IRONMAN 70.3 ROCKFORD TRAINING – WEEK 12 WRAP-UP – MAY 26, 2025
Sometimes the plan I follow gifts you an easier week, sometimes you have to take it. It was the latter for me this week, as the midweek workouts suffered from the cool and rainy days, forcing me inside to do my workouts, which can be a big downer for me sometimes. This spring has been really weird, and summer seems to be taking its time getting here.
Memorial Day weekend also means a trip up to our lake home in northern Wisconsin, where there is a bunch of chores and work to be done. So, the training this week took a backseat to the weather and the responsibilities of owning a second home.
But that doesn’t mean I sat around doing nothing. Although no swimming was done, I did get in the Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday workouts. Thursday was a run that I managed to get outside for and push myself a little too hard. That resulted in some sore hamstrings and a reminder that I need to not race in training. I can sense that I will show up to the 70.3 in four weeks with some soreness that can easily be prevented if I just would have taken it easier.
Friday was a rest day, if you consider sitting in a car with sore legs for 6 hours “resting”. Saturday was for working around the yard, raking leaves, mowing grass, and dragging the deck furniture out of the garage. I also took time to wash our snowmobiles and will need to “summerize” them in a couple of weeks.
Yard work.
Sunday was the gift day, a nice ride on the Bearskin Trail down to the town of Nokomis. I didn’t bring enough water and couldn’t find anywhere to refill the bottles when I arrived. So as you can probably figure, I suffered on the ride back home. Fortunately, the beauty of the Northwoods helped offset the suffering.
Bearskin Trail near Harshaw, WI
I’ll be back at it this week at home, hopefully getting back outside again, and also doing some much-needed swimming. I hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day weekend as much as I did.
Week 12 Totals: Swims 0 – Bikes 3/91 miles – Runs 3/16 miles
IRONMAN 70.3 ROCKFORD TRAINING – WEEK 11 WRAP-UP – MAY 18, 2025
Classic Rock lives in my head, and this week was a little rocky, so here’s the playlist (more like earworms) of this week in training.
Bicycle Race – Queen
I’ve been riding my e-bike pretty regularly to work and back the past couple of weeks. The temps have been warmer, and it hasn’t rained. But my bottom bracket on this bike has been creaking and making popping noises so much that it just can’t be ignored any longer. Thursday did, however, look to possibly have storms in the afternoon, so instead of trying to ride home and then hop on my tribike for an actual workout, I opted to extend my ride commute home and use the e-bike for the workout. I powered it down to the lowest level and rode 20 miles on it, making it home in time to also get in a swim. The storm? It may have rained for 10 minutes in the late afternoon. I took my bike into the local bike shop to have it looked at, but come Monday, I will really just want to ride my bicycle again, even if it is to work and back.
Dust In The Wind – Kansas
Friday was hot, and lately the pollen around the Chicago area has been off the charts. I came home and headed out for my 8.25-mile run. When I got home, there was a weather alert on my phone for a potential dust storm. That storm was something we hadn’t had here, well, in like ever. Fortunately, I only had to deal with the pollen on the run and not the dust, as it would have been miserable.
A screenshot of the brown dust storm heading into Chicagoland.
Against The Wind – Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
Me wondering why I didn’t listen to my wife on this crazy windy day.
My “coach wife” Kari was looking at her phone and said, “It looks like your best day for biking this weekend is Sunday.” Great. I have had to move my weekend schedule around so much this training cycle that I was dreading the swap. It means moving the bike to Sunday, which is no big deal, but it puts the typical Sunday long run on Saturday and makes it a back-to-back hard run effort after the Friday run. Did I listen to my wife? No, I chose to ride on Saturday, a day that was cold and windy. Fortunately, the wind would be in my face heading out this time, unlike last week when I suffered trying to make it back home after a long ride. Going out toward the west was hard, but coming back, I was flying. I put in 55 miles on the ride, and then followed it up with a 5-mile brick run. Sometimes you just have to take on the day as it is presented. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best, as race day is always a gamble.
The turnaround point for many of us is the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, IL. It’s hard not to be thankful for the service to our country these lives once gave us when I am here.
