Twas the night before Ironman

I finished my last two VERY easy bike and run workouts on Saturday morning with Jill and ate my 2nd breakfast the day before my first Ironman triathlon race. A couple on laps around Mirror Lake on the bike and a partial run loop to loosen things up made for a relaxing morning.

We checked our bikes and gear bags and saw the huge transition area start to fill up with awesome bikes...wow, what an impressive sight!

After a quick lunch in town, we drove the 56 mile bike loop and saw the hilly course up close. The scenery is spectacular and we had great views of rivers on either side of the road and coming back into town, there is a great view of the Olympic ski jumps.

We then drove the run course and it has a few steep hills and a bunch of rollers to keep the marathon interesting. We are getting ready for an Athlete Blessing being held at the Lakeside Community Church and then are headed to a pasta buffet dinner and an early bedtime.

July 22, 2012 is the day of the race and you can track me (bib 2452) at www.ironmanlive.com. I'm looking forward to seeing my Iron Bird Legs cheering crew in their bright yellow shirts on the course!

Early start tomorrow, wish me luck!

Dave (aka Iron Bird Legs)

Liberty Bell Visit and Tapering in New Jersey

The Auto Train deposited us in Virginia and we drove into Philadelphia for an afternoon of sightseeing around this great, historic city. We toured the Betsy Ross house, saw the Liberty Bell and I started carbo-loading while we enjoyed ice cream at The Franklin Fountain on Market Street.

We made our way to Medford, NJ to stay with my younger sister Sharon and her family (Brian, Chris and Cindy). They opened up their beautiful home to us and everyone relaxed by the pool while I prepared for a short run.

With a water bottle and flashlight in hand, I headed out for a 45 minute run in the gently rolling hills of their neighborhood. The heat of the day had abated and it was twilight when I started, but it quickly darkened and I was happy the the loaner flashlight from my sis. The pace felt easy and my heart rate controlled as I eased up and down the road, but something caught my eye...fireflies.

We don't have fireflies in Florida and it was very relaxing to catch a flicker of light up ahead or in the trees near the side of the road as I eased up the next hill. It was a nice taper run and I enjoyed the new training partners.

Off for two days in New York City with the family...is walking around NYC considered tapering? We'll see.

The Journey to New York Begins

I finished my last Florida workout before we loaded up the minivan full of triathlon gear and luggage for the week and a half long trip to Lake Placid. Got up early for a 2 hour bike ride and a 30 minute run after staying up late to pack. Race cloths, workout cloths, hats, goggles, hydration belt and water bottles, bike, shoes (running and cycling)...and the list goes on. Good grief I have a lot of stuff! Then there was the regular packing for the trip and trying not to forget something important. I'm glad that is done!

My son said packing the minivan was like a 3D Tetris game, but it all fit! Whew! We headed over to Sanford (near Orlando) to catch the Auto Train for the overnight trip to Lorton, Virginia. We stopped for a quick, slightly unhealthy lunch at Bojangles, a fried chicken and biscuit joint. It was clearly "Bo Time" today before we checked in at the train station.

The train pulled out at 3:50pm and we should be in Virginia by 8:30am on Saturday.

Next stop is Philadelphia and then to visit with my sister and family at their home in New Jersey. I'll need to slip in a few short runs in the next few days and am resigned to skip my swim workout, but I should be fine without it.

So far so good!

Final Weeks Before Ironman Lake Placid

Iron Bird Legs is almost ready to take flight with less than 2 weeks to go until the race.


The last eight weeks of my 30 week training plan for Ironman Lake Placid 2012 have definitely been the peak.  Here's how it's gone:

• Swimming - Completed 20 hours of the 24 planned, swam 38 miles
• Biking - Completed 67 hours of the 52 planned, biked 967 miles
• Running - Completed 41 hours of the 43 planned, ran 271 miles
• Total - Completed almost 118 hours and logged over 1,276 miles in 8 weeks

I've pretty much kept to the plan and put in a few more biking hours for good measure.  I'm feeling pretty good about how the training has gone and that's a good thing since I can't do anything about it now!

My wife had cool, custom Iron Bird Legs t-shirts made for everyone in the family so I'd be sure to see them as they cheer me on during the race.  That's so cool!

For funny and inspiring story about one race experience at Lake Placid, take a look at this blog post from Sweaty Emily - http://www.sweatonceaday.com/2011/07/ironman-lake-placid-race-report.html

For those of you who'd like to follow the race on Sunday, July 22, you can see live video coverage on the web at www.ironmanlive.com and with my race number #2452 you can track my progress during the race.  If you'd like to learn more about the event, you can explore http://ironmanlakeplacid.com/.  

