Florida IRONMAN here I come

I made it official. I will be competing in a Full Ironman in 2008. I have acquired the services of Gorilla Multisport to aid in my quest. I am planning out my 2008 schedule of PAIN and TORTURE. I will be diligent in keeping my blog populated as a way of keeping myself motivated.

My training has already begun with approx 6-8 hours a week. This is as much as I was doing for the HIM and my full is 11 months away. I am scared to see what a 18-20 hour training week will feel like. I guess I will be childless and divorced. Actually, my wife is extremely supportive for now and the kids are excited about going to the beach.

Texas Man Race Report

After prodding from a fellow competitor I am required to file an official race report. So here it goes.

Prerace
Got to the site with plenty of time. Prerace meal one Cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese and a hard boiled egg about 1 1/2 hrs before race time. I also had 10 oz ox accelerade 5 minutes before swim. Felt very relaxed and comfortable with my training. It helped that I did not have a predetermined time goal to meet. My gaol was to FINISH.

Swim: Time 45:59
Overall swim was good. The water was a little choppy, but manageable. I was a little disappointed that I swam off course a bit making my journey a little longer. Overall it felt great to be able to swim that long.

T1: Time 2:41
RESTED

Bike: Time 3:06:01
Course was a little hillier than I anticipated, but overall did OK. Would have like to do this under 3 hours, maybe next race.

T2: Time 2:53
REALLY RESTED

Run(Death March): 2:43:35
It was hot and hard. I did great for about the first 9 miles after that I struggled mentally. I started walking and could not motivate myself to keep running for any length of time. It could have had something to do with the fact that my legs felt like they had bricks attached to them. I was not satisfied with my run. I wanted to do it around 2:15. If I finished with the times I had anticipated I would have had a time around 6hrs. Maybe next time. I am just happy I finished.

Total Time 6:41:07

Goals:
White Rock Full Marathon 2007
Florida Ironman 2008

Update. Finally

Here is how August is going(crappy). I have had several,3 to be exact,6-8 mile runs, but not consistent enough. I have not had a bike ride over 50 miles. I have had three swims over 2000 meters. With today being the 15th, halfway through the month, I have some catching up to do before the end of the month. I know that September is supposed to be a tapering time. So here is my personal wake-up call.

Weekend Recap

Here it is the fun weekend report.

Thursday: Forgot to set alarm for 5:30am run, so I did a quick 3mile run at 24:32 average HR 152.

Friday: Lazy took a rest day.

Saturday: 4 Hr ride to The Ball Park then to Flower Mound. 72 Miles average 18.3 mph. Nutrition and Hydration were right on. 6 gels, 80 oz water, 30 oz accelarade, 880mg sodium pills

Sunday: 1:06 hr run approx 6.5 miles average HR 154. It was hot and I did not bring enough fuel with me. I only took 400 sodium pills and 1 gel. I should have taken 2-3 gels with 30 oz water and 10 oz accelarade. Maybe next time.

More running and swimming before the event for me. I have the bike nailed. I guess it is time to put some bricks together and have some fun.

My How The Time Flys!!!!!

Since the last update back in May, I have been busy. I will recap highlights i can remember.

June- Nothing excited except sporadic training. I did attend the Dave Scott Swimnming Seminar which was very helpful in helping rememdy my miserable swim technique. I still have miles to go before I am comfortable swimming 1.2 miles in open water.

July- I have been getting more consistent. To start off the month i participated in the Grapevine RAW 10K with a time of 56:35. Also did the Disco Oly Duathlon, as weel as several 3+ hour rides and several 1+ hour runs. Swimming is starting to get better as I have done 3 2000= swims this month and looking forward to more.

Goals for August:
1 Complete a Full Olympic
2 Complete the Hotter-n-Hell 100 mile ride
3. Lose 5-8 more pounds

I will try harder, I will try harder.

OK I haven't kept up the blog well, but I WILL TRY HARDER. Let's see if i can remember the workouts since the MS 150. I haven't had too many so it should be easy.
May 12 3 mile run
May 16 23.3 mile bike 1:08 avg 20.3
May 20 18.42 mile Bike 1:02 avg 17.6
May 22 5.86 mile run avg 9:23mile
May 23 24. mile bike NO TIME avg 18.3
May 25 3 mile run treadmill 27 min
May 27 34 mile bike No Time 16.9 Avg
May 28 20 Min OWS 38 Mile Bike 2hrs 30 min run.
Not real consistent but still adding up some miles. I will need to be better to complete my HIM training.

