:30, alternate one slow and one fast. (1:18-1:20 for the fast ones and 1:26-1:28 for the slow)
The biking is going well. I'm just trying to log as much trainer time as possible without going too crazy. The Computrainer really helps as simulates outdoor riding so well - minus the lousy drivers and crappy weather of course.
Even though I feel like I'm not logging enough running K's, my run feels strong. The Mark Allen low heart rate protocol I've adapted is slowly paying off dividends. Earlier in the week I was noticing I had to put in more effort to reach my desired heartrate training level. More effort = more speed and yet my HR is still in zone 1. Good stuff.

Here's an interesting tidbit about Jasper Blake, Canadian Ironman Champ for '06. His zone 1 heartrate before IMC for running was 3:45/km! Interesting to note that he split a 2:48 marathon for an average of 4:00/km. Even he had trouble maintaining his training zone 1 running heartrate during a race, obviously biking 180k before hand has something to do with it.

Do you have a long term plan? No I don't mean long term as in 6 months from now.. more like what are your goals for next year? The year after? I've been mulling my long term triathlon plan for a few months and here is what I've settled on. Keep in mind this long term and the crystal ball gets murkier the farther I look down the road. This year: IMLP: goal: sub 10:30. Next year: IMC: goal: sub 10hrs. 2009: IMOO or IMFL: goal: qualify for Kona. 2010: Kona. Yea, I've got plans until 2010... go figure.

Next week I'm off work. I've slotted my 2nd BIG BIKE week for it. Yes, I'm taking time off work to train. I don't have a problem with it, neither should you. :) Here's my bike plan: 1st big bike week was end of Jan, where I managed 11hrs on the trainer. 2nd big week is 2 months later, I'm going for 18+ hrs over 8 or 9 days. Two months after this one is my 3rd big bike week and 7 weeks after that is IMLP. Am I training smarter? I think so... am I getting smarter? Hmm.. the jury is out on that one.
Cheers!

Monday weigh in

Last week was my 3rd week of a 4 week build, in which I've been distributing my time more equally among the 3 sports. It was a pretty good week workout wise, although I did miss once scheduled short run. I have to remind myself that's it's OK to miss a workout every so often, especially if I'm feeling tired. Here's the numbers:
Swim: 7.3k
Spin: 8hrs
Run: 51k
Weight: 157
The weeks highlights:
- met up with Cliff, on Friday for a swim session. I haven't seen Cliff since last October and wanted to see his swim progress. The good news is, in my opinion, he's reached the stage that in order to get better, he's going to have to start logging some serious pool time. It's a bit of a milestone of sorts, so a hearty congrats goes out to him.
-also pool related, my main set on Friday was a 10X400m on 6 min. Good set, coming in on 5:45's. My swim is at about 90% already and I'm very happy with that.
-passed the $1,000 mark for my charity fundraiser. Woo hoo 4 digit territory, and yes I do think a 5 digit number is on the horizon. Perhaps in a couple of years. It's all about taking baby steps in the right direction.

Not much else to say, solid spin hours, the running K's are a tad low, but I'll be adding a run or two this week and start building them back up. I have a run build scheduled for April. Actually the plan for the next 7 weeks goes like this: hard week, easy week, bike week, easy week, 3 week run build session.

That's all for now, cheers!

Monday weigh in..

I'm just thinking on the fly - about inspiration. The reason why I bring it up is because I got an email earlier today from someone who said they thought my blog was inspiring. It sort of makes me feel proud, embarrassed and humble all at the same time. I don't feel I write particularly well, yet I've had comments from people saying otherwise. Usually, I just to write as if I'm talking to you, and it's usually just off the top of my head. Some days it seems to just flow out and on other days I can't string two words togethor for the life of me. So when someone takes the time out of there day and drop me a note - it means something - and that's cool shit.
So I'm pondering about 'inspiration', what inspires you? Who inspires you? Something to think about. I get inspiration from many sources and sometimes don't even know it until I think about it later. Go to an Ironman, jeez if that doesn't inspire you to do something, then I think there is something wrong with ya. The list is long about what/who inspires me, sometimes it's fleeting. I'll see an eldery person who has gone through WWII and I think "I can't imagine what they've seen". There is inspiration there. Back to Ironman, how about the 75 year old nun, Sister Madonna Budder, multiple Ironman finisher and was at IMC and did Kona last year. Inspirational.
It reminds of the quote: "What ever you do, do it well." I'm going to just leave it that - something to think about.

Back to some actual training stuff! Last week numbers:
Swim: 6.6k
Bike: 6:40
Run:: 57.5
Weight: 158
This has been my standard week. I up the time spent in one sport and usually there is time taken away in another area. It's always a combination of balancing the sports and taking the time to focus on one area, then re-balancing. I'm pretty much in a phase of training where I'm balancing the 3 sports. The obvious exception is swimming and that's just because that's the area where I need the least improvement.

This week I'm going to try up the bike time a bit and hopefully the run mileage too. That will be challenge because tomorrow they are talking about MINUS 30C windchills! Those of you that read regularly know that I wimp out when it gets ridiculas outside. The good news is that I have 2 others sports in which to pick up any slack. So instead of run/bike day tomorrow, it's looking like a swim/bike day. See? Having 3 sports to balance can be good thing!
Have a great week.

Monthly mileage, hardest bike workout ever..

Just finished my 80k time trial bike workout about 2 hours ago. It's hard to describe just how much of a sufferfest the last hour was. I wanted to quit, I wanted to cheat (bad thoughts), of course I didn't but I sure wanted to. Having never done a workout of this type before I wasn't quite sure how to pace myself. My strategy was try and hold a mid zone 3 heartrate and see how well I do. I did fine up to about the 1:10 point and from there on it was pretty much a game of counting minutes, breathes - anything to keep my mind off of my obvious discomfort. Final time was 2:14, the first 40k look was just under 1:06 and even though I thought pacing was screwed my 2nd lap was about 2.5 minutes slower than the first. I'm actually kind of pleased because I wasn't pushing the watts and it certainly felt much slower. Methinks the legs are going to be a little cranky tomorrow.
I also did a 10.5k run earlier in the day, so I'm sure that was a factor in my bike workout from hell.

February mileage report:
Swim: 19k
Spin: 25hrs 40min
Run: 103.5k

The number dont' lie, no it wasn't a great training month. Between being sick and the subsequent recovery period, I just wasn't able to log huge numbers. The good news is my swimming feels good and 25+hours on the trainer isnt' too bad.

March 1 is big day for me.. in my mind we're so close to the end of the winter that I can almost taste spring. Oh man that makes me happy - I can't wait. Of course we are getting walloped with snow and freezing rain as I type, but I don't care. Winter's days are numbered...

Ok, I'm off. Must get a well deserved 8+ hours of zzzz's.... hmmmm... sleep.

Monday weigh in

Not a heck of alot is happening, last week was my first week of getting back to some 'normal' workout and feeling 100 percent healthy. Here's the numbers from build week number 1:
Swim: 7.1k
Spin: 7 hrs
Run: 49k
Two swims, with one of them being a 4k'er. I like the 4k swims because in my mind they are the ones that 'count'. Anything 4k and over counts because an IM swim is 3.8k, so I figure 4k plus is great for building endurance. If I can get 20 or so 4k+ swims between now and IMLP, my swim will be fine.

7 hours on the bike - no complaints there. The highpoint being last Thursday I did a 45 minute zone 3 workout - pushed 268 watts for the duration, felt good. I've come to the conclusion that to get fast on the bike, one really must embrace suffering. I don't know why, but when the legs start to hurt, I think they are fibbing because you can keep pushing at the same effort for a very long time before they truely start to give out. I only bring this up because I have an 80k time trial on the books for this week - and I'm looking forward to it with apprehensive trepidation.

Yay, I'm back running. While 49k isn't alot, it felt good and felt strong. I don't think I lost much run fitness during my sickness. Sunday's run was a 20k'er (hmm, nice -20C windchill) and I held sub 5min/K for the duration while keeping the heartrate in zone 1. A good sign.

So basically the plan for this week is to maintain swimming and biking and up the running K's a bit. Cheers!

Bye-bye California, hello Arizona!

Egad, it's been awhile. I have not forgotten about you - honest! I was going to do an update on Friday, but got sidetracked by computer issues. Actually, the computer royally ticked me off, so I reformatted. Anyone who has done this before, knows it's a pain in the butt. The good news, I have my most of my old software back up and running and the system is running so much better now.

