Too much it too little

Well, today is 8 days out from Ironman Louisville and 15 days out from Ironman Wisconsin and I can't believe I'm still "burned out" from all the training. I know I'm doing less and less workouts each day and each week until races week, but I still am not feeling the restlessness I typically feel during taper.

Normally I can't wait to get my workout it and the workouts don't seem like they're enough to keep me "happy" because they're too short, but I'm not feeling that this year....strange. Not sure what to make of it, if anything, but I started to notice it a couple days ago. I'm just not into it. Normally at this time I'm all jacked up and cleaning my bike with a toothpick, making lists for transition and packing, thinking about what to bring and what to wear and how to fuel, etc etc.

Not for these Ironman races...I am thinking a little bit about what to wear but don't care about cleaning my bike and haven't even put on my race cassette on my rear wheel yet. I still have my time trial 11-21 cassette on and will race with both Ironman races with a 12-25 but haven't event bothered to put it on the bike yet.

Very strange feeling this time during taper...

Normally too much training is too little for me, but it appears that this time around to little training is too much.

Looking at this as the glass half full, I am ready and trained for these races and so physically I'm ready to rock and roll. Mentally I'm just not on edge or super excited as I was in previous Ironman races; which could very well be a good thing. I'm just viewing these races today as just something I've been doing.

2.4 mile swim? no worries, I've done more than that in the pool...a few times too.

112 mile bike? no problemo. I've done 8 bike rides each weekend of 100 miles or more (give or take 2-3 miles)

26.2 mile run? no problemo. I can walk the whole thing if I need to. :)

But I still find it curious that I'm in the "burned out" stage still this close to races week. Hopefully when I get down to Louisville the excitement of the race venue and all the other athletes will get me back into the "little kid excitement" stage that I've always felt at Ironman.

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Taper Time & Michael Phelps

Ok, so taper time is here. Some people asked me what "taper" means...so I guess it makes sense to explain.

When you are training for an Ironman race (or any race for that matter) you build fitness by continually increasing the workload your body can endure. However, contrary to popular/laymen opinion, you actually don't get stronger by working out; you only get stronger by RECOVERING from the workouts you've done. So as you continue to add stress to your body in calculated/healthy increments, your body adapts and increased fitness is had through the recovering of those increasingly difficult workouts over time.

So what does this have to do with "taper"?

Tapering is the act of getting you body FULLY recovered for a race. To accurately effectuate an Ironman taper, an athlete must pust themselves to an extremely stressful place (if you're unsure of where that place is, feel free to read my previous 3 posts and you'll see what I mean) then gradually reduce your workouts so that you don't fully recover BEFORE or AFTER race day.

To correctly taper is really more art than science because people's bodies recovery at different rates and the same person actually recovers at a different rate than they did when they were younger.

Anyway, you get the idea. The reason I'm excited about Taper Time is that I am now finally feeling a bit more rested, my body is feeling more powerful in my workouts, and I feel like everything is coming together.

I did a 30 kilometer individual time trial a couple days ago on Saturday and I felt unbelievable. My legs responded to everything I dished out and I gave it 100% effort...then AFTER the race I rode 1.5 hours at a medium pace (coach's orders) and I continued to feel unbelievable.

This was very mentally good for me because undertaking 2 Ironmans in a week is no task for the faint of heart and definitely some new territory for me. I have no idea if I can accomplish this goal, but the way I felt this Saturday during the time trial...made me begin to believe that I will amaze myself with this accomplishment.

I just hope others take notice and are moved to donate to the charity I'm doing all of this for! :)

Oh, and I'm sure you're reading this entire post to see where Michael Phelps fits into all this...

Well, he doesn't, I just wanted to get more hits on my blog via google searches on "michael phelps"

sorry to disappoint. :)

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Almost Home

Ok, so here we are...in the home stretch for the unbelievably crazy training schedule. I'm sick and tired of having to miss social events, professional after work events, not being with my wife and son on the weekends because I'm gone doing some unbelievable training escapades, and being run down, tired, and on the verge begin sick (coughing and sore throat on and off).

So, what's the glass half full side of the story? It's that I am in the most unbelievable shape of my life and quite frankly, being 38 years old, don't know if I'll ever be in this good of shape again (ha ha ha). Also, next week's training schedule will be almost half of what this week's is and the following week is RACE WEEK!!!

This is the home stretch and I'm so excited that I was able to withstand all this training, a new job, a new son, and my unbelievably incredible wife who puts up with all my time away training...she should be canonized!

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I hate this part.

This is the time when I am tired, on edge, and can't wait for the taper and race day. And this is the time when I HATE Ironman training because i'm sick and tired of being tired and not having enough time to "relax" and just vegetate after work. I'm always either working out, getting my crap ready to work out, or trying to rush and get to sleep so I can get up in the morning to work out. Hell, I don't even have time to post on this blog frequently. rush rush rush rush. real crazy.

For example, I need to wake up at 3:30am this Sunday morning to drive up to ride the entire Ironman Wisconsin (112 miles) course this saturday so that i can be back home by 2:00pm to spend time with my family while not acting tired.

