#6 Training update-Injury History

Well so far so good as far as sticking to the training program.  Haven't really cheated on it yet.  This week I am supposed to do 2Hrs of biking and 1Hr of running but that will get scaled back.  Don't need to be doing that much at one time.  Also running isn't really running right now its more walking.  My knee is still bothering me and my plantar factitious is starting to creep back in.  I really need to see a specialist about this.  I will call tomorrow. Also my calves are really an issue.  I wore braces as a kid to help stretch my heel cords.  I was one of those kids that walked on their toes.  I am very careful to start a training session slowly.  I am however awful at stretching.  Ok you remember when I said I was keeping to my training program, well that was a lie.  I haven't spent any time doing the yoga or stretching, need to get better about that.


Over the last 5 years I have torn my Achilles and received physical treatment.  In addition I tore my calf, grade 3, some bruising but back to physical therapy.  If I had to bet something will tear or be pulled when this is all over.

#5 1st week of training

First week went well


I don't think you are really interested on what I did.  But I did more walking than running.  When I went on my runs I felt a small twinge on the outside of my right knee.  Felt the same thing when I was playing hockey on the pond.  I am little concerned but I don't need to be in a hurry to put mileage on at this point.  My training equipment pretty much consists on an old Nordic Track treadmill that has to be 16 years old.  I can't run on it ( I am to big) in fact I broke the platform on it 10 years ago and replaced it.  I don't really even walk on it anymore, the distance doesn't work and I am pretty sure the speed is really off.  But when the weather gets below 10 below that is the only option.  More often not as long as the roads are runnable I will got outside rather than be inside. 


I could join a gym but the only reason I would use it is for the treadmill.  If I can get through January/February then I think I might pass joining the gym. 

#4 Swim training

If you have followed my training plan you will notice that I don't have swimming listed as part of my training.  Simply put I can slip in swim workouts here and there.  Second reason is if there is one part of IM that I do better than the average is swim.  Both my IM swims have been 70-75mins.  The pros are doing 50-60mins.  So how much time do you spend in training trying to lose 15 mins when I need to lose 1 hour on the bike and 2 hours on the run? To me not a whole lot.  Plus swimming is deathly boring.  I did get a water proof Ipod to alleviate the boredom and without that I wouldn't swim at all. 

#3 Training Plan

Briefly let me touch on the training plans for the my last couple of Ironmans.  Essentially Sundays Off, Monday 1.5Hr of either running or biking and then I would repeat that for Monday-Thursday and then Saturdays were big days either long runs or long bikes or both.  As a newbie I was very concerned about making sure I could do the distance so I spent a lot of time getting in a lot of mileage and never focused on strength or speed.  In fact purposely never went hard hard in training because I am a little bigger and was afraid of injury.  Never spent time on speed work really either.


So a little different approach for IM3.
-Mondays a small brick work out (that will be the theme) 1B/1R, so 1 hour of bike and then running.
-Tuesday a hard day of biking not distance but strength. 
-Weds Cross training, like lifting or hockey or something other than IM like training. 
-Thursdays Stretching and Yoga.  I am tight as a rubber band, honest to goodness you have never met anyone less flexible than me.  My Achilles and Calves have been to multiple doctors and physical therapists.  So we are trying to make a concerted effort to make those muscles long.
-Friday brick work but with a twist it will be about 1.5 times bigger than the brick on Monday
-Saturday same brick as Friday.  My hope is that doing the bricks back to back make my legs tired going into the second day so that I get more out of it without having to put in more time.
Sundays-Rest


*Its all subject to change but I will build for a couple of weeks and then make it a light week and then slowly build again and repeat. 

#2 More intro

Gretchen and I chose IM Wisconsin because its relatively close to home.  We live just south of Minneapolis so instead of driving 20+ hours to other IM now it will only be 6.  Because misery loves company in addition to Gretchen, her brother Kirk and Fiancé, Susan will also be joining us in from Utah.  Both are first time IM distance participants.  The race is scheduled for early September and training officially started for me January 1st.  Today it was 5 Degrees, I ran today and my eyelids froze shut. 

#1 Redo the intro

A little about myself.  I am 43, male, 6ft and 240lbs.  I have participated in triathlons, marathons, and other ons.  I have always been active but have never been in the shape that I really wanted.  My 1st Ironman (CDA) I was about 200lbs that was the best shape of my life.  Which was back in 2003.  For Ironman Texas I was about 210lb.  Not bad but not great.  I only mention this to give you some back ground to the four reasons that I am doing IM Wisconsin.




