T-minus one and counting

And so there you have it.. It's 6:32 and hopefully by this time next week I'll be somewhere on my second lap of the run at Ironman lake placid. All day Like Greg and Simon posting on the emails... At this time next week details...

I too couldn't sleep well last night. I got thinking about the race, getting organized and finally getting there. It's been such an incredible experience and challenging pushing me to limits I never thought I had before. I'm greatful to have a family that allows me the support and opportunity to tri. I know I'm lucky.. I'm also fortunate to have made some incredible friends along the way... I've gotten to know Greg quite well over the last couple years that althought I'm sad to seem him retire, I'm excited to be a part of whatever journey pushes him next. Man this is going to be a great week ahead....

The big workouts are done and it's showtime.

Thursday July 16

I went back to Habitat for humanity today and we put up the roof of the garage.  It was cool to finally understand how to get those angles when putting plywood up..  I do know that I won't be back again until after the race next week, because I woke up this morning and my hamstrings were sore and I was feeling a little tired.  It could also be that Tour over in France happening right now and watching it until 11pm can't help...

I rode today for 2.5 hrs and generally didn't feel it... I did it and it went ok but I could have just as easily skipped it...  I know the training is done, the count down is on...

One week to leaving for Lake placid

This time next week, I'll be in Lake placid.  Bern wrote this on our email banter a couple of days ago..  I wanted to keep it because it did ring true.  I fret, relax, ponder, fit in.  Most of all I'm eager.. I look back over the four summers that I've been doing this and must say that it's crazy.  This is by far the biggest athletic accomplishment of my life.  Regardless of what the day brings, I look forward to it...

Bern wrote,

"Have to admit there's a certain sadness to the last days of training. This is where I find our different personalities shine thru. 

We will have some IMLP athlete's sit back and know that the training is in the bank, and are cool and comfortable with the taper.

There will be other's that will have to "fit in" those last few workouts.

For some taper is just that, a comfortable mix of swim, bike, run and time to reflect on the race.

Some will drink beer ( Willem) others will partake in a fine scotch ( Steve/Bern), some will continue with their protein shakes.

Some will say "screw" the bath scales and a few will carefully try and shave off those last few pounds.

Some of you may have even started packing, some may pack the night before.

Most will fret in the days leading up to IMLP, the lucky ones will sit back and let the day unfold.................

Regardless of the who, what, where and when, what I do know is that sharing this journey with each and everyone of you has been so much fun. Whether it's been  been vicariously thru emails, in the pool, on the bike, or on the run. I wouldn't trade a moment! 

So enjoy the taper, for some may still consider it "training"................... 

Enjoy the couch when you can and don't be shy and invite a bag of chips and an ice cold beverage along................

Sleep or snooze when you can...............................

Consider where you'll put that new tattoo!......................

Visualize the race course..................................

And listen for those words that bring a tear to your eye and goose bumps to your skin...........................

.....................YOU ARE AN IRONMAN..............................


12 days and counting............................................."

yes goose bumps.... 

Wednesday July 15

So again I was a little crunched for time so I just did my run today and will bike tomorrow.. As things are sort of flexible at this point..

The run was a warm up and 5 x 1 km "punches".  Dave suggested that I go at about 5:00per km but I was feeling really good today so I hit it hard.  Each km was finished in 4:40 and a full three min recovery in between.  I was really happy and now feel that my run is almost there...

Cool down and done...

I had my last strength workout last night and met up with claudia after the workout for a little beer and nachos to celebrate my year of working out with her... She has helped me feel stronger then I could really have imagined.. Heck I'm seeing some definition in my legs...

Anyways, the point was we talked a bunch about nutrition for the race.. I realized that I'm eating too much... I can probably do without 1 of my 1/4 pieces.  Without that piece I've still got 350 in calories so I should still be fine...

I also realized that every full bottle that I carry is about 2pounds.  Claudia suggested that one bottle (number 7) be without water and just have eload in it..  This way if I get to it, I just fill it up and if I don't need it then I didn't carry it for 6hrs.  The reason why I don't think I'll need it was that I was reading that it wasn't good to eat right away and allow your body to equalize to an upright position from being lying down for an hour...

Therefore I won't have to worry about that extra bento box because I'll have less stuff... 

any thoughts guys?

Tuesday July 14

Habitat For humanity

So I joined up with a "build" for habitat for humanity today in Markham - 9th line and Rutherford.  It was really cool because I love that stuff and I was hoping to learn a thing or two about building.  I did.  We framed the garage and I learned some key tips about studs being 16inches on centre - even with a window... I also learned how to tie two walls together (and not with a whole lot of nails) - using a top plate and extending it 3.5 inches.  

