Two Weeks 'Till Florida

It's only two weeks until we leave for Disney World, and two and a half weeks until Florida 70.3. I'll admit that I'm getting a little anxious and maybe even a little testy! I still have a lot of training to do to be prepared and time is winding down as I also want to put in some recovery time. Five months ago when I originally signed up for this race I felt like I had all the time I needed, and that I would be more than prepared. My injuries to my right leg have set me back a bit and I feel like if I had another 3-4 weeks then I would be back on track. Oh well, I can't change the past so I will just have to move forward. I am really looking forward to the trip as it will be every one's first time at Disney World. I plan on getting in a couple of days of quality time with the boys and Amy before race day, and hopefully this will relax me mentally. Alexander and Caleb are really getting excited, and Amy has a well planned itinerary so I shouldn't have to think too much! We also have a couple of days after the race for sightseeing, and I'm hoping I will be able to enjoy it.

Here's my training updates;

I started this week off with a fragmented Ironman swim, which is a warm-up of 200m followed by 4 sets of 1000m done as 800m at training pace with 200m easy followed by 30 secs of rest then a cool down of another 200m. This was a BIG swim for me! I have done a lot of workouts in the 3000-3500m range but they had a lot of drills with lots of rest periods. They would go by without you thinking that you had swam that far. This workout was basically a straight through swim and I was actually wondering if I could do it. Well, I made it through but had to make two quick trips to the bathroom so two of my30 secs of rest were probably closer to 1:30. I was able to keep a pace of about 20 min/1000m. This isn't all that fast but it gives me the confidence that my endurance is coming along.

Its so nice to be able to get outdoors on the bike and put in some quality time. Last week I did a 3 hour ride in an area I hadn't ridden before and it went by pretty quick. I kept a pretty steady pace of about 30-31 km/hr and just tried to make sure that I was pedalling constantly. I also made sure that I was properly fueled up and had lots with me for the ride. I took two hours before the ride to get myself prepared and it made a world of difference. I felt like I could have easily gone for a run after which was not the case the week before. I will probably only have another two long distance rides before heading south so I want to put in a 4-5 hour ride this weekend and then hopefully a good brick on the next one. My goal is to ride the Florida course at around the 20-22 mph range. I have no idea what to expect coming out of the water so I'm not sure how this will play out.

My runs have also picked up in the last two weeks as I have been basically pain free. Last weekend I did a 16 mile run, the longest I have ever ran, and was still able to head out for a swim a few hours later. I wanted to put in 3 hours but my legs were starting to get tired around the 2 hour mark so I thought better of hammering out the miles. I still don't want to overdue right now so I'll just gradually work my way up. Again, I have no idea what to expect getting on the bike, and then off the bike and onto the run so it will be a huge learning experience for me.

I probably should have done an Olympic distance first and worked my way up but its too late now, I'm just going to have to expect that it might not go as planned, I might not be as fast as I want, or I might surprise myself, after all, I have put in a lot of training in and if it all comes together it might be magical, maybe Disney magical!

Scott

Spring is here! or maybe its Summer?

The strange thing about living in Canada (well, just one of the many) is that you can get all four seasons in the space of a couple of weeks. Three weeks ago it was still cold and wet, and this last week has been hot. It is nice to finally put away the winter coats and put on a T-shirt and shorts but it would also be nice to acclimatize to warmer weather rather than just be hit with it.


I have made some great improvements in the last week with the pain in my leg and foot. Last week I only did two short runs and they both went really well. The best thing obviously for an injury is to stay off completely but I'm getting down to the wire with Florida 70.3 and can not afford to do at least a little if I can. My big goal is to do a long run this Sunday, trying for about 15-18k with a steady pace. I'm also going to do a couple short runs just to keep form. I have one more PT session planned for this week and hopefully it will be the last, and since I'm running out of benefit money, I will have to pay out of pocket soon. C'mon leg!


My swims the last couple weeks have gone really well also. This being my weak point, I am very pleased with my workouts. I don't think I am a whole lot faster, but steadier and more comfortable. I won't be able to do an outdoor swim before Florida so I have no idea what to expect for a time, or how I will feel getting out. Wetsuits won't be allowed and I haven't raced without one before.

I was finally able to get out on my bike and do a long ride (56 miles). I will break it down into two parts. First 23 miles- good steady pace, legs felt fine, heart rate also fine. I ran into a couple swarms of black flies which reminds you to NOT breath with your mouth wide open! This took me to a ferry crossing and I quickly stopped for a bio break and to eat a bar and turned around to go back. Second 23 miles- where did the wind come from? Where did the hills come from? Where did my speed and power go? Oh Crap! I need more food! Lesson learned. I realized on the way back that I was not fully prepared. I have done long rides in my basement but when I needed something I banged on the ceiling and Amy would bring it too me. About 10 miles left to go I started to lose energy, fast. This is not a nice feeling as you can feel all your strength just slipping away and you still have a ways to go. When I made it home I was a little shaky and quickly got some food and had a good stretch, and about an hour later I was fine. The good thing from this was that I did the ride and recovered well. A year ago I probably would have taken a week off, but I was back in the pool the next day and also put a run in.


