This week is the first week of my training cycle for Kona.  I’ve spent the last 8 weeks or so with my training in a holding pattern.  I’ve done a few hard races - but I’ve really been limiting my training to the 15ish hour or so range since IMAZ, with the first two weeks pretty much off.  I’m very fit, but not “sharp”.

Last week was pretty interesting, I did the High Cliff Half Ironman.  Early in the week I was contemplating how much I really wanted to do this race - I was feeling a bit tired, and not super motivated.  In the end I decided to go for it and see what I had.  Saturday as I was packing for the race I discovered a horizontal crack in my bike’s seat mast.

After freaking out a bit, I headed to Emery’s to see what they could do for me.  Turns out they were able to move all of my equipment over to a new frame of the same size and model at no charge - since the frame was covered under warranty.  They even got it done that same day so I could race the next.  Great guys!

The race went well, I beat my time at High Cliff from last year by about 2 minutes.  I had a great swim, an awesome bike (8 minutes faster then last year), but a “bleh” run.  Around mile 5 I had to make a choice between push it to keep up with speedster Terry Labinski (who ended up winning) or risk quad cramps forcing me to walk, or worse.  With Hawaii being the focal point of the year I decided it was best to slow down a bit.  I ended up crusing in with a 1:36 run, which just happens to be the time I only dreamed of running just a couple years ago; and now I cruised to that.  What a difference a couple of years makes.

Back on the subject of Hawaii, training has started for it.  So far this week has been great - I’ve had some great rides so far, and a couple good runs.

• Monday
  • Easy Swim in the PM ~ 1,000 LCM
• Tuesday
  • AM: 3,000 SCM - IM work
  • PM: 1 hour 50 minute EZ ride, with 15 minute run
• Wednesday
  • AM: 6 mile (45 min) run - Super hot and humid - was pretty tough
  • PM: 2:30 Aerobic Ride
• Thursday
  • AM: 3,100 SCM - 200/400/800/400/200
  • AM: 2:30 Ride - 2×4.5 mile Zn4 intervals
• Friday
  • AM: 10 mile run (1:09) - Zn 2 effort was perfect running weather
  • PM: 3 hour ride planned

Upcoming

• Saturday
  • 1 hour swim, 2:30 bike, 30 minute run - Zn 2
• Sunday
  • 4:30 bike, 45 minute run - Zn 2 with a couple Zn 3 efforts

That will put the total for the week right around 23 hours, pretty good for a first week back - fairly light on the running, but after the Half Ironman last weekend, I want to give my legs some rest.  Hopefully, my body will remember how all this works and will be sharp to take some wood to the course in Racine.

…When I say something is important, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s linked to my personal happiness and satisfaction. Rather, it means that I am elevating its position in my life because, I believe, that the goal will help me be the type of person I want to be.

-Gordo Byrn

Here are my training goals for the 4 week span between June 25th and July 21st

• Swim: 60,000meters
• Bike: 1,000 miles
• Run: 175 miles

These miles will all be “slow” base miles, mostly in Zone 2. The intention is to provide a huge aerobic overload at the beginning of my training cycle for Hawaii, and then after that slowly trade pure volume for a little intensity to sharpen my conditioning.

I learned a very important lessen this last week.  A couple of them actually.  Actually it's not that I learned a lessen, it's more that the value of the a few basic concepts was simply reinforced. 

The race I did last weekend, the inaugural Rockman Triathlon, was put on by a member of an internet forum I participate in Slowtwitch.  The reason I signed up for the race was because the race director promoted that the fastest swimmer out of the water would win a set of race wheels.  I was instantly stoked for this race and added an extra swim to my weekly plan to add in some yardage to help give me every advantage I could. 

Race day comes, and having heard no more about the prime for the swim since the original annoucement, I asked the race director abot it that morning, and was told that the sponsorship for the wheels had fallen through.  Although I was disappointed, I was in a way relieved because I could swim my "normal" race swim, and race for a fast overall time.  Between some unorganized chaos (that's like a double negative isn't it?), me misunderstanding where we were supposed to make a turn for the beach on the last lap, and not feeling an urgent pressure to be the first one onto the beach, I was the second swimmer out of the water.  Offically it was by 3 seconds.  As I wrote in my race report, I went on to have an awesome race, with a 4 minute PR.

Monday I find out from a member of the Planet-X team, that PX was under the impression the deal was still on.  To skip some drama, the wheels were awarded (1 set for Ruben Figueres the fastest male swimmer, and 1 for Nicole Horst the fastest female).   I fully support the decision made by the RD, and PX, to do anything other then what they did would have been very bad PR for both organizations. Needless to say I am disappointed with the outcome.  I had been looking forward to hooking up with some sweet wheels at this race for a long time, but to be honest I have no one to blame but myself.

Long story short it was a good reminder to not count your eggs before thy're hatched, and a lessen in remembering about how to deal with disappointment.

Final word - Ruben you are going down in Kona.  Chip - I'm going to rock your course next year - just tell me when I can register (I want bib #3).  I am exceedingly happy that the sponsorship did not fall through the cracks and the people that earned their primes got them.