Overall, a really cool day.... and way cooler then my 40 min run afterwards....I hope, after ironman to get back there for some more help...

Monday July 13

AM swim 

back to the pool this morning for 23oom.  The main set was an 800m swim which I finished in 14:30min.  I felt a little tired today - glad that's all that I had to do today..

AM - bike pick up...

Picked up the bike from Rick Choi today.  He did an incredible job.  Everything was cleaned and waxed.  My race wheels were put on and tuned to the bike.  It rode like the first day I picked it up..  So exciting..  He also convinced me to get this silicone stuff to put in the tube to seal a puncture.  What this means (in theory) is that in the event of a flat, the silicone should re seal the puncture and I just have to inject more air.  I couldn't not get it... because murphy's law would say that Flats would come a plenty...

Friday/ Saturday/ Sunday July 10,11,12

Friday - Weights

I always find that I don't get the same workout without Claudia... I just don't sweat the same - but I feel like I work the same.  The workouts usually go faster on my own.  Maybe having the company is more fun...

Saturday - Swim

Up at the cottage, there tends to be a bit of boat traffic on the water so there needs to be some caution when swimming..  I've swam up the that white boat house but it required swimming arcoss a tiny bay... because I was alone today I opted to skip the bay.  Out and back was close to 35min so I was ok on the day...

Sunday  - off

Thursday July 9

AM Swim

So I met up with Scott this morning for an out and back swim at lake wilcox.  Scott is a pretty incredible athlete and came in 7th total the other week at Peterborough.  I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep up with him but I was hoping to be in the same vacinity...

The swim went pretty well and Scott was long done by the time I got to each end.  I was pretty happy about my sighting as I was able to stay fairly on target...

PM - 4hr ride and 30 min run

Because Friday was looking crazy, I decided to shift things around and do this ride today.  Tim - my chiropractor had convinced me to try his aero helmet, so todays ride was to test things out on a long ride.  I knew 4hrs would get me somewhere around 116km, but I'm convinced that with the aero helmet I was able to move at just under a 30kmph pace for the 4 hrs - completing 119.5 km.  My HR was bang on around 145 most of the time.  I could have had a tail wind most of time which may have helped but I was satisfied none the less.  

The run was great... working hard for the 1st 15min and easy for the rest..  

I'm definitely going to keep to the 27-28 kmph range for ironman barring any issues..

Wednesday July 8

1hr run

I worked all day today and then did this run... It called for 20 min warm up and then 10 times a 30 second hill with 15min at a 5min per km pace.  

Needless to say the warmup went well and most of the hills.  It was when I got to the pace work that obviously things got tough.  What was interesting was that the 5min pace didn't kill as much as I thought..  In fact when I thought I was at speed, I looked at my watch to find that I was going 4:40 or faster most of the time... So easing up felt much better and doable..

I finished tired and my HR was high.. around 175-180, however it was manageable - not for much longer maybe another 5 or so min.  But next time I would definitely ease up faster and not drive the red line by staying even at 4:45-4:50.

Tuesday July 7

Am Swim

So with all the temperature issues seemingly fixed at the pool I went for another swim.  I also found a great time to go without having to wake up at the crack of dawn to get in the water...

I dropped Nate off at camp and went for my 3500m swim.

 

The workout was a whole bunch of warming up and skills which I like and then a series of 100m sets with decreasing amounts of rest.  I shot of the blocks expecting to really go and then when the first 100 was done – and 20 second break was over, I knew that I was going to have to slow down if I was going to get another 14 100’s in…

The swim ended and I was glad I pushed when I needed to, but most importantly I was happy that I played it smart and did my best by pacing myself.  To often it’s really easy to go hard at the beginning and then stop early because of being too tired…

 

PM Bike

I met up with my friends Ari and Steve, who had just got road bikes and were getting into riding.  I knew that the intensity wasn’t going to be there but sometimes getting together with friends to get out is more important. 

We rode 2hrs and covered about 50km +/- and it was just a fun all around ride.  The wind was tough today… I really hope there’s some reprieve with wind coming back into Lake Placid from Willmington….

 

Monday July 6

2hr bike

Part of the best thing about working with Dave and Lisa is that every once in a while I get to do a workout with them.  Today it was just Dave and we met at his house to go for a two hour spin.  It was a great ride but we had to ride up HWY 10 for about 5min - note to self - try to stay off of hwy 10.  We warmed up for about 30min and then landed at this road and that was going to be the workout - hills.  The hill didn't look too bad (mostly because I couldn't see the whole thing).  The plan was to ride the hill 6 times. 

