Week 3 finishes on Saturday with a Training Triathlon

Saturday of last week ended with a nice triathlon of training.  I swam with my usual Saturday morning master's crew at Redwood HighSchool.  NorthBay Aquatics was a rocking good time as always!  I've been back in the pool now for a couple of months and the progress is finally starting to show.  I try to swim 3 days a week with NorthBay and really have come to rely on the coaching and the planned sets for my swim workouts.  I feel it's a much more productive workout for me than trying to remember set lists on my own.  Also, when you're putting in 3000 to 4500+ yds of swimming, keeping track of laps is nearly impossible for my simple mind.  Back to my triathlon of training.  Saturdays consist of me swimming early, heading home to take the dog out and then getting on with the day.  I usually run a quick 4 or 5 miles with the dog and get in a little brick every Saturday.  I ran Lucy over to the Farmers Market at Larkspur landing, met the girls and our friends the Fitz's there and had some yummy Huevos Rancheros.  The family headed home and my ladies had a Birthday party to attend.  In the past, I would have relished the opportunity to nap, work on the yard, or just watch sports for the few hours the girls were gone but with my first IM looming in a mere 34 weeks, I felt like I needed to take advantage of the free time to train guilt free.  I headed out on the bike and did the Paradise loop and added Camino Alto at the end for another climb.  I felt pretty strong on the bike and came to the conclusion that after training for the last 6 weeks, 3 weeks of official IM training, I could most likely do an Olympic Tri and come close to my PB times of the past.  Now, these aren't too fast but still all things being relative, this gave me confidence heading into week #4.  I feel like I'm on the right path to accomplishing this daunting feat.  I also know from my marathon experience in December that I need to focus on my run and my overall strength so My goal going into Week 4 was to focus more on the run and put some solid time on my legs.  So far in 3 runs this week, I have 2.3 hrs and 15.2 miles with a brick run before swimming tomorrow and a transition run planned after my long ride on Sunday.  So I'll get 22 miles in this week and look to build on that next week.  I'm getting in the groove of getting my workouts in and spending 8 to 11 hours training a week.  I'm also making it a priority this year to continue overall strength and core training as I had a couple of injury issues that came up towards the end of last year as I abandoned my strength plan.  I do at least 2 strength workouts a week and I feel better about it helping my overall conditioning.  I'm down to 203lbs and have 7 full months of training ahead of me.  I'm pretty sure 195 is within reach and if I can get to that by race day, I'll be fine! 
AlooooooooooooooHA!

Week 2 in the bag with a big 65 Mile Ride to cap it off

I have completed my second full week of IM training and to cap it off, Matt and I rode 65.5 miles from our neighborhood to St Helena yesterday.  Riding 65.5 miles is a feat in and of itself.  It is the longest ride I have ever done to date by 16.5 miles and we tried to do a great deal of the ride in the aero/ tuck position and that was tough.  The ride was great, I felt very strong throughout the ride and still felt good after 40 miles.  We decided to push it the last 25 miles and didn't speak to each other at all for the last hour or so.  I think I could have put in 40 more miles but I'm not sure the quality of those miles.  It is very humbling to think that at 65.5 miles and 4 hours on the bike, I was only 9 miles over half way done with the bike portion of an Ironman.  The last 2 weeks have been good, I'm building up my base, feeling strong and have my weight down below 204.  I'm expecting to race at 195lbs in November and Matt Fitzgerald's Quick Start guide helped me shed the weight I put on between December and March.  I dropped 6 lbs. in a month and was ready to start training immediately!  I am looking forward to the journey.  Later

It begins! IM Cozumel 2011Training has begun!

A few months ago, my buddy Matt Rodgers, convinced me to attempt an Ironman.  I've done over a dozen triathlons in the past 10 years, mostly Olympic distance events which involve a .9 mile swim, 25 mile bike and a 6.2 mile run.  For those of you that don't know, Ironman consists of a 2.4 mi. swim • 112 mi. bike • 26.2 mi. run.  That's right folks, over 2 miles of swimming in the beautiful waters off of Cozumel, a leisurely bike around around the island 3 times, and then after you're good and warmed up, finish your day with a marathon.  I never thought I'd even consider this insanity until last year, when after doing 3 full rounds of P90X and running a lot due to a new dog in the family, I had gotten my weight down to nearly 200lbs.  I had not seen that number on the scales since before college.  I decided to run a marathon last year as a qualifier for my decision on whether or not to accept Matt's challenge.  I struggled through my first marathon and finished in a disappointing 5hrs and 2 mins this past December and even after that I am excited to attempt the Ironman.  I have learned a lot over the last couple of years regarding work outs, diet, and what my body needs to attempt these challenges.  I hope that I'll be able to provide a light and enjoyable view into what it takes to finish.  This blog is about the journey and there will be plenty of people on the journey with me.  As I mentioned above, Matt Rodgers will be my training partner quite often over the coming months.  We got together last night and mapped out our 8 month training plan.  My wife, Skye, will be supportive and sometimes understanding of a crazy training schedule.  The other 2 ladies in my life will also be there as motivation and distraction at the same time.  

I am excited about the challenge and scared shitless of the actual 13 hours of effort I'm setting out to accomplish.  Stay tuned!