MS150(or 75 instead)

I participated in a REAL training event unlike some of my fellow 101ers ie Peter. While Peter was collecting another medal Brian, Ken and I were riding the MS 150. I could only do the second day of riding because of work related obligations, but completed 75 gruelling miles into the wind uphill both ways. Seriously, it was very windy which made for some very tough climbs coupled with the fact that my group was using me to break the wind because of my absence on Saturday. This was a great base building ride for the Texas Man HIM. Now it is time to work on a swim and a run.

Lotsa Biking!!!

Okay so I have not been good at keeping a consistent training routine. So here goes the rundown as best as I can remember.

April 7 -Spent some quality time with my daughter as I yelled and screamed at all participants of the Iceman Triathlon. I was too much of a wimp to participate. My daughter had a blast watching and talking to everybody.

April 8 - Spent some quality time(1.5 hours avg speed 19.1mph) with my new best friend Mr. CycleOps Fluid2 trainer. I broke down and bought one and really like it. I will begin to do some major interval work as I prepare for my HIM in Sept.

April 11 - Excellent Wednesday Night Ride with DA group. I was excited that I could keep up so well with the intermediate group with so little training. My expensive watch had a dead battery so I had to rely on my "ghetto" cateye. It read a respectable 19.2 mph average for 23.6 miles.

April 12 - Experienced the HILLS of Cedar Hill and Joe Pool Lake. It was quite an adventurous 53.81 mile ride up some big hills with about a 10 -15 mph wind in my face most of the way. It was a good ride for me because I had to work hard to pull my partner. Once again forgot to charge battery, so the trusty cateye said we did 53.81 miles, 3.16.23, and 16.4 mph average.

April 13- And he rested with very sore legs.

Wild Goose Chase

Saturday's ride was exciting. We were supposed to go to Dallas House and back. An easy ride, so we thought. Two problems arose, first we were supposed to be in the 16-17mph group. That did not happen. Second, Tom(the Devil) suddenly became ride leader. Normally I like to ride with Tom and challenge myself, but we had company that day. Tom in is infinite desire to push us, took a route that I was not familiar with. After gallantly keeping the pack in site for the first 1hour and 45 minutes, they proceeded to DROP US. Fortunately, I live in this area and knew the best way home. All in all it was a fun 47 mile ride in just under 3 hours. I will consider this a good wake up call for my preparations for MS150.

I am Alive

Sorry for the delay in the update. I have been pretty lazy since the St Paddy Tri. I did a 35 mile ride on Sunday 25th. No time, my expensive high tech watch had a dead battery. Wednesday 28th did a 1hr spin classs followed by 3 miles on the treadmill at 9min/mile pace. Shoulder is still very sore. I did tear some more muscle at the St. Paddy Tri so I have not swam since. Maybe next week. No Iceman for me since I cannot swim yet. Next event will be MS 150.

St. Paddy's Tri

Overall had a good race today. It was about what I had expected with the minimal training I have been doing lately. The weather was chilly, but beautiful as the day progressed.

Total Time 1:17:01

300 M Swim Time 7:30 Horrible!!
T1 2:30 Horrible!! ( Sunglasses fogged up)
12 Mile Bike 38:41 18.6 mph Good!! ( Work on Cornering)
T2 1:11 Better
3.2 mile run 27:10 8:46 per/mile Needs work( under 8:00 next race)

123rd out of 287 overall
19th out of 38 in age group

Also, I ran with my sister-in-law Fran who was doing her first triathlon. I think it was a little too much for her, but she was glad she was able to finish it in one piece.

It was great to see so many of our Tri101'ers out at the race. I am glad so many of us have kept the spirit.

Back in the Swing of things.

This week has been much better for me as far as athletic activity.

Thursday 6 miles on treadmill. 9:00, 8:30, 8:25, 8:02, 8:26, 9:15 total 51:38. Average Hr 149.
Friday 22 mile bike ride 1hr 20 mins average speed 15.3 ( had to Stop at Stop Signs.) Hr 138.
Sat RocknRoll Relay 5.25mi 44:10 8:23, 8:27, 8:45, 8:30 8:19, 1:44 Avg Hr 164.
Sunday 23 mile Bike 1hr 27 mins av speed 15.8mph ( more stop signs) Avg Hr 138.

Those totals make me feel better about myself.

Life is rudely interrupting my training!!!!!!

I know it has been awhile but here is the run down from the last several days.

Sunday 30 mile ride with the boys. We had a steady pace of 16mph for a time of 1:52.

Monday 4 mile run 8:08, 8:21, 9:09, and 9:18. My times went the wrong way, but I got out and ran.

Wednesday 4.5 mile run 8:38, 8:42, 9:22, and 9:22. I was having a hard time breathing because of allergies. Also, I was working hard not to let my heart rate go above 160.

