Friday, February 7, 2014

Back into the Swing of Things

A couple people have asked about a new blog post and my response has been "not much to write about" and the suggestion was to write about my training.  So here it goes...

In preparing for Ironman Coeur d'Alene, the biggest challenge has been winter training.  I don't mind riding outdoors in the cold, but we've had an unusually harsh winter this year, making for generally icy/snowy road conditions.  Not conducive to riding a tri bike with very narrow tires.

Luckily, within a couple miles of my house, a Planet Fitness opened, with a monthly fee of only $10.  I knew I was going to have to do a fair amount of my training indoors and this was the perfect solution.  I knew riding and running indoors was going to be challenging, mostly because of boredom, but it would allow me to get my training done.  So since about Christmas, I've been doing my riding indoors, and running outdoors when I can, while using the treadmill if conditions dictated.

For example, this morning, due to work tomorrow, I spent 2.5 hours on a stationary bike, followed by a 15 minute dreadmill run.  Not that I'm prepared to spend all my time riding indoors, but I can see the value of doing it, more so than before.  I could keep and eye on power, which I don't normally really pay attention to and there is essentially no coasting.  It's all pedal power all the time.  I've also tried to select hilly built-in programs in order to better mimic the CDA bike course.  I've alleviated the boredom by watching news, listening to music, etc. during the time on the bike and surprisingly the time passes pretty well.

For runs, I've also made a slight change to the training plan for the KDF marathon in April.  I had been following a Hal Higdon plan, but as recently as a couple weeks ago, 3 months out from the marathon, it had me running 16 miles.  That's just too much this early and I could feel burnout already creeping in and I'm still 5 months away from CDA.  So I changed over to a different plan, put together by a tri-club pal, who's also the training leader for a local health company.  His long run mileage seemed a lot more manageable and of course, I found last year that you don't need to run huge distances several times to have a good marathon.  With the new plan, my current weekly long run is about 12 miles, which I can handle.

Finally, for swimming, I'm currently swimming twice a week, with the longest being about 2000 meters and that will ramp up as I get closer to the big day.  I'm still not a fast swimmer by any means, but I find that I'm able to hold about a 1:20 IM pace, which would have me absolutely elated since my IM PR is 1:34.

I can't end this post without a charity plug.  My donations have essentially ceased, what's the deal? I'm not asking for millions here! Please give.  ANY amount will do, and I mean ANY!

I’m competing in 2014 as a “Blazeman Warrior.” In 2005, Jon "The Blazeman" Blais raced the big Ironman, in Hawaii, and completed it even while suffering from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His family started the Blazeman Foundation for ALS. I’m raising money for them and in honor of Jon, I plan on rolling across the finish line in Coeur d’Alene just as Jon did when he finished. A famous quote from Jon is, "Even if I have to be rolled across the finish line, I'm finishing," so you often see Blazeman Warriors rolling across Ironman finish lines.

I also lost an Aunt to ALS so this charity is very personal to me. Any help would be appreciated.

An Ironman is 140.6 miles so even if you donated just 10 cents per mile, that would be $14.06. You can donate at the following link:

http://www.active.com/donate/teamblazeman/blazemanJJohnso