The last 2 weeks, I've been rather hamstrung by a nasty little bug that is being rather persistent. Last week I was going to 'get back at it' - and to a certain extent I was successful, but I was lacking heart. Things weren't still at 100%, so I kept the intensity down and just concentrated on getting back to being sick-free. Here is what I ended up doing last week:
Swim 5.9k
Spin: 9hr 10min

What? No running??! Yes, the running mileage has taken a severe beating in recent weeks. Sickness, snow storms and minus 25C windchills = no running for me! Decent spin time though and the extra time on the bike should help my muscle endurance. (which, in my opinion is my primary limiter for an Ironman) Which brings me to bye bye California, hello Arizona:
I'm slowly plugging away on the Race Across AMerica (RAAM) on my Computrainer. Curently, I'm on stage 8 out of 57, which puts me pretty much smack in the middle of Arizona. Depending how much RAAM riding I do, I should be in Utah by next week sometime.

So what's the plan? Ahhh, the 'plan', is always dynamic, but here is it's current incarnation. A 3 or 4 week build phase, followed by an easy week, followed by a big bike week, followed by an easy week. That'll put me into the beginning of April. Gotta get the running legs back, that's a priority - just consistent mileage and getting out 5 or 6 times a week. I had a scheduled 'A' race in the beginning of March, which actually sold out before I registered. I'm on the waiting list, if I'm offered a spot I'll take it, but it sure won't be an A race - it'll just be a good hard run.

That's all for now. Cheers!

I've been sponsored and smoted!

The BIG news first. My employer, Canada Post, has agreed to sponsor me for 2007! I had some wacky promotional ideas, (carrying a letter around during the course of an Ironman was one..), that luckily they aren't going make me do. (I'm still not sure the best place to put the letter during the swim portion...) Bascially it boiled down to this, we like what you did you last year - keep up the good work. Hey! I can live with that. I've provided a nice helpful link to the Canada Post website on the left of your screen, so go click on it and buy a stamp or something!

And now for the 'smoting' part of today's post. It appears that the Super Bowl Gods weren't too fond of last Friday's mini rant against their game, by Monday I was sick as a dog - I've been smoted. I don't get sick often, but when I do, I usually go down for the count. So my workouts for this week look like this:
Monday - OFF
Tuesday - NADA
Wednesday - ZIP
Thursday - Z-E-R-O
Friday- run 7k and hack a lung out. (nah, it wasn't that bad)
So I'm starting to feel better today and did get a short run in. It's funny, being sick makes me depressed in ways like : 'I don't want to workout' or : 'I don't even feel like working out' or 'Bah, I've already lost fitness.. missing another day won't matter'.
That's the bad side...
The good side is: 'ahhh a forced rest, time for some extra muscle repair, so I can really start to rip it up' or 'this rest will make me stronger for later..'
Naturally, I side with the good, a forced rest this early and after some pretty good mileage for Oct, Nov, Dec and Jan is probably good for me. Either way, I'm looking forward to getting back to 100% so I can assauge some of this guilt of missing 4 days in a row! My recipe for getting well: rest, quality food, rest some more, get active when possible and just 'focus on getting well.'

Oh yeah another thing, I'm down to 156 pounds - that's only 5 pounds away from when I used to swim seriously, a mere 20 years ago! I think my new race weight will be 155.
Ok, I must go nap now. Have a great weekend!

SUPER January totals..

Hi, my name is Darren and and I couldn't care less that this weekend is super bowl Sunday. Can't stand the game. Can't stand the hype. Can't stand the hooplah. You couldn't pay me to watch it. I suppose many would consider that sacrilege and blasphemous, ahh well, to each his own. I do like the junk food though.....

Ok so the January totals aren't SUPER, but they aren't bad either - here ya go:
Run: 255.5k
Spin: 31 hrs 15 min
Swim: 15.65k

Failed to meet my monthly run goal of 300k, but I smashed my projected bike time. That was mostly due to my bike focus week where I did 16 hrs in 8 days. So even though I missed my run goal, the extra time on the bike made up for it.
As for swimming, I'm just getting back into it and progress has been good. Example: when I first got into the pool, I was winded doing a 5X200m on 3:15, coming in on 3:00. Today, I did the same set coming in sub 2:50's and more importantly it felt better. I think by mid March swimming will be back to normal.

I tried to sign up for my early season "A" race - The Chilly Half Marathon and it's SOLD OUT. Doh Doh Doh Doh Doh. I'm on the waiting list, so I'm hoping between that and me begging the race director I'll get in. I can't believe it sold in January - is this running thing catching on or what?

The weekend plan: Sat: spin 3 hrs or so. Not sure if I'm going to do Lake Placid or another leg on the RAAM course. Sunday: run. A cold run according to the forcast - oh joy.

Here's hoping you have a SUPER weekend! :) Cheers!

Monday weigh in..

Bike focus week is done. From Saturday the 20th to Saturday 27th a total of 16 hours on the trainer, that's the equivalent of 500k -not too shaboo for January! Lesson learned: due to easier/faster recovery the key for building muscular endurance is to log lots of cycling miles. I mean lets face it, you can be great runner but if you don't have the cycling miles in your legs, you will not run well after a 180k bike in an Ironman!

So here are my Monday to Sunday totals:
Swim 5.85k
Spin: 10 hrs
Run: 42k
Weight: 160

Swimming is coming along ok, the stroke is slowly starting to feel better, which is pretty cool because today was only my 6th swim since IMC (Aug /06) - so it's only natural I'm going to be a little rusty in the water. I'm still just focusing on drill work, some pulling and the odd 5 X 200.

The goal for this week is to bring back up running frequency and mileage, log around 5 to 6 hours on the trainer and swim twice and take two easy days. (Monday and Friday).

Still no word on sponsorship, I'm hoping to get news in the next week or two so I can update my '07 race schedule. I'll keep you posted.

The 50/50 draw at work is progressing well - closing in 600 bux for the kids - good stuff.

Must... go.. make... dinner.. hmmmm... foooooooooood.
Cheers!

Focus & Bonking

Note there is no 'i' in the title.

'Bonking' occurs when you deplete your energy stores, you are basically trying to complete a workout or race with the needle below empty. Generally, it's not a fun experience, power output is minimal and all you really want to do is curl up somewhere, eat some food and grab a nap.

Why am I talking about bonking in January? Usually this only happend during a long bike ride... Well, funny you should mention, but this is a bike focus week. I've been logging some good hours on the Computrainer this week and yesterday's workout was a douzy.
Let me recap the week thus far: Tues: Run 11k (25 min @tempo), 2 hours on the trainer. Wed: Run 9k (trails) 1 hour spinning. Thurs: a 3.5 hour trainer session. (new record!).

The thing about yesterday's workout was not only was it long, it was hard. I downloaded all the RAAM courses for the Computrainer. What is RAAM? Oh, it's a little race where people Ride Across AMerica.... on their bikes. Yea, it's whole new level insanity, which we can discuss at another time. So my thinking is
'hey, over the next little while, I'll plug away on the RAAM courses and eventually I'll be able to say I rode across America in training - so it's virtual riding, but it still counts. So I fire up stage one, (there are 57 in total) and holy crap it's HILLacious. I got more than I bargained for: net elevation was over 1100 meters and that's just net elevation, not even including all the ups and downs on the way. Zoinks. ALOT of hard climbing, I'm talking 15% grades up and out of saddle climbing. Wheeeee!
Average speed for the whole workout was a mere 24kph! Did I bonk? No, but it was close - power output was low and I feeling a little grumpy by the end, but at least I finished that sucker!

So, since Sat, I'm at 12.5 hours of trainer time and I still have 2.5 days to go...

That's all for now. Cheers!

Monday weigh in

Ok ok.. I admit it. I'm a fair weather runner. My tolerance for cold weather running stops around the -8C degree mark. Throw some wind in the mix and my will to run evaporates. Luckily last week, was a designated easy week, so even though I bailed on a run or two, I won't allow myself to feel too guilty over it. Here's the mileage report:
swim: 5.6k
bike: 8hrs
run: 23.5k
weight: 160 (down another pound)

Only 2 runs for the week. Did I mention I'm a wuss when it's too cold? Here's what actually happened. Saturday woke up, walked the dog with Sally - all the while she got to listen to grumpy Darren cursing the weather the gods. I get backand bailed on my Sat morning run, instead I fire up the spinner and do a Lake Placid loop on my Computrainer. Phew, that makes up for the run I bailed on. Sunday... brrrr too cold. Run for 2 hours with -20C wind chills? Nah. So I did the Lake Placid loop again on Sunday - hence the spike in bike hours for the week.

I guess with the weekend dedicated to spinning, my bike focus week got bumped up a couple of days. So instead of a 6-day bike focus, it'll be a an 8 day focus. I've adjusted my build weeks. I used to do a 3 week build, followed by an easy week. This Jan I've been trying something new - 2 week build, easy week, focus week, easy week. We'll see how it goes..

