Back on Track

Today marks day two of my getting back to my training plan and doing the work outs prescribed for me.  The past week or so has been a bit chaotic and unpredictable.  I have struggled to find the right times to fit in the right training.  Yesterday and today have been different, I have been able to follow my training plan verbatim and it feels good to be back on track.

A few words about non-triathlon stuff, family in particular.  My wife seems to be doing a lot better, she is sleeping through the night now, with no real pain in her ankle (although she just might not be telling me).  She has a appointment with her doctor on Monday to see how soon she might be able to drive.  My daughters are being great.  My little one (hence forth to be called "The Angel") is simply perfect, such a good listener and helper.  Granted she does have her moments, but honestly she is a great kid.  My oldest (hence forth to be called "The Diva") can be superstar when she wants to be, it is just a matter of her wanting to be.  On the other hand, she is so strong willed and determined that I admire her for just that.  She is a lot like me which is why we probably clash heads sometimes....and she is only 7 years old (I don't even want to think about the years to come).

This weekend is going to be crazy.  On Saturday, I have to take our dog to the vet at 8:30AM, then "The Angel" has dance at 9:30AM, then we have soccer pictures at 1:15PM for "The Diva's" team, and from 11:00AM - 3:00PM we have "Fall Fest" at the elementary school.  I am going to have to find a two and a half hour window in there to get in my long run (probably at 5:30AM) as well as time for a one hour spin on the bike (after Fall Fest I am thinking).  Then on Sunday I am going to have to get up well before dawn (leave the house by 5:00AM) to get in my six hour BRICK (five hour ride followed immediately by a one hour run).  Why so early?  I have "The Diva's" soccer game at 1:00PM.  Yes, it is going to be a busy weekend.

Monday
I really wanted to get in my two hour run that I missed on Sunday, but the vibe in my house wasn't to friendly.  So after I got home from work and made dinner for the girls I went out for my run, what ended up being 1:28:30, about 10.5 miles.  I thought that it would be best to cut it short and get home to help get the girls into bed.  Sometimes you have to do what is best for your family.  I think this was the right choice as smiles greeted me following my post-run shower.  I was able to sit on the couch with the family and chill before the girls bedtime.

Tuesday
I was able to work from home and went out at lunch to do my swim.  Again, I had to cut it short because time was not on my side.  I still made it count, putting in 2,500m in ~49:00.  Event though it was 1,000m short, I swim hard and posted some good splits.  I considered it a good quality workout.

Around 6:00PM I went out for my run, my legs were still a bit sore from Monday which had been my first run in five days.  I opted to go for 45 minutes and sprinkle in 6 x 2 minutes (1 min jog).  I was really happy with my run, my splits during the intervals were all around 6:30/mile pace which was solid.  I ended up running 6 miles in 46:30, 7:45/mile.

Wednesday
What a busy day, literally from the moment I woke up until I shut my eyes, here is what it looked like:

• 7:00AM - 8:15AM - Start work (from home again, thank God!)
• 8:15AM - 8:25AM - Get girls on the bus
• 8:25AM - 1:00PM - Work, work, work
• 1:00PM - 2:30PM - BRICK work out (Ride: 17 miles, 1:00:00 on trainer; Run: 3.8 miles, 30:00, 7:53/mile pace)
• 2:30PM - 4:00PM - Work
• 4:00PM - 4:45PM - Pre-make dinner and work.
• 4:45PM - 6:00PM - Take "The Diva" to gymnastics, work while there.
• 6:15PM - 7:00PM - Eat dinner and quiz daughter on vocabulary
• 7:00PM - 8:15PM - Clean up and then get girls ready for bed (including shower for oldest daughter)
• 8:30PM - 9:30PM - Fold laundry, check on girls, help out my wife when asked, etc., watched "Modern Family"
• 9:45PM - I fell fast asleep while my wife watched "Cougar Town"

Today
I was up at 4:20AM, my throat was feeling really sore and I was congested.  I wasn't looking forward to swimming, but though, heck, the pool will probably clean out my sinuses.  I was in the water swimming by 5:15AM.  I did my full swim workout this morning (woo hoo!) for the first time in a week.  Total swim time:  1:09:00 (all of my sets were done under 2:00/100m...yeah!)

