7 of 36 weeks

I've been making small adjustments to my Ironman training schedule over the last 6 weeks and I feel like that I have pretty good system...so far.
I bought a magnetic dry erase calendar and after a few weeks of trial and error, I think I'll just write out my workouts one week at a time. The top line is my scheduled training times that I will try to acheive over the course of the week. My workouts are designated solely by time, for example, Tuesday 2/14 looked like this;

B: 1:05 min
R: 40min

It's pretty simple (just how I like it) really, but I think I need to keep as simple as possible otherwise I'll burn out mentally as well as physically. Now the line below the scheduled times are the "real" times that I trained. So below the scheduled training day of Tuesday 2/14 looks like this;

B: 1:05 min
R: 42 min

I'll try and stay as close to the scheduled time as possible and although my schedule doesn't note it, I do have specific workouts for each of the designated days. I keep those in my "trapper keeper". Some days have speedwork for the runs or drills for the swim and others have long easy rides on the bike. So I keep this handy and refer to it each morning (or the night before). I'm trying not to look to far ahead, but when I right out the scheduled times on the dry erase board, I make mental notes of the workouts; easy swims, TT on the bike, etc.)

Every Sunday, after my Sunday scheduled workout, I get my "trapper keeper" and flip to the next weeks workouts. I study it over and adjust the workouts to my "life" schedule. The tricky part are the days I it has a long swim and a long bike scheduled on the same day during the week. Unfortunately, my "life" schedule doesn't allow for that currently, so I have to split those up between 2 mornings.
I'm currently getting up at 4:30am (most days) and I either get to the YMCA by 5am for a swim or I'm riding the bike trainer in my basement. Then during my lunch hour, I can either run, stretch/core, ride the stationary bike, or just take it easy (which is a good thing once in a while).

During the last 7 weeks, I've done as little as 7 1/2 hours a week and up to 10 hours a week. So far it's been manageable, but when the training time reaches the mid to high teens, that will change.

As for the number of yards swimming, miles biking, and miles running, well, I document those on dailymile.com. If you don't have a website to document your workouts, check it out.

Later

8 years

I wrote a post last year about the death of my Mom, you can read it here. Another year has gone by and I still can't believe she's gone. It's been 8 years now and I don't know if I will ever have a grip on it. Grief can be a powerful thing. It can hold you down or it can motivate and empower you. Sometimes it does both, either way it's my way of trying to fill the void in my heart that will never be filled.

Anyway, I thought I would share a pic of my bike that has my own personal touch.

Later

Absentee Blogger

I'd apologize for not blogging lately, but it wouldn't be genuine. Not to say that I haven't been reading a few blogs here and there, but the truth is, I've been busy. After signing up for Ironman and making a few needed reservations, the last few months have been a sort of trial run. First off I joined the YMCA and have been swimming 3x / week and the other days I've been hitting the bike trainer. So the alarm has been going off at 4:30am every morning and I've dragged my butt out of bed (most days) and getting in a workout. My usual lunchtime workouts have remained the same and I usually run, weights/core, or ride the bike trainer for 30-40 minutes. I have 2 bags ready to go at a moments notice (see pics below) and I think I'm pretty well adjusted to getting up early, so now that the "real" training is here, It won't be such a shock. The rest of my free time has been spent painting, removing wallpaper, repairing walls, painting some more, and did I mention painting. All these "honey-do" list items have been done at night. Oh, and did I mention that I work full time, have 2 young daughters, and a smoking hot wife to please. Follow that up with a 5 year olds birthday party, Thanksgiving, and Christmas (we put on 1300 miles of driving!), to say my time has been limited would be an understatement. Like I said above, I've been busy.

Below are some pics of what I've done.

This week was my (semi) official start to Ironman Wisconsin training. I have a 16 week "build up" program and then an intense 20 week training plan. I've been putting together a race schedule for this summer as well and I think I have it nailed down. Complete with a Team Evotri brick weekend WIBA - Wisconsin Brick Adventure .

Here's the breakdown of this summers events;

May 12:  Oakdale "Spring Classic" Duathlon
June 22-24: WIBA
July 22: Chisago Lakes Half Iron
August 19: Lake Marion Tri - Olympic

September 9: Ironman Wisconsin!

The first 3 pics are of the "set-up" I have for training and to simply stay organized. The shelves were installed to hold everyone's shoes and our backpacks that my wife and I take to work each day. Above that is a spot for towels, bins for gels, cliff bars, etc, another bin for sunscreen, earplugs, swimcaps, etc, and another for water bottles. Then another shelf for bike cleaning stuff, extra shoes, helmets, etc.

Laundry Room: shoes, gym bags, water bottles, nutrition stuff, towels, etc.

The next pic is where we keep all of our workout, training, and race clothes. We empty our gym backpacks in the laundry basket above and after they are washed they go in the black storage cubes below. They gray duffle bag is my swim bag and has goggles, earplugs, fins, flip flops, padlock, ziplock bag to put in the recipe card w/ the swim workout I've written out, and usually an extra towel.

