Government Shutdown - S-T-U-P-I-D Blamegame!

It's close!  The colored bars are planned training, and the black bars are completed training.  About 6 weeks to go! The red bar is Ironman Arizona (IMAZ) race week.

Now after all this work, the children up on capitol hill aren't playing nice and because of their bickering, the pool on base is CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!  I figured my training would be derailed by a bike crash or some _itis not POLITICS!  UNBELIEVE UNBELIEVE!!!

I figure these brats are going to bicker right through the debt ceiling vote, which is 15 days away, so I need to figure something out quickly.  I didn't see this one coming. #dumba$$es #congressionalGridlock

Still on Track

I swam Alcatraz a few weeks ago, that was weird! I never thought I would jump off a boat in the middle of the bay.  I’ll do it again someday and maybe not freak out the first 10 minutes.

I've been rock solid on my training plan, only varying for the Alcatraz swim and our club motorcycle race.  The colored bars are the plan and the black bars are my performance.  This chart shows about 25 solid weeks of training.

Every 4rth week is a testing week, and they are showing good steady fitness improvements.  Mostly injury and illness free.  I have had a little cold or ache here and there, but nothing out of the ordinary for a 50 year old man training 17 hours a week!
Injury is my biggest concern at this point.

IMAZ - I an in!

I haven’t posted to the blog in 3 months so here is a quick update.

I volunteered for IMAZ (Ironman Arizona) last year, Nov 2012, so that I could get a certain entry into the 2013 event.  It was quite inspirational to watch the event, but the inspiration changed from excitement to FEAR!  Holy shit 2013 is here and I’m still in it!  I got in line at 5 am a full three hours before the advertised opening of signup.  As volunteers we had our own line to sign up for the 2013 IMAZ race.  I was probably 100^th in line at 5AM!  The line quickly doubled then doubled again.  Signup opened early, way early!  By 7 AM I had laid down my credit card and charged $700 for entry.  Signup was blazing fast; all they took was my name, address and email.  I got no receipt, just an email on my iPhone while still in the signup tent confirming my entry; talk about efficiency!

I have set up my annual training plan with only this event as a goal.  I am going to do some swim only events and probably a little tri or two, but the focus is all IMAZ!

Training is still going well, injury free, knock on wood; diet and weight are under control as well.

Lance Armstrong is still “The Shit” in my book

Lance Armstrong is still “The Shit” in my book – Screw Nike and everyone else that drops him, I won’t wear another swoosh!  As for Trek, Giro, FRS, Honey Stinger, 24 Hour Fitness, Anheuser-Busch and Radio Shack, I don’t use their crap anyway.

I haven’t blogged in a while, but I HAVE been working my arse off.  Easy weeks have been 9 hours and peaks weeks at 15 hours per week of running and riding.  My weight is 165-168 which is nearing my target, but I might look to be 160-163 by year end.

I have remained injury free for quite a while now, having tested the limits of my training load.  I can take more and more training as I drop the weight.

Upcoming Events:

Edwards Olympic distance triathlon Nov 3^rd, I won the last one.

Ironman AZ (IMAZ) volunteer Nov  18, I’m volunteering so that I can get priority entry to the 2013 event.

Mojave Narrows Half-Marathon

1:37:41, a minute faster than my previous PB, good for 24rth out of 232 and 3rd in the 45-49 Age Group. This will be my last year in this group. Missed the 1st place  by a minute and a half.  Not bad considering the course was not exactly a cake-walk.

Still a few more pounds to go.   I can train for two hours a day but I can't push my plate away.  

Olypic distance tri ar Edwards AFB

I was a  really fun low-key event.  Thanks to all the volunteers, you rock!  I'm healthy and training around 10 hours week.  Edwards 2nd tri was a very small venue, but it still fells awesome to execute a plan and win, < 2 minute 100's in the 1000m swim, 22 mph on the 26M bike and 7:30 miles on the 10k run.

Validation - Triathlon at Edwards AFB 2-25-2012

It is nice to see the work pay off.  I got 4rth place in the first triathlon at Edwards AFB.   It was a sprint distance, 500M swim, 12.8 mile bike and 3 mile run.  It was a good time and most important, I beat all my work buddies and own the bragging rights around the office.  SWEET!

The pounds are coming off slowly.  My training focus is SLOWLY building my run mileage back to 25 a week and getting more comfortable in the water…BREATH!

