I was anticipating that this week would be pretty good. Week 28 is the first of three taper weeks, and after the heat and workload of the previous week, I knew it would be a lot better. But I wasn’t expecting it to be so dang good!
First of all, the weather got better. Temperatures went from low 90’s back to the mid 60’s and it felt great. On Tuesday, I decided to go back to the high school pool and swim what the plan had called for, about 3500 yards of swimming. But I felt pretty good, and once I got started I decided to test myself and I ended up swimming the full Ironman distance swim of 4200 yards. After swimming only two 45 minute swims a week for the past several, I just needed to prove to myself that I could cover the distance and I did.
I forgot my Garmin at home and had to swim with the old Timex Ironman. It’s a total pain in the butt pushing the lap button after every 100 yards. Believe me.
But the week really turned awesome on Wednesday, when after waiting very anxiously for a week and a half, I finally got the word that I had made the cut for the Boston Marathon, a first for me. It had been a long time in the making, never really thinking that I would ever reach that goal, but it finally happened. I’m still a little in shock about making it into the field, but expect a blog report from me about being accepted soon.
A much better email than the one I got from them last year!
Getting into Boston for the first time was pretty awesome, but the day wasn’t done delivering good news. I went to pick up Rebecca from marching band practice and although all of the band equipment and props were out on the field, the kids were nowhere in sight. When they came out of the building back to the field I could see that they were each carrying a red rose. I knew it immediately – they were going to Pasadena!!! The Tournament of Roses Parade!!! Now this may not seem like such a big deal, but it’s really like getting into Boston. First you have to meet several qualifications just to get in. And getting in means that this band is pretty darn good. But what really makes it special for me is that I marched in the parade on January 1, 1982, and it’s really cool that Rebecca will get to experience that as well. It was an experience of a lifetime for me. One of those special opportunities that not everyone gets. Pretty cool. Looks like I will be traveling to Pasadena in December/January 2019!
I went back to the pool on Thursday, even though I still have my pool at home open. It’s the end of September, almost October, and I still have the pool open, which is pretty unusual. But I am having some issues with the auto chlorinator, and will probably have to replace it in the spring, along with the pump and possibly the heater as well. It seems like everything is starting to reach the end of its use and getting worn out. I will deal with it in the spring. I began closing it on Sunday.
The Saturday long ride was four hours with a 1/2 hour run and it went really well. What a difference a week makes. Last Saturday was a 7 hour day in mid 90 degree temps. This Saturday started out at 54 degrees and didn’t get much more than 63 or so by the time I was done. I had three layers on for that ride!
Sunday wrapped up the week with another cool morning and a two hour run, and thanks to the cool temps I was able to squeeze in an extra mile and finished comfortably with 14 miles. However the real wrap up of the weekend was a trip to downtown Chicago with my family to see Hamilton. I really had no expectations for the show, and I was really impressed. It was pretty cool.
We had fun at Hamilton in Chicago!
Here’s to Week 28! Thanks for being so good to me.
TOTALS:
2 Swims – 7200 yards this week / 104,750 yards total
dread – /dred/ verb/noun: 1. To anticipate with great fear or apprehension (Google Definition) 2. The word “dead” with an r stuck in it (Chris Definition)
It’s interesting how one little change can cause me to panic over something that I can’t control. For this week it was the weather. The past three weeks we have had pretty good moderate, if not cool temperatures to train in. It has been somewhat enjoyable to bike and run in the day with temps in the upper 60’s and mid 70’s. But on the horizon for this weekend loomed record setting high temperatures in our area, several days bordering or over 90 degrees. And it happened on Week 27 – the dreaded Week 27.
I have followed the Be Iron Fit training plan for three races now and Week 27 is the one that I generally loathe. Sure we have been building up to this week, and truthfully I probably could have done the distance that Week 27 calls for in any of the previous three weekends. But doing it in 90 degree temps?! Yikes. I have gotten through this week before and I was sure I can get through it again. It’s not as tough as the race itself, for Pete’s sake. But the issue at hand was doing a six hour/100 mile bike ride and one hour/7 mile run in the heat. I was really dreading it this time around. Thankfully, my group of Gunner teammates had just the answer – suffer through this together. Here’s the low down on how we conquered the Dreaded Week 27.
