IronMan Texas, Finally!

If you are following along at home, you know that I've been threatening to register for IronMan Texas (IMTX) for awhile now. I've shared any number of excuses as to why I was waiting. Well, you will all be happy to hear that the waiting is over! I finally put my money where my mouth is and took care of the registration and my travel reservations. It's official!

I'm really happy and excited. Training is hard (ha, there's an understatement) and I'm feeling good about my progress.

There is more to come on this topic, but I wanted to share the news of my commitment while it's still fresh.

Just January!

January was mileage rich, but content poor; sorry about that. Training continues and I'm still procrastinating about registering for IMTX. My current excuse is a snowboard trip to vail in early February. Snowboarding makes my knees hurt these days, so I want to see how I feel after that trip. Plus I have a big ride scheduled immediately after and I want to see how that ride goes. I know, excuses, excuses. Really though I'm uncomfortable with the thought of wasting the entrance fee and the foundation donation, so I'm training hard but waiting as long as possible to put my money on the table.

It's been quite cold this winter, so running has been interesting, to say the least. As for cycling, I wish I could say I'm getting used to the trainer but that would be a lie. Well, maybe I am getting used to it, but I just hate it :-). Regardless, I've been putting in the hours and that's what matters. Plus I get to ride outside in feb when we go to Phoenix. Hopefully that will turn into a blog post but who knows.

One difference that I've noticed between my half and full plan is the swim distances.  I thought I was swimming a lot during the half plan, but it turns out I was not. Now I'm swimming a lot! No really, a lot!!

On to the numbers for my own gratification.

Run Miles: 75 - not quite a record month, but close.
Swim Miles: 17 - big time, serious, major record. Wow
Bike Miles: 142 - almost all on the trainer and not nearly enough. Feb will be much better.

Open Goals:
Back in December I posted a goal about doing a 1000m TT in 20 min or less. That was a glitter and unicorns kind of goal at the time (and it still is) but I'm putting in the kind of miles that might make it possible. I have a recovery week coming up and this one ends with a 1000m TT so I should have a gauge after that. If nothing else, I expect a big PR - I'll be really disappointed if I don't PR.

So that was my January, head down on the trainer, freezing on the run, chlorine bleached hair and LOVING every minute of it!

Hopefully you loved your January too!

Pool Time Continuum

For me swimming is like a dream, and by that I don't mean that it's "dreamy".  I mean that the passage of time in my head and the passage of time in the real world lose all connection to one another.  Have you ever had a long and involved dream, only to wake up and realize that in the real world your marathon dream lasted about 1 minute?  Well, that's what I'm talking about.  When I swim, my perception of real world time goes right out the window, which makes it really hard to remember if I'm on lap 3 or 4 16 or 17.  I know that I'm not alone in this regard as I've seen all sorts of tools and tricks designed to help with this.  One woman who swims at the same pool I do has a bin full of nasty green pennies that she moves from the bin to the lid and back as her workout progresses.  Another has some sort of lap counting device that she wears like a ring on one of her fingers (this was new to me so I had to Google it).  Personally, I splurged for a Garmin FR910XT which has an awesome pool swim feature that counts your laps.  The problem is I still need to keep track of laps or I risk quitting early, only to look at my watch and realize that I have another 50 100 left to swim.

Before I got the Garmin and even now I use a system that involves multiple steps/senses in an attempt to keep accurate track.  First, I don't count both walls, only my starting wall - for me this means I count 50s not 25s.  Second, I don't count with numbers, I count with body parts that I then touch or tap so I have a tactile reminder.  As an example, I tap my penis right-ear at the 100 mark, my right-eye at 200, my nose at 300, etc, working my way across my head until I'm finished or I'm starting over with right-eye.  You would think this would be enough, that I would be able to keep track of hundreds in my head, but it's not, so to help keep things straight, I touch my butt/leg on the 50s.  Of course this leads to strange internal conversations like, "was that lap nose, or was it nose-butt?" and sometimes it leads to gawking stares and comments from strangers like, "how come the guy in lane two keeps wiping his ass every 100 meters?".

With an excellent system like this, you would think that all miscounting has been eliminated, but of course it has not, which brings me back to the whole dream theme that I started with.  I can daydream a crazy, detailed and elaborate scenario over the course of half a lap (25 meters).  I can also concoct and revise an entire blog post over that same distance.  BUT, the second I start daydreaming or blogging, I end up asking myself the eye/eye-butt question.  I swear I'm probably the only person who can lose track of my lap count in the middle of a 100 EBEH, and yes, this has happened to me.

So you now know way too much about my little pea brain and the fact that I can get confused while counting to 4, or 16 or 40.  Let me know what you think or if you have any foolproof counting strategies that I can try.

Additional Note
After I wrote this post, but before I actually published it, I finally took the time to sort out the, newly updated, swim alert feature on my 910XT.  I had used it before, but it never worked very well since it would alert for 300m AFTER you pushed off the wall and started your way towards 350 and that was too confusing for me.  However, now the alert comes just before you touch the wall for 300 which is much more logical.  Last night I swam 2x1000 so I set the swim alert for 300m and I gave it up to Garmin.  After the third buzz/beep, I new that I had another 100 and I was done.  This worked like a charm, allowed me to daydream and not think at all about lap counts until the last 100.  Amazing thing technology.

December Recap, Late as Usual

Here's the December recap, late as usual.

I've started back training more regularly, so my mileage is up a little vs November.  Here are the numbers that nobody really cares about other than me...

Run:48
Bike: 0
Swim: 2.75

IMTX - I still have not pulled the trigger but I'm getting really close.  I'm feeling better and I'm back into a more regular training schedule again.  I still need to figure out how I'm going to train on the bike, but there are many options so it's just about picking and getting it done.  I feel good about training again and I'm motivated, which is a huge thing.

