17. What does everyone else know about IMTX that I don’t?

Pro:  IMTX doesn’t have a lot of steep climbs. According to the Mapmyride.com the course doesn’t have any rated climbs, IMCDA had 6 rated climbs.*

*For any climb to be rated (receive a climb score/category) it must be at least 500 meters in length with an average grade of 3% or more.
All climb scores are based on distance, grade/elevation change, and maximum elevation. The combination of these factors drives all final climb categories and there is no subjective analysis used in the final scoring of any climb score. All other climbs that do not meet the criteria for HC to Cat 5 are simply too small to rate and can usually be crossed easily by bicycle, running, or walking. The original concepts for the MapMyFitness categorization of all climbs came from the categorized climb ratings given by the UCI for races like the Tour de France and other professional cycling events. Our methodology is unique in several ways to allow for categorizations to be relevant for all sports and we added an additional difficulty with category 5 climbs.

(Dude could you talk any louder, I’m sitting at the airport writing this and the guy sitting one chair away from is one of those loud talkers.  Honestly I could be half down the terminal and I could hear him.  I am now putting in my ear buds but don’t have them plugged into anything.  I think he gets the point.)  Now hes talking about politics and although I agree with his politics I am thinking of voting the other way.

Pro:  IMTX is the beginning of the year and this way I don’t have the training hanging over me the whole summer.

Pro:  The run course is also flat and three loops so the crowd support will be strong (which is good and bad)d

Pro:  I found a hotel that I could use points at to keep the cost down

Pro:  I have never been to Houston before and I will see new things

Pro:  I can say that I participated in a heat fest and came out an Ironman, the harder the better

Con:  Heat, Heat, Heat.  I have read other blogger pages and a lot of runners started the marathon when it was 90+ degrees.

Con:  The bike course is one loop, meaning that even if I wanted to check out the course the day before its going to take me at least 2 hours to see the course.  Would much rather have two loops.

Con:  The swim only allows one trial swim, because its not a lake that is open to the public (apparently the lake is more to look at than use.)

Con:  The swim is supposed to be tight the whole way

Con:  The race as a whole compared to others to considerably slower, don’t know why

 Con:  Its going to be another 18 hour drive their, (well get a rental this time)

My point to all this is that IMMadison filled up in two days!  IMCDA filled up in a month, IMflorida filled up in a week.  IMTX has yet to fill up and its been almost 5 months.  However IMSt.George has been open two weeks longer than IMTX and still hasn’t filled.  But look at the bike course at IMSTG and it’s a monster, I can understand why it hasn’t filled up.

So why are people staying away from IMTX.  I think its one word HEAT.  The average high for the year during the IM is 85 and the average low is 65.  I can’t think of another reason why people don’t want to do it.  The swim is at least interesting (swimming through a channel).  The bike has a lot of rollers but should be fast.  And the run is right through downtown.  I think I read the whole run is only 1.5 miles away from the start the whole way.  ( I haven’t done the math, but I am sure that is possible.)

16. Hardcore 100

Because I can't go out and run I have started using my spin bike to get the cardio on.  Last year when I was preparing for IMCDA, I went out and bought the Spinervals Hardcore 100 DVD.  If you aren't familiar let me enlighten you.  Its a set of DVDs that I thought, well I don't know what I thought but it seemed like it made sense at the time to purchase a DVD that had me sit for 5 hours on my bike indoors.  The DVD has about 20 people sitting on their bikes in what looks to be a hotel ballroom.  The participants range from previous IM to newbies from young to old.  Your moderator coach Troy walks around the room with a stop watch and tells you when to go fast and slow down.  Let me tell you, its very painful. Not painfully hard but painfully boring.  I tried to watch it again yesterday and I could only take about 15 mins.  So much easier just to watch Sports Center.

15. Things that make me feel like a runner

I am in Chicago this week.  Illinois is where I was raised (and developed my hatred for Green Bay and the White Sox) but I rarely came downtown Chicago.  I started spending more time downtown when I was in College but  still only maybe spent 10 nights a year downtown.

I come to Chicago for business now on a monthly basis.  I stay at a hotel about a block from Lake Michigan and just north of Navy Pier.  Most evenings when I am not tied to the laptop I walk the streets looking for new buildings and exploring neighborhoods that I haven't ever seen. I have spent several afternoons and many a mile running up and down the wonderful lake shore. For whatever the reason running in a city other than city in which I live makes me feel like an actual runner.  I think what makes it awesome in Chicago  is the giant buildings and Lake Michigan but perhaps my favorite part of running in Chicago is running through the neighborhoods.  Just last month I ran from downtown Chicago to Wrigley field.  Might sound dumb but that's a cool run.  These are the times where I am so grateful that I can run.

