reality bites

The past 2.5 months have consisted of 1 week of solid training followed by 2-3 weeks of minimal training coupled with a not so great diet. Well, this pattern has caught up with me. My bike, swim and run fitness are probably at the lowest they've been since I did my first half ironman. Right now, not sure if I could finish an Olympic distance race. The good news is my mind feels refreshed and I don't feel the resentment/burnout that I did when I pulled out of Ironman Florida back in September. In fact, it's quite the opposite. I feel inspired much like I did when I was training for IM Arizona. The IM journey is appealing to me again. Not saying I'm going to sign up for IM anytime soon but it's on my mind an not out of the question.


Today, I drove up to Melissa, Tx to ride the 75 Access Route from Melissa to Howe. It's a 36 mile loop of rolling hills and FULL EXPOSURE to the wind. Today was quite windy and the first 18 miles of the ride were straight into the wind. Mentally the wind is always tough for long stretches but I was really surprised at how physically tough the ride was. I was wiped out when I got to the turnaround point. I think at this point REALITY hit. I've got a long way to go to even attempt a 1/2 ironman. I had a nice tailwind on the way back so I tried to ride hard but the fatigue was there and I never was really able to get in a good groove. When I got back to my truck I was surprisingly upbeat. I was tired, the weather sucked but all I could think about was my rides for this upcoming week and some of the targets I was going to set for each ride. Which is a good sign because if there is anything I have learned about IM & 1/2 IM's it's all about consistency and the fire/desire has to burn strong if you are going to succeed. I really hope my fire is starting to burn and this morning's ride was not a fluke.

So what's next. I'm just trying to get in some level of shape. I'm going to follow a base fitness plan for approximately 8-10 weeks to try and establish some level of cycling/running base and then from there I'll hopefully be able to get on a more aggressive/advanced training plan for some late season races. Right now, my race schedule looks like:

Hotter than Hell - August
Prairieman (Aquabike) - September
Stonebridge Triathlon - September
Lonestar 1/2 Ironman - October ??

Why am I waiting so long to do a race? Honestly I think it will take me that long to get back in some decent level of shape to where I can at least have a decent showing at these races.

While I'm thinking about it, like to congratulate my good friend Pablo and his wife on the birth of their new baby girl. Welcome to parenthood my friend!!

That's it for now, I'll update soon.

back on the bike

I spent about 2.5 hours on my bike on Friday and then another 1.5 on Saturday. The 2.5 hour bike ride on Friday was the longest I have ridden in about 4 months. It was a little bit challenging. My nutrition, pacing/hr is all off from what I am accustomed to. I have noticed a slight improvement from a few weeks ago but I'm anxious to get back to where I was this past summer.

Winter cycling is tough. I'm on the trainer quite a bit but nothing replaces cycling outdoors. The biggest challenge I find with cycling in the winter is keeping my fingers and feet warm. If anyone has any good suggestions please send them my way.

My Achilles was acting up this past week, so I laid off of running to let it rest. I should be ready to go next week. According to my chiropractor I have some type of alignment issue with my hips that aggravates/causes the Achilles issue so I guess it's time to get realigned.

Holidays are officially over and it's back to the grind for everyone tomorrow. I'm heading to San Jose, California for most of the week and am anxious to try out some of the running trails in the area.

One other note, My oldest son and I were watching Hawaii Ironman 2002 yesterday and I asked my oldest son if he wanted his Daddy to do another Ironman and he told me "yes" because he wants me to be strong but then he said "no" because he doesn't want me to be gone on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Kids always have a way of helping their Daddy's stay focused on what's important. :)...

trying...

I got in some decent workouts this week. Hit the bike 3 times, ran 3 times, swam twice and lifted weights 4 times. The main issue with the workouts right now is the bike. It's too cold to get up at 5am and ride, so most of my rides are on the trainer and I can't tolerate the trainer for much more than an hour. We have two "warm" weather days here in Dallas on Tuesday & Wednesday so I'm hoping to get in maybe a 2-3 hour ride on one of those days.

Regardless of the cold weather, I'm enjoying the training and right now it's all about having fun and trying to stay motivated. Looks like there will be a 1/2 ironman in the Dallas in May and I'm thinking about signing up. This would be a no pressure race (ie no time goal) just get out and compete type of thing.

