Ironman memories

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzFRAgsbc40&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Christmas dinner fun!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVyidlFR9Jk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Ironman Louisville 2013 Race Report

This years race took place on Sunday August 25th.  And again this year it was my "A" race.  Although I had a lot of fun and successful races this season they were all truly build up to this event.  As you'll read in my report below the day didn't quite go as planned.  

I participated in this race last year and being my first Ironman I was very happy with my finish time.  Coming in at 13:08 while fighting off some major stomach issues I really couldn't complain.  After the race I promised my wife I wouldn't do another one for a while.  I'm pretty sure my training is actually harder on her having to deal with 3 kids while I'm gone.  But with all that said my brother signed up, started working on me, I landed an awesome sponsor with SoundAsthma.com and the next thing I knew I was signed up to do it again!

Training seemed to go quite well this year.  I did most of it alone and followed a more challenging plan. I felt confident coming into the race that a 12 hour finish or better was not out of the question.  Boy was I wrong!  The year seemed to fly by and the next thing I knew it was race week.

The week started off with a MAJOR bummer when my brother came down with strep throat.  He wasn't able to race and I felt terrible for him.  But even though he didn't race he race he went through all the pre race stuff with me.  Stayed in the hotel with me and was there all day again like last year.  I have to admit though that during the hardest of times during the race I was REALLY cussing him!  :)

Race day was here and the early wake up call had me up and ready to go.  The nerves were kicking but all my plans were spot on.  Got to transition early, took care of business and then off to the swim start I went.  We got there in good time and got a decent spot in line.  Hung out for a bit and my wife, mom and sister in law came down early to see us and headed to the docks to get a good viewing spot.  Before I knew it, it was go time!  Jumped in the water (without the belly flop of last year, much to my brothers disappointment) and was off.  Swimming is my weakest event but I felt things were going well.  At about 800 meters in my Garmin beeped.  It had never done that in a swim before and I assumed I had hit the stop button.  I'm a little anal about that stuff so I started treading water trying to figure out what happened and start it back up.  That's when my day went in the crapper.  Severe leg cramps set in.  Both legs at times, one leg at others, from my feet to my hammys.  It was so bad at times it took everything I had to not start screaming for help.  At one point I went under and felt like I may not make it.  That's when the emotions set it.  I was praying as hard as you can pray.  The thought of not making it out of the water was almost to much for me.  I just kept trying to move forward and somehow I made it to the swim exit.  And thankfully for the current it was 9 minutes faster than last year.

As I walked through T1 trying to gather myself I had pretty much lost my drive for the day.  I wasn't going to quit but I wanted to SOOOO badly!  Took my time in T1 and made my way out on the bike course.

The Louisville bike course is dead flat for the first and last 10 miles.  You can really blow up your race if you go out like a crazy person.  My plan for the day was to keep my heart rate under 160 and that helped me keep a reasonable 21 mph pace on those first 10 miles.  After that its hills upon hills.  Climbing the first big hill of the day I saw a man laying in the middle of the road that was coming back down that hill and he was hurt bad.  That again shook me at the core.  I tried not to think about it but its hard to get that out of your mind.  Then around mile 40 I took my turn hitting the pavement.  Got mixed up at an aid station and went right over the handlebars landing dead on my left shoulder.  It hurt but the adrenaline had me back up and riding in no time.  But again that tested my resolved even more.   Halfway through the bike I was averaging 18.5 and keeping my heart rate way down.  That made me feel good but again I had lost the desire to push the effort so my speed ended up slipping over the rest of the race.  I climbed off the bike averaging 17.9 which was slightly better (but much easier) than last year.  Actually had an average heart rate of 148 for the bike ride.

Coming through T2 was an odd feeling.  After the day I was having I was still ahead of last years time.  That got me sparked a little.  Found a bit of motivation!  I hit the run course watching my heart rate and working on pace.  The first 3 miles were around a 9 minute mile which was faster than I should have run, but my effort was good.  The next couple miles had a few short walk breaks and then the wheels fell off.  Walking a lot running a little.  My hips and quads were gone, every step was so painful and running just compounded it.  After 13 or so miles walking was all I could handle.  I was an emotional and physical wreck.  My family and friends did an awesome job spacing out on the run course.  Each time I saw one of them my spirits were lifted and even though I would get choked up trying to talk to them it was great seeing them.  With about 5 miles to go I had a friend or family member within site almost the entire way.  That really helped bring me to the finish with a smile on my face.  I couldn't wait to see my wife, I didn't know if she had heard the news of my bike crash and swim struggles but I knew that if she had she would be crying with me at the finish.  I saw them all and gave them a quick kiss in the finish shoot and across the line I went in a not so fun 13:52.  I went straight for my wife and had the best hug of my life.  We cried a little but I assured her I was okay and then we celebrated.  I hugged everyone I could find and told them thanks for coming down.  I had a big group of supporters and they all Rock!  My wife, kids, mom, dad, Kyle, Sam,  mother in law, father in law, Uncle Steve, Toby, Scott, Stan, Barbara, Kaylen, Julie, James, Tony, Courtney, Niall (and family), Keith, Scott (and family).  I appreciate each of you and feel totally blessed to have such an awesome group of family and friends!

