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Under Pressure

October 8, 2009 blogs No Comments

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video http://www.youtube…./watch?v=xtrEN-YKLBM Ever since doing so well at this year’s Duke 1/2 race , I’m feeling alot of pressure and performance anxiety about B2B.   Before Duke, I was approaching B2B with a “lets just finish an Ironman and see how it goes” attitude.   Now I keep thinking “I have to go for Locker #1 “.  But that means a 12 hour Ironman race.  Am I capable of a 12 hour Ironman?  That’s a pretty high bar to set for myself. It took me 4 years to beat the Duke 1/2.  Will it take me that long to conquer the Iron distance too?   Will I even want to do another Ironman again after B2B? I keep remembering how devastated I was after Duke 2007 , when I fell far short of my race goal.    The reason I fell short was that I didn’t yet have the endurance base or mental toughness to do a sub 6 hour half iron.  As such, my expectations for that race were too high.  It took another two years to make those gains.  Will my endurance base and the mental toughness I gained this year transfer to the Iron Distance?  I don’t know. And how do I pace an Ironman anyway?   How do I set goals?  If I just ‘go easy’ the whole way, I won’t get a 12 hour race.   But I don’t want to blow up either and risk DNF’ing or walking a marathon.   Walking a marathon sounds horribly frustrating. I looked at a couple of triathlon calculators to predict my race time.  Triathloncalculator.com lets you input your age, weight, years of racing, training volume, and pace data. It predicted a 13:30 finish time for me.   Seems doable.  But it predicted a bike pace of 16 mph (and I know I can do way better than that even going easy) and a run pace of 9min/mile (and that might be a stretch!).  So, hmmmm? Triathlon-calculator.com predicts race time based on performance in another race.  I input my recent Duke 1/2 time and it gave me 11:32 for an Iron Distance.   That seems a bit unrealistic.   I dunno… I’ve been studying Endurance Nation’s Four Keys to Ironman Execution .   Their strategy makes alot of sense.   I think I will follow their advice about staying inside my own “ box ” and remembering “ the line ” which starts mile 18 of the run.  I think if I do that, I will have a good race.    And I will try to have fun and cross the finish line with a smile on my face.  I especially like what they say about the bike split…I’m going to think of this quote every time I am tempted to push too hard on the bike. Think you made the mistake of riding too easy? You now have 26 miles to fix that mistake. Make the mistake of riding too hard? That mistake now has 26 miles to express itself, to the tune of X miles at 17-18′ walking pace vs X miles at 8-10′ running pace. Do the math. How is that bike split going to look as you are walking/shuffling the last 10 miles of the run? My own best case scenario prediction:  1:01 for the swim (fast due to being with a current); 6:13 bike (18mph); 4:35 run (10:30min/mile) = 11:49 + transitions.   Probably a little over 12 hours.   But no matter what, I will not lose focus and slow down if I get to a point in the race where I see that goal slip away.  I will stay strong and positive and keep doing my best! Check it out : TRAKKERS – The world’s most robust web based athlete tracking system. …if you found this post inspiring, buy me a coffee! By the time your rss reader get this post here is 5 comments ,Welcome you come to leave your opinion !

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Under Pressure

Ironman World Championships Photos 2008

October 8, 2009 news, photos No Comments

Updated: Just reposting to get us psyched for the race on Saturday. Unfortunately I won’t be there this year so watching on the Internet. Enjoy the photos, and good luck to all racing! read more

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Ironman World Championships Photos 2008

Maybe it’s the Iron

October 7, 2009 blogs No Comments

My running is still going super great.  I am thrilled that a pace of 9min/mile now feels pretty easy to me; whereas not too long ago, 10 was still kind of hard to maintain.  I wonder if part of this is due to Iron.   I don’t mean my Iron training plan , tho certainly that has gotten me in the best shape of my tri career.     I am talking about Iron supplements.   Feosol to be exact. A few weeks ago, I blogged about being dizzy on my bike rides .  One of my theories was that I have had low iron for years.   I resisted taking the Feosol due to stomach issues…instead choosing to eat raisins and beef to boost my iron.    Since the dizziness issue,  I started taking Feosol every day.  The dizziness on the bike gradually declined over the course of a few weeks.   Now, I have absolutely no more dizziness!    And I am feeling so strong in my workouts.  And look where my running is! Today I did a treadmill threshold workout…here is what I wrote in my BT log: Treadmill details Warm up: 5 min @ 4mph Practice the Pace: 5 min @ 6.6 mph, avg hr 140 Tempo: 20 min @ 7.7 mph, avg hr 160 …had to bump it to 7.8mph to get hr in zone 4. (Dang, now that I look at my hr data, I see that it wasn’t high enough.) Recover: 2 min @ 4mph Practice the Pace: 8 min @ 6.6 mph, avg hr 145 Cool down: @ 4mph 6.6 mph = 9:05 min/mile 7.8mph = 7:42 min/mile I looked back at a similar workout from May, and I was doing the “ Practice the Pace ” sets at 6mph (10min/mile) and the Tempo set at 7.0 mph (8:34min/mile).   Same heart rates .  That means I’ve gotten alot faster at the same effort level.   More efficient.  It’s all good. FYI:  I do my treadmill workouts at 1.5 incline, as that’s the lowest setting on my treadmill.    Here is a treadmill speed/pace conversion chart . Check it out : TriVillage … Triathlon Gear and Triathlon Clothing Super Store. …if you found this post inspiring, buy me a coffee! By the time your rss reader get this post here is 1 comments ,Welcome you come to leave your opinion !

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Maybe it’s the Iron

Need a new Aero Helmet

October 1, 2009 blogs No Comments

I need a new aero helmet and I am hoping some company sees this post and offers to send me one to review…because I can’t afford to buy one. I am 99% sure that my headaches are due to my aero helmet being too tight. It’s just a little too snug around my temples, and that sets off terrible headaches when I’m on the bike course of a race. I got an excruciating headache at Bandits. It went away as soon as I took off the helmet. I fiddled with the fit and put thinner pads in. Still, I got the headache again during the Duke bike ride, but it wasn’t too painful. Thank goodness for that. But, like Bandits, the headache immediately went away as soon as I took the helmet off.  I really don’t want to wear that helmet for 6+ hours at Beach2Battleship! My aero helmet is a Loius Garneau Rocket Air, size medium.  I bought it last year.    It only bothers me on longer races.  Sprint races I am fine. Anyone got a helmet for me?   Free, Cheap, Trade?? Check it out : Amazon.com …Workouts in a Binder : Swim Workouts for Triathletes …if you found this post inspiring, buy me a coffee! By the time your rss reader get this post here is 4 comments ,Welcome you come to leave your opinion !

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