It Takes A Village

Last week's workouts:

Wed:  Run 4.7 miles

Sat:  Run 10.0 miles (second long-ish Saturday run in a row where I felt better than I have for at least a year - good pace, low heart rate, physically comfortable, etc.)

Reached 10,000 steps each day, and sprinkled core workouts here and there

My wife went out of town last weekend to run a race with some friends, so I was thrust into the role of single parent.  My kids are 14 (almost) and 9 now, so this is hardly the job that it was when they were 6 and 1.  That said, I was done at the end of the day between a full-time job, homework, dinner, laundry, the dog, sporting events, etc.  I don't know how I would manage to have a full time job, be a good parent, AND get a quality workout in each day, although I know people who do it, and I admire them!

Because of my “other duties as assigned," I only got 2 workouts done last week.  I made a conscious decision to bag a few workouts in order to go to a band concert, attend the monthly STL Tri Club meeting, play catch/kickball with my son, shoot baskets with my daughter, and to take the kids out to dinner after their final basketball games of the winter season.  I don’t regret those decisions one bit, because I’m their Dad and it’s my job.  Plus, I’m still in the “off-season” and I’m not always going to have the time to do all of these things come summer.  Some of the sights from last week:

Festival of Bands 

Busy day at the NG playground for some hot kickball action 

Shooting baskets with Emily 

Torturing the kids by making them drink a green juice with their dinner

Spending time with my puppers 

KJBL action (Adam's #33)

Emily's last game EVER with the Running Rebels - next stop KHS

So last week got me thinking - while I am the one who has to put in the quality training sessions to successfully complete Ironman Louisville this summer, the journey to the finish line requires help from an entire village of people (but not The Village People). 

This was something I thought about before registering for the race, and having the support of my wife was critical.  She was extremely supportive and told me to go for it.  The fact that she is a marathoner and aspiring triathlete certainly helps, because she knows what it is like to train.  She's also a realist - she knows there will be times where my training schedule is annoying, and she plans to 'get over it."  Perhaps some well timed laundry, date nights, or pedicures, or trips to Europe will help smooth things out.

Certainly there will be times where I will come home from work, eat dinner, go ride/run, and then pass out only to wake up and be out of the house by 5am the next day.  There will be baseball games that I cannot be at or miss part of due to an 80-mile ride + run brick that needs to get done.  There will be Sunday afternoon long runs to acclimate to the heat.  There will be a few weekends of tune-up races that will interfere with our summer plans.

The inconvenience of Ironman will also impact the kids.  They know their Dad will be gone or missing parts of their activities.  They also will have to deal with me trying to drag them out of the house for part of a run (for their own good!) although I'm not sure if they realize this part yet.  My friends and coworkers will have to hear endless babble about swim intervals, brick workouts, mechanical failures, races, etc. because it will be all consuming for the next 6 months.  My boss will be impacted as my schedule flexes to accommodate weather, pool, and training schedules.  My training partners will have to deal with swerving to avoid the gallons of sweat I will produce.  This doesn't take into account the bike techs, shoe fitters, dietitians, members of my triathlon club, friends in Floyds Knobs, and others who may be helping me to achieve my goal.

So as the beginning of the training calendar nears, I am cognizant of the stress this journey will place on those around me, and I am appreciative of their support and sacrifice.  I pledge to honor them by crossing that finish line on August 24th sometime short of 17:00:00 with my arms held high, a smile on my face, and hopefully I'll be singing this song (one of my new favorites):

Plans Are Firming Up

Training last week:

Monday:   Rest
Tuesday:  Trainer drills (1 hour)
Wednesday:  Rest
Thursday:     Rest
Friday:   Run 10 miles
Saturday:  Swim 1,000 meters, elliptical 5 miles
Sunday:  Travel

Last week was a blur and I cannot remember what my excuse was for Wednesday and Thursday.  My Friday run was one of the best that I have had in a long time, so I'm not worried about the mid-week stuff.  I have been consistently getting my 10,000 steps a day in outside of my workout, which has involved lots of flights of stairs at work.

