reality of the ironman

i'm constantly reminded of what it's going to take to finish my first ironman. to be honest, i don't want to simply finish, i want to finish strong & with a good time. what that good time is, i really don't have a clue. sub 12 hours for sure. maybe somewhere between 10 & 11 hours...

anyhow, i didn't work out much this week. i got one spin class in on monday, i got a good 5-mile tempo run in with ed & jill (they are also preparing for CDA - their first ironman too) around the lake tuesday morning, & either tuesday evening or wednesday evening (i obviously need to start logging my workouts) i got in some weights & maybe 1000 meters of swimming. to note, i need to be swimming 3 - 5 times a week & getting between 6000 & 9000 meters in. i loath swimming & i know it's my weakest sport of the 3. so i need to really kick it in & focus on the swimming. i'm very close to pulling the trigger & signing up with T3 (a local triathlon group who rocks when it comes to swim training). another reality of the ironman - $$$. they aren't cheap, the gear alone, assuming a nice tri bike, will run ya $2,000 - $3,000. now add a wet suit, goggles, helmet, gloves, bike shoes, socks, tri suit, running shoes, a visor, & sun glasses & you're some where in the neighborhood of another $750 - $1,250. then add in the nutritional supplements & amount of food you'll consume, the cost of race entry ($500), flights, hotel, bike shipping, & the costs of other races to prep for your BIG race & ..... wait a minute, this isn't where i was going to go with this blog entry. so the point is that tri races are expensive. they are also very rewarding & down right fun. so forget about the money.

the reality that hit me today centers around training. so as mentioned above i worked out maybe 3 times this week & my diet was sub par (not bad food, just too much food in general). for example, kristin made vegan cookies this weekend & i ate the entire batch after eating 4 - 5 chicken tacos. i planned a hard ride for this morning with sean (this is his first year competing as well & he's won his age group (25 - 29) in the 4 or 5 races he competed in) & his buddy grady. the idea was to go long & hard. so we left from J&A's just after 7:30am & headed south on mopac to southwest pkwy. when we hit bee caves (coming up 71) grady was toast. so he went one way & sean & i continued on to do what's referred to as the mansfield damn loop (620 - 2222 - 360). we rode pretty hard & took every hill quicker than normal. just prior to hitting 360 we decided to add on some nasty hills before we called it a day. so we took a right on city park (just off 2222, prior to 360) & then a left on to west courtyard for three tough hills. now the view at the top of the highest hill of the three is amazing. you're parallel with the lake & you can see all the way downtown. the rest of our ride went really quick. sean ran out of water & i was running low, so rather than stop we just raced it back to J&A's.

when we arrived (probably between 10 - 10:30am) i bumped into some of my TNT buddies from this season who had also trained for cap-tex (don't even get me started - freakin rain). many of them were now signing up with TNT again for next year's wildflower tri. the wildflower tri is one of the toughest 1/2 ironman's in the US, maybe the world. i don't think i'll ever race this one given that you've got to camp for a couple of days prior to the race. i prefer the most posh accommodations prior to a race. to note, i'm still shopping for a house in coeur d' alene (CDA) rather than live out of a hotel room for 5 days. yeh, the locals in CDA sort of take advantage of the race participants. the cost to rent a house, hotel, etc. basically doubles & there is a minimum of a 5-day stay.

finally to the point... after getting a mini lara bar in my system & drinking the last drop of water i had, i hit the trail for a 3-mile run. they call biking & then running a brick workout because your legs feel like bricks after getting off the bike. i was quickly reminded of why i need to do more of these workouts. the 49 - 50 hard miles on the bike wore me out & by mile 2 of the run i bonked. my calorie/nutritional intake the day prior & today was not good & i didn't have it in me to keep running. it's been a long time since i've had to take a break & walk during a run. anyway, that last mile consisted of running & walking. oddly enough i was still passing folks on the trail. i suppose because it was saturday just around 11:00am & i was surrounded by mostly joggers & strollers rather than other runners. to note, it's november 10th & it's 83 degrees out (i'm not complaining).

ok, i'll have to learn how to post without writing a novel in the future. now to relax & watch the final UT home game vs. tech while taking part in saturday house cleaning :(. tonight kristin & i are going to vespaio (http://www.austinvespaio.com/) for dinner with my boss & our good friend trevor. trevor just returned from stuttgart, germany & should have some good stories about the piece he & katalin are collaborating on.

BK