Sorry for the short post, but Sal and I have a dvd date - we're starting 24 season 3. Cheers!

The Hungry Trout, bike LT test.

Slowly starting to get things in place for Ironman Lake Placid. After a few days of searching and finding absolutely nothing in the accomodation department, we lucked out and secured a spot at The Hungry Trout Inn. Would I make this stuff up? Actually, the place looks pretty good and it's about 30 minutes outside of Lake Placid located on the bike course. Phew, I can now cross 'find accomodations' off the list.

Yesterday, I did my very first lactate threshold test on the bike. Zoinks, that was fun. If fun means 'sweating profusely while gasping for air and having your legs screaming at you to stop'. Then yes, that was fun. The bike LT test is similar to the run LT test - it's basically a 30 minute all out time trial in which you record your heartrate and determine your 'lactate threshold'. Your LT is then used to establish your training zones. The numbers are: avg watts 283, average HR: 170 - initially I didn't think I could hold this for 30 minutes, but I did - so I think it was a good test. Painful, but good.
So zone 1 (easy) is <139 HR and zone 2 (endurance) is 140-151 HR. Kind of funny as I've been training between 135 and 142 HR on the bike for the last few months.

I also got my 2nd swim of the year in yestereday, 2.6k. Easy sets, drillwork, nothing too hard - slowly getting the arms back in the swing of things.

Today: run 11k plus 1 hr on the bike - more drill work.
Tomorrow: swim & run
Fri: 2nd easy day of the week .. bike 60-90 min.

That's all for now, it's bedtime and I need my 8!

Weekend update

It's interesting to see how other people approach training. I keep an eye out on follow bloggers, visit many forums, websites and pro's blogs all in effort to garner as much information as possible and make an informed decision on what is good for me. The bottom line is there is no one definite clear answer that works for everyone. Some people speed train all year around, some 'periodize', some do huge amounts of base training and little else. Regardless of what works for you, one thing is clear, you have to log the miles. Which is kind of a nice segui into the this week's mileage report:

Swim: 2.1k
Bike/spin: 6hr 45min
Run: 84.5k
Weight: 161 (dropped 2 pounds!)

I guess the big news is that I went for my first swim - just did some basic drill stuff and took it easy. While at the pool, I was chatting with the lifeguard and as it turns out, Lisa Bentley regularly swims there. Yes, THAT Lisa Bentley. So not oly does the pool have a maximum of 4 swimmers for the entire pool during adult swim, a 10 time IronWoman champion also trains there. -Yup, I'm liking my new pool.

I guess most other news for the week pales in comparison. I ditched one run, so only got 5 runs in on the week, but gained 75 minutes of bike time and a pool workout. Fair trade I'd say.

I'm going to back off a bit this week, cut the running mileage down to ~50k, swim twice and bike maybe 4.5 -5 hrs - depends how I feel. I have TWO very easy days this week. Wacky stuff. The point of this week is rest up for the following week, which will be my first bike focused week.
That's it for now.. Cheers!

Monday weigh in..

I meant to update on Friday, but got sidetracked. Why you ask? After being ever so patient, my Computrainer finally arrived and like a little kid at Christmas I naturally had to start 'playing' right away! For those that don't know, a Computrainer hooks your bike up to the computer and you can race other opponents, pre-race a course ( or build your own), it simulates hills and grade percentages, provides you with loads of data: speed, rpm, watts, real time 'spin analysis', heart rate and the list goes on.

After I hooked it up, I fired up spinscan and could tell immediately my left leg does more work than my right and that I have a 'dead spot' at top-dead-centre. I have more work to do on the bike than I originally thought!
Anyway, enough of my new toy, if you are interested, go click on the link above or drop me a note. Incidentally, I bought mine through Mike Plumb over at Tripower. He did a group deal that provided a substantial discount. So in addition to being an athlete and a triathlon coach, he's an all around nice guy!

Last week's mileage report:
Run: 91.5k
Spin: 5.5 hrs
Weight: 163
Not too shaboo. I did a 30 minute tempo run on Tuesday which went well, held a heartrate of 175 for the duration. Other than the Computrainer, the only other thing of note was that yesterday I did 25k run in which I acutally had to push myself to maintain a high zone 1 heartrate. ie not over 150 bpm. Held 4:58/k over hilly terrain, in zone 1 for 25k. I'm happy with that because it's tangible evidence my fitness level is increasing.

This week the plan is pretty much the same, maybe add an extra spinning hour and increase the tempo run to 35 minutes.

Oh yeah.. I checked out a new pool today. The problem is my old pool, which is an excellent facility, just can't get their act togethor regarding lane swims. So I go and check out this other pool, which is not as nice as a facility, but .. and this is a big but, it only had ONE swimmer in the whole pool for the adult/lane swim. I think I found a new swim home... :)
Cheers!

I resolve to..

Stop making resolutions. Not that I ever really did anyway. However, I hope in '07 that I can expand my physical, mental and spiritual horizons, which really is an ongoing process as opposed to any arbitrary 'resolution.'

Last night some good friends came over, including Reddog. Good food, friends, converstion, a beverage or two and a board game. Pretty low key and casual - just the way I like it now. A far cry from my younger days, upon reflection, I have sure done some stupid things. Fortuneately, we kept the festivities to a dull roar and I emerged in '07 relatively unscathed, though perhaps a little sleep deprived. Yes, today is a designated off-day. :)
However, a new phase starts tomorrow. Here's the plan: for January: week 1, 2 run focused. week 3: easy. week 4: bike week. Bring the total spinning hours to ~22-24. Try to maintain 300+ running K's. Do 4 tempo runs and 2 interval sessions. The major change is the addtion of speed work, this period will last for Jan and Feb. The goal for week 4, bike week, is to get 10 hours on the trainer. Oh yea, I may even make it to the pool 2 or 3 times this month... wacky stuff.

Monthly stats:
run: 332k (mileage PR!)
spin: 18.5 hours

Jan 1/06 - Dec 31/06 mileage:
run: 2424k
spin: 131 hours
bike: 3432k
swim: 191k

A good 'build year'. I think if I can build more in '07, I could have a break out year in '08. Hehe, '07 is only 15 hours old and I'm already to starting to think of '08.

This quote seems fitting for Jan 1:
"Never live in the past but always learn from it. " -Unknown

Milestones

A couple of minor milestones. One is relating to winter. You see, psychologically, I break winter down into two major milestones. The first one is the winter solstice, which just passed on Dec 22. Daylight has been increasing for the last 5 days! The next major winter milestone for me isn't until March 1, when it's so close to the end of the tunnel and you can taste spring. Jan/Feb can be a tough stretch, but once March is here, it's game on!

2006 is winding down real fast. As I reflect on the year, specifically relating to triathlon, I think of the top 3 things I've learned. 1) speed is icing on the cake and I don't have cake yet. Off the top of my head, I can't recall who said that, so I can't give proper credit, but it was someone wiser than me! It really is all about building a bigger engine. 2) It really is all about the run. Which is kind of a trick statement. It should be: it's all about arriving at the run with enough endurance to actually run." I thought I was working on the run in '06, but truthfully I did not end up doing what is required. I believe you have train like a runner to become a better runner. Also, just as importantly, do the bike miles to arrive at the run in reasonable shape. Lastly, nutrition really is king. I've found that 'nailing' my nutritional needs for the longer events quite difficult and even though I've learned alot, I still have a ways to go. Such is life.

Another milestone... 101 running K's last week. Yea! A nice Christmas present to myself - a mileage PR. Here's the belated stats for last week:
run: 101 k
spin 4 hr
Plus the usual 2 hours dedicated to stretching and core work.

Ok, well I was a little reluctant to post this, but I did promise I'd post my new bike position, so here it is. Constructive criticism always welcome.. note, I did stay constructive. :)











The only real adjustments over last year is that now there are no spacers in the stem. I played with angling the aerobars down a bit, but after some research decided against it. I was able to achieve a nice flat scapula area and have so far found this position to be comfortable, so for the time being this is the position I'll go with.

The camera did point out some technical flaws in my pedal stroke, just some minor things to work on while logging the spinning hours.

Speaking of spinning, I better stop typing and start logging some miles in front of the TV. Cheers!

It's crunch time..

It's crunch time at the North Pole. I'd imagine those poor elves must be 'in the weeds'. <-- bartending lingo for when your busier than hell. I hope Santa is good to everyone.

The week is progressing well, I'm on track for 100 running K's, just have to do a couple 22k runs this weekend. Monday was off, Tuesday: run 17, spin 1hr, Wed: run 12, spin 1hr, Thur: run 17, spin 1 and today was run 9 in the nice cold rain and spin 1. At least the weather looks decent, so I shouldn't have a problem finishing the week out strong.

