Training week 1 - St George IM

OK. It has been two weeks since IMFL. Time to get back in the saddle (I thought literally, but not to be) and start training for IMSG (not sure if that is the logo or not) Maybe it is IMStG or IMSTG or maybe IM St. George. Anyway, time to get back into it.

Since I spent the past week in Orlando for a company staff meeting coupled with National sales meeting, I was fearful to step on the scale, since one of the main goals for the May 1 race is to lose 15 pounds from my 190 IMFL racing weight.

The Lord was good to me when I stepped on the scales on Friday. 190 pounds. It was one of those weeks where you knew you had gained 5 pounds, easily. And then this upcoming week is Thanksgiving... oh brother!!

I managed 2.5 miles on Wednesday in Orlando. 6 miles on Friday. And then coming in from that 6 mile run, I learned that our neighborhood Turkey Trot (3 miles) was on Saturday. This is something sponsored by our local fitness club and usually will attract 20 people (kids and adults alike). My 16 year old son is the defending champ so I told him he needed to defend his title. He obliged along with the rest of the family (3 sons and Anita) as we toed the line at 7am Saturday morning. There was some competition for my son this year but he was still able to sprint to the finish to win. I was in third about 40 seconds back.

Sunday was supposed to be a bike ride, distance yet to be determined. My thoughts were 50 to 60 miles. I had everything ready to go at 6am and when Arnie pulled up in the Maserati I knew something was up (usually the M3 is the bike carrier never the Maserati). As it turns out, he tried to run 11 miles on Saturday and felt knee problems around mile 8. He walked the final 3. He hopes it is just a strain and nothing serious butit is too early to tell. So, he wanted to go swim instead. I said fine so off we went to LA Fitness. Guess what? They don't open until 8. So with 1.5 hours to kill, he took me to a Cuban breakfast dive (sorry Arnie) in Wes Taampa (that's right, Wes since Cubans don't pronounce the "t" and two "a"s to give the long sound). So after a very filling breakfast we were off to swim. Arnie was doing his usual "I'll do 6 laps to your 5" thing so after a mile or so I got tired of that. I told him I would run home (3.5 miles) and he could drop my stuff off, which he did.

Maybe I'll bike on Wednesday or Turkey day.

My savor from IMAZ 08 is racing IMAZ again this weekend. His name is Harvey Thorleifson and his picture is prominent on the front page of this blog. If it weren't for his GPS watch, I don't think I would have had the drive to keep going that long hot day (16hr 52min finish) in April. As I write this, Harvey has made the bike cut off time and it appears that he will take an hour or so off his standard 16hr 45min race.
Way to go Harvey!

Ironman St. George / Ironman Florida 2010 training recap:

Wednesday: 2.5 miles (25 min)
Friday: 6 miles (58 min)
Saturday: 3 miles (24 min)
Sunday: 1 mile swim (32 min) 3.5 mile run (35 min)

Cheers! Train smart!!

My YouTube is UP!!

After one year, ONEHOURIRONMAN YouTube is up, the book and website to follow by January. Click on " My YouTube is UP" to view
Ironman Florida 2009 youtube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHkwbh0IHjA

IMFL RECAP

Bob, Kendra, Melissa



The week started off with Arnie and I driving up to PC on Tuesday. After checking into our condo at Sunbird and getting my parents settled into their condo, we all headed to Pineapple Willies for dinner. Dinner didn't sit well with the folks so they spent the better part of the night up. For all that might do IMFL, pass on Willie's.

Registration on Wednesday started at 10, so Arnie and I got in line at 9:30. He had his business suit on as he was immediately catching his chartered flight to Orlando after registering. We aren't USAT members so when they opened up, even though we were no. 2 and 3 in line, we had to pay the $10 that the members (everyone else but foreigners)did not. This made us no. 20 or so after paying our $10. Arnie used his business suit to get us a little preferred status and back to our rightful slots that we started at to speed up the process since time was of the essence to Arnie's dash for the plane. We were done by 10:15am. We headed back to the condo and sticking Arnie's gear in bags since he would not be returning until 8pm Friday night and I would be his valet taking gear to transition Friday. (Note: Get to registation at 9:30am on Wednesday or Thursday with a USAT card)

Then it was time to get ready for the blogland party. We had Anne from Houston and her family, Kendra from California and her husband, and Melissa from Orlando and her training partner Rick. It was a good time and my parents were amazed that we had never met each other based on how well we all seemed to know each other.