Lust For Life – Iggy Pop
I was running that 5-mile brick run and caught up to a runner I see on the trail all the time, and we always share a wave and hello. This time we were running in the same direction when I caught him, and we introduced ourselves and talked about our running plans for the year. Tom, as I learned, is newish at running, but has three marathons under his belt and had a ton of questions about fueling for me as he was trying to figure that part of it out. It really was a high-energy conversation that I enjoyed, and it ended quicker than I wanted it to, as my trail home went opposite of his. He definitely had a lust for life and running, too.
Running On Empty – Jackson Browne
Sunday came, and I was still sore from the 60-mile effort on Saturday. A lot of the time, getting a run workout done when you really don’t want to is to just get dressed and take the first steps out the door. And that’s what I did today. Put my foot outside the door, paraphrasing Robert Plant on Led Zeppelin’s The Ocean. But once out, I could feel the strain of running on tired legs. Running on empty, for sure. I kept putting one foot in front of the other and ended with a nice 10.75 miles. Just get out there, and you might surprise yourself.
That wraps up the soundtrack for the week. I’m sure I will have something in my head next week.
Week 11 Totals: Swims 2/2600 yards – Bikes 3/88 miles – Runs 5/35 miles
IRONMAN 70.3 ROCKFORD TRAINING – WEEK 10 WRAP-UP – MAY 11, 2025
Week 10 of a sixteen-week half-iron distance training plan, and I finally logged a swim. It went about as well as expected. Although the movement through the water was efficient at first, I quickly got tired, and my legs began to sink. I checked my watch, thinking I was near halfway done – nope, only 8 minutes into a planned 30-minute swim. I did this swim after running eight miles, which was always the norm for me – why swim first? Jump in after a run or bike, cool down, then swim is my typical method. But seeing that I haven’t done a swim workout in about a year, I was low on energy and desire. Somehow, I got through the 30 minutes at a 2:20/100 pace, a pace that I will need to improve on in these last few weeks. I give this swim a C-, which is not great, but a passing grade nonetheless.
Then the foot cramps started. Oh, how I missed them. I’m sure that I needed to hydrate better, maybe take some electrolytes, and all that. But these cramps happen to people who try to do workouts that they haven’t built up to yet, and that is me to a T. I will add more water and electrolytes to my day, and keep swimming, hoping to build some swimming strength and avoid foot cramps.
I managed a second swim on Sunday, which went a little better. Form was better, strength was a tad better, and I didn’t drown. Moved up to a B-.
Overall, I have gotten stronger and regained some speed in my running and cycling over these last 10 weeks. I’m a firm believer that triathlon is one of the best forms of cross-training, as I am mostly injury-free and moving better. I keep saying that I’m quitting triathlon after this race, but the workouts have been great for me. We’ll see.
Speaking of quitting triathlon, I mentioned to my buddy Dave that as soon as Rockford is over, I intend to sell all my triathlon gear and quit this dumb sport. Dave, who is currently in year four of quitting this dumb sport himself, looked me straight in the eye and responded with, “Oh no, don’t do that. Don’t quit yet.” What the hell does that mean?! I can tell you right now that it means trouble for me. If he intends to jump back in, he’s not dragging my tired ass back into it. And I’m sure he wants to have all of us do an Ironman again. Nope, not going to happen. I’m retiring from triathlon as soon as that medal from Rockford gets hung around my neck.
Back to the hydration/fueling topic – Last week, I spent time traveling with my friend Karen to do the Rockford 70.3 course preview, and we discussed nutrition, with her saying that she likes to use Tailwind, a 200-calorie powder that you add to 20-24 oz. of water, as her main source of fuel and electrolytes. I’ve always stuck with gels, as they are 100 calories each (I take 2 per hour) and also contain electrolytes, and I can drink plain water instead. Plus, you don’t have to stop and mix the packet with water, a messy proposition for me. With liquid nutrition, you have to drink all of the bottle’s contents in an hour to stay on top of it, and I just never was one for drinking that much water. If it’s hot, yes, I will drink copious amounts of water. If it is cool, I may not drink a whole bottle in an hour. I tried another brand once, and it did not taste good at all. I can’t handle anything chalky tasting. But Karen insisted that Tailwind was just like drinking flavored water. So I ordered the caffeinated Raspberry flavor and the caffeine-free Naked flavor (or lack of flavor). The result – chalky, and it tastes just like the other brand that I didn’t like. When will I learn? But I decided that maybe I would give it a chance, and drank it as my main fuel/hydration source on the 13.25-mile run that I did on Friday, as well as the 71-mile bike ride I did on Saturday. I might be able to get used to it, or at least get through the forty packets of it that I bought.
