The Endurance Pig: Spoiled With Great Mothers

Other than the Paper Discovery Duathlon, this past cycle was really nothing special. The Duathlon went better than expected, with a new PR for that race with a time of 1:13:32, which was good enough for 12th overall and 3rd in my age group. If you haven't done so yet, you can read my race report for the Duathlon HERE.

The final day of this cycle was a special day which I really don't take for granted - Mother's Day. I have been blessed with having caring and loving mothers throughout my life. My very own mother has always been there for me when I needed a mother or needed to talk to a girl about relationship problems or other typical female stuff. I grew up in a house of 3 guys and a mom. I was the oldest of 2 sons. I can still remember always going to mom after dad would yell and holler at me for not listening for not behaving. She was always caring and supportive throughout my life. When I started dating Sarah, she took her on as the daughter she never had. At that same time, it was as though I inherited a second mother. Sarah's mom, Barb, is literally the most loving, caring, understanding person I have ever met. I have been with Sarah since our Freshman year of high school. Since then, Barb has treated me as one of her own son's. Sarah comes from a family of 4 kids, 2 sons and 2 daughters - so it's not as though she has never had a son, but she literally has and continues to, treat me as her 3rd son. Both my mother and Barb can usually be found on the sidewalks or near the transition area at most if not all my races. I am truly spoiled with the support I get from the mothers in my life!

My mother, Mary Jo

But nothing compares to the love and support I get from my wife, who has officially been a mom now for nearly 4 years. There is no way I would be able to do a quarter of what I do without the support she offers. She may do it with a little kick back every now and then, but 95% of the time she just allows me to get my workouts in, spend money on races and gear, eat more nutritious than she'd probably like, and spend weekends training. She has giving me so much more than love and support and 2 beautiful daughters - she gives me time away to do what I love. I realize I just talked about this a couple of posts ago in "The Truth Behind the Training" but training for this Ironman is clearly the most selfish thing I have ever done. Having a 2 year old and a 3.5 year old only compound the selfishness.

Sarah, Delaney, and Maya

Sarah not only puts up with me, but she is honestly the best mother I know. She does so much for our girls, she puts them first no matter what. She is always thinking of them in everything she does. She is always looking for a way to make them happier or make their life better. She goes out of her way to make them happy. So, not only is she making numerous sacrifices in her life for me to train and do what I love, she is making sacrifices everyday for Maya and Delaney. Both Maya and Delaney are truly lucky to have Sarah and their Mother!

Brief Recap

This cycle was the start of my taper for the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon. which is pretty evident by the decrease in training volume. This past cycle saw only a total of about 12.5 hours and previously I had been near 13-14 hours. I was also able to work in a race as part of my training without sacrifices much training surrounding the couple days before and after the race. I had my last "long" run on 8 miles on Mother's Day morning as well. But by far, the workout that stands out most was my long training day, day 8 of 9. It was the day I debated in my last post. I had planned on a long bike ride of either 40, 50, or even 60 miles on top of a 2 mile run. No, it was a real long brick workout, not even the longest I have done within this training plan. The key was the fact that it was to be done the weekend before the marathon. I will not rehash the debate I had with myself, but you can read it in my last post from Cycle 16. Anyway I decided I would do a 50 mile bike ride followed with a 2 mile run. I had everything set out, there was a chance of early morning showers but they were supposed to let up mid morning and give way to mostly cloudy skies with a lot of wind. I left the house around 9:15am with overcast skies and an off and on sprinkle. Oh boy, did that change quick. Shortly after setting out, it started to rain harder and got windier. The temperatures were hovering right around 40 and there was even talk about wind chills - yes - wind chills in May. They were saying it felt like it was about 30. The winds were powerful. They were blowing steadily out of the NNW at at speeds between 20-30 and gusts even higher than that! I continued to push on thinking "Hey - what are you going to do if this is the weather on September 8th?" I continued to push until about 8 miles in and I was sincerely concerned about my safety. My body was soaked to bone, even though I was dressed in my rain gear and all my nice new cruddy weather cycling gear I specifically asked for for Christmas. My feet and hands began to go numb and I started thinking seriously about the possibility of hypothermia if I were to continue riding for the full 50 miles. I was also concerned about my safety with the high wind gusts on top of the heavy rain. There were times I would get blown into the middle of the road. Plus the roads were wet and with the tires that are on my bike (no treads and are about less than an inch thick) a wet road becomes very slippery. I turned around at mile 10 and headed home to finish the ride in the basement on my trainer. I rode a total of 20.1 miles in 1:03. I rode for an additional 1:37 for a total of just over 2:40. By now, the sun was out and the rain had stopped. I was able to finish my 2 mile run outside. I was so frustrated with the fact I had to ride in the basement, I really debated going back out side to ride the 30 miles I had missed.