Now on to more important things.  Like John "Hannibal" Smith says on the A-Team, I love it when a plan comes together.  My race plans are settling in, and I'm looking forward to getting this season going!  Here are my distance race and triathlon plans for this year:

3/9      Quivering Quads trail half marathon
4/5      Lincoln Presidential Half Marathon
6/15    RecPlex Spring Triathlon
7/12    Ironman 70.3 Muncie
8/24    Ironman Louisville
10/10  Bourbon Chase 200-mile relay

I may possibly add the QuarterMax triathlon in Innsbrook, MO on 6/28 - we'll see about that one.

I'm really looking forward to Muncie because we'll have 7 Honey Badgers (and maybe one of my brothers) racing this year.

Until next week.

Just Chillin'. Literally.

Last week’s training:

Mon:     Run 4.2 miles

Tue:      Bike 20 miles (trainer)

Wed:    Swim 2,050 yards

Thu:      Rest

Fri:       Traveling for work

Sat:       Run 4 miles ("race")

Sun:      Bike 17 miles (trainer)

Training beings:  52 days

Ironman Louisville:  191 days

It's February, so in less than 2 months, formal training for Ironman Louisville begins!  I am still working on my base in all three disciplines, although the intensity isn’t there yet.  Part of me thinks I need to stop the “fun runs” and start pushing the pace a bit, but I’m sure this period of lower intensity will benefit me when the tough summer mileage comes along.

I focused last week on trying to knock out the mileage I need for the Icy Iron held by my tri club.  I’m done with the swim and bike mileage, and need about 8 run miles to complete this cycle (finish all 140.6 miles of the ironman over 5 weeks).

On Saturday, Amy and I joined some other Honey Badgers to run the Stan Musial Veteran’s Memorial Bridge Run (6K).  As part of the opening of the bridge, this race was held along with some bike time trials and other ceremonies.  Here is my GoPro summary of the race:

In other news, it’s still freezing cold and snow-packed, so I haven’t been running outside very much.  Looks like the temps will break over the next week, so I’m hoping to get back out there.  There are 4 weeks left until my first trail half marathon (Quivering Quads), so I guess at some point I should get out there and do some trail running.  I think that’s going to be a really long day.

Nothing says “Brentwood – City of Warmth” like a fountain totally encased in ice (left)

Why?

Last week’s training:

Monday:               Run 4 miles (indoor track)

Tuesday:              Bike 20 miles (trainer)

Wednesday:         Swim 2,000 yards

Thursday:             Run 6.7 miles

Friday:                 Rest

Saturday:             Bike 18 miles (trainer)

Sunday:               Nothing (bad, bad, bad!!)

Nutrition was great last week with the exception of the Super Bowl and an awesome lunch with Amy at Blues City Deli on Friday (which was well worth the calories).  I've been sticking to my plan of walking the 9 flights of stairs in my building at least 3 times per day, and I've been managing to log 10,000 steps outside of any planned workouts.

Some of my recent bike orders have been rolling in – a quick release kit for my Garmin 910XT, a bike cadence and speed sensor that will link to my Garmin, and my aero water bottle have all arrived or will be here in a day or two.  I still need to decide on components for extra hydration, tubes, tools, etc. for the back of the bike, and whether I want to use an aero helmet.  I’m not in too much of a hurry to get these installed as it is snowing like crazy outside right now.

I had someone ask me the other day why I wanted to do a full Ironman.  Part of the answer is that it’s the next logical step in my progression – 5k, 10k, half marathon, marathon, sprint tri, Olympic distance tri, half Ironman, Ironman.  Another reason is that I enjoy the journey of race planning, training, and then race execution with my training partners.  I also just want to see if I can successfully finish this race.  For me, “success” is defined as being an official finisher (time of 16:59:59 or less).

Another reason for tackling the Ironman is to provide a positive role model for my kids in that hope that they won’t have to fight the same battle against their weight that I have for most of my life, and to show them that it takes hard work and dedication to achieve goals – things aren’t going to be handed to them.  Despite what we see in some of the activities and sports the kids are involved in, life doesn’t come with a participation trophy. 

 

Finally, I am chasing the goal of Ironman to raise money for cancer research.  I teamed up with Miles for Melanoma after my wife was diagnosed with stage 2 melanoma last fall.  My fundraising goal is $1406 (for the 140.6 miles of the Ironman) and I am well on my way to reaching this goal.  If you would like to donate, here’s a link to my fundraising page.

That’s it for this week.  I guess this was a bit rambling, but this is what has been on my mind lately.