POGO news:
I finally got the 50/50 off the ground at work- yea 2 weeks later than I orginally thought... office politics, ya gotta love it. The good news is for the inaugural draw $120.00 was collected. Let's just hope it lasts. So current collected total is $220.00, with almost $200.00 in pledges to be collected. Hey, it's a start.

Hmm.. not much else is happening. I'm still waiting on my Computrainer, though with things pretty much shutting down next week, I probably won't receive it until January. Waiting, it's the hardest part.

That's all for now. Don't forget what Christmas is really about, give a loved 0ne a hug and raise a glass for everything we have to be thankful for. Cheers!

Monday weigh in

Picture this. It's December 17th (yesterday), one hour north of Toronto, a mere 4 days before the official start of winter... it's a gorgeous sunny day with temperature just shy of 10C. If that's not shorts weather I don't what is. Yup, smart money says it'll be a green Christmas. The 'angel' on the right shoulder says "global warming = bad!" The 'devil' on the left shoulder says "get outside and enjoy that global warming!" I kinda feel guilty for running shorts in the second half of December.

The tally for last week:
Run: 87.5 k
Spin: 5 hrs
Weight: 163
Met my goals for the week - all is good. This week I'm thinking of giving myself a Christmas present - a running mileage PR. Yup, going for triple digits next week and maintain the same amount of time on the bike. I figure go for 100 running K's next week, then take the last week of the year real easy, with January 2/07 bringing in a new training phase. So there ya have it. Cheers!

LT test and getting clocked.

Standard warning: Do not attempt this test without the consent of a physician. I'm being serious, the last thing I want on my concious is being responsible for someone else's heart attack.

So what is an LT test? LT stands for lactate threshold which is the level of exercise intensity when lactate starts to accumulate in the blood and you change from a primarly fat burning to a glycogen (carbs) burning metabolism.
Methodology: Get yourself good and warmed up ending with a few stride repeats to jack up the heart rate. Once warmed up run a 30 minute time trial. At the 10 minute mark, hit the lap button on your heartrate monitor, your LT will be your average heartrate for the last 20 minutes. You should give the time trial 100 percent effort and be pretty well spent at the end of it. Ideally, you want a hard, but consistent pace throughout the whole time trial.

Ok, so that's the nuts and bolts of the matter. Tuesday seemed like a good time for a LT test, my prep work for next year is almost done, I've logged some decent running K's, and the roads were fairly dry (well the paved ones were, the dirt roads were pretty muddy). Might as well embrace some pain and get this test done. Here's the numbers:

0-10 minute mark: distance: 2.51k heartrate: 181 bpm
10-20 minutes: distance 2.54k heartrate: 183bpm
20-30 minutes: distance: 2.49k heartrate: 183 bpm
Average heartrate for last 2o minutes: 183 bpm.

So my LT is 183 bpm. I was able to maintain pretty much the same pace throughout and by the end I was sucking wind pretty hard. I believe I got an accurate reading, which is what matters. So what does this number mean? Well from my LT we can determine correct trainings 'zones', (using Joe Friel's method)

Zone 1: easy / recovery workout: <155
Zone 2: endurance training: 155-164
Zone 3: 'intensive' endurance training: 165-173
Zone 4: Threshold training: 174- 180
Zone 5 Threshold training 181-184

Personally I think these values are a little on the high side, maybe 5 beats. I'll experiment during my 'build phase' and zone in on what I think is appropriate - but at least it gives me a starting point.

So yesterday I ran through a speed trap and the officer clocked me at 13kph. Now I 'know' I was only at a max of 12 kph, my internal speedometer is quite accurate I assured him. However, he'd have none of that as his laser thingy clearly clocked me at 13kph. Fortuneately, it was a 40 zone, so I didn't get a ticket. Luckily I was just 'warming up' and he'd didn't catch me during Tuesday's LT test. :)
Cheers!

Monday weigh in

Today, I'm a kid. Why? Just ordered a new Computrainer, through Mike Plumb at Tripower Multisports. Mike, is doing a large bulk deal and is able to get a substantial discount which he graciously passes on to us. So, if you are in market for a Computrainer, do yourself a favour and contact Mike asap. I think he's wrapping things up in about 1 week.

It will probably take 2-3 weeks until I actually receive it and naturally when I get it up and running I'll want to ride the snot out of it. I better be getting my cycling legs back in a hurry. So the plan for this week is to increase my spinning time by an hour and get about 80 running K's in. This week's outline is: Tues: run 1 hr, spin 1.5hrs. Wed: run 40min, spin 1 hr. Thurs. Run 1 hr, spin 1.5hrs. Fri: run 40, spin 1hr. Sat run 1.5 hrs. Sun run 2.0 hrs.

The weekend saw the last of my cold go bye-bye and I was operating at a respectable 90%. I did an 18k run on Sat and a 22k run on Sun. The weekly totals are:
Run: 63.5k
Spin: 4 hours.
Weight: 163 (down a pound)
Running K's are low due to the fact I bailed on two runs - for which I blame my cold. On the other hand, I'm happy I got >60k's in 4 runs. I'd love about 2 more months of consistent 80k weeks.. but I know Jan/Feb will be particularly challenging in the mileage department. Which brings me to swimming...

Swimming is still very much on the back burner, at least for another month, maybe two. I'm not looking forward to going back to the pool - just yet. Although watching NBC's coverage Kona on Saturday gave me goosebumps - it made me at least start to think about swimming. Hey, thinking about it is the first step, now I just have to move to the 'doing' part... Cheers!

Cough... cough..

Had a bit of a cold this week, I should have know something was up last weekend - during my run my heartrate was higher than normal and I wasn't just feeling 'right'. Turns out it's a bit of cold, it's been so long since I've had one, I almost forgot what it's like. It wasn't too bad, a couple of restless nights and a stuffed nose - at least the bugger didn't migrate to my lungs.

I erred on the side of caution and ditched two of my runs this week and opted for additonal zzzz's instead. Focus on getting back to 100% health then focus on training. I still did my bike workouts, so I wasn't in 100% slacker mode - just semi-slacker.
The good news is, I had a great sleep last night and was able to get a run and bike workout in today. Hey, if cold only buggers up two runs, I sure the hell won't complain.

As you know, I'm still in a pre-season/base phase. ie: during all workouts, heartrate is not allowed over 145 and is usually kept between 140 - 142. The one thing I have been working on is my run cadence. My natural cadence seems to be dialed in at 88 strides/min (176 steps). The goal is to increased that to 92. In order to do that, every so often during a run, I'll do real quick increase in cadence for 20 to 30 sec. The theory being, that eventually running at 92 strides will feel natural.
Anyway, this got me a thinking. (yea it happens every so often). Increasing cadence from 88 to 92 = 8 an extra 8 steps per minute. Big deal you say. Well extrapolate that over the course of a marathon. 1 step =1.25m (it's propably more), so that's 10 extra meters travelled in 1 minute. For arguments sake, let's say you run a 3 hour marathon. That's 180 minutes, at 10 extra meters/ minute, that's 1800 meters, or 1.8k. A 3 hour marathon requires a 4:16/k pace, so by merely increasing your cadence, in this case you could shave over 7.5 minutes. Points to ponder. Now all I have to do is break that elusive 3 hour barrier for a marathon - something that is at least a year away...

Have a great weekend!

Monday weigh in

The i's are dotted, the t's are crossed... my sponsorship proposal for Canada Post is officially completed. Now just have to wait a month or two until I receive word back. Fingers are crossed. I understand HED Cycling sponsors amatuers, so some inquiries are in order, hey I have nothing to lose, right? As usual, I'll keep you posted.

Let see, what else is happening.. oh right, I should update you on my fundraising for POGO. Good news. In conjunction with the Brampton Post Office, a regularly scheduled 50/50 draw should generate a good $400.00 /month towards this worthy cause. The first draw is scheduled to start this coming Friday -woo hoo! Between, Debbie (a co-worker helping me) and myself, we've already got the ball rolling with over $200.00 in pledges. I'll update the total on the left after I actually receive the pledge and send it in. So things are starting to roll in that department, which is good news indeed.

On to training news... Last week was a scheduled easy week. (ya gotta love those..) Here's the totals:
Run: 44k
Spin: 4 hrs
Weight: 164
The plan for this week is log between 70 and 75 running K's and maintain the spinning time.

In an effort to get into a more aero position I'm currently tweaking my bike setup. Every month, I'm taking a small spacer out of the stem of my bike and thus getting a little bit more aero. So last week I did this and much to my suprise I was quite comfortable. I'm doing very minute adjustments every 2 to 4 weeks and I'm hoping by February I'll be 'dialed in'. I'll get Sally to take a pic and I'll show you my progress.
Cheers!

