The Plan

I thought that today I'd share my plans and goals for Sunday's race. It's always nice to have these things in writing before the actual race and ideally, what I hope will happen and what actually happen will match up come Monday when I look back on my race experience.

Before each of my races, I like to set 3 different overall goals, each involving a different level of success. Considering my past history of severe cramping, asthma attacks, and impromptu, post-race trips to the hospital (all in one race), my first goal is always to finish the race without needing medical attention. For a 140.6 mile race, I’ll definitely be content with completing this goal. My second overall goal is to finish the race in around 13 hours. I figure that if I finish the swim in 1.5 hrs, the bike in 6.5 hrs, and the run in under 5 hrs, that should put me right around my goal time. If everything going according to plan and I don’t die on the run, my third goal is to finish in under 13 hours. This likely will come down to my performance on the marathon and I honestly don’t know if that will work out. I’m by no means a fast marathoner as my best time is only 4:15, so I hope that I can stay within 45 minutes of this time after a 114.4 mile warm-up.

2 days and counting!

7 days and Counting!

This time next Sunday I should hopefully be nearing the end of my Ironman marathon. The closer I get to D-day, the more I realize how crazy this whole endeavor will be. The remaining week of training will be the easiest week I've had since the winter and I've really been looking forward to getting some sleep this week. However, it looks like my body has something else in store for me. Last night I felt like I tossed and turned from the time I laid down until my alarm went off this morning. And today, after a long day of running errands, I returned home exhausted, but again could not fall asleep.

I can't decide if it's anxiety about the race or if my body simply needs less rest during my taper. I remember the same thing happening after both of my previous marathons, but generally this occurs after the event and not before it. I'm trying not to worry about getting enough rest this week, but that's easier said than done. Every time I take a pause during my day, all I can think about is race weekend. Even as I write this entry, I'm thinking about what I need to bring to Louisville, when I can check in, if I'll go to the practice swim, and who knows what else. I guess the best thing right now is to use this energy in a constructive manner and go ahead and make an agenda for the weekend. You know what they: if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Time to get to work!

Crunch Time

I'm finally in the last stage of training, the taper. I can still recall a time back in February when I thought these days would never arrive. At that time, looking ahead to the long hours that I've now put in the bank was exciting, but almost overwhelming. Now that I'm on the other end of my training, I can honestly say that I've really enjoyed pushing my body to see if it can handle the stress, recover, and then become stronger. Over the past few weeks, I've had times where I really felt great, especially on my mid-week runs, but there have also been a few rides that were slower than I'd hoped. I have to constantly tell myself that when I ride slowly on Saturday, it's probably due to everything that I did Monday through Thursday. What I really have to count on is that over the next week and a half, my body will finally get a chance to fully recover and be in top form come race day.

Speaking of race day, I'm starting to get into panic mode just wondering what the expect on the big day. I guess my biggest fear now is getting off the bike at T2, throwing on my running shoes, and then being completely out of gas at mile 5. If it somehow comes down to that (and it won't...I hope), I'll have to be (Iron)man enough to just walk it out for 21.2 miles. The 2 biggest things that could potentially get me in this situation are going too hard on the bike and/or not eating enough on the bike. I'm not a big fan of uncertainties, so this evening I made a detailed, hour by hour nutrition plan to make sure I get adequate calories while I'm riding. I've also made a vow to ride by heart rate for the first half of the ride and then by perceived effort until I get to T2.

I think the key for me is to realize that in an Ironman, the swim and bike are just a long warm-up for the marathon.