Laundry Room: workout cloths, hats, swim duffle bag, hydration stuff. 

Everything I need below for a good sweat fest. A stool for the remote, gu or banana, and water bottle, and a fan to keep cool. The bottom right of the pic shows one of the legs of the treadmill.

Here's where I spend every other morning.

Once I get into the thick of training, I'll hop off the bike, slide it over by the fan, and put the treadmill down for a run (at least until it gets nice enough to go outside).  Then I can just escape out the patio door behind the blinds.

painted wall #1. (The bike is just in front of the treadmill).

painted walls #2

Wall continuing up the stairway. This wall was wallpapered previously. Removing wallpaper sucks!

Wall #3. Moving across the living room (we haven't decided on curtains yet)

Wall #4, this was wallpapered too. 

Wall #5  bulkhead before  (more of the striped wallpaper)

after

Wall #6, Kitchen island

The rest of the kitchen

Now all I  have to do is put up the tile backsplash, paint the hallway, removing more wallpaper in the living room and paint it, and finish the bathroom...thats all.

Later

Hard Work

Anything worth doing right is worth all the hard work that it takes to do it...

I sure like being a father.

Ironman Florida and Halloween pic!

I stole some quotes below from Sonya Wieck's blog after reading her Ironman World Championship race thoughts . Some are quotes from her, some from her coach, and some from a few others. I'm sure the following quotes could apply to any Ironman distance race and they all struck a cord with me, so I thought I would share a few as Ironman Florida is this weekend. Enjoy!

"After all, the Ironman will ask you questions out there in the middle of the Queen K, and you better have the answers to them."


"The main thing to remember is that it’s a long day at Kona, and that the swim has to be fairly enjoyable and relaxing. The bike not so much. The run not at all."


"Push is supposed to come to shove."

"If being uncomfortable is inevitable and the only way out is forward…through the misery…then we must embrace it."

* The last quote wasn't on her blog, but I thought it was appropriate and it's one of my favorites.
"When going through hell...keep going."

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE RACING IRONMAN FLORIDA THIS WEEKEND!

I also had to share a pic of my 2 princess's from Halloween.

 Later

Things I will never own...

1. Boat - I don't fish. I would consider a pontoon however, but it's far down the list of wants.
2. Snowmobile - I tried it, didn't like it. Besides, it's cold out.
3. Motorcycle - No thanks. I did own a moped once though.

4. Sportscar - I haven't hit my mid-life crisis yet.
5. Hand gun  - Unless I time travel to the old west, I don't think it's necessary.

6. ATV - I have no where to ride one and no need to own one.

7. Golf cart - Mark Twain said "golf is a good walk wasted", but I like golf, so I may as well walk.

8. Plane - Cost alone is a no brainer, but I'm not a big flyer.

9. Fish house - Sitting on a frozen lake staring at a hole in the ice is not appealing. See #2 too.

10. Tractor - No plans on farming in the immediate future, but I will drive one if needed.

* I reserve the right to change my mind on any of the above items without reason or rational explanation as I'm sure there was a day in my life I said I would never wear running tights or bike shorts in public.

* I think I may have eliminated any sort of inheritance from my Father-in-law and/or Stepfather with the above list.

I am however the proud new owner of the bike pictured below. I bought it a few weeks ago and posted a pic on DailyMile. I stated on DailyMile that I have yet to name my bike, but would do so soon. Fellow blogger and all around awesome dude Bryan said that I'd get to know my bike very well over the next year due to the massive amount of training needed for Ironman. With that said, I thought I better name my bike based on two maing criteria;
1. Female - I couldn't see myself describing bike rides on my blog by saying "I took Steve out for a long hard ride today" or "I did intervals on James this morning and boy was it hard!".
2. Familiar - In the off chance a family member stumbles across this blog, I needed it to be a name others already  knew.
The name I chose met both criteria and honors a special woman in my life...my wife, Sarah. But in order to eliminate any confusion, I named her Sara (no "h").




Sara! She's fast and sexy!

 

Gettin' my Farm on!

For the last few years the family and I have gone back to East Dakota to the Grandparents house during harvest time. I've slowly been let into the process of harvest, first learning how to help dry the corn and put it into the bins. The next year, I helped by "chopping stalks" in some of the corn fields. This year, I was allowed to drive the grain cart. Now this is quite a step up and I must say I really felt like I was doing some real farming.

Moving my way up the tractor ladder

I followed the combine and when I got the "sign", I pulled up along side and the combine and it would empty its corn into the cart I was pulling. I would do this 2 times then I would empty my cart into the semi trailer.  When the semi was full, it would take the load back to the farm to be emptied (via the auger) into the holding bin, wait for its turn in the dryer, and then into the bins.

$200K and only driven 4 weeks a year...sweet.

That's it. Farming is easy as hell and the equipment is cool to drive.

Tomorrow we go back to the Twin Cities, much to the delight of my Father in Law I'm sure.

Later