Also last week I went to our Multi-Sports Club kick-off meeting and had the chance to hear a local athletes story. His name is Tony O'Keeffe and he has completed 21 Ironmans, a couple of Ultra-mans, and in 2006 finished 8th in the Race across America (RAAM) in 11 days and 5 hours. I am also sure I heard him say he climbed Everest as well (not that its a big deal?!). He had said that preparing for RAAM, he did a 48 hour straight ride on his trainer in his basement just to see if he could do it. I was thoroughly impressed and more than a little humbled. Makes my 3 hour Saturday ride look like a ride with the kids.


Finally, I've been doing a lot of thinking about my race in Florida in three weeks (yikes). This will be my first long distance race, as I have only done sprints, and I'm not really sure how to approach it. Do I try to race hard, or do I just get used to the distance? I've wrestled with this continuously for the last couple of weeks especially since I haven't been able to run that much. I am worried that if I try to go too hard that I will re aggravate it and be back on the sidelines. I want to finish and I want to finish strong, but I also don't want to regret not having gone harder.


Hope your training hard,
Scott

A Leg "Down" on the Competition

Well another week has past and the only real changes has been with the weather. Finally we are getting our Spring and this week we are going to hit 18C. The mornings are still cool which is perfect for running and the afternoons are warming up nicely.

Not a whole lot of change with my leg/foot injury, still just holding on. I have had a few sessions with a PT and things were looking really good at the end of last week so I got back on the bike and did a 1:30 ride on the trainer then went for a 5k run. This was the first time that I had bike or running shoes on in over a week and things went well. I was testing out a new power meter that I had bought earlier in the week and wanted to see what it would give me for watts. The unit is the Polar 600 and it measures watts from chain tension so I was curious to see its consistency. I did two 20 min time trials and was consistently at 300 watts. Not having done any real exercise in over a week, this was a good wake up, especially heading out for a run afterwards. I felt strong and my time was OK at 24 min, and after a good stretch everything still felt good, just a little bit tender which I fully expected. On Sunday I decided I would go out for a 10K run at a slow pace just to get back in the groove and it turned out to be a horrible run. For some reason my breathing was way off and I found myself taking short breaths and feeling winded. This was running in my endurance zone so I should not have felt this way. Oh well, I continued on and it wasn't until the last km that my foot started to twinge, then in the last 200m I had a couple jolts of sharp pain. A good stretch afterwards and some ice didn't seem to help a lot. This morning was the same thing as last week, mild pain on the outer muscle of my lower leg and pain on the outer side of my foot.

As I have mentioned before, Florida 1/2 Ironman is getting really close so I have some decisions to make with respect to my training. Do I hit the swim and bike hard and stay off the run?, do I forget about Florida and rest and get ready for the next event? I really want to do Florida but not at the expense of losing a couple more months. I might even go to Florida and just do the swim and bike, I have the trip booked anyways and it would still be a good experience to get those distances under my belt. I'm a little up in the air right now.

Hopefully I will be back to a full schedule soon, I find the busier I am, the happier I am. I love chaos. If things are slow I tend to make stuff up and it drives my wife crazy.

I watched Ironman Arizona yesterday on a webcast and was a little excited thinking that I will be doing this race in November. The 25mph winds on the bike was a little unnerving though. But what a finish! Imagine racing for 8.5 hours to have 4 people finish within 2 minutes of each other. Sorry to hear Randy's son, Anders, had to pull out after a terrific swim and bike with what looks like the same injury as I have. He's young, he'll recover quickly...hope he is feeling better soon!

Hope everyone's training is going well,
Scott

Holy Crap! I'm not 18?

Well I had a new post written last week that I was just going to edit before actually posting it but I have had to scrap it. I've finally realized as I journey through my mid-life crisis that I am no longer invincible as I was at 18. My body apparantly would rather I ease into Ironman training instead of just jumping in. Gone are the days when I could throw a tensor bandage on sore spot and carry on.

The blog had detailed how my run was progressing and that I was finally running with no pain at all. That was Tuesday afternoon. By Tuesday night I had sharp pains down my right leg and an extremely sore foot. I went to bed and got up early to do a 50 min run and felt fine until about 10 min in to the run. My foot started to feel a little uncomfortable but it wasn't enough to stop me from finishing out the run. After stretching it out and getting to work I had totally forgotten about it, until about 9am. Then WHAMOO! What the frig was that! Sharp stabbing pains twice as bad as the day before. Since then I have been hobbling around and barely able to put any pressure on that foot at all. I won't be able to get into the physiotherapists until this Wednesday so its been ice and Advil since. I've been trying to not do anything on it but I still have to work and just when it feels like the pain is gone, it starts up again. So far this week I have gained 5lbs due to my inactivity and I also think I'm eating more out of anxiety. I haven't even been able to get on the bike as putting the shoes on hurts as well. I tried a new pair of shoes for my long run last Sunday and this deviation may be my problem.

So, really I don't have a lot to write about, I'm 6 weeks away from my first 1/2 Ironman and I am getting a little nervous. Last week felt great as everything seemed like it was coming together and hopefully I can get healed up soon enough that I can get some quality training in before that. I really want to race hard and not just go to finish. The weather here has finally started to turn and this weekend was beautiful. I can look out my window and see lots of people on their bike or out for a run and it makes me extremely jealous. This is the perfect time of year to go for a morning run, the temperatures are still cool and you can get out really early and have a peaceful relaxing run.

I know this blog sounds a little whinny! Hopefully my next one will be more upbeat with some positive progress!

Scott