I tore my calf again a couple of weeks ago and although the doctor said to keep off of it I couldn't resist walking the lake shore.  So this morning I walked about 45 mins up and down just north of Navy Pier.  Saw a lot of people training for the Chicago Marathon which comes up a month from now.  So wish that I could go out and run.

14. My Favorite Piece of Training Equipment

What significance does the number 77 1/4 mean?  I will tell you in a paragraph or two.  One the tough parts about training for an IM particularly in MN is the winters are long and swimming outside in open water is pretty much non existent between Oct and May.  So a lot of time is spent in the pool.  I belong to a gym that has a 6 lane lap pool and for the most part I can find a lane to myself whenever I go.

When training for my original IM  I was very concerned about not being able to "do it".  So to compensate for lack of experience and excess worry I varied my training from most others.  While your typical IM program  in the beginning is focused on building strength.  I from the very beginning focused on building distance in all phases.  So for example while your typical IMD (IronMan Dude) in the early season was working on doing sprint freestyles to build muscle I was in the next lane doing lap after lap until I knew that I could do the distance.  Not very effective if you want to learn how to go fast, very effective for building confidence.  In fact in all my preparation for IMCDA, I didn't do one swim technique workout.  Everything I did was for distance.  I would judge success on how many laps I did in a certain time.  I watched YouTube videos on swimming technique to help me strengthen what I already had, but didn't spend the time just doing a standard 4x100 type workouts.

This brings me to the original question.  At my pool it takes me 77 1/4 laps to complete 2.4 miles worth of swimming.  I wouldn't have been able to ever do it if I didn't have my favorite training tool.  Its the H2o Audio Interval.  I have the previous version than the one pictured, this one holds the 4th generation Ipod, mine holds the 3rd generation but same concept.  Sound quality wise most of the time it works really well for the first 15 mins, then water gets into the ear piece so the sound falls off to maybe a 6 or 7 out of 10, but all in all it makes doing laps in the pool so much easier.  I will have to give AZ the credit on this one, he actually introduced this to me and makes the pool time much less suicidal.

Injury update

This isn't so much as an update as a potentially letting myself off the hook post.  As a child I had to wear those funny looking "run forest, run" braces as night to lengthen my achilles tendons because I used to walk on my toes all the time.   I've never had any real issues with this part of my body until about 2 years ago, when I was training on an elliptical and think that is where I caused some damage.

I was able to get through IMCDA just fine, lots of icing and like I said earlier the Ionto treatment really helped.  It worked so well that after IMCDA was over I thought I was in the clear but I still waited about a month before I did any real running because I wanted to let my body heal for a while.  I went out on my first run and wanted to concentrate on getting going faster, I must have pushed it to hard and I felt this stabbing feeling in my calf muscle opposite the foot with the Achilles tendon issue.  I thought it was just a pulled muscle so I tried to stretch it out, didn't work.  I hobbled home and it felt worse the next day.  I figured it was just a little tweak so I gave it a week and everything seemed to be just fine, went on a slow run with the boys (who by the way have already gotten into running, Tyler is in XC and hes good, very proud Dad.) and the same feeling came back about .75 into a mile.  Went to the Doctor and the Doctor said no more running for a month I tore my calf muscle.  That was about a month ago, went to my last PT session today they said I am good to go.

Well I went out tonight while Adam was at soccer practice and @#$%&! the same pain came right back.  I came home and iced it.  I think its only a grade 1 tear, but I had been pretty good for the last month about staying off of it but now I am right back to where I started.  So I going to call the doc, and see if there is a more aggressive treatment than just RICE, but everything on the Internet shows that RICE is pretty much my only option. 

Went to the PT today, and we are back to square one, It looks like its more of a minor grade 2 tear.  No bruising but some minor swelling.  I was so hoping to get to back to full strength.  This time they want me to stay off it for at minimum of 6 weeks.  I asked if it was OK to swim, and they said as long as I don't kick a lot.  So all the swimming I wasn't planning on doing this early in the training, guess I am now.

I am angry but realize that I have 3 months before the real training gets going so as long as I push myself away from the dinner table and swim a lot I think I should be OK.

Bike Equipment

Quick story about equipment.  This has to do a little with the previous IM but I think it might share some insight on things down the line.  I mentioned in previous posts that I did some triathlons back in the early 2000s, so much so that I bought at the time what I thought was a nice Tri bike. 

