The Endurance Pig: Following in My Dad's (Running) Shoes

Me and my dad!

This past Sunday was Father's Day, no surprise, or at least it shouldn't be. It's personally one of my favorite "Hallmark" holidays. Not only because I am now a dad and have been one for 4 Father's Days, but because it also gives me a chance to reflect on my relationship with my father and my grandpa. My dad's dad died when I was too young and never had a true chance to really get to know him. But, my mom's dad passed away while I was in college which gave me ample time to establish a relationship with him. I remember the day he brought me and my cousins to a farmer's market in town and bought us each a bunny, unbeknownst to our parents. He was also a very passionate Christmas Tree Farmer and every year after Thanksgiving we would spend hours nearly every night over at grandma and grandpa's house to help sell Christmas Trees and help make wreaths. Nothing, however, compares to a relationship between a father and his son. I grew up in a family of four, one brother, and my two parents, a household of boys. I remember growing up and going hunting and fishing with my dad. He was my little league baseball coach, our Den Leader for Cub Scouts, he would try to do it all. Really, if there was something my brother or I needed, he would usual volunteer to help out, no matter what it was or how much (or little) he knew about it. My dad was a "tough loving" father, he and I would butt heads more than I can recall. Especially in High School, it seemed the two of us would fight over something so meaningless on a weekly basis. Turns out though, he was just watching out my brother and I. Now that I am older and have kids of my own, I can see exactly what he had to endure; you do what you can to set your kids up for success and hope the follow your lead. My dad was and continues to be a role model to me. I try to mold my life from his. He taught me everything I know and still teaches me about common, simple tasks around the house. He is the hardest worker I know and does everything he can for my brother, mother, and I. He taught me that there are things in life that you will not agree with, people you will not like, situations that are out of your control, and you simply have to deal with them - that's life. He taught me what it means to work hard and be committed to something whether a hobby, career, or anything else for that matter. He is also to blame for my love of endurance sports. He started running when I was still in Middle School to try and stay healthy. He lead...and I followed. I ran a marathon and I said, "I want to do that." And I did. He ran the Boston Marathon and I said, "I want to do that." And I did...with him. That is one of my proudest moments as a person, son, and runner. Truthfully, how many people out there can say they got to run the Boston Marathon with their dad??? Fact is, it's hard enough to just qualify and run it alone. Now, my dad is a grandpa to my two daughters and they absolutely adore him. I love watching him play with them. It's because of my dad who dealt with the struggles of raising a kid at such a young age and continues to stay healthy and active, that I too, want to be as healthy and active as I age. I want to be a grandfather that is able to play with my grand kids and hang in there with my own kids as they reach their 20's and 30's. So Happy Father's Day Dad! And a sincere Happy Father's Day to all the other dads out there, enjoy the day and joys of being a dad!

Outside of spending time with my family and my in-law's on Father's Day, the main focus of this previous training cycle was my last race leading up to Ironman Wisconsin - The High Cliff Half Ironman. This race was on Saturday, June 15th at High Cliff State Park. The race went just about perfect. I felt great throughout the entire race and felt just as good after the race...dare I say it was easy? I finished in 4:45:06 which placed my 18th overall and 6th in my age group, which for what ever reason was, by far, the most competitive age group of them all. 3 of the top 4 finishers came from the 25-29 age group. You can read a my full race report here: High Cliff Half Iron - Race Report. The evening after the race we ate dinner at my in-laws house and went out for my traditional post-race ice cream treat. This time we opted for frozen yogurt from Orange Leaf. I tried their Peanut Butter Frozen Yogurt, which was right up my alley! It was so good. I would definitely recommend trying an Orange Leaf if you have the chance, it's the same concept as a Cherry Berry, where you fill a cup on your own with frozen yogurt and then can top it with any topping you'd like from their topping bar. You pay by weight after you are done with your creation. Orange Leaf's frozen yogurt is much smoother and tastier than Cherry Berry and is cheaper too - it's a win-win!

With having my final big race this cycle I took 3 days off from work leading up to the race since it fell on the morning of my first night off. So if I hadn't taken off from work, I would have worked until Saturday morning at 6:00am with the race starting at 7:00am. There is no way that would have worked out. So, with having the extra time off, we had our close friends, Pat and Melissa and their son Lucas over for dinner and a fire on Thursday night. Friday was a rest day to recover and go into the Half Iron race close to fully refreshed. With having no training on Friday, Sarah and I took advantage of the free time and brought the girls to Menominee Park in Oshkosh. Not only is this a really nice park set on the shores of Lake Winnebago, but they have a small free zoo. The girls loved seeing the animals at the zoo. The new otter exhibit was a family favorite. After the zoo we had a picnic in the shade, played on the playground for a while and ended the trip with a ride on the carousal. It was a great way to spend a rest/recovery day before a race.