Monthly mileage report

Well I guess shorts weather is officially over. The mild spell officially left us yesterday and while our weather is not as bad as those poor folks on the west coast, it has turned to a mixed bag of freezing rain, rain and sleet. Oh joy. Fortuneately, I've lucked out as this is my easy week and I can blow off a run workout without feeling too much guilt. However, the cost of missing a run equals increased spinning time, so it's not like I'm being a total lazy ass. So, here's the numbers November:
Run: 310k
Spin: 8 hrs
A gold star to me for busting the 300k in November. I really hope I can maintain a few more months of solid mileage and that I'll live up to my vow of actually trying to becoming a runner.
The running plan for December, starting Monday (rest day), is to do a 3 week build followed by a week of rest. So I'm putting my order in for some decent weather for December now. As for cycling/spinning, the plan is to increase frequency. I'll be starting to do alot more double workout days of 1) running as soon as I get home for work and 2) spinning for an hour later in the day. That's the plan.
This weekend, the low pressure system bringing us this slew of wet weather is moving out, so Sat/Sun is shaping up to be OK. I'm going to run for an hour tomorrow and run for 1:30 or so Sunday. Then it's officially bye-bye easy week.

Lastly, a thanks to Mark. I've pretty much let everyone know that I've been lusting after a Computrainer, and Mark was kind enough to point out a Slowtwitch post that I actually missed! That simple act of kindness of emailing could save me a quite few bucks and it certainly is appreciated. Just goes show you, us tri-wienies watch each others back!
Have a great weekend!

Monday weigh in

So... how about that weather? Whenever it's nice like it has been for the last few days, I always feel I have to go out and run because I know the nice weather isn't going to last forever - so I better bank a few extra K's when I can. That being said, even though today was a damned fine day, it was a scheduled off day. Sometimes it's difficult to force myself to take a day off - but it must be done.
Last week was a good week:
Run: 85k
Spin: 2 hours
Weight: 164
Add my usual 2 hours of stretching and core work and November's mileage is shaping up rather nicely. The last 4 weeks of run totals look like this: 75k, 77k, 80k and 85k. A very gradual increase in mileage and I'm feeling great. I'm happy I'm comfortably over the 80k/week mileage mark and the body seems to be soaking up the miles without any problems. So, since it did what I wanted, it's time to reward it with an easy week. The plan for this week is to run no more than 50k and spin 3 hours.

QOTD:
"Whatever you are, be a good one." - Abraham Lincoln

Sunny happy Friday

Not a heck of alot to report, except that today was absolutely beautiful. To commemorate such a great day I went for a run - in my shorts. Yes, it's November 24 in Canada and it's shorts weather. To cap it off, this weekend is looking even better. Hopefully I'll get some extra running K's in. The week so far:
Mon: off
Tues: run 7.5k spin 1 hour
Wed: run 13.5k
Thur: run 12k, spin 1 hour
Fri: run 14.5k

I'm keeping all my run heartrate efforts in the low 140's. The one thing I've noticed, is that's more difficult to maintain a 140 heartrate on the bike. Aerobically it's no big deal, but the cycling legs just aren't there. So typically, I'm averaging 5 beats less while spinning.

There is a Computrainer on Ebay that's going for 1200 bucks. I talked it over she-who-must-obeyed (Sally) and we figure if used ones are selling that high, might as well get a new one. So I'm working the finances and with any luck I'll score one by Christmas. Yay! I'm excited at the prospect of getting a new toy. I'm such a kid.
Have a great weekend!

Monday weigh in

I've pretty much slid back into a workout routine, which is good. I find whenever I start to train, there is about a 6 week time frame that goes from "ug, I don't want to do this" to "hmmmm, I want to more." I've past the 6 week hump, so now it's a question of finding an early season balance of pushing a bit more and getting lots of rest.

The running is coming along. Last week I did 80k, which is OK because I'm keeping my longest run to only 1:30 -1:45. Yesterday, I capped off a 13 day in a row run-fest with an 18k'er. I actually dusted off my Garmin and verified my pace, speed and distance. Here's the low down: 18k in 1:33 for a 5:10/km pace and an average heartrate of 143. On one hand I'm happy I can run 5 minute K's with a low heartrate, on the other hand I ask myself why can't I run that fast for the marathon portion of an Ironman? I know, I know.. I need a bigger aerobic engine and running a marathon after you've biked 180k and swam 3.8k is an entirely different animal. But I find running at this pace so easy in training and so frikin hard during an IM.

I'm currently lusting after a computrainer. I've done some minor modifications to the 'boy cave' and I could set one up quite nicely. Now it's just a matter of selling it to Sally (I need this..) and finding a good deal on the used market. This year I've logged about 120 hours on the bike trainer, so I think a computrainer would add some much needed fun to spinning. Hey, it's fun and it's functional! Sally, you're reading this, right? :)

To recap the week:
Run: 80k
Spin: 1 hr
Weight: 164.
Plus my usual 2 hours per week of stretching and core work. That's all for now, happy Monday everyone!

Tardy mileage report, hike-n-run

Hey!
Sorry for the delay, I usually post my mileage reports on Monday, but life got in the way. Hey, it happens.
Last weeks mileage was 77 running K's and 1 hour of spinning. The high point of the week came on Sunday when a good friend of mine made the journey north and we hiked/ran a 24k section of the Bruce Trail. It wasn't the length of the run that made it challenging, it was the elevation. After 24k and a couple of thousand feet of elevation, we were pooched. A good tired though - at least in my mind.. I've yet to hear from Ian, perhaps he's avoiding me now! :)

I had Monday off work and it was a scheduled off day. However, since I didn't have to walk my regular 9-10k on the beat (I'm a letter carrier) and my legs were actually feeling pretty good from Sunday. I went for a short recovery run of 7.5k. Yesterday was 12.5k on the road and today was 12+k on the trails.

This latest running block is going to consist of 13 days of running in a row - I may not be logging huge K's but at least I'm adapting to running frequency. I believe the main reasons why I'm adapting well to the increased frequency is 1) 50% or more of my runs have been on trails. 2) average heartrate has consistently been 140-142. So, by keeping the impact and the intensity low, getting 8+hrs of zzzz's a night = good recovery.
4 days to go....
Cheers!

HRM tales & going batty

Ever since I started to train more 'serious', I generally used 'perceived effort' to gauge a workout level. I didn't want to become one of 'those guys' who if their heart rate monitor broke down in a race, they'd go off the rails. I just didn't want to become too reliant on technology - I'd rather rely on myself first. As time went by, I succumbed and bought a Garmin GPS unit. A geeky toy that keeps track of pace, miles logged etc.. Even though I shunned alot of the gadgets available, the geek inside of me still thinks some of them are cool. I've had the Garmin for a couple of years and now I rarely use it. I just know how far and how fast I've run. Yes, it still has it uses, especially for long runs, lap times or tempo runs but it's by no means a necessity.

Which brings me to the HRM. Each year I learn a little more and vow to train more/better/smarter the following year. Enter the heart rate monitor. I figure if I'm going to set out and build a bigger/better aerobic engine, I should try to be smart about it. Perceived effort and knowing myself has taken me far, but I want to take it to another to the next level. So this week was my first week training with a HRM.
Two major things I noticed. 1) my perceived effort was pretty much spot on. That shoudn't have suprised me, but it did. Well, by spot on, I mean maybe 90% of the time. 2) Even minor hills can cause substantial HR spikes. Ok, this suprised me. Sure I should know this intuitively, but it suprise me on how fast my HR spikes and how small of a grade can actually cause it.

FYI, I'm using the maximum aerobic power calculation to determine my optimal heartrate. If it's good enough for Mark Allen and Gordo, it's certainly good enough for me. :) More on MAP can be read here. The vast majority of my workouts this year, will be solidly in the aerobic/fat burning zone. The HRM is great tool for making me have the discipline to slow down. Whenever heartrate is over 145 bpm, I back off, walk if necessary. I now understand why the HRM could be considered the most important gadget. I'm also looking forward to doing some testing to see at what heart rate I experience 'stomach shut down'. Yea, that sounds like a fun test, doesn't it?

Workout update: Mon: off Tues: run 12.5k Wed: run 11k Thur: run 12k /spin 1 hour Fri: run 10.5k

As I mentioned before, a good chunk of my runs is on the trails. Fairly often I'll see wildlife, which I always think is cool. Hehe, I always feel like nature is opening a window and letting me peek in every so often. I like that. Earlier this week, during a mid-day run, I saw a bat. Odd. I've rarely seen bats even at night, yet here was one fluttering around in the middle of the afternoon. Neat. Two days later, I get to see him again. Same spot and roughly the same time of day. I'm going batty...

