ironman bond

Today at work I had a customer who was doing his first Ironman next week. He is headed down to Panama City to do Ironman Florida. It was interesting that when I revealed that I was doing my first Ironman in June, we seemed to have a million things in common. The more engrossed I get into the sport of triathlon, the more I realize that it is kind of like belonging to a fraternity. The faster I get and the longer races I attempt - the more respect you get from your fellow triathletes.

Through my friend Mark Helton (the first Ironman I ever met in person), I have a group of people that I have met that compete in Ironmans. They all live and train in the area. Seemingly as soon as they found out that I was doing Couer D'Alene they have mentioned that I should do long rides and runs with them etc. As if the key to gaining acceptance to their group was to step up to the magical distance of the Ironman. Half Iron?...that's kiddy stuff right? I haven't even completed an Ironman yet...but by accepting the challenge and daring to go for it, I already feel the Ironman love. The culture of Ironman is a pretty neat thing and being around those who share that some bond really get's me going for what the next 8 months will bring.

Training Update:
Training is going very well for the Rocket City Marathon. I've done three twenty mile runs and have two more to go. This week is a recovery week with a shorter long run of 12 miles this weekend. Then I'll go up to a 50 mile week with a 20 miler for the long rung, the recover, then back up for one more long week with one last 20 miler, then three weeks of building down to the race. I'm starting to build into some base mileage on the bike and am planning on bringing in some swimming next week.

the long and the long of it.

Today I did my third of five 20 mile runs in preparation for the Rocket City Marathon. By all standards, it went exceedingly well. I would dare to almost call it easy. The loop I did covered pretty much everything between here and Suwanee. The weather was cool and crisp fall weather, just perfect for a long run. It was my third run in my new shoes that I purchased earlier in the week. The shoes I bought through work a few months ago just weren't working out. So I headed over to Fleet Feet to get some advice on what to do. My ankles had been bothering me and I didn't see myself making it through 3 more twenty milers in uncomfortable shoes. The new kicks have been serving me well. They are still a neutral shoe but have a lot more cushioning. I think they are really paying dividends with all the concrete surface running that I've been doing.

Getting the the point where 3 hour runs seem easy is pretty much what I want to achieve by doing the Rocket City Marathon this December. Learning how to pace through it is also a goal of mine that I think will translate well to Ironman. I'll probably never be a competitive marathoner. It's more of a personal thing to learn how to get through the distance with out feeling like I got hit by a car in the last 6 miles of the race. So far I think I'm adapting well to the mileage and learning to pace myself for an even effort through the entire run. The next trick is going to be to tack a century bike ride on before hand.....

confusion

Of recent I've been scouring over a few books trying to figure out how to lay out a training plan for an Ironman. The book that I used to get ready for this past summers Gulf Coast Triathlon, Triathlete Magazines Week-by-Week Training Guide by Matt Fitzgerald, is a strong contradiction to the book I'm reading now. That book being Going Long by Joe Friel and Gordon Byrne.

While I consider the Gulf Coast race a success, I'm not so sure the training methods that I used from Matt Fitzgeralds book will get me through 6 months of training and ultimately to the finish line of a 140 mile race. Both of these books seem to prescribe to the same philosophy of periodization, they seem to differ mostly on how you should space your key long workouts and organize your recovery periods. The training plans in Fitzgeralds book require you to do back to back long workouts on consecutive days. For example, a 3 hour run on Saturday followed by a 5 or 6 hour ride on Sunday. Going Long refers to this as a "monster weekend" and stresses that they should be avoided. The idea being that you won't build the type of muscular endurance if you are so fatigued from your previous workout.

I laid down a lot of "monster weekends" while I was getting ready for Gulf Coast and do remember feeling that my planned recoveries after these weekends never seemed to get me "recovered".

Potentially the answer lies somewhere in between these sources. Possibly modifying or molding them into one to get the best fit for me. One thing is for certain though, you have to log the miles. That seems the same in everything I read. You need a good number of long run, ride, swim, and brick efforts spread out over a long period of time to make it work.

What would really be great is an experienced coach. I've looked into this and it is pricey - but could be worth it. Someone who has trained and raced themselves and also trained others may be the ticket. There's something about real life experience that you can't seem to get from a guide or a book. My fear is that I choose the wrong plan or I modify it incorrectly and end up either under or over trained. In the end if I do end up being self coached for Couer D'alene then I'll just have to rely on what I can learn from research and my own personal experiences.

going Dean Karnazes all over Kennesaw trails

This morning I woke up early and met with my friend Daniel to do a 20 mile run at Kennesaw mountain. Daniel is a more gifted runner than I so it is always a task to go the distance with him - but it provides good motivation for the tough long runs.

