Base Phase

This Sunday marks 24 weeks to go until Ironman Coeur D'Alene. Of recent my training has been kind of off and on for lack of a better description. I've been battling a cold and the cold - this is one of the harshest winters I can remember. With the extreme cold temps and lack of daylight, outdoor training time has been at a premium. I've been in the basement on the cycling trainer just about as much as I can stand in an attempt to maintain general fitness. Yes the indoor pool is an option, but when it's 15 degrees and dark out it is very very challenging to coerce yourself out of a nice warm bed to head to the pool alone and crank out laps while staring at a black line.

With that being said, it is definitely time to put up or shut up. I have all the resources to train through just about any weather or daylight constraints, it's just a matter of getting the ball rolling. Pulling a 24 week training plan from Triathlete Magazines Essential Week by Week training Guide, modifying it slightly by adding some more cycling volume and a bit more intensity here and there - I've created a plan that suits me pretty much to a T. This coming week I will begin the journey of a lifetime, my quest to finish an Ironman distance triathlon. 140.6 miles of swimming, biking and running - all in one day. It's going to be a lot of cold, long, lonely, and grueling workouts to get myself to June 27th, yet at this point I have no choice but to force myself to do it - the entry fee is paid, the travel plans are all set. To me there is no greater challenge than to be self coached and self motivated. It would be all to easy to pay someone to tell me what to do and when to do it. I'm a firm believer that going through the suffering alone with my thoughts will make me better on June 27th, because in the end nobody is going to help me go the distance on race day. I expect this adventure to come down to an intense mental battle with myself on the 26.2 mile run, so that is how most of my preparation will be done.

The plan itself is divided into three 8 week phases: Base, Build, and Peak. These first 8 weeks a far and away the most important aspect of he entire plan. This is because in order to develop the ability to go for 13 or so hours straight, I need to build my endurance steadily over a long period of time. If I don't allow myself time to build slowly and have to "cram" my training into to short a period to close to the race I will probably end up over trained or injured. This would also affect my performance on race day as I would not have adequate time to recover from training before the race. Also included is a small amount of high-intensity work to enhance my efficiency and prepare my body for the build phase.

Here are the first 8 weeks (Build Phase) laid out: Ironman CDA 2010 Build Phase
-The key workouts are my long efforts, they are highlighted in yellow.
-Every 4th week is a recovery week. Not as noticeable of a drop in this phase though.

My goal for this week is to simply get accustomed to my new workout routine and simply get into a good rhythm with my training.

So here goes nothing!

feeling fresh

4 days to go until the Rocket City Marathon and my legs are finally starting to feel rested and recovered. I have two more short runs to to do of 3 and 2 miles and then it will be race day.

The days leading into this event are always filled with second guessing - even if the training was executed you have no reason to second guess. My goals for this event are to race smart and trust my training. By racing smart it means going out slow! I think if I do this I will be able to hit my goal time of 3:25.

Last minute preparations like picking up a new stick of body glide and some race fuel need to be taken care of, along with making sure all the race wear is ready to go.

Forecast is calling for a 40% chance of rain on race day - I'm hoping it's wrong or it changes!

Almost there...

The Rocket City Marathon is quickly sneaking up on me. I've only got a handful of runs left before the 12th is here. I haven't been feeling the best on my runs lately but I've been trying to stay optimistic about my chances to run a PR. I know I've hit all the important long runs I set out to do which are the most important when prepping for the marathon.

In all of the endurance sports I've done there's always this grey area between the end of your hard workouts and the actual race called taper. More than likely I never feel good during the taper (rest period), until maybe the day before the actual event or even the day of the event. My body seems to go through a restless stage during this period, where it feels like it should be working hard because that's what it's been doing for a while. It always seems to work out though, but is frustrating non the less when I felt better the week I ran 50+ miles than this week where I'm only running 25 or so.