Weekly mileage report, Lance, 10 Ironmans in 10 days.

If October was a 4/10 on the workout scale of difficulty, November will be a 5/10. My motto is 'just run'. Get home from work, peel off the work clothes, immediately put on my run gear and head out the door. I was able to do that all week and logged 75k, of which 80% was done on trails. Throw in an hour on the spinner and the week is done. I feel good, I feel healthy.

Tomorrow is a scheduled off day, but the weather is looking very nice, so I may make Tuesday an off day. If I run Monday, that will 8 consecutive days of running - for me, a milestone of sorts. Either way, some very easy workouts are in the schedule for the week ahead.

The Sunday morning running crew met up this morning, this time we ran in Heart Lake park. Dana, who has plantar faciitis, wasn't able to run with us, so she mountain biked instead and was our support crew. Good on her. Next weekend could be fun, something a little more epic is in the works - a trail run/hike - nothing too crazy, a good 25 or 30k jaunt near Hockley Valley or a point A to point B run is on the works. As usual, email me for details..

I see Lance did a sub 3 hour marathon in New York City. Good on him. He sure does raise the 'event profile'. It's good for Lance, his charities and in this case, marathon running. However it does take away from the real marathoners - all the sports casters are worried about is how Lance is doing or following the 'Lance cam'. Oh yea, and the winner was..... umm, you get my drift.
I'd still love to see him do an Ironman though..

Now a moment for the truely insane.. Starting tomorrow, there is an event down in Mexico that is known as 'The Deca'. Participants have the option of competing in 2 Ironman Triathlons in two days, all the way up to the gargantuan, incredibly insane 10 Ironmans in 10 days. That's not a misprint. You know what? I'm just going to leave it at that, I don't know what to say. Oh yea! I almost forgot, it's a closed loop course and each bike portion is 93(!) laps and each run portion is a mere 22 laps.
I'm getting dizzy..

Monthly mileage report..

September was the month of sloth. I ate, slept and did absolutely nada in the training department. An entire of month of zero's. (well I ran twice, hardly enough to count for anything.) So after a month of laziness and an extra 5 pounds of weight, I decided to slowly get back to the grind. This brings us to October, which was primarily dedicated to what I call 'loose training' -not structured, very slow running and multiple days off throughout the week. I logged maybe 200k as a conservative rough guess, of which about 70% was done on trails. The goal for October is to slowly acclimatize my body to some serious running that will happen later in the year. So now that October is all but finished, what's the plan for November?
More of the same with the addition of a little more structure a few more running K's and some trainer time. Workouts from Tues to Sunday with Monday's off. Nothing too crazy. Here is a basic outline of my current training 'plan'.
Oct, Nov and Dec: running focused. The goal being to increase my tolerance to muscle fatigue, and build a bigger aerobic engine. Spinning time will be kept to a max of 2 hours/week.
Jan, Feb: add spinning time on the bike in increasing volume, still primarily running focused but shifting to more of a balanced approach between spinning and running. Add a few swim sessions.
March, April. First races - a half marathon in early March and a 10k in April. March is a transition month, drop a weekly run or two and add lots of spinning time. The end of March is a big bike week. The beginning of April is marked by a very easy week, followed by a 3 week build. By now, my swim should be 'normal'.
May- another half marathon race and another 3 week build block.
June- rest a week. Three week build block, with one being big bike week number 2. Probable races are Muskoka and/or Milton triathlons.
July - taper for IMLP. I really want to do Peterborough Half IM, but it's only 2 weeks out from IMLP, so I probably won't.
August- rest and ease back into running.
Sept- a 3 week running build.
Oct- Toronto marathon.
So there you have it, the plan for the next 12 months.. now the hard part begins, the 'execution'. :)
*Cheers*

The holy grail, run club inaguaral run

The holy grail of Ironman racing came and went on Saturday. The live web coverage from Kona was fantastic this year. Full screen, picture in picture, decent commentary, all in all it was very well done. I got back from my run and the swim was already about 20 minutes underway, needless to say, with coverage that good, the rest of my day was largely spent in front of the computer. Of the many highlights, I rather enjoyed watching Caledon's Lisa Bentley run her way from 11th to 3rd, damn that girl can run. Good stuff.

The inaguaral run of the Sunday morning 'run club' took place in rather medicore weather. (sidebar: ok, what is with our weather?? - six weeks of crap and counting..) It was a great social run, it really helps to run with other people, try different routes and run for the sake of the enjoyment and not worrying about 'training'. The next run is scheduled for Nov 5.

My own running schedule since the last update looks like this:
Fri: off, Sat: run 1:10, Sun run 1:20, Mon: run 1hr Tues: run 1hr. Nice, easy, slow paced runs.
That's all for now. Cheers.

Random Kona thoughts

So it's Sat a.m. and I'm procrastinating the day's workout and household chores (as per usual). I'm pondering about the Ironman World Championships that are about to get underway in Kona, Hawaii. The best of the best are there, ya I'm talking about those people who have achieved such high degree of fitness and mental discipline that they can actually race an Ironman. Last year there were 368 people who went sub-10 hours! Awesome. Like every Ironman around the world it's filled with inspiring stories and not just from the pro-level athletes. Stories from the 'ordinary' age-groupers and physically challenged are amongst the most inspiring around. Remember Blazeman? If you aren't part of the scene, you probably have no idea who he is, which is a shame.The sad thing is if you can't shoot a puck or throw a fast ball, you get very little coverage in mainstream media. It's too bad because the real action has always been amateur sport - people who love sport for the sake of sport. I have to admit, there is a part of me that is bitter about the masses who sit like a vegetable and would rather get fat and watch a sport being played on the boob tube, which actually contributes to the disasterous current state of pro sports. Personally, I made the choice to boycott them all. Eep, sorry for the tangent.. back on topic..
Would I do Kona?
Dunno. Get back to me in a couple of years. I'd consider it, if I was in the very best shape of my life and in top form. That won't be for another couple years, so I have lots of time. Kona has alot going for it, afterall it is the world championships. The atmosphere, competing with some of the fittest people on the planet. And it's the frikin Ironman World Championship.
However...
It's ridiculasly expensive. I imagine Sally and I would drop an easy 5++ grand. I guess the best way to sell it to her would be to think of it as a vacation and not 'let's drop 5 G's so Darren can do a race.' I don't know - get back to me in a couple of years. I still have to exact retribution in Lake Placid and want to do IMC again.. so Kona is still a long ways off...
Ok, enough procratinating, I have work to do. Cheers!

Going slow to get fast.

I'm slowly but surely re-entering the grind. Since last Friday, the workouts have been: Sat: off Sun: run 1:10 Mon: run 1hr Tues spin 1hr, Wed: run 1:10.

I'm solidly in the "to get fast, I first must go slow phase'. It's humbling at times, to see a monster hill and purposely walk up it instead of tearing up it like a mad man. This engine is going to be a lean mean fat burning machine and in order to do that, I must be disciplined enough to go slow.

I've been doing lots of trail running and have really noticed how much easier it is on body. This is great as it doesn't leave me feeling beat up the next day. The goal over the next few months is to build to 5 one hour, 2 20-30min, and 1 two hour run per week. If I can get my body to adapt to that, it should help my running next season.

Ok, I confess. I'm in the market for a heart rate monitor. You say "what? you don't use a hrm??" Ya, you got me. In the past I've used a strictly old school approach, training by feel and listening/deciphering what my body tells me. I know when I hit my lactate threshold becuase I can feel it. I think I've taken this approach as far as is useful and will now use a HRM as a new tool. Technology, it's a beautiful thing. Cheers.

Re working site & good news.

Hey all, happy Friday. A few things to touch base on. Number 1, I'm starting to re-do the site for 2007. If you haven't noticed yet, '07 will be a charity fundraising year. This year's recipient is POGO -a charity designed for helping children with cancer. Don't worry, I won't hound you, for donations, I really hate doing that... well I may umm.. gently remind you to throw a couple bucks towards the kids. But that's it - I promise. This blog will still be triathlon / triathlon training focused.

I got some good news in regards to fundraising. My boss at work is 100 percent behind the initiative. We did some brainstorming and thought that regular 50/50 draws and the occasional gift basket draw might be a good way to go. I mentioned this to Sally and she said 'hey, I could do one too'. Talk about the snowball effect. I believe most people want to get involved in one way or another - sometimes all it takes is a little spark.

In regards to training. I'm officially in a 'loose training phase'. The primary goal during the next few months is to bring up the running mileage/frequency. The only other 'soft' goal is to spin twice a week during this period. This is not structured, if I feel like taking a couple days off, then so be it.