First-I felt as though people looked at me and say well shoot if that guy can do an Ironman I can to.(I will talk about the flight to Las Vegas down the road to illustrate)  I don't want to be the lowest common denominator.  Look I am smart enough to know that just accomplishing an IM particularly two (the second to validate that the first one) wasn't easy.  I am not looking to take away anyone else's accomplishment this isn't about you its about me.   I don't need to qualify for KONA I just need to do an Ironman where I am in Kona-ish like shape.  Once that happens I think I can let it go. 




Second-My Wife is participating in her first Ironman.  She has seen me cross the finish line a couple of times now and she has been bitten.  I want to be on the course with her so that we can share this together.




Third-My kids, they are 13/15/17 and this makes them proud of me.  Nothing makes you feel better as a father then when you kids look up to you.  The older they get the harder that is to do.




Fourth-I spent IM Texas spending half the race telling myself I couldn't do it.  I persevered and the fact that I got it done in awful heat was a great experience.  I really dug deep and found the strength not to give up.  Something I am very proud of.  What I am not proud of is that I spent to much time telling myself this sucks and not enough time enjoying it.  I am looking at IM Wisconsin to embrace that fact that I can do it and that I should enjoy every minute of it.

Ironman Texas 5-19-2012

Ironman Texas 5-19-2012

Disclaimer: Before we get started I need to say that the weather conditions in MSP leading up to IMTX at best were Lows 80s.  I read an article from a magazine I picked up at the expo that said that in order to acclimate to warmer weather you need to do approximately 100 mins of exercise outside for 10 straight days.…….That didn’t happen.

 

Disclaimer #2: This is a long read, if you want to skip to the race itself, just look for the RACE DAY title.  The stuff between here and there is just my journaling up until the last and dreadful day.

And so it begins…………….Having learned from our expensive road trip last year, the Butts family rented a car this year for our trip from the north pole to the south pole of America.  Why we hadn’t done this on other trips like visiting Gretchen’s family and other assorted dashes across the country I do not know.  We packed up the kids in the Chevy Traverse, which had three rows of seating, so there wasn’t so much of “he’s touching me.”  We left right after school on Tuesday the 15th, about 5pm and headed south.  All in all the drive went pretty smoothly.  We hit a patch between Tulsa and Dallas that had us take a highway that had stop lights but we arrived at about 9am Weds morning after 17 long dark hours.  I do have to brag on my boys, they travel awesome, 17 hours in a seat belt and not one real complaint.

Weds morning found us in the Woodlands TX, 30 min north of Houston.  They advertise the woodlands as a master community; don’t know what that really means.   The Woodlands had a pretty river walk, expensive shops, and nicer places to eat.  A trendy city I suppose, very clean much more wooded than I expected.  So in keeping with the trendy style we went to have breakfast at McDonalds.

After Mcds, we headed to the Expo, it was held in the parking lot adjacent to what would be the finish line.  They had more vendors that IMCDA, but standing outside for just 30 mins at 11am you could tell that the heat was way different than MSP.  I picked up my race # and IM swag; they gave us cool looking backpacks this year, far superior to the lame zip bags we got at CDA.  We walked around the expo for about 45 mins bought some shirts at the IM store. (Wouldn’t have done that last year, but because I had already finished an IM, I felt like I could buy anything I wanted, except for an IMTX finisher shirt, that would be bad JUJU.)  We went back to see if the hotel was ready for check in, it wasn’t so we got a recommendation for BBQ, a place called McKenzie’s in Conroe. It had a cool atmosphere, you could tell it’s where the locals ate but honestly it wasn’t even on par with Famous Daves.  After lunch we had some time before check in so we drove what we could of the run course.

We checked into the hotel about 3ish and got unpacked and then went to play in the outside pool.  I tried to be conscience of being outside too much and threw on a ton of sun screen.  After the pool we grabbed a bite to eat over at the Cheesecake factory.  (Tyler is no longer eating off the kid’s meal which is a killer increase on the bill.)  We went back to the hotel and crashed.

