70.3 - part II

This is hopefully this first of many successful entries into my training blog. My ultimate goal is to complete a full ironman triathlon. This will consist of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and a 26.2 mile run. This past May I completed my first half ironman, the White Lake Half, in White Lake, NC. after 1.2 miles swimming, 56 miles biking, and about 9 miles running my hamstrings cramped up on me - forcing me to run/walk the last 4 miles. This finish only left me hungry for more and I learned a lot about what is involved in getting yourself to keep moving in a race that lasts over 5 hours...some of it learned the hard way, but sometimes that's the only way. I've entered another half to gain some more experience at the longer distance races. It is the South Carolina Half Ironman in Greenwood, SC, on September 28th. Next year I'm hoping to jump up to the full ironman distance - so I'm using these half distance races is tools to build confidence and also figure out how to make this possible. I have exactly three months until race day.

Today was my most training hours in one day so far for this race. I started the morning off with a 38 mile bike ride from my parents house up to the lake lanier area and back. It took around 2 hours and 2 minutes. It was a solid ride for the most part. My bike mileage has been down a little bit lately because I was waiting on my new bike to come in (I sold my Scott). This bike is a much different set up. I went to a regular double (bigger gears) as opposed to the compact (smaller gears) and also went a size up in frame. The gears are going to take some getting used to. It's forcing me to be always putting torque into the cranks, and not doing so much spinning. The goal is to get strong enough to be able to feel like I'm spinning even with the larger gears (ahem...Lance Armstrong).

After work I headed over to Bogan Park to log an hour in the pool. I was able to rack up 3,100 meters - roughly 2 miles - in just about an hour. Surprisingly I felt decent in the water. I can definately tell that less than 50 days ago I was in the best triathlon shape of my life - It hasn't all gone away. I took it real easy for about 3 weeks to recover (2-3 workouts per week). Then built back into it with several 5-7 hour weeks. I feel like I've really set myself up nicely from one training cycle to the next. This is a good feeling, I think I can actually build from where I finished my last cycle of training.

So 3 hours on the day and I'm up to about 6 for the week. I have an 8 mile run and a 2 hour brick (bike/run) to finish off the week for a total of 9 training hours. I hope I can find time to squeeze it all in!