Post Season Update

Well, here we are in December already. How’d that happen so fast? Since my last post I was sick, I fell on my face while running and had a sweet black eye for a few weeks. I did Ironman AZ, and now I am counting down the days until we leave for Dubai. That’s the last few months summed up. Here are a few details:

Pre Ironman:
Training was going great until I got sick on what was supposed to be my biggest week of training. I was on the couch for 4 days and wasn’t fully recovered for about 10 days. I managed to scrap together the last couple weeks of training though and was in decent run and bike shape leading into my taper. 10 days out from the race I did my last long run in the dark. I didn’t see the large lip in the sidewalk and managed to land eye first. After much blood, swelling, and swearing I made it back to the car with Rob’s help. My eye swelled up pretty good and the scab that formed prevented me from wearing goggles. So I missed the last 4 swims workouts prior to the race.

Race Time:
Even with all of this drama I felt confident race week. I had a race plan and was looking forward to see how the run was going feel. My goals going in were to nail the nutrition on the bike and continue it on the run, hoping I would be able to crank out a good run split. I was thinking I could go about 3hrs 40 mins if I was feeling good. I wasn’t sure what would happen on the swim. I had a new wetsuit that I had never swam in and I felt like I was in terrible swim shape. Overall the swim went ok. It was very physical and I felt like I was always fighting somebody off. Overall time of 1:06 and change was about a minute off of my PR, so I can’t complain too much about that.
The bike went about as I had planned. I was able to ride good the first lap but my watts fell off on the second lap with the strong headwind on the way out. The wind shifted on the 3rd lap and I was able to recover some of the lost time. Overall I was never really comfortable on the bike. My IT bands were tight and low back was sore. That’s the problem with this course though. It’s like riding on your trainer. Since it so flat you rarely get up out of the aero position. That’s why I like the Canada and Wisconsin courses more I think. But overall I was happy with a 5:03. It was a 27 min on this course. Granted conditions this year were much better than last year.
Onto the run I felt dynamite. Legs felt fresh, HR was in check. I was running about 20 seconds per mile slower than I thought I would but after a few miles I settled in. On the second lap I started to loose a little steam but most of it was mental I think. My legs still felt good and my HR was still in zone 2. My stomach felt good so I started asking myself what’s the issue here? I couldn’t come up with one so I forced myself to pick it up. I ran by Dave at mile 13 and he told me to start picking it up at mile 16. At mile 19 Ann and Jen were yelling at me. Telling me if I didn’t run 8:20’s I wouldn’t break 10 hrs. I gave them a thumbs up but thought “there’s no way I can run that for 7 miles”. At mile 20 I decided to pick it up and see what happens. I managed to run 7:35 pace the last 6 miles and it felt great. That’s my biggest area of improvement I think. I need to push through the mental part that tends to get me at about mile 9 through 18. The other area of improvement is to actually stop at special needs on the run. I ran right by it and didn’t even realize it until about a mile later. So I did the only thing I could do. I called myself a dip shit and laughed. I would just have to take gu from the aid stations until I ran back by special needs at mile 20. It all worked out. That’s one the big keys to long course racing, dealing with adversity calmly. If you think of all of the things that might go wrong ahead of time and make a plan then when shit hits the fan you’ll be prepared. Running the last quarter mile I didn’t know what the total race time was but I knew I pushing the 10 hr mark. I rounded the corner to the finish line and saw 10:00:55 and for a second I was disappointed. I crossed in 10:01:21 and was stoked. Mostly because I felt great and I actually ran the marathon. It was a huge break though for me and all of the goals I had set for the race had been accomplished… except for the one about breaking 10hrs.

Post Race:
The Monday morning after the race we headed to Vegas. We had a great trip and did our part to support the local economy. Since then Coach Dave has had me on a no workout regimen. This is a 4 week ban on workouts to allow for recovery before the 8 month build to IM Canada in August. I have high hopes for this race. I’m planning to be pretty focused on preparing for it, much more so then I’ve been in the past. I am finally starting to realize the level of effort I’m going to need to put into training to really get the results I want. The best part is I am finally excited about doing them again.
Next up is Dubai for Christmas to visit Garren and Jen. Other then the super long flight it should be a great trip.