Pool and Courtyard

Outside my door, looking right

More to come. . .. the internet connection doesn’t load images (or videos) very well. . . .

This was my third time doing Ironman Arizona and I had a solid day out there.

First thing to do it to always look at the positives.  So . . .

SWIM: A Personal Best Time of 52:47.  I did exactly what I trained to do and planned to do.  Line up on the left side, start hard and in no way let those feet get away from me.  I got onto a good group and had to work hard to keep with them for the whole swim.  In my mental preparation in the days leading up to the race I had seen a 52 minute and something seconds on the clock coming out of the water and I was pumped to see that happen on race day.

BIKE: Hard to believe by this bike time was exactly (to the second) the same as the Rev3 Full Iron I did in Sept. 4:43:15. So not quite a Personal Best, but not any slower!  The legs started out quite tight and they didn’t come under me until probably about 30-40k into the ride.  But that was fine, I was still pushing a decent pace.  I rode the entire ride by myself pretty much and look forward to the near future when I can get closer to the front pack and work with a group.

RUN: Still didn’t break 3hours. Dissapointed with that.  I started the run more conservatively, as was plan and I went through the first half in just over 1:24:00, that was the plan and I stuck to it.  I had a rough patch from about kms 25-35, but rallied really well and finished strong in the last ~8k. I was really happy with how I came around and finished strong and held good form.

SUMMARY:

Yesterday was a tough day. Not tough like “oh it was horrible, this and this and this happened” tough because it was an Ironman.  I gave my best effort on the day and the outcome was a result of what I am able to put into my training at this point.  The balance between training, work and family life is delicate and the reality is I am simply not able to train as much as most of my competitors, yet.

I love this sport. I love pushing myself and I love seeing improvement.  Even though the improvements aren’t coming as quickly as I want I do the best with the time I have.

There is no way to explain the excitement I feel leading up to a race of the feeling of elation at the finish line.  But I can tell you it is absolutely priceless.

Lastly, I want to thank my support team. First is my wife (and son) for their never ending understanding, time and patience while I get my training done.  And how my wife is left to care single handily for our son 3 or 4 times a year as I go away for races. My Mom helps us so much and I don’t often thank her enough for everything she does for our family. Thank you Mom!

My employer and sponsor, NutriStart provides me with an amazing, flexible working relationship and all the product I need to maintain optimal health. Thanks Jon!

All the people on the right side of this webpage help me out in many unique ways and I wish I could do more to thank them.

Here is a cool pic Kimberly (my friend and homestay) was able to snap of me while she was volunteering on the run course.

Check out my facebook page for lots of videos from race week.

Cheers,

Adam

So, as per my facebook message a few days ago I wanted to write a post on a swim workout I did this past Wednesday (3,5 weeks out from IMAZ).  I had planned a 5K swim with a Main Set of 15 x 200 and then I was going to do some strength work to finish.

When I am getting closer to races I cut the Warm Ups down in duration and keep them simple.  This is what it looked like for this workout.  300mix, 100kick, 100pull, 100kick, 200 as 4 x 25ez/25fast.

Then it was onto the 15 x 200.  I am not a fast swimmer, never swam as a kid and started swimming in 2004 (after my first triathlon, haha).  Structured swim training started in 2006 at a masters club in North Vancouver.

This workout was (unfortunately) done in a 25m pool, and started at 5:30am.  I was feeling ready to go  for this workout mentally and physically, even though Tuesdays are a tough training day for me (I don’t think the fatigue from Tuesday hits me until mid day Wednesday, always that lag).

That’s the disclaimer over with, so on with the workout and my times.

Leading up to this workout I had planned to send off on 3:05 and descend 1-3s. That means I was planning on doing 5 sets of 3 x 200 with each set of 3 broken down as 1st=steady+, 2nd=strong, 3=hard.  But you do all 5 sets of 3 in a row (so 15 sets on 3:05).  During the warm up I evaluated how I felt and I decided to do the first 3 on 3:10 and see how it went.  I wanted to stay very consistent and even try to speed up through the entire set so I wanted to be realistic and start with a bit more rest.

I nailed the first 3 in 1) 2:57, 2) 2:52, 3)2:45.  Perfect and I felt in control on the 2:45.  I stuck with the 3:10 send off in an attempt to really nail those 3rd ones hard.  When it was all done I had sped up by about an avg 1-2 sec on each.  A solid workout that allowed me to hold really good form for 3000m, perfect.  I then did a 100ez pull and moved onto a strength set. The strength set was 3 x (200 Band and Small Paddles, 100 Band Only) with about 20sec rest after each.  My shoulders were about ready to fall off by that last 100 Band Only, but I was still fully functional and that felt great.

Then the following week I progressed to 19 x 200.  I did 18 x 200 as the same and then nailed one more for a total of 3800m Main Set. Solid.  I held the same times pretty much with most of them being a touch faster.

Why do I think these are such a good workouts?  Well here are a few reasons.

1) Big workouts give you confidence.

2) Descending 1-3s is kind of like a race in that you are often changing pace slightly.

3) Descending also gives you a slight mental / physical breaks but allows lots of quality.

4) 200s are manageable for a lot of triathletes (“non-swimmer background” types), manageable in the sense that you can hold form well throughout, it might take some focus and constant re-focusing but most people can do it!

5) The rest time (15-25sec) gives you enough time to really hit each one with serious quality.  And I do feel that quality is really important on the big swim workouts – there is much more benefit from holding form and keeping control in a long workout (for most of it anyway) if even if you have to slow down the paces a bit or give a few more seconds rest, that’s what I think anyway.  But on the other hand slogging through a 5k workout is going to give you some good benefits too – just getting the mileage done is all you can do sometimes.

Well those are my thoughts on that type of workout.  It is Sunday night and the end of my build up for IMAZ so my brain is as tired as my body – therefore I hope this post made sense!  But now it’s time to watch a movie with my lovely wife and relax.

Cheers,

Adam

P.S. Oh yeah, and don’t forget to check out my little video post on facebook – click here

My wife and I were over the moon when our Chariot Stroller arrive in the mail yesterday.  These guys make top of the line products and it we are really lucky to have one of their strollers to call our own now.

It is made of an very durable, lightweight, and comfortable (for the little one(s) inside) materials.  All safety features are clearly taken into account with utmost care.  It is very easily changed from a running stroller to a bike trailer simply by switching attachments.

The 20″ wheels make it a breeze to go across any bumps or patches of grass or gravel areas or anything really.  The passengers just bob along and love the ride!

Within 28 hours of us receiving it our son Max had already been on 1 bike ride and 2 runs.  One of the runs included a stop at Home Depot to do a quick bit of product research.

Here is 2 pics, one of the running option and one with it hooked up to my TT bike (just for kicks, haha).

Also, here is a pictures of the finish line at Revolution 3 Cedar Point full iron, and the link below this pic is to a random pic of me on the run course there.

picture link – Rev3 Run Photo (courtesy of Rev3 Team)

- Adam