FRIDAY
The plan was to gather at Dave’s house in Dixon and ride his route, a route that I feel is very similar to what we will expect in Louisville – lots of rolling hills, followed by more rolling hills. The offer to spend the night there on Friday was made so that we could get an early start to our seven hour day, and I gladly accepted. I packed my junk up, double checked that I had all my junk, and had a dinner at a local pizza place with my wife Kari that only made me more anxious. The waitress was terrible and I was starting to believe that I may not make it there on Friday night. Quick pro tip – never tell the waitress that you need just another minute. To them people, just another minute means maybe ten. Whatever. We finally ate and I got on the road.
Upon arriving at Dave’s I was provided a comfortable bed, and the promise of a pre-ride meal in the morning.
SATURDAY
I awoke at 5:30 am and got dressed. Upstairs Carla had oatmeal, bagels and bananas waiting for us. Thanks Carla! I probably ate more there than I do on my regular pre-ride meal at home. I certainly left with a full tank. Jeff showed up from Chicago just in time for some breakfast and small talk, and we slathered on some sunscreen and got ready to saddle up.
We hit the road at 6:30 am and it was 64 degrees. I actually felt a little cold and felt a little foolish for worrying about the forecasted heat. But as the sun rose, so did the temperatures. The riding was good, we reminded ourselves to save our legs for later, and slowly paced ourselves out to the first stop to refill our water bottles, a fire station in Lanark, Illinois.
YELLOW GOCAINE
Before we left, Dave had prepared for all of us a plastic bag filled with powdered lemon-lime flavored Gatorade. I joked that it looked like I was carrying a bag of yellow cocaine and almost took a pass on bringing it. I will drink Gatorade on my rides, but after a while all of that warm sugary Gatorade just doesn’t go down very well. I grabbed a bag as insurance, and I am glad I did.
Yellow Gocaine
At the first stop, I pulled out the bag and added some to my water bottles, now jokingly calling it “yellow gocaine” but I didn’t add enough. Now I just had dilute Gatorade water. Fortunately, I don’t rely on Gatorade for fuel, hydration or electrolyte replenishment. I always use salt capsules to keep my sodium levels up, and use gels for nutritions/fuel, along with water.
Speaking of gels, I went back to GU after getting tired of Clif Shots. I found these energy gel flasks that GU made and decided to give them a try. I can buy GU in a bigger pouch and refill the flasks as needed. No more gel wrappers and extra garbage to carry around. They worked really well. I just need to figure out the correct dosage amount.
GRAVEL!
At several turns we were greeted with the possibility of some loose gravel on the turns and we did our best to warn each other. But occasionally we’d forget until after we passed it, but even then we would still shout “GRAVEL!”
45.8 MPH
I had been riding with Alex a little and he kept telling me about this hill that we would be able to scream down. I kept thinking that we weren’t going to ever get to this hill. But we finally did and it did not disappoint. I hit 45.8 mph going down it and pretty much had spun out my gearing. It was pretty exhilarating, and it ended too soon for me. It then dawned on me that that hill we just enjoyed will be the same one that will kick our butts on the way back. It did.
HALF WAY
Our watches hit three hours just before we got to the portion of Dave’s route that included some serious hills to climb. Darn. Oh well. Maybe next time. We stopped for a little chat, a selfie and I ate my banana and some Clif bar.
3 hours into it. Time to turn around. You can see the big climb that we didn’t do behind us. Oh well, maybe next time. Photo credit by Alex.
THE 4 HOUR MARK
We made it back to the fire station in Lanark only to find that all of the doors were closed and it looked empty. That was a problem, as we needed to top off our water bottles with yellow gocaine for the remaining two hour trip back. I checked around back looking for a hose bib with negative results, and Alex knocked on the door of a business on the other side of the street. Turns out it was a realty office and one of the agents was nice enough to allow us use of their bathroom and water fountain. Crisis averted.
GUNNING IT BACK HOME
Dave, who is much better at judging the wind direction than I am (he’s a pilot, so no wonder) and told us that we might have to pick up the pace a little to make it back in six hours. The whole ride out I felt like we were mostly going downhill, and now not only were we climbing somewhat back, we also had a little headwind to deal with. Truthfully the wind was negligible, and the real issue now was that it was hot. We were enjoying ourselves so much that the heat really didn’t seem to matter. Dave manages his hydration much better than I do, and I tried my best to keep pace with his drinking, so I felt pretty good hydration wise. I think I stopped for five or six nature breaks and all were pale yellow, which was very good for me.