I was really down after this years race.  The feeling of not meeting my goals and underachieving has been really hard to get over.  I'm just now getting the sense that maybe this finish with all it's challenges was actually more impressive than last years.  After swearing off Ironman distance during the swim, the bike and again on the run this year I'm already coming around to do another.  It won't be next year or even the year after that, but I would like to race another one.  Somewhere different from Louisville, make it a vacation race.  Already looking forward to next season.  Gonna work harder at the short course stuff and try to see what I can do.  

Thanks for following along on my spotty blog this year.  Hope you all enjoyed it!

Ironman Muncie 70.3 Race Recap

Struggling to find time to post to but wanted to get something out here about my race last weekend.

My wife wasn't able to make the trip because all of our usual baby sitters were out of town.  That was a major bummer because we were looking forward to going up together and I knew I was set for a good race and hoped she would be there to celebrate.  But, life happens and in this situation is was unavoidable so she tracked me from home with the kids.

With Kristin not going my buddy Scott and I shared a room and we went up together.  I don't think I've ever been on any guys trips with just Scott so it was cool to get to hang out that much.  This was his first triathlon so we had plenty to talk about.  We headed up Friday and took our time.  The expo was fun and after hanging there for a bit we went to the race site and dropped off our bikes.  That makes race morning much easier I believe.  Then we headed to our hotel, checked in and went to meet some other friends for dinner.

EARLY the next morning our wake up call came and it was time to get moving!  Took us a little longer than i expected to get ready but we got to the race site in plenty of time and got a pretty good parking space.  

Got the news on the way that the race was wetsuit legal!!!  Since I'm not very good at swimming I was happy about that surprise especially since the water was in the 90s last year!  Once at the race site I got everything set up as usual and the waiting game began.  That's the worst part I may add!

The race started on time and I finished the swim in 43 minutes.  Slow, but WAY better than I did last year.  The swim was very rough this year.  Was constantly getting bumped or hit or something.  By far the most physical swim I've ever had. So when you couple that with the fact that I've got a hitch in my stroke that pulls me hard right and way off course I'm happy with a 43 min swim.

Transition was good and fast and I was out on the bike!  Wanted to have a fast bike but stay within myself and keep heart rate under 160.  I was flying at first, the early 5 miles were slightly downhill and I was we'll over 22 average without pushing it.  I did lose my aero bottle early on an that had all my water in it so I was stressing about that.  But I just kept on pushing and made it to the rough patch of road I'd heard all about.  I still wasn't prepared for how rough it was.  15 miles of about the most rough pavement I've ever ridden on.  Zapped my legs and killed my back.  Brought my average down to 21.4mph which is were it stayed for the entire race.

Out onto the run my legs felt really good but my stomach was a wreck again.  Fought the gas, cramping, needing to pee or whatever that was the entire 13.1 miles.  I shocked myself with how good I felt through the halfway mark and was averaging just over 8 minute miles.  I started to hit a wall at mile 10 and the hills coming back to the finish about killed me.  I walked more than I'd planned, but kept my pace under 9 and finished the run in 1:50!!!  

All in all it was a great race for me.  Finished in 5:16 which was a PR at that distance by almost an hour!!!!  Trying to recover now and still get my volume in for this week (not going well) because IM Louisville is just over 5 weeks away!!!

Friday July 5th - 50 Days Out

Weight:  184.8

Diet:  Pretty good

Scheduled Training:  1:15 swim and 1:45 bike

Actual Training:  40 min swim and 1:55 bike (crushed the bike)

Life:  Family went out of town since I ha to work this morning.  Just been relaxing this evening!  Went by the bike shop today love doing that!  Saw this beauty and I want it!

Thursday July 4th - 51 Days Out

Weight:  182 (dropped a ton of water weight this week)

Diet:  Terrible!!!!!!

Scheduled Training: Off day!

Actual Training:  hanging with fam!

Life:  Fun day hanging with friends and celebrating the 4th!

Wednesday July 3rd - 52 Days Out

Weight:  183.6 (180 flat after run)
Diet:  Has been great, keeping snacking under control.  Worried about July 4th party though!
Schedule Training:  1:15 swim and 2 hour run
Actual Training:  1:35 swim and 2 hour run
Life:  Same, looking forward to seeing my friends tomorrow at the party.  Was feeling really confident about Muncie all day today.  Training has been going that well I guess but then I had the hardest 2 hour run of my life today.  Guess all yesterday's stuff and the back to back runs really are that challenging.  Made me question my fitness!