Everyone Knows It's Windy

Except me. I went out for a ride today, and was feeling really good for the first 30 minutes or so. I felt like I was cruising pretty easily, and keeping a good pace.

Then I turned.

Roads that last week were an easy 17-18 mph became 10-11 today. It was all I could do to keep my cadence over 90, like my coach asked me to do. I guess I should have known that the first couple roads were too good to be true.

The other part of the prescribed ride, though? The important part? I did just fine, thank you very much.



On the way home, I was spinning my way along, and passed a guy on a mountain bike wearing a backpack. I didn't think anything of it until a minute later, when he passed me back, pedaling furiously! I'm self confident enough that I didn't feel any need to race him, despite his obvious attempt at it.

But...I did anyway. One big gear later, and he was nowhere to be seen by the next stoplight. :)

T-Minus 8 Months

I actually missed it yesterday, but I wanted to start a series of these posts so I can look back and see my progress. Yesterday marked 8 months out from Ironman.

Biggest Challenge This Month:

I think the biggest challenge in October was simply getting back to training. After Muncie, I took a fair amount of time off other than a little pre-Reach the Beach training. Swimming, especially, has been tough to recover; my form left me quickly after a couple months of neglect, but is starting to come back a bit now.

Biggest Success This Month:

Since there haven't really been any "epic" workouts or anything so far, one success has been building up a little bit of a base without the usual nagging injuries I seem to get when starting out.

However, the biggest success for me has been finding some mental toughness to get in nearly all my workouts. I'm usually pretty bad at this, but maybe the magnitude of the race has scared me into it. Other than the week I was sick, I've only missed one workout without making it up later.

How I Feel About Training:

Pretty good so far! I'm really excited to be working with my coach Liz, and look forward to seeing what's next. I'm starting to feel my body adapting to the training, and not just by being hungry and sleepy. :)

How I Feel About The Race:

It's still a long way off, and doesn't seem very real at this point. The longest I've ever trained for anything to this point is probably about 4 months. Watching Meredith train hard and speed through her race has inspired me to want to be faster, and not just plod across the line. That said, I'll gladly accept a 16:59:59 finish if that's what it takes.

What's Next?

Heart rate training next week. I've never done anything with a heart rate monitor before, so I'll be really interested to see how it goes. I'm also trying to convince my coach to let me run a 4 mile race on Thanksgiving.

Also very important: finding a place to stay in Coeur D'Alene. If anyone out there has a good recommendation for lodging for two (hopefully not excessively pricey), let me know!

8 Months Out Theme Song:

"Eight Days A Week", The Beatles



Chosen because it is also the answer to the question, "How often will Dave be swimming/biking/running from here on out?"

Cold Play

No, not the band. The weekend!

It was good news for Meredith this weekend, as the temperature in Columbus fell off a cliff to the 60s. She, after all, was running the Columbus Marathon on Sunday!

Before we got there, we had a Saturday of fun and rest. Our niece was playing in a soccer game conveniently located in a town just over an hour by bike from our house. My scheduled workout? A 75 minute bike ride. Charlie and I got up early and left the house about 7:45 AM. Now, I've never really trained in the winter. And I *certainly* haven't ridden a bike in cold weather before. Just a few minutes out, I found myself wishing that I had more than three layers on, or at least something to break the chilly morning winds. Once I got going, my core was fine, but my fingers and toes were not! (This led to a trip to my local Roll store to pick up some booties for future rides.)

I'd never ridden this way before, so it was sight unseen as to how the little back roads I was taking would look. The course ended up not being too bad, though it was uphill most of the way, and on a one way ride, there's no "at least it'll be downhill on the way back" with which to comfort yourself. One of the roads got a little rough, too, but was more of an "uggityuggityuggityuggity" rough, as opposed to the end of the Muncie race's "ka-CHUNK ka-CHUNK ka-CHUNK" of crack repairs. A few stretches, though, were new blacktop, which just feels like heaven on a bike.

Meredith met me out at the...um...pitch?, and got me some warm clothes (whew, much better) in which to watch the soccer match. After that, it was back home for the first lazy Saturday in a long while, and a chance to watch our Buckeyes beat up on Michigan State.

Sunday was marathon day, and we were downtown really early this year for the 7:30 start. I'll let you read Meredith's report for the details, but suffice it to say that she ran a great race, and hit her goal of 3:30. I was really proud of her for achieving it after putting in so much hard work.

And what better way to celebrate than to go out for a run of my own? I hit the trails at a local park for an hour run. Let's just say that cross country is not my strength, and I may have booed out loud when I came upon a couple flights of unexpected stairs on one of the trails. After an hour, I had gone just over 6 miles, which isn't too bad for the terrain and for trying to keep it at a fairly easy pace.

Today's my first brick (bike-run) of the training plan, which I'm actually looking forward to quite a bit. Next week begins the harder training, as well as heart rate testing. I'm not exactly sure what that will entail, but the words "Here be dragons" from old maps come to mind...

Good Ol' Charlie Brown

If I said that my race number from Muncie was still on my bike, would that give any indication of how much I've ridden since July? Okay, there were a couple little rides in there, but they involved things like stops at Starbucks for hot chocolate...I'm not sure that counts.

Today, the number came off, the helmet went on, and Charlie and I hit the road again. My first ride of Ironman training was a 60 minute easy ride, and it couldn't have been a more beautiful day for a spin on the bike. The temperature was just a little brisk, the sky was completely blue, and the wind stayed to a minimum. I decided to reprise the course for my first ride in the Muncie training plan and ride out past Abercrombie headquarters.

Since it was just an easy ride, I didn't go into aero position very much; I just took in the day. Other than a few cars starting left turns into me before hitting their brakes, the traffic was light, and I was able to pick a high cadence and stick with it. Because the traffic was a little too light, I had to push my way over one-footed to the crossing buttons for one of the stoplights, or I never would have gotten across. 32 minutes out, I hit my turn and headed back home. My cadence meter decided to flake out on me (18 rpm? Really? That must be the biggest gear ever if I'm going 19 mph on flat ground!), but I tried to keep it light and easy back through town, and hit the driveway at 59 minutes.

One thing I learned today: Cool Mint Chocolate Clif Bars are my new favorite bike fuel. Today's ride wasn't one that really needed a mid-ride bar, but riding at 1:00 without lunch demanded some calories. This flavor will definitely be making the trip with me on all future long rides.

I didn't realize how much I had missed riding. It's so nice to do a workout that isn't in the same 4 miles that most of my runs take place in, or in the pool. Now, if I can just keep enjoying my bike this much, I might just make it through those six hour rides I'll be doing in the spring!

Belated Beginning Report

I really hope getting back to training keeps me healthy. Ever since Muncie, I haven't been able to make it more than a few weeks without problems.

I'm now working with a coach, Elizabeth (Fedofsky) Waterstraat, who's a pro triathlete based out of Chicago. Very excited to see what her training can push me to accomplish!

On Monday, Ironman training kicked off with a 2200m swim. Close to a mile and a half for the first workout, eh? I was a little worried since I hadn't been in the pool for a while, but it actually went pretty well. Even then, I was starting to feel a little sick, and my stamina tapered off before I finished, but finishing wasn't any problem.

The problem came the next morning, when I woke up with a massive cold, which (as always) turned into sinus issues. Sigh. So, I've been laid up with that until yesterday, and I think today I can finally get back to my plan.

Coeur D'Alene, here I come. Take two.