The Kennesaw trails are mostly rolling with a few longer climbs here and there, but nothing major. It is mostly double track and well groomed with not a lot of roots and rocks. The leaves are just beginning to change so the run was very scenic along with the orange hues provided by the crystal clear sun rise that greeted us in the first few miles.

My rules for my long runs are as follows: 1. Slow down. 2. Your probably going out to fast so slow down. 3. Slow down. These are my rules not Daniels, he was nice enough to humor me through most of the run at the easy going pace of 8:30. My plan for the Rocket City Marathon is to log five runs of twenty miles. In order to accomplish this and not have my body fall apart, they need to be run at 30 to 90 seconds above my goal pace for the race. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing we ran the last hour of the 2h 50min excursion around 8:10-8:15's. I was ok with it because I felt fantastic and we were very conservative in the first half of the run. My recent long runs at the slower pace seem to be paying off. My legs are not giving out on me quite so early in the 2+ hour efforts.

So I've got two twenty milers down, and three to go. The idea of running a Marathon this fall is more an endeavor of self discovery rather than a quest for speed. I'm trying to figure out how to train and fuel myself to develop the best training and race plan for an Ironman finish. What does my body respond to the best to keep it going for as long as possible? I'm figuring it out one long effort at a time.

no mans land

In terms of training in mind for a race that's so far away but so monumental, I'm pretty much in no mans land. Just like the race, I have to temper my training so that I don't over load to early in the year. At the same time I don't want to end up out of shape by the time the first of the year comes around.

So what does one do during the off season when your planning on an Ironman next summer? You run a Marathon...of course. December 12th I'm running the Rocket City Marathon (Huntsville, AL...I know, space camp) along with Naomi and our friend Lauren. It will be a good confidence builder if I can complete this one with out looking or feeling like death in the last 4 miles like the Philadelphia Marathon last year. I have to find a way to make the different events that make up an Ironman seem less intimidating - so Marathons and Century bike rides are in order. This will hopefully help me wrap my head around the Ironman event as something that I am actually capable of.

Right now everything is pretty much maintenance training except for the 20 mile runs every other week. I'm looking forward to building in some swimming soon along with the biking and running. I'll be on a holding pattern of training 6-9 hours a week until January 11th - when my 24 week Ironman specific training plan will start. I'm currently doing some research on some strength training that will be beneficial in the off season as well.

Today was a good (or bad depending on how you look at it) preview of winter. I sat in the garage on my bike for an hour on the trainer while the rainy weather persisted outside. I try to avoid using this awful machine as much as possible - but no doubt there will be some nasty days where I just have to get the ride in - but going outside is not an option. Tomorrow is a 9 mile run at an easy pace, hopefully the rain goes away!

The Goal.

I actually did it. Over the summer I signed up for the 2010 Ironman Coeur D'Alene. With everything else going on I had kind of forgotten about it for a while. Recently I've had to start thinking about it again, with it being only 8.5 months away and all. I've got to come up with a plan to be ready for it on so many levels - physically, mentally, and logistically. I've been researching and pondering what to do over the next 3/4 of a year to make sure I cross the line in less than 17 hours. 17 hours being the cut off for an official Ironman finish.

Perhaps the most important piece of information that I have read has to do with my goal. Often times endurance athletes set a basic goal for themselves - especially on a first attempt at a given challenge - and then as that event gets closer they start changing the goal. It starts out as I just want to finish strong and run my own race, and before you know it you want to qualify for Kona or rip off some fast time. This has even happened to me during a race - you somehow convince yourself to make a last minute goal change, even though you've prepared with a completely different goal in mind. If this happens I usually get outside of my training and limits and the race unfolds in an unfortunate struggle to the finish, where as if I would have stayed patient with what I originally had as my goal I would have ended up a few minutes faster. (case in point = Gulf Coast 2009)

My goal for Ironman Couer D'Alene is to simply just finish it. 12 hours? 14 hours? 16 hours 59 minutes? I'd take any of the above. Maybe if I do a second Ironman we can start talking times, but until I finish the first and experience the distance, I don't plan on tempting fate with a endurance effort of this distance. To be extremely conservative is going to be hard for me. I'm a hammer. Meaning that I like to go as hard as I can until there is nothing left. That may work for a Half Iron, but I'm pretty sure they'll be pulling me off the course on a stretcher if I try to pull that kind of thing in June 27.