He also won’t clear me to race until he sees me again which isn’t going to be until September 13th. Our last race of the year is September 19th – The Devil’s Challenge, my other “A” race of the year.

So that means that my racing season is definitely over for this year.

But I’m okay with that, or at least as good as I can be any way.

The way I see; I haven’t even been back on the bike yet since the crash. I had high hopes to get on it this weekend, but that didn’t happen. In the interest of full disclosure and to keep myself honest when I look back at this post; I lost my job on Friday, so Saturday was a bunch of running around to do, hitting up some of my contacts for potential leads and working on the resume and Sunday was a recovery day from drowning my sorrows on Saturday night.

But back to the bike – I only have 3 weeks of training before the race and I only barely started working hills before the crash, so there is no way that I could be ready for Devil’s Challenge in that short of time.

Also, the idea of flying down those hills at the speeds we can hit is a bit intimidating right now as well. I figure that will take a little time to get rid of that, but I’m not that worried since I’m a speed junky and once I feel the rush again it won’t take me long to build up my nerves.

Now add in the fact that I can’t even work on my swim until the Monday before the race and that pretty much takes care of things for the year.

But, I’m going to stay focused during the off season and make sure that I’m ready to hit it hard starting with the first race of next year.

And to keep on my Ironman time schedule, I have to do my half next as well. So, even more incentive to keep training.

Later,
John W.
A Clydesdale in training

Things have been a bit hectic lately and as a result some things have been suffering. That includes my time to write any posts.

And, of course, time to train.

While I have been getting some training in and also doing the Tri-Fit classes, I haven’t been doing anywhere near as much as I should be.

Unless one of my Tri-Fit coaches are reading this; in which case I didn’t mean any of that, I’ve actually been training like crazy. Yeah, that’s what I really meant to say!

But that has all started to change this weekend. Along with my usual long walks with the girls, I got a run as well.

I also picked up some more running clothes to help get me a little more motivated.

And tomorrow night I will get the bike hooked back up to the trainer and log a few quality miles on that bad boy as well.

The weather is starting to warn up so it’s time to get serious about this stuff!

Later,
John W.
A Clydesdale in training

In working on this training plan Shelly got me from Runners World, one of the things that it makes you do is run at a pace slower than normal based on the info that you give it when you setup the plan.

At first this wasn’t an easy thing at all; the mile pace that it was asking me to maintain was only slightly faster than my walking pace. But, figuring that they know a thing or two about training people to run long distances, I thought what the heck I’ll give it a try.

Much to my amazement, I’m starting to see some improvement. I’m not quite able to maintain the exact pace that they setup, but I’m able to get close to it. And in doing so I no longer need to take a walking break during my runs; this has resulted in my 5k training times to be only slightly slower than what they were before.

Okay, I know that slightly slower is not faster like I mentioned in the title. But here is the kicker, I have energy at the end of the run to do just that; kick!

And at the end of each run I’ve been feeling stronger than the previous one. I’m still only doing my kick for the last .2 of a mile, but if I can keep feeling that much stronger each time that I would mean that I could start the kick sooner and see an improvement in my time.

At least that’s my theory.

But no matter what; if I can keep getting stronger as I add to my distance, I should see an overall improvement in my time for those longer runs.

Later,
John W.
A Clydesdale in training

I was looking forward to tapering up after the Devil’s Challenge and continue on my training plan for my 15k at the end of October. But, it seems a small microscopic virus decided to get in my way.

Tuesday night (which was supposed to be my next training run) the tickle that was in my lungs all day long decided to take a turn for the worse and I tapped out of the training run. I also uncharacteristically went to bed very early thinking that I could possibly beat whatever it was before it got to bad. HA!

Wednesday I was hard down for the entire day and in fact don’t even remember anything about it. Thursday was a bit fuzzy, but I remember bits and pieces of it. I think.

Friday was no picnic or walk in the park, but things were starting to be better by the end of the day. And Saturday it seemed like I finally ran out of sleep and was starting to feel better.

Today I was finally able to leave the house and do a few things including taking the girls for a walk. And believe, they were getting more than a bit antsy about that one.

I’m not sure which strain of flu I had, nor do I care. All I know is that it kicked my butt for three days and has now put me a week behind on my 15k training schedule.

I’ll have to talk to the boss and training partner about how to handle this and get back on track as quick as I can.