On Friday we're packing up the minivan and loading it onto the Autotrain to make the trip from Orlando, Florida to Lorton, Virginia.  We'll then take our time and do some sightseeing in Philadelphia and New York City and hang out with my sister and her family in New Jersey before we make the final drive up to Lake Placid.  My friend and training partner, Jill will meet us at Grammie's House the Thursday before the race and we'll all get settled in prior to Sunday.


Then at 7am ET, Sunday July 22, 2012 I'll complete the last 140.6 miles of the journey to become an Ironman.  A 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run and I'm there!


Wish me luck!

The Intimidator, Half-Iron Triathlon - Race Report

The Intimidator triathlon in Clermont, FL is aptly named.  This was my first race of the 2012 season and a good gauge of how my training for Ironman Lake Placid is going.  This test came at the end of week 16 of the 30 week "Ironfit" plan.

What Went Well

• Racing with a bunch of fellow triathletes from the T3 - Tampa Tri Team.  Hi Jill, Rick, Shari, Liz, Sara!
• My friend Jill, who is doing Lake Placid as well, placed 2nd place in her age group.  Go Jill!
• The swim!  I was surprised with my 30 minute swim - 5:15am workouts 2 x week are working!
• Didn't have to walk my bike up any hills.  That was good.
• New bike worked well.  Quintana Roo Lucero and new Zipp wheels were great.
• Temperature and cloud cover.  Thank goodness it wasn't too hot and that the sun was occasionally blocked by white fluffy clouds.
• Run pace overall was good.  Just under 2 hours for the half-marathon.
• Beat my 2004 time of 6:19 for this same event
• Beat my goal time of 6 hours
• The last mile of the run was strong (but painful on the inside). 
• Conspicuously absent from the list...the bike, and the rest of the run.

What Could Have Gone Better

• Setting the alarm clock.  Needed to leave the house at 4am to meet Shari at 4:15.  The alarm never went off, but I did wake up at 3:48am spontaneously.  Lesson learned for next time...set clock for AM, not PM.
• Open water swimming.  I probably added .25 miles extra with all the weaving I was doing.  Need to practice sighting or drafting off someone who is sighting.  
• The bike.  The bike course is tough with a number of named climbs, such as Buck Hill, the Wall and the dreaded Sugarloaf Mountain.  Ok, this is Florida and it is generally flat, but these are short and steep climbs that took it out of my legs.  I was wishing for more gears (or an escalator) to get me to the top of the big ones.  There were also "minor changes in elevation" and "rolling hills" that turned out to be pretty challenging in combination with the wind of the day.  The 1,800 feet of climbing in Clermont felt like a lot.  Conclusion - more hill training required before the 8,000 feet of climbing at Lake Placid.
• Bike dismount. After a challenging bike ride in the hills, I had a little trouble with the downhill dismount before entering T2.  Un-clip right shoe, check.  Swing right leg over seat, check.  Un-clip left shoe...dang, un-clip left shoe...dang, un-clip left shoe...noooooooo...TIMBER!.  Check.  Left hip and shoulder sore, check.
• The run.  Rolling hills and minor elevation changes did in my quads and calves and that made the run challenging.  I think I was pushing a little too hard and this forced me to take extra walk breaks between the aid stations.  It was tough to run with legs that were not done complaining about the bike ride, even though it was over.  Need to work on doling out the energy more evenly.  More practice required.

Conclusion

• It was a great day and I learned a lot about where I need to focus and I had a great time with my new T3 friends and enjoyed sharing in their day.

IMLP - 10-Week Base Training Period in the Bank

Training for Ironman Lake Placid in July of 2012 started just after Christmas.  I'm following a plan by Don Fink known as the IronFit plan (http://www.donfink.com/) that is focused on training time and intensity and not miles.  The plan is made up of 3, 10-week periods and I recently completed the first chunk known as the Base Period.

This training block is all about getting your body used to consistent workouts at a relatively low intensity to build your base aerobic capacity.  In summary you swim 2 times, bike 3 times and run 4 times each week and slowly increase the amount of time in each.

Here's how my Base Period worked out:

• Swimming - Completed 18.5 hours of the 20 planned, swam 26 miles
• Biking - Completed 31 hours of the 33 planned, biked 560 miles
• Running - Completed 34 hours of the 30 planned, ran 220 miles
• Total - Completed almost 85 hours and logged over 800 miles

With the support of my family, I've been able to keep to the plan and I'm feeling good.