The Saturday long ride was going great until it wasn’t. I had seen the weather forecast and knew that the wind direction would change mid-afternoon. I got on my bike for the planned four-hour, fifteen-minute ride around 8:30, hoping I would get it done before having to fight the wind. For 55 miles, I was going great, probably averaging about 17.5 mph. Then I turned for home and could feel the wind strongly in my face, as well as the temperature drop that came with it. At points, I was barely managing 10-11 mph. I gave some thought to calling my wife, Kari, to come get me, as I was nearly out of gas, but I had brought some gels with me and took one to help me power through the remaining 40 minutes. I was zapped when I got home, and decided to skip the 45-minute brick run after the ride.
Three hours into the ride and still feeling good. Very lucky to have car-free roads 40 miles southwest of Chicago.
It’s not uncharacteristic to start calculating and predicting how you might do in the race based on your current workouts, and mid-ride, I was thinking sub-6 hours maybe possible. After the ride, that seems like a big wish at this point. But I have roughly six more weeks to go to get myself dialed in. More swims, bikes, and runs to come.
Week 10 Totals: Swims 2/2650 yards – Bikes 3/107 miles – Runs 3/25 miles
IRONMAN 70.3 ROCKFORD TRAINING – WEEK 9 WRAP-UP – MAY 4, 2025
My local friend Karen, who is crazy enough to also like to run and tri, asked if I was going to do the course preview ride this week. I hadn’t planned on it, but if she was going, I thought I would too. After thinking it over, I texted her and told her that I signed up, and she replied, “Oh cool-I guess I better sign up too “. Great, she tricked me into it. Fortunately, the ride fee was only about $25 and Karen offered to drive, so it was set – my long ride this weekend would be a group ride with police escort of the race bike course.
I found the one person who drives slower than I, and that is Karen, but we had a great trip there and back with great conversation. Once parked, we unloaded our bikes, fretted over what to wear on this 50-degree morning, and then waited for the command of “Riders UP!” (couldn’t help the Kentucky Derby reference.)
Karen and I at the start
Riding out of Rockford was going well, with the group finding spacing and fitting into the spots in the peloton where we best fit. It consisted mostly of rolling hills, with one decent climb in the first 10 miles, but every uphill had a pretty decent downhill to match.
The group would stretch out, and after a while, the police escort would stop and allow the group to reassemble. The ride included a pit stop for a nature break and a pit stop for some snackies.
I wasn’t fibbing about the snackies.
At one of the pit stops, I ran into another local friend, Jennifer, and her friend Laura, who were also having a fun ride. I jokingly gave Jen a “yellow card” for blocking (riding out of position in the passing area), but we were all doing it. Hopefully, on race day, the riders will be better spread out and follow the race rules. Today, however, we were all riding and chatting.
As for the course, it was typical of what we have around our area – rolling hills, some flats, and wind. It was what I expected, and glad to see that it wasn’t anything that I won’t be prepared for.
The last regrouping before riding back into downtown Rockford. Note the “Circle of Death” roundabout in the background. We made it through.
Karen and I forced ourselves to do a little post-ride run afterwards, although neither of us really wanted to. We then took advantage of some post-ride drinks and more snackies, and then made the trip back home. A fun capper to the week. I’m looking forward to racing the course in June. It should be pretty fast.
Note: Facebook blocked me from sharing my own blog post on my own Facebook page, calling it spam. I hope that it doesn’t do it again.
Week 9 Totals: Swims 0 – Bikes 5/106 miles – Runs 4/25 miles
“. Great, she tricked me into it. Fortunately, the ride fee was only about $25 and Karen offered to drive, so it was set – my long ride this weekend would be a group ride with police escort of the race bike course.
an amazing run 