(For those of you who might not know or don't care there are some differences between a road bike and a Tri bike.  The purpose of a tri bike is to go like a bat and to do so you need to be in a very aggressive aero position.  So you will see aero bars on all tri bikes, these are the bars in front of your handle bars to lean on to reduce wind resistant.  Another aspect of a tri bike is that the down tube (the tube that your seat post slides into) is more upright as opposed to being kind of slanted back.  This enables the rider to use different muscles than the standard road bike making the transition to the run a little easier.  Other things, include Mag wheels to reduce resistance, gear changers on the aerobars, bigger front chain ring among others )

The down side to a tribike is if you experience a hilly ride, and you need to get out of the saddle your gear changers are way out in front of you (on the aerobars.)  Also because in most cases your aero bars are below the height of your seat your back can get extremely sore.  Also the cost of a tri-bike at minimum now is 2k and upwards to 8k properly outfitted. (Mine cost 1k 10 years ago on close-out)

The purpose of the IM is to go as fast as you can.  So it would make sense to have a bike that would do the same but it’s a little tricky situation when you think you are going 112 miles.  My point to all of this is that a "tri bike" might not necessarily be the best decision for a Full IM.  The road bike gives the rider a more relaxed position; the gearing is such so that although it won’t be as fast as a Tri bike (given the same rider on the flats) it’s easier to climb hills because of gearing.

As I was saying, back in early 2000s I bought a "tribike" because it was all the things that I had mentioned before.  It was an aluminum frame, the setup was aggressive and it was extremely uncomfortable.  I rode it for Olympic and Sprint Tris, but looking back the comfort probably inhibited from training more.  So when it came time to get ready for IMCDA I wasn't really excited about going back to "black beauty"  I brought it in to a local bike shop,  you know one of the guys that was into speed and wanted me to buy a new tribike as soon as he heard me say IM.  But I got refitted on the old gal, and rode it for about 2 weeks until the gears didn't hold their chain.  Brought it into another place they said it was old but there wasn't anything wrong with it.  I bought new tires, tune-ups etc.  And rode it for another 2 weeks and the same thing happened.  Brought it to a third place and I didn't tell them anything about my previous experiences and they looked at it for an afternoon and said your bike sucks you should buy something else.

At that point I had already spent $250 on tune ups and tires, signed up for the IMCDA and bought miscellaneous other things that probably totaled $1000.  A new Tri-bike wasn't in the plans.  So I did some research on road bikes and the more I read the more I realized I should buy a bike with clip on aero bars.  So that's what I did I shopped around for a couple of weeks and bought a Trek 2.1 H3 and then put aero bars on it.  Spent about $1500 by the time it was all done (another tire, aero bottle, cpu, pump, bento bag).  I picked what I thought was the best bike that we could afford, Gretchen had to pay for it because I wouldn't have, I just hate spending money on myself, and really $1500 for a stinking bike?  But as I learned that's the going rate. 

Broad Brush Time-Bikes come down to component sets which is essentially the gearing, the better the gearing the more expensive the bike.  Shimano the biggest manufacturer has 5 component sets:

• Dura-Ace
• Ultegra
• 105
• Tiagra
• Sora

  What compounds the cost is that the best gearing are on the best frames (carbon), with the best brakes and best wheels, so the best component bike usually starts at 3k.  I bought a bike that had the 3rd best components (105).  Thinking at the time that if I really got into IMs, I would sell the new Trek and get a nicer component bike but probably another road bike.  If at the end of IMTX I feel like I will do this IM thing again I will sell my bike, but at this point I can't afford to buy a new bike even if I got what I paid for on this one.


The Road Bike I bought last year





The Tri-Bike I wish I had, assuming I was in shape





Black Beauty


 

More Perspective

Sorry for the dump on to Facebook all of a sudden, I learned how to post my blog to Facebook not realizing it was going to take all the previous entries and post all of them at once.

back to the strengths......
So I think the swim is going to go OK.  I know about 10 mins into the bike I will get passed by a billion people.  If the past is any indication of the future, the run will be a grind.  But having said all that I think the one thing I have going for me is perspective.  I know I am not going to compete for a Kona slot this year. So as long as I can improve over my IMCDA time I am ok, and even if I don't go faster than IMCDA I might be OK with that assuming there was extenuating circumstance like flat tires, excessive heat, you get the idea.

(For those of you who aren't aware, the Ironman Championship held in Hawaii every year is made up of the top age groupers and professional triathletes from the previous Ironman held throughout the world.  To qualify for Kona you have to be anywhere from the top 5-10 age groupers in your age bracket at a Full Ironman Branded event, there are 8 in the US  and think 25 in the world.   Each IM offers approximately 50 IM championship slots. Unfortunately my age bracket 35-39 usually has age groupers being the first to hit the tape.  In order for me to qualify for Kona I would have to probably to do sub 10 hours, which ain't gonna happen.)