Later,
John W.
A Clydesdale in training

First off, sorry for the absence the last 2 weeks. The weekend of the race was travel and last weekend the computer was hard down due to viruses and mal-ware. It’s all cleaned up now and I’m back in action.

So what can I say about the race other than the fact that it was hard!

Although truth be told; all in all the race was actually the easiest part of the whole weekend.

You see, we camped and I don’t camp! And I haven’t camped since my military days. Never liked it and I can tell you now that I got this out of the way I remember why. But my beautiful bride loves to camp, so I thought what the heck why not give it another try for her.

By day two I realized what we forgot to pack; a motor home!

We had a crap load of people next to us that partied all night long on the first night, even after it started raining. It then rained for the majority of the weekend. It did however dry out long enough for it to be dry for the race.

Oh yeah, the race!

The swim; was cold! I had a wetsuit that I rented, but that only helped so much. It was sleeveless and I thought that I would have preferred that. Before I make a purchase I’m going to rent a long sleeve one and try that out once.

The bike; was brutal! I did mention that they have a lot of hills out there?! Well they do!!!

Due to the construction and other factors that really didn’t matter in the end, they went back to the original bike course with its 1 mile climb right out of the gate.

I did everything that I could do to stay on the old grocery getter and make it to the top of the first hill. I had the top in site when I just plain ran out of steam and had to dismount and walk to the top. Three more hills just as bad as that one were still waiting for me further down the course. All of them got the best of me and I had to dismount.

I made up for it as much as I could on the down hill portions by topping out at 39.6 mph which helped pull my average up to 12.9. Hmm, I just missed getting that old grocery getter up to 40 miles per hour!

The run; I crashed! Poor nutrition will get you every time and for me it was this time. I’ve been trying to dial that part of my race in, but ended up not being that focused on it for the weekend and it cost me big time.

Final result was 2:01:21 just slightly over my goal, but all things considered I’m not disappointed with that time at all.

Later,
John W.
A Clydesdale in training

Goal one of course was not to drown and as you can see from this I managed to pull that one off. Although that whole swimming in the lake and in a crowd thing is tougher than it seems.

For starters they forgot to paint the lines on the bottom of the lake. So open water swimming is a must to work on.

Second goal as mentioned above, to finish, was also accomplished.

My third goal was blown out of the water. It was a fast, very fast course.

My swim was on average for me at 11:38 and with all things considered about the open water swim I’m very pleased with that.

My bike was fast and I was quite pleased that the only people that were passing me were on road / Tri bikes. I finished the bike in 48:08 and averaged just over 17mph. Not bad for that old grocery getter. In fact Shelly missed my whole transition from bike to run since she wasn’t expecting me till around the 1 hour mark.

My run was steady and constant with only one walk after the last water station to take a sip and dump some on my head. I completed the run in 33:17 which is pretty amazing to me since that isn’t too much off my 5k time without all the other stuff before it.

And I crossed the finish line at 1:38:08.

When I saw that time posted on the result sheet I had to double check it to make sure that I was really looking at my time and not someone else’s.

I’m taking tomorrow off before I decide what’s next.

But for now, I can relish in the victory of having crossed that finish line!

Later,
John W.
A Clydesdale in training

And even with the added run in place of the swim I still finished in the time that I was hoping to. My official time was 1:57:57 which gave me 2 minutes and 2 seconds to spare.

Had there been a swim it would have been interesting given how strong the wind was blowing today. There were white caps!

But enough about what would have been.

The first run was a bit rough and confusing since no one really knew where the start was. We made it to where we needed to be though with about a minute to spare.

I would’ve liked to have torn up that first run, but caution made me rethink that and I took it a little slower than what I planned for. I had planned / hoped for a time of 12, but ended up with 15 for that run.

The bike was brutal during one section of the out route due to a serious head wind. It was exactly the same as the last training ride that Shelly and I went on out there. That didn’t make it any easier to deal with, but at least I knew what I was in for.

I think that my top speed on the section was maybe 11, even going down hill. But once we made the 2nd turn to start on the return route we had the wind at our backs and I was cranking out a pretty solid 20 plus miles an hour which helped me finish the bike portion in just under an hour.

The second run was tough, it took me about a mile and a half before my legs finally started to feel a little normal. During that time I couldn’t figure out what hurt less; walking or running I mean jogging.

