"ROCKY"

10 weeks out to IronMan Wisconsin and I got desperate for some MOJO motivation.

So what did I do? I rented out and watched "ROCKY BALBOA"

I have been really dragging lately. So I needed some MOJO vibes from somewhere.

How can you go wrong with "ROCKY"?

Looking at my racing schedule I was surprised I finished 3/4Th's of it already.

Wow, I wasn't sure I was going to even get through the first half of it. Maybe that is why I'm feeling a little burnt these days. Or just maybe my self imposed ban on a "sweet danish" for breakfast everyday has been dragging me down as well. But so far I only have been limiting myself to once a week on that.. Wohoo, okay muffins don't count right?

But with some fellow bloggers kicking some royal butt out there at IronMan Switzerland and Ironman Coeur d'Alene. I got a little extra motivation from those performances this week.

Because kiddies, IronMan is fast approaching me these days...

So like in my younger days in the RING, I think its time to lace up my gloves again and in the words of "Rocky Balboa."

"Its not how hard you can hit, it's how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward."

"It's about how much you can take and keep moving forward"

"That is how you Win"

So moving forward I shall, a little recovery week and some R&R in sunny Florida in the next few days should do me some good. Well if that fails, a box of cheese danishes will definitely do the trick.

"Horrible Hilly"

So was this Bike ride tougher than the IronMan Wisconsin course. I think yeahhhh.

Were there lot of hills, I'll say yeahhhh to that to.

Did it take me forever, I'll give a "AMEN" to that too...

So the it started out with a bunch of us camping out at the state park where the finish line for the 200k and 100k bike adventure would end. Never been remotely camping, eventhough I had a tent I got lazy and crashed out in the SUV. Okay lets say after that, I think a nice hotel would have been alot comfortable. But I had a great time hanging out with a bunch of my TRIclub teammates.

It started out at 7:00am, nine of us did the ride from the TRI club, 3 were doing the 100k and the rest did the 200k. It started out fine. I knew most of them were faster than me, so I didn't want to get sucked into that and just rode at my own pace. I would catch up with some of them at certain points but it was going to be a long day and it was just a training ride anyways.

So after a few mile I started to get a bad side stitch while riding. It was pretty uncomfortable just riding. I was think to myself, this is not good early on. It was effecting my breathing at certain times and could not figure out the cause. So after 20+ miles, I was able to complete stage one. Hmmm 4 more stages to go.

Okay rest stop ahead, the funny thing was that as soon as I got off the bike, my side stitch was gone.

Stage 2, off I go again, back comes the side stitch, I'm not liking this, I really thought I might have to drop out at this point if it does not get any better. But the pedaling I went on and a D.N.F. was not on my wish list for this day. So after more hills I made it to the end of the second stage, another rest stop, always a pretty site.

Stage 3, things were getting more bearable at this point, my side stitch was starting to subside, and I was feeling better riding and not uncomfortable on the bike as much. During halfway through the stage we had out first casualty from our TRI club. One of the guys was cramping severely and during one of the hills, his cramping locked his legs and he crashed on the road. Luckily there was a SAG (support vehicle) not to far away. But sad to say he was done for the day, but he was okay, that was the most important part.

Stage 4, so after getting something to eat, I was able to catch up with one of the guys from the group and we started riding together during stage 4. At this point I was feeling pretty good. I think I got my second wind, surging ahead of him at certain points. But he started to crash big time as well, so I hung back and always tried to keep him at eye site behind me.

Feeling like crap in the middle of farmland country is never a fun feeling. So I and he eventually made it to the next rest stop. So after him telling me he had to stop two more times. I figure my goal was to get both of us to the finishing line no matter how long it took.

Off to stage 4, another 30 miles (I believe so). So I rode with him a little closer this time. The hills were getting tougher for him as well. So everything was going along fine then at mile 103 I was shifting during a hill climb. All I heard was snap, crackle, and then pop. My "firkin" CHAIN broke on my bike. Never had that happen before. But never fear, I knew there was a reason I liked doing maintenance on my own bike, I wipped out my multi tool and within 10 minutes I was on the road again. I did not even see a SAG car during this whole time, but I was having none of that getting a ride to the finish anyways.

So with 15 miles left, things did get a little ugly. There was actually a shortcut at this point, the guy who I was riding with thought about it, but I tried to give him as much of a guilt trip about it as possible so he decided to try to finish the whole thing as well. My biggest mistake at this point is that I only filled one water bottle full of water thinking it would be enough for me the rest of the way.

So with 3 miles to go, the biggest hill was upon both of us, I was going ahead, my left cleat was getting loose and slipping, good gracious, what now, I'm not going to be able to go up this hill with one leg pedaling. BIKE, please hold it together.