Back to perspective, I know enough from my previous races not to get to low and if I am feeling low (cruddy) its usually because my hydration or food is to low.  I am a pretty happy racer, I figure I am the one who put myself in these situations I might as well have a good time.  And by happy I mean I am nice to the volunteers but I am not a huge talker on the course. You might think that I would say just happy to here (here being the IM) but I am not doing the IM just to finish, that statement might come across my lips when IMTX is 100 degrees, I've had 4 flats and I forgot a shoe for the run.  I am doing IM to go as fast as my body, mind and training will take me. 

Many might say that they just want to finish, and for some that might be accurate, but in my opinion people don't just want to finish they want to utilize every ounce of training they did leading up to the IM and make use of all of it on game day.   And if they feel like they left to much training on the table or didn't do enough training or  bogeyman got in their heads, (yeah hes real, I've shook hands with him many of times) then it can be disappointing.  So for me the goal of just finishing even for my first IM wasn't really something I concentrated on. (That's not completely true when I first hit the sign up button, all I wanted to do was finish but after the first month of training I realized I wanted more.)  Because in reality, that meant I could have done a 2H swim, a 9H bike, and 6H run.  Don't get me wrong finishing is a great, and we all know the last to graduate from Medical school is still called Doctor same goes with the IM (you all become doctors, you should for the cost of the race).  But I put to much time and will be putting in to much time to just finish.  While I am writing this I have a very foreboding feeling.......

Backstory

I am married and have three wonderful children along with a great wife.  When I told the boys that I was going to do another IM, they were very excited.  Not becasue Dad is trying to validate his IMCDA finish, or trying to show himself and others that the Ironman isn't just something to cross off a bucket list.  They were excited becasue they knew I was going to purchase them something nice when this was all over.  You see when I trained for IMCDA, I was a little, what's the word......moody,angry, aggitated, the night before my big workouts.  I think it was the anxiety of it all and I just didn't do great the night before a big workout.  So I told the family that if they stick with me I will get them something a little special after IMCDA.  I made good on my promise to the boys and got them a bike and an electric scooter (Edison didn't really want anything so he got some extra wrestle time with me.)  So when the boys heard that I signed up for IMTX, they are already starting to create lists ofwhat they wanted.  Don't worry I am sure I will make them pay, one way or another.

I am very excited to have signed up for IMTX.  I have seen the times on average are a little slower than most IM in fact if you take just the average finish time of every IM, IMTX is amongst the slowest, supposedly making it the hardest.  Speculation is that the 1st IMTX had a lot of newbies in it and therefore caused the slower times.  All in all though the average time was only about 10 mins slower than CDA, which means they all should be taken seriously.

I know I have some limiting factors going into the race next May.  1st, is probably my wieght although not obesse I really do need to lose 20-30 lbs to be able to compete where I want to.  Losing this weight would put me at about 185-190, the likes of which I haven't seen since the beginning of High School.  Another major factor to me hitting my time is going to be the heat.  This kind of falls back onto the first factor, becasue if I can lose the wieght I am hoping the heat won't bother me as much, I certainly will be out there a shorter period regardless.  I just don't do well in hot weather, I mean I can do it, but running is so much easier/fun when its 40 degrees as opposed to 70. 

Now to the strengths.  Although I am not fast at swimming, its my strongest event.  This isn't to imply I am good at swimming (I'm really not) but I would anticipate without starting the training yet that I will end up out of the water at IMTX at about 1:10.  I am little thicker than most of the guys and girls out there and although I am sure to manhandled  I can maintain my course.  If knowledge is power, I know that as soon as I get out of the water there will be about a billion people pass me 10 mins into the bike, and because I already know it I am more than fine with it.

More strengths later.

September 5 2011, catch up

I enjoyed IMCDA very much and would have been willing to sign up for another IM that evening.  But because of the cost involved and the training I was ready to take a little break.  So I told myself that IMCDA was going to be my last IM for a year or so.  Well that was June 2011 and here we are Labor Day 2011 and I just hit the sign up button for IM Texas, May 19 2012 in The Woodlands Texas.

Briefly I wanted to do an IM in  2013, AZ wanted to do something sooner, and its nice to know that even though we probably weren't going to race together again that somebody was doing this insanity along with me.  My wife is also planning on completing her nursing degree in May 2013 and she wants to go some place to celebrate (evidently her idea of celebrating isn't listening to me complain for 10 weeks leading up to the IM).  So I made a deal; I do another IM in 2012 and we go someplace to celebrate in 2013.

So AZ and I have hit the sign up button, paid the money and have about 8 months to get it together.

