Sunday, December 17, 2017

Belated Updates

Sorry for the long period of Radio Silence--lots going on.  This is intended to highlight several developments:

1. I did race and finish my 14th IM at IMAZ in November.  It was a long, hard day and I discovered that being fit and having trained a sufficient mount is actually pretty important to do well in an Ironman.  Unfortunately, I was not fit enough and it showed.  My swim was surprisingly good given how little I was able to swim.  The bike was mediocre and it was a challenging day, wind-wise.  My run, well wasn't.  Basically had to walk it.  Consequently a very long 15+ hour race.

But I did it and was happy to get it over with.  A real race report is forth coming.

2.  I thought that race would be my last IM but I finished feeling strangely motivated to get IM fit again--something that I really lacked this year.  Most importantly, for the first time in a long time, I'm actually sound enough body-wise to actually pursue some real training.  Frankly, it's been almost 3 years since that was true--ever since the femoral-nerve compression post Vinson Massif, I haven't been right for any sustained period.

3. This combined with Anders wanting to through his hat into the IM ring again means I'm going to try to give it another go.  We are doing IMFL together again next November and I'm very psyched.

4. Training-wise, I'm already in the pool, swimming shorter, higher intensity efforts 2-3X/week.  In January I'll start a more traditional pool based foundation session where I'll focus on a lot of structured speed work and 40k+ of monthly swim volume.  Bike wise, I've joined the Wahoo Kickr/Zwift revolution and in addition to Zwifting with Anders, I'm focused on getting 30-60 minutes of higher intensity training each day.  Come January-March, my intent will be to follow a structured set of high intensity rides and my intent will be to get my FTP up above 250 watts again, perhaps try to push it closer to 275.  I really haven't trained like that in the past three years--I'm very excited about this!

5. For me, I've got to make a breakthrough on the run, without actually running all that much because of my knee.  My plan is to water run or Alter-G (my buddy Sparty is offering to hook me up with one) 3 X 1 hour each week.  Treadmill at 15% incline and above 3mph or old school Stairmaster for up to 2 hours/week, and run 5-10 miles/week for the January-March period.  I'll also throw some 5ks in their for fitness tests.

6.  I'm going to shoot for 10 or so races next year and will definitely plan a half-Ironman or two as part of my IM build.

7.  The biggest news right now is our family's preparation to climb with Anders down in Australia as he goes after the 7th and final summit of his Seven Summits Project.  Stay tuned for updates on this as it's just around the corner!

Feeling good to climb back in the saddle again!

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