As we got closer to home, I could tell we were making a faster split coming back than going out, not just by effort and the fact that I watched our average mph climb from 16.5 to now around 17 mph, but also by the fact that Dave kept taking us on little half mile out and back trips on roads we didn’t ride out on. So I flipped the switch in my mind to forget about being back exactly at 100 miles (we turned around at 50), and just kept an eye on that 6 hour mark.
RIDE OVER – TIME TO RUN
We finished the ride in 6:02, covering 102.2 miles according to my gps watch. I was very pleased. Another 10 miles in that heat would have been doable, but I was glad it was done. The 112 miles will just have to wait until race day.
We seemed to not be in a rush to head out to the run, but we got around to it. I took some time to use the washroom and wash my face and neck off with some cold water. I downed a bottle of cold Gatorade (not the yellow gocaine variety for once!), and we swapped bike shoes for running shoes. The group headed out and paced ourselves fairly conservatively for the first couple of miles. Alex thought he would gun it a little more, but he quickly came to his senses and joined us. Carla came through and met us about 20-25 minutes into our run, offering us water and Gatorade refills which I happily took. Then Jeff hit the gas.
I hadn’t mentioned Jeff much so far in this recap, mainly because he was going along just doing the work. But now I knew that he was ready to rock and roll. He steadily built a lead on us getting a football field length or two ahead of us when we turned around at 30 minutes. Now it was Dave, Alex and I jogging together and thinking that Jeff was forgetting that we have a 3 hour run to do on Sunday. Jeff caught us and passed us easily. Now it was game on. It took me a while but I slowly reeled him in. I passed him with about a half mile or so to go and I got back to Dave’s house before him. But in all reality, he had run farther than me. He was in beast mode on that run. Well done, Jeff.
RECOVERING WITH SPECIAL SAUCE
After getting back, I chose to keep walking around to cool down while the others seemed to prefer to crash. Alex seemed to really be struggling. I keep hinting that he needs to pay more attention to electrolyte replenishment, but you can’t tell a young gun what to do. I hope he remembers what happened at Lake Placid last year, and makes the adjustment to increase his salt intake.
We went inside and showered up and was met with a great lunch spread made by Carla. She had made us all a variety of sandwiches and stuff to go with it and it was delicious. But the thing most interesting about the meal was the special sauce. I immediately got a chuckle out of this thanks to the movie “Step Brothers” where Brennan won’t share his fancy sauce with Dale. I have to admit, I wanted some special sauce on my sandwich. It was good.
After recovering with food, we went out to the garage to admire Dave’s new Corvette, gather our junk, and I threw about a million football passes to Max and Zach, which may have been the highlight of the day. I got in the car and headed home.
Before getting out of Dixon, I stopped at the Culver’s and bought myself a large diet Mountain Dew. I’m glad I did because I probably would have fallen asleep without the caffeine it provided.
As I was driving I got a text alerting me to the fact the the marching band contest that my daughter was competing at in Naperville had been cancelled due to the heat. I later learned that several kids and others were treated by EMT’s there, and the police told the school to shut it down. I chuckled at the fact that we just did seven straight hours and 109 miles of high level endurance activity. I guess we are ready.
4TH PLACE GOES TO…
Me. During the last hour of riding I was finding myself in the sweeper position quite often, trying to play catch-up with the other three. I realized at that point that I would most likely be finishing fourth off the bike ride at Louisville. I guess it’s just my riding style. I prefer to spin, and I am constantly spending large chunks of time in the small chain ring. Dave wouldn’t use that ring unless he absolutely had to. I prefer to save my quads for the run. And unless I gun the run like a madman, I am pretty sure I’m looking at finishing in fourth. But I’m totally cool with that. They are strong riders, and Jeff proved that he may rob me from my marathon crown at this race. It’s kind of cool that we all kind of have a triathlon distance specialty, and each of us have our dominant races. I tend to do well in the short stuff, and Dave is KING at Ironman. Jeff may very well be Dave’s best challenger this time around. Alex, well seeing that he’s the young gun, he’ll toast us all. He’s a lifer. He LOVES this sport! We all do.