Also, I recently purchased a new triathlon bike.  I've only taken a few rides, but so far it's awesome.  It's a Quintana Roo Lucero.

The next 10 week block is the Build Phase and the hours go up and so does the intensity.  I'll also be racing a half-iron distance race in April known as the Intimidator as part of my training in a hilly section of central Florida known as Clermont.  Good practice for the larger hills of Lake Placid.

Wish me luck!  

Same Race, 8 Years Later

Eight years ago in November of 2003 I did my third triathlon and last weekend, I did the same race.     The Suncoast Triathlon is held at Fort Desoto Park, FL on the Gulf of Mexico (Link to the race site).   

I'll tell you about my first and second triathlons some other time, but my third at Fort Desoto in 2003 is what started me on the current road to fitness, healthier eating, weight loss and endurance sport.  It was fun to return 8 years later and I was accompanied by my kids who braved the chilly morning and got up extra early on a Saturday morning to come see me race.  The Gulf was 69-70 degrees, so I opted for my wetsuit to keep me warm and afloat...plus I feel like a superhero!  Swim times - 2003=10.46, 2011=11.12, but this year they increased the swim distance from 440 yards to 660 yards, so without doing a bunch of math, we'll say I was faster.  Transition was embarrassingly slow due to the extra time to take off my superhero outfit, but I was warm and buoyant, so I'm good with that.

Biking at Fort Desoto can be described in one word...Windy.  Alternating headwinds, crosswinds and thankfully tailwinds made for an inconsistent ride, but on average, my speed was about 20mph.  Not amazing, but I passed a lot of people on the bike and was only passed by tri-studs on really cool bikes, so I'm good with that.  Bike times - 2003=36.06, 2011=29.51.  A good improvement, but considering I did 2003 on my heavy, old, green, beater hybrid bike, it could have been better.   Transition time in 2003 was under 1 minute primarily because of no shoe changing, so tack on 30 seconds to change into my new Newton running shoes.

I felt great on the run and pushed to hold a steady pace the whole way.  About 1/2 mile into the run, I heard heavy breathing and footsteps approaching, but they didn't pass, so I kept pushing.  After about a mile of this, the footsteps went by me on the left and I glanced down at the right calf to see 20...years old that is.  He was either pacing off me, the geiser, or I held him off for over a mile.  In the process of holding him off, I caught and passed a 12 year old girl who was the final leg of a relay team and she was cooking.  It took me over 1.5 miles to reel her in and just about the time I was being passed by Mr. 20, I blew by the 12 year old girl...whew!  She was the picture of efficiency and was really making me work.  Run times - 2003=31.19, 2011=22.17.  Huge improvement for me and a personal best 5k time.  I'm not used to running miles with a 7 in the time, let alone 3 of them in a row, so I'm definitely good with that.  Thank you Newtons.

Overall time 2003=1:21, 2011=1:10 - It was a fun look back and I'm interested to see how things improve as my training becomes more consistent and focused. 

Will Work(out) for Donuts

I love donuts!  There, I said it.
Donuts are part of my training and nutrition plan and this should be no surprise to those who know me.
Donuts = Fuel
Donuts = Motivation
Donuts = Yummy Reward

   

Growing up near Los Angeles in the late 60's, my earliest memory of donuts was of the Helms Bakery truck.  The Helms Bakery trucks slowly roamed the neighborhoods wafting the sweet smells of fresh donuts, cookies, brownies and breads until kids (like me) came running.  It was like the Ice Cream Man, minus the annoying music, but with with donuts.  I distinctly remember the long, wooden drawers filled with glazed donuts that slid open from the back of the truck.  It was genius!  From that point forward, I was hooked.

Next came Winchell's Donut House.  Sometimes on Sunday mornings after church, our family would stop at Winchell's for a sugary treat and my Dad would get a cup of coffee.  I remember leaning against the glass display case to get a better look at what seemed like hundreds of donut options.  When I was in high school, Winchell's correctly assumed that bigger was better and offered huge glazed and twist donuts.  The twist was as over a foot long and the glazed was as big as a trash can lid, minus the handle.  College days and nights saw some Winchell's action as well since they make donuts 7x24.  This only reaffirmed my love of the yeasty treats.

You can't live in Los Angeles without paying homage to Randy's Donuts.  It's near LAX airport and is a SoCal icon.  On a recent visit, I paid my old friend a visit picked up a few for the road.  Yum.  Unfortunately, Randy's no longer sells the Fred-Flintstone-giant-spareribs-tip-over-your-car size as illustrated in the picture.  Too bad.  In Florida, the closest you get to Randy's Donuts is the Rockin' Roller Coaster at Disney's Hollywood Studios where you get to ride right through the middle.  Sweet!

