Inspiring Motivation

2021 IRONMAN CHATTANOOGA TRAINING

WEEK 4 – March 28, 2021

This past week was a kind of a week that lacked motivation for me. I’m not sure if the oft-changing rainy and windy spring weather had something to do with it, but I just wasn’t motivated to put in the effort.

In addition to what I felt was a worthless 30-minute bike ride that I barely broke a sweat with, I was dreading an easy-paced 30-minute run for some reason. I had been watching the weather and I was anticipating the rain to start right when I usually begin my workout. I am lucky to have access to a treadmill at work and also at home, but I loathe running on them so much that I only do it when I can’t run outside. But the rain hadn’t started yet, so I told myself to get out there. This run didn’t start out so well. First, I wasn’t in the mood to run, but I decided to run from my office to the local trail, which seemed like an uphill climb. My heart rate climbed to the point that I felt like it was reminding me how out of shape I am and how much work there is yet to do. But as I got to the flat trail I settled into a slow rhythm and found a suitable pace.

About a mile into the run I passed three walkers heading in the opposite direction from me, what appeared to be an older couple walking with their adult daughter having a lively conversation, but what she was wearing on her head instantly caught my eye – an Ironman finisher hat. Knowing what it takes to earn a hat like that was enough to make me forget about the self-loathing that had been in my head. I have four of those hats myself, and I am looking for a fifth. They aren’t easy to earn. But earn them I did. And earning them sometimes means doing a workout when you aren’t really wanting to.

I picked up my pace a little, ran with a little more strut, and added a short weightlifting workout after the run that I had no desire to do beforehand.

Sometimes something simple can be a great motivator.

Swims: 0

Bikes: 3 – 39 miles

Runs: 5 – 20 miles

Gunners-2-1

Continue reading “Inspiring Motivation”

PUMP IT UP!

2021 IRONMAN CHATTANOOGA TRAINING

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WEEK 1 – March 7, 2021

Lou is dead. Long live Choo!

2020 Ironman Louisville got killed by a lethal combination of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as social upheaval going on in Louisville and it was not only enough to postpone the race, but to kill it totally off. Ironman Louisville (aka Kentucky) is no more. I was offered a deferral to a handful of other 2020 races which I felt had no chance of occurring, so I opted for the deferral to 2021 Ironman Chattanooga. A year into a pandemic, and I’m still somewhat pessimistic about whether we will race or not. But 2021 is here, people (including myself) are getting vaccinated, and real in-person events are starting to take shape and look like a possibility of actually happening. The CEO of Ironman came out recently with a video regarding how they expect the racing season to play out, which made most of us scratch our heads. What I get out of the video is that they truly want to race, but if they can’t they will tell us at the last possible second and keep our money anyway. But no matter his message, I’m signed up and will have to train to be ready if it does happen.

After completing Choo in 2019, my buddies and I all kind of agreed that we didn’t care to come back to it. I guess maybe that was the ungodly heat that helped with that mindset, but yes, it seemed to wow us less than Wisconsin, Lake Placid, and Louisville had done in prior years. But when Choo became my only real option, heck I will take it. It’s really not that bad of a course – the swim is almost effortless and the bike is the easiest of the four I have done. The run is the devil at this race, and add the heat like we had in 2019, and well, it was enough for us to say we’d never want to do the race again.

Seeing that I got through about 16 weeks of training for Louisville when it got axed, I have somewhat just drifted through my usual training, knowing that racing in 2020 was a longshot. With the exception of enjoying some brief, mild winter trail running, my desire to sign up for races or even do any significant training has waned. I had lost my mojo. The time to start training is here, but I’m still looking for some motivation.

I was spinning on the stationary bike this week and listening to some shuffled songs on Spotify when I heard Elvis Costello’s Pump It Up. That’s what I kind of need right now, something to pump me up. The weather is getting better, the snow is starting to melt, and soon I will take my training outdoors. Time to pump myself up.

I’ll be following the Competitive Plan from the book Be Iron Fit by Don Fink once again. It has never let me down. I have made some alterations to it in order to make it more personal to my needs, but I stick to it pretty closely.

I swapped out my old saddle for a new ISM PR1.0 split-nose model. I’m hoping that the saddle is more comfortable than the old one. I will have to find another way to mount my bottle cages to it, but there is time for that.