3,400m - 500m wu, 4 x 100m drills, 6 x (50m + 100m + 150m) @20 sec, 8 x 50m drills, 300m cd

As I thought, the swim pretty much cleared my sinuses...FYI, I do not blow snot into the pool, I have a towel on the deck into which I take care of my nasal business.

The rest of the day is going to be work, work, work.  Then when I get home I will make dinner and then run "The Diva" to her Brownie Meeting.  Once I return home I will be heading to the basement to do my 1.5 hour ride while catching up on some unwatched TV shows.  That is all for now....peace out!

Juggling Workouts

Yesterday was a difficult day for me, but not in the emotional or physical sense.  I mean it was difficult because I had to accept that I wasn't going to be able to get in my two hour long run or my 45 minute bike.  Why was I unable to get my long run in?  Well, I had agreed about a month ago to volunteer for a somewhat local Olympic distance triathlon in exchange for a discounted entry to the the half iron distance tri I am doing on October 10th.  I left my house around 5:00AM and made it to the race site by 6:00AM to help them set up the finish line and post-race buffet.  After that I was out on the bike course handing out water and Gatorade to the racers.

I ended up staying at the race site until around 11:15AM and didn't get home until around 12:30PM.  Once home I made lunch for everyone, then promised my wife I would stick around and take care of the girls since they had been coop-ed up all day while I was gone.  My wife asked if I would take them out and get my oldest some new shoes, so off I went to endure one of my least favorite activities....shoe shopping for children. 

Once home from that we had a BBQ at my neighbors house that lasted until around 8:15PM, which was then followed by me getting my girls in the shower and then finally in bed by 9:00PM.  I considered going out for my run then, but thought better of it.  It was raining, pitch black and I was just plum tuckered out from being up since 4:30AM.  I fell asleep by 10:00PM.

So, that leaves me with having to use yesterday as my rest day and packing in a two hour run when I get home tonight and then a 45 minute ride.  I feel really badly for my wife, she has this boot on her foot and she isn't really allowed to do anything.  Even though she has crutches, she isn't supposed to be going out all that much.  Add to that the fact that she can't drive and she is just miserable. 

Oh, I should write about Saturday.  I had initially intended to go for my five hour bike ride before my daughters soccer game; that is until my wife reminded me that I had to take my youngest to dance class at 9:30AM.  Bike scrapped until the afternoon.  After dance, I had to get home and go to my oldest daughters soccer game at noon.  A little side note:  the girls played AWESOME!  They played better than I have ever seen them play.  My daughter scored a goal (she shot the ball, it hit the post, then hit the goalie, then went in).  Just a really good day for all of the girls on my team. 

After the game I had to run my oldest to a birthday party before I could head out for my ride.  Thank God my wife's parents came over to watch the soccer game and see the girls!  They were able to pick up my daughter from the birthday party so that I could get a jump start on my ride.  So at 2:10PM I headed out for my ride and it was a good one.  I ended up riding to Martinsville, NJ, where I lived from the time I was 5 years old up until my mid-20's.  I stopped in front of my old house (I think it is still the same mailbox and post in the picture to the right), about the halfway point of my ride.  I was amazed to see all of the evergreen trees that had been in front of the house no longer there.  It was really sad to see.  it was a great house and I know that my parents were really sad when they sold it.  I remember thinking when I was much younger that I would one day like to buy that house and raise my family in it.  It was a nice "ride" down memory lane. 

A couple notes about the ride:

• It was HOT, like 90F HOT.  I went through three 24 oz bottles of Gatorade in two hours and 15 minutes.  I stopped and refilled them all and they lasted me another two hours.
• I had to stop at HealthQuest to fill up my bottles with water because I had nothing left for the last hour of my ride.
• I packed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for my ride.  I ate half around three hours in and it tasted so good and helped a ton.
• I felt like I finished really strong.  I think my average speed for the entire ride was around 19 MPH.  It was super hilly and the last six miles was in the dark so I was taking it easy.
• Total ride stats (from memory):  91 miles, 4:50, HR - way too high!

