Thirty-Four Weeks to Ironman

Posted on 6 March 2010 by admin

It is now thirty-five weeks until the Ironman 70.3 Miami triathlon.  It continues to be cold here in Orlando and my training is suffering.  Mostly it suffered this week because I ran the Mardi Gras Rock ‘n Roll Marathon on Sunday.  It took me until Wednesday to fully recover from that.

Speaking of marathons,  I just signed up for the Coeur D’Alene Marathon on 29 May.  I’m not sure why I keep signing up for more marathons when I’m supposed to be training for a half ironman, but I do.  In just two weeks, I will be running yet another marathon – the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach, VA.

My new bike is still not here.  It’s been nearly 2.5 weeks since I returned it.  They tell me that they are waiting for UPS to pay their claim.  It should have been paid by now.  I am getting ancy.

Here are the stats for this week:

Swimming:  0 meters

Bicycling:  45 minutes on indoor trainer – 6×1 min intervals at 100+ rpm included

Running:  26.2 miles (1 marathon)

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Posted in Ironman, Marathon, Training, Triathlon

Thirty-five Weeks and Counting

Posted on 1 March 2010 by admin

Just thirty-five weeks until the Ironman 70.3 Miami triathlon.  My focus this past week was on recovery.  With the Mardi-Gras Rock ‘n Roll marathon coming on Sunday, I didn’t want to wear myself out.  I’m not sure that my “recovery” period actually helped because my marathon time was worse than expected.

Stats for this past week:

Swimming:  0 meters

Bicycling:  3 hours 41 minutes on indoor trainer

Running:  17 miles

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Posted in Ironman, Marathon, Training, Triathlon

Mardi-Gras Marathon Recap

Posted on 1 March 2010 by admin

Yesterday, I, along with 3500 other folks, completed the Inaugural Mardi-Gras Rock ‘n Roll Marathon in New Orleans.  My chip time was 5 hours 39 minutes and 41 seconds.  That’s about 20 minutes slower than I had hoped, and about 8 minutes slower than my last marathon at Disney World.  It was a beautiful day – no rain, or wind, and about 48F at the start.  One down side in New Orleans are the roads.  As I was thinking yesterday during the race and another participant in the airport put it today, “This is like running a trail run.” with roots, ruts, and pot-holes!  I mean, if a person takes one mis-step there, a sprained ankle is probably going to be the outcome.

For me, I ran up until about mile 14, then started walk/runs.  By the end, I was jogging 150ft for every mile.  To top things off, I never did find the shuttle busses back to the start, so I ended up walking (limping) nearly 4 miles back to my hotel.

Today I’m feeling a bit sore in the ankles, but other than that, nothing too bad.  And I got a really cool medal!  After completing the Rock ‘n Roll Marathon in Nashville in April, I will receive an extra special medal for finishing two of their races in a year.

Oh yeah, the new New Balance shoes that I only started wearing a week ago turned out to be just fine.

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Posted in Marathon, Reviews, Training

Running Shoes

Posted on 21 February 2010 by admin

I just ordered two more pair of my favorite running shoe – the New Balance MR758 from Zappos.com.  My last two pair of MR758’s have worn out in the heel enough that I feel it’s time for a new pair (or two).  It’s only one week until the Rock ‘n Roll Mardi Gras Marathon in New Orleans, so I wanted to get them broken in before then.  Actually, I already own nine pair of these shoes (in different colors), but whenever I get a new set of shoes that don’t give me blisters, they are usually discontinued and nobody sells in my size when it’s time for new ones.  I should be set for the next year with my inventory.  Along with the shoes, I like to use Yankz elastic laces.  These laces are great for triathlons and running in general.  There’s not tieing and untieing of laces.  Simply lace them once and your running shoes become like loafers!  Because they’re elastic, adjustments can be made if necessary.

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Posted in Marathon, Reviews

Thirty-Six Weeks and Counting

Posted on 20 February 2010 by admin

Just thirty-six weeks until Ironman 70.3 Miami.  This past week was another lazy training week for me.  The cold weather and general tiredness continue.

My new Cervelo P2 2010 arrived on Monday, but the head tube was damaged.  Now it has been picked up by UPS and I’m in limbo waiting for a replacement bike as UPS decides what to do about the shipper’s claim.  While I had the bike, I have to say that it was a thing of beauty.  So lightweight, too.