This week I ran 5 times for a total of ~40k. Distances are approximate because I'm not using my gps and my all running this week was done on trails. See? Nice easy, 'loose' training. Oh yea, I also got on my bike for the first time since IMC. I spun for an hour, which actually felt pretty good. Cheers!

Cancer fundraiser, 4 runs & a swim.

Sure has been quiet around here lately. I noticed the last update was over a week ago, so I figured I better do some catching up. Last week I set the absolutely insane goal of running 3 times this week, well I'm happy to report that I completely overshot that goal. The week isn't even over and I'm already at 4! Four very easy runs for a grand total of ~30k. Good stuff.

On Friday Cliff, made the big trek to Orangeville and we did some stroke work in the pool. It's been a long time since I've taught swimming, abstract phrases like 'the catch phase is critical to your stroke', and 'think smooth' sound fine and dandy, but trying to teach someone these things is a another matter. I'm a big fan of mental visualization, think about somone who can swim really well. Now meditate on it. Slow their stroke down, examine each part, visualize it, emulate it, repeat. Feel the water. Be smooth. So to help facilitate this, Cliff and I took turns examining each others stroke from above the water and from below. We also did some drill work and then called it day.

When Cliff and I were at the pool, we met up with Richard Pady. Rich is a former pro triathlete who has initiated a fundraiser for children with cancer. This hits close to home as Cliff, is a cancer survivor and Richard's own daughter, Elizabeth, is currently under going cancer treatment. She was diagnosed at the age two.
The fundraiser is pretty awesome. Rich managed to secure 40 Ironman Lake Placid spots for which anyone can apply for. In return, over the next 9 months, he asks you raise $2500. ALL proceeds go to POGO. If you are interested in a spot, or want to donate, please check out his fundraising site at:
Race4kids.

The first meeting of the run club takes place in just over two weeks. The weather is gorgeous, so you have no excuse to not run right now. Get out there and log a few miles. Even though these are going to very easy runs, you'll still be expected to log ~10k to start. As it stands, I'm expecting at least four people for our inaugural run, lots of space still available. Drop me an email for details.

Canadian Thanksgiving is today and it's one of the few days I stuff myself stupid. I should probably go for a pre-turkey run, just so I don't feel so guilty. Cheers!

Yup, it's true. I did two runs this week. Count'em 1... 2. I know that doesn't sound significant, but it is. The main reason being I've never started training for 'next season' so early. But I crave to train and taking a full month off after IMC was great, however I'm looking to start getting back into the grind. I'm not talking 25 hour weeks or anything - just a slow methodical return to insanity.

Earlier this week I put a couple of feelers out to guage interest for a run club. Very casual, no-one gets dropped type of stuff. I got some positive responses, so I figured what the hell, let's do it. We'll be doing runs around Caledon and Brampton, probably on Sunday mornings. For some people, it will be their 'long run', for others it will be a recovery run. The point of the run, is just to get out there, help each other out, have fun and to mix up training a bit. Email me for more information.

I'm off work next week - so I set the very realistic goal of running 3 times. The insanity! Have a fantastic weekend.. cheers!

De-tri-ing, plan formulation.

Hey hey hey! Happy Friday!

It's been almost a month since IMC and I'm pretty much 'de-tried'. I take my off season very seriously! No workouts, lots of relaxing, catching up on things around the house and pursueing other non-tri related stuff. It's a good process to go through as I find this will keep me 'fresh' for when I starting ramping up again. It's odd, even though I'm not training or anything at the moment, I still think about triathlon pretty much every day. It's always there, maybe not in the forefront but defineately there.

So here are some of my thoughts for the upcoming season.. 2007 is going to be a run year. My long term goal is to make '07 a serious run year. I'll start slow, I'm thinking in October, real easy, running maybe 3 times a week. Then build long and slow to 8 times a week. I'd like to be at the 8 times a week by March.
Cycling will begin nice and light in January and I predict by the end of March I'll need a week off, just to avoid burn out. As for swimming, no real plan.. yet. Possible join Master's just to be social and meet up with other area tri-wienies.

In order to facilitate me becoming a better runner, I'm very seriously thinking of getting a treadmill. In order to do this I've had to re-allocate some of my toys and as a result I'm selling my mountain bike! I do this with a heavy heart, but I just wasn't getting the use out of it since I've become addicted to this tri thing. Go jack up the price and bid for it on Ebay.

As for racing. My plan for '07 in triathlon is to race shorter and race more often. Something like: Muskoka long course, Guelph Olympic, Peterborugh Half IM, Parry Sound Half IM ?, or if a 70.3 race comes to Ontario next year - I'll defineately do that, plus maybe Belwood triathlon and/or Collingwood. In regards to running races: Around the Bay (30k in March.. maybe), Mississagua Half marathon and Toronto Waterfront full marathon. Which, coincidently is this weekend and was my very first race 3 years ago. I wouldn't mind doing a 10k too - I've never done one before.

What? No Ironman next year? As it stands right now - no. However, if I somehow score a sponsorship for '07 and they want me to do an IM, the above schedule is toast and will have to be re-worked.
Cheers!

Yes.. I'm alive. Food.

Hi everyone. Yea, I'm still here. As part of my 'de-tri-ing' process, I won't be blogging as much, but there are a few topics I'll discuss. Today's topic is one of my favorites. Food.
I'm not going to get into the why I eat certain things or quote studies or anything. I'm just going to share my philosophies and run through my diet when I train. It works for me, so take what you will from it.

First, a quick word variety and moderation. One, I love to try 'new and different' things. Every have quinoa? Couscous? Don't knock it until you try it, who knows you may really enjoy something new. Moderation. We all have food weeknesses, one of mine is the potato chip. Even though chips may not be the best for you, would I cut them out? Hell no. It's ok to indulge in moderation.

Vitamins and minerals. Defineatly one of the pillars of anyone's diet. With soil levels containing 30% less minerals then 25-30 years ago and the average person eating considerably less than then the recommended 10 servings of fruits and vegetables each day, it can be hard to get all the necessary nutrients. So, on occasion I'll pop a quality vitamin, just to top up the stores.

Grazing. I love this part. Eat many times throughout the day, but much smaller portions. Try to eat slow. It takes 10 minutes for your stomach to tell your brain, 'I've had enough', if you spend that 10 minutes horfing, you will just end up feeling like bloated pig. Slow it down, enjoy and savour.

I try to make my last meal at least 3 hrs before bed and my first mini breakfast is usually a smoothie that's approx 300 cals. Here's a typical day when I'm training:
First thing in the am. A homemade smoothie. I have a large jug of pre-made smoothie in the fridge that usually lasts 5 or 6 days. If anytime I need a 'quick shot' it right there. Nice, easy and convenient. Approx 300 cals per serving, consisting of soy protein, 2 or 3 kinds of berries, yogurt, milk, honey and juice.

Second breakfast is usually 2 hours later and consists of a large bowl of cereal. My cereal is homemade concoction of several different cereals, usually granola type stuff with some puffed wheat, added nuts and seeds, raisins, dried fruit, maybe some flax or hemp hearts. Good stuff. ~ 600 cals

First lunch. Peanut butter and honey sandwhich. ~350 cals
Second lunch. Usually post workout. Leftovers from the previous night's dinner is a favorite. The goal for this meal is primarily carbs to refuel from last workout and provide energy for next. Add juice and a serving or two of fruit. ~750 cals

Pre dinner, post second workout. Get a serving protein and carbs in the system. Snacky type stuff, nuts, granola bar or maybe a couple of eggs on toast. Just to take the edge off. ~350 cals.

Dinner. Usually a full meal. Looking for some good protein here to help muscles recover from the days training. Also looking for some good carbs to replenish energy stores. Always a large salad is included. ~ 1000 cals.

Post dinner.. maybe a 'treat'. A handful of chocolate chips or some frozen yogurt and a fruit. -200 cals.

Add 2-300 miscellaneous calories and I estimate my daily intake is around the 3500 mark. So far this approach seems to keep illness at bay and gives my body the tools it needs to get through the day. Cheers!

Final Iron pics, where am I? Did you win?

Two more pics from IMC..



Hehe.. check the hands. This is called the 'praying mantis'. I wonder if there is any aero benefit? :)
Speaking of aero, I'll be removing more spacers next year.









Ironman number 2, done! Sooo, what's next? Good question. I have no idea. I'm still decompressing, relaxing, getting fat and pondering the future. I have a couple of scenarios going through my head for next year. 1)IM Canada again or IM Wisconsin for something new. 2) Do shorter triathlons, focus on running and put togethor a wicked marathon in Sept 07. 3) the least likely scenario is the Canadian Death race - 125k in 24 hrs jaunt through the Rockies. This is on my to do list, but I doubt it will be next year. Maybe in '08, when I turn 40.

