Century Ride

My Saturday ride was a new all time single high for a mileage day.  I was originally scheduled for a two hour ride with a 30 minute run off the bike.  However, we were up at our lake cottage for the weekend and the group the local bike group that I enjoy riding with was doing a longer training ride that day so I joined.  They were planning 90 miles in preparation for the RAIN (ride across Indiana) ride.  This is a ride on July 13th that is a one day ride primarily across US 40 from Terre Haute to Richmond for a total of over 160 miles.  It is a ride that I have full intention to do some day but unfortunately this year it conflicts with my Muncie half-ironman otherwise it would be a good training day.  I would also really enjoy the last 50 miles or so of US 40 trek as it would take me back to my youth when we traveled the route to visit my grandmother.  I remember trying diligently to recount the order of the many small towns along the route as we proceeded.  I digress.  The ride was a great.  It was a mind stimulating mix of terrain and scenes. We road the flat lands of the northern Indiana crop belt, the hills of the Wabash river valley, crossed a covered bridge by an old water driven saw mill, and even did a stint in the wind farm outside of Brookston.  As we rolled back into Monticello to finish their 90 miles of training, I was feeling good. Besides the warm temps and up tempo rides to finish, I felt I had to push on to claim my first 100 mile trek on a bike.  I closed out the mileage on the extended route back to the cottage.  So, just over 5 hours later I was back with a quick change and off to knock out my run obligation.  It was a rather forceful 3 mile jog with some tighter than normal legs but completed as planned.  wooo hoooo




Century rides for cyclists are rides of pride and full of accomplishment.  For myself to knock this out gave rise to my hopes to my process for making the Ironman.  Then again that reality quickly crept in as well during the 3 miles.  When I contemplated that race day gives me 12 more bike miles and then even a more staggering 23.2 more additional running miles, I began to understand even more the task at hand.  Its going to be a really long day on August 25th.  Oh well, its important to celebrate the progress steps too. 

Happy Fathers Day

So what do you do on father's day when you are training for an Ironman that is less than 70 days away?  You go train.  The last few weeks have seemed to have gotten a bit easier even though my hours of training are longer and more intense than ever.  With the arrival of summer like weather and the longer days, the crush to get the workouts in are just not as taxing.  The dread of cold temps and how much clothing to put on is gone.  The freshness of the early summer mornings always seems to be a bit inspiring and full of motivation.  I am actually seeking hours where the weather will be at its worse so I can condition myself for the worst scenario for race day. 
Sunday was to be another ride with run of the bike.  I was set for 2:45 on the bike and a 30 minute run right afterwards.  Saturday evening, I came upon a fellow Louisville participant, training buddy, and friend.  We discussed our similar Sunday plans workouts and decided we would go it together for the ride. Company is always welcomed on those long rides. On Sunday morning, I awoke early to the sound of rain.  This was good and bad.  The bad was getting out of bed at 6, checking the radar, and then sending a text.....Hey, ride delay till dry, 10:30?  His Response...K.  The good was sleeping in!  This day was going great.  I slept in and got up to drying conditions and we rolled out.  It was a great ride.  The wind was very present that gave us some added work but we pedalled along with good intensity but in a relaxed atmosphere chatting up a variety of subjects but most was about our kids.  We moved along so well that we extended our route to meet our time requirements.  We even ended up making an extra half hour extension to it.  The run off the bike was typical.  Its a necessary evil that I can't wait to get over once I start.  The rest of my Sunday was spent in a relaxed manner with my family.  It was a great fathers day. I dare say maybe one of the best. 

In the world of triathlon when mentioning fatherhood a name is always present.  The Hoyts are an inspiration beyond compare both in and outside of the sport.  Happy Fathers Day to all you Dad's out there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flRvsO8m_KI

no rest for the weary

My workouts for the week following my first Half were far from an easy going recovery.  It was actually one of the biggest weeks time wise I have had.  I clocked in just over 15 and half hours of training for the week.  It also contained some pretty intense workouts in the growing heat and humidity.  I could definitely tell my body had been damaged.  My energy was low, my legs were just not fresh, and mentally I was dreading each go.  As the week progressed so did I.  My legs began to come back to me and my disposition slowly turned back to the task and with self motivation.  Saturday was my usual Masters swim and our post workout coffee.  It was nice to talk to some of the others who had raced with me had had similar weeks.  Sunday topped the intense week off with a 3 1/2 hour bike and 7 mile brick run.  This was a serious push to my endurance but it was a good kick start back to my routine going forward.  I face a rather intense week again but with a renewal to myself physically and mentally I stand ready.  Saturday I will be 4 weeks from next half Ironman and my first event as part of the actual Ironman work group.   It will be my largest race with over 1100 competitors. This will be my last prep race for Louisville.
http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/events/ironman-70.3/muncie.aspx#axzz2W7GOlbIP