So halfway thru the longest hill of the day, I stopped and looked back and was wondering where my TRI club bud was at. Nowhere in site, okay he must be walking it. Then comes a SAG vehicle with him in the back seat. His legs were toast, I thought to myself you "SUCK" and you might regret it later. At this point I was starting to suffer as well, I had ran out of water and the only hydration was at the finish line. So I tried to pedal along but I alas the dehydration was taking its toll and I stared to walk my bike the rest of the hill. Soo finally making it to the top I got on my bike and made within a half mile of the finish.

"NOW THIS SUCKS", another hill with the finish line at the top. At this point I was "bonking" bad, I got off my bike and was feeling sick, people saying "YOU ARE ALMOST THERE". I wanted to stop one of them and ask for some water. I had never felt this bad before during the whole year. But I was determined to finish. After a couple of minutes huddle over my bike feeling I was going to pass out, I told myself I need to get going. So walking up the hill I did. At the final corner I saw two of my teammates trying to cheer me on, I gave them the universal sign of "BITE ME, THIS REALLY SUCKS". But with a short distance away I got on my bike and rode in.

FINISHED, I did, 133 miles, 9:38 actual ride time. It was 7:23 pm now, I had started at 7:00am. A long crazy day, but I was done, eventhough the course had beaten me down the last 3 miles, I conquered all the hills before then and was proud of myself for that.

Learned some valuable lessons this day and I'm actually looking forward to finish my next 200k in August with similar terrain.

So I think I should be ready for IM000 after that.

Ahhh, no worst for wear on Sunday, I actually woke early on Fathers day, and went for a 8 mile trail run.

What can I say, LIFE is great, sometimes even in a Horrible HILLY kind of way.

"New Beginnings"

So this week the kiddo graduated from pre-school and will soon enter the official world of school later this year. Alot of changes has occurred during her 2 years of pre-school. The teacher says she is one of her best students and singers. Well, I agree she is the loudest singer in her class, drowning out the rest of her classmates during the graduation ceremony.

A social butterfly, I must say, she likes hanging around boys mostly. Oh brother, she is giving more Grey hairs already. Maybe that is why I need to go run out in the woods for long periods of time know and then.

But this also has been a new IronMan beginning for me as well this week. I was actually content on doing what I can training wise and just be happy with finishing IronMan Wisconsin, since I have had a crazy racing year already. But after my Half IronMan on Sunday, I realize if I don't PR in a big way at IMooo, I will be not content with my results. All this hard-work and stay in the status quo at the IronMan level will not sit well me with me indeed.

So the"casual" training mode has been upgraded to "get your ass" in gear mode for the rest of the IronMan training schedule. I'm still going to have fun and not totally get stressed about the whole thing. But some quality training I'm must do. The plan is still for me not to put a great deal of effort in getting faster in the swim. Concentrate on becoming a better cyclist and put in a semi-Ultra-Running mileage on the run during some weeks.

The hardest part will be trying to limit my cheese danish & bear claw consumption to one day a week.. Oh, I'm starting to get the sugar withdrawal shakes already.

So with that, the epic "critical mass" bicycle ride is on Saturday. The Horrible Hilly Hundred, a sold-out event of 1000 cyclist trying to conquer the hills of Wisconsin. They say if you can do this you should have no problem with the bike portion of IronMan Wisconsin..

"THE TOUGHEST ONE DAY CHALLENGE RIDE IN THE MIDWEST" the caption says!

Hmm, I think folks, this is going to hurt, maybe in a big way. My longest bike ride this year has only been 70-80 miles. So this will be 1 of 2 on my 200k(124 mile) bike ride training schedule. But a fun day it will be, because "suffering" does need company. I just hopefully I can stand upright at the end of it..

Time to become a VIKING!!

"The Rock-Mann"

So my 1st triathlon of the year was Sunday. A Half IronMan, no doubt ~1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, then a 13.1 mile run. I wish I could say I had a stellar performance, but it was not meant to be in my legs this day.

I started the week out being sick the entire week before the race, actually still trying to get rid of this dang cold. Arrgghhh..

In the morning, I met up at the race with some fellow TriClub members to pick up our packets and get settled. It was going to be a perfect day for the race. An Inaugural "Rock~Mann", 1st time race director also, so hopefully everything was setup accordingly.

So around 7:00am the swim start went off. I think it was a little bit chaotic, it was a mass swim start, but I 'm not sure where the exact starting line was. But off everybody went heading for the first turn buoy. It was a little bit jammed up in the beginning. When you have 400+ people heading for the same object it can get a little bit messy out there. But I did feel I was swimming okay, swimming with other people no fact, that meant I was not getting totally blow away out there. The water was calm entire swim, but then came the turn and the big patch of seaweed that waited for us all. The seaweed was pretty thick, the worst I swam in so far. It was pretty relentless, It was all over my head, in my mouth, at one point I thought I was cocooned in it for a second. Not a calming situation for a not so fast swimmer in the first place. But somehow I made it through the two lap swim. I made a mental mistake or two out there, like swimming towards a lifeguard, thinking it was turn buoy. Crap, that put me way off course. Not sure what my total time was, but I guess I'm used seeing most of the bikes gone from T1, which included both my teammates. So what else is new.