Swimming won’t happen until I get my pool open in May sometime. I have added some light weightlifting workouts for now, but I tend to get bored with that real quickly.

Here’s to training with my Gunner teammates and some of the locals I know who are also doing the race. Ironman Chattanooga, here I come! PUMP IT UP!

Swims: 0

Bikes: 4 – 57.5 miles

Runs: 4 – 15 miles

Gunners-2-1

Moving On

THE LAST POST REGARDING IRONMAN LOUISVILLE 2020

R.I.P. LOUISVILLE IRONMAN 2020

It really didn’t take me too long to get over having the race I was training for come to an end. I guess I had been expecting it to end for quite a while, but I just kept moving forward (a tried and true Ironman motto) in my training until the final word was announced. So after having a week to think it over, here’s what I will most likely do going forward.

I will opt to take the automatic transfer to Ironman Chattanooga in 2021. There is really no way the other three Fall 2020 transfer options are going to happen in my mind. Three of us Gunner teammates were already signed up for Louisville, and two and maybe a third had not signed up. So if we decide as a group to head back to Chatty in 2021 all I need to do is make the transfer official and start training next year. If we for some reason want to do a different race then I will have no problem paying the transfer fee and do that race with the group. But Ironman has some pretty specific rules on transferring, so I will have to take that into consideration. We’ll have to talk that over. I remember us talking about not wanting to do Chatty again, but I think that was the dreadful heat of the 2019 race influencing that decision. It was an okay location, we enjoyed ourselves and I would go back. But before I get too confident with all that, I have to realize that this is all conjecture. There’s talk that this Covid-19 crap may stick around into 2021 and screw everybody’s race season up again. So there’s that…

I will keep training, that really isn’t a big surprise. I actually enjoy the weekly stuff, the long Saturday ride, and running is just part of who I am. I can’t imagine not running. Swimming on the other hand… well, let’s just say that I do enjoy a cannonball splashdown after a long run or ride. But I doubt I will do much swim training for the rest of the year. The training won’t be anything too overwhelming, but enough to keep me fit and doing what I love. I may join some local group rides now that it won’t interfere with me following my training plan. I may also text a local friend to see if he wants to do some riding again. We stopped riding together when my training became too specific and he just wanted to ride.

I was kicking around the idea of doing an Ironman of my own making either at home or in Wisconsin at my lakehome and inviting my buddies to do it, but I’m not so hot on the idea now. That would require us to keep training and following the plan and with the weather heating up and the fact we’ve had our bubble burst with Louisville, I don’t think any of us would want to do it. I may, however, do a half-iron distance day of my own just because I already have the fitness to do that and could pull it off pretty easily. I think the training plan has a 70.3 training day built into it coming up in a few weeks, so I may still do that. I need to sleep on that a little.

Lastly, I have one more hope left of having an opportunity to race this year and that race is the Big Hill Bonk Last Runner Standing elimination ultramarathon. This race was supposed to occur in April but got postponed to October. I received an email last week stating that as of right now the race is a go until the race director finds out otherwise. He gave us a drop dead date of September 15th, so we’ll know by then if he has to cancel it. So since that tells me that the race is iffy at best, I’m not going to do any special ultramarathon type distance training and if the race happens I will just go up to Beloit and run 4.166-mile loops every hour until I can’t take it anymore. And that’s all predicated on whether I feel comfortable around other athletes and doing the Covid-19 dance around each other. If I don’t feel safe in that environment or it’s too big of a hassle I will opt out.

So there you have it. I’m going forward with my daily workouts for fun instead of for a specific reason and we’ll see what happens. So long, Ironman Louisville 2020. Hello, Ironman Chattanooga 2021.

A Half-hearted Attempt at Week 15

IRONMAN LOUISVILLE 2020 TRAINING

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WEEK 15 – June 22 > June 28, 2020

IRONMAN TRAINING IN THE TIME OF PANDEMIC – PART XV

I’m typing this on my iPad and it’s a little bit of a struggle for this technology challenged old guy, but I promise to clean it up when I get back to my computer at home. I’m surprised that I am even putting forth the effort seeing that I am on vacation.