I found a little bit energy though and managed to give a kick to the finish. I actually couldn’t believe that I was doing that, but as the crowd started to cheer at the finish line it really manages to help! That little kick gave me a run time of 35 and change which is right around what I was expecting.

If all goes well I have my sights set on the Tri in Eagle in 2 weeks. That will let me get my first official triathlon out of the way.

It seems silly to have done all this training and not go for it.

But let’s wait and see how I feel tomorrow before I go getting to crazy.

Later,

John W.
A Clydesdale in training

I managed to make sure that I stayed very well hydrated during Tri-Fit this past week. But that did not mean that I stayed injury free from it.

The weather was nice, so for the run portion we ran outside. This weeks drills; wind sprints up a very steep hill here in Tosa! Well I foolishly started out trying to keep up with the coach on the first one. By the third one I had a lung cramp that was almost unbearable, but it went away after a little while.

It just didn’t stay away. I woke up Friday morning with the worst stitch on the right side of my back. And although I can get it to go away for a little while, it won’t stay away

Luckily, I had a little relief from it on Saturday when I was getting ready to run the Sarah’s Stride 5k.

But that doesn’t mean that it stayed away for the whole run either.

Just before the 1 mile mark it came back. It didn’t stop me in my tracks like it did on Thursday night, but it did slow me down to a walk for a little while.

From that point on I would push on with the running as long as I could before I had to slow down to a walk so that I could catch my breath again. I have to admit that I walked a lot more than I would have liked, but there was just nothing that I could do about it.

But, despite all the extra walking I was still able to finish the race with a new personal record (PR)! I haven’t been able to find the official times posted yet, but my own unofficial time had me across the finish at 31:10.

That’s down some 9 minutes off my first race last year at the Grape Stomp which this Clydesdale is feeling pretty good about.

And almost to my goal for this summer of a sub 30 minute 5k.

That’s a stand alone 5k, there is still no telling what my time will be once I attempt that after the swim and a bike. But I’ll see what I can do in a bike / run brick in one of the coming weekends.

Later,
John W.
A Clydesdale in training

Monday I had a great swim workout. Tuesday I had another awesome run workout and I am now happy to say that I can get a 5k training run done in about 35 minutes. And the amazing thing is that I can continue function then for the rest of the day.

But then… Wednesday rolled around and I had a dentist appointment…

I should explain, I’m one of those people that really need sedation dentistry! Without it, you aren’t getting me anywhere near the dentist office. So I fully expected Wednesday to be a loss as far as training went.

This was my second visit in the last few weeks. The first was for a few fillings and this one was (I thought) just for a cleaning.

Turns out it was for a cleaning… and to remove my remaining 2 wisdom teeth!

As soon as I heard that I could feel my heart rate go through the roof! They took me back to check my vitals and sure enough, my heart rate was at 97. 97!!! I now have to walk at a pretty fast clip for about 3 blocks to get it up to 97 now a days… or, apparently, get told that my wisdom teeth are coming out.

As if things couldn’t get any worse, the dentist then tells me that I can’t train for the next 4 days! I could go on my walks, but nothing strenuous that was going to get my heart rate up to high.

The girls have walked more in the last few days than they ever thought was possible. Luckily the weather cooperated or I would have really gone crazy.

I think that they are just as happy as I am that I can finally go back to regular training starting tomorrow.

Later,
John W.

A Clydesdale in training

Anyway, back to the matter at hand, I’m actually starting to see some progress in my training. For instance, a year ago I could’ve barely walked a 5k in an hour. Okay, to be honest, a year ago I wasn’t sure how long a 5k was so I would’ve had no idea how long it would’ve taken me to walk it!

But this week during one of my lunch time workouts, I was actually able to get in a 5k in 35 minutes. And have enough energy to go back to work (and be productive) for the rest of the day.

That was on Tuesday.

On Wednesday I was feeling pretty punk about that, so I decided to go for it on the swim workout. My goal was no drills, no fancy stuff, just swim laps until I at least hit the half mile mark (about 18 laps). Well I hit that mark and was still feeling pretty good so I kept going. I finally called it quits at 25 laps.

If my math is correct, based on the sign on the wall at the WAC, I was 2 laps short of 3/4 of a mile. Had I known that I would have kept going. Oh well.

Go figure, at Thursday’s Tri-Fit class I just couldn’t get into the run and it wasn’t a very good workout.

But hey, overall I’m still feeling pretty punk about the week as a whole.

Later,

John W.
A Clydesdale in training