IRONMAN CDA 2011

The following is my post race race report

Pre-race routine:

We came in from MN, the five of us, Jason, Gretchen, Tyler, Adam and Edison. We left Tuesday evening around 9pm to drive through the night and planned to get into the Shilo Inn in CDA about 3pm on Weds afternoon. Drove through the night and about 45 mins east of billings at around 8am, the car made a rattling noise the oil light came on and I thought we now own the world’s largest paper weight. Sat on the side of the road for about an hour, and got another hour tow into Billings. We pulled into the only Toyota shop in Billings and they confirm my nightmare. They have ONE used Sienna minivan. Just let me say having to get to my first Ironman, having your car on the wrecker, no sleep for 24 hrs and having only one car to choose from doesn’t create a lot of leverage for yours truly. After what seemed to be days at the dealership we left with the used Sienna. (Not a terrible deal but not great either, the last sienna lasted 220k) Actually we were really lucky it didn’t happen further away from civilization, and it didn't happen in the middle of the night. We got into CDA at midnight Weds night.

Event warmup:

I had my family of 5 with me and we were also meeting my training buddy AZ who was flying in from MN on Thursday afternoon, his wife was flying in on Friday they were both staying in Spokane. Once he showed up Thursday afternoon we drove the run and bike course. Let me tell you I was not happy. I was really taken aback about how big the hill was on the run. I mean really not happy, I had looked at the run profile but I just wasn't expecting the size and length of the hill. After driving the run course we drove the bike course, although the hills were also long and big they didn't mentally bother me as much.
Thursday evening before the kids mile run (Tyler took 4th and Adam was featured in a youtube video), we swam about a half mile, the water was COLD and choppy.
Friday AZ and I biked the Run course and then we met Robyn, AZ wife, and toured the expo. We then drove the courses again to show Robyn. Friday night my wife’s family came up from Utah. Saturday we kind of just hung out drove the bike course again. Every time we drove the bike course the hills got mentally easier for me. Saturday night the Loers came in from MN and all of us went to dinner and we were in bed by 9pm.

   Swim

Comments:

Sunday morning AZ and Robyn picked me up at 5:15am from the Shilo Inn. (The kids stayed with Gretchen parents Saturday night so that we could just relax. She went to pick them up after I was picked up) AZ and I were down at transition area by 5:30am. Body marked by 5:32. We dropped off our Special needs bags and went to get on our wetsuit it was then AZ realized that he left his goggles at his hotel in Spokane. We immediately tracked down Robyn who called Gretchen to get my spare goggles but she had already left the hotel in CDA, but she was good enough to turn around and get my spare goggles. At this point it was about 6:30 and we made our way to the beach, still without goggles for AZ. Once AZ and I got to the beach we found a spectator on the sea wall and asked to borrow their phone to call Gretchen to see where she was at. (Btw there is a great tip, if you can't find your support crew, just ask to borrow somebody’s phone)Unfortunately at the same time AZ used the cell phone the national anthem started playing and you should have seen the people giving AZ the evil eye for talking on the phone, Sorry everyone it was an emergency. Gretchen got the goggles to AZ with about 5 mins to spare.

As for the race, I was planning on swimming a 1:20-1:25. I wasn't afraid of contact so I setup just outside the markers a little back. The gun went off and everything you hear about the mass swim start is true, what a freak show, 2400 bodies all over the place. I can't say I enjoyed but it made me swim a little harder for space. I found a few clear pockets here and there but for most of the time I was touching somebody else. The corners were a cage match. I was surprised that the buoys weren't bigger; it was difficult to sight the markers through the arms and legs of other swimmers. My first lap was 37 mins, really happy with that. The second lap was about the same as the first, sick of touching people and getting touched. About 1/4 through the second lap my left calf cramped up and I had to stop and punch on it for a second, it didn't help, I flexed it as hard as I could and slapped it against the water, it started to loosen but every time I went to kick harder it started to wince so I just dragged it in. I finished in 1:15 much better than I thought and felt really good. I staggered up on the beach but didn't fall. Saw Gretchen’s Brother, Kirk, it’s nice to bring tall people to support you; they are much easier to see.

T1

Comments:

I don't know if I missed it but I didn't see tubs to rinse my feet off so it took me an extra couple of mins to scrape the sand off. In my defense I didn’t go into the changing tent because people were putting their stuff on outside. I went to the bathroom and I was off, cleaning off my feet really took me took long. T1 7:32.