THE SUNDAY LONG RUN
I was eager to get to the three hour long run on Sunday, because I didn’t want it to get too hot. The run started with a temperature of 70 degrees but warmed to the mid 80’s by the time I was done. It went really well. I’m surprised at how well I feel on a run the day after doing such a long bike/run brick. I turned around at 10 miles right at 1:30 and headed back home, finishing in 3:01. The only casualty was my left nipple sprung a leak. I was running along and feeling pretty good at about an hour into it when I looked down and saw that my shirt had a huge red bloody stain on it. That explained all the weird looks I was getting from people on the trail. I took the shirt off and rinsed the blood out with some water and made it home. All in all, a pretty good run.
TOTALS:
2 Swims – 4200 yards this week / 97550 yards total
3 Bikes – 147 miles this week / 10382 miles total
7 Runs – 50.5 miles this week / 918 miles
The BIB numbers are out and I drew an awesome number for once!
I finished the Saturday long ride in 5:06, a ride that was supposed to last 5:30 like last weekend when I rode it with Dave and Jeff. But thanks to a strong tailwind and a gunner attitude I did it much quicker.
I upped my selfie game when I realized my phone has a timer.
It had gotten hotter by the end of the ride, near 80 or so, and since I knew that I was going to hop in the car for another 5:30 ride to Minocqua, I decided it was okay to leave off the remaining 24 minutes of the ride to not overdo it. I also decided to do the run on the treadmill indoors. I made it to 45 minutes and had enough. I was also okay with not doing the full hour run brick, and hit the shower. I still had a long drive to do and I have a tendency to get real tired when driving.
A hot shower helped chase the chill that I was experiencing post run and I decided to take a nap before getting in the car before heading to the lake home for a couple of days.
As I laid there my mind quickly started to shut off, with an almost completely blank mind when I realized that the only thing I could sense was the pain I was feeling deeply within my gluteus maximus. My butt was speaking to me, and it was telling me it wasn’t happy with me.
The pain was nothing new. I’ve been ignoring it for most of this year. Long efforts seem to make it the most sore, and any really hard racing will tick it off for sure. But for the most part I can get through my workouts without it being this annoyed.
It was almost radiating as I lay there. The message was clear – don’t ignore me any longer.
On Sunday I did an 18 miler in 2:41 per the plan. The butt was not pleased, but I did my best to take it easy. I ran on the crushed granite Bearskin Trail in Minocqua to provide a relief from the paved bike trail I usually run on. Afterward I spent some time doing the butt and hamstring stretches and it seemed to appease it.
So with four weeks to go until Ironman Louisville, and one more long effort before the taper, it is time to listen to my butt or it may end up screaming at me. Hopefully I can get it to sing to me instead.
TOTALS:
3 Swims – 5600 yards this week / 93350 yards total
As I get closer to Ironman Louisville race day, the dread starts to build thanks to the massive amount of time the weekend training plan requires. This week was another 5.5 hour Saturday ride, with a 2.5 hour run on Sunday. But then my teammate Dave texted the group and suggested we get together for the Saturday ride/run brick. The plan was set to meet at my house and share a great day.
I took them on the same route that I rode last weekend, even though I did that ride in a little over 5 hours. I knew that we would ride a little more leisurely so we could chat and that the day was a little more windy than last weekend.
The ride went great, with no issues at all. We got to the turn around point at exactly 2:45 riding nice and easy. But I knew we would have to push pace a little coming back because we were riding straight into the wind that made that first half of the ride easy. It wasn’t too bad, and we made it back right at 5.5 hours.
Three Gunners enjoying a beautiful day.
The team did a quick transition to our running gear and I took them on a route I like to call the “Seven Deadly Hills.” That hour went by really quick as we chatted through most of the hour long run. We finished back home at an hour on the dot, with about 6.75 miles of running. A quick dip in the pool, some fruit and salty potato chips, and I think we were all happy with our day.
Sunday was back to the loneliness of the long distance runner, and I threw on my running clothes and hit the trail for a 2.5 hour run. Once again, the weather was awesome – cool, light breeze, and I felt great. I dialed it back to mostly a Z1 effort and got in 16 miles.