I guess I just need to take my own advice on this from when I was a rowing coach. Rest, Hydrate, eat well and have faith in the taper - you'll feel good on race day, who cares what your workouts feel like today.

30 weeks.

The start of this week marked 30 weeks until Ironman Coeur D'Alene. My "official" training plan was not supposed to start until 24 weeks out (Jan 11th) but I simply cannot wait any longer. I miss the pool and the long bike rides. All of the running for the Rocket City Marathon that I have been doing the past three months is really starting to wear on me. So I tacked on 6 weeks to make my "official" plan start this week. I can really take my time now and build slow easy mileage, I think this will pay off in the end and hopefully aid me in avoiding any type of over-use injuries by going to hard to soon. The extra six weeks will essentially be a scaled back carbon copy of the original first 6 weeks that were supposed to start Jan 11th.

Today I got back in the pool for the first time since probably August. The workout was 1,600 meters broken up into 300 warm up, 4 x 50 drill/swim, 6 x 100 @ moderate intensity, 4 x 50 kick, and 300 cool down. I didn't have any trouble finishing the distance but I certainly am not speedy in the pool right now. Later I'm going to give my revamped tri bike a spin for an hour and start working on dialing in the fit so that it's 112 mile worthy.

I'm in taper mode as far as the running goes. Rocket City is in 11 days! I had a good 12 miler yesterday where I was able to run about 15 seconds under my goal pace very comfortably. I've got an 8 miler this weekend with a few shorter runs in between. Here's hoping the five 20+ mile runs I did in Oct/Nov pay off in those last 6 miles. Which I believe it will as long as I don't get rabbit feet. I'm certainly more mentally read for Rocket City than I was for the Philadelphia Marathon last year. I did 4 out of 5 of those long runs solo, and the last two were 21 and 22 miles respectively for good measure.

rain, rain, go away

Last weeks training went very well. Still focusing on the run, my big workout for the week was a 21 mile run. I planned out a course between here and Suwanee and asked Naomi to come pick me up at the far end of the Suwanee greenway - where my 21 mile jaunt would end. I started early Sunday morning and set off with a fuel belt full of water and shot blocks. This run went very well considering what I had done in the two days prior to it. On Friday I had the day off and the weather was just perfect for a ride. I headed out the door with the intention of doing 25 or 30, but ended up going 45 just because I didn't want the ride to end. I followed this up on Friday with 10 miles at marathon race pace, which is supposed to be around 7:50 a mile. I wasn't feeling so hot during this run so I felt like I had to work for that pace - but I ended up working to hard and averaged 7:30's. I've had a hard time nailing down 7:50 on my pace runs, I'm always 10 to 20 seconds to fast! I guess this is an ok problem to have, but I need to learn my pace so I don't go out to hard in Huntsville. So back to the long run, I started out slow - 8:40's or something for the first few miles. Gradually I felt better and by the half way point when I crested the big hill up Old Suwanee to make my left onto North Price, I started feeling down right fantastic. As I looped around Moor road and Suwanee, I was picking it up ever so slightly each mile. I hit the Suwanee Greenway 18 miles in at L'ville-Suwanee Rd. 3.25 miles to go and much to my surprise Naomi and Scout had run 3 miles out to meet me for my last 3. This made for a really easy finish to a very long run. I finished the 21 miles in 2h 59 minutes. Averaging 8:24 per mile when it was said and done.

