Well friends I am indeed a 2 time Ironman 70.3 finisher. How about that. I learned a vaulable lesson this time around. What is that......... you can not plan for everything. This time my plan was even simpler just go hard and period. This time I was not sick and I felt really strong. I have a bad tendon in my left foot so the day before the race we made sort of a decision. See I already know my time on the run. The worse case scenario is to walk the distance and I can do that in 3:28. I did it in San Juan. SO no need to push it and risk a more serious injury before Canada. SO I decided that I would do the swim and the bike and that was it.
The swim was horrible. Oh my God!!!!! Fresh water is definately not the same. You do not float you sink. My main problem was fogging goggles which bothered me the whole trajectory. I swallowed a lot of water tring to clean them up. This would later be a factor. I swam 1.2 miles in 45:30. Slow for me but it was a hard swim so I will take it.
Transition run,,,,, no problem this time!!!!
My plan was to go hard on the bike, and I did. Actually in the bigining I was a bit too excited but I was passing a lot of people and I felt great. When things settled in I realized two mayor things on the course. #1 florida is not flat. Bull shit, we were ridding 4 and 5 mile false plains going up. #2 the wind, we were facing 10-15 MPH winds right in our faces in an open 8 lane highway. Wow it was brutal. However I settled into my pace until by mile 30 I started to feel wierd. Yep, remenber all that water I swallowed in the swim. Well lets just say it was not potable water. I held as much as I could but by mile 45 a pit stop was eminent. I stoped and had an 11 minute bathroom emergency. Afterwards I was fine and kept on riding to a very good time cosidering the conditions and the long pit stop.
As I pull in coach K askes how I felt to what I answered I was really good. He asked if I was going to run and I told him that my foot was hurting a bit as I took off my biking shoe. We took a minute to talk and we decided to do a brick session around the run courese which was a 3 loop course. He told me to do a 1 loop brick and that was it. So I went on my run. I felt really good. No pain no aches nothing. So off I went. As it turns out I did 4.5 miles in 1 hour which for me off a 56 mile bike is spectacular. So it was obvious,,,,,,,,,I am not stoping. So I wento on. By mile 7 my problems started. My tendon started to hurt as I ran but not when I walked. So I started walking more and running at a fast pace but short distances. At this point I was doing probably 1 minute more per mile which was OK. However by mile 9 guess what...................yep, blister. I blister my left foot. The good thing is I now have a perfect foot and an injured, blistered foot. People finish Ironmans on one foot all the time. I kept going but this time I was taking all measures not to let that blistar fill up and expand. It worked. As I arrived for my third loop I though for a moment, the blister is already there so 3 more miles will no do a diffrence. The tendon is fine so just keep going. I did set a boundary this time. If at any time that blister filled up with water I would stop and call it quits. Canada was more important. At the end I was able to walk the rest of the way and even run a little bit to the finish line, finishing in great fisical shape. The blister was small and it was OK.
In the end I achieved my goal. I might have a few excuses for not doing better but I learned that every event will have its eventuality. So in that spirit I have no excuses I did my best and my best is 7:43:00. I acomplished my goal of under 8 hours and I am very happy with that. I also learned that I better find a way to keep my feet in the game or I will not finish at canada. A blister at mile 9 in an Ironman is a no finishing situation so I better get some help and fast. I will incorporate that into my trainign so I will keep you posted.
2 time Ironman 70.3 finisher. Not bad for hte chubby guy hughhghghghggh!!!!!!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
May 5, 2011 Business as usual
Hi folks. I know you are probably asking yourself what happened that I have not been blogging recently. To tell you the truth not much has been going on. Truly after the 70.3 event I felt rejuvinated in a way I have not been in a long long time. The Ironman just proved that most of what I wrote about is true. Especially family support. We saw that with the accident of Marian and how after placing signs on our support truck people react in a diffrent way. Family support is just too important.