But this is what makes the Ironman such a unique experience because I know I will get through this and I'll have a common experience with the other Ironman athletes that during race week when we walk by each other we can just share a silent smile with the look of "YEAH BABY, we made it and we're here, we're going to do an IRONMAN ! "

My training hasn't gone 100% to date, but it's all about progress NOT perfection, right? As you can see from the chart below, I've missed a couple weeks here and there, but for the most part, this graph illustrates to me that I've progressed sufficiently to Ironman fitness...and that's what really counts.

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Getting through it

Well, another few weeks closer to the races. I had a great ride yesterday with a fe folks from Team Magellan. We ended up riding in perfect temperature but pretty hefty winds. Good thing was that we had 8 in our group and we all stuck together the entire time so that made the winds a little more manageable.

Even though I have no time to even breathe these next few weeks between work, training, and family, I am going to try to spread the word about Aplastic Anemia by sending out some press releases.

First I have to learn/read up on how to write a press release that will be some attention, then I need to somehow figure out where to get the names/numbers of the media contacts. So if I end up managing to find time to do that, I think it will help raise awareness.

I'm getting beaten up pretty good with all this training and the crazy time management involved in it, but hopefully it'll be worth it and some nice funds will be raised for Aplastic Anemia Foundation.

Oh, here's a family photo...figured it was time to post one. :)

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A Rookie Mistake

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After 11 years in this sport of triathlon you'd think I wouldn't be making any rookie mistakes right???

Well, yesterday on my 100 mile bike ride I made a rookie mistake and can't believe I did it.

The workout was to ride the 100 miles but for 4 hours and 15 minutes of the ride, go hard at 150 beats per minute heart rate.

Everything was going perfect but after about 45 miles I ran out of water and was getting hungry and since I couldn't drink my Perpetuem without water since it was in concentrated form...I just stuck it out for another 5 miles until we got to the gas station to refuel...but by that time I was pretty darn hungry.

Do you ever go to the grocery store hungry and buy all this crap that you never end up eating but it looked SSSOOO good and yummy when you were in the store? A similar situation occurred when I walked through the gas station aisle. A payday candy bar caught my eye and for some stupid, stupid, stupid reason I bought it and wolfed it down faster than I have ate anything in my life....YUMMY!!! It really hit the spot! My hunger pangs went away!

So now I'm totally psyched for the ride home and thinking to myself that I'm gonna continue to rock out at my hard pace of 150 beats per minute for the remaining 2 hours I had to do.

Unfortunately, about 30 minutes after leaving the gas station at the hard pace I began to get very nauseous. I tried to ignore it and keep my heart rate up...but to no avail. I felt like getting sick so I immediately knew what I did wrong...eating a damn simple sugar candy bar with stupid chemicals in it then going hard at 150 heart rate thinking my body could use that as fuel. Well my body went on strike big time.

So to make sure I didn't loose my lunch (so to speak...a payday candy bar is NOT a lunch for those kids at home reading this) I backed off to 125 beats per minute heart rate and sat up straight on my triathlon bike and figured I would be ready to rock it out again at top speed in about 10 min or so....

Nope, it took about 1 hour and 40 minutes for the nauseousness to go away, and even when that went away I couldn't get into my aero position for very long because it was too much stress on my abdomen/large intestine...where the dumb payday bar was now sitting and being digested.

So I ended up having only 3 hours 15 min at my 150 heart rate and then just limped home the remaining 2+ hours at a 125 heart rate all in the upright position.

I was so mad at myself because I KNOW better to not deviate from practicing my race-day nutrition plan (Perpetuem and hammer gel ONLY) but NNNOOO I had to listen to my stupid brain that was obviously delirious from hunger and suggested I eat a payday bar.

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Now the fun begins

Well, now we're finally getting into the part of Ironman training that is really tough. Anyone whose done Ironman training knows that the final build period before the peak weeks of training all season...just are plain tough.

Your body is tried from the training building up to this point, work stresses, family stresses, and just the idea that you want to have the ability to just hang and not have to work out 6 days a week...really begins to tear most people down mentally.

However, the amazing part about this upcoming arduous portion of the Ironman training season is that once you get through it (even though it seems like it will never end) you are so utterly amazed at yourself for accomplishing the training that when you get to race day, that day means so much more to you because you've really had to work your @ss off to get there...literally. ha ha ha

Just to prepare everyone...these next 6 weeks are going to most likely be posts of me complaining how I hate Ironman training, how I'll never sign up for another Ironman again, how I can't believe I'm putting myself and my family through this, etc, etc, etc. But don't worry...it's completely normal and "this too shall pass"

I'm going to begin my fundraising efforts in earnest soon...which, quite frankly, is just another added stress to my 168 hours I have each week to accomplish things.

So, IF YOU'RE READING THIS, and you haven't take time to donate (even if it's only $10), PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE click on the donate button and help raise money for a foundation that so badly needs people like you!

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