Off Seaon - Plan or no Plan

So the off season is here. How do I know this?  I am eating like it is the football and holiday season.  As of today I am up to 219.5. Ugh. I have also officially done nothing this past week.  Unfortunately after my last race real life, work, the holidays, friends, stress, etc.. worked their way back into my life. Some of this is good and some bad.  The trick now is to find a balance.  I have obviously been eating to make up for the food I was not eating during training.  I now find myself in a spot where I need to take off weight which was already gone.  Not a big deal since I know I can do it.  The real challenge I face is finding a balance between everything in my life.  I need to treat training/exercise as a meeting that has to be scheduled and adhered to.  With the shorter days and cooler temps it is all too easy to push off my plans until the next day.  This week I plan on just doing about 45 minutes of cardio everyday.  I also am going to read up on a few eating plans and let you know what I think about them and if they would work for me. I am interested in the engine 2 diet which is mostly vegan based and the paleo diet which is a favorite among crossfitters.  I have already started reading Training Weight by Matt Fitzgerald which simply confirms that guys my size should not be doing endurance events..lol. Lastly I will be putting together a structured plan for the next 6 - 8 weeks and also try to plan some races for the year.  So stay tuned. Hopefully there will be a plan. Of course I also caught a cold this weekend so we will see how my whining affects my plan.

I also want to give a shout out to my friend and training partner Doreen who finished Ironman Florida in 13:16:18 beating her goal of 13:30 and setting a personal PR.  Awesome job..just remember you could not have done it without me! 

Have You Seen My Motivation..it was here somewhere..probably with my keys.

As the end of October approaches I am already firmly in the grips of the winter doldrums.  I really thought a short rest from training would do me good and I would be in the mood to hit it like never before. Unfortunately the only thing I have been hitting like never before is the all you can eat buffets.  Really..actually ate at the Chinese Super Buffet.  I had no idea the Chinese ate so many fried foods.  Fried and breaded sweet potatoes, donuts, chicken mcnuggets.  I am surprised that China does not have more of an obesity problem.  I have also gone out the last few weekends to enjoy the Brewers, Badgers and Packers with my rowdy friends that I have not hung out with for six months. (A shout out to my boys Jeff and Scott and badger girls Kelley (and whatever your boyfriend's name was) and Jenn..and of course my designated driver, wingman and caretaker Kristine). Needless to say this involved partaking in alcohol and fried foods. (mmm. cheese curds)   In the last six months before my Ironman race I ate pretty good and did not drink at all.  The night of the Badger/Nebraska game I drank six months of fruity drinks.  I decided to do the rainbow by doing one drink of every color.. long island iced tea (brown) Blue Hawaiin (blue) Some sort of red fruity drink(red), screw driver(orange), grasshopper(green) girl scout cookie (green again), purple people eater (purple), axe murderer (red again)  all topped of with an Irish Car Bomb. Needless to say I felt less than stellar..but the Badgers did win.  I also apparently came down with a case of food poisoning that night and next day since I just really did not feel well.. of course sleeping on a tile floor curled up in a ball did not help either. So the fruity drinks are out of the system now..both figuratively and literally and I will not need to have one of those again for a year.  Some how I have also put on weight.  As of today I am up 11 lbs from 9-11-11. A magnificent 215 on the scale.

Worse yet the motivation to work out has just not been there.  I think partly because the triathlon season is over and I have no goal staring me in the face.  Another is that the group rides and workouts are also pretty much over for the season.  I think I am much more of a team sport guy then an individual sport enthusiast.  This may be part of my midwestern upbringing where team sports are popular and hanging out after the game is even more popular.  I started playing volleyball again which is fun..and much less of a strain on my knees since losing my weight.  I am also contemplating joining a soccer league ( a sport I have never played before) just because of the camaraderie.  Triathlon is an individual sport for the most part but I always try to have a training partner or partners. For me being part of a team is huge.  When I mountain biked in the midwest it was always a group activity..in Colorado you see a lot of solo mountain bikers. I have half-joked with my coach that we need to get team kits so we can be identified as a unit. ( Honey Badgers  ..Because Honey Badgers don't care...Honey Badgers are Bad Ass.)  For some reason it is much more fun and satisfying to me to accomplish something as a team rather than an individual.

