I was thinking I'd do a cool countdown here on the ol' blog: 52 weeks to Ironman. Except when I looked at my calendar I realized there's only 47 weeks now. How did that happen? But that's okay, I can recap the first few weeks easily for you:
Week 52: Reading race reports of awesome studmuffin friends doing Ironman. That looks like so much fun. So exciting. I should sign up!
Week 51: Is the Ironman still open? Maybe it's filled up already. Maybe I don't have to make a decision.
Week 50: Maybe I shouldn't do another Ironman until I forget how much the last one hurt. How many years will that take?
Week 49: Ah Crap! I did it. I signed up for another Ironman.
Week 48: What the #@!#!%! was I thinking?
Week 47: Huh. Guess I better start thinking about training.
So here we are, at week 47. My initial plan for heading into this Ironman year went something like this: In August I'm going to swim a 10k. In September I'm going to run a trail marathon. So all I'll have to do is some biking this winter and I'll be ready to roll.
That was the initial plan. But now my thought process is something like this: Holy Traction Tires Robin, you'll have to do all of your long rides in April and May. In Western Oregon. Where it rains all April and May, and sometimes sleets and snows for good measure. What were you thinking?
I'm still wrestling with that one. I'll let you know how that shakes out for me. I'm thinking a lot of bike trainer time. Yeah, maybe another season or two of 24 (I never did catch up on that) would see me through some long trainer rides.
The Nitty Gritty of Week 47 (for the 2.3 people who might be interested in such details):
Swimming: 2.5 hours (including one 3 mile lake swim)
Biking: 4.2 hours + 1 hour of bike commuting (not bad considering I couldn't ride a bike with my arm a couple of weeks ago)
Running: 3.75 hours, and I even made myself do a sprint run, a tempo run, and a 10.5 mile long run. See how disciplined I'm being?
Total: 11.5 hours of tri-specific training + 5 hours of assorted other stuff (karate, gym work, etc.) for 16.5 total hours.
Food: Still Paleo, though I did eat a gel at mile 2 of my 3 mile lake swim, just to see how well I tolerated gels while swimming, which I've never done before. That seemed to work out fine.
9 comments:
Awesome goal! What lake/mountain is your home page background?
That is awesome! Good luck with the training!
I am still too chicken to do a full...but maybe someday!
Which IM are you doing?
BTW - how do you eat a gel while swimming? Where do you put it? I have so many questions about this.
saw a bunch of your buddies at elk lake this last weekend. :)
I find that times like this right now can be exciting ones.
When I no longer have that "gulp" after sign-up,when I no longer have those doubts or that anticipation, I'll quit and find me a good rockin chair.
You are an inspiration !!
Ian, that's Lake of the Woods in southern Oregon, with Mt. McLaughlin in the background.
Jason, it's Ironman Coeur d'Alene. Some folks take gels in the sleeves of their wetsuits, but I have a special tow-behind dry bag. I will have to make a post about it soon, it's very cool!
Stacia, looks like you had an awesome time! Wish I coulda swum this year. Oh well, there's always next year!
Marv, I totally agree. That excitement/dread means that it's important and that we're still digging deep inside ourselves.
Ill be paying attention closely to your development. I so want to do an IM one day.. I realy need to focus more on swimming. Robin we have a saying in the Army.. "You Pump me Up!!" Happy training!!
Robin, I have some suggestions for series to get you through the bike trainer!
Great to see you with the dogs last night.
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