There were a few things happening this week that kind of screwed with my desire to train. The first is that knowing that my family and I were heading to our lake house for a week, I had some stuff to deal with before leaving. I did get most of the weekly stuff done, but I missed the long ride on Saturday due to the drive up north and then dealing with cleaning up the yard and moving a week worth junk in.

So I opted to do the four-hour ride on Sunday and it went okay, but it was eerily similar to last week’s ride. Had another tire issue that I just refilled with a CO2 cartridge a couple of times. This bike is nine years old and I have never had a tire or tube issue with it. I seem jinxed lately with flats. The ride also ended with a similar bonk at the end. It wasn’t really hot, but I was sweating as usual and most likely didn’t keep up with my hydration. I felt so worn out at the end that I opted to jump in the lake to cool down and skip the 30-minute brick run afterward.

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My better half joined me on the ride for awhile on the Bearskin Trail.

Bubba’s

‘Murica!

My ride took me to Nokomis and I found a new place in the middle of nowhere called “Bubba’s”. It looks like a large place for bikers to assemble for an upcoming event they have for motorcyclists. The USA War monument They built was pretty impressive.

The other issue that has poured a little water on my enthusiasm is that I discovered that Ironman has closed registration for Ironman Louisville. That’s a problem because 3/5’s of my Gunner teammates hadn’t signed up for it yet! I’m not sure why they closed it, but I have a pretty good idea why. They maybe trying to limit they amount of triathletes competing to limit the risk to everyone, but that’s not it. They also may be trying to limit the amount of triathletes that they have to offer transfers to if and when they have to cancel the race due to COVID-19, but that’s not it either. I’m now about 99% sure this race will get canceled next week.

It was mentioned on the IM Louisville Facebook page that the same thing happened to Ironman Ohio 70.3 – they closed registration and then the following week they postponed/canceled it.

So, now I kind of don’t feel like training. I know that I said last week that if the race survives past Week 15 that I would keep training, but I’m not so sure. Feeling like the ax is going to fall on this race puts a damper on training for me. Gunner teammate Dave says he’ll probably still train and look for another late fall race to do, but I’m thinking that there won’t be any racing this year for Ironman in the US. Seeing that COVID-19 numbers are spiking in some areas again says a lot.

So I plan on training this next week while on vacation and doing what I can waiting for a decision to be made. I just hope it comes sooner rather than later.

TOTALS FOR WEEK 15:

Swim: 1 / 1500 yards
Bike: 3 rides / 85.5 miles
Run: 5 runs / 17.3 miles (skipped the Saturday brick and the Sunday long run this week.)

Gunners-2-1

The Ironman-O-Meter

IRONMAN LOUISVILLE 2020 TRAINING

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WEEK 12 – June 1 > June 7, 2020

IRONMAN TRAINING IN THE TIME OF PANDEMIC and SOCIAL UNREST!– PART XII

Lots of questions have been going through my mind lately, so I thought I would break out the old “Ironman-O-Meter” (patent pending) and see if it can provide some insight to what the heck is happening.

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Question Number 1: Will this race be held in October as expected?

Ironman-O-Meter says: About a 15% chance. I was at a 10% chance of it happening about a month or so ago, but I am just a little more optimistic about it than before mainly because of what Ironman Corp. is doing planning-wise. Although they have canceled or postponed many of the spring races, they have moved several to the fall. I take that as a good sign, mainly because they want the races to occur as long as they can be done in a safe fashion for everyone. A lot of the cancelations come as directives from the host cities that are sticking to state guidelines for dealing with Covid-19. USA Triathlon and Ironman have both come out with safe practice policies recently that will allow us to race more cautiously, so that is a little more promising. There are plans to eliminate a lot of the social event things that Ironman does for a race, as well as making the race more athlete self-supported. I may be forced to carry my own nutrition on the bike and run instead of having well-stocked aid stations which is not a big deal. I train that way all the time. The City of Louisville, where the race will be held has had some social unrest due to a shooting recently, but I hope the crisis will settle down by fall. I would think that with the losing out on summer and fall sports, Louisville might welcome us dopes on spokes.

Question Number 2: What chance is there of me joining a group ride with the local bike group?

