Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Canada or bust
When I entered crunch mode last year for IM Louisville I had 8 weeks to go when I started training. This year, just under 4 weeks. Here's the situation:
I'm already financially committed to the IM Canada race with condo rental and what nots. I'm also sort of obligated since I talked Liz and Justin into doing the race. If not for those 2 things, I would not toe the line Aug 28th. The situation being what it is, I will toe the line. I got 3 weeks of training to get ready, and I'm not starting from a high (or even medium) fitness level.
I'm 173 pounds, up nearly 20 pounds from my weigh in at IMLOU 1 year ago. That's not going to help. I won't have a lot of time to train during the day, that's already a known limitation. So I'm training from 4:30am to 6am every morning. Today I kicked it off with a 5.2 mile run. I was slow, like a 10:30 pace, but it was fairly easy and I had no body pains. Today at lunch I sketched a training plan on a napkin, to peak at a 100 mile bike ride and an 18 mile run by end of 3 weeks. No rest days, rest days are swimming. I'm going for nothing but long, slow miles – it is ALL about aerobic gains and endurance. Speed is off the table.
It is helpful for me in scenarios like this one to define what success will be before I start. So that I may continually reevaluate things and align them towards my success. Success = finishing, in 17 hours or less. I hope it doesn't take 17 hours because that his a hell of a long time to be on one's feet. A lot of people think I can finish without much trouble, since my recent triathlon and racing career has been totally composed of just winging it…and with reasonably good results. But the truth is - it is pretty far from a sure thing. 3 weeks to train for an ironman puts me unusually deep into the "just roll up and fake it" cave.
I'll post again once I get some more days/miles under my belt and let y'all know how things are progressing. Or not.
I'm already financially committed to the IM Canada race with condo rental and what nots. I'm also sort of obligated since I talked Liz and Justin into doing the race. If not for those 2 things, I would not toe the line Aug 28th. The situation being what it is, I will toe the line. I got 3 weeks of training to get ready, and I'm not starting from a high (or even medium) fitness level.
I'm 173 pounds, up nearly 20 pounds from my weigh in at IMLOU 1 year ago. That's not going to help. I won't have a lot of time to train during the day, that's already a known limitation. So I'm training from 4:30am to 6am every morning. Today I kicked it off with a 5.2 mile run. I was slow, like a 10:30 pace, but it was fairly easy and I had no body pains. Today at lunch I sketched a training plan on a napkin, to peak at a 100 mile bike ride and an 18 mile run by end of 3 weeks. No rest days, rest days are swimming. I'm going for nothing but long, slow miles – it is ALL about aerobic gains and endurance. Speed is off the table.
It is helpful for me in scenarios like this one to define what success will be before I start. So that I may continually reevaluate things and align them towards my success. Success = finishing, in 17 hours or less. I hope it doesn't take 17 hours because that his a hell of a long time to be on one's feet. A lot of people think I can finish without much trouble, since my recent triathlon and racing career has been totally composed of just winging it…and with reasonably good results. But the truth is - it is pretty far from a sure thing. 3 weeks to train for an ironman puts me unusually deep into the "just roll up and fake it" cave.
I'll post again once I get some more days/miles under my belt and let y'all know how things are progressing. Or not.
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