The Winter Blues - Cycle 8

This past cycle was busy. I was just coming off a recovery cycle, so my body was feeling refreshed and ready to dive into a week of high volume. Only downside was the weather continues to not cooperate. Temperatures varied this past cycle from sub zero wind chills, to a day with temperatures nearly hitting 40, we also had a day of rain and a day or two of snow - so we had it all. You just got to love Wisconsin winters. Needless to say, I have had my fill of winter this year. I don't know if statistically speaking this winter has been any worse than previous winters, in terms of average temperatures, days with sub zero wind chills, or total snow accumulations; but this winter has been just dragging on and making me more and more frustrated. It could potentially be that this winter I started taking on training for the Ironman and my training volume is higher than it has ever been for this time frame. The fact that I simply have been inside training for hours a day running on indoor tracks and treadmills or stuck riding my spin bike in the basement is probably leading to my winter blues. I want nothing more right now than to see green grass, leaves on trees, and be able to get outside again! But, realistically, I probably have about another 2 weeks of similar winter weather before a stretch of cruddy winter/spring mix. I'm hoping that by the end of March I can be back outside on a regular basis riding and running comfortably. Regardless of the weather, this past cycle has come and gone, yet my winter blues remain.

I really like my new race kit!

Some pretty cool things happened this past cycle. For starters, I finally received my Team Kit from TheTriShop.com, along with a ton of extra goodies. I have been waiting for nearly 3 months for my stuff to arrive and this past week, it all finally came. I was fortunate enough I found out that I was selected as a member of TheTriShop.com Team in November and they sent out ordering information before Christmas, so many of the extra items I ordered were Christmas Presents from my family and my in-laws. We were required to order at least one kit and the kit consists of a pair of socks (if we choose to wear socks during races), a pair of triathlon shorts, a 3/4 zip triathlon tank top, a hat and/or a visor (again if we choose to wear hats/visors during races), and a water bottle. We were given the option to order extra items if we wanted to. The race suit came in black and white. We also had the option to order a bike suit consisting of bike shorts and a top. As far as the team kit goes, I ordered a set of each color, a few pairs of socks, a hat, a visor, a couple water bottles, and a bike suit. On top of the team kit items I ordered, I also ordered a few items from out Team co-sponsors (TYR, Fuel Belt, Hoka One One, and XLAB). From these co-sponsors I ordered a Fuel Belt Hydration Belt, a TYR Transition Bag, TYR Travel Luggage, TYR Wetsuit Maintenance Kit, a TYR Swim Jammer (think spandex shorts to swim in), and a TYR Sport Dry Off Towel. All the products are great and everything I hoped for! I seriously can not wait for race season to get here to start using these products and to start representing my sponsor - TheTriShop.com.

My team kit order from TheTriShop.com

All my gear and team race kits

In addition to receiving all my goodies from TheTriShop.com, I also set up a group on FaceBook for the Team this past cycle. I did this as an easier way for us to connect with one another throughout the triathlon season in regards to the races each of us are competing in as well as keeping everyone posted on training and a way to ask questions about training and racing. It turns out, majority of the team joined the group and it has really taken off as a platform to stay connected! It's funny, because, I would assume if just your everyday person (non-triathlete or endurance junkie) were to follow the timeline for the group they would think we were all crazy and need a life outside of triathlon. But to us (or at least me), we find it to be a place to to to share photos of our workouts, share our successes and frustrations, and to vent about life when it doesn't seem to cooperate to allow for a training session. If you were to see the timeline, you'd see pictures of our bikes, guys in compression leggings for recovery, ideas and thoughts on nutrition and other triathlon specific gear, and everything else endurance related. It seems as though we feed off of one another. To me, it provides a source of motivation. Seeing other teammates share the same passion and drive that I do, who are going through some of the same frustrations and struggles that I am as well as seeing their early season successes is neat to see and keeps me focused as well.  It has also given me the chance to connect with my teammates who also blog about their endurance/triathlon journeys.  I have link to their sites on the far right column of my page, check them out!  Many of them are doing some pretty cool things.

Some of you may have been made aware by my FaceBook post and maybe some of you noticed just out of dumb luck. But, this past week, my blog official grew up. I registered a domain for the site to give it it's own identity. I was lucky enough that one of my first few choices were available. My first choice was www.irondad.com which was unavailable, most likely due to it's simplicity. My second choice was still available, and www.irondadtriathlete.com was born! I used the services of godaddy.com to obtain my own domain, which is good for one year, with the option to renew after the first year. Along with getting my own domain name, I know have an email address specific to the website - admin@irondadtriathlete.com. I wanted to get a specific domain name for my site to make it easier to remember with hopes that it continues to grow. I have really enjoyed blogging as a way to keep a journal of my journey to racing Ironman Wisconsin. That, way I will be able to look back as a way to remember what I had gone through to get there. I also enjoy sharing recipes, workouts, and other various aspects that others may want to try. As of right now, I have all intentions of continuing this site after the Ironman as new goals and adventures develop in my life.

