Sunday, August 24, 2008
Taper Down....
The training is difficult but you know what to expect. With the taper down, your body still wants to go but your mind has to say no...it's time to rest. By this time I feel "spent", burned out and ready for a break. My last long ride (35 miles) was yesterday morning and my last long run (5 miles) was right after that for a "brick". Today I turned a 1000 meters in the pool and that was the last of the long swim. Tomorrow will be a 10 - 12 mile ride and then Tuesday a 3 mile run and then rest up the balance of the week and try to save all that energy for next Sunday. Now is the time to get the mental focus for the race
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Plan for the WHOLE Race
Planning for an IM event is a daunting task. There are so many details to remember, items and equipment you need, things that will be forgotten if left unattended. For the past week my mind has been racing about what needs to be done when and where and a million other details....then I found Endurance Nation and Coach Patrick & Rich. I purchased their DVD, "Four Keys to Long Distance Triathlon" several weeks ago but had not any time to look at it until this past Saturday. Once started I was hooked on their ideas and process for organizing the race week and race day. I immediately began to write my own plan which turns out to be about 4 pages long starting on Tuesday before the race on Sunday. After training for 8 months, I don't want to leave any thing to chance at this time or as they say in the DVD, "look in the mirror and tell the person you see that you aren't going to mess me up on race day". After two day, I finally have my plan for week which I will post on the blog soon. I am glad that is behind me so now I can try to relax and focus on the task at hand...lets keep moving forward.
Swim the WHOLE way
It sounds like a relative short distance, the 2.4 mile swim of an IM event. It's just 12, 100 feet, 4000 meters....but in the water that is a fairly long distance. Up till last Friday, I hadn't swam the whole distance in one session. I started to feel very nervous about the distance...my mind started to run away from me....what if I couldn't finish the swim, what about cramps, what if I trained for the bike and the run and never got to either of those events, and a million other doubts. I guess at this time in the training for an IM event, everybody starts to feel tired, edgy, constantly asking yourself questions whether you have trained enough yards, miles, etc or gone long enough and an hundred other doubts. I decided to put an end to all of that... I usually do my swim work on Friday evening in the YMCA pool which is 25 meters.... and 2.4 miles is a 160 laps..back and forth. I don't like running on a treadmill and swimming in a 25 meter pool is just like swimming on a treadmill...so I went to Mary T which has a 50 meter pool and is a different venue and a change of scenery. Once i got started and found my rhythm the 80 laps came relative easy in 1 hour and 50 minutes...another goal and fear accomplished and conquered. Let move on....
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Riding the WHOLE Course
I finally got to ride the whole bike course on 7/26. Several people from Louisville Ironman Blog jointed up to ride together....that lasted about 15 miles of the 112 mile ride. Everybody has their own pace on the hills and on the flats. Most people seem to meet up at the Marathon station in Sligo (seems to be a favorite place for cyclist to stop for a break, get a bottle of water or a drink). I enjoyed the course until the "second lollypop" or the second loop thru LaGrange. General George S. Patton of WWII fame had a famous saying that he hated to pay for same real estate twice (he never liked to retreat) and I hate to look at the same real estate twice so the second loop is somewhat of a drag expecially knowing that for the most part you are going away from the finish line for sometime. In running a marathon, they say a lot of people hit the"wall" at 20 miles. In biking I think the "wall" is at about 80 miles. I stopped at the Starlight General Store (which has become my favorite place to stop) at mile 93 and I was ready to be done. Nonetheless, we held on for the last 19 miles home to finish the WHOLE bike course in about 6-3/4 hours
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Cardinal Harbour 1/2 IM Tri Event
Well, as this event fades in the rear view mirror, just some observations and some rules to live by.
Rule #1 - Don't be in the front when the swim begins. The swim started at the boat ramp at Cardinal Harbour on the Ohio River. I wanted to get wet and get adjusted to the water so I went in the water to get wet while the race director was giving final instructions. Before I knew it, it was 10 seconds to start and then the next thing I know here comes a whole herd of folks in the water in what was a mass start for the men. I was about to get a lesson in hand to hand combat in the first 4 or 5 minutes of the race. Once I got kicked in the head by what felt like a mule, it was time to pull over and let the kamazi get ahead. It was another 4 or 5 minutes before I felt comfortable to get a in a relaxed swim mode and start the swim.
Rule #2 - Don't misjudge the river current. I knew from past times that a 1.2 mile swim takes me about 50 to 55 minutes. The course is set up approximately 100 feet from shore with red bouys on each end and yellow bouys about 150 to 200 yards apart between the two red bouys. There are 5 or 6 yellow bouys so I just swim from one bouy to the next usually taking about 25 minutes to make the turn at the red bouy and swim back. After about 25 minutes the red bouy is still not in sight so I just keep stroking along finally making the turn at the 35 minute mark which was kind of demoralizing at the time because I kept thinking it was taking a long time to swim this course. Once I made the turn, the shore line started to fly by...then it occured to me that the river current must be stronger that I even imagined. The return trip took only 19 minutes...thus don't misjudge the current, it is probably stronger that you think.