You are a Toughman

I made it.  I finished my first half-ironman distance race! In addition to, I have completed my gruelling 30 day stretch of races and workouts as the gauge to where I am and where I need to be in just over 80 days.
The race went really pretty well.  I came away with good knowledge on what I need to focus on and what is working well.  In the days leading up to the race there was doubt if it would happen.  The forecast was for heavy thunderstorms.  This was the same storm complex that wreaked havoc on Oklahoma City and St. Louis the night before.  Due to the pending storms and weather uncertainty, the bike check-in that was mandatory for Friday was changed to optional.  Thus, an extra trip the day ahead was negated.  Additionally, the rain on Friday cancelled my son's baseball game I was to help coach. What was to be a hectic schedule became relaxed.  This is always a good thing on the eve of a race.  My son and I went for my traditional night before a race meal that has worked for me so far: Chicken Parmesan dinner with a salad, and a diet coke.  I spent the remainder of Friday evening planning, prepping and packing at a much more leisurely pace. Yet, I kept one eye on the weather channel. As I did so the forecast was for these storms to be upon us at 7AM.  It did not look good.  I got to bed by about 9 pm as I was to rise at 3:30AM to start my race day.  Throughout the evening I was periodically awoken by our weather radio alert for thunderstorm warnings progressing across the state.  With each awakening I would quickly ponder, will the race go?, be delayed? or be modified to accommodate conditions?.  I so wanted the whole race as planned.  Back to sleep I would drift.  I did not awaken to my alarm but a few minutes before my alarm to a bolt of lightening and subsequent thunder.  Dread was upon me.  I arose and dressed as planned for the race.  I made my breakfast which has become as traditional as my night-before dinner: Plain Bagel with peanut butter and honey, some orange juice, a banana, and a travel mug of coffee.  Why so predictable and routine for meals?  They fit the nutrients for a good race, I like what I am eating, and most importantly it does not give upset on race day.   As I finished my breakfast I noticed the rain had slackened.  I also knew that as I headed east to Richmond I should quickly overtake the initial line of storms and get ahead of the storms prior to arrival.  I wanted to be sure to do this so I was not setting up my transition area in the rain.  I loaded and drove. It went as planned. I was ahead of the storm and quickly got to setting up my area for the race. 
In a race there is what is called the transition area.  This is really the home base for all of the athletes and where they change to the appropriate gear for each part of the race.  See an example below.


For this race with the pending weather we were forced to cover and rain proof much of what we had laid out.  Just as I finished this prep I got my wetsuit on to go for a warm up swim.  Just as I did it let loose.  It was a strong downpour but fortunately no lightening.  It did not last too long.  We were gonna get this thing on as planned. 
The swim went well.  The water was fairly mild as it was in the low seventies.  I did not push too hard but came out in 33 minutes for the 1.2 miles.  This was a pretty decent pace for me.  I did come to the conclusion that I needed goggles with lighter lenses for these overcast open water races.  My transition went well and all was not too wet.  The bike went well despite a few serious hills.  I made it in 2 hours 39 minutes for a 21.1 average.  Again, this was not to bad.  The pavement was pretty wet that made me pucker a bit at each sharp turn. The headwinds were building at the end.  The run started well.  This course gave you two large hills right of the bat that really took your spirit away.  This was a 2-lap race so it was double jeopardy.  Lap one went well leaving me on my targeted pace.  The second lap saw my pace slow and fatigue increase.  I began to feel the full effects of this distance.  I brought it home in 2:04 minutes.  Not too bad but I had wanted to be under 2 hours.  Overall I was at 5 hours 21 minutes. 7th out of 17 in my age group and 41st overall.  At first, I was not sure how to feel about my performance other than I was disappointed on how I degraded on the run.  After looking at some other races and computing all the info I grew increasingly pleased, given it was my first half distance and the other factors.  The real key is that I got what I came for.  I wanted to see where I was doing well and where I needed to concentrate.  Guess I will be running more, ugh.  Overall, it was a great day.  I can say I did a half Ironman.  It was special to be back in my home town and to have my parents there to watch.  It was rather surreal to be performing such an event in this place that I had fished as a child. I never imagined that I would travel back to this same place for such an event.