What it takes.

For me to prepare to race this coming weekend in my first Half Ironman Challenge took:

A heart's desire and a life of passion.

18 weeks of: 31 hours of Swimming, 79.5 hours of Biking, and 106 hours of Running.

And many hours of Strength Training, Walking, Hiking, and Yoga.

Confidence in my training schedule and believe that I have trained enough to perform well.

Confidence in my nutrition plan for race day.

Mental exercises of simulating each event of the triathlon race.

And if something unexpected happens I'll deal with it to the best of my abilities while remaining level headed.

I believe this is what it'll take for me to have fun swimming 1.2 miles, biking 56 miles, and running 13.1 miles.

Let's get ready to rumble.

Now I can start my 2 week taper for the Great Buckeye Challenge Half Ironman.

I've been through 16 weeks of hard training and now I'm ready to take the challenge of my first Half Ironman race.

Today's 50 mile (2:55:49) bike ride was in the Cuyahoga Valley National Parkway. I felt quite comfortable for the ride and for the last 15 miles I was able to push the pace to average 20 miles per hour. I had no gels but only 2 water bottles filled with Hammer Heed in 1 and Hammer Perpetuem (with 1 added scoop of organic soybean powder) in the other. During the ride I had no sense or feeling of thirst or hunger. At least for today that was all the food I needed for the ride because I felt good.

Today's picture perfect moment of the ride was when I noticed in an open field sun rays shining down on an angle with the morning dew rising over some old farm equipment. I wish I had a camera to capture that moment.

Another highlight of the ride was when I passed the lead runner of the inaugural Burning River 100 mile foot race. I applauded and encouraged him and continued on my ride. It was a cool feeling to see the lead runner. He look quite strong and relaxed.

I was looking forward to seeing more ultra marathoners later in the day because I would be pacing a friend for the run. I originally signed up to volunteer to help man the 91.3 mile aid station but found that they had enough help and was encourage by the aid station coordinator to just go and help pace with my friend. My friend (Dustin) wanted me to meet him at the 65 mile aid station and to hopefully, run to the finish, depending on how I feel. His wife would be his support crew and would call me when he was about an hour from the aid station so that I would have plenty of time to make the check in and be ready to run with Dustin.

I'll report on the run in a day or two.

Fun in the sun.

We had a wonderful time with the family during our stay at the Deer Creek State Park resort. There was on average 30 of us together every day for the week. And to quote my youngest son, "I loved every minute with our family at Deer Creek".

Not only was it a perfect week of fun in the sun but the training for my half ironman was the perfect getaway place to train.

Grandma enjoying her 5 generation heritage.

My in-laws with the grand kids, including my 4 kids.

Biking on the country roads.

Swimming in Deer Creek Lake.

Saddled up to ride off into the sunset.

I now am in my final 6 weeks of training for the half ironman triathlon which is 4 weeks of speed/quality phase and then 2 weeks of taper. The schedule is not a very heavy load but it sure feels like it at the home front. My wife expresses with emotion that she is not happy with all "my time" of training and that it is all about ME. Boy, do I have to be careful when choosing the right time to take off for a 2 to 3 hour workout. I am including the family to bike along while I run my long runs, and we all have a great time.
The next 4 weeks look like I'll be swimming about 1000 meters and running 12 miles on Saturdays. On Sundays I need to bike 50 miles then go for a 20 to 30 minute run. If I can survive these next 4 weeks I'll be ready for that half ironman.

Training updates

I'm in my 8th of 18 week training for the Buckeye Challenge Half Ironman. There are 4 more weeks left of base training to build up strength and endurance. During this build up phase I am focusing on not missing any of the bike rides. And up to now I have been able to keep on track by not missing any of the long rides. Although, finding the time and place to ride becomes a challenge. I have to be creative with my time and route.

