Cracks, BU and Week 14

By in large, week 14 was an amazing week in the terms of learning a lot about my limiters. However, the level of stress and emotion thus far was highest I have encountered mainly on the home front. This week was a rollercoaster. Some fun, some not so!!

As mentioned, the level of commitment required to compete at this level is difficult to put into words. Every meal and the timing as such are carefully designed as well as all the micro cycles of training and every other detail you can imagine takes perfection to complete. Operating like this day in and out becomes like breathing. However, it is not easy on the people around me. There are positive influences all of this life training offers and some not so positive ramifications. At times, when others are out eating whatever they want, I’m typically at home popping grapes and blueberries and getting ready to go to bed by 7:30PM. Most days I’m rising at 4 or so and heading onto my bike, pool or running in complete darkness in freezing temperatures for hours on end.
Crack…

As in foundation! Once I received my spot for Lake Placid in July of 2008, many of my new endurance friends informed me that a full Ironman year was more stressful for the family than that of the athlete. (I’m so glad they thought to tell me this after the fact!) Even more so for someone who has four kids and a busy work life! The athlete has to go deep, do the training, endure the pain and suffering on a daily basis and to stay focused and consistent throughout. The family simply tries to support and goes along for the ride. The family feels the impact of forced schedules, days away and trying to find restaurants that are on the athlete’s nutrition protocol. My approach all along has been to hit the road as late or early as possible to mitigate the impact as much as possible. At times, I’m successful and at other times when the volume of the training increases I am not. This week was even more tenuous and was largely as a result of me not doing a great job of laying out the month in enough detail for everyone to be on the same page.

This week and with the holidays Mary reacted to my ever increasing volume in training by getting upset with me and was feeling the weight of having to carry an increased load of taking care of our family by herself. The level of communication under normal circumstances in a good relationship takes a lot of effort and determination, which we do have. Now, throw 21 hours of training into the mix along side of a normal workweek and all of the other commitments life offers is sheer insanity. In many ways I think an Age Grouper (a non professional racer like me) has it more difficult than the pros to compete at a Kona level. A pro can spend all day training without other work commitments. Agers (me), have to find ways to get it done at all hours of the day alongside their regular lives.. Not easy!

Mary has been the one who for the past two years has taken care of the family early in the morning and all the other times I’m out of the house. My foundation and single support structure was on the verge of crumbling in only the month of December. How am I going to pull this off in July when I’m in top form? Also, I compounded the frustration felt by throwing out there that in 2010 I wanted to run the Sahara Desert 155mile run that takes 7 days to complete. I was dreaming out loud and this is how I got myself into Ironman and is now how I maintain my intense commitment to create long-term goals and achieve them one by one. Also, the holidays are stressful and I had to miss our Nina’s performance in the Nutcracker due to my mistake of not communicating about a swim meet I signed up for. So, the stress and having feelings hurt was very difficult. We spent a lot of time talking and are working on better ways to get this ironed out (pun intended). Mea Culpa on this week.

BU:
I am a member of the Minuteman Masters Swim Club based out of Hanscom Air force Base. This is a serious group of swimmers with real-time expert swim coaching at each training session. On major swim rotations I’m there three days a week early in the morning. The coach Rich Axtell asked me to join the team for the Regional Championship swim meet held this past weekend at BU. I was hesitant to accept Rich’s offer because swimming is very new to me (second year), and for the past 13 weeks my coach Jesse has held me out of Masters swimming to focus on swim drills and body position. I have not had the intense effort of swimming with speed for over 16 weeks. All of my strategy and coaching is taken care of by Jesse. Jesse allowed me to enter this event with the understanding that my participation would be in addition to my other weekend training goals and that I should be prepared to check my pride at the door for this event. As always, never doubt your coach and man was he correct!!!! More below.

The majority of competitors I was going to swim against at BU have had the chance to train for this event for months. They also were able to taper (build up energy and rest their bodies prior to the event) and I was heading into this event while still training at intense levels. Each day before the swim races started I had to either ride my bike for two hours, or run 1-2 hours prior for a total of 3-5 hours of training before I even jumped into the water. I was heading into a major swim competition seriously depleted. I welcomed the new experience and challenge.

Little did I know, these swim events are for die-hard swimmers!! There are zillions of ways to get disqualified at each heat. I had never swum the back, breast or started off the blocks. All of this was new to me and I had to learn how to do it literally 5 minutes before each race started in order to not be disqualified. The team needed me to finish each event and book points. We did book the points and were able to win the event and the regional title. Awesome experience and my best placement were 4th and my worst 11th. In total I completed 9 events and 9 hours of training prior to the meet. I’m curious as to how I could do if this was a sole focus!! (See this is how it starts!)

Week 15
I have just concluded the first base of endurance training. Now I am heading into the build phase of training. This phase will, as the name mentioned, build onto the base I have created with all of the drill and weight lifting completed in the prior 13 weeks. In addition, I had several benchmarks to complete at the end of this period. They were weight of 149, body fat of 17%, 220 in Watts for Threshold on the bike and to run a sub-23 minute 5 K. I’m happy to report the following, weight 149, 15% body fat, 210 Watts and 21.10 5K. I’m really proud of achieving all of them (watts was a reach goal) and its proof that I’m working at a high level. Speed and intensity is the prescription of the day now. I’m amazed as to how far I have come with all of Jesse’s guidance and wisdom without injury in such a short period of time. Next near-term goal is to run Disney in less than 1:30 and to buy Mary as many gifts as possible to maintain my support!!