I opted to bag the 45 minute run off the bike because it was close to 8:00PM, my family was going to be home soon and I really needed to help my wife out. 

So, this past week was definitely a tough one from a trying to fit in workout perspective.  I anticipate this week being a bit easier as I am going to work from home for a few days.  There are eight weeks left until Ironman Arizona and this week was really my only abnormal week.  Someone reminded me the other day that most of us are not a professional athletes, we all have responsibilities outside of training (i.e. work, family, etc.) that sometimes come first.  This week taught me that.  With that said, I have spend the past nine months preparing for a race that is two months away.  The next five weeks is the when my training is going to ramp up significantly (18 to 20 hours of training each week), so I really need to stick to my training as closely as possible and make every session count.

Cheers!

Crazy Week

Where do I start...probably at the beginning. It has been a crazy week,everything has been turned upside down in my household. Wednesday afternoon I received a call from my wife telling me that she had fallen. Flash forward to later that night and we find out she has a fractured ankle. She was hurting really bad. I felt/feel so bad for her; it is her right ankle so that means no driving for a while. It also means that everything just got tougher in our house, e.g. school mornings, dance class, dinner, etc. All those things that my wife typically does now become drastically more complicated.

Now for my completely and totally selfish and self-centered angle. My training this week has suffered, I have missed a few key runs and rides, I have had to cut two of my swims really short, and I just feel like everything is off kilter. OK, I am not trying to be a drama queen here, I understand that many people have to suffer through much more difficult situations than mine. I am simply saying that what had felt like a very smooth and consistent training program leading up to Ironman Arizona has now hit a bit of a speed bump.

Today will be the first day that things get slightly back to normal. After my youngest daughters dance class, I have my oldest daughters soccer game, and then I will be able to get my five hour bike ride in (followed by a 45 minute run).

What I don't want to get lost in what I have written above is that I feel horrible for what my wife is having to deal with. I will do everything to help out until she is a bit more mobile. I how she has a speedy recovery and starts to feels a bit better, with the pain her ankle subsiding soon.

That is about it for now. No weekly recap, just a little "woe is me" session. Peace out!

Bad Luck, Good Fortune

I mentioned in my last post that I had snapped my rear derailleur cable on my bike and that I had to bring it in to get repaired on Monday evening.  Well, I brought it in and asked them to replace all of my cables, with the thinking that if one goes, there is a good chance that some others might go as well.  It was then that I found out it was going to be friggin' expensive!  After getting over the shock of the price, I realized that I was long overdue for some routine maintenance and I ended up having a tune up added onto the total.

I was standing in the bike shop thinking how it was horrible that I was going to have to spend all this money on cables and a bike tune up.  What bad luck!  Then I started to ponder the ramifications had the cable snapped on a long ride out in Central NJ or worse yet, during my half iron distance race in a few weeks......or even worse, during Ironman Arizona.  So even thought the cost was a bummer, the timing really couldn't have been better.  You could say I was very fortunate...at least that is how I choose to view it.

Tuesday
I was up early and in the pool by 5:15AM, as usual.  I had a really good swim, like really happy, smooth and things going really well swim.  I have said it before that I am not a fish, I am more of a sea turtle; however, during my swim on this day, I had flashes of fish-like behavior.  I recall my 400m splits being:  7:59, 8:07, 8:07, 7:58, 7:49 - really happy with the last one!  Total swim time:  1:13:00

3,600m = 500m wu, 4 x 100 drills, 5 x 400m @45sec, 8 x 50m drills, 300m cd

I wanted to get my run in at lunch, but I had meetings all morning and right through lunch.  So frustrating!  After work I had Daddy-duty, pick the girls up, make sure homework was done, make dinner, etc.  Finally around 9:30PM I was able to get out and go running.  I was supposed to do an hour and 15 minutes, but I cut it short, going 6 miles in 49:15 (8:13/mile).  It was close to 10:30PM and I needed to shower and get to bed.