The smart money says door number 2. But I frequently do things that aren't smart, so the jury is out. For now, I'm 'purging the system' of triathlon and slowly but surely formulating some sort of plan for next year. I'm hoping to start training in November, although there is a very real chance I'll procrastinate until December.

The most annoyingly funny question I get about competing in triathlons is: "Did you win?" It's annoying in the respect that anyone who asks it invariably has no idea what they are asking. IMC had 2352 competitors, does that mean 2351 of the them 'lost'? It's funny because it's such a clueless question. Yea, I just won an Ironman after my 2nd year of competing against an International elite field of competitors that have been doing this for 10+ years. Yea, ok. I suppose I could just tell them 'yea, I won', and they'd say 'congratulations' and that would be the end of it.

I can't believe it hasn't even been 2 weeks since the race, it seems so long ago.. Oh yea, for the record, I've done squat, nada, a big fat zilch as far as workouts go... and I'm loving it.

Pics of Iron

A view from our B&B in Naramata facing south towards Penticton.

Heading towards my race crew about 15 minutes before start.

Like latex?








Nice aerial. See me? I'm the one in the black.






Got me fist in the air. Why? Dunno.




Start of the run. Looking good and feeling strong.









End of the run. Not looking so good and not feeling so strong.

IMC Race Report

Sorry for the slacking. Got back from BC on Wednesday, caught up on household chores on Thursday and I'm only now getting around to my race report.

Pre Race
My wife and parents were my race crew for IMC. We arrived in Naramata (about 15 min from Penticton) on the Thursday before the race, I took care of registering and the rest of the day was dedicated to un-packing, bike setup, eating and a short workout. Friday and Saturday consisted of short workouts, carbo loading, chilling in Penticton and the athlete expo. The highpoint was after the pro athlete Q & A, I went over to talk to Gordo Bryn. Basically I just went over to thank him on behalf of myself and many other triathletes. Gordo is a down to earth guy, who freely gives advice and shares his philosophies on training and expects nothing in return - a great ambassador to triathlon.

Physically, going into this race I was in great shape. I forumulated a 'master plan' back in January and stuck to it. So on that side of the equation I held up my end of the bargain. My mental state could be summed up as: "this is no big deal." This is a little game I play with myself by making a big task seem not so bad. I'm not sure if it's a good thing but I was going into the race with what felt like a certain amount of low-keyed laziness. I sort of wanted this approach, as this tempers my excitement, but it was also concerning because there was a lack of an 'edge'.

Race Day
Eight months of training - done. Just like that. And now it's race day. Time sure does fly. With 2350 people racing, a zillion spectators and a small army of volunteers, there is a decided buzz in the air. I'm still not caught up in the excitement, which I'm hoping is a good thing. I've gone into races like this before and pulled off a PB, so I'm hoping I'll do the same this time around.

The Swim (3.84k) Goal time: 56m. Actual: 55:55. Overall placing: 52/2352 Age group placing: 7/357.
BOOM. The cannon goes off and just like that we're underway. I'm a front of the pack swimmer, so luckily I get to avoid much of the middle area, which is just basically a giant washing machine. So after about 500m, I've left the 'mosh pit' and have already settled into a nice easy pace. Pacing and nutrition. My mantras. I was with the lead pack for the first 1.6k and somehow lost them. So for the remainder of the swim I was leading the 2nd group of swimmers. This made me chuckle, if they only knew how little actual triathlon experience I had, they probably wouldn't be following me. However, I was navigating pretty good and no one else wanted to take lead, so I let them draft and held my comfortable pace. A group of 6 of us exit the water and I'm actually walking to the transition zone going over my checklist: breathing is good - check, heart rate is good - check, feeling good and relaxed- check. OK, we are good to go. I'm through transition 1 and on the bike in less then 1 hour. Perfect.

Bike 180k Goal time: 5:22 Actual time: 5:31:07 Overall placing: 290/2352 Age group placing: 65/357.
Mental note - pacing and nutrition, start bike computer. Go. Wow. I heard about how the whole town gets into the race, but to experience it - all I can say is wow. Upon starting the bike and going through town, people are lined up 6+ deep and cheering like crazy. Hehehe makes you feel like a star.
10 minutes into the bike is gut check, heart rate and effort check. All systems nominal. Repeat pacing and nutrition mantra and carry on. I do this every 10 minutes while taking in liquid nutrition for duration of the ride. Supplement with additional water as necessary. For the first 60k (1/3 of the bike already done!), all is going according to plan. The first real test is coming up (Richter's Pass), I'm biking with alot of smart guys, almost no one hammers the climb, we are all in easy gears and spinning up the hill. I'm about 11 minutes into the climb, with less than 1 minute to the top - tire blow out. The good news is that due to climbing, I was going slow. The bad news is the tire casing is shredded and is useless. This is more than a simple tube fix, I need a whole new tire. Bummer. Hmmm.. what to do, what to do... I did put some duct tape in my repair kit, I suppose I could duct tape the inside of the tire and hope it holds. I'm in a bind and this is the best solution I could come with it. I could see it now, "Thanks to Duct Tape, Man Finishes Ironman." It was a little demoralizing having to watch a hundred or so people pass by while I tried to fix my bike with a hunk of duct tape. Halfway through my homemade repair, a tech van came to my rescue with a spare tire and got me up and rolling. Phew. The duct tape probably wouldn't have worked anyway. Total downtime was 12+ minutes.
Back up and rolling. I must resist the urge to 'catch up to myself' and stick to the plan. If I go too hard now, the reprucussions would be disasterous. So I stick my plan and tell myself "12 minutes is nothing in a race this long, I'll get it back."
The 120k mark. I'm at the special needs station and they can't find my bag. Hmm.. this could a long day if I don't get my nutrition needs. I stop, go for a pee and luckily they found it.
The 130k mark. A bee flies in my helmet and stings me. Ok, THIS might get interesting. I had a bad reaction to a sting earlier in the summer- fortunately there was an ambulance about 5k back, if things get bad, help is close. I monitor the situation - all seems OK, I carry on.
The 150k mark. The biggest test of the bike - Yellow Lake climb. I've heard one or two horror stories about this puppy. I expected the worst and what I got wasn't so bad. People made it sound worse than it is. I was starting to fight some minor nausea issues at this point and the heat of day was really starting to kick in. Luckily the last 30k is primarily down hill, so lots of coasting back into town. Time to settle the tummy and mentally gear up for the run.

The Run (42.2k): Goal: 3:42 - 3:50. Actual: 4:27. Overall placing: 440/2352 Age Group placing: 85/357.
My run can be summed up in three words: hot, hilly and windy. This is the real test as I've already been racing for 6.5 hours and now I've got to run a marathon. Mentally, I break this into 10k sections, with the primary goal trying to conserve as much as possible to the halfway mark. Walk the aid stations, walk the hills, conserve, conserve, conserve.
I set my Garmin to a 5:15 m/km pace and settled right in. After 180k on the bike, most people are just so damned grateful to be off the bike, they start their run too fast. I did not want to make this mistake. So I started out on what I thought would be a very conservative pace. It felt pretty good for the first 15k, but the heat was wearing me down and the hills seemed much too large. Legs were starting to get heavy.
They say in an Ironman the race doesn't start until you've finished half the marathon. Well, I was pretty much toast at the halfway mark and prospect of shuffling through another half marathon wasn't really too appealing. Halfway time check: 2 hrs. Not too bad, only 10 minutes off pace, but the suffering was starting to kick in. This next half was going to be tough.
Sigh. More walking. Battling nausea. It's toasty. (33C) I'm losing too much salt and I'm down on myself for walking too much. I start playing 'run to that tree game', or 'try to run (I mean shuffle), to the next mile marker. My steps seems so small.
I remember seeing the 23 mile marker and I was walking at the time, I thought "jeez, 3 miles to go - man that's FAR. If I walk the rest at 15 min/mile, I'll be done in 45 minutes. The HELL with that, I'm not going to be out here for 45 more @#$! minutes." So I try to 'run' the rest of race. Finish line finally in sight. Bam, done. Just like that. No great epiphany, I'm just happy I'm done, I'm happy to see my wife and I'm happy my parents were there to see everything an Ironman offers.
Time: 11:03. Overall placing: 265/2352 Age Group placing: 63/357.

Post Race
Well I guess I got more long winded than I intended too, but I'm down to the last final thoughts. They say it takes a good 5++ years to fully train your endurance system. I'm in year 2, so all things considered I'm pretty happy with where I am on that level. I really enjoy racing, however, the journey to the race is equally as awesome or even more so. Maybe you train, maybe you are a couch potato, maybe you think "I could do that", maybe you want to run 5k, whatever the case may be, take a step in that direction. Then another. You only live once, go out with no regrets.
Cheers!