The first time I barrelled up the hill not knowing what to expect...  that was a mistake...  The road takes Lisa about 6min to climb - me about 7 - not bad... but that was the first time.  I knew that if I was going to last another 5 laps, I was going to have to find a better gear.  

All told the next 5 laps went much better and my time didn't slow that much - I just found a better gear and kept my cadence as close to 90 as possible as opposed to 75 on the first time.  My HR did climb really as high as 170 each time but the really cool part was watching it fall right to 110 on the descent.  

2hrs later and 55km in the bank I was pretty pleased with my pacing efforts...

Friday July 3

3hr ride and 2 hour run

I didn't really feel like battling the heavy winds today so I threw the bike on the computrainer and dailed it up to 150watts - and rode... I wasn't overly conserned about getting outside for this as Dave had told me the real goal was to figure out all of the nutrition issues and practice them..
I tried using a concentrate bottle - good idea but I have to take the sponge out before pouring..
I added another bento box to carry all of the food I need.. didn't rub and was a good idea - remember to put it all in a zip lock in case of rain from above...

I really don't want to depend on the Special needs bag - just in case I don't get and I don't want to really wait around for it...

2hour run off the bike
This run was also great! 21.25 km in 2hrs. I decided that I wasn't going to use my fuel belt but instead a single bottle and refill it when necessary... Again I carried extra eload and gels, so all I needed was water and no sense in carrying it all for the whole time. Water is water....
It was a great idea and I was happy I did it..

Thursday July 2nd

Swim
This was a crowded swim as I went when the Day camp was using...

The swim was 6 x 400's at various paces - basically getting the start of the ironman swim going and then cruising...

I got 4 of the 400's before the kids bumping into me really started bugging me...

I'll stick to the 6am swims..

Wed July 1

AM Ride
Because of the strength session last night, I moved my bike ride to Wed morning.. It truned out to be a bad I idea because I bonked about an hour in...

The ride called for 3 times 20 min building every 5 min... I got the first two and bailed on the third.. All this finishing school has really slowed things down for me. I'm catching up on sleep but it's making me generally tired.

PM 45 min form Run
This was a great run - I must have eaten and got right back on the horse as this one worked... and nothing hurt...

Monday June 29 Tuesday June 30

Recovery swim and strength

Not much to report on these two days... My legs were tight on Monday and was glad to get in the pool to stretch it out...

Catch Up

Well I've decided I'm not very good at keeping this log up to date. However the reality is that I do enjoy updating it and looking back over time to see what's been done and how I've felt along the way...

Saturday June 27 / Sunday June 28

One of the really great thing about working with Dave and Lisa is the ability be around them and train at the same time. They are such a positive pair and even when the going is really tough.. they exude some sort of "but you liked it though didn't you".
This weekend was tough... Saturday was a long ride and the plan was to be up in Muskoka to ride that Blasted 70.3 route twice to really beat myself up as the last long ride...

Sandra decided that she wanted to come up as well so why not - we book a really nice room at deerhurst and away we went for a weekend getaway.. Sandra would sleep and I would train.
When we got up to deerhurst we noticed that the roads were in bad shap with all of that construction. When I talked to Dave, he suggested that I cut out the 8km from Deerhurst to Dwight beach. I couldn't be happier as I believe that to be the hardest part of the course and I guaruntee that I would have convinced myself to stop after one loop and that 16km done.. So I did two loops around the lake of bays which would add up to right around 155. I wasn't unhappy with that - that was tough riding - similar to Lake placid. I did the two loops in 5:20- right on target to hit 6:30. Off I went after the ride for a 30min out and back run.. Felt great...

I've noticed my HR was a little high off the bike but I'm still conversational and the perseived feeling isn't over doing it...

That afternoon I joined Lisa and Dave as part of their camp for a little swim work out.. We did some drills and then I joined a couple other people for an actual swim. We basically did the swim course - I didn't time myself but this group was fast and I was a little tired. Easy does it.. and relaxed - working on rolling and slipping through the water.

Sunday 3 hr run
Today I ran the new run course. It wasn't much different then last years but the golf course was gone and so were those two out and back roads. Basically this route is an out and back - out to hwy 60 and along to fairy view road and then out and up muskoka rd 3 ( big hill here) and back along the fairy vista trail to the resort.
I added here and there to get the three hours in - I may have run 30 but it might have been slightly less.. My achilles flared just a little so right into the ice bath to cool it down.