Friday, December 31, 2010

Last post and...

...out with some more of my cash! The last post of 2010. It will be short and sweet! Some quick updates from the world of workout and the 2011 racing schedule.

I literally JUST signed up for Ironman Racine 70.3 like 2 minutes ago, this way I beat the IM fee increase which takes place at 00:00:01 hrs on 01/01/2011. IM is expensive enough, and the WTC crew makes enough off us without having to pay their higher fees. So, BAM! Another race on the calendar.

And there shall be no New Year countdown here, no sir, not that. Only race day countdowns, sir, no more!

To the IM Racine 70.3 timer:
Racine-it's only 7.5 months away!


and on to IM Wisconsin:
IMoo countdown-Whoop Whoop!
Training will begin on 1/03/11, at roughly 5:30am on that cold, dark Wisconsin winter morning. Man-that got here fast! Yep, Masters swim class starts in 2 days, and runs for 8 weeks every Monday from 5:30-7am. The "Butt Kicking" is set to commence-but I'm ready for this and will welcome it with open arms-I really mean this. I am looking forward in having a coach help improve my technique, work on drills, and having more pool time in general! Recently, I exchanged my leaky swim goggles for some brand spanking new ones, though these have no tint (I kind of like the clear lens in the pool instead of the tint) but we'll see how they work for OWS and in bright sunshine!

I will be mounting the E7 on the trainer in a few days, for the start of some short, easy spins. I will also be taking a ride up to Performance Running Outfitters for new running shoes (my current pair have 475+ miles and are shot). I got some new compression gear and running socks for Christmas too.

On the down side-I'm still fighting some sort of illness, it must be some late 2010 bug that just doesn't want to give up and go away with the end of the year! I have had some joint pain, sore quads and a really bad back ache going and add to this, bad congestion since Tuesday. BTW- I still went for a swim Tue and did a respectable 2,000 yards. My 1K yard time was better than my last few swims, but I faded after 20 laps, I just felt fatigued and had some trouble breathing properly. I still don't know if this was a good idea, but I never had a fever, so I figured it could help. Maybe not so much...

I think there was some type of virus the family spread about, so 3 of the 4 of us in the house were sick at the same time. Thursday-I spent the entire day in bed. I'm still not even 75%, but am hoping to be better by Monday. The low back is stiff yet tonight-since having back surgery, this is where I'm most sore when I get really sick. I guess it hits you where you're most weak, and plus I'm getting old!!

So, the detailed training schedule has been printed, all the reference materials have been placed in a three ring binder. I did a bit of research on calculating HR maximums and effective ranges for the season-this too has been printed and is ready. I even made small copies, small enough to cover in plastic or tape and secure to my Garmin GPS band or my TT bike handlebars, for easy reference!

My training journal-a hand written one which I bought just for the 2011 season-has been started and so far has about 8 pages of reflections, pondering of things and ramblings on in it. I figured with the many long, long, long training hours and long work days ahead in this new year, a written log would be easier to carry with and actually get the info entered right away. There are brick workouts coming up soon, some will be split with one before work, and another after work. A detailed training record-just hand writing my times, distances, how I felt, HR/speed/cadence data, weather, food and nutrition notes, well-you get the idea. I can then transfer over my training data to online files sooner or later-or when I get the time!

I'm still working on shifting around the workouts to fit my work schedule; it will be a bit of a challenge to get it to work as it stands, with my working rotating weekends. But, having the days off during the week and having the kids in school will have huge benefits-this will give me about 6-7 hours each of those two days off to fit in longer training days during the week, so there is more upside than down. This will amount to less time taken away from family time, dinner time, homework time and fewer 4am wake ups to squeeze in one more swim, run or bike ride. Sleep is still a good thing you know!

I still need to look at the specific training periods as they approach my particular races, and how these "training races" (such as the Racine 1/2 Marathon) will fit in to the overall training schedule. One other area that I need to look at is the taper period, and how long out to begin the taper for IMoo. More on this later. I also need to pick up a few nutrition items-mainly Hammer gels for pre swim fuel-this weekend.

Thats all for now-off to bed and more rest. I will report back as to how bad I get my butt kicked all over the pool on Monday AM. Happy New Year everyone!

1 comment:

  1. yea my ironman training plan starts feb 28. i now have only jan and feb remaining to lose the last 27 lbs, it's going to be hard. very hard. almost as hard as a wisconsin morning at 5:30 am. Good luck out there monday! and I'm still totally jealous of IM Racine. I would love to be up there riding that one with you.

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