I Can and I Will...

Last night I had my first athletic activity since tearing my meniscus in late May, and I was a little nervous in doing so. As I have mentioned, I signed up to play on a rec league basketball team at our church and made it 3 games before hurting my knee (cause I am not 25 any more). I tried to follow the doctors orders and let it rest and heal and all like a good patient. I went for my follow up appointment and the doctor said it was healing nicely, but it looked like I had some arthritis in my knee. I told him I was glad it was better because I still have a plan to do one more Ironman before I call it quits.  The look on his face said a million things. It mainly said "FAT CHANCE"

He told me that running may not be the thing I want to focus on, but I could swim and bike as much as I wanted. Obviously not what I was looking to hear. I was hoping for a "sure, start running again but ease into it and you're good!". So after spending a week in NYC and walking a million steps a day, I figured it was time to try it out with some running.

The game went really well. I did not do a lot of cutting and changing directions, or jumping either, but I did do some light running up and down the court and had no pain while running. I really thought the biggest test would come later that night or the next day, but it feels like it used to, which is cool.

Since this planned season has been nothing like I had thought it would be, it is once again time to re-assess my plan and start again. So Monday, I am starting back on a training plan for a sprint triathlon on August 27 in Sardis, Mississippi. A 1/2 mile swim, an 18 mile bike and a 4 mile run (half road, half trail). My previous PR is 1:58:10 and it was 6 years ago. So I am not naïve enough to think I can PR (although its possible), that is not my goal. My goal is simply to race and make it to the starting line. It has been so frustrating this season starting and stopping over and over again.

I have approximately 9 weeks to prepare for this race, which should be doable, to be a finisher. It will be a tough journey, dealing with the heat and summer activities, but I am an IRONMAN!!!!  And I can get this done. I am excited once again...

4 Years Ago???

This happens to me a lot. When people learn that I am doing a race, or realistically when I tell people who don't really ask me that I am doing a race, one of the first questions I am asked is this? What is your goal time? Normally it is not a big deal and without hesitation I always fall back on my PR for that distance. But lately, I have been asking myself, How long can I hang on to the PR?

For those of you that might not know, PR stands for "personal record". It is the fastest time that one has raced that particular distance of a race.

I started looking back at my PR's. While they are not that impressive to many, here they are as best I could locate them (who am I trying to fool, every runner/triathlete KNOWS their PR's better than the kids birthdays right?)

5K-   23:43  March 2012
10K- 52:26  February 2012
1/2 Marathon- 1:56 March 2010
Marathon- 5:01 December 2012

Olympic Triathlon- 2:47 May 2012
Half Ironman - 6:09 Sept 2012
Ironman - 15:53 Sept 2013 (1st one is always a PR)

So here is my question. Can I still claim a PR for something 4 years ago? And if I can, how depressing is that? Maybe I should just change it to PB (personal best) and forget the whole 4 year old personal record. I know the old saying that records are meant to be broken, but 4 years ago I was 4 years younger than I am now! :)  So is it fair to hang on to it?

I know in the long run, this does not matter, and it shouldn't really I guess. This is just something that crossed my mind and got stuck. So let me ask you blog reader, how long do you claim your PR??? 

 



 I think I want a new PR...

I Do Not Have A Catchy Title.

I have been feeling pretty lazy lately.

My grandfather passed away early last week and the family made a whirlwind trip to go to the funeral on Thursday and Friday. We drove over 700 miles in 2 days, and that time in the car does not include the hour we spent at a McDonalds in Atkins Arkansas trying to get the mini van swagger wagon started! So we spent about 12+ hours in the car.

My last good solid workout was Thursday before we left. I did a 1000 yd swim in 18 and change then I followed that up with a 4 miles run in under 35 minutes. (Then I sent a trash talking video text to Brad D at Brad's Ironman Journey, because he has been sending me mean video texts, so I had to fire back!!) Then I sat in the car for hours and hours it seemed. Sitting in a car seat for an extended period of time always stiffens my joints up! So I have not been to fired up about doing any training.

Even today at my teams basketball game (I am coaching my son's 12-13 year old team), I was wearing my Ironman Branson 70.3 shirt for some motivation. One of the refs called me over and started asking me questions about doing IM races. Usually that fires me up, but for some reason, I was still unmotivated. And I am down 5 pounds since Christmas! What gives??

Well, I don't drink, but other than that...

I finally told my bride that I know what I need to motivate me.I need to sign up for my Olympic race. I spend the money, then I know I will train harder. That's the way it works isn't it? Is that true motivation? I am not sure that is the thing that would motivate me, the spending of money, but more of a deadline. So, maybe when I am officially entered into the race, it will light a fire under my butt. Or maybe the driving wore on me more than I thought. I do have a 5K trail race tomorrow I am going to run, so maybe that race will get my juices flowing again. I just know it is way to early for me to be thinking of missing workouts already!!!