As far as new updates go, that's all I got for this past cycle. Like I said, I had quite a few new things to talk about. As far as training specific updates, this previous cycle was overall pretty successful. I stuck to my nutritional strategies and ate pretty well all cycle. I have continued to focus on gluten-free foods, along with healthy fats, such as avocados, olives, and olive oil. I have tried to eat some form of seafood each day for my form of protein as well as a salad made from dark leafy greens each day. I feel as though I have been loosing some of my "winter coat" even though the scale hasn't had as significant change as I feel my body composition has. My current weight has been fluctuating around 167-168. Which is right were I'd like to be for late February. Ideally my goal is to be around 160 for the Marathon in May and between 155 and 160 for the Ironman. The ultimate goal is to remain healthy throughout the season and fully recover from all the workouts I complete. So, if I am unable to accomplish both of those at 155, then 160 or 165 will be my target weight.

Brief Recap

This past cycle was successful in that I didn't miss or have to make modifications to my training plan at all. I was able to sick to my plan as prescribed. I had two scheduled training days at work which were both during normal business hours, as opposed to my traditional 3rd shift schedule. The first day I was given off from my night shift due to training during the day and the second day of training was during my scheduled off day. The benefit to having training scheduled during a scheduled off day is there is no need to adjust my sleeping patterns or adjust my regular shift hours. The downfall to training of off days is the lack of time to train. I normally schedule all my long workouts on my off days when I have more time to complete them. However, when I have 2 hours of training scheduled on a day with an 8 hour work day thrown in the mix makes training that much more difficult. I made the adjustment to my training plan by splitting the scheduled brick workout into a 2-a-day, by biking in the morning before training for an hour and a half and then running 3 miles after training. It worked out pretty well, other than being pretty tired by the start of my run. I was able to talk a good friend that I work with into running with me after training. I ran with Bob, the same guy who ran the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon with. I normally don't run with others, just as a personal preference, but this was nice. I enjoyed the company - especially since it was just a easy paced, short 3 mile run.

Favorite Workout

My favorite workout from this past cycle was my race pace long run. I was stuck indoors again due to getting a decent amount of snow overnight and the temperatures dropped quite a bit along with near zero degree wind chills. It's kind of funny, because I always tried to be the "tough guy" who would run outside no matter what the weather was. But, ever since I got sick the day after running in -12* wind chills, I have found myself taking the smarter approach and staying indoors. I was scheduled to run 14 miles with 6 of those 14 mile done at my goal marathon race pace of 6:49/mile. Running a 6:49/mile pace would put me right at a 2:59 marathon. So instead of doing the entire run on a short indoor track or on a treadmill, I split it up between the two. I started with 6 miles at a moderate pace (7:30/mile) and then jumped right onto a treadmill for the final 8 miles. The final 8 miles were broken down as follows; 1 mile at 7:30/mile pace, 6 miles at 6:44/mile pace, and the final mile at 7:30/mile pace. I was feeling really good so I bumped up the pace to a 6:44/mile pace. I felt really good throughout the entire run, which has me optimistic to run a sub 3:00 marathon at the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon in May. Obviously, I have a lot of work ahead of me to prepare myself for running a sub 3 - especially considering I only did 6 miles at my goal pace, but I'm not going to talk down my motivation or my optimism. I have never incorporated race pace specific workouts in the past let alone specific pace work in my long runs. So this will be sort of an experiment of sorts for me. In the past my long runs were just that, long runs at a slower pace. My only speed work in the past was 800 meter repeats (yasso 800's) and mile repeats. I would occasionally do tempo work, but I would have trouble finding a good time to work tempo runs into a training week when I was doing speed workouts and long runs on top of shorter recovery runs. But this year I am determined to break that elusive 3 hour mark!

Moving Forward

This upcoming cycle will be busy as will the cycle after. I have a 4-hour midday training block scheduled between 2 nights of work from 2-6pm. To allow adequate time to get some sleep, I adjusted my training plan to have a shorter workout on the day of the training to allow me to get to bed earlier than usual. I plan on getting up and going to training after about 4-5 hours of sleep and then hopefully catch a quick nap before heading back into work after training. I have learned that the key to making 3rd shift work, is not only a flexible family, but being able to be flexible with you sleeping patterns. Granted, it will never be as great as sleeping at night, but you just have to be able to make the most with whats given to you. I still stand firm that exercise and proper nutrition have only helped with surviving the rigorous 3rd shift schedule. On top of the day with a midday training, I have a day with 800 meter repeats, another goal race pace long run of 14 miles with 7 miles at goal pace, and a full day of training on my last off day with another two-a-day AM/PM split workout. It should be a good cycle of training, especially if the weather can start making the turn towards spring and I can start getting outside more regularly. Although, by looking at the forecast, it looks like some more of the same - snow, snow and more snow....

Thanks for reading!
Be fast, be strong, and carry on!

Stuck in my basement on my spin bike...all alone

After a good hard run workout, I go straight to my compression sleeves.