New Family Wheels - Cycle 20

It's hard to believe that I have just completed my 20th cycle.  Truthfully, it still feels like I am just getting started with my Ironman training.  But the fact is that I only have 10 more cycles and one more race before my goal race.  My life has really changed over the past 20 cycles.  My life has become more hectic than ever.  I find myself searching for extra time in every day.  My training volume has never been higher then it's currently at and I will still need to find time to add nearly 2 more hours a week in my peak week.  My life revolves around 3 things right now; training, my family, and work.  That is about all I have time for these days.  Unfortunately, the only one of those I have been willing to sacrifice is my family, how bad is that?  I keep telling Sarah, "Just another 3 months and it will all be over."  She keeps clinging onto the hope that she can manage to get through the next 3 months and things will be back to normal.  As much fun as I am having training for this event, I do miss the flexibility to do things such as go camping, visit friends, go on vacation, go away for a full day, etc.  Needless to say, it's been a complete life adjustment.

This previous cycle was one of the few weeks where I actually worked close to a full rotation at work.  I still took the last day of my rotation off just to have more time around the house to get some things done with Sarah.  June 2nd was our 6th year anniversary of our wedding and we have been trying to get out to dinner with just the two of us.  We also wanted to get out and start car shopping since our 2005 Hyundai Sonata was nearing the end of its life.  So, with taking Wednesday night off from work, gave me Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday off from work.  Wednesday was my "turn-around day" and worked until Wednesday morning at 6am and needed to take a short nap before taking advantage of my night off.  We made arrangements for my parents to babysit the girls while Sarah and I did some car shopping with intentions of going out for Sushi after test driving some vehicles.  Well, we test drove one vehicle and decided we liked it enough to buy it.  We bought a 2012 Ford Flex after doing online research and test driving it once.  We started our shopping around 5pm and by 9pm we were driving away in a "new-to-me" car.  We love the new ride - it has a ton of room for the potential of a 3rd child or just the 4 of us plus our dog.  It has a 3rd row of seats and decent gas mileage which was we were looking for.  Unfortunately, since our spur of the moment decision to buy a car took much longer than we anticipated we missed our opportunity to go out for sushi.  We immediately made arrangements with Sarah's sister to watch our girls on Friday night so we could finally get out for our anniversary dinner.

How delicious does that look?

Friday, I had a full 8 hour block of SWAT training from 0800-1600.  Saturday, was my first triathlon of the 2013 season in Elkhart Lake.  Elkhart Lake is about an hour to the Southeast of Kaukauna.  The race started at 7:15am.  I knew I would be leaving early enough as it was, so I opted to run down to Elkhart Lake immediately after training and pick up my race packet to save me time the morning of the race.  I brought a change of clothes to training so I could pick up Sarah immediately after picking up my race packet and go out for our dinner.  Both Sarah and I absolutely love sushi, it's one of our special dinners that we save for special occasions.  After our dinner, it was straight home so I could finish packing for my race and get to bed at a decent time as my alarm was set for 4:15am.  Below are the stats from the triathlon and finishing results. 

My stats and race times from the Elkhart Lake Triathlon.

The race came and went on Saturday and was back home around noon.  I was very happy with my finish in the triathlon, placing 6th overall and 1st in my age group.  You can read a full race report here for the Elkhart Lake Sprint Triathlon.  Sarah brought the girls to the Flag Day Parade in Appleton with her mom and sister in the afternoon.  So, I stayed home and got some chores done around the house.  That evening/night we went to my aunt’s house form my cousins' graduation party.  My two cousins, Justin and Stephanie had a dual graduation party.  I found myself falling off the wagon at the graduation party.  I drank too much and ate nothing of nutritional value.  I had done so well all cycle leading up to Saturday.  It wouldn't have been so bad if it was a piece of cake with one or two other treats, but it was multiple pieces of cake or cupcakes, cookies, desserts, trail mix, and beer.  It seems like whenever I am around food that is just sitting out, I can't help but just eat to the point of discomfort, it's pathetic actually.  This is the exact reason why I am 3 months out of the Ironman and my body weight is still between 165 and 170 and not between 155 and 160 as I want it to be by the Ironman.

Brief Recap

This was my first cycle with more than one day with multiple workouts.  I had 3 separate days which had both a morning and evening workout.  On top of the dual workout days, I had to make a couple changes to my originally scheduled routine to work in the Elkhart Lake Triathlon.  I moved things around and scheduled a 13 mile long run on Wednesday and then a 50 mile bike and 3 mile brick run after on Thursday.  I kept my morning swim before SWAT training on Friday and then used the Elkhart Lake Triathlon as a workout and an opportunity to practice transitions.  I ended up getting stuck in the basement on my indoor bike trainer twice this cycle due to rainy conditions.  Unfortunately, one of them was my 50 miler.  Yup, I rode for two and half hours on a stationary bike in my unfinished basement.  Let me tell you, it was BORING!  After I was done, the rain had stopped and I was able to get outside for my 3 mile run, which was nice.  My body continues to adapt to the increased demands I am putting it under.  Last cycle I remember being generally sore from the increased volume, but this cycle I seem to have adapted and am handling the increased volume well.

Favorite Workout

My favorite workout from this cycle came right away at the start of the week.  My first workout of this cycle was a scheduled 3,600 meter swim and 40 miles of biking.  I again planned to split the bike by biking to the YMCA and then completing the swim and biking the remaining miles after my swim.  I planned it out to bike 10 miles to the Y and then 30 after my swim.  I became a little concerned on my way to Y due to some extremely dark clouds coming from the West.  I decided to take what comes and just keep on pushing forward.  I lucked out and the clouds dissipated by the time I got to the Y.  My swim workout consisted of a reverse pyramid.  I started by swimming 800 meters and then took 100 meters off each following set.  So, my remaining sets were 700, 600, 500, 400, 300, 200, and then 100 meters.  I finished the 3,600 meter swim set in 1:12 and was back on the bike for my 30 mile ride home.  My workout from start to finish, including time spent getting down to the pool and back on the bike took about 3:45, which wasn't too bad at all.  I have really taken a liking to the split bike/swim/bike workouts.  They seem to save time and are a fun way to couple up workouts.

Moving Forward

The focus of my upcoming cycle is the High Cliff Half Ironman on Saturday, June 15th.  My training schedule leading up to the race is minimal.  I have only one day of double workouts.  One of my favorite workouts to do a couple days before a big triathlon is a "mini triathlon."  I don't do them often due to the time constraints of putting together multiple short triathlons.  I do them based on time and do 2-3 sets of them.  The way I structure them is to swim for 10 minutes, bike for 15, and run for 10.  My plan is to do one set and then take a short break to reorganize my gear and do a second set of them.  Doing this style of workout allows me to spend time on transitioning from one disciple to the next.  They are a great workout to do the week of an important triathlon race.  They can really help ease the nerves of a triathlon and the unknown for tri-newbies. After the race on Saturday, it's right back into Ironman training.  The triathlon is my last opportunity to fine tune my strategy for the full Ironman.  It is my last race of any distance before the Ironman as well.  After this weekend, my midweek training volume will decrease and my weekend training volume will see a large increase.  My training volume needs to increase to the demands of a 140.6 mile triathlon.  

Thanks for checking out the blog and the continued support!  Be fast, be strong, and carry on!

The Osthoff Resort is absolutely gorgeous!  It was the host of the Elkhart Lake Triathlon.