Thursday morning -AZ had flown into Houston Weds late night, so he came over to the hotel about 9:30am and we headed to the expo.  He picked up his new bag, which included an IMTX license plate cover and swim cap, neither of which were in my bag.  GRRRRR IMTX!  Found out that the swim cap I could get when I checked the bike in and I was too much of a wussy to ask about the license plate cover.  The family with AZ in tow cruised the expo for a little while and then headed out to drive the bike course.   One of the nice parts of CDA was the bike course was 2 loops so you only had to drive 56 miles to get the full affect.  The IMTX bike ride was one long 112 lap.  The kids quickly remembered that driving the bike course last year kind of stunk weren’t pleased to learn that this year it was going to take twice as long.  The bike course headed north from The Woodlands and the predominant wind as it would be on race day was at our back for the first 40 miles.  The course upon review was flat as pancake from the car perspective, certainly nothing close to the elevation changes at IMCDA.  The roads for the most part were in decent shape.  As we headed back south the wind was in our face, but nothing terrible.  AZ and I heard about this dreaded chip seal, which is basically like a resurface treatment used for roads that they are trying to extend the life of before they completely rip it up, they used it for about 7 miles, as we drove the car over it didn’t seem that bad at all.  We got back into town, AZ and I set up the bikes and we took an hour long bike ride just to get a feel for the course.  We grabbed dinner at a New Orleans restaurant in downtown.   AZ and I then headed over to the course talk.  At the talk they went over the normal rules about drafting, I needled AZ because he got a penalty last year for it.  They covered the fact that the swim would be wetsuit optional, meaning because the water temp was between 76-84 degrees those who wish to start in a wetsuit would start 10 mins later than those who did not.  It would also mean that those who swam in a wetsuit would not be eligible for IM Kona slots; I wasn’t concerned about Kona so I had already decided to swim the race with a wetsuit.  They reviewed the course and minor changes, nothing to exciting.  After the Mandatory Course talk, AZ and I walked past their open air pavilion and Dave Matthews was doing his sound check for the concert they were doing Friday night.

Friday morning AZ and I headed over to the swim practice at the lake.  One of the things I forgot to mention was that on Thursday while AZ and I were out on our bikes we stopped by the swim start which had the buoys out for the practice swim.  One of the athletes was saying he thought the buoys out there marked the whole entire course, AZ and disagreed but he stuck to his guns.  Fast-forward to Friday morning, we got there about 8am and decided why mess up the wetsuits so we decided just to swim in our tri shorts.  We swam the course that they had marked on Thursday and got done and found out it that it was only a 1000 meters, basically a 3^rd of the course. (I wonder what our over estimated friend was feeling).

 

By Friday Morning AZ family had arrived so after the practice swim, we caravanned out to the bike course and the kids and the wives chalked the bike course with inspirational messages.  We headed back to the pool after a lunch of Chick Fillet and swam a little bit.  We headed over to dinner early and grabbed pizza, it was while I was downing my second piece of pizza that the terror of what I was going to do the next day set it.  I don’t remember getting nearly as nervous at IMCDA, I think I felt more prepared, but because I had suffered the calf injury early in my training, I had doubts.  I was in a dark place for 15 mins or so, nauseated.  It lasted until we got up and we headed back to the hotel .

 

RACE DAY:

Got up at 5am, actually slept pretty well thank you Tylenol PM, I think that helped take the nervous edge off.  I got up and immediately went to the hotel fridge and wolfed down two uncrustables and had a cup or two of PowerAde.  Got my nutrition ready, kissed the kids and wife goodbye, who were already getting up to get a good spot to view the swim start.  AZ and Robyn picked me up at the hotel at 5:30am and we headed to the transition area.  I loaded my water bottle with powerade in the front and water down below.  The transition area was really dark so it was tough to pump up the tires to right PSI without having to flash my watch at the PSI gauge to make sure I was putting in the right amount.  I heard at least one tire pop and you could hear the group of athletes just grown, sorry for the guy it happened to but relieved that it wasn’t any of us.  We walked to the swim start which is about an 8^th of a mile and got there probably about 6:30 plenty of time to stretch and get body marked.  Then the first curve ball was thrown.  While I was getting my body marking done the volunteered mentioned that I wasn’t allowed to wear my compression socks on the swim.  I said no that can’t be right because I would be swimming with my wetsuit on.  She wasn’t sure, I had prepared to wear the compression socks (which by the way I purchased just for this race, because of my calf injury from early this year) About 10 mins later, Mike Reilly the PA announcer for the IM, made the announcement that absolutely no compression wear could be worn period during the swim, well thanks a lot IMTX for the heads up, would have been nice if you would have covered that at the mandatory course talk or athletes guide(in reading other peoples race report apparently this was mentioned to during the course talk, but it wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the athletes’ guide.)  There is $60 I had to put back in my morning clothes bag.   Fortunately for me I had packed an extra but far more beat up pair in my Bike transition bag so I knew I wasn’t completely hosed.  AZ and I spent some time stretching, a lot by our standards but not nearly enough by others in preparation for the start.  At about 6:45 they played the national anthem followed quickly by thunderstruck the mojo was starting to flow.   I can’t express the excitement that you feel at the start; nerves are tingling, itching to go.  The Pros went off at 6:50 and the non wetsuit age groupers were to start at 7am, Mike Reilly was yelling for everyone to get in the water so that everyone was in by the time the gun went off, but several swimmers not willing to tread water for any extra time than they had to just sat in the corral looking down at their watches.  The gun went off promptly at 7am.  AZ and I headed into the water at about 7:05.  We swam out to essentially the middle and up towards the front.  I christened my wetsuit, if you know what I mean, and then proceeded to pull down my front collar and scoop in some water to flush everything through.  In fact since we had gotten to the swim start I probably visited the Honey Hole 3 times to flush the powerade.  I looked over at AZ we wished each other luck and it was time to start.