Life will never be the same

I really do have a good excuse for not working out or writing in my blog. My wife has just purchased a new business on Friday. I have been playing Mr. Mom all weekend while she has fun with her new job. Every time I tried to workout something new popped up at the new place forcing me to change my plans. It will get better soon.

Today I went for a 22 mile ride through Flower Mound. I need to start being more consistent with my training if I don't want to get beat by all of my classmates.

"You become great by doing small things in a great way." Zig Ziglar

Real Swim Workout

I finally did a real swim workout. It was tough. I need to get out of bed earlier and start swimming with a group. It is more fun and makes me work harder.
200m wu
10 x 50 meters every 90 seconds
4 x 100 meters every 2.5 minutes
2 x 100 pull
2 x 100 kick
2 x 100 catch up
200m cool down
total 1900 meters total time 55 minutes

First Brick of the Year

It seems appropriate that I talk about bricks today because I am building a new house and they are bricking it this week. Well I have finally done my first official Brick of the year. It was short, but felt good. I did a simple 14 mile(44 mins) bike followed by a 3 mile(26min) run. It was a struggle to keep my pace up in the run and my legs felt very heavy, but mission accomplished.

Rest and Relaxation

Okay, I took a couple of days off. Not because I was hurt or tired, but simply LAZY. I kept telling "myself" to do something, but "myself" said it would be more fun to do nothing.

I did however get back to it today. I went outside in the beautiful weather and ran 4.5 miles in 35 minutes. It felt real good, so I guess the rest was just what the doctor ordered. I will try to make the swim workout Wednesday night if I can.

Happy Mardi Gras to all !!!

Swim Team

I decided to swim tonight after a hard day's work. It started like any other swim workout with a long 300 meter warm-up. The it got interesting. A swim team showed up and asked me to share a lane with some of its swimmers. I thought this is great, I can get some good advice from watching and listening to the swimmers and coach. I was even more excited when I was swimming faster than anyone in the group I was with. It was even better when I found out they were using flippers. I was brought back to reality when I discovered it was my 8 year old daughters team. It was a good workout nonetheless.

Happy Valentine's Day to All

COLD, COLD. Had to do a cycling class this morning because of the cold weather. It was a fun class. We worked on speed drills which forced us to keep our rpm's really high. After the class, I ran 2 miles on treadmill to help make up for the candy and dinner I have planned with my girls.

Hope everyone has a Great Day and remembers all those important people in their lives. We cannot accomplish our goals without supporters.

Call Me Flipper

After being a wimp and not running in the cold this morning, I decided to put some of my reading to the test. I have been reading literature from the Total Immersion swimming program. They talk about swimming like a fish. OK Flipper I am not, but I worked hard tonight trying to be as fluid in my movements as possible. I only swam 50 meters at a time to make sure I was not fatigued or compromising on form(Ok I was Lazy). This was actually a good workout because by the end of the 45 minutes I felt like Flipper.

Tommorrow is Valentines Day so no swimming in the evening with DA. I have a romantic candle lit dinner date with 4 women. Could be enjoyable? LOL

Happy Days!

Sunday and Monday were good training days only because I actually worked out. Sunday was a good long slow swim. I have no idea how many laps I swam, but I swam for about 45 minutes.

Monday was much better I ran for 6 miles at a blistering 9:30min/mile pace. At least I was able to finish without having to stop. This is a long way from the required 26.2 needed for an Ironman, but cut me some slack. I'm getting back in shape.

"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be Great." Zig Ziglar

Frozen Toes

Okay, I did not run last night, but I did bike this morning with DA. I had to ride with the Ladies because the Big Boys were going to far for me. It was a fun 2 1/2 hour ride except for the flat tire at the end. Luckily Kuay helped me with lots of moral support. It was about 40 degrees, but not too much wind so it was almost pleasant except for Frozen Toes.

Next week I hope to see more of my classmates.

Just Beginning

Okay here I go making myself become accountable for my actions. After a miserable off season with a major injury, I am entering this season out of shape and with large aspirations of accomplishment. I, like many others in our original Tri 101 class, will be competing in my first HALF IRONMAN TRIATHLON. I know this sounds crazy but I am PUMPED about the idea. I was going to do the LoneStar Half in Galveston, but my torn pectoral muscle prevented me from training. Finally it is healing enough for me to begin my training. I have begun my training 10 lbs heavier than desired and a lot weaker than I would like. I guess the added weight will make me stronger. Ha Ha. The purpose of this blog is to communicate with my fellow Tri 101 ers' to help keep me on track with my training goals.

Tonight I am going to run 3 miles on the treadmill at a slow pace to get rid of the cob webs and see if my body remembers how to run.