All in all, Week 25 was awesome thanks to great weather and great friends. I am looking forward to another group ride on Week 27 – the dreaded 6 hour ride.
TOTALS:
2 Swims – 4200 yards this week / 87750 yards total
3 Bikes – 136 miles this week / 10102 miles total
7 Runs – 47 miles this week / 820 miles
I’m hearing the BIB numbers will be out next week!
I resist looking ahead to the weekend workouts because I don’t want to know what is coming. Since last weekend was a five hour Saturday bike ride and a two hour Sunday run, I assumed that this weekend would bump those workouts another 1/2 hour each. I’m not sure what possessed my wife Kari to crack open my training book and look, but I’m glad she did, because she made me aware that I only had to do another 5 hour ride. Hooray! I would have went out and did the 5.5 hour ride without even realizing the plan didn’t call for it.
But five hours on the bike is still no walk in the park. On Friday I chaperoned the mega marching band at a local football game and there was a lot of standing, making my legs very tired. I was all prepared to have to labor hard on Labor Day weekend. But the gifts kept coming. The weekend was beautiful! Cool temperatures and mild breezes made for perfect training conditions. I started the ride with a one piece tri suit with a cycling jersey over it, with arm warmers and a long sleeve tech shirt, and gloves as I headed out and I was pretty chilled – it was 47 degrees! But 45 minutes into it, I was ready to lose the shirt and placed it on the ground near a stop sign. I came back and picked it up 3 hours or so later and put it in my jersey pocket. I did shed the gloves, but kept the arm warmers on throughout the ride for protection from the sun.
Saturday’s ride went really well. I made it through 83 miles last week and didn’t enjoy it much. But I managed to get in 91 miles of great riding in this time. I followed that up with a 7.25 mile run and felt really great through that as well.
Just me and beans for as far as you can see.
Saturday’s effort was far from over though, as Kari and I had plans to attend the Barenaked Ladies concert in New Lenox, which meant doing a lot of standing on tired legs. And since it was BNL, I figured I’d be doing some kind of bad dad dance routine, and I did. I was somewhat surprised that my legs weren’t killing me. Sure they were a little tired, but not achy or sore. A great end to a great day.
The Good Lady and me waiting for Living Color and BNL!
I was expecting Sunday’s long run to be on some tired legs, but surprisingly enough I felt pretty good. I got in 15 miles in 2:18. Then I did a very easy spin over to Frankfort to watch my daughter and her mega marching band do the community proud in the Frankfort Fall Fest parade. I didn’t leave myself time to grab something to eat, but I took whatever candy I could get from the parade as I sat in the shade of a little bush. I spun the bike home and had a bowl of cereal.
I was fully expecting that this weekend would be laborious. But it turned out that it wasn’t that way at all. Maybe I should have titled this week “Not Laboring on Labor Day.” It’s really a testament to the periodization of the training plan. It sure is making me ready, not only for the race itself, but for each week as I progress. Let’s see if I feel the same after next weekend.
TOTALS:
2 Swims – 4200 yards this week / 83550 yards total
It seemed like this week was a little bit of a hilly ride, with ups and downs aplenty. So I thought I would recap the happenings.
Monday
HIGHS: Rest day, baby! Eclipse day! LOWS: I ran 3 miles on my off day. Bummer.
Me trying to figure out whether I wanted to permanently ruin my vision or not.
Tuesday
HIGHS: A swim and a 8.5 mile run. LOWS: None that I can remember. Except maybe the swim. Yeah, I hate swimming.
Wednesday
HIGHS: My favorite workout of the week – the short bike/run brick. LOWS: The wife isn’t feeling well.
Thursday
HIGHS: The weather this week has been GREAT!!! LOWS: Thursday workouts are the worst – a swim, a bike, a run. Makes for a long afternoon.
Friday
HIGHS: My mother-in-law Darla hit 70! Happy Birthday! And I got to greet my friend Rollie on the bike trail. LOWS: Missed the first home football game in which my daughter’s full competitive band performed.
Saturday
HIGHS: Absolutely none. Well, that’s not true. I got to see the competitive marching band do their thing in exhibition after a 88 mile bike/run day. The ride went well in spite of the fact I wanted to kill people on the bike trail and clueless drivers on the road. LOWS: Idiots on the bike trail. Clueless drivers on the road. And I got pretty sick about training on that long ride. I got to the point where I just wanted it to be over. Happens every year.