On another note, I had the opportunity to run in the heat over the holiday which was an eye opening experience.  Obviously I've run in hot weather before, but this was the first time in recent memory that I've gone from cold to hot so quickly and to such an extreme.  The impact on my performance was noticeable,
which is something that I will need to keep in mind if as I'm preparing for IMTX.  I need to post some beach pictures, I'll get to that shortly.

One thing I did learn at the beach is that I'm a swimmer now!  Not really of course, but compared to before.  The knowledge that I can swim a mile without stopping, plus 6 months of swimming workouts brings a new level of enjoyment to a beach vacation.  Yes I did take advantage and swim an open water ocean workout.  But more importantly, I spent tons of time in the water just swimming.  I have never felt so comfortable about swimming at the beach as I did on this trip and that is due to tri.

So that's my December.  I have a bunch of post ideas, so hopefully January will be a little more content rich than the past several months.

Random Junk

1) I got the go-ahead to sign up for IMTX. but I haven't signed up yet.  I'm not sure if that makes me smart, scared, cheap, realistic or just a procrastinator.  I'm leaning towards all of the above really.  I wish I could wait until about March, to see how my training is feeling, but that's not an option as the race is nearly sold out.  I'm concerned about trying to bike through the winter here in the north, plus I'm a little worried about trying to race in the the Texas heat after having trained in the northern cold.  In the end, however, I just need to STFU and decide.  Personal deadline, January 5th.

2) Form vs. Repetition.  There's a gym in my building and I walk by it on my way to lunch nearly everyday.   Today I saw a guy knocking out dips at an incredible rate.  The thing was, his elbows were not coming anywhere near 90 degrees.  Now, I'm not Mr. Universe or anything, but even I could see that his form was crazy wrong.  I was immediately reminded of my swimming form.  I'm sure swimmers walk into the pool area, take one look at my swim form and have the same gag reflex that I had today watching dips guy.  The only thing in my favor is that my swim form starts out half decent and degrades over the course of my workout where dips guy's form was bad from the start.  I win.

3) I've not purchased even one Christmas gift yet this year and I don't think I'm going to.  It's not that I'm all scrooge or anything, I'm just not into it.  Don't get me wrong, we (Cath and I) have been good Americans who spent a bundle getting ready for Christmas.  We've installed new light fixtures and we built a built-in bench in the dining room.  Plus we bought and installed new cabinets in the living room and a picture rail.  Actually we've done so much work on the house I'm waiting for the "were moving" discussion to pop-up.  But seriously, not one present, for anyone: wife, kids, grand-kids, mother, etc. What's wrong with me? I guess I'm just demonstrating the Christmas spirit via actions instead of gifts.  That's not too wrong, is it?

November Notes and Numbers

November was an interesting month for me.  I started to exercise again with some regularity, but nothing like actual training.  I realized that it's much easier to train against a training plan and towards a goal vs. "just getting up and going for a run".  I started strength training again and I have to ask "Why am I more sore after a 25 minute calisthenics-based strength training workout than I was after a HIM?"

On a more personal and non-triathlon note, my wife and I moved our daughter and granddaughter out after 6 months of cohabitation (our son-in-law was overseas with the Marines).  This is significant for any number of reasons that I will not get into here, but take it from me, our house is really quiet and sorta lonely.  Turns out I'm a big fan of multi-generational living.

By The (off-season) Numbers

Run: 36 miles
Bike: 0 miles
Swim: 0 laps (I still have not been in the pool since race day, but that's about to change...

Goals:
The only thing on my books right now is a fast mile (running) and a 1000m time trial (swimming).

To that end I set out on Thanksgiving day with the intent of achieving my one-mile goal.  It was a horribly organized attempt that started with a warm up run to the track, which was all locked up, like it should be on a random Thursday morning.  Next I debated if I should just wait and try some other time.  Then finally  I decided to just sprint home, without any milestones or time checks, and hope that I covered enough distance to actually equal a mile.  Not exactly what I had in mind - my ending elevation was higher than my starting elevation and there were rolling hills in the middle - never the less, Strava tells me that my fastest mile was 6:44 which is 16 seconds under my 7 minute goal.  Winner.

New Goals:
Only one - GET BACK INTO THE POOL!  This should not be a problem.

So that's it for me kids.  How was your turkey month?  Did you get any training done?

What happened to October?

October came and went in a flash and (given that I’m writing this on the 18th of November) I think November will be more of the same.  Regardless, here’s the rundown.

Cycling Miles: 94
Running Miles: 34
Swimming Miles: 3.72

None of these are even close to record distances for me, but that’s fine as I raced mid-month and then took the rest of the month off.

If you follow along at home then you already know that the race was a smashing success, where I hit or just missed every goal I set for myself.

PR:
Half Iron: 05:59:20

The only thing that I hoped would happen, but that did not, was a sub two hour half-marathon.  This was a stretch goal, but I was hopeful none the less.  I ended up running it just under 2:07 which is still good for me, but several minutes off of where I though, maybe, I could be.

So with the race over, it’s on to some sort of maintenance plan and then some decision making about next year.  I know I’ll do another 70.3 or maybe two, but I’m not sure which ones yet.  There’s the Pittsburgh marathon in May, so maybe the half there to try again for a sub two.  And then there’s the elephant in the room, which is full iron distance.  And there it is in black and white…  I’m not sure if I want to go there and I’m totally sure that Cath does not want me to go there.  I guess I’ve got some thinking to do, which is good since I have some extra time since my training schedule has cooled off.

So that’s it for October.  Hopefully I will not be so late with a November recap.