4th ITPMAN in the books

This is more a story of perseverance in directing a triathlon race. This is my second year as race director for the itpman triathlon. I think this is more a test of mental toughness and sleep deprivation. I have been working my ass off to make this event happen with success. With my name attached to it near the top, I have great pride in making it successful. I feel like I have 500 people depending on me and my team to ensure a great triathlon race experience.

We have consciously chosen to develop an "ironmanesque" experience to differentiate ourselves from the other local sprint triathlons. I think there is a place for the down and dirty cheap races and the more upscale ones. With the race taking place in Darien, CT it became obvious we had to go the upscale route. We work feverishly to get great prizes, food, entertainment, etc. There are many times I would love to organize the down and dirty, no nonsense triathlon.....maybe some day.

This race has taken over my life especially during the last two weeks so I am thankful it is over and that it went flawlessly. I can get back to focusing on training and life.

There was a huge threat of a tropical storm hitting Friday and Saturday and even Saturday morning the forecast was 100% chance of rain Friday and 90% chance race day. It was looking bleek. I started receiving emails after emails about the weather, canceling the race, refunds, etc.

Long story short, the rain pretty much subsided Friday morning so we were able to set up the race site all day Friday without rain and the rain stayed away for the entire race. The cloud cover made for ideal race conditions.

Of course there were a few things that I wish went better but I guess I can trade that off with the things that I didn't expect to go as well as it did.

I know for one thing that I really don't like is MCing the event. I feel like I need to turn that role over to someone else next year.

After a two hour nap, I'm off to bed again to catch up on lost sleep as I have a 4 hour training day tomorrow.

One Week Closer

Now less than six weeks away from IM Florida. Time flies. These long workouts are tough and my legs get tired but my recovery seems to be fairly good. The body is still holding up okay. The 4th annual ITPMAN has really been taking up a ton of my time, even more than ever and work has been busy. So, training, work, and itpman has me lacking sleep and increased stress levels.

I ran 16 miles on Friday and felt pretty decent. It was slow but I got it done. I took Saturday off because I had to work and do itpman packet pick up for 5 hours. Today (Sunday) we had 30 people show up for a course preview of the itpman course. This is the stuff I love. Most of these people were either new to triathlon or new to the course and they were all very appreciative of this day. They had lots of great questions and they loved the course. Phew. I rode an hour leading a 'B' group, then we set out to run most of the run course, about 30 min. My run felt pretty good as a bonus. As much as I just wanted to go home and take a nap after this, I set out for a long bike ride. I usually like to ride out for half of my goal time so I don't bail too early. I decided to take a new route which was great but I really had no idea where I was going. When you set out for a long ride, it almost doesn't matter. My sense of direction is pretty good so I went north for a while into New York, then west for a while, then South, hit the CT border, east, and back home. The human compass works pretty well.

So, I was riding along today with this xlab bottle carrier behind my seat and my water bottles must have flown off about 6 times. I need to come up with a new system for florida. Hopefully I just need new bottle cages. I had a spare tube, 2 CO2 cartridges, allen tool, and tire lever, in a 1/2 water bottle in one of the rear cages. Off it flew. I go back for it and its not there. I went back and forth along the road about 4 times. No sign of it anywhere. Where could it have gone. I look in the sewers. I never found it. Off I go and say a little prayer that I don't get a flat.

Here comes the squirrel...right in front of me in the last few miles of my ride. It stops and can't figure out which way to go now so its dancing in the street right in front of my. I jack on the brakes and fishtail but stayed in control and the squirrel and I fend off a meeting for another day.

I got in another 4:11 on the bike so 5:11 total and :30 run. Another long training day in the books. Itpman is Saturday....Once that's over, I can't get some semblance of normalcy back in my life. How bout a vacation???

Century

Well, I blew off the Madison Triathlon last week. The weather people threatened us with hurricane hanna. As I awoke at 4am, it was pouring rain and dark. I decided to crawl back into bed and enjoy my rest. As it turned out, they canceled the swim and turned it into a duathlon. The rain also stopped in time for the race but that is okay. I had a good active recovery week.

Fast forward this past Sunday. I planned on riding with a group of people I know in an organized century ride leaving from Goldens Bridge, NY. These guys are all training for IMAZ so we're on the same page as its just a few weeks later.

As we arrive, it was raining. We gather our stuff and take off....about six of us. Great group. I watched my powermeter all day since I knew this was all about pacing during a long day. We got rained on for about the first 30 minutes to 1 hour, then it stopped the rest of the day. Unfortunately the heat and humidity replaced the rain. We did 1 loop of 50 miles and I felt fine to this point. It was after that for the next 50, that my legs decided to go on vacation or something. Long story, short, I made it 100 miles but never had a spunk in my legs all day. I tried to pace my ride but it just wasn't my day.