Swimming:  0 meters

Biking:  3 hours indoor trainer

Running:  15 miles

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Posted in Ironman, Training, Triathlon

Thirty-Seven Weeks to Go

Posted on 15 February 2010 by admin

It’s just thirty-seven weeks until the Ironman 70.3 Miami triathlon.  My training took a hit this past week.  I’m not sure if it was the extremely cold weather, the plugged ears I got after swimming, the seemingly endless tiredness or what, but I didn’t manage to do much running.  I did do some swimming drills in the pool on Tuesday.  That was the first time in nearly a year that I had been in the pool.  Of course, at the end I was congested and my ears ended up plugged.  I always forget to use was removal systems before going in the water after a long period of time.

On the bright side, I bought a new triathlon bike!  It’s the Cervelo P2 with Ultegra Components.  I bought it online from the nice folks at all3sports.com.  Using measurements that I took, they confirmed the size and shipped it off on Thursday.  It should be on my front door step today!  More on that later.

Training Summary:

Swimming:  30 mins TI drills

Biking:  5 hours indoor trainer

Running: 13 miles

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Posted in Ironman, Marathon, Training, Triathlon

Thirty-Eight Weeks and Counting

Posted on 6 February 2010 by tomh

As of today, there are just thirty-eight weeks until the Ironman 70.3 Miami triathlon.  This past week I managed to get in six running and six bicycling (on indoor trainer) workouts.  Still no swimming.  I am determined to swim at least once next week. 

In two months (8-9 weeks), I will be participating in the Nautica South Beach Triathlon.  There are two distances: Classic and Olympic.  I will be doing the latter.  I have yet to make up my mind about the Clermont Triathlon in March.  It happens one week after the Yuengling Shamrock Marathon, which I am doing, and I think that may be too much especially since I am also participating in the Rock ‘n Roll Mardi Gras Marathon at the end of this month.  I mean, how much is too much, anyway?

Stats for this week:

Swimming: 0 Meters

Bicycling: 6 hours 15 minutes on indoor trainer (~90 miles)

Running: 6 hours (~ 30 miles)

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Posted in Ironman, Marathon, Training, Triathlon

39 Weeks to Go

Posted on 31 January 2010 by tomh

Just thirty-nine weeks until the Ironman 70.3 Miami!  My training ramped up a bit this past week.  It’s still cold here, so I continue to ride my bike on the indoor trainer.

Swimming:  0 Meters

Biking:  6 hours on indoor trainer

Running:  25 Miles

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Posted in Ironman, Training, Triathlon

40 Weeks and Counting

Posted on 24 January 2010 by tomh

It’s now just 40 weeks until the Ironman 70.3 Miami triathlon.  I was in Miami this week and drove my car along most of the bike course.  Aside from the causeway, it’s completely flat.  The Dixie Highway (US 1) seems to be free of potholes, etc., though I am concerned about traffic.  According to the Ironman Miami website, traffic will be allowed, though I don’t know if that’s just cross traffic or on Dixie Highway itself.  This “highway” is a major road with traffic lights, etc.  It appears fairly straight on google maps, but it does have curves so it won’t be totally boring.  The Ironman Miami website also says in one section that passing will be on the right.  On another section it says that passing will be on the left.  The latter would be the norm here in the states.  My guess is they copied and pasted text from another ironman site.

As I was in Miami on holiday I didn’t get much training done this week.  My intention also was to video the bike course, but that didn’t work out either.  In the end I decided that a vide of the entire bike course wouldn’t really help anyway.

Training log:

Swimming:  0 Meters

Biking:  2 hours indoor trainer

Running:  0 miles

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Posted in Ironman, Training, Triathlon

41 Weeks and Counting

Posted on 16 January 2010 by tomh

It is now forty-one weeks until the Ironman 70.3 Miami.  Last Sunday I ran the Walt Disney World Marathon.  I was sore on Monday and Tuesday, and it was still bitterly cold here in Orlando.  Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I rode 45 minutes on the bike using my Kurt Kinetic indoor trainer.  Friday morning I went for a four mile run.  Next week I am going to Miami for vacation and expect to drive the bike route.

Next month I will run another marathon – Rock ‘n Roll New Orleans.  Then I will get my new tri bike and start my tri training full bore.

This week’s stats:

Swim:  0 meters

Bike:  195 mins on indoor trainer

Run:  4 miles

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Posted in Ironman, Training, Triathlon