Thursday the parents and I headed over to Pensacola to tour the Naval Air Museum. Very nice side trip for the day if you happen to get to PC early in the week.

Friday I took a one loop tour of the swim course. Having a condo right on the beach is nice because you can keep all your valuables safe and just walk in a wetsuit down to the start. My loop was around 39 minutes which kind of bummed me out because I was training more at a 35 minute pace, but I wrote this off and said adrenaline would speed me up race day (it didn't).

Friday around 10 was sign up for 2010, so I headed down to the "IM village" to sign up. The line was quite long when I got there around 9:50 so I decided to get a massage and allow the line to die down. An hour later coming off the massage table, feeling much better, I got into a line that was twice as long as the long line I had passed on an hour earlier. OH WELL. Lesson 2: Get in line for next years sign up 15 minutes early and stay there. After signing up for 2010, TWO HOURS LATER, you always have to give the IM people more money, so I headed into the IM store to buy some goodies. Here I was a good boy. I need riding jerseys, so that is all I bought. At $85 a pop, that was enough. I have noticed that the IM store on line about two weeks after an event always has discounted items so I will check that out to see if there are any "deals".

After a little lunch, it was time to make my multiple treks to transition. I don't know if you have ever tried to wheel a bike and three bags along a road a quarter mile, but it is no fun by yourself. I ended up making three such trips to get Arnie's and my stuff down to transition and actually hitch hiked one of the trips with bags. Once all that was done, it was about time for the wife and two of the childins to be arriving into PC. Timing was perfect as they arrived right when I finished in transition.

A little dinner that evening around 6pm and I was ready for bed around 9. (Note: We went to a restaurant named Sweet Basils about a mile from the venue and it was great. Show up early to eat). I didn't hear a thing from Arnie so around 9 I went over to his condo. He was there and said his flight got in around 8. We made our plans for the morning and were to meet up around 5:45 outside transition.

I spent the night on the sleeper sofa in my parents room and woke up at 4am. I had some cereal, 2 caffeine tablets and headed on down to transition. I worked body marking and it was great. It took my mind off the race for about an hour. At 5:45am, though, no Arnie. He had my run special needs bag and pump. 5:50am... no Arnie. Now I start to panic, so since there was nothing I could really do, I went into transition and borrowed a pump to pump my tires up. I went to only 110 pounds even though I usually go to 120 because I did not want to hear a POP! When I came out of transition, there was Arnie. So, I ran both our bags down to the bag drop and told him I would see him back at the condos at 6:30. Our plan was to air up tires, drop bags and chill out at the condos until 6:30 to avoid spending nervous energy waiting around other nervous people. At the appropriate time we would walk down the beach to the start. (Note: We can wait until 6:40 next time). It also gave me time to set up the tripod and video camera from the balcony of our condo for the swim start.

At the start we saw Joe Bonness (gadzillion time age group IM champion). We were all lined up as far down the beach as we could go and still be in Panama City. I introduced Joe to Arnie and asked Joe what his swim time would be. He said 1:05. I told Arnie to draft off Joe. As it turns out, it looks like just the opposite happened.

The gun goes off and I dont see Arnie for another 8 hours (I saw him at mile 4.5 of the run for me, 8 for him ). The swim was a mixed bag. I found it choppy but Arnie loved it. Not a lot of full contact action since we started so far down the beach. Obviously starting down the beach is not what slowed me down based on Arnie's time, so (NOTE: Start at the same place next year). First loop was 40 minutes. Second was 44. Bummer but so what, it's in the bag I thought.