NOW WAIT JUST A SECOND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

UPDATE:

I wrote this post on Saturday night, and Sunday after church, I did run the Winter Off Road Series 5K at Stanky Creek. A nice little trail run that I hit a new PR!!!!  25:51 on the trails! I am so stoked about that, an 8:20 pace through the woods!!!!  That placed me 15/42 in my Age Group and 95/499 Overall. For the overall series, I am in 14/58 place in my age group! Funny how things work out, but I am over that pity party and ready to train!!!!!

NashVegas 70.3 Race Report...New PR!!!!

I spent my birthday driving to Nashville with my bride worrying about the weather. The forecast was calling for thunderstorms all morning on race day and highs in the low 70s. So as we drove in 90 degree weather, I was not looking forward to racing in the rain...again. Last year at Ironman Branson 70.3 is was a monsoon, so while I knew I could do it, I wasn't looking forward to the rain.

RACE DAY:

I had my alarm set to go off at 4:30 AM, which would give me plenty of time to eat something, and get everything ready. I wanted to be at the race site by 6AM for the 7AM start, which we made very easily. I was able to rack my bike in the first rack and get everything setup like I wanted it. i also remember to bring a plastic bag to wrap my socks and shoes in since the forecast was calling for rain. They stated the water temp was 84 degrees, which was surprising since it did rain all night, so that meant no wetsuit. I always feel more confident with my wetsuit on, but I really wasn't to nervous about not wearing it. All I had left to do was get body-marked, spend some time talking with my wife and friends and then get a little swim in before the siren started!

SWIM: 37:15

The swim started as a wade in the water wave start. I was in the second wave, basically the over 40 age group. We had about a 150 yard swim the the first buoy, a right turn, then about a 1000 yd swim, a right turn, another 150 yards, then a right turn back to the exit. The first two buoys were rough. People were bumping me a lot, it had to them because I swim in a straight line. It wasn't until that last buoy that I actually felt like I had room to swim. Once I saw the swim exit, I was actually surprised it was over. My swim time was 37.15, which broke down to a 1:46/100 yds!

T1: 1:26

T1 went fine, not a whole lot to talk about here. It had not started raining yet and with no wetsuit to get off, it was basically just a matter of putting on gloves and shoes and going!

BIKE: 3:08:27

I had not gone 6 miles before it started raining and then it started raining harder and harder. The wind really picked up also, which at times made it a little scary. The course itself was pretty good, it had some challenging hills to it, but a lot of rollers.My bike computer quit working around mile 15, so I had to wait to hit the mile markers to tell where I was on the course. I made sure to hit all my nutrition on the bike, which included salt pills, 2 bottles of GU Brew, 3 gels, energy shot blocks and 2 bite size Snickers (which was like manna from Heaven). I wanted to have fuel for the run, I left nothing in the bento box. I do not enjoy riding in  the rain and wind. This weather system made me hold back on some of the downhills because the wet roads and winds scared me some. There were parts of the course where I could see no one in front of me and no one behind me, which was weird. I mean the course was well marked, with signs and law enforcement, but there were still times when it got lonely out there. The rain finally stopped with about 25 minutes left on the ride. I was ready to get off the bike, and I was so looking forward to having dry socks and shoes on my cold wet feet.

T2: 2:07

The only thing that took time in T2 was getting my socks and shoes out of the bag I brought, and I gladly gave up those extra few seconds to have on dry shoes. This is a lesson I learned last year, and it made a huge difference. it felt so good putting on something dry.

RUN: 2:20:00

Awesome run course to run!!

I felt surprisingly well off the bike and starting the run. Really surprised!! I actually felt good! The run was about a mile of road, then it turned into a Greenline run. I had a great pick me up moment, when I spotted my wife about a mile into the run, I was wondering where she was when I came into T2, so it was a nice surprise to see her and to stop and get a quick kiss. I knew at this point I had a chance to go under 6 hours, I just needed to average under 10 minute miles, which was doable...for the first 9 miles. I was actually on pace, and this is with me walking through the water stations long enough to drink the water. Some stops had Coke, that sweet elixir of the Gods!  It was good! At mile 9, things starting getting really tough on me. I resorted to a run a mile, walk a minute. The legs were hurting. At one point, I decided I was going to run to mile 11 and then walk some, but my wife was at mile 11 taking pictures!  And I can;t walk with my wife standing there!!! So I shuffled through 11, walked ran through 12 and started cramping at 13. Right where everyone was! But I did make it.

Wanna know something interesting? I ran a half marathon in March with a time of 2:07, I ran a half marathon after a 1.2 mile swim and a 56 mile ride in 2:20!!  Who has been working on his run???

It was sweet crossing the finish line. 6:09:15. A new PR! 16th in my AG!  My last attempt at a 70.3 was 7:35, so I was thrilled with knocking off that amount of time.

My cheesy Olympic medal winning pose!!!