I'm back and I finished my first Ironman!
I'll work on a longer recap of the race and events leading up to the race, but I wanted to at least acknowledge the successful completion of my first IM distance race.
I finished in 12:42:28. My goal was sub 13 so I’m very happy with the results.
Swim: 1:18:13
T1: 12:26
Bike: 6:19:45
T2: 5:30
Run: 4:46:37
Monday, November 29, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
LA Rock n Roll 1/2 Marathon
The half marathon wasn't part of my training plan, but several people I know were running in this inaugural event so I decided to sign up, and I'm glad I did. I finished in a new PR time of 1:43.33. Over 2 minutes faster than my previous best from 2006! I can only imagine what I might have done if I was fully rested for the race.
The training plan is starting to wind down now. My last really long run was yesterday. Only two more long bike rides this Saturday and next Saturday, and then two full weeks of tapering before the big event! Then I just need to take it easy and try not to go stir crazy!
Monday, October 25, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
T minus 1
Only one month left before Ironman Arizona!
A few months ago I ordered a MyAthlete Shadow GPS tracking device from MyAthleteGPS.com and it's scheduled to arrive TODAY! I'm pretty excited about trying it out. If you've never heard of these, they are worth checking out at your next major endurance event. It's a small pager sized device that has a built in GPS and limited cell phone. Every 30 seconds or so, it reads your current location, direction and speed and transmits it via cell towers to the MyAthlete website so friends and family can see where you are on the course in real-time (not just when you pass over a sensor mat on the course). It won't work during the swim, but I think my swim time will be fairly predictable so I'm not too worried about tracking during that portion (though it would be cool if it worked at some point in the future).
I'll be testing it out this Saturday on my first simulation brick (112mi bike & 6mi run) where I'll be wearing and using all of the gear I'm planning to use in Arizona. Two weeks later I'll do another simulation ride/run making adjustments based on this weekend's training.
This Sunday I'm running in the Los Angeles Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon, so I'll test the GPS device again there. I'm very curious to see how I feel on Sunday during the Half Marathon after doing the 112mi ride and 6mi run on Saturday.
Support Crew T-shirts have been designed and ordered for my whole team of Iron Sherpas. They are scheduled to ship this Friday and will hopefully arrive next week. I REALLY hope they look OK. I have a lot of people coming to AZ to help me and I'm sure they don't want to wear lame tshirts all day...
Monday, October 18, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Ironman Perform
Beginning in June 2010, Ironman branded events started using Ironman Perform Sports Drink in place of Gatorade at the Bike and Run aid stations.I read so many bad reviews of the drink in Ironman Louisville race reports that I thought I better give it a try on some of my long workouts to make sure I wouldn't have any problem with it at Ironman Arizona.
I'm happy to say that after two weeks of using Ironman Perform, I haven't had any negative issues with the drink on the bike or during my long runs. It's a little bit too sweet for my taste, but I also think Gatorade is a little too sweet, so honestly I didn't find much difference between the products.
I still prefer my Heed/CarboPro mix, so I'll start the bike fully loaded with Heed/CarboPro. But I'm glad to know I won't have any issues with the new Ironman drink when my pre-mix runs out.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
3% and 3 Seconds
Last week (week 12) was my final testing week of my 20 week training plan.
Continuing to use the same route on the bike test, I increased my average power by 3.4% or an average of 9 watts for the 40 minute test.
Prior to start of training plan
223 Average Watts
10.3 mph average
65 rpm average cadence
Week 4 testing
242 Average Watts (+8.5%)
11.5 mph average
74 rpm average cadence
Week 8 testing
263 Average Watts (+8.6% compared to week 4; 17.9% increase overall)
11.6 mph average
74 rpm average cadence
Week 12 testing
272 Average Watts (+3.4% compared to week 8; 22% increase overall)
11.8 mph average
70 rpm average cadence
On the run, I only improved my time by 3 seconds compared to week 8. And really, it was probably more due to stubbornness than fitness. I pretty much have my running speed dialed in, so it doesn't surprise me that I didn't improve much this time.