Its weird

When did exercise change from something that I do to who I am. At what point in time did exercise become training and when did I first consider myself an athlete? The quest has changed me; I can’t imagine what the finish will do.


I swam 2 miles in one hour today after being out of the pool for over 6 months. I can ride a bike over 20mph for 5 hours. I can run a marathon in 3 and ½ hours. The changes are good.

Weight Management for Triathletes

...so I read this book a few weeks ago and one of the recommendations for motivation was to put your head on your favorite triathletes body.  So first I pasted my head on Rinny's body and that was just weird!  So here is my mug on Macca's body.

So Things are Looking Positive Again

 

So things are looking positive again after a long on again off again relationship with my left hip flexor(s).  I building my running back up and am currently at 25 per week which is pretty easy for me.  I think I ‘ll look for around 30 or 35 as a base running mileage while I get my weight problem figured out.

Yes I have a weight problem.  I have been a “chubby” guy most of my life and when I set out to be a triathlete the pounds quickly dropped off from 220 to 165.  Great! Right?  Well I also have a 141 IQ and with all that brain power I quickly learned how to exercise 2+ hours a day and still gain weight; a master of compensation.  As I sit right now I am 180, 5 or 6 of that weight is water retention after the Tour De Palm Springs Century ride I did a couple of days ago, but even 175 is a problem.  At 5 foot 10.5 inches tall I need to get down to 160-ish.

Ok back to the positives, I rode my 2^nd century ride this past Saturday it was 102.8 miles and I completed it in 5 hours and 21 minutes.  A very respectable time considering all of the traffic signals in Palm Springs.  My average speed including all of the stops was 19.3MPH.  I now have the speed on the bike I need to reach Kona and I have the Marathon time.  I need to start competing more and LOOSE SOME *^%&% WEIGHT~!

Motivation

Long Beach Marathon

I ran the Long Beach International Half-Marathon last weekend. I recommend it. The course was nice and the event organization was flawless from my perspective.

I ran the half in 1:39:42 per plan. My hip flexor was really painful afterwards but did not affect the 13.1 mile run. I'm still struggling with my weight and the hip flexor. I need to eat less and eat better plain and simple.

I'll likely have to cancel my appearance at the Sacramento International Marathon due to a business trip to Dubai; poor me. I'm looking for an event of any distance in the UAE to coincide with my visit. How cool would that be?

10/2/2011 – The hip flexor again!

I am thankful that I have been able to stay mostly injury free for the past couple of years. Although I wonder if I’m training hard enough, perhaps not pushing close enough to the limit. Well wonder no more, my left hip flexor is telling me to back off and that is what I have done.
For the past 7 days I have not run or biked (except to ride to the pool) while my hip flexor seemingly shows no improvement. It is times like this that the doubt starts creeping in. “Is that as hard as I can train?” or “I’ll never meet my goals with this body.” ARGH!
I can train harder, but not at 180 pounds. I read an article on the dive down south to visit my Daughter and meet her new gal-pal-Kal’. The article said to cut and paste your head onto you favorite triathlete’s body. So I’ll post that when I get to it. It should be good for a laugh and help me get down to 160.

Goals
It’s all about goals. I have accomplished everything I set out to do in my life, which like being injury free means I probably didn’t set my goals high enough (and I was always too fat…lol). Well I’m pretty sure that my Ironman goals are high enough and weather or not I accomplish them, I am going to do something that I see nobody around me doing. Something lacking in the public at large:
I’m going to find out just what I’m made of. How far I can go, how tough I am. When I die I’m damn sure going to be tired!

3:43:05 – Santa Rosa Marathon

3:43:05 – Santa Rosa Marathon

Perfect was the preparation, equipment, course, nutrition.  Perfect was the rest, support, temperature, humidity and atmosphere.  This was the perfect day to run 26.2.  This was a perfect day for preparation to meet opportunity.  This is the day I will make a run at my Boston qualifying time.

Why the long face?   

I have trained to run sub 3:30 for the past year or so.  I also have learned that although 3:30 is my Boston qualifying time, it would not guarantee me a chance to run the 2012 Boston Marathon.   I need to do better than 3:30, in fact next year they are dropping my time to 3:25.

I had seen indications during some of my later training that I might be able to run a 3:20.  I had carried a 7 minute 30 second per mile (7:30/mi) pace for 15 mile and still felt pretty fresh afterwards.  The days leading up to the Santa Rosa marathon I started thinking I would go for it.  I knew I was taking a huge chance. This “gutsy move” could put me in a position where I may not even be able to finish the race.   And that is exactly what happened.