I have also soured on the sport of triathlon a bit.  I have met a lot of great people while doing triathlons..but I have also met a lot of complete d-bags.  I think for some reason the individual sports seem to attract a larger number of anti-social, self centered, arrogant individuals that do not mesh well with my personality.  And in my opinion, the proportion of these d-bags increases as their eliteness increases (or more likely their perceived eliteness).  Yes I know that this is a gross generalization and some of the elite athletes I have met are some of the most wonderful people I know..but I am just going off my experience.

Unfortunately I meet the guy in the video above on a lot of my rides and it really ticks me off and adds to my "experience" database.

So I am done whining now.  I need to get back on the horse. My run fitness has nose-dived, I think I remember how to swim and unbelievably my bike fitness still seems to be ok.  My plan of attack for the next month is to set my race goals, get back on track nutritionally and schedule my workouts as I would meetings so I don't miss any more.

I was able to have a great ride last weekend with my coach Sonja (one of the truly wonderful elite athletes that I have met) and a few of the ponies in her stable.  The ride made me remember how much I actually do like the sport and the majority of the people in it that I have met.  I will also be reading the blogs of my online buddies to help me keep motivated. (You can too..they are listed on the side bar).  Hope everyone is well and keeps moving forward.

A Year In Review

Ok..not quite a year but close enough.  I was disappointed not finishing IMMOO 2011 and thus have decided to look at the bright side of things. In 2010 I finished a sprint triathlon in Maple Grove Minnesota. The Dare to Tri race is in Maple Grove (obviously) and 2010 was the inaugural race. It was fantastic.  There is a sprint and olympic distance and in 2011 they partnered with Tristar 111 and added a completely different race distance. A 1 km swim, 100 km bike and 10k run. Macca raced the event this year and said he would be back in 2012.  I really want to do this race but it is only 3 weeks out from Ironman Wisconsin. If you ever get the chance to sign up for the race you should do so. It is a blast and the little extras..like engraving your finishing medal onsite with your time are awesome.

Anyway I did the race in August 2010 and looked back at how I progressed in 13 months.  At Maple Grove I had to swim a little over 500 yards.  I averaged 2:30 per 100 yards and at IMMOO I averaged under 2:00 per 100 over 2.4 miles (4100 yards).  I averaged a little over 15 miles an hour on the bike for the sprint race..at IMMOO with quite a bit more elevation gain I averaged 14.5 mph over 112 miles.  Not the greatest speed but I was pleased.  At Racine I averaged over 16 mph over 56 miles.  Lastly, I walked/ran the 3 miles in the sprint and averaged a little under 12:00 minute miles.  During training for IMMOO I was running 12 -13 minute miles over 13 miles.  I think my fitness improved significantly.  One huge improvement was in my quad, hamstring and hip strength from the training. I have been dealing with issues related to my knee surgery in 1998 since..well 1998.  My right leg has been significantly weaker than the left ever since the surgery..often times causing me to run in circles. I saw my PT Joy last week and she said the strength I had gained was incredible and it is by far the best she has seen my leg in the three years she has known me.  By the way if anyone in the Denver area needs the best Physical Therapist around for athletes Joy is the one to see at University of Colorado Sports Medicine.  She knows her stuff, is an athletic trainer also and can deal with head cases (she has dealt with me for a number of years).  Also I think the photos below show that I lost a little bit of weight. (Amazingly enough I am wearing the same tri shorts in each picture - spandex is truly a miracle fabric)

the original fat boy (233)

new and improved 203 (down from 242)

I have learned quite a bit in the last year. From learning how to swim efficiently with total immersion, train while still having a family life from my coach Suzanne at Steel City Endurance, to how to pee on the bike.  Unfortunately I was never able to practice this in real life since I was never hydrated enough to actually need to go..but I did get advice from some of the best.   I also met a number of wonderful people..from those I shared some training time with (Doreen, Kelli 1, Kelli 2, Angela), to fellow racers in Racine like Doug from Marshfield, and elite triathletes..Go Sonja!!! - who as I write this is only a few hours removed from finishing the Ironman World Championship in Kona in 10:08:44. 

Lastly it has been great getting into a healthy lifestyle and sharing the sport with my family and friends. My sister-in-law Adrianne finished her second tri at Maple Grove this year PRing..and my wife Kristine is now firmly into the lifestyle and will probably be beating my butt in the near future. My soon to turn 4 year old daughter now gets off her bike and then wants to run after she goes through transition.  She also says "on your left" when she passes people on the walking path.  Finishing IMMOO 2012 is the goal for this next year but like this year I think the journey with my family and friends will be the real reward.

