An Amazing Week

I spent the last week in Trinidad and had some amazing side training.  I sent a lot of time swimming in the ocean, walking hills and mountains and even got a beach run in as well. I ate well, and it was all homemade and amazing.

My official start date happens this Sunday.  It will be an amazing journey of 281 days of pain and suffering and a lot of days that I will just not want t do it.  I know this s going to be an amazing trek and will push my mind and body o the limit.

Week one will have about 6 or 7 miles on my feet, I am hoping for about 3 miles in the water and over 100 miles on the bike.  It will be a great kickstart to this adventure.  The following week will be the last week of hard charging biking and then it will stagger off to a routine of 2 days of running, 2 days of swimming ad 2 days of biking every week for the next 3 months.  After that it will be a mix up and stacking of running/swimming, biking/running and biking/swimming.  I will also be signing up for the dang race the first week of August to make his a little more challenging.

Good times to come.

Let's Start Tracking

A few neat things have happened.  The first is I bought some Aero Bars off Amazon.  I spent 20 bucks on them and just wanted to try something out and see where my balance is and to see if this is something I should even add to a road bike.

I have a Specialized Allez.  It is about 8 years old and has been a trusty bike since day one.  I have some custom wheels on hem and other than that there have been no upgrades.  So I figured that 20 bucks was not going to kill me.  

They were great on the first ride.  I had the best overall time on a 30 mile track that I have done a lot.  I beat my best time by almost 10 minutes and averaged over 17.5 mph for the first time ever.  I also thought I was going to fall off at least 5 times. 

I also picked up a Garmin Vivoactive 3.  I a still working through the widgets and little things on it, but overall the reviews that were on this smart watch tracker made the most sense.

I will be doing my first swim with it tomorrow.

I also have had an amazing BJJ week.  I have spent 8 hours on the mats Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with more to come over the next 6 days.  Then Ihead to Trinidad. 

When I return from Trinidad The real training starts.  This is going to happen.

Quick 20

I knocked out a quick 20 miles and it felt good.  Last week I was drained with some back to back bike rides.  I was not extremely hot as I got it done in the morning.  I will ride again on Friday afternoon and it will be hot. 

I brought a solidly frozen Gatorade on this ride and it helped at the 10 mile turn.  Friday I want to put in 30 miles, hopefully the full 35 on this loop but that depends on the rain this week and if the trails are dry.

I did measure out a 5 mile neighborhood loop that I can go to in a crunch.

I also did the math and think that I can complete the Ironman in a minimum of 15 hours. Roughly 1.5 hours in the water, 6.5 on the bike and 6.5 on the run. I have 10 months to improve this and solidify this. 

I watched a video of the swim and got anxiety from it.  This should be a fun 10 months to prepare my mind as much as my body.

Tuesday, June 25

Decided not o run yet.  I have mapped out some hour long run/walk/jog routes that will be about 5 miles.  I am thinking about making loops with the bike on the same when I cannot get away from the neighborhood or want to put in a quick 5, 10, 15 or 20 miles.  It will also be good for when school starts and I need to put an hour ride on a weekday.

I did 45 minutes on an eliptical machine set to level 7 hill.  Then I hit the sauna and of course I rolled quite a bit in my BJJ class.

Eating will be a challenge.  Ate okay.  I really need to sit down and hash out a menu for a month at a time so I can only buy the foods that I need.  The morning banana and granola bar is making the early training good.  Wednesday I will be biking George Bush Park. 

Pre Training to Pre Train

I do not start my 6 month training for few more months.  However I need to start to get ready for it.  I have been biking more this year than in previous.  Over he last 2 months I have put 292 miles on the bike.  I have not had a ride over 36 miles yet.  Biking does not worry me.  Boredom during the bike worries me.  The miles that you put in on an Ironman, 112 of them, have to be more mental than physical.  At a certain point I am assuming you would just want to stop. I worry that the running will be the same. I ave never run more than maybe 4 or 5 miles at any given time.  I currently do not run at all.  So if I want to get to a point where I am running distance twice a week I need to get te movement back in my legs.

Monday June 24, 2019

I started the day with a swim.  I have not been in a pool regularly in years.  I know what my shoulders will feel like in a few days.  They are going to feel like they are grinding.  I hit the water and just went at it.  I did 2 sets of 250 meter swims with a small break between them.  I then did 2 sets of 500 meter swims and called it a day.  The whole thing took about 45 minutes.  From stretching, to breaking, to swimming.  The distance of an Ironman swim is 3800 meters.  Doing 1500 on the firs day of swimming is not bad.  Doing it in the time with breaks and all is even better.  Swimming does not push my cardio.  It is a weird thing.  I time my breathing well.  I also only take one strke per breath and empty the lungs each time.  This has been huge with my breathing in BJJ.  I can time my breathing on the mat ad it is a huge tool I use.  I started to cramp a small amount in my side during the last set of 500 meters.

Before the swim I ate a banana and a granola bar.  This is an area that I need to really work on. The fueling of training.

Of course since this is a Monday I spent about an hour on the mat with some extremely solid matches.  The amount BJJ stretches me and pushes my endurance is a huge tool in my tool kit for this adventure.

Then I came home and had some sausage and biscuits.  Not the ideal eating for the end of the day.

On Tuesday I am telling myself that I want to run.  I know I cannot just go 0-100 mph on the running thing.  I am probably hitting the eliptical with some interval hill training.  I want to get in a few street running sessions before my official pre training begins in August.

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
July	Bike 25 miles	Swim 45 Minutes	Eliptical 45 Minutes	Bike 2 hours	Swim 45 Minutes	Eliptical 1 hour
August	1 Hour Morning Run/Walk/Jog	1 Hour Morning Swim	1 Hour Bike	Off	45 Minute Run/Jog/Walk	1 Hour Swim	2 Hour Bike
September	1 Hour Morning Run/Walk/Jog	Off	1 Hour Morning Swim	1 Hour Bike	45 Minute Run/Jog/Walk	1 Hour Swim	3 Hour Bike
October	1 Hour Morning Run/Walk?jog	Off	1 Hour Morning Swim	1 Hour Bike	1 Hour Run/Jog/Walk	1 Hour Morning Swim 30 Minue Evening Run	3 Hour Bike
November	1 Hour Morning Run/Walk/Jog	Off	1 Hour Morning Swim	1 Hour Bike	1 Hour Run/Jog/Walk	1 Hour Morning Swim 1 Hour Evening Run	3 Hour Bike

July will be my start of training.  I will be in Trinidad for a week of it so it will be interrupted for one week. It does not change much for the fall.  It will take me 90 days to be disciplined enough to continue this daily with my BJJ training as well.

I am weighing in at 236 right now and by November I need to be in the low 210's.

This is going to be amazing.

T Minus 306 Days

I am 40. I am pretty athletic. I train Jiu Jitsu 15-20 hours a week. I have lost over 135 lbs over the last 8 years. I ride my bike a lot. I love riding my bike. I love swimming. I hate to run. I still love getting punched in the face in the ring.

I am not registered for Ironman Texas yet. It is in The Woodlands every year. April 25 will be race day. I have a plan of action in place and for the next few weeks I am getting ready for that plan.

I am weighing in around 235 and I know that I need to get down to around 200 by next April. I eat well but have so much to improve.

I am turning 41 in August. It is just going to take more and more as the number gets higher. More training time. More recovery time.

I plan on registering in September. I need 4-6 weeks of learning how to run. If I can sustain a 5k without a rest, I will register.

So here is to the Houston heat and silly life goals like this.