STARTING OVER

 Yes, it's true.  I am starting over, from the very beginning, starting from scratch, back to the old drawing board. Starting April 5, I am back to training for Ironman Memphis 70.3. The road seems very long and the bumps seem huge. First off, right now I am weighing in at 224 lbs, which is about 35 lbs more than when I last raced. I will be 50 by the time the starting gun fires, more than 7 years older, and I am coming off a torn calf muscle, which kept me in a boot for almost 3 weeks. 

So I have basically 6 months to get ready to run a half Ironman on Oct 2nd.  I did like any normal triathlete would do, and that is getting a plan together. The second thing I did was adjust the pace from the original plan to a resemble pace, and third I adjusted my attitude from competing to completing. 

It's true, my tri shorts are tighter, my cycle shoes are old and 56 miles seems like an eternity. I have Stella out, and she is looking pretty, the trainer is tuned up, the Garmin 945 is charged, the goggles are cleaned and the Hoka are laced just right.

Wish me luck and I will update as the journey begins on April 5, 2021!

IM Memphis 70.3 Cancelled

It really came as no shock, but when I received the email the other day, informing me that IM Memphis 70.3 was postponed until 2021, it stung a little. Don't get me wrong, I totally understand and support the decision that was made. A well known hospital like St Jude would never sponsor anything that could possibly put people at risk, but still, I wanted to race.

I have to say I felt my training was right where it needed to be. The swim distance was already doable and already within the 47 minute range for 1.2 miles. I know with over a month I would have gotten that time down to under 45 minutes.

The bike was going well. I have had long rides of between 30-45 miles in my training plan and really felt good afterwards. The speed ranged around 15 mph, but that was due to much traffic on the Greenline around Shelby Farms and not knowing the path on the group rides. All other rides had been done on the trainer, so you know that 2 hours of spinning, means 2 hours of spinning, no coasting. So I felt really good about where I was on the bike.

The run. Now, this is the area that is not my strongest segment. It's something that I have never really been great at. I often used the excuse that I started running at 218 lbs, vs. the 187lbs I used to run at while doing Ironman and that is why I am slower. Truth is this, my knees hurt more because I am not 187 lbs! I have been losing some weight, thanks to all the exercise and watching what I eat, and I have been improving on my runs. My mileage was where I wanted it to be at this point as well. The course at Shelby Farms was going to be ruthless no matter what, but I still had time to get there.

So, overall, I am disappointed, but I understand. They have postponed this till 2021, and I will have just turned 50!  So in a way, it could actually turn into a milestone age race for me.

So what is next?  Am I retiring?  Am I racing?  We will have to see...

Either way, I want to say thanks to whoever reads this, I know blogging is archaic at best these days, but it is still a good way for me to get out what I want to get out.

Ironman Memphis 70.3

What was I thinking?