   Bike

Comments:

I got onto the bike at the line, with my gloves in my mouth, I turned the first corner and my bento box came open and all my gels, crustables and back meds came shooting out. I stopped, put my bike down and ran back in between bikers to grab my stuff. At this point my stomach started feeling really bloated. Didn't know why (I actually think I do, I had those power bites, crustables and mojo bar for breakfast…..too much fiber) went for another 10 miles and it still hurt. It wasn't until I got some food in again that it started feeling a little better at mile 12.
I have two herniated disks in my back and it usually bothers me on the ride. To overcome the pain I do a few things, first I bought a Road bike (Trek 2.1 H3) instead of a tri bike. The road bike helps me sit up a little higher and I can stay on the hoods. I also concentrate on staying out of the aero bars for the first hour or so. This coupled with using a generic form of Capsaicin seems to help. By the 2nd or 3rd hour I can ride pretty comfortably in the aerobars.
I am not a terrible biker but certainly better at swimming than biking so I was prepared for the parade of bikers that started going past. Fortunately I had done other halfs where this happened before so mentally I was prepared to get passed a lot, just kept reminding myself I wasn’t competing against them. I had written ENJOY in big letter on my aero bottle as a reminder as well as ELS (easy light strong)((also the miles of the big hills on the bike)). The bike went really well the hills although difficult make the ironman a better story. I was hoping to average 16.5 and ended up doing 17.3. I think I would have done a lot better I mean a lot better if I didn't have to go to the bathroom practically every aid station, must have gone at least 5 times on the ride, very annoying. Dumb water and Perform probably lost at least 8 mins in the porta johns. Speaking of Perform, actually liked it quite a bit didn’t leave the heavy taste like Gatorade.

Once the stomach issue went away I felt good, I went into the IM with mantra to evaluate everything after the race, I was going to stay positive and it was working. I could tell when I started feeling sour I wasn't eating enough and I quickly downed a gel. Probably had about 6 gels, two packages of cliff bites, one crustable in the special needs and a couple of some mini snicker bars. Also went through a bottle of Perform every 10 miles.

About mile 40 I felt like something wasn't right with my peddling I looked down and my left peddle was actually sliding off the pedal spindle. I immediately went to freaking out mode, thought my IM was about over. I stopped and unclipped as easy as I could, the pedal was just simply sliding off the spindle, I have the LOOK style pedals the actual pedal was intact it was just sliding off. So from there on out I just concentrated on keeping my left foot tight against the crank. I thought about flagging down an aid scooter but I figured I might as well just keep going until something tragic happened. Don't know if that was the good play but I got through the ride and only had to stop a couple of times to slide the pedal closer.

T2

Comments:

Coming into T2, the transition went pretty well. The only thing was I had to go to the bathroom again. Sersiouly like 6 times at this point. The other thing I noticed it started getting warm. Right before I went to T2, I took a couple of the Hammer Salt pills, don't know if they worked but I figured it couldn't hurt.

   Run

Comments:

If you would have asked me at mile one if I would have been running at mile 2 I would have told you, you were out of your mind. It seemed like it got a lot hotter once I started the run, the sun was bright no cloud cover. The crowd support was really great in town. I was targeting a sub 5 hour marathon. So I was trying to keep my splits around 10:30s, figuring I was going to need some slack towards the end. The first trip out to the TA went uneventful, Mount Suck A Lot (SAL) wasn’t completely sucky but pretty close, and the nice part was that it offered shade. I stuck to eating gels, cliff bites and chewing on ice between aid stations. I grabbed my special needs bags which had crustable and mini candy bars, all of which were way too hot to eat but I tried. Outside of the special needs bag my nutrition planned seemed to work until mile 17ish, the split started to slide to 11:30s, Mount SAL loomed in the horizon, the weather started getting hot and one aid station didn't have ice. Just about that time I ran into AZ, we talked for a little while and decided to get in the best we could. Walked up Mount SAL, and only lost like 2 mins as compared to the previous time. From there pretty much ran to trees, telephone poles and aid stations. Probably could have had a sub 13 if I really wanted it but at that point the difference between a sub 13 and a little over didn't really bother me at all. I could have pushed it to the finish line but I decided that I might as well hold it back and just have a little more fun, really glad I did.

Talked with AZ and a few other Bibs on the way in, but really kept to myself for the most part but made sure to say thank you to everyone who cheered for me. I was wearing sunglasses until about mile 25 (didn't want those in the finisher photo) took them off and hung them on my back. Coming down Sherman AZ and I decided to finish together. Glad we did, we spent a lot of time training together and it was fitting that we finished together. Half way down Sherman, I twisted my race belt forward and my sunglasses came off, wasn't about to turn around and pick them back up, Sunglasses I barely knew ye. Coming into Sherman my arms were waving and I was pretty stoked, in recollection I don't really remember the crowd or the cheering, I just remember going through the Finishing shoot and stopping and thinking it is really over? What a great experience! I met my 1st goal of having fun and finishing with a smile on my face. My quads really burned but not enough to think that I'm not going to do it again.