My face after stopping to read my Gunner teammate John’s text about poker at his house that night. There was no way I could swing it. I still had another 2+ hours of riding and running ahead of me. Plus a marching band event later.
Sunday
HIGHS: I beat the rain (which looked like trouble, but never did rain) and got in a strong 13.25 mile run and a 45 minute spin. And I got a second chance to greet my friend Rollie on the bike trail! LOWS: Not being able to join my buddies in Chicago for the Chicago Triathlon. Next year for sure.
So, in all it was a roller coaster ride of emotion throughout training this week. I was ready to say I was done with it. But by the end of Sunday’s long run and bike, I realized that I had performed pretty well. A good recovery from last week. I’m pretty lucky that I can do this activity. I don’t take that for granted.
TOTALS:
2 Swims – 4200 yards this week / 79150 yards total
This week was a taper week that was leading to a half-iron distance race on Sunday in the training plan. The week went really well with no issues, and I chose to do the 70.3 at home on Saturday instead of Sunday for a couple of reasons, first being my daughter Ashley was leaving for her sophomore year at school on Sunday and I needed to be around on Sunday. Secondly, Saturday was looking to be a nicer day temperature-wise than Sunday.
So Saturday came and I got an early start to my half-Ironman day. The swim was great. It took me 40 minutes and I felt really strong. Before leaving on the bike I ate a Clif Bar and drank a glass of water.
The bike was awesome. I headed south toward Elwood and hit 23 miles when I turned around at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery. I went back east until I got to the little forest preserve entrance and went in for a bathroom break. Knowing that I had turned around at 23 miles, I would need an additional 10 miles for a total of 56 for the ride, so I headed back west for 5 and turned around.
Had to wait for a train for about 10 minutes approximately 4 miles from home. This train would later come back to me on my run and run me over.
With about 2 miles to go, I felt a stinging sensation on my foot. Some sort of wasp/bee/hornet thing had lodged itself in the opening of my shoe and stung me. It hurt like heck for about 10 minutes. But it was just the beginning of my suffering.
Once home I noticed that I had a great split on the bike ride. Averaged just over 19 mph, which was faster than my Ironman Muncie 70.3 time from 2014. I was pretty happy with that.
I jumped in the pool for a quick cool down, and then changed into some running clothes. I took a look at my stung foot and didn’t notice any swelling, but it was a little sore to the touch. I put on fresh socks, refilled my Gatorade bottles and hit the trail.
My plan was to do two loops of my normal route, which would be very close to 13 miles. At about 5 miles into it I ran out of Gatorade and stopped at the water pump to top off my bottle with water. That got me back to my trail entrance spot at 6.6 miles and I grabbed a new bottle of Gatorade that I had stashed in the tall grass and refilled my bottle. But at this point the heat of the day was getting to me, and I knew I was starting to cook. I started heading back up the path for another loop and made it to the other parking lot where I used the bathroom and realized I was starting to have heat exhaustion. I went to the water fountain and ran cold water over my head and proceeded to the intersection to keep going on the loop. But as I pushed the crosswalk button and stood there I realized there was no way I would make it through the remaining 5 miles in one piece. So at 8 miles into my planned 13 miler, I turned around and started walking for home. A walk that would basically turn out to be an Ironman shuffle for 2.5 miles.
My head was down, my arms were heavy and it felt like just breathing was an effort. I felt like that train I had seen earlier was barreling over me. I kept licking at the last gel I had along with some Base salt and started to at least have enough energy to power my brain and move at a slightly faster pace. I ran/walked another mile for a total of 9, four shy of my goal.
I have never DNF’d (did not finish) a race before, and honestly I can’t even remember a time in which I didn’t finish a training run that I had set out to do. But today I realized that I was defeated. It beat me. I made it home and recovered with plenty of fluids, some salt, and some rest.
