Getting Ready

Am i ready? I have piles of stuff every where. I want to make sure I do not forget anything. Swam at clearwater Beach this weekend with the sleeveless wetsuit. It was fine the water was very rough. I did not want to swim out to far, as I was swimming alone. There will be soem comfort in swimming with a large group of people.

I know I can do the distance, I have trained. It is time to leave the self doubt and nerves at home and just have fun and enjoy the race.

Weather

Extended forecast for Saturday High of 76 low of 57

Worried about being cold at the start..Might need arm warmers for the bike.

Taper

Luckily, I am in Philadephia for some meetings. I am going crazy. I am not doing any workout over an hour. I am starting to question my training. Have I gone far enough, am I fit enough. What will happen when I get to the run. Will the water be cold, rough? Should I wear my full wetsuit or sleeveless? I am going crazy.

I have taken friday off. I have to pick up my bike from the bike shop. I have started making lists of things to bring to IMFL. I feel like I am eating everything in sight. I want the day to be here. I have trained for 1 year for 1 day. What a journey.

980

980

It's offial. I have a number 980!!!!!!

Race Ready

My weekend. I took Friday off. I had planned on one last 100 mile ride at Van Fleet Trail. I had some conference calls and work stuff that came up so I could only do 60 miles. Gary did 85. How crazy is that that a 60 mile bike ride or is only 60 miles. I only have to run for an hour. That is how it is.....The ride was fine. I adjusted my seat down and forward slightly. This seemed to help my hamstring. No issues of the bike. What a relief. Friday we had both Gary and Clint over for a cookout. I wanted our wives to meet as they are going to ride to Panama together.

Saturday. Gary and I met at Luckys for a swim. It was raining fairly hard but it did not effect the swim. The main goal here was to check out the wetsuit. I like the sleeveless a lot. It felt good and gave me good mobility. I did 1K with it and had to take it off, as the water was still 82. We did a total of 4K. Felt good. The balance of Saturday was spent doing family stuff. JT had a science experiment to do with Diet Coke and Mentos.

Sunday. 4am wake up call. I met Gary and for a 20 mile run... The plan was to do 2 loops so that we could stop at the Y and refill our water. We ended up doing a large loop as, we did not want to stop at the Y, for fear we might not start again. So we ran for just about 3 hours. I am calling it 20 miles as we had no way to measure. Good run, my legs felt good. I was worried about my knee and hamstring so no issues is good.

I dropped my bike off for a tune up. I am traveling through Thursday this week. So nice easy workouts on the treadmill and stationary bike. Its all downhill from here. Next weekend I will be in Clearwater for a wedding, so I can test my full and sleeveless wetsuits and obsess about that for a while. I need to start making list of things to bring. I should buy arm warmers and more Perpetuem..

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it says IRONMAN!!

I want my race number.

Mt Dora Bike Festival

We met Saturday morning before sun up in Mt Dora. They were having a 2 day festival featuring a bunch of different bike rides. The 100 mile ride fit in our schedule. The $40 registration fee was worth it to have someone else plan the route. There were also 3 or 4 stops along the way we could stop and refuel.

There were a lot of bikers. We started tor wards the back and let the roadies go. We did end up passing a bunch of people, but there were also some big packs on the roads. The ride started out cool. I am glad I did not wear my long sleeve shirt. It got hot quick. At the end of the ride it was very warm. The wind seemed to be pretty constant all day. I was good the first 1/3 of the ride or more. Then about half way my hamstring on my left leg was killing me. I could not pedal without pain. Great. I was better when I was not in the aero position. Going up some of the hills were fine when I was out of my saddle. I am not sure what I did.

My MPH dropped the last 30 miles. We probably averaged a little less that 17mph. Much slower than I would have liked. I did down 4 Advil it helped a little.

Nutrition on the day was fine. I should have drank more. I need to make sure I take more Enduralytes. I had an issue getting at the stuff in my bento box. I need to keep more food in my jersey. I had little pretzel sandwiches with cheddar cheese in the middle from Hanover. They were very good..I will keep those for race day.

The ride took us back into Mt Dora. Gary and I loaded the bike in the car and went for a 5 mile run. I started and finished okay. The rest sucked. I tried stretching out my hamstring, but it had to shuffle run. I could not raise my left leg, bent at the knee to my waist.

Got home in time for Kristy to leave with Grace for a birthday party. I tried to take a nap, but both time I got woken up by the phone.

SUNDAY: We met at 5am for a run. The plan was to do 12. I managed about 8 and headed back. Still some hamstring issues. I do not want to push it to hard. We did get to Lucky's lake for an open water swim. It was "cold" out, but the water temp was 82. I got 3 crossings in(3K) and felt good. I could or should have done 1 more..

My sleeveless wetsuit should come today. I am excited to try it out vs the full suit. I would like to get a lake swim in next weekend. I am in Charlotte, NC today. I brought my workout stuff, but I might just use the hot tub and pool to stretch out.

Now, I thought I was headed to the TAPER. I have been looking at the Triathlete Magazine Ironman taper, from a couple month back. It has a 100 mile bike and 20 mile run this weekend. I might modify this depending on how my body feels. I know how my mind feels. I am toast. I am ready to slow down. We will see what happens. I need to think carefully about this week and weekend..

Okay I fell Better

Set the alarm for 4:45am this morning and was out the door by 5:15. I got in a good 18+ miles. I have not mapped the run out the know exactly. I felt great. It was not to hot or humid this morning. It was dark. So I did have to watch my footing in some spots. I ran to downtown Disney refilled my water bottle a couple times and then ran to some of the hotels and kind of wandered around to get mileage before heading home. My knee only hurt a couple times. I stopped to stretch it out had some Hammer Gel and kept going. IPOD Shuffle worked great. I listened to some podcasts and then music, it helped keep me going.

