The 3's have the day..

My weekend of 3's concerning my High Cliff Half Ironman on Sunday.. Okay I must say, some of it is my fault for not reserving a hotel in the middle of Wisconsin..

I left Saturday morning on my 3 hour drive to a town close to the race site..

My first 3 hours...

Then looked for a hotel.. Everywhere I went, all booked up for the night..This is not looking good..

2nd 3,

Then it took a me another 3 hours in 3 (okay 4) major towns to find a hotel room at 1:00am in the morning. Zigzaging the state to find a place to sleep for me and my bike..Wholly crap everything was so booked up because of some Nascar race, I just took the 1st room I could get that was not in some corn field somewhere, and oh yeah I paid a premium for it.

Then the final #3, yeah,

3 hours of sleep for the Half IM race..Waking up to a pleasant rain trickling against my hotel window. Went outside to get going and yes it was raining...Enough to cancel a race type of rain..

So I loaded up my bike in the rain and headed for the race, hoping that the clouds would part on the way so I could actually race this morning...

Ahhh, luckily they did, the rain disappeared 1 hour before the race, "YES" the race was on...

The theme for the race was to stay focused and use it as a IM training race, work on my nutrition, mental game, and just try to relax out here and suck up my competitive pride while I take it easy because of my hernia..

The mantra for the day, Ironman pace, Ironman pace, drink every 15 minutes and eat every hour on the bike.. Above all relax on the 1.2 mile swim..

Okay, descent swim for me, even got a little cocky and tried to find 1 or 2 people to draft on the swim.. But everybody kept swimming away.. :( Okay 44:52 on the swim, I actually peeled my wetsuit off in the water, so I think my swim time was around 42+.. My goal was just to swim under 45 minutes and stay relaxed and conserve some energy..

T1 and then off to the bike route.. I'll say it was kind of cruel having a hill right after T1,

A slow 17.7 mph avg on the bike..Which was okay for me..I didn't push hard on the ride and actually just tried to enjoy the ride and was glad I was just out there racing.. My Hernia still reminding me that it's there, especially staying in the aero position for 90% of the race..

Then came the 13.1 trail run..Another hill after T2.. The route actually reminded of a place I usually train at.. Muddy, rolling terrain, but at least it was not lined with Horse carp like my usual running spot. Okay my run was 2:12:17. Totally suck ass concerning what I usually pace at, but just ran it like a LSD run, checking heart rate and trying to stay under zone 2.

Total Half IM time was suck ass (6:13:35) , but with no taper and treating it as a "C" race, okay "B" race, I really didn't care about the final clock time, it was just a challenge to get to the starting line that day and my hernia for the most part stayed in check...

I'm sooo grateful about that..

Because each training day completed gets me one step closer to starting IM Wisconsin..

Half IM

On the road to my first race for the year, a half IronMan actually..My hernia and me will see how I will do.. Just trying to pace myself and go at the so called IRONMAN race pace.

New bike to race with and along with a new attitude since my hernia injury...Hopefully the weather will hold..It will suck the big wah wah, if they change the course any...

Lazy training day at TRI beach today, full of people training and always good to train with some fellow TRI club members...

Off I go..

As the end of father's day comes to a close.. I think about what the future lies before me. Hernia surgery on the horizon. A scary thing since I never had any major surgery in my life..

But for now take one day at a time and hope for the best..

It was actually a good Fathers day..My 3yr old grew up a little bit and shocked the crap out of me and decided she had enough of daddy and swam inside the big swimming pool all by herself..Okay with floaters but a feat none the less..All I thought at that moment was, maybe she could actually start doing triathlons..Such a TRI geek I'am...

So the rest of the week was a full workout week for me, hernia and all..Actually was able to manage a 15 hour training week..Which included a 3.5 hour (60 mile) ride out in farmland suburbia,, I actually felt really good on the bike, wind and all. Worked on my nutrition and still have to work on my cliff gel issue...The stuff is like molasses so trying to get it out of a gel flask while riding a bike is a pain in the ass..But Mocha/chocolate flavor will taste all soooo good on the those long rides...

Did my 1st open water swim on Saturday with some TRi club members, went out to Ohio street beach, also know as TRI beach. That is where all the Triathletes go to practice..Always a good crowd..

So made it thru another week of training, not as crazy or intense, but another training week in the IM bank..Hernia still in tact and always reminding me it is still there..

Give a shout out if you are doing the High Cliff half Ironman, 1st race for me for the season, had to blow off my olympic 2 weesk ago because of my injury..But what a way to start, just hoping to make it to finish line, body fully intact..

IMWI, I"m back..

So after a bunch of ups and downs emotionally, I finally got to see a surgical doc concerning my ingunial hernia...

I actually explained what my Ironman race was about..The distance and the duration it might take me to finish..So after two people looking at me..It was definitely a HERNIA...After she explained the surgical options I have and the amount of recovery time involved..Two months fof recovery time, she said.....ohh crap, I said....

She looked at me and tells me, if you are "highly" trained athlete and you are not in pain. You can wait and do your race and come back when you have the time to have a full recovery.. Besides being shocked, I was more curious about the risk I would be taking if I waited..After all the options, I decided to take the surgical doctors advice and try to race in September and wait on the procedure until after the race...

I still want to get some more opinions, hopefully form a sports doc in a couple of weeks..Just to ease my mind and not do more damage if I continue on this little IM adventure.

So for now, back to training, at a less intensity, because now, the goal is just to start the race and hopefully finish with my held my head high, no matter what the time says on the race clock..

"IMWI in doubt???"

Mann, it has been a rough 2 weeks.

Let me start by saying I'm totally screwed right now. Or did I screw myself over, by doing to much..

Two weeks ago, before my Mad City Half marathon I noticed something weird about myself, felt okay but something was out of place....Oh, by the way I did have a suckass Half marathon..

Went to the doctor and after waiting 2 hours, the doctor tells me I have a "HERNIA". My face turned white and saw my hopes of even completing or even starting Ironman Wisconsin in DOUBT...

After the news I was in deep denial, and truthfully, depressed. How can this happen to me, what did I do wrong, trying to look back at my workouts...But I guess right now it does not matter how, but it is what it is..A major injury..

Now what am I going to do about it...

So tomorrow is the big Surgical consult day..I guess my racing season will depend on what he has to say and figure out if I even have a prayer to make the starting line of IM Wisconsin...

Right now, just trying to stay positive and told my wife, if I even have a chance to start the Ironman, I will at least attempt to do that and try to finish, which will be my goal from now on..Dreams of fast finishing times have disappeared from my head.

Thoughts go now to just trying to finish the struggle I started once I signed up for this race..I guess it will be about the journey now and hopefully with an ending that I have hoped for.

And I guess that will be good enough for me..

Because not trying is just not in my nature....

"Impossible is Nothing", my training motto..