So what happened? I’m guessing I was dehydrated. I had taken a salt capsule every hour on the ride, but I was sweating heavily. I had eaten well, taking a gel every half hour. I never felt sloshy or had dry mouth. I weighed myself after a shower and found I weighed 160 pounds. I had probably lost about 7 pounds of water weight on that journey. Lesson learned. I need to drink more. The trouble is, there really isn’t any place to refill on that route. I will need to figure something out for the next time. And maybe I needed more fuel. One gel every 30 minutes has always been my nutrition plan. I may need to up it a little.
TOTALS:
2 Swims – 5600 yards this week / 74950 yards total
3 Bikes – 86 miles this week / 9684 miles total
7 Runs – 34 miles this week / 680 miles total
Lesson learned. Know my limits and adjust. Keep moving forward.
I have trained for three Ironman races and I get to the point somewhere around Week 20 or so when I declare myself ready. All it took for me to understand that I wasn’t was the Saturday long ride and run workout.
It started out okay, and it was a beautiful day – low 70’s, mostly sunny, light breeze if any. My only option for doing a long ride and not want to murder people on the bike trail is to head south from where I live to the more rural farmland of the far south Chicago suburbs. I live right on the cuff of urban and rural living. Harlem Avenue near where I live is a six lane motorway. South of Monee, it is two lanes with barely any shoulder or traffic. So I headed south with a plan to turn around at 2 hours and head back to complete the scheduled 4 hour ride.
Feeling pretty good about myself around 1.5 hours into the ride.
I have a terrible sense of wind direction when I ride for some reason, but I was keeping an eye on the corn and plants and they weren’t moving at all. So I felt strong and kept pushing. I had built up an average pace of 18.6 mph before I turned around. Then I felt the wind. It was from the north, and I knew I was in trouble because 90% of the ride back would be back into the wind. So I ended up battling my way back home, watching my average ride pace slowly tick back down to a more realistic level for me. I pushed pretty hard, but it still took me an additional 11 minutes on the return trip. I ended with an average of 17.9 mph. Not only was I now super tired from the effort back, but I also had dropped below 18 mph average.
I ended the ride with a 5 mile run at a pretty good pace. But I could tell that I was spent. I showered up and went to Panera for some soup. Between the Southwest Chicken Tortilla Soup bowl (super salty and full of chicken/protein), and about a half dozen refills of sugary Lipton Brisk Raspberry Tea, I was able to turn myself around and feel good again. But after that 5 hour, 80 mile training day, I knew that I surely do need these remaining few weeks of training to be ready.
On Sunday, I ran the scheduled 1 hour 45 minute run not knowing what to expect. Turned out I felt pretty good. Ended the run covering 12 total miles. Maybe I am ready!
TOTALS:
2 Swims – 5600 yards this week / 70050 yards total
3 Bikes – 131 miles this week / 9598 miles total
7 Runs – 41 miles this week / 646 miles total
The truth lies in the Saturday and Sunday long efforts.
I read a recent article in Triathlete magazine that covered the subject of mental preparedness in Ironman. I have always thought that training your mind to handle the effort in training and the races was almost as vital as the physical aspect of getting your body ready to spend the more than half a day swimming, biking and running. Some of it can be very mind numbing for sure.
I find the swimming to be the most boring of the three. You are either looking at a black line at the bottom of a swimming pool, the dark murkiness of a lake, or in my case a bunch of dead bugs lying at the bottom of my pool, a constant reminder that I also need to devote time to take care of things that get neglected during training.
Running can also be boring, but you can bring music if you are so inclined. I don’t, but I do let the beauty of the area in which I run to keep me distracted from any suffering that may be going on. I jogged behind a deer on Wednesday for about a minute until it finally took notice and bounded into the woods.
I find that I don’t have the luxury of being unfocused on the bike. It’s the one discipline of triathlon in which you are required to focus. You have to constantly monitor your surroundings, your effort level, and make sure that you don’t crash. Certainly there are times when I can zone out, but something always quickly renews your focus on the bike – a bump on the road, a bug to the face, a gust of wind, etc.
Often times when someone asks about the Ironman, they only think in terms of how long it is – 140.6 miles – and are impressed that the distance can be covered under your own power. But I find that your mind easily adapts to the distance if you break it down into manageable segments. My training is 30 weeks long. That’s a long time. But when it is broken into its individual weeks, and then into each day, it is much easier to mentally handle the task. The woman who inquired about my training this week asked me about the training, and I said for Wednesday’s workout I did 45 minutes on the bike followed by a 30 minute run. A total of 75 minutes of exercise. Lots of people can do that. Break it up and it is much more manageable.
