Ironman Madison 2010 training

140.6 miles....140.6 miles.....140.6 miles. 2.4 mile swim "dang, I just committed to being able to swim 2.4 miles...I get sick of being in the water for 1.2 miles doing a half Iron, how am I ever going to swim 2.4 miles???" 112 mile bike ride "my goodness that is a long long long way to bike...I don't even like driving that far! Guess I will be spending a lot of time of the bike this year, everyone is saying to work on that the most" 26.2 mile run " I am a runner, I've done 2 marathons and will have completed my third by then, not to worried about that"

140.6 miles..." I guess I better get on the trails and to the gym!"

Training for an Ironman triathlon is one intense process, then again life itself is an intense process and life doesn't stop because you are in training. Men don't become less complicated or at times frustrating. Money doesn't automatically end up in your bank account. Nor does your house clean itself, if anything doing laundry becomes more of a priority! However you somehow find the time to get it done. I wish I had a training log to share here, but I didn't ever get around to keeping one. It would have been great to have been able to look back on it, but I just don't think I will forget the numerous hours I spent in the spinning room at my health club over the winter. There were also endless miles spent on the treadmill and so many laps in the 25 yard length pool that I am surprised that I am not still dizzy! The biking was never too thrilling to report when I was training on the spinning bikes. I didn't have anyway to track the 'miles' so I would just go by time, 3 hours in the spin room by myself was the longest I would ever make it, guessing that was a good number of miles! From the gym only training I would have to say that the swimming is what I got most excited about. Everytime I was able to increase my number of laps I would excitedly text a friend to help me convert useless yards into miles....a distance I can understand. Once I reached 2 miles in the pool and didn't totally hate doing it, the belief that I may actually survive 2.4 miles in under 2 hours and 20 minutes began to grow.

Eventually spring came and it was time to take part of the training outside. I had been taking my running outside for a while as I was getting ready to run the second annual Minneapolis Marathon. I don't mind doing daily running on a treadmill, but refuse to do my long runs that way. Weather wise we were blessed this year as we never got the 'last snowfall' in April. So I was able to get outside on the bike by mid April. The other significant thing about April (25th to be exact) was that I did my first century ride!(Aka 100 mile bike ride) I partook in the MN Ironman bike ride. Was I just saying that we were blessed weather wise this past spring? I was wasn't I? Well April 25th would be the exception! It rained on and off all day long and the wind, oh the blasted bloody wind. It was a head wind in every direction. It wasn't an easy day, but it was a day filled with milestones! Well once I passed mile 65 everything after that was a milestone. It did take me all day as I did stop at all the food stops and eat and stretch and send out a few text messages to friends to let them know how I was doing. Eventually I made it to the end! I had done it! I had biked my first 100 miles!

My swimming was getting stronger, I knew I could handle 100 miles on the bike, my running was still good and I was injury and illness free. What more could a budding Ironman triathlete ask for? :)

With all the training I was doing the month of May was here and gone. Before I knew it, it was the first of June and I was staring down my thrid full marathon. I completed the 2010 Minneapolis Marathon in 4:11:57! Not my best marathon, but I also wasn't going for a personal record as I didn't want to push to hard and have to interupt my Ironman training to recover from a super intense marathon. (However come the Minneapolis Marathon for 2011...I am going for it! Goal is set at 3:30!!! Training starts in January and I admit I am already looking forward to it!)

I only did one other triathlon this summer. I did my fourth half Iron distance tri. (so 70.3 miles total). This race brought me back to Chisago Lakes. This was not my best day. A majorly important part of endurance sports is keeping yourself in a positive mental state. This day I failed at that. I had an ok swim, but didn't feel good about it because I felt like it should have gone a lot better, so right there I already started to lose the mental challenge that day. The bike course was hard. I didn't fully realize it until after the race, but they had changed the bike course from the previous year and had made it much hillier and harder. I got off the bike, looked at my time and told myself how horrible it was. "I should be stronger on the bike by now, how can I be so slow?" Not willing to fully give up I headed out for the 13.1 mile run. Still the negative thoughts prevailed, when I was out to mile 3 and 4 I was seeing other runners coming in on mile 8 and 9. They all looked very happy and strong, like they could go all day long. I didn't feel that way. There was no turning off the negative thoughts by now. All I could think was how much better than me that they were, and not just on this day at this triathlon. I was certain that they were better than me at life in general. That they all had great jobs and great relationships. I was sure they were looking at me wondering what the hell I was doing out there 'with them'. Let me tell you, this kind of mindset is no way to do a 70.3 mile race, hell its not even a way to go through a normal day in life. I did reach the finish line, I did do it. While it was hard to go through that, it sent home a super important lesson, that I could not, under any circumstances let that happen during Ironman. If I did there would be no way I would reach the finish line and earn my Ironman title. So I added another element to my training...staying positive.

Soon enough it was the end of July and I was off with my friends to check out the dreaded Ironman Madison bike course. All anyone ever spoke of was the endless hills and they were not lying. The saving grace of the course is that while it is hills all day long many of them are gradual. (Many, not all) The worst of them wind upwards! The second worst is a long steep hill that is a straight shot up. Not fun to deal with at any point, but especially not when it is your second time dealing with it. Gotta love a two loop bike course! I made it through the training ride on the course and was happy to have done my second century plus ride. I got 106 miles done that day. I went for a short half hour run after all of that, not a great run, but the point was to have done the ride! On the way out to Madison we stopped outside Wisconsin Dells in Devils Lake State park. An absolutely beautiful lake (and park)! Somehow I hadn't gotten myself out in open water much at all up to this point. Actually my only other time in a lake before then this summer had been at the Chisago Lakes tri! But I had been doing a good amount of work in the pool. I made it all the way across the lake and back! That is a big lake, but I did it. That swim really helped my confidence! :)

Suddenly it was the month of August and the clock was really winding down. Every Sunday, every time I would look at a clock I would wonder where I would be on the swim or the bike or the run. Looking at the time in the late evening had to be the most scary. It would get to be between 9 pm and midnight and I would think, I could still be running! Uggh! I decided to up my time in the open water and luckily my location in Minneapolis made that easy. I live within walking distance of Cedar lake (and Lake Calhoun, but swimming for extended periods of time in Lake Calhoun isn't really recommended and it smells horrid!). Cedar Lake is a spring fed lake and is about the best place to swim! So I got a lot of swimming done there in August!

Before I knew it, it was time to taper. No more long bike rides, no more hard running. I had done it. I had trained on my own for an Ironman! Now the question was did I do it right? Had I set myself up for success? I had only done two 100 mile rides, not many long runs. Was I really ready??? Could I really do it???? Would I be an Ironman?