Today
I slept until almost 7:00AM, so nice to get up so "late".  I opted to push off my standard Wednesday BRICK to later on tonight since I got done so late last night.  In fact, I am probably going to run 4 - 6 miles at lunch today and just do my bike on the trainer tonight when I get home.  Granted it isn't a BRICK, but I am still getting the miles/time in.  I have a long-ish BRICK planned for Saturday (5 hour ride, 45 min run), so I am not overly concerned about not getting in a mini-BRICK today.

That is all for now.  Sayonara!

Weekend Recap...Quick

It's Monday morning and I really have a busy day ahead of me, so here is a quick recap of my weekend:

Saturday
I was up and out of the house by 5:25AM for my long ride.  It was dark, I mean really dark when I left.  Thank goodness for my Petzl Myo headlamp.  It was cold.  Glad I picked up a that Zoot jacket last year, it was the perfect choice for the early morning start.  It was a slow first 6 - 10 miles, my legs were a little tired and honestly I was tired as well.  I basically rode the Hunterdon Half bike course, the half iron distance triathlon I am doing on October 10th.  It is a very tough course, a lot of hills....tough hills.  I did not set any speed records today, I simply got the time and miles in and worked my ass off.  Total ride stats:  74 miles, 4:06:00, 18MPH

I followed my ride with a quick change into my running gear and did a 45 minute run in my new shoes (K-Swiss Blade-Light Run).  First off, the shoes were awesome, so much lighter than my old shoes.  They don't have as much cushioning, so I'll have to see how that plays out going forward.  As for the actual run, I felt really good, I did 5.7 miles in 45 minutes, good for a 7:54/mile pace.

After my workouts were over it was soccer time.  The girls played phenomenal, so proud of how they spread out, passed the ball, and just played well.  I think we won 3 - 2, but not positive.  Great day for everyone.  After soccer it was a lot of chilling out because I was beat.  I think I was in bed and asleep by 10:00PM

Sunday
Whew, I slept in....7:30AM!!!  A solid nights sleep, around 9.5 hours of much needed sleep!!!  I had an hour and 45 minute run on tap, so around 9:15AM I was out the door and running.  Not much to really report except that I think I got my fueling down for the run, I didn't bonk or fade really at all.  I was very consistent with my pace, right around 8:25/mile.  There were slow miles and fast miles, but those were dictated by the terrain, not by how I was feeling.  Total run stats:  1:46:00, 12.4 miles, 8:24/mile pace.

After the run, I rinsed off and then headed out to cut the lawn and do some chores.  Then I was able to sit down and watch some football for a long while.  Oh, my oldest daughter had a play date with a friend in her class.  I have to say "Thank you" to my wife for taking care of that, simply making sure they were doing "stuff" and also leading them on a nature hike.  That allowed me to chill out for a while and then to give my bike a good scrubbing.  Ah, it was during my bike cleaning that I discovered that my rear derailleur cable had snapped...it actually snapped right there.  I was pissed, but then realized that I should be happy that it didn't happen during my 74 mile ride the day before.  So, that left me not able to get in my hour and 15 minute spin I planned to do that night.  Instead I ate a ton of pasta and meatballs and was asleep by 9:30AM.

Today
It is a day of rest!  There are a couple of things that I do have to do though.  After work I will be coaching my daughters soccer practice from 5:30PM to 6:30PM.  Then immediately following that I need to get my bike over to High Road Cycles to have them replace all of my cables (if one went, they should all probably be changed).  Then I will be getting to bed early again. 

That is it for now.  Ciao!