Ironman-O-Meter says: About a 25% chance. A group ride opportunity popped up on Facebook for Saturday that almost looked perfect for me, but I took a pass on it. This is the same group of great people that I accidentally came upon riding last week and joined in, and I enjoyed some company for a change. I feel a little safer on some rides in a group because groups tend to be more visible to traffic. But very few of these riders are training for Ironman and the couple that may be training probably aren’t following the same plan that I am. What happens when I join the group is that my prescribed ride usually goes out the window. First to go is the tempo, which is almost always faster than the Z2 zone ride that I should be doing. And secondly, the distance usually ends up being farther than what my plan called for. Lastly, the ride can sometimes turn into a testosterone-fueled ride, with someone trying to be the big dog. That someone is usually me. It’s probably better that I skip the extra tempo, distance, and one-upmanship and stick to my solo ride. The first rule of the Be Iron Fit training plan is to follow the plan. The second rule is to FOLLOW THE TRAINING PLAN.

Question Number 3: Will all dog owners say that their dog is friendly while it’s growling and baring its teeth at me?

Ironman-O-Meter says: 100% of the time, every time. While doing my Tuesday run I came upon a guy and his two little kids walking his dog off-leash in the nature preserve where the posted sign says pets aren’t allowed. This dog did exactly what off-leash dogs do in public, he approached me very aggressively, with snarling and barking and got close enough where I took my pepper spray off the safety and was ready to unload it on him. Now, I don’t want to spray the dog. He’s just doing what dogs do. But I also don’t want to get bit either! The owner quickly yelled at the dog “What’s the matter with you?” like it was the dog’s fault he was off-leash in public. A sorry was tossed my way as the guy retrieved the leash from his 6-year-old and I turned and finished climbing the hill. On the way back down a few minutes later I encountered him again and although still not leashed, he was being held by the owner. That’s when the guy says “Sorry, he’s really a friendly dog.” Yeah, sure looked friendly to me. Every damn time.

That’s enough questions for the Ironman-O-Meter for now. I don’t want to blow any circuits. Thanks to Rebecca and Emily helping me design the Ironman-O-Meter. It may need some tweaking, but it did the job.

TOTALS FOR WEEK 12:

Swim: 2 / 3000 yards
Bike: 4 rides / 93 miles
Run: 5 runs / 23.5 miles

Enjoying the Ride

IRONMAN LOUISVILLE 2020 TRAINING

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WEEK 11 – May 25 > May 31, 2020

IRONMAN TRAINING IN THE TIME OF PANDEMIC – PART XI

The weather was pretty awesome this week. I was in upper Wisconsin at my lake home at the end of last week and the beginning of this week. I was able to do a long ride and long run last weekend and began this week with a Tuesday run on the Bearskin Trail that runs through town before heading back home. We would have stayed longer but the in-laws have sold their local home and were leaving for Florida so we needed to be back home to say goodbye.

Swim training began this week! And although boring, as usual, it didn’t suck. Well, it had its moments. I only got in the Thursday swim because we were traveling on Tuesday, and I only did 30 minutes. I tried using my Garmin 935 watch in the past for swimming in my pool, but it never read the distance correctly. Garmin must have updated the pool swim feature for the watch as it now lets me customize the pool distance to a more realistic 15 yards for my pool. Still a little long, but more in the ballpark than 18 or 25 yards, which were the only options before. Anyway, here’s proof that I was swimming:

Look out, Mark Spitz! I’m coming for you!

The Saturday long ride was interesting. I saw a lot of interesting things on this ride and thought I would share some photos. These photos are screenshots from my Fly12 bike flashing light/camera.

Screen Shot 2020-05-30 at 5.07.24 PM — 15 minutes into the ride and I had to wait for Mama Duck to get her ducklings across the road.

Screen Shot 2020-05-30 at 5.14.41 PM — This trucker gave me a nice wide berth on Hoff Road. Thanks for sharing the road, trucker guy!

I caught up with the local cycling club that I follow and rode with them for a while, and I made a new friend. Hello, Angela!

Screen Shot 2020-05-30 at 5.19.25 PM — This white 1967 Olds Cutlass 442 was parked off of Hoff Road in the Midewin Nature preserve and rumbled by giving me a smile.

