Fat Ninja

This year I swam biked and ran 3005 miles. That’s from Seaside Oregon to New York, New York. I have flown and driven across the US and it’s hard to comprehend  doing all those miles on my own power.   In all those miles was my first marathon and a 204 mile bike ride. This year if all goes well I start a trial run of my Ironman training. I expect the miles to be much higher next year. I have two 70.3 events planned for this coming season, Ocean Shores Tri festival and Best in the west Tri festival but the training plan is for a full 140.6. I want to see how I hold up to the miles and make notes for next year when all that matters is getting to the end of Ironman Florida in under 17 hours. I want to have a training plan I know and have confidence it will prepare me for the race.

In other news, I will be working with Jeremy to get him ready for his first sprint Tri. I know he will love it if he can get over the fear of doing something new. I think with me doing it at his pace next to him it won’t be so scary for him. I’m also making a training plan for Tracy for her first sprint Tri. It’s exciting to see other people getting into the sport.

My old rear wheel was breaking spokes every 70 miles, and  with 5000+ miles on it it’s was time for a new one.

The new training / race day wheel so pretty! All black, Shimano 105 hub Velocity Deep V rim and Wheel Smith double butted spokes and brass nipples.

The Reindeer run was my first fun run that I did since getting back into shape. Last year I ran it in 27:00 and all said, I was very happy with that time. 364 days later I ran it again in 23:13. 2nd in my age group and 7th/64. Again I’m very happy with the time. This time I also got to run it with a friend. It has been a lot of fun helping a non runner turn into a running machine! He ran it in 24:54 actually faster than a time I would have been happy with this year. I think I may have unleashed something terrible on the running world. After the race I went to the pool and swam 1.1 miles. I finely have ok position in the water I don’t have to kick to keep my legs up. I swam the whole thing front crawl and did almost all the swimming with my arms. The last time I tried to swim after a run I almost drown. being able to swim after a run I think shows some of the progress I have made in the water.

I ran 10 by 200 meter intervals with a 200 meter recovery on the city track during my lunch hour. We were having a classic Oregon day getting 3+ inches of rain and wind gusts up to 45 mph it was also warm 45 degrees or so. The intervals went well started at 6:05 pace for the first one then the next 8 were at 5:45 pace the last one was back at 6:05 pace. It’s nice to see that I can still pace myself evenly without the Garmin. I think it is the massive number of miles and intervals I ran in track and cross-country. Some things stick with you forever I guess. I messed up the Garmin for the first 5 laps; I hit the stop button not the lap. I could still see my pace at the end of the interval it just was not recording. But the data I did get from the last half was dead on.

I had some type of funk after the marathon, my running form went to crap and I was just tired. I took a week to get stable and focused on nutrition again. I seem to be slowly pulling out of it. YAY! I am getting swims in on Saturday and running and biking most every day again. It seems that unless I am working out 2 times a day I’m not happy and my body starts to revolt. I tried the off-season thing and it just did not work for me. I am still not working out as hard as the summer months but the level is anything but easy.

26.2 miles is a heck of a long way! I ran a good first half at 10:00/mile pace. All was going well until the bottoms of my feet turned into blisters at mile 14. At mile 19 my awesome wife gave me some KTtape to wrap the balls of my feet with. I should have started with the KTtape and all would have been fine I think. I learned a lot about myself as far as running and eating and also how much pain I can take (it’s a lot) I was going to get that darn T-shirt if it was going to kill me Not a great time but with the late injury and conservative plan I’m happy. Now time to actively heal, then test out some of the nutrition things I learned today.

Well the Portland Marathon is Sunday! I have been on the sidelines for the last 3 weeks because of a groin injury, it’s a bit better but I have not been able to taper the way I wanted. I also lost one week of big miles. I think I can make it to the 20 mile mark, but the last 6.2 might be what kills me  O-well I’m going to give it a go anyway. I need to see what this distance is like if I’m going to do the Florida IM in 2013.

Had a great run! I ran another 5 miles at a state park we were camping at. Started off slow and increased the pace with each mile, 8:18, 8:14, 8:06, 7:47, and ended with a 7:18. Average pace was 7:57 per mile. It only took a week and I’m back to my 10K race pace again. Total ascent was 798ft. I felt like a runner again.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

–Theodore Roosevelt

Sometimes to need some. Like when you are riding 40 miles  into a headwind. Here