T1. Mass bedlam. This took me 12:40 or something. Totally unacceptable. (NOTE: Next year I am wearing both cycle shorts and compression socks on swim. Should knock transition time in half)

Bike: Hammered the first 24 miles to my surprise. Next 22 into the wind. I knew there would be a price to pay somewhere. This was it. And this is where the BANK came in handy. I made several withdrawls from the experiences of training in headwinds. I called on the BANK only one more time and then the rewards came at mile 72. You can't belief the SHIT eating grin I had on my face when I started back toward PC heading west at 24mph or so. OH BABY. I have said it before in my blog and I will say it again... IM is ALL ABOUT THE BIKE!! If you learn nothing else, learn this. In my past history I have never given the bike the credit it is due. I remember doing the Hill Country Triathlon in Texas 15 or so years ago with minimal training. I was in the first wave (for some strange reason). 600 people passed me. I passed NO one. Fast forward to IMAZ 08. I was passed by 180 people. Getting better but not there, quite. This year.... I passed 600 people on the bike. (NOTE: IT IS ALL ABOUT THE BIKE!)

Run: I knew I wouldn't be running. I knew at best it would be a walk/run, due to being off the legs for the past 4 weeks. I knew my times might even be better if I run/walked on purpose from the start anyway. It looks like that was true. Here is the reasoning. My quarter times were something like 11:30, 12:40, 12:30,and 13:00 per mile. Arnie ran 3/4 of the marathon. His times were around high 10s to mid 11s for the first three quarters and then 15:30 for the last quarter. I beat him by 2 minutes. Point here is to purposely stick in some walking.

Spectating: IM needs to work on this one. There just isn't enough space to accomodate all the families, especially when some of them might be 80 and cant stand too long. (NOTE to IM: Improve this please)

Cheers and next up is St George
IMFL.... over and out....

ps: check out my letter to the editor in the latest Triathlete magazine

THE HAMMER!

Joe Bonness (the Hammer victim)

There were 220 or so in our 50 to 54 division. Among them was the world reknowned age group triathlete Joe Bonness. Joe (photo at 2010 IMFL sign up above) has won numerous age group world championships at Kona and elsewhere. He actually did 3 IMs in around a 4 or 5 week period one time. Guess who beat him out of the water at IMFL 2009? NO, not me, but Arnie. He beat him by 4 seconds. Get this.... Arnie cranked an average of 20.5mph on the bike to be behind Joe by only 4 minutes. Joe dropped out without running the marathon (no doubt bummed by this 190 pound newbie on his tail) (just kidding Joe, you Rock! and sorry you had a bad day.) but WHAT THE HELL HAVE I CREATED??? ...... THE HAMMER!! (Arnie that is), or maybe at 190 he is the SLEDGE HAMMER!

Arnie is not a slender 160 pound triathlete like these "Joe's" of the tri community, so the run got him. He red lined it as much as he could and was forced to walk the last 7 miles as I did at IMAZ last year. End result was still 12 hours 29 minutes with a 5hr 32min marathon. Not a bad first go of it.

ARNIE THE "HAMMER"

I had a pretty good day all in all. The swim was less than what I wanted (1hr 24min) but we all know that's not where the day is made (unless you are Arnie). Transitions were quite slow, the first was 12:50 due to the MASSES in the tent (actually a building this year). Not sure what to do there unless I were to wear my bike shorts on the swim.

The bike felt great for the first 24 miles which takes us north with a cross wind. My speed was around 20mph. The computer died so I had to reset it when I made the turn onto the east bound 22 mile leg. This was the punishment leg. Hills and head wind. Average speed in this section was lucky to be 16mph. When we made the turn we had a nice 10 miles of tail wind before the punishment started again. The split time at 73 miles showed that I was going around 18.3 average which wasn't going to be enough for the 6 hour split I was hoping for. Even though my computer average time wasn't working I calculated the facts of this reality at the 70 mile mark. Feeling discouraged, when I made the turn at the out and back section, the bike gods shined their goodwill upon me as my speed climbed to 23mph. AND I knew I had 27 miles of this little blessing. By the time I made the turn at 100, I just hoped the wind gods would ensure that a cross tail wind was helping me and not just a tail wind.. They did and I sailed the next 6 miles at around the same speed. By mile 106, the 6 hour goal was in the bag even though the last 6 was into the head wind. Final result on the bike was 5hr 51min with 19.3 or so average. Not Arnie(ish), but very acceptable.