At Ironman Wisconsin in 2013, I found that I couldn’t bear to look out at the water where the swim course was being held prior to race day. It looked enormous! But on race day morning, I got in the water for the start and broke the swim up into small segments. My plan was to swim from one orange buoy to the next. On the bike it was all about riding to the next aid station where I could refill my water bottle and take on some more nutrition, then it was on to the next one. Same thing with the run – one mile at a time, one aid station to the next.
So I guess the physical training for the race is the most important aspect of completing an Ironman. But if you can train your brain to manage the race, it can make the physical portion of it much less of a burden.
THIS WEEK
Swimming in Lake Minocqua.
I volunteered as a chaperone at this past couple of weeks at band camp. Fortunately for me I was able to take the 3-6pm slot, and was still able to get my workouts done midday. The weekend was spent in Minocqua with the family. I felt the need to be with the family and spend quality time that is no longer a given. My son has his own job and is living out of state. And my middle daughter will begin her sophomore year at college soon. So to have everyone together for two short days was a luxury that I couldn’t pass up. So I skipped the scheduled four hour bike ride. But I was able to get an open water lake swim in as well as the two hour Sunday run. That run nearly wiped me out physically and mentally. I’ve got some work to do in the next ten weeks.
TOTALS:
2 Swims – 4400 yards this week / 64450 yards total
I’ve always been somewhat self-conscious about my body. As a kid my mom would take me to the “husky” section of Sears to buy my clothes. I always swam in a t-shirt to hide my chubbiness. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so noticeable for me if my two best buddies didn’t have bodies that would be suitable for modeling. (They still have those bodies.) Even in my high school and young adult years, I would always buy a shirt that was a size larger than I need.
I started running like most people do – to lose a few pounds. I did lose a few pounds, but my body shape stayed the same. Not sure why after almost 28 years of running that I would not be rail thin like most marathoners, but it never happened to me. I am a slightly slimmer version of the same body that I have had since I can remember.
But when I started triathlon, things changed. First of all, one of the reasons I stayed away from triathlon was that I didn’t think that I could wear that skin tight clothing and be comfortable with how I felt and looked. Especially in the early days when they wore bikini style shorts. I can remember buying my first tri suit at Endure It! in the western suburbs of Chicago. I tried a two piece and remember thinking I looked like the Michelin Man. After that I tried a one piece suit and thought that it wasn’t too bad. Often times I would throw a t-shirt over it just to make me feel a little better about myself. But after getting a few races under my belt, I looked around and realized that it wasn’t all that bad. I saw all shapes and sizes of people squeezed into Lycra, and in reality I wasn’t the shape that my mind imagined myself to be. Triathlon seems to be giving me more than I had bargained for. I’m getting less conscious about my image.
This weekend I did a sprint triathlon. I was thinking about how I looked in comparison to others at the event. Not sure why, but I did. I was admiring this one guy who looked like he was a former pro. Fortunately for me he was in the 55-59 age group and I didn’t have to worry about losing an age group spot to him (He finished 3rd overall). He had the look that I wanted but somehow can’t achieve. As somewhat of a car buff, I envisioned myself much like a souped up beater – a car that looks rough on the outside, but is all pro-stock under the hood. The term “sleeper” also comes to mind – a car that is so tame looking, but packs a wallop.
I took my time in the water, but once I got to the bike I let it rip. I ended up surprising myself with a 21.8 mph average over the 11 mile course. When I got to the run, I played my strategy right. I allowed myself to settle in and not go crazy that first mile. I ended up running a 20:46 5K, nearly matching my personal best for road raced 5K’s this year. That was surprising as well.
The biggest surprise was when I saw the results on the screen at the finish line – 1st place in the M50-54 age group, and 9th place overall. I wasn’t expecting that. But I guess nobody expects the beater to have a supercharged big block under the hood. Sometimes not even me.
TOTALS:
3 Swims – 3300 yards this week / 60050 yards total
3 Bikes – 33 miles this week / 9426 miles total
7 Runs – 30 miles this week / 565 miles total
Standing tall on the top step.Nice race week break. Back to work in Week 20
an amazing run 