Rob's River and Crush

Well, I may have found a reason to blog more consistently here. Signed up for Ironman Florida in Panama City on Saturday, Nov 3 2012. This is a "bucket list" item that I figured might as well get done sooner than later to have a better chance to survive. Race sold out in about 15 minutes online and although I started immediately to register, had issues with the site and had to resubmit but still got in. There are also additional "Foundation" spots that require a $600 or so donation to get in, but those filled up fairly quickly as well. That was the easy part. Why posting all this? Not sure - just figure it might be useful to keep a record of what I'm doing to prepare. Actually signed up in early Nov so started getting more regular and lengthening workouts to help prepare. Ran the Atlanta half marathon on Thanksgiving with a chip time of 1:45:53 so very pleased with that. Could see the benefit of the additional training from early Nov immediately as middle of the race when I typically would have faded I found plenty of energy to keep up the pace and finish strong. Yesterday ran the Resolution Run 10k in Norcross Technology Park. This was a small race. Logged a time of 44:11 on my watch but the race timer showed 44:44. There was a question about the distance so I drove it and logged 5.9 miles on my car. So if my car is correct, that would adjust my time to 46:26 which would be fine anyway. Burned 759 cal 20% of them fat according to the Polar heart rate watch I have. Max heart rate of 180 which I remember hitting and making myself back off since that is getting way to close to the max heart rate a 41 year old might expect to have. 24 seconds run in the 109-136 watch zone. There may have only been about 6 guys in my age group but I was certainly not going to turn down the award for 1st place in the age group.

Average heart rate was 168 for the race which was the real reason that I did it. After signing up for the triathlon I purchased a couple books from Amazon - "Ironman - Start to Finish: 24 weeks to an endurance triathlon" by Paul Huddle & Roch Frey is a nice simple book that just gets right to the point of what to do to prepare. Also bought the Joel Friel book "Going Long"

Of course, I've got more than 24 weeks but need to work up to being able to follow the drills they outline in the final 24 weeks. The book's prerequisite is at least 2 swim workouts per week for about an hour each. 3 bike rides per week with 1 long ride of 3 hours and 2 shorter rides of an hour each. 90RPM needs to be easily achieved which is an adjustment for me after riding the big gear for so long. Runs need to be 45-60 min 2x per week plus a long run 90 minutes. I've basically been meeting that schedule for the past 2 months now with some minor weight lifting worked into it as well. Basically not heavy weights 3 sets of 15 to get some strength/endurance, mostly upper body. The exception to meeting the prerequisites has been swim. So last week I got a free 10 day pass at LA Fitness and have been swimming several times since now. I'll probably go with their weekly internet rate of $10 to avoid having any type of up front fee and probably in summer months drop it since we have a neighborhood pool and may swim some in Lake Lanier.

Today's workout was 30 minutes of nautilus weights at LA Fiteness mainly upper body but some lower body, at a circuit like pace. Then did an hour on the spin bike and an hour in the pool. Kept pace generally light since yesterday's run pushed me pretty hard. Total watch time 2:51:48, burned 1,596 calories with 50% fat; average heart rate 120; time in my watches calculated zone of 109-136 was 1:48:00.

Other things to note - we have one of those cool scales from Target that includes body fat %. I've been able to get pretty consistently down to 179 lbs now and into the 19.x% body fat. BMI is 23.1 I'm 6'2.5'' When I started early Nov was probably closer to 185 and 21 or 22% body fat. BMI was closer to 24 or 25.

Equipment - I originally bought an entry level Trek years ago but upgraded to a 58' Giant that was purchased on Craig's list for about $1,000 that came with tri bars and bike shoes that actually fit me. It is aluminum rather than carbon frame and I've been debating about getting a carbon bike but at this point figure that the lighter weight of carbon can be obtained just by continuing to improve my diet and exercise. I've had it professionally fit down at Jacksonville/Ponte Vedra http://bikefitters.com and interestingly found out that my legs are relatively short compared to my torso. After taking the bike in for repair of a broken brake component, the folks at Alpha Bikes made it clear that I'll need to do a better job of cleaning my chain regularly.

Bought a bike trainer to allow for indoor bike riding since weather can be an issue sometimes. Although I have a couple pair of bike shorts that have worked fine in triathlons including the Augusta half Ironman 70.3 in 2010, this past week I ended up purchasing a 2 piece Tyr tri suit for about $100 at all3sports.com near Northridge & 400. Less padding in the pants but especially in a salt water swim I am thinking it will be helpful to have. They came with free goggles which I tried today and loved so there we go.

For swim practice, I decided I had to get an underwater MP3 player so after much research on Amazon.com and strong consideration of the Finis ones that play through your cheekbone, I went with one from underwateraudio.com for $175. A bit steep but I think it will be worth it to not go completely nuts swimming laps over and over and over and over without music. Hopefully it will work.

The wetsuit is going to possibly be an issue. I bought one for about $5 at a garage sale years ago that although tight, actually fits ok. Used it for the Augusta 70.3 so I'm inclined to use this at Florida Ironman but will look to get some advice from someone who can assess it. Just seems ridiculous to purchase or even rent a suit when I have one that seems to work ok. Kind of like the bike in that if I lose a few minutes off my time, so what really?

Helmet is just a basic biking helmet - not the cool aero looking kind but if I think the ability to keep my head well vented would be more important.

Eating healthy has always been a challenge due mainly to being a picky eater, also busy/on the go, and just not really liking or knowing how to cook anything decent. The good news for me is that with just some marginal changes there will surely be a lot of benefit. With most restaurants now charging over $2 for a coke, it was a good time anyway to switch to water for most orders. With that loading up on fruits and vegetables more - V8 is not as good as cooking fresh vegetables but surely an improvement from not getting them. Also decided to try this Alive multivitamin just in case the supposed 26 fruits and vegetables it packs will be of benefit.

As far as preparation, I've done several shorter triathlons over the years so feel that I've got enough experience with tri's to do this. The trick will be balancing schedules with work and family responsibilities. Right now I've been using the time my son is at tennis academy to always work on something. The Alpharetta Greenway is close to the tennis center, so will often bike there which can be an issue with the early sunsets right now - but will only get better for the most part. I bought a small bike light to help - mainly to identify myself for others or if I miscalculate and get stuck in the dark on the greenway riding into black is no fun. Had that happen once and you wouldn't believe the # people still out there in the dark so never again without light. Bought one of the flashing LED straps to also help identify me for folks. This is also good for cars when I run around Lake Windward. It is almost 6 miles to do the full run around the lake so on some days I'll try to get 2 loops in to count as the long run for the week. Long bike is typically 3 hours (3 full back and forth) but sometimes will go up to Forsyth Greenway. The problem with that is the rocks you have to walk on to get onto Forsyth.

For this year the plan is to do the Publix Marathon in March just to finally have done a marathon and assess. Probably will do the Peachtree City Olympic Tri in May and Augusta Half - trying to get buddy James Stevenson to do this one - we may do one in TN the same weekend instead. Beyond that, probably not much other than practice, practice, practice.

So why do this? Not sure exactly, but in 1988 when I was hit by a car and had a severe leg injury, the drive to get back to normal with a working leg pushed me to always try to do more. Maybe that has something to do with it - to go beyond full recovery and complete an Ironman. The other experience that stands out in my mind was in 2005 or 2006 @ Panama City doing a sprint triathlon our then 3-yr old son had a freak fall which we didn't realize caused an epidural hematoma that nearly killed him. We were blessed to have a surgeon who was able to save his life. So there is some apprehension about even going back to Panama City but if feels like its time.