By the time I started the run, I knew run/walk would be the way I would attack the course. I haven't run in 4 weeks (Achilles) so a 5 hour marathon or so would perfectly acceptable. My quads and calves were definitely telling me they were there so I didn't want to push it. The first 6.5 miles was around 11:38 pace which was acceptable in my book. If I kept that up it would be right around 5 hours and I would finish at around 12hr 45min. Well you know how plans go. The second quarter was around 12:46 pace because my right ham started to lock. I knew this was not good at all, in fact it has never happened to me. So I took some Advil and walked about a mile and it loosened up. So the third quarter ended up around 12:39 so the plan was back on track. By the last quarter of the marathon it was very dark in parts of the course so I purposely walked more than I had too, just to keep from stumbling and setting off severe cramps. I also had the left hamstring cramp at mile 23 so more walking was in order.

Final time was 13hour 9 minutes 16 seconds which takes 3 hours 45 minutes off my personal best (only other IM), so I can't complain. But I did miss the 8pm dinner reservations I had made....

Next stop... IM St. George. Hills! or should I say mountains! So Arnie and I have some ingenious bike hill training to dream up for here in Tampa. Not sure what it will be, but we definitely need to dream it up soon. Oh, and 15 pounds off the "old" body will definitely help.

Cheers and thanks for tracking. Later in the week I will post some pics of the spaghetti party that was held on Wednesday along with other ramblings.

LAST CHANCE WORKOUT

If you ever watch "Biggest Loser" on TV, they have what is called the "last chance workout", as if this workout is going to make the difference in a weeks worth of training. Actually if they knew where they stood weight wise, they could lose a lot of water weight that day and not drink anything prior to the weigh in. But I digress.

Today was Arnie and my "last chance workout". So we decided on a 2 mile swim and a 35 mile bike. He would continue on for a 6 mile run and I would not and rest the Achilles.

In a nutshell, we had a kick ass swim. He did the 2 miles in around 52 minutes and I was around 56 minutes. Wetsuits made a huge difference. Bike was somewhat easy but we still managed 20+mph.

Next step, get everything washed and ready to pack. We leave at 6am Tuesday morning. Mom and Dad show up Tuesday evening. Wednesday at 10am we check in for the race and then Arnie chartered a plane to take him to his business summit in Orlando. Mom, Dad and I enjoy the hoopla for a couple days and have our party Wednesday night (Sunbird 203East... code to get in 2011) at 6pm. The Mrs and two of the boys show up on Friday around 2pm. Arnie charters another flight after a keynote speech Friday in Orlando at 6pm to arrive around 8pm. My oldest stays in Tampa Friday night for a football game and then flies in Saturday morning (no charter for this family) arriving around noon. Lot's to keep up with.... oh, and then there is a race on Saturday..... at 7 if I remember correctly.

Ironman Florida week in training:
Tuesday: 1.5 mile swim
Wednesday: 1.5 mile swim
Thursday: 2.0 mile swim
Sunday: 2.0 mile swim, 35 mile bike

Cheers and see a few of you on Wednesday!

CALM COOL and COLLECTED

Calm, cool and collected. Yep, that's what we are, Arnie and I. No worries what so ever on the impending race. You know how I can tell? Because, usually I can NEVER get a hold of Arnie on his cell phone, and in the past day, I have connected just about everytime. Here is a typical conversation to show our frigid ice cold demeanor...

Bob: "Hey Arnie, I'm down at the LBS picking up some tubes and I noticed your bike is here"

Arnie: "Yeh, final tune ups before the race". By the way, the final race instructions came in the email and I have read them several times"

Bob: "Really, what did you find out?"