This was my 4th run of 20 miles or greater since the beginning of October and I am certainly feeling comfortable with the distance. Nutritionally the thing that seems to work the best for me during the run are Cliff ShotBloks in Cola and Margarita flavor. They sit on my stomach just right and don't cause any gastrointestinal distress like gels or a mixed high calorie liquid fuel. They also come in neat tube like packaging so they are easy to manipulate while running. The cola has 1 shot of espresso in it and it seems to really perk me up mentally and helps me focus in the later stages of my long efforts. The Margarita flavor provides some much needed sodium and electrolytes. I eat 3 to 4 packs of these over a 3 hour run - about 600 to 800 calories, so about 250 calories an hour. As far as hydration I've just been sticking with plain water - about 40 ounces per 20 mile run in the fall weather we have been having.
I have the day off work today so I had planned a 5 mile run and also to get on the bike, but just so happens there's a tropical storm moving through the state. If the rain would just slow down a little bit I could get the run in, and then sit on the trainer for an hour later this evening.

fighting something

The past week or so I feel like I've been fighting something off. I've been on the verge of getting sick but have somehow just avoided it. I feel achy and dehydrated even though I've been pounding the H20.

During my 10 mile run this morning my legs felt fine, but I was feeling hungry and dehydrated the entire time. I ate my usual pre-run breakfast of a bagel with creme cheese and a banana but I may have waited to long after breakfast to start running. It certainly wasn't the worst run I've had but it wasn't the best.

I've got a couple of days off from work so I'm hoping the extra time will help me get to feeling good again.

I've got a concrete plan now on what to do between now and January 11th as well, so that is comforting. I'll be getting back in the pool next week and hopefully getting on the bike more consistently. I'm beginning to become restless with just running. This is why I don't think I could ever been just a swimmer, cyclist, or a runner again. I get bored quickly! The constant mixing it up while you train for tri's suits me just fine.

My ATP (Annual Training Plan) through the Ironman looks something like this right now:

November and December:
- Off season base building/maintenance
- 2-3 workouts per week in each discipline
- 6-8 hours a week total training time
- Low intensity on all workouts

January 11th
- Begin 8 weeks base phase
- 3 workouts per week in each discipline
-7-10 hours a week total training time
- Mostly low intensity with some controlled interval work mixed in.

March 8th
- Begin 8 weeks build phase
- 3 workouts per week in each discipline
- 9 to 14 hours a week total training time
- Mix of low intensity key long workouts and high intensity short interval work.

May 3rd
- Begin 8 weeks peak phase
- 3 workouts per week in each discipline
12 to 17 hours a week total training time
- Longest workouts and middle distance workouts at threshold intensity

strategizing

Tonight I laid out the first 8 weeks of my official Ironman training program. After going over a number of sources and thinking about how my training has gone in the past, I settled on a plan out of Matt Fitzgeralds book Triathlete Magazines Essential Week-by-Week Training Guide. All of the research I read pretty much pointed me in the same direction, being that the key workouts are your long efforts.

The plans out of this guide are very specific and written out day by day. It follows a building progression through several distinct phases of training and incorporates races as workouts -which I love. The plan I'm working off of uses 9 workouts per week. It works in three phases of 8 weeks each: Base, Build, and Peak - which are then broken down into four week blocks with which there are three "on" weeks and then one recovery week. To me it's a very logical progression. It's a structure that I am very familiar with through coaching rowing. When applied correctly I believe that this type of structured training is the only way to effectively peak for one sole event and be at ones best.

Other than the above state reasons, I'm choosing this particular plan because I think it is very manageable and gives me the best chance to be successful on my long workouts. When I was training for Gulf Coast this past year, I chose a more aggressive plan that incorporated 10 workouts per week. I struggled to stay on course with it and was often exhausted for my key long workouts. Most of my recent reading gave me a new perspective on what the most important workouts are when training for an Ironman and how to approach and manage them so that I gain as much as possible from them. I guess the theme here would be quality, not quantity. Any numb skull can go out and destroy themselves with a bunch of mileage - been there done that! I'm going for the right workouts at the right times done at the right intensity. Above all I need to develop a keen sense of recovery to gain the most out of the long efforts.

The 24 weeks to glory kicks off on January 11th! I can't wait! Until then I'm using the marathon to maintain general fitness and hopefully improve my long run pacing and training tactics. Bike and swim workouts are building to develop base fitness in all three disciplines until I go full on in January.