Now we're living in Florida and Krispy Kreme opened a new store a few years ago equipped with the donut assembly line and glaze waterfall.  You can't help but make a U-turn when you see the "Hot Light" burning red, signifying fresh donuts being made where the wire conveyor belt is caked with icing and crowded with hot glazed happiness.  Unfortunately this nearby store closed, but it is survived by others in Tampa Bay area that carry on the tradition.  RIP local Krispy Kreme.

A recent addition to the local donut repertoire is Nicolas.  Nicolas makes great donuts, don't get me wrong, but they drive me crazy with their approach.  They make a limited number of donuts and often sell out...a fact that they seem proud of.  The cinnamon twirl is excellent, but you have to get there early or place a special order to guarantee satisfaction.  Donut frustration!

I even tried my hand a making homemade raised donuts.  It took a few hours, was slightly messy, but was totally worth it.  I'll continue to motivate myself with the promise of a donut reward and re-fuel after a long workout with a carb-tastic, sugary donut and a glass of milk.  Donuts are like a sweet training partner who keeps you going when times get tough and is there to celebrate your hard fought victories.  Thanks for being there donut friend.  Now let's get down to business...nom, nom, nom.

Slowest Guy in the Pool...for now

I started swimming with the Masters group twice a week at the Bob Sierra YMCA and I'm officially the slowest guy in the pool. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I'm just stating the cold, wet facts. Most of the group are members of the local T3 Tampa Tri Team triathlon club and have been doing these workouts all season long, while I just started. I'm getting back into a regular training routine and I know I need to build up my swimming endurance and work on technique, so this is perfect for me.

In the first workout I attended, I was working hard to keep up and though I didn't realize it at the time, the coach cut out 600 yards of my workout so I would finish around the same time as everyone else.  2,700 yards in an hour was pretty good for me.

In the second workout, I only missed one repetition of 6 sets and I was thankful that we ran out of time. After a bunch of other laps, we swam 75 yards, jumped out of the pool, did 10 push ups, swam 50 more yards, did 10 more push ups and then did an easy 25. On alternate sets, we did 5 jump squats instead of push ups and by the end, it was all I could do to haul my body out of the pool and flop on the deck before beginning the push ups or squats.

On the third workout, I actually finished everything the coach handed out. Thank goodness for timed intervals that allowed me to catch up before the next set started. I got less rest than my lane mate, but at least I could catch up. This workout was more focused on endurance with 4 x 200's, 3 x 300's and a timed 500 at the end of the hour long workout. I finished the swim hungry and tired, but that's a good thing. I'm thankful for the supportive coach and the faster swimmers who are making me work harder to keep up. I'm sore, but happy with the results.  For now, I'm the slowest guy in the pool and I'm OK with that.  I'll keep coming back.

Also, because the swim workout starts so early I have time for a quick run after the swim.  This has been a great way to test out my new Newton running shoes, but that's another story.

Ironman LP Journey - Accommodations...Check

Finding a place to stay in Lake Placid is a breeze if...

1. You start looking the day after you register (ideally in Lake Placid since you would be there volunteering or racing, which I was not!)
2. You plan to stay for 7 nights (eek, I only really need 4)
3. You have a truckload of money ($3,500+...mere pocket change...NOT!)

While my experience was not a breeze, I'm pleased to report that after much emailing, phone calling and searching, I can check this off the long list of things to do before next July.  We'll be staying at "Grammie's House", about 5 minutes walk to the swim start and transition area, under the care of the home's 84 year old owner, Harriet.

Grammie's House Exterior

Grammie's Kitchen

Grammie's House only requires a 5 night stay and is over 4 1/2 times less expensive (you do the math)  and to top it off, Harriet is a sweetheart.  We had a great phone conversation and she told me about living in Lake Placid and how it's a beautiful place regardless of the season.  She told me about how she takes daily walks on a nearby trail and how tropical storm Lee washed out a number or roads in the Lake Placid area and she's hoping they are repaired soon.  We're looking forward to staying at "Grammie's House" and meeting our kind hostess Harriet in July.

Next up...Transportation.

We're thinking of taking the Amtrak Auto Train from Orlando, FL to Lorton, VA and doing some sightseeing on our way to Lake Placid, NY.  Sounds like a family vacation is taking shape.  Very exciting.