Arnie: "They don't let wetsuits if the water is over 78F"

Bob: "I know, but we haven't trained in them anyway, so who cares?"

Arnie: "Well, I do because mentally I want to prepare"

Bob: "OK....."

Arnie: "Wait, let me pull them out again........, it says total wetsuits aren't allowed.... so does that mean your sleeveless are allowed?"

Bob: "I dont think so"

Arnie: "Well, what did you say the water temp was?"

Bob: "The only data I could find was some buoy out from Panama City. the last time I looked, it said 81F"

Arnie: "Crap, that's no good. No way it will drop in 7 days"

Bob: "Maybe, maybe not.... but again who cares?"

Arnie: "Makes a big difference mentally"

Bob: "OK"

Arnie: "How about siting during the swim? How many buoys do you think they will have?"

Bob: "I only remember 2 or 3 when I was there last year"

Arnie: "Crap. Going to be a lot different then siting on the lanes in the pool"

Bob: "Yeh, and since I am going to be drafting off you, you are going to have to pop your head up every so often to be sure we are on track"

Arnie: "Crap.... are you sure there are only 2 or 3 buoys on the way out?"

Bob: "I think so, but like the temperature station I found off the coast, I am not sure of the accuracy"

Arnie: "Hey, my extended forecast says it will be low 80s during race day"

Bob: "Really, mine showed 50F at the start and 70F during the day"

Arnie: "Really? That would be nice"

Bob: "Who cares? We trained in 90+F sh*t during the summer"

Arnie: "Makes a big difference.. Gotta prepare mentally"

Bob: "OK"

Arnie: "So what was this extended forecast you found?"

Bob" "Accuweather"

Arnie: "OK, and where was this temperature buoy located in the Gulf?"

Bob: "Arnie, I think my battery is going low... can I call you later?"

We talked more in 10 minutes then we have in the last 12 months of training... Later the same day... I find a more accurate water temperature.

Text to Arnie: "Hey, the Pensacola water temperature is around 73F, so that means my buoy in the Gulf is way off"

Arnie: "Damn, so I have been worrying about nothing?"

Bob: "Not really, you will just replace it with something else"

Arnie: "OK, so what time are we leaving on Tuesday? I was thinking 5am"

Bob: "5am? I think that is a bit early, how about 6?"

Arnie: "OK"

Bob: "We can get there around noon, check in and drive the bike course"

Arnie: " Sounds good, and we need to talk about the special needs bags"

Bob: "OK...."

Arnie: "It says here you need to check in the bike and bike to run bag the day before"

Bob: "OK...."

Arnie: "Well what about the special needs?"

Bob: "I don't know. Day of, maybe?"

Arnie: "Could be, let me keep looking"

Bob: "Dont you think they could tell us when we get there?"

Arnie: "Gotta mentally prepare"

Bob: "OK...."

Arnie: "And what did you say the water temp was again?"

Bob: "74"

Arnie: "What a minute, you said 73!!"

Bob: "OK..."

Arnie: " So what is it... 74 or 73?"

Bob: "I think it just changed to 74"

Arnie: "You know, this stuff is important to mentally prepare"

Bob: "OK...."

And so the conversation continues........

Calm, cool, collected.......

St George IM

Arnie says now that we are in IM shape, one IM race a year is just not good enough. We need to do two. This is before he has even done his first. Confidence is definitely one of his better traits. So, I went down the list of domestic races and the only one that breaks up the year from IMFL is the new one at St George. Well, it's full... like most IM races are several days after registration opens. The only chance at entry is Community Fund. So, he said let's look into that....

If you will recall, one race a year is fine with me. Wouldn't want to "celebrate" too much, you know. So, I told Arnie, if he paid my way in, I would continue providing his nutrition all year to make me feel like it was some sort of "fair" barter, without tapping into the kid's college fund.

Well, it looks like we are in. So, May 1 we are off to what appears to be one of the toughest bike courses in NA. Not sure where we are going to train for that (details).