There's no more testing, but October 23rd is the first of two simulation rides - 112mi bike followed by a 6 mi run. And on Oct 24th I'm running in the LA Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
T minus 2
Just two months to go until Ironman Arizona!
I'm on week 12 of my 20 week training plan. This is the final testing week and the last real opportunity to adjust my running pace and cycling power numbers prior to race day. I'll post the results from my testing later in the week.
The repair of the dam at Tempe Town Lake appears to be on schedule. Crews are 85 percent finished with the installation of Bladder No. 3, 70 percent finished with Bladder No. 2 and about 10 percent finished with Bladder No. 1.
Here's a link to a time lapse video done by the Arizona Republic of the roll out of Bladder No. 1. http://bit.ly/9XXCPr
Monday, September 20, 2010
Motivational Movie Monday
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman giving "Motivation" to his new recruits.
Beware - there's some harsh language.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wijlLEriWYg
Beware - there's some harsh language.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wijlLEriWYg
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Running
10 weeks of official "plan" training down, 10 weeks to go until Ironman Arizona and the running miles are really starting to add up. Starting this week, my plan has me running every Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Two of those runs are brick runs, so fairly short and easy, but the others are focused runs that leave me a bit drained. Bike and Swim volume are also ramping up each week making rest more elusive.
The good news is I've been feeling really good on my run workouts - especially the long runs. Gotta keep working towards legs that are bullet-proof for that 26.2 mile cool-down run on race day!
Monday, September 13, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Power Up
Week 8 testing showed another power jump of 8% since my last test on week 4. That's an 18% increase since I started on the training plan.
Using the same 7.5 mile climb as a test, here are the numbers
Prior to start of training plan
223 Average Watts
10.3 mph average
65 rpm cadence
Week 4 testing
242 Average Watts (+8.5%)
11.5 mph average
74 rpm cadence
Week 8 testing
263 Average Watts (+8.6% compared to week 4; 17.9% increase overall)
11.6 mph average
74 rpm cadence
Friday, August 27, 2010
14 seconds
My week 8 run test was yesterday.
I finished the 5k run in 21:00. That's a 14 second improvement over the same run on Week 4. That's about 1.1% better or roughly 4 seconds faster per mile than I was at the last testing point.
Average HR was 176, with a max of 188.
Not as fast as I hoped I would be after four more weeks of training, but faster is faster so I'll take it!
It was also 17 degrees hotter yesterday (99 F) than it was on July 29th (82 F) so maybe that gives me a bit of an excuse.
Bike test is coming up this Saturday.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Tempe Lake Update
The following was reported by Rick Baldwin on www.iamtri.com in the Ironman Arizona 2010 Group Forum:
According to a very nice City of Tempe official who is overseeing the Dam replacement project. Here's the scoop:
The project is officially 10 days ahead of schedule, keep in mind though that more monsoon rain could cause slight delays in the future.
The lake is scheduled to start filling on 8 October. A cofferdam will be built to allow the lake to start refilling (do not need to wait for arrival of the fourth bladder).
It will take 2 weeks to a month to completely refill the lake depending on the flow rate from source water at Roosevelt Lake.
Bladder 4 is scheduled to arrive mid-October, once it arrives, it will be installed and the cofferdam will be removed.
According to a very nice City of Tempe official who is overseeing the Dam replacement project. Here's the scoop:
The project is officially 10 days ahead of schedule, keep in mind though that more monsoon rain could cause slight delays in the future.
The lake is scheduled to start filling on 8 October. A cofferdam will be built to allow the lake to start refilling (do not need to wait for arrival of the fourth bladder).
It will take 2 weeks to a month to completely refill the lake depending on the flow rate from source water at Roosevelt Lake.
Bladder 4 is scheduled to arrive mid-October, once it arrives, it will be installed and the cofferdam will be removed.
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