Screen Shot 2020-05-30 at 5.33.27 PM — This farmer was kind enough to give me space too.

Okay, enough with the photos.

The Sunday 8.5 mile run was interesting too. I was coming up to pass a guy who was walking ahead of me, and as he reached into his pocket for his phone a deer appear not five feet in front of him. He never saw the deer as it bounded right past him! I was shocked that he didn’t see him. Unbelievable how much you miss when you are paying attention to your dumb device and not your surroundings. I enjoyed it though.

Lastly, with all of the turmoil going on in the country and especially in the midwest today, I refuse to let it get to me. Focus on the positive and stay away from the negative. I do my part to be a good upstanding citizen. My best to you all.

TOTALS FOR WEEK 11:

Swim: 1 / 1470 yards
Bike: 4 rides / 128 miles
Run: 5 runs / 26.5 miles

Clicks, Ticks and the Same Old Tricks

IRONMAN LOUISVILLE 2020 TRAINING

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WEEK 9 – May 11 > May 17, 2020

IRONMAN TRAINING IN THE TIME OF PANDEMIC – PART IX

I’ve been training on my new gravel bike for most of the spring, mainly because the weather has been wet and I would rather ride that bike through the puddles than my triathlon bike, but I have been on the triathlon bike more now. And it has been talking to me – lots of clicking and ticking sounds coming from it that the gravel bike being new definitely isn’t making. I bought the bike in the summer of 2013, so it is getting a little old now and the sounds shouldn’t really surprise me much. But when I am riding over 20 mph at times, those little sounds probably shouldn’t be ignored. I’m guessing my headset and fork bearings may need to be repacked with grease. I’ll play around with it and see if I can get the bike back in a silent running condition. A new bike would be an easy reaction to an aging bike, but I’m going to make sure my bike can last me as long as it can. I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to pursue Ironman races. I’m getting a little worn out. The click and tick sounds could be coming from me as well.

As I did my weekend long ride on Friday instead of Saturday (moved my senior college grad Ashley out of Valparaiso University on Saturday – 2 down, 1 to go!) I could tell that my level of fitness while doing the ride has gotten better but it’s still a long way off. First I had overdressed for the day and was sweating more than I should have allowed myself. That lead to getting a tad bit dehydrated and a slight bonk while finishing up a planned 2 hour and 45 minute ride in 3 hours. This is my fifth time training for an Ironman and it seems I have to relearn the same lessons each time. But fortunately, I’m a quick learner and it comes back to me pretty quickly.

Every time I train for an Ironman, I guess.

It rained like crazy on Sunday and I didn’t get a chance to do my Sunday long run. I’ll do it tomorrow. One thing I don’t have to relearn is how to be flexible and get the job done.

Lastly, I finally opened the pool. I think I set a record getting it ready. The temperature is up to 85 degrees (yeah, I hate swimming in cold water), and the junk is all vacuumed out. I should be able to swim next week.

cbHwirOmTYCJGyGv51FuHw — I had to stop at my turn around point to empty rocks from my cycling shoes. Good times.

TOTALS FOR WEEK 9:

Swim: 0 / 0 yards
Bike: 3 rides / 74.5 miles
Run: 2 runs / 9.5 miles

Happy Mother’s Day

IRONMAN LOUISVILLE 2020 TRAINING

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WEEK 8 – May 4 > May 10, 2020

IRONMAN TRAINING IN THE TIME OF PANDEMIC – PART VIII

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there! I certainly miss my late mother and think of her often. If you are fortunate to have your mother and father around, cherish the time you have together.

My mom never knew me as a triathlete. She would tell me to be careful when I was just a runner, worried about the marathons in particular. I wonder what she would think about the Ironmans I have trained and raced. I’m guessing she wouldn’t have been too happy about it. That’s what mothers do, they mother.

Week 8 was a drawback week as far as training goes. The training plan sneaks these in occasionally and it is always a welcome surprise. It always seems to come just when you need it. So this week ended with a reduced ride and run, and I reduced the run even more by eliminating it because it’s Mother’s Day and it’s a rainy Mother’s Day. Maybe I will do it tomorrow on my normal rest day in Week 9. It’s an easy hour run that I can do without much effort.