Good to put the miles in the bank.

I saw a "1" today.

What do I speak of, you ask. I weighed myself this morning as I do almost every morning and the scale read 203. After eating my breakfast of late (plain non-fat greek yogurt, fresh fruit, granola, and drizzle of honey), I went for a 2:15 run total 15.50 miles. I felt great for the first hour, then felt okay after 1:30, then the heavy legs set in. I actually had to purposely pick up the pace for the last 30 min. or so because I needed to get home in time to register for IMCANADA.

I weighed myself when I got back from my run to monitor how much weight I lost (so I can make corrections in my run nutrition). I weighed in at 198. I don't think I have seen that number since junior high school. I was completely dehydrated so its only temporary but its motivating to see.

I'm down almost 25 pounds since last October when I got serious (or somewhat serious) with my nutrition. I really only got serious the end of July when I got back from IMLP. Hanging around 2,000 extremely fit people has a remarkable way of motivating. I am almost 60 pounds lighter than when I first started this endurance craze almost 4 years ago. That is really hard to believe.

But it feels great to be in the best shape of my life. The crazy part is that I know I can get much leaner and fitter so there is a lot more potential.

I'm nursing a bum knee and stiff shoulder right now. After swimming 4,000 yds on Monday, I'm taking the rest of the week off from swimming.

Gearing up for a 100-125 mile ride on Sunday. Doing an organized century ride. Not sure if I'll do the 100 option or 125 option yet.

Oh yea, btw, I signed up for my second ironman today before I even completed my first. In an extremely rare opportunity, NA Sports made a few slots available for IM Canada, a very hard race to get into as its one of the most popular. My fast fingers were ready and I made it in the nick of time online. The slots were all gobbled up in less than a minute. That makes me, Sue, and Mark all registered now. We're shopping for a house now. Should be fun. So that will mean I will do 2 ironmans in one year as this race is next August.

EPIC Weekend

For all my avid readers and followers out there constantly checking my blog daily, I apologize for my lack of blogging. I have been so darn busy lately and I have a lot of catching up to do. Ironman Florida is only a short 8 weeks away from this coming Saturday. Time to start thinking about my checklist of things I may need to order soon like running shoes, spare tires, clothing, etc.

Since my last blog, my training has been going well. I have done a couple of races and some great training. I will write a separate race report of my race in RI which went fairly well.

But first, since its fresh in my mind, I'll report about my most recent training weekend. Last week I trained 20 hours. My most yet. Saturday began with a 3 mile open water swimming event in a lake. It was a race but I was treating it like a workout. I have never swum that far so I wanted to take it easy and just try to get into a nice rhythm. After getting to the event, I realized I forget a bathing suit....oh well, I'll just wear my underwear under my wetsuit. Ooops....forgot my wetsuit too. This should be an adventure. I wasn't sure if I would be able to do it without a wetsuit. The gun goes off and away I went. I felt fine, not working too hard. My shoulders started to tighten up. It was 2 loops and I really didn't feel like going around for a 2nd loop but I did since I figured it would be good for IM prep. I ended up in last place, over an hour slower than the leaders.....wow, I want my wetsuit back. I stink. After putting a few thousand calories back into my body, I head out on my bike for 2 hours....so far so good. That feels okay. I don't need my shoulders to ride. After a few hour break, I head out for a 1 1/2 hour run.....finally the day is complete and I am completely spent. I took on some allergy attack that was just killing me....sneezing my head off. Off to bed. Tomorrow is another big day.

I wake up with the goal of riding 5 1/2 hours Sunday. I thought I would feel terrible after Saturday's training but I was feeling okay. I'll just take it one hour at a time. I rode with 6 or 7 other guys all training for IM and we are all fairly equal. I paced myself really well with my powermeter and I fueled up very well. That PT is really cool. Most of the group stopped after 70 miles but I headed out for another hour with one other guy and we had a good ride. My day was still not complete so I kept going as I still felt pretty good. 5 1/2 hours later and 95 miles of a fairly hilly ride, my day was complete and felt like a million bucks. Now, for IMFL, I just need to ride 3 mph faster and feel the same way and i'll be all set.

Monday was a recovery day and got to play golf (one of my favorite hobbies that I don't do very often) and played pretty darn well.

Easy week ahead as I'm recovering and racing Madison sprint on Saturday.....all out effort.