Well, the half iron race in New Orleans is now 24 days away and I have to confess my resting pulse rate is running 10-15 bpm faster just thinking about it! It's a mixture of excitement, fear of the unknown (I've done all of the disciplines at the needed distances and more, but NOT at the same time), and self beating thinking "I should have trained more!". But my wife in her wisdom reminded me gently "isn't this supposed to be fun?", translation: do the best you can and enjoy the process. Even if I'm not "fully" prepared (and I've never met a competitor that felt they were), it has been a joy to grow, learn and develop.
This past week I was reminded frustratingly of something that occurs all too often among folks trying to get in shape. You define a plan, you stick to it, you start to see results, and BAM!!!, you get sick or injured. All in all, I've been pretty pleased with my training regimen, but had big plans for this past week. I just came off of a 3 night shift stretch and the morning after, felt kind of draggy and just slowly got worse. This was joined soon by nasal congestion, sneezing, headache....some of the worst allergy symptoms I've experienced in a long long time! I have a half marathon coming up this weekend and haven't run much in the past 2 weeks, so I made myself do a 7 mile run on the treadmill. It went fine form and time wise, but took much more out of me than it would have normally. Just a gentle reminder from above, that I'm not the one in control. My take home lesson: do what you can, even if sometimes you may not feel like it. Conversely, don't overdo when you are ill/injured and be prepared to take a break even if it's unplanned or longer than you had anticipated.
In 2 days 3/31 I will be attempting my 3rd "official" half marathon, the Andrew Jackson (marathon, half marathon, and 5k) to benefit the Carl Perkins Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse. The bad news, my wife's knee is giving her a lot of trouble lately and she is unable to run the half (still trying to decide if she'll try the 5k). The good news, my 15 year old son is now signed up to take her place and attempt his first half marathon. Since he's never run over 7 miles at one time, I've outlined a plan for him to try run 4 miles, walk 1, run 3, walk 1, run 2, walk 1, run in the last 1.1 miles. He's really quick in the 5k, so I think the hard part for him will be pacing and trying not to go too fast. My youngest daughter will be doing the 5k. So I'm obviously tickled to have another "family" sporting event. These two kids are also in the middle of a busy soccer season with our local high school....GO BULLDOGS!!!
I've slacked off on my entries to MyFitnessPal. A few days I got a nice email from them reminding me of the benefit of continued accountability and last night I went ahead and entered the day's eats/activity. Will try to stay on track. My weight has remained stable, but one can never be too careful! Accountability is a valuable thing not only with physical fitness, but also in just about every other area of life: financial, spiritual, emotional... Just something to think about. Don't you think it's a whole lot easier to let areas of your life "slide" in to trouble areas whenever you don't have someone/something to keep you accountable? If you have experienced that, pick an area and find someone you trust and ask them to help you. It's certainly tougher at the onset, but can provide huge benefits over the long haul!
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Just keep swimming....swimming swimming swimming!!!
With just over 40 days until IM 70.3 New Orleans I'm starting to run out of "peak" training time as I prepare to "taper" in hopes of not being injured/worn out before the big day.
Swim: One of my biggest fears/challenges/concerns is the swim portion in triathlons, especially as the distance gets longer. I have slowly increased my practice swims to the 1,900meter/1.2 mile distances I will have to swim in the actual race. After reviewing previous similar event results, the "middle of the pack" for men 45-49 is about 45 minutes. Anything over 1hr 10min will take you out of the race before you ever get on the bike. Last summer I was able to swim a mile in about an hour. I had a good swim 3 days ago and was able to get 1,900 meters in just under 54 minutes. Immediately afterwards I was able to do 2x50 meters at 1:00-1:10 min. My goal is 45-50 minutes for the swim portion and I feel I should be able to reach it without being completely shot for the bike and run.
Bike: My wife and I continue to use our indoor (Kurt Kinetic) trainers for bike riding even though it is FINALLY starting to warm up outside. We have several of Troy Jacobson's "Spinervals" dvds and I've found them to be very useful for keeping our bike workouts interesting. The trainer has also allowed me to "tweak" the settings on my (first) tri bike which hopefully will make my outdoor rides more beneficial and comfortable. I'm on my last day of a 3 day work stretch and hoping the weather will allow me to ride outside this week. I'm quite anxious to see if the indoor training has paid off. The bike portion of the half iron (70.3) tri is 56 miles. My goal would be to finish in 3 hrs, but that is averaging 18.7 mph for the entire ride...which I've never done for that distance before. More realistically I feel I could do 17mph which would put me done in about 3hrs 20min. See below for my next "big" bike workout/brick. Will keep you posted.