IMMOO 2011

Well September 11, 2011 came a lot quicker than I thought it would. After my HIM at Racine I knew I had to work on hydration and running.  My coach Suzanne and I started working on hydration strategies and my training partner Doreen (pictured in the wetsuit) made sure I didn't miss a workout.  With six weeks to Ironman Wisconsin I knew I had a lot of work to do.  My wife Kristine (In the first picture) made sure my weekends were free to train the long hours for the rides and bricks and even went on a couple of work outs with me. Kristine and my daughter Laila were my biggest cheerleaders before and during the race. I also had a bunch of other friends who were willing to train with me to help me get my miles in.    One thing that was evident was that I was getting fitter since my pants were getting looser and I was spending more time admiring myself in the mirror.




























We arrived in Madison on September ninth and I registered and weighed in.  Everything for Ironman Wisconsin is based out of Monona Terrace which is kind of cool. The terrace is right on Lake Monona and a few blocks from the capitol. Pictured below is the parking structure helix that we had to run up after the swim to get to the transition area and then to the bikes.

My official Ironman weight was 203.9. I had hoped to be 199 by the race but I had lost 40 lbs since February..so I was happy.  At registration I also noticed a few guys my size or a little bit bigger. However the vast majority of the athletes were definitely built for endurance with little body fat and most of the guys did not need to have a scale that went over 170 pounds. 

On Saturday we met up with my brother Ben and his wife Adrianne.  Ben was under some notion that I could attend a Badger game the day before Ironman.  After some deliberation I declined.  Instead we met up for a little pre game fun and then my wife and I went back to Monona Terrace to rack my bike and drop off my gear bags which we had spent two hours packing and repacking. I don't know how many times I rechecked my bike shoes, helmet, salt pills etc.

As you can see by the pictures the bags are dropped off in different rooms and sorted by athlete numbers. The picture is of the room that we triathletes refer to as T1 or the first transition. (Ha.."we triathletes" )The gear bag contains everything I needed to go from the swim to the bike. In most triathlons the gear is left by your bike and there are no separate rooms or changing areas.. However due to the number of athletes and length of the race the bikes are racked separate from the gear bags. My T1 gear bag included my bike shoes, socks, sunglasses, helmet, etc.  What is nice about Ironman is that once you grab your bag and move into the changing area there are rows of chairs to sit down on and numerous volunteers to help you go through your bag, put sunscreen on or whatever and put your stuff away as you scurry out the door..the bad thing is seeing other guys nude rubbing nut butter on their privates.  Triathletes are not a bashful people.

After racking the bike Kristine and I headed back to our hotel room at the Union South and went to dinner with Ben and Adrianne. We went to the Great Dane..which if you go to the beginning of this blog you can see me eating all manner of deep fried food and drooling over what I couldn't stuff down.  The day before Ironman I was drinking water and eating mashed potatoes.  In fact the three days before the race I was petrified that I was going to make the wrong decisions on what to eat and stayed to the basics of lean protein and chicken breast with plenty of water. I actually declined cheese curds and bacon.

I got to bed about 10 p.m. and was up at 4:30.  Kristine and I were down at Monona Terrace by 5:20 along with thousands of other people.  I filled my water bottles and made sure my tires were at 120 psi.  I was one of the few that did not have a true triathlon bike. Instead I had my road bike with aero bars on it.  During the ride I was glad that I had my bike with its front triple chain ring. We then wandered around checking out the spectators and other athletes as well as getting my body markings done.

The area became very crowded as gun time approached. At 6:30 the bike transition area was closed and we had to put on our wetsuits and move down the helix and into the water.  The helix was crowded but there was about 6 feet of space for all of the athletes to run up once they exited the water.  I was warned about the swim for IMMOO..it was likened to being in a washing machine.  The closer you were to the start line and the buoys the worse it was.  I put on my wetsuit and entered the water with about 20 minutes before the start. I spoke with some of the athletes and decided..what the heck..I am going to the start line by the buoys and will start a little behind. I figured the front runners would get ahead and I would get into a groove.  I was surprised to see that there were a large number of athletes that were starting near the shore almost 200 yards from the buoy. Apparently they thought it best to stay out of the melee and catch up with the buoys toward the first turn 800 meters away.  Seemed like a lot of extra swimming to me.  But so did the fact that I had to tread water for 20 minutes before the gun started the race.  However, with the wetsuit on treading water did not take up much if any energy at all.

