Ironman Hawaii is on NBC Saturday! It’s certainly the best triathlon coverage available on TV. Our DVR is set to record, since I’m sure it’ll make for good motivation during those longer trainer rides. I’m going to tell my family to watch, so they have a better idea of what I’ve got myself into. 
If you want to catch it…
NBC: Saturday, 12/1, 4:30pm-6:00pm EST
I’m not sure how long I’ll keep posting these weekly training summaries. Maybe at least until things get a little more interesting and I have something better to say.
The fourth week of training is done, and things are starting to get a little sketchy.
Thanksgiving morning, I did the Feaster Five 5-miler in Andover. I did ‘ok’… about how I hoped. My ultimate goal was to break 40 minutes. I did 42:22, and that was after 2 hard days of training… one of which I actually ran 5 miles FASTER than I did on race day. So I’m ok with not quite hitting it. I had fun. Over 8,000 people ran (or walked). It was insane.
Unfortunately, my shins have been killing me ever since. This week was my second biggest running week ever, and I’m paying for it.
The left shoulder soreness from last weekend got worse and I wound up skipping a swim earlier in the week to rest it. It’s the same pain that kept coming back in both shoulders while training for Patriot. I went to the doctor for it and he said it’s rotator cuff tendonitis. He referred me to physical therapy and an orthopedist who specializes in shoulder injuries for athletes to get a more complete diagnosis and to determine why it keeps happening. Hopefully, there’s nothing structurally wrong and I just suck at swimming. I guess I’ll know more after the appointment Thursday.
The good news is it’s feeling much better already. I was able to get in half my swim yesterday before it started getting ‘funny’, at which point I stopped.
Overall, it was a decent training week considering everything going on.
Swim: 23 minutes / 1000 yards
Bike: 123 minutes
Run: 170 minutes / 15.85 miles + drills
This week, volume gets ramped up a little more and another session is added, bringing me to 10 workouts.
This week didn’t turn out quite the way I had hoped. I had to cut a swim short because I got to the YMCA too late. I only got in 3/4 of another swim, because they got the printed schedule wrong and kicked me out to make room for the swim team and lessons. And I missed my long run because of moving.
I ended the week with some seriously sore calves and something funny going on with my left shoulder. I’m attributing the shoulder problem to moving and the calves to the running drills I did on Thursday.
But, I’m ok with that. It was the last prep week… and prep weeks are made for getting back into things and figuring out your schedule. Plus, I had a killer run on Tuesday. Five miles at an 8:18 pace!
Swim: 2550 yards
Bike: 1:30
Run: 8.35 miles
Base training starts this week. And to kick things off, I have my first race on Thanksgiving morning. The Feaster Five 5-Miler in Andover, MA. I asked Coach Jorge how I should race it, thinking with me being in the early training phase he might say something conservative like, “run the first couple miles in zone 2, and kick it up to zone 3 to finish it out.” But no. His exact response was “go hard and hold on for 5 miles”.
I think I can handle that.
This will be my first, standalone road race… and I’m almost as nervous as I was for my first triathlon. I’ll be estatic if I break 40 minutes. We’ll see.
There are moments in a person’s life that help define them.
Completing the Patriot Half Iron has helped me learn that I have the fortitude to work towards and accomplish long term goals that may initially seem rediculous and unattainable. It’s taught me the value of taking things one step at a time and letting the seemingly little victories add up to something greater. It’s shown me if you really want to find out, you’re probably a stronger person than you think you are.
This morning I was on my way to work and there was an accident on Main Street in Stoneham. It happened just two cars in front of me. I’ll spare you the setup, but a sedan plowed into the side of a minivan at about 25 miles per hour. The minivan then kept going into someone’s yard and hit a tree - or a wall - I’m not really sure, but it was something hard enough to make a second ‘crash’. Almost immediately, the other cars started making their way around the scene and continuing on down the road. I, on the other hand, immediately pulled over, started calling 911 and ran across the street to check on everyone.
It’s not that I thought I could be particularly helpful. As Dee knows, I’d be much more likely to throw up on someone who’s bleeding than know how to stop it. But I knew that I had to be there. It’s the right thing to do. Yet all the other cars kept going by. One guy stopped, but when he saw I was there and on the phone he left.
Fortunately, everyone appeared to be ok. The sedan’s airbags deployed and the driver was out and walking around, though slightly stunned. The driver of the minivan had a couple bushes pinned against her door and didn’t seem too interested in climbing out through the other side. She said she was alright. I didn’t actually see how the accident occured or who was at fault, so I didn’t stay as a witness. I finished up my call to 911, double checked on everyone and went on my way. And in what was almost a serious twist of irony, I came very close to getting hit while pulling back onto the road by someone who was gawking at the scene - and not stopping.
This kind of thing has happened to me four times now. Once when I got into an accident myself , and the most recent being last winter, when a car on 95 in the middle of a snowstorm made a late run at an exit ramp, missed and did a few spins before jumping a barrier and plowing into a highway sign. I pulled over, called 911 and ran to check on the woman (who appeared to be either drunk or in shock). Again, she was ok. But only I and one other guy stopped, when it looked like it could have been pretty serious.
The accident this morning was the kind of thing that you wonder how you’ll react to. And after having the same reaction on four different occasions, I’ve learned that I’m the guy who stops, even though he knows he probably can’t do anything. That wasn’t always me… but it is now.
It was a pretty good week of training. I felt a little more sluggish than I did last week, but I think the aches and pains of starting back up were catching up to me. Taking Friday off was a big help.
Swim: 3850 yards
Bike: 0:38 min
Run: 12.95 miles
One more week of prep!
I’m back on the horse! Well… I’m at least making my way out of the saloon and back towards the horse. Week 1 of IMLP training is done. And I already feel much less like a slob than I did last week at this time.
Coach Jorge put together the perfect week to reintroduce me to the training routine. Not too hard, but enough of a challenge to make it worthwhile and get me interested. I had some awesome sessions, especially in the pool. Up next is another ‘prep’ week of easy workouts before I start in on base training. This week, I’m going from 6 to 7 workouts, with a double on Tuesday.
Sometime during Saturday’s run, it hit me again. I’m doing the frickin Ironman next year. That’s pretty awesome.