So for T1, I had this "bright" idea, to attach my shoes to my bike when I left T1, it makes for a quicker T1 they say. So after the bike mount line, I put one foot in and then started to ride to put the other foot in. OH, that did not work, the other shoe scraped the ground, I was stopped dead in my tracks. So after 3 attempts and people looking at me, I finally was on my way, but felt like a total dork trying to do it. I guess I should have practiced this "bright" idea first.

So the first half of the bike went well, I was passing alot of people on the bike, I had my egghead aero helmet on and was riding at a descent pace. I had passed kickstandpam early on, and was trying to track down the two other people I knew racing this day. I knew they could get me on the swim but I was determined to reel them in. But after checking the time of my first half bike split, my other "bright" idea of avg 21 mph on the bike was not going to happen. I was starting to loose steam, getting tired after 50 miles, my ass was hurting and I wanted to get off the bike and start running. So I think I averaged around 19 mph for the 56 miles, not any better or worse than I usually do, but I so wanted to improve so much this year.

So T2 was pretty uneventful, I had reeled in one other person on the bike and just had to figure out where my other TRI club member was to get pass him some how. But the run was mine, I felt I could catch up to him.

So after mile two I saw my fellow TRI member, he was having some major nutrition issues and was walking, I said hey "Bill", which would have been okay, but that was not his name, maybe I was getting a little loopy myself. But a medic volunteer was on his mountain bike near him, so I went along knowing he had support out there.

Then the showdown began, I was leaving for my run when kickstandpam was coming into T2, so she was not to close behind. But I had the male ego thing going for me, actually better yet the male UltraRunning ego, so I could not let her take me down. On one of the early out-back sections we passed each other, to my surprise she was going out fast, a fierce determination in her eyes to reel me in. But I had a least a half mile or about 8 minutes on her. So I know I could not slack off. The run was a pretty undulating course, something I actually prefer to run in. I was keeping in a zone 2 pace, actually ran really comfortably, I even shocked myself.

So on the last 3 miles I knew I had held off the charging kickstandpam, I ran a descent 13.1 mile run, since I hadn't done any brick work, I was happy with at least this part of the race. I think I did a 8:49 minute pace. Not really fast, but it was okay for now.

So the total time was 5:45:23, not even close to my 5:30 time I wanted to do. Yes, I'm a little disappointed with my results, but felt more comfortable doing the whole distance as a whole, so hopefully I will get faster next time. I'm at least not getting slower, but this consistency thing is starting to not sit well with me these days.

But like all things, you give it your best shot, and I had fun racing with some friends, especially since I finished ahead of all of them (hee hee). As for kickstandpam, her first Half IronMan, she did awesome, so it was a GOOD day indeed.

But please Race Director I will be back next year, but I want my T-shirt next time.

"Ode to the HIM"

My 1st Triathlon Race week is upon me. I have had consistent 16+ hour training weeks for the past two weeks. Even-though I'm pretty more laid back this year about Iron-Man. I call my "Causal" training mode, but my A.D.D. does tend to take over and has me Triathlon training in only one gear. "More is better". Still not sure it is the right approach, but hey, that's what I'm going with this year. Volume, Volume, Volume!!!

My weekly goals from now on:

Cycling: 120~150 miles per week

Running : 30-35 miles per week,

I suck at swimming ~ goal just to stay afloat each week

This weeks stats:

Cycling: 128.32 total miles
(Outdoors: 64.07 miles)
(Computrainer: 64.25 miles)

Running: 32.3 total miles

Swimming: 5700 meters/yrds (same thing right?)

One freezing Ass open Water 1 mile swim!!

I have been trying to concentrate on trying to bike ride at a faster pace lately. Even though I got dropped like a bad "blind date" by the 23+ mph avg. pace group at our TRI club ride yesterday. I at least made the effort and stayed with them for a little while. That is a big change for me, I'm usually just content just to hang back and look for "road kill" on the road.

But I must say, trying to go faster is not in my comfort zone just yet. I think I prefer to suffer for longer periods of time at a more constant mind-numbing state then feel my legs burning from the lactic acid I'm generating. Oooh ouchy..

Hmm, so when is Ultra season again for me?

So with my TRI race (Rockman Half IM) coming on Sunday. I will try to PR in my bike split and try to hold off the charging kickstandpam during the race.

Until then, I will leave you with these thoughts for the week:

"Don't wait for something big to occur. Start where you are, with what you have, and that will always lead you into something greater." ~ Mary Manin Morrissey