My goals for next week:

Bike - 5 hours (3 sessions, with one session in the 2.5-3 hour range)
Run - 3.5 hours (3 sessions)
Swim - 2 hours (2 sessions)
Weights - 3 sessions

Not much else to report. I hope everyone has a great Christmas.

busy week

It's been very busy on the workfront the past 2 weeks so training hasn't gone so well. I haven't ran more than 10 miles the past two weeks and I've mainly been on the trainer which I hate :). I made it to the pool twice this past week but the workouts have been very low key.

Up until now, I've kept the workouts very unstructured. I think I'm ready to tie some structure to the workouts and pick up the pace a little bit. I need to enter some type of race to give me something to work towards. It's very easy right now to skip workouts :).

Not too much to report this week hopefully I'll get in some decent workouts this week..

trying to get back in the game

I actually made some progress this week on the training front. I ran 3 times, biked twice and swam twice. The bike is pretty ugly right now. No power, no speed and no tolerance for the wind. The swim was interesting to say the least. First day back in the water was slow. During my training cycle for Florida my base pase per 100 meters was around 1:35, first day back the base pace was around 1:44. I blamed the slow swim time on all the hair I grew back on my arms and legs so I promptly shaved as soon as I got back home and the next day in the pool was much better :)... (yeah right)

Yes, I have a lot of work to do to get back in tri shape. I'm having fun and hoping to get back in touch with the old seabiscuit gang so we can train together. I enjoy training with these guys and listening to all the BS during the long bike rides.

Like to take this opportunity to brag on my wife and kids. Jennifer placed 4th in the Believe 10k in downtown Mckinney and Ben & Reed, ages 7 and 4, both ran the 1 mile fun run and ran the whole thing!!! I was real proud of all of them and hoping I have some future triathletes in Ben and Reed.

For this week, I'm hoping to bike 3 times, swim 2 times and run 3 times. No hard time goals or distances just look for consistency at this stage and getting in some solid base work.

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving...

new moon

After 3 months off from triathlon, I think I'm finally ready to start back up. To say I was burned out from triathlons is a complete understatement. I didn't read, write or watch anything even remotely related to triathlons for most of the 3 months. I was so burned out that I almost sold my bike. I listed the bike on Craigslist, had a buyer lined up and I backed out at the last minute. Just couldn't do it. I couldn't sell the bike because I knew once I did that would be it. It would be years before I could talk my wife into letting me drop a couple of grand on a new bike.


What have I done for the last 3 months? Nothing too structured just tried to stay in decent shape. I lifted weights a lot and ran anywhere from 10-30 miles a week. I've probably worked out 5-7 hours a week and honestly it's been enjoyable to not have to schedule my life around workouts.

So what's next. IM is still out of the question at least for the next few years. Just don't have the time plus I think my wife would file for divorce if I signed up for an IM right now. I think for 2010 I'm just going to focus on Sprint & Olympic distance racing and just having fun.

I'm glad to be back. It's going to take me awhile to rebuild on the swim and the bike but I'm looking forward to the challenge and looking forward to getting back in touch with some of my tri buddies.

The End.... of Ironman

I did a lot of soul searching this past weekend and after a painful run on Sunday, I made the decision to pull of of IM Florida. It's still quite painful when I run and the Achilles needs some dedicated time off to heal up and unfortunately I'm out of "slack" time in my training schedule. So, it is what it is and I have to be smart and listen to my body and back off. Initially, I thought I could just tough it out and truth be told if this would have happened last year prior to AZ I probably would have toughed it out but I'm in a different place right now and with 3 kids the last thing my wife needs right now is a 4th kid that's hobbling around on crutches because he let his ego make all of his critical decisions. It's funny, because 3 weeks ago when I saw the podiatrist and he told me I would be out 2-3 weeks I was crushed but now I almost feel relieved. It's going to be strange not waking up at 4am on Saturday and Sunday to ride all morning.

So what's next? This was my last opportunity (at least for a few years) to do another Ironman. For whatever reason, perhaps the injury, I'm feeling a tremendous amount of burnout on the whole triathlon thing so I'll probably take a few weeks off/possibly a month and switch back over to lifting weights and possibly just focus on non competitive marathon training to stay in shape. I'm also planning on enrolling at a local Takewondo school with the goal of getting a black belt. I'll need something to fill the hole of IM :)...

Anyway, the purpose of this blog was to track my training for IM Florida so since I'm not doing that anymore this will be my last blog entry. I appreciate everyone's support during my IM Journey.

Thanks,