Favorite Workout

My favorite workout was the second workout of a two-a-day workout. I did a relatively short swim in the morning of 2200 meters and then came home and went to bed for the day. I was up around 4:30pm and then I had a scheduled bike fitness test. It was my first bike test of the training plan. My bike tests consist of a 40k time trial. A 40k is 24.8 miles. I first start with a 4 mile warm up with short sprints sprinkled in. I then start riding the 40k time trial as quick as I can and then cool down for a few miles. I have never done anything remotely close to this type of workout in the past, so I didn't really have any idea of what type of time to expect. The closest thing I could compare it to was my duathlon bike time from a couple days ago. I ended up riding the 40k in 1:08, or roughly 21.6 mph. Not great, but not terrible. Especially considering I had just raced pretty hard 3 days before the test. I rode for a total of 32.08 miles and the weather was actually pretty nice. I was able to ride in a short sleeve bike top and cycling shorts - which beat the hell out of the tights and jacket I have been wearing. It definitely showed a lot of room for improvement, which I hope the extra cycling efforts in my training plan after the marathon, all the way right up to the Ironman, will greatly improve my relative bike fitness.

Moving Forward

I have a rather unique week for me this cycle. First off, I am working regular person hours Monday through Friday, 8am-4pm. I then took Saturday night off and then have the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon on Sunday. Working traditional hours will be different as I will be forced to get up early some days to get my training in before I leave for work in the morning. I am pretty fortunate to have this training this week is that it pretty much guarantees that I will be able to sleep regular hours at night time for more than a full week leading up to the marathon. So the idea is that I will be fully rested leading up to the race. My final key workout before cutting WAY back in training volume and intensity is a 25 mile bike follow by a short 1 mile brick run on Tuesday morning. After that workout my volume is cut and I start adding rest days. My goal is the same as it has been now for the past 2-3 years, run a sub 3 hour marathon. My training leading up to this race has included more race specific pace work then ever before. I have included speed work on top of race pace work, not to mention the extra work in the pool and on the bike. I have put up some great times in my shorter races, but non of them can compare to the marathon. The marathon is a completely separate beast. It is just as much a mental race, than it is a physical race. A lot of things need to go right to run a good time at a marathon. For crying out loud, its 26.2 freaking miles! The best runners in the world still take over 2 hours to finish it. That's a long time for a lot of little things to go wrong. I am going to be doing my best to keep the negative out and keep the good vibes and good karma in my head for the full 26.2 miles and we'll see what happens. Although this is my first A race of the 2013 race season, I still need to keep the eye on the main goal - Ironman Wisconsin. I can not afford to come out injured from this race. I simply can not sacrifice all that training time. I will need to race smart this Sunday. I can not be the stubborn fool I am often known to be, if I am not feeling well or if I start to feel something go bad I can't be afraid to pull out of the race. I hope to God that does not happen, but I have to be smart. My plan is to run as even splits as I can and try to err on the side of caution and try to leave myself a couple minute cushion for the 2nd half. Please feel free to follow my progress at this website TRACK YOUR RUNNER my race bib number is 186.

Until then, Be fast, be strong, and carry on!