Swim:

The Gun went off, and it was crotch kicking, nail flying, free for all.  Because I started towards the front of the wave it wasn’t nearly as bad as it was at CDA, don’t get me wrong it sucked but it didn’t suck as bad as CDA.  The flesh ripping was tough for the first quarter mile, and then I started catching the poorer swimmers from the non wetsuit division.  Several times I just swam between to two people where there really wasn’t a space but what are you going to do, swim around, nay nay.  I am not a brute out there I don’t do anything on purpose but I don’t swim around people or wait.  For the first half mile I was feeling tired, my muscle strained but I knew from enough swimming that this is common for me that either Ill slow down or my muscle will get used to it.  About probably around mile 1 I was feeling pretty good.  I was having a hard time seeing the course buoys but by this time we were heading back to the start before the turn down the canal so I just focused on swimming straight at the bridge that we started under. 

I think I will call them turtles; these are the swimmers that decide to stop right in the middle of the swim to sight, fix goggles or rest.  Couple the turtles with Lake Woodlands being the muddiest lake I have ever swam in (you can only see about to your elbow).  This perfect storm happened to me around 1.5m.   Some guy stopped right in front of me and just as I am almost at his side he decided to get started again and kicked me right in the chest.  All the air goes out from my lungs, I completely stop.  This torked me off a little so I swam “strong” and swam right over his side.  He then in turn decided to put hit elbow in the middle of my back and hold it there……..well played fellow age grouper.  We parted ways no harm, but plenty of foul.   At around 2 miles while I was trying to sight the buoys I started having a neck pain.  Apparently while I was christening my wetsuit earlier I might have folded the swim collar on my wetsuit and it was rubbing against my neck instead of laying flat, it was really starting to tear flesh.  The rest of the swim went pretty uneventful, we swam into the canal and at one point I could feel the bottom with my fingers.  I looked over at one spot and could see the kids and Gretchen and AZ’s family, I gave them the thumbs up between strokes, and it was great to see them.  I thought for sure I was hauling, I really thought man, I am getting out of the water and going to crush my CDA time which was 1:15:58, I reached the swim out and looked down at my watch 1:14, and I said out loud are your frickin kidding me?  It was a good swim probably couldn’t have done it any better.

T1:

 I don’t know what happened I had planned to get through the transition much faster than IMCDA .  The swim out to where you pick up your bags, to where you get on your bike seemed much further than did at CDA.  IT also took me a while to get on my backup Calf sleeves and make sure that I got covered in sunscreen.  All this took me 7min, about the same time as CDA but I really thought it was going to go faster.

 