Run: Unless I sustain an injury between now and April, my goal of finishing the half marathon portion in 2 hours or less remains the same. February 25th was a big day for my wife and I as we travelled to Oxford, MS for the Run for Hope 5k/half marathon. Less than 2 weeks before the run my lovely bride decided she wanted to do the half marathon (she was signed up for the 5k, and her furthest training was 7 miles) even if it meant walking large portions. After my "concerned doctor/husband" warnings, she persisted and I agreed to switch her over and cheer her on. The bad news: it was COLD (30's starting temp/high 40's finish), and HILLY. The good news: we both accomplished our goals. She was a champ over the whole distance and finished in just over 2:50 running across the line after a 0.6 mile hill at the end. I'm really really proud of her! I was able to finish in just over 1:52 (7th out of 24 in my age group). More importantly for me, it was 5 minutes faster than St. Jude in December with a lot more hills....thanks to continued training since December in all 3 areas. This was much needed encouragement. I'm not an immensely competitive person, but I have to confess I enjoyed passing 2 younger guys in the last 100 yards of the run (one in his 20's that passed me a half mile earlier before the "big hill"). My pace was right at 7mph or 8:33min. mile. I certainly don't plan on running that hard/fast in New Orleans, but hope my speed/pace will be more steady on the flatter course. My next big training goal is in 3 weeks: Andrew Jackson 5k/half/marathon in Jackson, TN. My plan is to integrate at least 20-25 miles of cycling BEFORE I run that morning to prepare my body/mind for doing all three a few weeks later. Here's hoping all goes well!
Swim: One of my biggest fears/challenges/concerns is the swim portion in triathlons, especially as the distance gets longer. I have slowly increased my practice swims to the 1,900meter/1.2 mile distances I will have to swim in the actual race. After reviewing previous similar event results, the "middle of the pack" for men 45-49 is about 45 minutes. Anything over 1hr 10min will take you out of the race before you ever get on the bike. Last summer I was able to swim a mile in about an hour. I had a good swim 3 days ago and was able to get 1,900 meters in just under 54 minutes. Immediately afterwards I was able to do 2x50 meters at 1:00-1:10 min. My goal is 45-50 minutes for the swim portion and I feel I should be able to reach it without being completely shot for the bike and run.
Bike: My wife and I continue to use our indoor (Kurt Kinetic) trainers for bike riding even though it is FINALLY starting to warm up outside. We have several of Troy Jacobson's "Spinervals" dvds and I've found them to be very useful for keeping our bike workouts interesting. The trainer has also allowed me to "tweak" the settings on my (first) tri bike which hopefully will make my outdoor rides more beneficial and comfortable. I'm on my last day of a 3 day work stretch and hoping the weather will allow me to ride outside this week. I'm quite anxious to see if the indoor training has paid off. The bike portion of the half iron (70.3) tri is 56 miles. My goal would be to finish in 3 hrs, but that is averaging 18.7 mph for the entire ride...which I've never done for that distance before. More realistically I feel I could do 17mph which would put me done in about 3hrs 20min. See below for my next "big" bike workout/brick. Will keep you posted.
Run: Unless I sustain an injury between now and April, my goal of finishing the half marathon portion in 2 hours or less remains the same. February 25th was a big day for my wife and I as we travelled to Oxford, MS for the Run for Hope 5k/half marathon. Less than 2 weeks before the run my lovely bride decided she wanted to do the half marathon (she was signed up for the 5k, and her furthest training was 7 miles) even if it meant walking large portions. After my "concerned doctor/husband" warnings, she persisted and I agreed to switch her over and cheer her on. The bad news: it was COLD (30's starting temp/high 40's finish), and HILLY. The good news: we both accomplished our goals. She was a champ over the whole distance and finished in just over 2:50 running across the line after a 0.6 mile hill at the end. I'm really really proud of her! I was able to finish in just over 1:52 (7th out of 24 in my age group). More importantly for me, it was 5 minutes faster than St. Jude in December with a lot more hills....thanks to continued training since December in all 3 areas. This was much needed encouragement. I'm not an immensely competitive person, but I have to confess I enjoyed passing 2 younger guys in the last 100 yards of the run (one in his 20's that passed me a half mile earlier before the "big hill"). My pace was right at 7mph or 8:33min. mile. I certainly don't plan on running that hard/fast in New Orleans, but hope my speed/pace will be more steady on the flatter course. My next big training goal is in 3 weeks: Andrew Jackson 5k/half/marathon in Jackson, TN. My plan is to integrate at least 20-25 miles of cycling BEFORE I run that morning to prepare my body/mind for doing all three a few weeks later. Here's hoping all goes well!
A "brisk" 33 degree start of the Oxford, MS Run for Hope 1/2 marathon!
My "champion" running to her first half marathon finish!!!
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