Two weeks to go...

Tomorrow will be officially two weeks out from Ironman Texas. 14 days away. 336 hours till the gun starts. It seems like just yesterday I was itching at the chance of getting signed up at last years race. And now I am just two Saturdays away from treading water at the start line.

Last Saturday I had my first and last "warm-up" race. Just a short sprint distance triathlon in North Platte, Nebraska. Nothing fancy. Nothing crazy. Just an opportunity to do some short training at race pace, and also practice my transitions at least once before I head to Texas. The race went well. In fact for it being the first race of the season I was fairly pleased. I set a PR at that distance, and all things considered felt pretty good the whole time. Now granted, its only about a 1/10th of the distance I will be doing in a couple weeks, but feeling good is better than feeling bad. In fact even after the race my buddy Jarod and I did some sprint workouts in the afternoon. So all in all can't complain with how I felt.

This last week has been pretty much my last go at "major training". That is not to say I am not going to do anything between now and the race. It just means I will be tapering off and trying to rest and recover to make sure I am 100% come race day. I will still do some running and biking to stay loose and keep the muscles limber, but won't be doing near the distance or intensity that I have been.

This last week I put 7 hours on the bike riding (110 miles), 21 miles of running(included in that is the 10k race I am running in the morning), 1.5 miles of swimming, and 30 minutes of weight lifting.

At this point my fitness and stamina is what it is. Now its about maintaining and recovering. I will admit training for this has been challenging. Not that I thought it wasn't going to be, but having to deal with the Midwest weather this winter really threw some kinks into the plan. But I can't control the weather I can only adjust the best I can and that is what I did. I guess we will find out in two weeks how much affect it had on things.

Until then its time to scale back and bit and enjoy the rest of the ride....

The training continues...

The training continues....

By my count there is 6 weeks left till Ironman Texas. Which gives me about 3-4 more weeks of intense training before I start to taper off, and recover up for the race. It seems like yesterday it was still months away, and now before I know it race day will be here.

Just an update on how things are going. The weather has been cooperating a little more which is nice. I am able to get outside and get some time in on my actual bike. I have also been able to get some outdoor runs in. I have gotten behind on my weekly updates, so I will just give you a brief overview of what the last two weeks have looked like.

Last week:

2 miles swimming
70 miles biking
5 miles running
2 hour 45 minutes of weight lifting

This week:

2.2 miles swimming
50 miles on the bike (with an additional 40 mile ride planned for tomorrow to make the weekly total 90)
7.5 miles running
30 minutes weight lifting

The volume of training has increased and will keep increasing for the next three to four weeks. I will have some of the most intense training loads I have ever attempted since I started triathlons 3 years ago. I am also starting to scale back on the weight lifting and increasing the cardio aspect of my training.

Nutrition is also playing a huge factor in this as I have adjusted my eating habits to making sure I am fueling myself appropriately for the training load I have. As the old saying goes I am "eating to train", not "training to eat". Meaning that even though I am working out more I can't use that as an excuse to eat crap or cheat on my meal choices. I am making smart decision to make sure I am fueled properly for the workouts and my body is operating at a highly efficient level.

My biggest challenge at this point is rest and recovery. My days start with the alarm going off anywhere between 3:30 and 4:30 am so I can try and get my workouts in first thing in the morning. As you can imagine by 8:00 at night I am pretty dang tired.

But I keep plugging along. May 18th will be here before I know it. Until then....the training continues....

Week 3...

Well week 3 is done and the work continues. The weather is starting to cooperate a little bit more, which I am beyond excited about. Even though we had some yo-yo temperatures the last couple of days, it has shaped up to be some good training weather for the most part.

What I am excited for the most in the coming weeks is that with the return of nicer weather I will finally be able to take my bike off its trainer in the basement, and hit the pavement with some riding outside. Right now with a high temperature of 79 forecast for Friday I am hoping to get in my first outdoor ride of 2013. In a perfect world it would be a 30-40 mile ride, and if the weather holds up there really isn't any reason it shouldn't be.

However, good training definitely leads to some sore body parts and some fatigue. But I guess that is all part of the process, breaking the body down a little to build it back up. Might just need to try and schedule a nap or two at some point in the weeks to come.

So before I jump into week 4, here is a little re-cap of week 3...

Swim - 2.7 miles
Bike - 40 miles
Run- 5 miles
Weightlifting - 2.5 hours
Boxing - 30 minutes

3 weeks down.....10 weeks to go

 

Training in progress...

Yes, even though sometimes I don't feel like its going to plan, I am actually officially in training for Ironman Texas. Needless to say not only are the physical aspects of the training challenging, so far the mental aspect of working around things outside of my control are even more so. In the first two weeks of training I have dealt with 70 degree temperatures one day to 12 inches of snow 3 days later(which as you can imagine makes getting to the gym 30 miles away hard, and the possibility of doing anything outside even harder).