I have a parent teacher conference this morning and then lunch with my daughter. I hope to get 90 minutes in the pool later this afternoon. I am traveling tomorrow. So I will be able to ride the bike or something at the hotel.

This weekend I have a 100mile ride planned with a run after. I can almost see the taper. I am ready.

Saturday Bike

Clint and I met at my house for a planned 80 mile bike. We had to wait a bit till it got light enough to leave. Of, course as we were leaving it began to rain. It rained pretty steadily for first 10-15 miles. other than that the ride was pretty uneventful. We rode out to clermont, did a loop around the lake and then headed back. The wind picked up and it was not a fun morning. I am not sure if I was pushing to hard a gear or what, but my left hamstring and and right knee are sore.

We did about a 4.5 mile run off the bike. The plan was to go longer, but it was getting to hot and we did not feel great. It's funny it was raining or over cast most of the morning and we get on the run and it seems that the sun comes out and there is no wind.

I guess all of this is just good practice. Kristy did the Race for the Taste at Disney on Sunday, so no run for me. I did get a long 90 minute swim in.

I planned on running this morning, but I am concerned about my knee. A couple times while walking around yesterday, my knee seemed to give out and I had some shooting pain. So I will take it easy today and try for a long run in the morning.

I just picked up an Ipod Shuffle as my Nano is broken. I am loading it up for my next run.

Hotel treadmills

I am traveling in Raleigh, NC this week. I was at a Courtyard last night. I was able to get a good 90 minutes in on the treadmill. These treadmills were very old. I think the belt was about a foot wide. I had to be very careful. The "exercise" room was tiny and crammed with machines, it was very stuffy..

Staying at a full service Marriott tonight. Nicer exercise room. It looks like someone actually cleans the machines at night. I got to a local pool near the UNC campus. I was able to do about 1:15 in the pool, felt good. I will hit the stationary bike for a bit and then on to dinner.

The kids called, my new bike shoes have arrived. I am still waiting on my wetsuit...

Pool and a Movie

Got to the YMCA Aquatic center yesterday for a swim. My plan was to swim for 1:30, which would put me close to 2.5miles. I have given up trying to count laps of lengths.

I got there and half of the lanes were closed. There was also a film crew set up near the dive well. They had scaffolding set up with lighting and lots of crew and such. Come to find out they were filming an Ace Ventura movie there. I did not have my contacts in so I could not tell a lot of what was going on. I know that they were filming a dog doing some sort of tricks. This was all fine until, they stopped my from swimming while they were filming. I was only stopped a couple times for a few minutes while they were filming scenes. All and all a good swim. I am not sure how far I went. It was at least 90 minutes. I also forgot my watch so I was using the wall swimming clock.

I am trying to get a number of good workouts in this week as I approach the TAPER. I would like to get another ocean swim in before heading to Panama City Beach. I am still up in the air about this weekends planed. Kristy is running the Race for the Taste 10K at Disney on Sunday. SO I will bike on Saturday. I might go to Luckys to a long open water swim and they head out for a long bike ride..or maybe I should do another longer brick..

I should also practice changing a flat, decide what to wear, what to bring, write down my nutrition, run nutrition, should I run with my camera, new socks, get more body glide, more Boudreaux's Butt Paste, decide on pre race food, bike tune up, wheres my new wetsuit?, AHHHHH

Van Fleet Trail-Windy

Well I was solo for my Sunday ride. Plus, my ipod is broken. I got to the trail a little after 6:30, of course it was still dark. I had driven Kristy's minivan, so I stretched out in the front seat and waited for sunrise. I did fall asleep. I did not want to start out on the trail in the dark because I was not sure what I could run into.

The ride was okay. The first 29 miles was fine. I was averaging around 20mph and feeling good. I was actually a little chilled the start of the ride. I was maybe 75 out and humid. I am starting to think about what to wear and what to pack.

I am feeling good about my nutrition. I think I will put some sort of energy drink, to give me a little boost in my special needs bag for the bike and maybe the run.



The return ride. I was brighter and getting warmer. But the wind was picking up. It got pretty windy. I was able to still keep my cadence and mph up but not much. for the day I ended up about 18.5mph. On the way back I ran over some kind of snake with my bike. It freaked me out. I am not sure what kind of snake it was. I know it was big. I did not see much wild life wild life this trip. I did see a ton of thse huge spiders. I am covered in these thick spiderwebs at the end of a ride.


I ended up at around 80 miles. I quick changed into my running shoes, and put on my water pack. It was now very windy the trail was empty. I ran out 2 miles and back. The first mile my legs felt like crap, as expected. I ran through it and felt pretty good. On my last my or so I was running on the paved trail right next to the brush. I looked down and their was some kind of snake maybe 2 inches from my feet. I think I jumped straight up in the air..

I got home and showered and then it was time to sell popcorn in front of the Publix with my son Sam. I was fine, I was able to run to the Starbucks for a cup of coffee to get me through the rest of the day.

Saturday

Switched my schedule around this weekend. I did my long run on Saturday morning. Kristy had a conference to go to so I needed to get up early to run. Nothing like a 4:30 alarm.

I did about 16 or 17 miles. I should have gone a little longer, but the kids were home alone. I did a round about loop and wound up at downtown Disney. It is nice to run through there. Lots to look at and plenty of water and bathroom stops.

Starting to cool off a little. My shoes did not start squishing till the end of the run.