I ran 20 miles this past Sunday to begin the counterpulsation tests for this week. This is part two of a test that began at the end of March. At that time I was training for the Boston marathon and had run my last 20 miler before tapering for Boston. Results from that test showed that after the 20 mile run and under normal recovery my blood levels went back to normal after 5 days. This time I ran 20 miles, only 2 minutes slower (2:26:14), and I felt little discomfort or soreness. The blood test after 2 days so far indicate a faster recovery compared to the previous test. The faster recovery is what the lab techs were expecting, due to the counterpulsation test.

The counterpulsation consists of laying flat on your back with these cuffs wrapped around each leg completely and air is force into the cuffs to compress the legs so that the blood is forced back up into the heart during the resting phase of the heart beat. The lab techs monitor the blood pressure to make sure the lower number of my blood pressure does not exceed 1.4 times higher than the upper number of my blood pressure. For example if my blood pressure is 114/80 then when the machine is pumping air, in rhythm of my heart beat, the blood pressure may read 114/114. Anyway by using this method it is supposed that muscle recovery is enhanced by 2 to 3 days. The only discomfort I have is when the cuffs compress my legs it feels like someone is constantly punching them all over. I have to lay for 1 hour for 5 days. Three more days of speedy recovery. Oh, boy!

If I had to pay for this speedy recovery I'd say no thank you. But rather they are paying me $500.00 for this fancy test. I'm a triathlete so I put up with the little discomfort and enjoy the cash.

With the $500.00 I will buy a Garmin Forerunner 205 Wrist-Mounted GPS Navigator and Personal Training Device, and a weekend backpack for my lovely wife.

I will post more test results and numbers when I complete the test.

Weekend get away.

Friday evening, I took the family, including the grand kids, out for a weekend getaway at a church retreat home to enjoy some rest and relaxation. We stayed in a log cabin home with 6 other couples. The home is located in a rural area of Ashland, Ohio.

Saturday I got up early, but not early enough to watch the sunrise, to run 8 miles. I had mapped out an 8 mile loop on country roads. The skies were overcast and the temps were around 50 degrees. The route was fairly flat and the only encounters I had that morning was 1 car, 1 horse & buggy, and 1 loose dog to chase me. I love running, or riding, on country roads and not have a car or dog scare me off the road. A dog, I can yell at to, 'go home', but a car is too big for me to mess with.

Sunday afternoon the weather was beautiful with lots of sunshine which was perfect for a bike ride. I was able to get out and ride an easy 30 miles.

I'm enjoying the easy pace and efforts of running and biking during the build up phase of my half irnoman training. Most of my training efforts is in the 110-120 bpm heart rate range which comes out to be about 17mph on the bike and 7:45 per mile on the run.

This Friday I will participate in a Maximal Oxygen Consumption Test (VO2max) and will get some real data to help determine my correct levels of heart rate for running easy or hard.

Wasting no time.

I'd like to thank my family, friends, and including those I've never physically met here in blogger land, for all your encouraging words sent to me for running the Boston Marathon. I am motivated to train and race well, in part, because of all your kind words.

To recover from the Monday marathon on Tuesday I walked 30 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the afternoon. Wednesday was a day of rest. On Thursday I swam for an easy 1000 meters. The soreness in my legs lasted for a good 3 days and by Friday I felt no pain walking up or down the stairs. Friday was another day of total rest.

On Saturday I ran an easy 5 miles with my son along side me on his scooter. He thanked me more than once for the good time we had enjoying the park scenery while chit-chatting.

On Sunday I rode my bike outside, for the second time this year, for a nice 24 mile ride.

This week I start an 18 week training program for a Half Ironman triathlon. I will use the tri-newbies program to help keep me focused and on track for the August 19th event.

The first 12 weeks is a base build up of mileage. Weeks 13-16 consists of speed/quality workouts followed by weeks 17 and 18 to taper. If I can keep most of this schedule I should be confident and happy to compete in my first Half Ironman Triathlon.