I was talking to a couple of other athletes in the water when the gun went off and everyone just started moving forward.  I can honestly say I have never been so beat up in a swim.  There are 3000 people headed for the same red buoy 800 meters away and no one wants to give up space.  I was jostled, run over, kicked and all in all just mugged.  Your vision in the water is pretty much limited to two feet in front of you and about three feet to each side..usually there was a pair of feet in front and a body to each side with someone either touching your feet or going over your back.  I have always tried to go around swimmers but that was impossible.  To move to the left or right meant I was going to run into someone else.  Thus the best course of action was to try and go over the swimmer in front..hopefully just an arm and not their body.  When we got to the first turn it was actually worse. Some of the faster swimmers who had started 200 meters to the side converged at the same time.  Everyone pretty much had to stop swimming and kind of just push themselves through the mass of humanity to get around the buoy.  What added to the surreal spectacle is that everyone was mooing.  Apparently it is custom to moo when you get around the first turn at IM Wisconsin.  So of course I joined in.  Once around the first turn I realized that my theory about the swimmers spreading out was wrong.  The muggings got a little less frequent but for the better part of both loops there was always someone if not two people within a foot or two of you.  Apparently one woman had her wrist broken in the first 100 meters of the race by someone kicking her.  I was very glad to get to the last turn and head back to shore. I figured with all of the people, not being able to extend my stroke and just the sheer madness my time would be about 1:45.  I was incredibly surprised to see it was actually 1:22.  That was about 1:58 per 100 yards.  The best I had done in the pool for training was 1:59 per 100 yards and that was for a 500 yard time trial..not for 2.4 miles.

Once I was out of the water I had the wetsuit strippers take off my suit and I was running with the rest of the athletes up the ramp and the helix and to the transition area.  I even heard my name being called as I exited the water..talk about cool!  I thought running up the helix would be exhausting..but with the hundreds of people yelling at you and cheering, you do not realize you are actually jogging at a good clip.  I got to T1..changed into my biking gear and ran out..grabbed my bike and was soon riding down the other helix to start my 112 mile ride.  Unfortunately within the first 2 miles we all had to slow down for the med crew to put a biker in an ambulance. Apparently they had come down the bike path too fast and ended up hitting the side of an underpass.

Just as an aside - if you remember my swim video on this blog from the beginning of the year (If you don't remember then you need to look..it is horrific) I was averaging about 2:30 per 100 yards and looking very bad doing it.  Suzanne and her coaching helped me cut 30 seconds off each 100 time. That is HUGE.  I am also going to confess that I was not a convert to the total immersion swim style or doing the drills Suzanne had scheduled for each swim practice..but I started doing them and again the difference is striking.   

The bike course at IMMOO is 112 miles and is an out and back with two loops.  The "stick" is a fairly fast ride out to Verona where the loop starts.

As you can see the course is anything but flat.  There are three "big"hills that everyone talks about starting at Mt. Horeb with an additional two on the back side of the course.  Compared to Colorado the three hills really are not anything spectacular.  You just need to gear down and go slow.  The longest one is probably just a little over half a mile in length.  I actually enjoyed this part of the course since there were some downhills where I could actually use my body mass to my advantage and get speeds of 35 to 40 miles per hour. The front part of the course is what killed me.  It is just constant rollers where your legs never get a chance to rest and you never get in a groove.  A lot of people rate the IM Wisconsin bike course in the top 2 hardest courses out of all Ironmen races because of this.  You are constantly shifting gears and trying to keep your cadence up.

The ride on the "stick" was pretty non-eventful.  I kept a good cadence up, actually passed people and started hydrating by taking some salt pills immediately and chugging some powerbar performance for fluids and calories.  However I noticed that there was not a cloud in the sky and that it was getting hot.  I knew it would be a long day on the bike course.

At mile 30 on the course I started talking to myself..what the heck am I doing..I am less then a third of the way through the bike and was dying.  I was hot and the legs were tired.  At mile 45 I had gone through the first hill and done some downhills and was feeling great.  I even saw my iron sherpas on the side of the road cheering for me.  My wife and daughter, brother, a couple of sister in laws and their kids as well as my father and mother in law were on the side of the course in a few different places.  This was a real pick me up.  It is unreal how many conversations one has with them self on a 112 mile bike ride.