Me = Idiot

I am an idiot.  That seems to be the trend for me over the past seven days or so.  I am just not making good choices with my nutrition and time.  I have heard it many times from many people who have done Ironmans, that your life inevitably will revolve around training right up until race day and then....you do the race.  Many wanna-be Ironmen/women put their social life on hold, they put off big home projects until after the race, they eat smart and get plenty of rest.  Yeah, I am pretty much doing everything that I shouldn't be doing.  I have been staying up too late (yes, 10:00PM is too late when you have to get up at 4:15AM), doing too much work around the house (painting projects), staying up late with friends (damn you FIFA 2010), and cap it off just flat out eating very stupidly (near fasting one day, gorging on fast food the next).

The race is only about 66 days away and I really need to focus from now until race day.  I need to:

• Minimize the amount of social events that could lead to late nights
• Get 7 - 8 hours of sleep at a minimum
• Put home projects put on hold until after Thanksgiving
• Stop eating fast food with the girls

OK, now that I have said what I had to say, here is my recap:

Thursday - Afternoon & Evening
I had the intention of heading out at lunch for a long-ish bike ride, 1.5 hours or ~28 miles.  The first eight miles of it is very uphill, upwards of 10% grade for a mile stretch at one point.  It was a good challenge and I really worked hard during it.  Around mile 10 as I was flying down a hill at around 40 MPH I hit a rock with both my front and rear wheel and immediately dropped a couple "F" bombs.  Within seconds I could feel my rear wheel start to bounce a bit and then came the "thwap" sound that signalled I had flatted.  In hindsight I was fortunate not to crash out getting a flat at a pretty high speed.  It has been about a year since I last flatted and it seemed to take me that long to change it (actually it took ~10 min).  I then realized that I didn't have the time to complete the route I wanted and had to head back to the office.  Total ride:  1:07:00, 21 miles (18MPH...skewed because of flat and major climbs early in the ride).

After work it was a bit of Daddy-duty as my oldest had a Brownie meeting (Girls Scouts), my wife was stuck in traffic and the girls had to eat.  Basically from 4:45PM until 6:45 I was running round crazy trying to keep everything running smoothly.  Phew, it all worked out.  While my wife was at my oldest daughters Brownie meeting, I did get to spend an hour or so with my youngest daughter.  After her bath, we played "Guess Who" for about 20 minutes and had a great time, just  laughing and carrying on.  I had a phenomenal time with her.

I finished up the night by playing some FIFA 2010 on my PS3 with my friend in Florida (yes, I am a 13 year old boy in the body of a 39 year old man).  I swore I would quit at 10:30PM at the absolute latest....translation, 11:15 I bailed and didn't fall asleep until 11:30PM.

This Morning
What a horrible night of sleep.  My youngest came into our room around 2:00AM.  I woke up at 3:30AM thinking it was time to get up.  My alarm went off at 4:25AM (I pushed it back 10 min) and I was really not looking forward to my swim.  BUT....I did get up and get to the pool!  The result?  A woefully slow straight 3,500m outing in the fish bowl (1:13:00).  Everything was sore, every lap was different, everything was out of whack.  That will teach me to stay up late again....at least I hope it does.

This Afternoon
I have no clue what the heck is going on with my runs lately.  I headed out at lunchtime today with my friend Bill, the first mile was OK, right around 8:15 pace, mile two was slower, but OK 8:40 pace.  Then Bill had to head back while I finished my run. About 1/2 mile later I had to stop for a minute and gather myself.  I was feeling really tired and a bit dizzy.  Could it be from lack of sleep?  Maybe.  Anyway, I kept going and slowly my pace quickened, my ill feelings subsided and everything went back to normal.  I ran for an hour with an average of around 8:12/mile pace (negative splits for the most part), then did 10 minutes in Z4 (~6:58/mile pace) with a 6 minute cool down.  By the time I was finished I felt great, not sure what the deal was for the first 20 minutes.  Total run stats:  1:16:30, 9.35 miles, 8:10/mile pace (might have gone a touch longer than 9.35).

Oh, I am expecting a new pair of running shoes to arrive today....I am so EXCITED!!!  NOTE:  Just saw that they were delivered!!!!

Adios!

Under 10 Weeks...Aquaman?