While training for my ultramarathon this past winter I had developed some nagging little injuries, but when the pandemic hit and the event got postponed, I was happy to slide into the Ironman training which heavily reduced my running workload. I realized in Week 5 or 6 that I no longer had those injuries and was feeling pretty good. But I’m starting to feel the little behind the knee thing starting to come back. Maybe taking off from running on Mother’s Day is a good thing to give it an extra day of rest. I’m guessing Mom would approve.

TOTALS FOR WEEK 8:

Swim: 0 / 0 yards
Bike: 3 rides / 66 miles
Run: 3 runs / 14 miles

Smile!

IRONMAN LOUISVILLE 2020 TRAINING

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WEEK 7 – APRIL 27 > MAY 3, 2020

IRONMAN TRAINING IN THE TIME OF PANDEMIC – PART VII

My son had a female teammate on his college cross country team that had two great attributes that everyone took notice of. First, she was smoking fast. She outright won many of the meets during the season. When the team ran in the NCAA DIII Cross Country Nationals, she was the runner-up. So yeah, the competition knew who she was. And the second characteristic – she smiled when she did it. I’m not just saying that if she heard you cheer for her that she would flash a smile. No, she smiled through the entire race like she actually enjoyed running and putting the beat down on everyone else.

This week I thought about that out on the trail while putting in my training runs. Although lately there have been some times when I wanted to flip people off, this week seemed to be more enjoyable. Lots of people were being friendly and I took notice. So I started to smile when I saw people. Not sure if they noticed me having fun doing what I love doing, but I started to see the benefit of smiling. My pace quickened a little. I felt myself sliding comfortably into a pace that normally is reserved for hard efforts.

So smiling may be in my future. Feeling good about running in this crazy world right now is just what I need.

Training went well this week. After riding a stationary bike and my gravel bike for my training rides the previous six weeks of training, I finally committed to riding my tri bike for my Saturday long ride. I don’t mind getting my gravel bike dirty and riding it is fun, but I was pushing hard and only finishing with a 15 mph average. So I was eager to ride the tri bike to see if there was a difference. Yes, there is a difference. I did 45 miles and averaged 17.5 mph. That’s something to smile about.

I’m not alone when I say I haven’t done any swim training yet. Most pools are closed due to the pandemic, and the lakes are just now starting to hit 60 degrees allowing some swimmers that are braver than I a chance to swim. But that’s way too cold for me. I will open my pool soon though. I usually open it in May when the temps start averaging around 60 degrees or more. I looked at the forecast for next week and see that we have another cooler week coming, so I think I will wait one more week before opening the pool. I’m okay with waiting. Swimming sucks.

TOTALS FOR WEEK 7:

Swim: 0 / 0 yards
Bike: 3 rides / 72 miles
Run: 4 runs / 25 miles

It’s A Sign!

IRONMAN LOUISVILLE 2020 TRAINING

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WEEK 4 – APRIL 6 > APRIL 12, 2020

IRONMAN TRAINING IN THE TIME OF PANDEMIC – PART IV

Happy Easter!

Spring is here and there are signs everywhere! As a runner who spends the majority of his time running staring at the ground 5-6 feet ahead of me, I’m surprised I notice anything going on around me. But lately, I have noticed a lot of signs out on the trail. From the little flowers that are blooming right along the edge of the path to the painted rocks that people are placing in public places and along the trail to brighten everyone’s day. The grass is greening up and judging from the hayfever I’m experiencing, I’m guessing everything is about to go from winter grey to a very colorful spring.

I have also seen some new signs out on the trail. Signs measuring the six-foot safe passing distance and reminders to please pass others in a single file way. Someone has placed a reflector sign on the unofficial path that I maintain that’s used to access the nature preserve to help them remember where to get on the path. Not sure it needed a sign because it’s really the only path like it on the abandoned frontage road, but it’s definitely a sign that someone else is utilizing my little path.

Another sign I’ve been seeing is my buddy John texting “Day Done” in our group chat that he’s completed the day’s workout. Could that be a sign that he’s joining the Gunners in Louisville this year?!?! That would be quite a sign!

TOTALS FOR WEEK 4:

Swim: 0 / 0 yards
Bike: 2 rides / 32.5 miles
Run: 5 runs / 23 miles.