I ran the first half of the race in about an hour and 40 minutes, feeling like this was going to be a day to remember.  I was floating along listening to other runners breathing hard, some talking.  I tagged up with a small group after hearing they were going to run 7:30’s, so they could alleviate some of my timekeeping workload and allow me to sightsee more.  It wasn’t long and the group began to fall apart, I stayed with the guys running 7:30s.

Pretty soon they started pulling away and I just let them go deciding I would drop to 8:00 and still make a nice Boston time.  Then it was 8:30, and then I would barely hold 9:00.  Pretty soon there was no hope and with only 5 miles to go I wondered if I would finish.  There was no “wall.”  I just felt heavier and heavier with each mile, and at mile 21 I could barely carry my own weight. 

I found relief in watching a couple of other runners stop in agony.  Watching them try to run repeatedly not wanting another runner to pass them. They were worse off than me and somehow that gave me strength.   I just kept moving, “no matter what happens keep moving” I told myself.

 It was all I could do to not collapse at the finish and horrify my family; I didn’t want that.  We left the park and went home.

The marathon distance is easily accomplished, but when you try to race this distance you better respect it.  My decision to attempt a 3:20 was bad and I paid the price, pain.

The ‘dream’ how important is a goal vs. the personal meaning.

I not sure how to describe fuzzy line between important and meaningful.  My athletic goals aren’t important to anyone else in the world and are insignificant in comparison to the events presently taking place on our planet.  There is tragedy, disaster, suffering and war all around the globe.  My family country and job are important and I would not neglect any of them in pursuit of my dreams.

I have failed miserably to convey how much qualifying for Kona means to me.  I think it shows in my commitment to training, but there is so much more.  I think if I share a dream I had recently it might give you some idea.

So there I was (in my dream).  It’s a typical morning in Hawaii, partly cloudy, about 70 degrees and fairly humid.  The breeze is light but noticeable.  There is a comforting calm as athletes all around me are making final preparations.   I’m in my swim gear sitting on the ground next to my bike.  All of my gear for the day is prepped, organized and ready for the day ahead.  There is nothing left but to take in the moment.  The entire dream was just about that one moment, probably less than a minute.

I laid back and looked up at the palms swaying in the wind and realized that I had done it; I’m here with the best athletes in the world at the Ironman World Championships.  I cried.  I woke up tears of happiness were still gushing from my eyes as if it really happened.

LA Marathon disappointment, what does it really mean and what did I learn from it.

Although it was very disappointing, missing the LA Marathon means almost nothing.  I was not intending to go for a Boston qualifying time; this was basically just another long run in my training.  I missed two or three workouts since I was tapering for the race and that is it.  Not having to recover from the marathon saves me a week in itself.  In the future I won’t fully taper for races in which I don’t expect to qualify for a future event.

It’s been a while since writing, not training - LA Marathon March 20 2011

I just finished a nearly flawless 18 week long training program for the LA Marathon.  I juggled, but met all of my commitments to friends and family, ran many times at 3am and rode during my lunch breaks.  I ate well and made sure to get the sleep my body needed.  I made sure to record the mileage on my shoes and kept them fresh; I’m talking DETAILS!  I did everything in my control to execute a personal best marathon.

I took the day off on Friday before the marathon to go to the expo and pick up my race number so that I could spend Saturday with my family (after the final run of my taper period).  We spent the middle part of the day at a Tae Kwon Do tournament, which is an important part of my family and social life.  I started feeling a little nauseous around lunch time, figured I was hungry.  Couldn’t find anything I wanted to eat at the tournament so I decided to wait until the planned pasta feast planned for dinner.

We checked into our hotel room at the Bonaventure downtown LA and walked a couple of blocks to Maria’s kitchen for dinner.  It was about this time that I began to fear that my marathon wasn’t going to happen.  I broke into a cold sweat when the food arrived at our table and ran to the bathroom fearing that I would barf right there in the restaurant.  I didn’t barf but it was close.  Just to shorten the story this continued all night long, I got almost no sleep and hadn’t eaten for 20 hours.  When I couldn’t even think about eating my favorite oatmeal and peanut butter breakfast I knew my marathon wasn’t going to happen.  I can’t explain how it felt to cross over the marathon course as we headed home.

Subject: Honda LA Marathon Alert

Dan Wilson at FINISH in 04:59:52 hrs (NET). Pace: 11:26 min/mi.

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