I keep looking at my training plan/calendar and I see that I am in Week 21 of 30....meaning that I have less than ten weeks until IMAZ.  I can't believe how quickly the past few weeks have flown by, in fact even this week is just shooting by.  It is already Thursday and I have put in 7,000m in the pool already, a number that used to take me a good week and a half to reach.  I feel like I say this all the time, but if anyone had asked me even 18 months ago if I would ever do an Ironman I would have told them there was no way in hell I was ever going to swim 2.4 miles!  Well, here I am less than ten weeks out from my first Ironman and putting in 3,500m (~2.2 mile) swim workouts three days a week.  I'm not saying that I am Mark Spitz or Michael Phelps....or Aquaman for that fact, but I am definitely not the near-drowning-mess of a swimmer I was five years ago when I started in this sport. 

So, anyway....here is my recap of the past few days:

Tuesday

4:15AM alarm goes off, I hit snooze....4:20AM alarm goes off again, I get up and curse this stupid idea of doing an Ironman.  4:30AM I leave the house barely conscious and somehow arrive at HealthQuest alive and well.  The pool is packed, 5:15AM and every lane is full with a couple doubled up already.  WTF?!  I jump in and start swimming, within about 20 minutes there are only three of us still in the pool.  I do my 3,500m workout, er make that 3,400m since I cut my cool down a bit short (by 100m).

3,400m - 500 wu, 4 x 100 drills, 5 x 200 @430sec, 5 x 100 @20sec, 5 x 50 @10sec, 6 x 25 @5sec, 8 x 50 drills, 200 cd

I managed to get out at lunch for a run, but not the 1.25 hour run that was on my training schedule.  The first 15 minutes of the run was horrible, I felt like absolute crap.  I couldn't figure it out, just so tired and heavy feeling.  I managed to turn it around for the last 30 minutes and did negative splits on the way back to the office.  Even though it wasn't what was on my training plan, it was a good work out and I realized that I am in really good shape.  My average heart rate for the run was 141 BPM, and that is for ~8:10/mile pace (the last two miles were under 7:45/mile pace).  This is a really good sign!

My wife was out with a good friend of hers for the night so it was just me and my girls.  We had a good night, although there was a bit of typical 7 year old female drama that had to be dealt with.  No worries though, everyone went to bed happy.

Wednesday

I like Wednesday's because it means I am doing my sunrise BRICK workout at my house.  After I am done I get to shower there, I see my wife and kids for a bit, I actually feel like I am a part of the family on these mornings.  I also get my girls on the school bus which is just awesome to do.  Not too much to say about the work out, 45 min. on the bike watching Jersey Shore (awesome show!!!!), then outside for a 30 minute run.  I did run really well actually:  30:00, 3.93 miles, 7:38/mile pace.

Not a lot going on the rest of the day, just work.  Oh, I did meet with someone about a possible new job opportunity.  I had a very good conversation with the person and we'll see where it goes from here.

Today

My very first thought this morning at 4:15AM, "If I miss one swim workout it isn't going to be an issue come November 21st.  I could just stay in bed and get another hour or two of sleep."  I fought off the evil thoughts and made it to the pool to get in my swim workout.

3,500m = 500m wu, 8 x 50 drills, 3 x 150 @20sec, 4 x 250 @30 sec, 3 x 150 @20 sec, 4 x 100 drills, 300m cd

It was a pretty good swim for me today, all of my splits for my main set were under 1:58/100m, which for me is stellar considering the distance I am now swimming.

As for the rest of today, I have a 1.5 hour ride that I am going to squeeze in at lunch time.  My plan calls for "@ 15 min, insert 4 x 7 min Z4 @ 4min spin", but I am looking at doing a very hill ride that will definitely get my heart rate up, so I'm not too worried about sticking to the numbers exactly.  With that said, I do realize that I can probably work a lot harder on the bike than I have been.  I take for granted that I am a decent cyclist without really having to train like I do for the swim and the run.  I could probably make significant improvements on the bike if I focused a bit more during each training session.  I guess it starts today!

Ciao!