Brief Recap

My training this week revolved around the 70.3 (total miles in a Half Ironman race) race I had on day 7 of my 9 day cycle. My most specific workout was a couple sets of mini-triathlons on Thursday. I did two sets of a quarter mile swim, 5 mile bike, followed by a 2 mile run. I only do this type of workout the week before a key triathlon workout. This workout takes a lot of time and effort to accomplish. First, you have to drive to the lake, set up for all three sports, and then lock up all your gear when your out doing each sport. It can become rather cumbersome to say the least. But in the end they are extremely beneficial, because they allow you to see the race course (assuming that's where you do them), practice transitioning between each discipline, and you body gets used to doing all three sports back-to-back-to-back. I did not schedule any full off days for recovery after the race, to be honest I am not sure why, but I scheduled a recovery effort swim for the Sunday following. Even though a 70.3 distance race takes more time and effort to complete than a full marathon, it seems like I am not left nearly as sore as I am after a marathon. I did Sunday's swim in a yard pool, as opposed to the meter pool I usually swim in. It was a 3,000 yard swim and was just 10 sets of 200 pull followed by 100 kick, pretty mindless. Now, for Monday's workout, I don't know if I am tough, crazy, stupid, or just in good shape, but I scheduled a 50 mile bike followed by a 6 mile brick run. On Sunday morning I was having second thoughts on that combo and was really wanting to stay in bed come Monday morning at 5am when my alarm went off. My mindset going into this workout was to just take it easy and not to stress about my speed or pace. I used my road bike to stress the easier effort. I came off the bike feeling better than expected and with an average speed of 20.3 mph, which was faster than I had thought. I went out on the run with the same mentality, of just taking one step at a time and listening to my body and breathing easy. I finished the run feeling surprisingly really fresh. I finished the run with an average pace of 7:10/mile, which again, was faster than I had thought. I was extremely happy with this workout, and realized that I shouldn't have worried about that much volume 2 days after a 70.3 race. It showed exactly where my current level of conditioning is at and leaves me motivated for the last two and half months of training. After my long block of training I stopped at my favorite coffee shop, Seth's Coffee. Normally I will only and always get a straight black coffee, no sugar, no cream, just coffee. This time, since I was in such a good mood after a good workout, I opted for an Iced Carmel Mocha....good God...it was good, it hit the spot after a tough, hot, workout!

Favorite Workout

My "transition area."

My favorite workout this cycle were my mini-triathlons from the Thursday before my race. I enjoyed these because I rarely get to do them and the fact that I got to do them in High Cliff State Park. My swims were both great, and both of my bikes started by climbing the bluff that gives the park its name. My run's also ran up and down the hill which provided an unique challenge to the workout. The efforts of all three disciplines were at or below, what I would consider a Zone 2 effort. Now, I don't specifically train at prescribed heart rates, but I have been training long enough and know what efforts fall where, or at least have a general idea of what type of intensity I am at. These workouts, where not done to elicit a physiological benefit, but were strictly done for the benefits of going from swim to bike and then bike to run. They obviously helped as my transition times in the 70.3 race were among the fastest of the day (T1 was 27th fastest and T2 was the 7th fastest).

Moving Forward

The High Cliff Half Iron race was my last event before the Ironman (I sound like a broken record). I now have 82 days of nothing but training....and a lot of it. I will now focus on a lot of biking, more open water swimming, and working on a strong run coming off the bike. My next few cycles are in the midst of our busiest time of the year for work. We have to staff two major concert festivals in a span of about 4 weeks. The first is Country USA from June 25-29th and then comes Rock USA from July 17-20th. I have adjusted my training plan to work around my odd work schedule as we are scheduled to be out at these festivals, regardless if they fall on our scheduled off days. I have no double day workouts scheduled for this cycle, but do start to incorporate back to back long brick days. I have scheduled these to include one long bike and shorter run brick workout and then a second day of a shorter bike followed by a long brick run. This cycle has an 80 mile bike followed by a 4 mile run on my first day and then a second brick consisting of a 40 mile bike and 16 mile brick run on day 2. Those will become the "meat and potatoes" to my training plan moving forward. My hopes is they will strengthen my legs to be able to put a strong marathon time in coming off the 112 mile bike of Ironman Wisconsin.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!!!

Be fast, be strong, and carry on!

Some of the professional photos from the Elkhart Lake Triathlon came available this week and can be found below.