During the course of the bike I had to stop and fix my back water bottle holders which had slipped down to the tire.  I also dropped a chain on one of the climbs and was yet again stung by some unknown bug..this time on the inside of my thigh.  I thought I was going to crash the bike when it happened it hurt so bad.  The one thing I did not do was stop at a porta potty..which did not bode well since I was picking up 2 to 3 bottles of fluid at each rest stop.

When I got to the special needs stop at about 56 miles I was famished. I opened my bag..it was peanut butter jelly time.  I took two bites and couldn't even chew. I tried chips, licorice, a performance bar all with the same reaction. The guy next to me gave me some gummy bears and fig newtons with the same reaction.  I was hungry but couldn't eat.

The second loop was much harder than the first.  The riders had thinned out and it was HOT.  The crowds were still as awesome as the first loop.  On the hills people were running next to you with megaphones and yelling your name.  There were girls in hula costumes..guys in hula costumes..girls in bikinis..guys in bikinis..the best sign I saw was strung overhead on one of the hills that said..."Worst Parade EVER!"  I cracked up both times I went past it.  It was wonderful having other athletes and people calling out your name. And I finally took pride in everyone calling me "big guy".  Way to go Big Guy!!  OK..I am not that big anymore..but for this race I was.  Although there were a few much larger guys than me..that flew past me on the bike.. I was pretty impressed.

When I finally got to the stick going back to Madison I was very happy.  My cadence went up and so did my speed quite a bit.  It was mostly downhill and the end was in sight.  I got to the terrace..rode up the helix (yes one final man made hill) gave my bike to a volunteer and ran into T2.  I changed out of my bike top which I had planned on wearing for the run.  It was caked in salt, sweat, grease..some blood from somewhere and GU.  I felt great but did not know if my legs were going to work. I drank another 16 ounces of water before leaving on the run. I was done with the bike in 7:47. My goal time was 8:00.  We also just found out the course was 113 instead of 112 miles.

wt

I found out that I did not have to worry about my legs working..They were ready to go.  The blister I thought I was getting was also gone.  The crowds waiting outside T2 made it impossible not to run..and the crowds went on and on for about 8 blocks.  The city streets were one big cheering section and I heard Scott. 2100 and big guy again and again. I checked my garmin to make sure I was running my 13:30 pace and found out I had run the first mile in a little over 10 minutes.. WTF.  I slowed down immediately and even so my pace was at 12:20. (WARNING - NEXT few lines may be TMI)  At about mile two..I finally had to urinate..my hydrating all day had paid off.  Found a porta potty and .. umm.  yeah..no urine at all and   red fluid is not the color I wanted to see. Luckily I found my sister in law the doc. (She, my wife and brother were following me on bikes) She said I was probably very dehydrated and Suck it up and walk.  The plan was to walk and hydrate as much as possible.  It was then I notice my new shirt had already soaked through with sweat. I found a walking partner (which was not hard to do). I stopped at every aid station, drank 16 ounces of water and ate bananas. I also filled up my fuel belt with fluids(another 32 ounces) for the walk between stations.  I made it through Camp Randall Stadium and was walking up Observatory Hill when the pain became a little too much. I was fine standing or sitting but moving forward had become increasingly painful.  I also calculated I had eaten two full bananas and had about 80 ounces of water during the last hour and things had gotten worse instead of better. I had made it about 6.5 miles.  At this point I decided to call it a day and thought I was going to cry.  I have been second guessing myself ever since.  At the time it was probably the right choice.  Adrianne and Kristine told me I actually had been caked with salt and had a nice yellow complexion with sunken eyes when I called it. I'm still wondering if I could have saved the day.  I know that physically I had the fitness to complete the Ironman and was on pace to do it under 16 hours..which for me would have been awesome.

So that is my long race report without the ending I had hoped for. With that being said the race was one of the coolest experiences of my life and I was glad to have my family and friends there to share it with me.  All in all I have come a long way in a year.  I was pretty depressed this week but have gotten over it. My wife convinced me to sign up next year again..so now I have a great base to work from and IM Wisconsin 2012 will be here in not time. Hopefully I will be about 20 pounds lighter.

I also want to thank everyone who has been with me through this journey, either as a training partner or just by putting positive comments on facebook.  It has been fun and team Evil Monkey Multisport will be back next year to slay this dragon.