Rule #3 - Relax and enjoy the bike ride. The bike ride is along some very scenic countryside along Rose Island Road, US 42 along horse farms and wooden plank fences and some very beautiful homes and estates. The volunteers and traffic control were great and the bike portion went off without a hitch. The bike took 3 hours and 14 minutes, a little slower that I wanted but enjoyable none the less, the most important part being a good ride with no incidents or flat tires.
Rule #4 - When it 93 degrees run easy to run another day. It was after 12 noon before I got off the bike and on to the 13.1 mile run. The course was relatively flat running with a few small hills with the main part of the course along a 1.5 mile out and back course (3 mile round trip) that we had to run 3 times before we could head back to the finish. About 1/2 of the course was shaded which made it bearable most of the time. I decided early on that this was not a day to run any harder than necessary and to stay as wet as possible in order to keep sweating to a minimum so as to keep electrolye loss to a minimum. I don't usually don't wear a hat when I run, but I decided to wear one today to keep the sun off of my head. The extra benefit to the hat is that it make a wonderful receptor for ice so as you go thur each aid station, just load your hat with ice and try to keep cool....that is the name of the game on what ended up to be a 95 degree day at the finish.
All in all, a good day all pointing to 8/31/08 and IM Louisville
Rule #1 - Don't be in the front when the swim begins. The swim started at the boat ramp at Cardinal Harbour on the Ohio River. I wanted to get wet and get adjusted to the water so I went in the water to get wet while the race director was giving final instructions. Before I knew it, it was 10 seconds to start and then the next thing I know here comes a whole herd of folks in the water in what was a mass start for the men. I was about to get a lesson in hand to hand combat in the first 4 or 5 minutes of the race. Once I got kicked in the head by what felt like a mule, it was time to pull over and let the kamazi get ahead. It was another 4 or 5 minutes before I felt comfortable to get a in a relaxed swim mode and start the swim.
Rule #2 - Don't misjudge the river current. I knew from past times that a 1.2 mile swim takes me about 50 to 55 minutes. The course is set up approximately 100 feet from shore with red bouys on each end and yellow bouys about 150 to 200 yards apart between the two red bouys. There are 5 or 6 yellow bouys so I just swim from one bouy to the next usually taking about 25 minutes to make the turn at the red bouy and swim back. After about 25 minutes the red bouy is still not in sight so I just keep stroking along finally making the turn at the 35 minute mark which was kind of demoralizing at the time because I kept thinking it was taking a long time to swim this course. Once I made the turn, the shore line started to fly by...then it occured to me that the river current must be stronger that I even imagined. The return trip took only 19 minutes...thus don't misjudge the current, it is probably stronger that you think.
Rule #3 - Relax and enjoy the bike ride. The bike ride is along some very scenic countryside along Rose Island Road, US 42 along horse farms and wooden plank fences and some very beautiful homes and estates. The volunteers and traffic control were great and the bike portion went off without a hitch. The bike took 3 hours and 14 minutes, a little slower that I wanted but enjoyable none the less, the most important part being a good ride with no incidents or flat tires.
Rule #4 - When it 93 degrees run easy to run another day. It was after 12 noon before I got off the bike and on to the 13.1 mile run. The course was relatively flat running with a few small hills with the main part of the course along a 1.5 mile out and back course (3 mile round trip) that we had to run 3 times before we could head back to the finish. About 1/2 of the course was shaded which made it bearable most of the time. I decided early on that this was not a day to run any harder than necessary and to stay as wet as possible in order to keep sweating to a minimum so as to keep electrolye loss to a minimum. I don't usually don't wear a hat when I run, but I decided to wear one today to keep the sun off of my head. The extra benefit to the hat is that it make a wonderful receptor for ice so as you go thur each aid station, just load your hat with ice and try to keep cool....that is the name of the game on what ended up to be a 95 degree day at the finish.
All in all, a good day all pointing to 8/31/08 and IM Louisville
Friday, July 18, 2008
Getting ready is half the battle
It is the eve of the Cardinal Harbour 1/2 IM tri and I am running around the house trying to get all of my gear together. As I sit here writing this, I have socks and shorts in the washer as the last piece of gear I need for tomorrow. Thank goodness for check lists, paper and pencil. It is amazing all of the stuff you need to have to make this work. I salavaged an old ski bag to be my tri bag figuring it wasn't worth a $100 to buy a bag and it seems to work OK. Then you have to think thru each discipline as to what you need such as swim suit, goggles, cap, towels, bike gear including shoes, gloves, riding shorts, shirt, helmet and then running shoes, socks, hat, visors, etc. Then there is what you are going to drink and eat...I have been working almost 2-1/2 hours getting stuff ready for tomorrow. I guess this is part of the training too....on to the event....tomorrow
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