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.