I have to admit that things in other areas are not good. Not in particular with me but in general things are not going well with in the country. At one point I seriously considered postponing the Ironman and not do Canada but in the following weeks and with family support I decided to go on. My training is going well although I am taking it a bit easier that the Orlando 70.3 is around the corner. I won't tapper or peak for that event but I think it will boost my confidence.
I have made huge progress running and on the bike. I am quicker all the time and stronger by the week. How ever I am still concerned about the distance. I think by now I have discarted running the marathon so I must be quick on the bike so I can comfortably walk the marathon. I think at best I am hoping to run one mile and walk one mile. My diet is kind of going but I am maintaining my weight. Training volume is going to increase exponentialy so I am taking every precaution to stay healthy and not get injured.
I am really focussed on Orlando right now where my goal is to reduce my transition times and complete the bike course with only one 3-5 minute stop. As I explained to my friends and others what happend to me at San Juan I realized how much I enjoyed walking the marathon. Sure I was in pain and hurt but other wise I had a grea time just walking and enjoing the event. Don't tell my coach that but I plan on enjoying the Orlando running part also. I will try to run much more but it is really not that important to me. I want to have fun and maybe walk with no pain on my feet. Orlando will be to prove myself in the water with a sub 40 minute swim and a sub 3:15 bike ride. I spent 17 minutes in transition in San Juan and the plan for orlando is less than 8. I had 4 stops in San Juan, for Orlando the goal is 1 to rest and 2 to refill water. I will change my nutrittion to only 2 bottles but will carry a third one with water. I will push the bike, I just will. That by itself should give me a sub 7:30 time which is what my original plan was. Maybe I will surprise but we will have to wait. In the end I will do it again. I will acomplish an amazing thing one more time. I won't get another tattoo but I will have competed in the same racing weekend and series as both my kids which will make it special. I will keep you posted on the final leg of my journey to Canada. It proves to be an amazing one so buckle up. All in all it is business as usual!!!!
I have to admit that things in other areas are not good. Not in particular with me but in general things are not going well with in the country. At one point I seriously considered postponing the Ironman and not do Canada but in the following weeks and with family support I decided to go on. My training is going well although I am taking it a bit easier that the Orlando 70.3 is around the corner. I won't tapper or peak for that event but I think it will boost my confidence.
I have made huge progress running and on the bike. I am quicker all the time and stronger by the week. How ever I am still concerned about the distance. I think by now I have discarted running the marathon so I must be quick on the bike so I can comfortably walk the marathon. I think at best I am hoping to run one mile and walk one mile. My diet is kind of going but I am maintaining my weight. Training volume is going to increase exponentialy so I am taking every precaution to stay healthy and not get injured.
I am really focussed on Orlando right now where my goal is to reduce my transition times and complete the bike course with only one 3-5 minute stop. As I explained to my friends and others what happend to me at San Juan I realized how much I enjoyed walking the marathon. Sure I was in pain and hurt but other wise I had a grea time just walking and enjoing the event. Don't tell my coach that but I plan on enjoying the Orlando running part also. I will try to run much more but it is really not that important to me. I want to have fun and maybe walk with no pain on my feet. Orlando will be to prove myself in the water with a sub 40 minute swim and a sub 3:15 bike ride. I spent 17 minutes in transition in San Juan and the plan for orlando is less than 8. I had 4 stops in San Juan, for Orlando the goal is 1 to rest and 2 to refill water. I will change my nutrittion to only 2 bottles but will carry a third one with water. I will push the bike, I just will. That by itself should give me a sub 7:30 time which is what my original plan was. Maybe I will surprise but we will have to wait. In the end I will do it again. I will acomplish an amazing thing one more time. I won't get another tattoo but I will have competed in the same racing weekend and series as both my kids which will make it special. I will keep you posted on the final leg of my journey to Canada. It proves to be an amazing one so buckle up. All in all it is business as usual!!!!
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