I've been driving my wife's car a lot this week, so I've been stuck listening to the CDs in her car (the morning shows in Milwaukee are pretty boring).  One of her CDs has the song Standing Outside the Fire by Garth Brooks.  To me the lyrics of this song are pretty powerful.  I've been thinking about them a lot lately.  For those of you not familar with the song one of the key lyrics is "Life is not tried, it is merely survived if you're standing outside the fire." 

Those lyrics can be interpretted in a lot of ways - to me it is a reminder to not take life on cruise control or take it for granted, but to pursue my passions with every ounce of my being, I won't get where I want to go unless I make it happen.  You might fail and get burned in the process, but you definately won't suceed unless you go out and try it.  Something to remember.

Don't know what more to say about that.

24 seconds is all that seperated 3rd and 4th place in the race I did on Sunday. 3rd place was being run down by 4th, and the guy in 3rd managed to hold off the stalker for the spot. Fortunately (?) 3rd place was me!!!

Yep, I did the inaugural Rockman Triathlon this past weekend and finished third. It was a great race and I pulled off a 4 minute PR. You can read my bloated race report here.

For a first year race, and a first race ever by this race director (Record10Carbon on slowtwitch) I was impressed. I was a little disappointed that the deal with Planet-X for the race wheels for the fastest swimmer fell through, but I was more then happy with the race.

In other news one of my training partners recently suffered a potentially season ending injury - it really has me taking a step back and evaluating my training for this week. I had originally been planning to hit it pretty hard this week, rest next week and try to have a great race at High Cliff, and then go into my training cycle for Kona. Now I’m thinking I might be safer to take another moderate week this week and a rest week next week prior to starting the cycle for Kona - you can’t have a good race if you are injured or burned out.

Then again it’s hard to imagine being burned out two days after a 4 minute PR in a Half (on a hardish course)!

One of the races I was really looking forward to this year is done and gone. I don’t know why, but I get a huge kick out of the Lake Mills Sprint, I’ve done some other sprint races and I just don’t enjoy myself - I think they are to hard. Lake Mills though, I’ve got a soft spot for. It’s a short and sweet race with a flat as can be run course, and a 15 mile bike that is flat with just a couple really small little bumps to make it interesting.

I had a great race there this year, I bettered my time by nearly 3 minutes over last year. A little bit faster on the swim, a couple seconds on the run, and about 2 minutes on the bike (~1.33 mph faster). This was my first bike ride where I averaged over 24 miles per hour.

I was a little disappointed with my run - in the sense I was mad because I only went 19:19, but that it has stagnated compared to my bike, and I’m not sure why - I have some theories that I’m goign to try and address.

Overall I had a great race, and it was actually a great experience to do a race and get devoured by people. At IMWI and IMAZ (even more so), I was never really in a situation where I got passed by people like I was a bum, but at Lake Mills, while I did an OK job of holding my own on the bike, I got scraped off the pace on the run like I was a newbie. Very humbling. I came home with a lot of respect for those guys running 16’s and 17’s in a tri for a 5k, they are hauling ass. In a small way it makes me want to avoid those races to avoid getting beat down like that, but it also inspires me to train to become an all around better triathlete - which will ultimately make me a better triathlete at my preferred race distance(s).

One of my training partners, Lauren, mentioned to me the other day that I should consider doing USAT nationals and maybe worlds if I were to qualify. I initially dismissed the idea, but in reality the focus on shorter training even if it was only for a month or so would benefit my longer distance racing skills. Lot’s to think about.

I have posted my first race report on the site. Check it out here. Right now it’s just IMAZ, but I’ll be updating my completed races with details soon.

Well June is the month I planned to spend a lot of time racing. In the 5 week span between Memorial Day and July I have 4 races. The DeSoto American Triple-T, Lake Mills Sprint Tri, Rockman Triathlon, and the High Cliff Half Ironman. Busy month. While it will be great fun racing that much, it doesn’t leave a lot of time for training. Fortunately I have a huge fitness base from Arizona that I’m going to lean on. So that 5 week span is mostly: hard week, easy week with a race, hard week, easy week. Once I hit July is when I plan to start rebuilding my base towards Hawaii.

One of the races is in the books already, the Triple T. I plan to post a race report on it (and for Arizona - finally) today or tomorrow. The short report is that it didn’t go as planned. Originally, I was signed up for the solo division, and Mary and Paul (our brother-in-law) were signed up for the coed division. Friday night, and Saturday morning were great races. Both were faster then last year - I sliced 3 minutes off my 40k bike from last year, and 30 seconds off a 6.55 mile run. Not bad IMO.

Unfortunately, that’s where the good news really ended. Paul’s second race ended in a pretty spectacular crash which ended his race. I backed out of the solo division and joined up with Mary, now partnerless, for the last two races. It ended up OK though, we ended up as the 3rd COED team overall!

Training has been going pretty good - despite having a pretty relaxed focus on it I’ve had some pretty good sessions. Once I start the offical training cycle for Hawaii I’ll start posting updates on what I’m doing.