Post race

Warm down:

Saw the family after I finished, Gretchen was really emotional. We shared hugs through the fence, I went to get a massage but I had a brand new student and it wasn't much, but it was nice just to lie down. There was little Caesars pizza but I didn't feel like eating. The family had collected our bikes along with our bags. We took some pics and we headed to the car. It would have been nice to stick around to Midnight to watch the last finishers and had it just been Gretchen and I think we would have but my kids were troopers and they had already been there 13 hours, so we headed to the hotel and ordered pizza at midnight.
I was very blessed to have so much support there, between my family, I had Gretchen’s sister, brother, his finance, her parents and our neighbors. I wasn’t ever alone on the course and it helped. To all of you my heartfelt thank you and for those of you who followed me on line thanks for your well wishes.

Total Time 13:06, which if you look at the result book puts me just better than 50% of those who started.  So on this day I was an a little bit better than the average Ironman.

Final thoughts before IMCDA 2011

By this time its late May early June 2011.  I have stuck to my training program, in fact probably have done more training than I had planned but I didn't want AZ to put more hours in than me.

I think I have a good perspective, I know that I am not going to qualify for Kona, and I am OK with that.  I have done enough races to realize that I might beat some people out of the water, but for the better part of the day I am going to passed and I am OK with that.  In fact my big mantra was "evaluate the race after its over"  so basically don't get to low and don't get to high, keep it steady Freddy.  ELS Easy Light Strong.

Because I had done the training my thoughts started turning towards finishing time, my hope was sub 13 hours..........

About 18 weeks before Ironman CDA, I was at the Airport

I was flying from MSP to ORD, good time to catch up on reading and I had my Going Long book with me. Just so happens the guy sitting next to me notices the book I am reading and he asks if I am doing the IM. I say that I signed up for IMCDA and he tells me that he is about to compete in IM Arizona. I am ask him how the training is going and he says hes sick of it and says that he just plain sick of the training and the commitment. Kind of a downer, evidently he had done the IM Florida a couple of years ago and DNF because of 4 flat tires. I asked him if he had a time goal, he said he just wanted to finish. His big issue was that he was kind of big (so he said) he said he was 6ft and 220lbs. (made me feel bad because I am just 10lbs less). His big thing was the bike, if he could get off the bike by 5:30pm he would be happy. (didn't get his name so don't know if he ever made it)

This is how the training for IMCDA really went

I told you in the previous post how I thought the whole training program was going to happen.  Well.....It didn't.

Here is how it went.  I bought several books on Ironman training, Going Long, Triathlon Bible, Ironman program by Ironman.  And they were all good books, I really enjoyed the Going Long book.  They were all very in depth and used big words and got into the science of astro physics or something like that.  So after careful consideration I took a piece of all of them and created my own.

All the books recommended that you make your big run for the week on a different day than your big bike.  This wasn't going to work for me for a couple of reasons.  I have a wife and kids and I just didn't have the time during the week to go on a 3-4 hour bike ride.  That coupled with the fact that I was nervous about not being able to finish, led me to do exactly what most books recommend you don't do and that is make Saturday a big day.  My idea was to put the big bike and run together on the same day to build my confidence so that as I got closer to game day I knew I could put everything together.

I basically had about about 25 weeks, I trained anywhere from 8-12 hours a week for the first 15 weeks.  The next 10 weeks I trained anywhere from 10-18 hours depending on the week.  The last ten weeks I created a A,B,C level week which concluded on a super Saturday, C being the the lightest.  So week 11 was a C workout, the week concluded on Saturday with 30m Swim/1H Bike/1 hour Bike.  The next week would be a B workout and the the times and length would be a little longer and then same with the A workouts the following week.  The next C workout would be a little more difficult than the previous C workout plan and I built from there.  My biggest Saturday being 2M swim/80M bike/18M run.  Depending on the week, it would range like this Monday 1-1.5H/Tuesdays 1.5H/Weds 2H/Thursday 1.5H/Friday 1H/Saturday 2-8H/Sunday always off.

I ended up doing a lot of Brick workouts and concentrated on hitting the bike and then at least running for 10 mins.  What I said about the whole swimming thing, well that was a lie (although I didn't know it at the time).  Swimming was a good way to break up the treadmills and spin classes. (I did a lot of spin classes).  In retrospect I probably was correct in my time prognostication about the swim I did a lot training in the pool but in the end it probably only saved me 5-10 mins in the end.  It was taking me about 1:18m for a lap when I started at the end I was close to 1:13m.

AZ and I were lucky to find quite a few century rides as IMCDA approached and I started feeling comfortable doing around 16.5MPH average. 

The run I thought I would be able to hold it to a 4:45 marathon.

And for the next 10 weeks everything really went as I had planned, the nerves started going away as the workouts got checked off and I didn't feel very nervous.