Bike

I was hauling butts for the first 40 miles, the course was flat didn’t seem like there was any wind, I was even whistling at one point.  My plan/hope was that the sun wasn’t going to catch up to me on the bike and for the first 40 miles it didn’t.   What did catch up to me is the liquid that I had been dutifully drinking, about mile 40 my kidneys were about to shut down.  Keep in my mind the reason I tell you this is because last year at CDA I had to pee probably and I am not kidding, 6 times on the bike which probably added 15 mins to my bike time.  Well at 40 miles I couldn’t hold it anymore and I decided that I would go at the aid station, well when I rode by there were 3 guys in line already, so I decided forget this I am not going to stop.  Well that feeling lasted about another 2 miles and I pulled over and “took a picture.”  This was only the beginning.  At about mile 45 we started heading west and off to my left I could see the grass bent sideways coming at me.  I knew that when we started heading south the wind was going to be a factor.  I have been doing this enough to know that just because you feel good doesn’t mean you won’t feel bad and vice versa.  Well for the first 40 or so miles I was feeling good, the next 20 I was feeling ok.  At mile 55 I had to take another picture which I thought was odd, but oh well. (Quick observation there is some type of mystical voodoo that up until mile 60 or so you feel like the morning is just flying by and that IM is kind of fun and you might finish early, and then about mile 70 on the bike it feels like you have been out there all stinking day.  At mile 60 I was starting to feel pretty cruddy, the heat was bearing down, it was about noon and I was feeling like crap.  To make matters more fun I was heading south the wind was directly in my face although not terrible it really sucked at times.  Without getting into the rules  of drafting the idea is that you have to stay about 4 bike lengths behind the person in front of you and if you do get into this  area you have to pass the person ahead of you.  Well as the course of the race goes on its quite possible that you pass and get passed by the same people time and time again.  It just so happened this was going on with me and another women,   she was faster on the flats and I was better on the hills, so we played leap frog for several miles.  At one point while I was trying to pass her on a hill, I just ran out of steam and fell back, she turned and me and said something and I asked her what she said, she said you are drafting me, you are not allowed to do that.  At this point it was mile 70ish, and I yelled back worry about your own race and go ahead then.  It would have been one thing if we were on the flats but somehow me being behind her for 1 minute was throwing her IM off.  If that is your biggest issue of the day, go buy a lottery ticket.  Also about this time I could feel the world ending the sun was beating down, I was sticking to my game plan about drinking and eating but I was just feeling terrible.  Just about that time AZ with sunshine coming out his backend goes roaring past me, yelling he’s feeling great and that the wind doesn’t even bother him.  I tried to crush his throat with my Vader mind trick but he survived.  Also about this time we hit the chip seal, and although it didn’t feel like anything in the car, it felt like riding on cobble stone, my front water bottle buzzed for 10 miles.  I don’t know where but at some point I saw the family out on the course, it was great to see their smiling faces and I am blessed to have a wife who understands how important this is.  Around mile 80 I started getting what they call hot foot or needles in feet, my feet felt like I had blood pooling in my shoes, it killed so I just kept trying to wiggles my little piggies.  About miles 85 I took another picture, I have lost count by now but it’s probably the 4^th pic I have taken.  Mile 85 is bringing all the heat and I have realized that this isn’t going to be the banner day I was hoping for, just too much heat.  No one was going to be blame me for just finishing today, I saw several guys sitting under the shade trees just trying to cool down, I so wanted to be one of them.  At mile a million or somewhere there about, there was a volunteer holding a red flag, and for a second I thought holy crap they are calling the race because of the heat, when I rolled by I asked him what the flag meant, he said that we need to go single file for a little while because traffic was bad.   (Let me chime in here and say something to sports nutrition companies.  Why in the world do you make your packaging so difficult to open while exercising?  I had to open several Gu Chomps with my teeth, I tried several times to open with my fingers but they were either sticking with perform or slick from sweat, rework your packaging!)  Anyway back to the ride.   Let’s do some math; 112 miles minus 90miles leaves……..you’re nowhere near the end dude.  It might look like it on paper but I can tell you even the last 12 miles takes your average biker another 45 mins or so.  So even when you think you are close, you ain’t.  I saw several post accident scenes, athletes lying in the road with blood on their faces, ambulances on scene, and I thought at least they get to ride in an air conditioned ambulance.  The last 20 miles of the bike I just wanted to stop and get off, it wasn’t any fun and I had no hope of being able to run a fast marathon, but although I was feeling lousy, hot and nauseated I was still ridding and going the right direction.  I was so happy to get off the bike but had no clue what the run was going to hold.  Bike 6:21, 8 mins faster than IMCDA.

T2:

Having pretty much gone into survival mode I wasn’t burning up the transition,  as I sat in the change tent with the other naked  bingo flabby armed men, I put on my shoes…. slowly and asked a volunteer to clean my sunglasses on their shirt, for I had no dry spot left on my person. Another 7 min rest stop, not good.