When I originally signed up for the race I was living in south Texas. Where the winters were 60-70 degrees, and I could run and bike outside year round. Since then, I have moved to North Central Kansas where the winters are anything but that. Even though in all reality it has been a mild winter here by historic central plains standards, being able to do exercise outside has still been a challenge. Given the fact I absolutely hate running on the treadmill it has produced quite the quandary. However I digress, it is the first week of March and hopefully I am starting to see light at the end of the tunnel as it is supposed to be in the low 60s towards the end of the week. But until then I will continue to make the best use of the gym as much as a I can, and continue to make at least a little progress until I can crank it up outside.

So we are in the start of week 3 and hopefully this week the weather will treat me a little better than the first two weeks have. But even so, here is a recap:

Week 1:

Swim - 2 miles
Bike - 25 miles
Run - 6 miles
Weight lifting - 3 hours



Week 2:

Swim - 1.2 miles
Bike- 36 miles
Run - 2 miles
Weight lifting - 2.5 hours


T-minus 11 weeks left, and still a lot of work to do.

Race Recap - Houston Marathon

How can I describe the Houston Marathon? Cold? Rainy? Windy? Miserable? How about all of the above? Lets just say the conditions were less than ideal. 

I had been watching the weather forecast for a week leading up to the race. I knew it was going to be cool, and I knew there was a chance of rain. The weather was calling for highs in the mid to upper 40's on race day. And depending on when you checked the forecast it was anywhere between 30% and 70% chance of rain. Lovely. Oh well not much I can do about that. Its not like I wasn't going to run the race. 

Come race morning, I would be lying if I said that thought didn't at least cross my mind once. As I was walking to the convention center where the start line was it was a pretty dreadful morning. It was raining, it was 38 degrees, and it was pretty windy to. In other words not favorable conditions. I get inside to try and warm up a bit and stretch out the muscles as they were going to need it even more on a cold day like today. Eventually it was time to head to the doors leading outside and head to the starting chute. 

As we walked outside the rain wasn't exactly heavy, but it was windy and it was blowing the rain sideways. We made our way to the starting corrals and listened to the P.A as they made the final announcements, they sang the National Anthem, and prepared to officially fire the gun for the race. Just as they were getting ready to start the rain really started to fall.

I planned on running in regular running shorts, and a dri fit short sleeve t-shirt. With the colder temperatures I had an old long sleeve cotton t-shirt to wear to the start line with the intention of shedding it and tossing it off to the side at the beginning of the race. With the temperatures the way they were however I decided to keep it on as long as I could. As the rain started falling and my cotton shirt becoming soaked, I knew I wouldn't be able to keep it on as long as I hoped. 

It rained steadily for the first 3 miles. Everyone was soaked from head to toe. I have never been completely thrilled with the idea of running 26.2 miles in ideal conditions, let alone having to do it with wet socks and shoes. After mile 3 the rain let up to sprinkle and then finally to a mist. Around mile 5 it had stopped completely. By the time mile 6 was approaching my cotton t-shirt started to feel like it weighed 10 pounds and I knew I was going to have to shed it soon. At mile 6 I stopped quick to use the Porto-John, and shed the long sleeve shirt leaving only my short sleeve shirt to run in(the temperature still hasn't risen at this point). As soon as I toss my shirt off to the side, the sky opens up again with a steady rain. Of course it did. 

Around mile 9 the rain finally stopped for good. This was obviously welcome. However at this point the wind started to pick up, the sun still hadn't come out, and of course it was till only about 40 degrees out. 

Given the conditions I actually stayed in pace with my race plan, and I was on pace to run it in just about the same time as I did last year. However the conditions really started to set in and it became increasingly difficult to stay warm(not that I ever really warmed up in the first place). 

Mile 18 my legs started to lighten up because of the cold, and my feet felt miserable. I kept pushing through, but by mile 20 I knew I was off my pace from last year. I saw people scattered all over the place along the side of the road. People who had to stop and stretch. People trying to take care of their feet. People everywhere that were just struggling. 

Finally we turned the corner into downtown Houston and had less than a mile left. The wind was whipping through the tall buildings making the already cold conditions feel even worse. Eventually I turned the corner down the finishers chute, and before I knew it I was crossing the finish line, finishing in 4 hours 43 minutes, and some change. I don't think I had been that cold in my entire life. When I finished the race the temperature had only risen to 42 degrees. I grab my medal, make a beeline for the doors to the convention center to warm up, and of course the first thing I am offered once I walk in is ice cream. I just had to chuckle a little bit. 

From there I made it to the hotel to take the typical ice bath, and then try to warm up with a hot shower. Which of course didn't do much. I think it took me a full 24 hours before I felt like my body temp was back to normal. 

Part of me wants to be a little bummed I was unable to improve on my time from last year, but given the conditions I knew from the start of the race that was going to be a pretty tall order. Also the reason I signed up for this race for the second year in a row is two fold. 1) It was going to be something to keep my training on schedule through the winter months, and 2) it is almost exactly 4 months to the day before Ironman Texas. I wanted to get another marathon in me just to help my body prepare for not only the race, but also the training load I will be taking on the next few months. 

All in all I am satisfied with the result. I took about a week off to recover without much strenuous exercise and now starting next week it is time for the real work to begin. 

4 months is going to go by pretty fast!.