My initial Program (September 2010) This is how I thought it was going to go

(authors note, this was I thought I was going to do back in September 2010)

The way I figure it, IMCDA is end of June 2011. I start the official training as of January 2nd 2011 (that's about 25 weeks out). My training plan is hybrid of marathon training, biking and strength training. I don' t mention swimming for a couple of reasons. First, I think one of my strengths is going to be the swim portion. I don't anticipate any issue doing the 2.4 mile swim. Although I have never done it before, its not the leg I am worried about. Realistically I won't be any faster in comparison to the other legs, its just that I am not really worried about it. Fat floats, I can swim a long time, its boring, I don't love it but I think I can do it. Second, is that even if I spend a ton of time in the pool I am guessing it would save me maybe 10-15 minutes. Instead of taking the recommended 2-3 time a week in the pool my plan is to just spend once a week in the pool and taking the remaining swim time and turn it into strength/cross training. Its cold here in Minnesota and the only place to swim from September to May is in the pool and nothing says boring like a long swim turning around every 25 yards. My other thought is that worst come to worst is that I can cram for the swim in May and June.

I

Hitting the sign up Button

After considerable deliberation I hit the sign up button for IMCDA.  I can honestly tell you I felt like I could have puked that whole evening.  Maybe it was the fact that I just committed to $600 of pain, I don't enjoy spending money, but to spend it on inflicting pain on myself that takes the nausea to a whole new level.  It could have been that I was still nursing an injury or what I think it really was......I didn't know that I could do it.

Introduction #2 (Takes place about September 2010)

Before I agreed to give my time, talents and money to IM Inc. I had some reservations. First of which, was that I am nursing a bit of a Achilles Tendon issue. I think my tendon issue was a direct use of using the elliptical machine, I like these machines because they get the HR up but don't put the pounding on the body. On the other hand I was having problems with my feet falling asleep while using it. When I would get done with my  workouts my AT was really sore the next day but I thought, its got to be the good sore. Well it wasn't. I tried resting it for a good 3 months, but then went back to light running and I was right back to where I was three months prior. I started physical therapy.

Aren't you tired of going to the dentist and the dental hygienist gives you the lecture on flossing? Well I got the Physical Therapist equivalent. I don't like stretching, when I make a concentrated effort to stretch it seems like in the past it didn't help. But the therapist insisted, I complied, it didn't help. I can't touch toes, in fact I am probably a good 8 inches on the bad side of grabbing my little piggies. I was going to therapy at least once a week for about 8 weeks, getting a massage and ultra sounds. Nothing really helped until I got Ionoto treatments (they inject medicine onto a pad and slap it on your tendon and plug the pad into an outlet, and shock it into you.) That seemed to help, although its better its only about 90%. My hope is that good stretching and continuing PT will help me get through.

My AT continued to stay tight all throughout my training but they never snapped.  I tried to stretch as much as I could but the Tendon to this day is still sore to the touch.

Average Ironman? More than I knew......

You tell me am I the average first time Ironman.....

6ft-210lbs.

Been active pretty much my whole life However..........after I got married fell into some bad habits like eating a lot and not excercising and got up to 245 lbs. My wife and I then started running together, and collected more 5k shirts than I could count. (1999) The 5ks begat 10ks which begat half marathons, which begat full marathons.   Here are my times:

2002 Chicago 5:00 (I ran my first marathon probably at 230 lbs)

2004 Chicago 4:45

2006 Whistle Stop 4:30

2007 Grandmas 5:45 (Ill tell you the story later)

2009 Twin Cities 4:15 (220 lbs)
( I feel there is a sub 4 in me somewhere.)

Sprinkled in there were sprint and olypmic triathlons from all over the Midwest but the last one I did was back in 2003.  But just like most of you wantabee Ironmans I saw the NBC coverage of Ironman Kona and I knew I wanted to participate.

So that brings us to the present (sort of), you know how you secretly have a goal and you start telling people about it in hopes that the more you say it the more you are inclined to do it? Well for the last 5 years I would sneak into conversations that I wanted to do the IM before I was 40. Well up until about September 2010 nobody either cared or knew what I was talking about so I was pretty much talking about the dream but not doing anything about it. Well I made the wonderful mistake of telling a buddy of mine AZ that I wanted to do an IM, well I got a call from him about 2 weeks later saying, lets to the IMCDA. CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've been caught.

Intro #1

By way of introduction let me start this way, my name is Jason my friends call me Jason.  I am the type of person that doesn't like going into Triathlon stores.  Everytime I walk in I leave feeling as though I don't belong in this sport.  It could be becasue I am in my late thirties and am about 20 lbs overwieght but I grow tired of walking into a bike shop and feeling as though becasue I am not prepared to walk out with a 3k bike that perhaps I am not allowed to participate in Triathlons. (On the other hand to show you my athletic snobery I am also annoyed when people ask how long was your marathon, uh hello, marathon.....) I do things like marathons and triathllons becasue I hate standing on the sidelines and watching other people do things that if I really put my mind to it I could do to.