Run, sort of:

My strategy was to get through the first loop as strong as I could try to do the best with the second loop and I could care less what happens on the 3^rd loop, It wasn’t like I was going to not finish but at this point I was looking forward to walking the last loop.  The course was HOT, but flat, actually the course and the volunteers were great, the canal area, was packed with people, at one section it felt almost tour de France like.  For the most part the first lap was all in the sun expect for a section out east and when you went behind some building on the west.  I got on the first lap about 3pm so pretty much at the peak of the 92 degree day.   I had done a good job taking my salt pills and putting ice under my hat, and I was still peeing every hour at least.  The laps although progressively slower they got progressively less painful and although you wouldn’t know it from looking at my time I ran from aid station to aid station, no walking in between.  Lap 3 finally came and I started focusing on finishing, sadly the whole entire day I had wasted my energy on thinking about how sucky this was rather than focusing on finishing.  By lap 3 my quads were barking but I knew I had only 8 miles to go.  The whole entire marathon I was protecting myself by taking it nice and easy, by mile 23 I started feeling pretty good and started passing a lot of people, I lengthened my stride and grit my teeth.  One of my pre race strategies was to collect race #s and talk to people and then see their results when I was finished but I didn’t chat up one person on the bike or the run, I was stone faced the whole race, I think I missed an opportunity. Regardless I looked down at my watch and realized that I had a chance to beat IMCDA time and perhaps even get under 13 hours.  I was starting to pick up the pace and it was going to be tight to get under 13 so I let it go in my mind and just focused on trying to get under IMCDA.  Well at mile 24 I had to take another picture. I think when I go back and count I must have gone 11 times from the first gunshot,   I had pretty much kissed the sub 13 goodbye and didn’t even really care about the IMCDA time.  But I got to the split where you either go on another lap or go to the finish, I turned to head to the finish and someone said you have half mile, (I think we have all been there when someone says you are almost there, or just right around the corner or you only have a half mile and it turns into what seems like another mile.) Well this time they were probably a little short because it felt like it was a couple hundred yards.  I came into down town and I was pumped.  I had completed the IM, under brutal conditions, (I hadn’t given up, and I kept grinding the whole way.  I was dare I say it very proud of myself, are their regrets, I have one I wish somehow I could of made it more fun, but that also led me to being a little prouder of the fact that I didn’t give up.  I got through the finish line gave a fist pump and Christy Wellington presented me my medal, she is undisputable current queen of the IM completion she has won Kona every year she has done it for the last 6 years.  So it was cool to get a little love from Wellington.   Run time 5:07 which was 3 min faster than IMCDA.

Conclusion:

I know the investment that my family and particularly my wife had to make for me to train for the IM, and that is why when I saw them I tried to put on a good face.   I failed miserably on the first lap of the run, I was just dying, I felt terrible and I think I told them so, which I should have kept to myself.  But on laps 2 and 3 my smile came back a little each time.  I am so happy they were there supporting me, it meant a ton.

The kids ran up to me after I got through the chute and gave me a big ole high 5, they were huge supports and they looked beat from a long day on the course.  Gretchen wasn’t nearly as emotional as she was at IMCDA I think sitting in the car and the heat took a lot out of them.  But I know she was proud of me, we pretty much skipped mother’s day and her Birth day for the IM.  I owe her.

I got a post race massage and it felt great, I wasn’t as sore this as last race but the massage was a lot better this time then it was in CDA.  After about 45 mins I had the courage to eat a burrito which was good, and drank a little chocolate milk.  The family was good enough to get our bikes and bags and we headed to the hotel, I would have liked to have stayed or come back for the midnight finishers but the kids had been up since 5am and they were destroyed, I hope to do it next time.

I liked the medal and the shirt was also a lot better than CDA.  The food more plentiful.  To critique to the event:  The swim I think was more fun than CDA just because we got to swim down the channel and see family.  The bike course was certainly easier but the crowds were more sparse.  The run I liked better than IMCDA just because it was easier and the fan support along the canal was really crazy.  I didn’t care for the weather at IMTX at all, the town although trendy was difficult to drive in and it seemed like The Woodlands wasn’t quite prepared for the traffic.  If I had to choose between the two races again I think I would do CDA, I think the town was a little bit more to my liking and they seemed happier to have you there.  But I would certainly recommend IMTX, I would just do more heat training.

I was lucky in one regard and not to get to emotional but It was great knowing that someone else was on the course with me at the same time and although AZ and I saw each only once on the bike and on the run it was nice to know I had a friend on the course.  The whole experience of training, going to the course talk, the expo, you name it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun unless I had someone to share it with.  I would highly recommend it in fact I don’t think I would ever plan to train or do an IM by myself.

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.