Building_An_Ironman's Blog

12:28.07  - 2.4miles swim- 112miles bike - 26.2miles run

Well, it is one week since the Ironman finished and it is still digesting. What a day. First and foremost I'm very happy with the result considering the conditions up in Lake Placid last Sunday. I wound up finishing with a 12:28.07 time, and for a first Ironman, that was right about where I hoped to be on that course. Adding in the fact that during the race which officially runs from 7:00am to midnight (17 hours) it rained hard for 14 of those hours, I'm even more pleased.

So the wrap up goes like this. I'm up at about 4:30-4:45. everything has been taken care of days earlier, so I really just have to put on my swim suit, remember my "dry clothes" bag which has my wetsuit in it right now and goggles and cap, put on a sweatshirt and pants and wake up my wife to say good bye. I pick up my dad at his hotel so he can bring the car back over to Lisa for later and he drops me at the shuttle bus into Placid. I'm surprisingly calm. It's business at this point, but I'm enjoying it. At the Olympic Oval (the transistion area, finish line and Ironman central) I get to my bike to top off the tires, then head over to the body marking area to have my race number (865) and age scrawled on me with a sharpie, then I pull on the wet suit and start the 1/4 mile walk to the beach at Mirror Lake. Still surprisingly calm. It's about 6:20 or so.

At the lake, everyone is gathering and there is quite a crowd there as well. Still feeling very calm, sipping on a Gatorade and just waiting. Then a light rain starts up, but is brief and on and off. I see Lisa and my baby Hope with my mom and aunt at the start which is very nice. A perfect send off. Walk through the arch to "beep" my chip and into the water to wait for the cannon. It's a little cold once your wet and waiting, and I get a chill, but not for long. I start a bit off to the right and hope for clear water. I've heard tales of really tight condidtions. At the cannon we're off and I manage to find realatively clear water and swim a solid, and very relaxed first loop in 37 minutes or so. The second loop things have thinned out and I'm able to swim right on the cable that is set under the race course buoys, which make it easy to maintain a straight course. Nothing eventful and a relaxed 1:12 total swim time. Out of the water, my family hears them holler my name over the PA system, I do not. I get to the "stripping" area and they drop you on your butt and help you pull off your suit, lift you up and hand it back to you and your off on the 1/4 mile jog back to the transition area. I see Lisa, Hope and company, give a kiss to them and now it is raining. I mean downpouring. I get to tranisition, which is a muddy mess find my bike to swim bag and head to the change tent. Inside it is a completely dark, foggy tent of triathletes trying to quickly change into bike gear. I had to feel around blindly for things in my bag, bike gloves for example. "Are my shorts inside out? where are my glasses? Better put on sun screen in case the sun comes back out (yeah right) and cooks me for 6 hours." Finally out of there and a quick stop at the porta john then collect my bike. I'm moving at a very relaxed pace here, trying to focus on keeping my heart rate low all day. Then I'm out on the bike.

Instantly, I'm cold and not happy. It's dumping rain here. I focus on the job navigate the downhill out of town and then find a groove. Lots of folks in the area I'm riding. Drafting others is not legal, but there must be concession at this point, it's pretty cramped... About 5 miles into the race there is a 7 or so mile descent and on a clear day with dry roads you can get up to 50 miles an hour. It was really wet and nasty, so I ended up topping off at about 40. The real problem was at the bottom, my core temp had dropped due to the rain and 40 mph and I had only a race top on, which is a tank top. I'm chattering at the bottom thinking, give me some up hills so I can get my body temp back up. But there is another 6-10 miles of flat before you climb. About thirty miles into the loop, I stopped at an aid station and asked for some cardboard. If you watch grand tour riders they jam newspapaer into theie shirts for the descents. I figured cardboard would insulate and be a bit more durable. The kind lady at the aid station produced a trash bag and helped me cinch that on. I'd have to stop again later to tighten the drag strip parachute up, but it was keeping me warm now and my temp became comfortable again. Back into town (LP) there is a 12 mile stretch with a pretty continuous set of climbs. I was feeling really great on the climbs and was dropping folks all over. The problem for me was that I was hydrating well and not sweating, so had to stop to pee like 5 times.  I probably added 20-25 miutes to the bike for that, but I was enjoying it and had been told by everyone, "go easy on the bike, or your run will suffer". I did. At the final climb on the second lap, I saw Adrian, a friend from my swim group. He had come up to watch and sign up for next year on site. He hollered at me that I was looking great. I hollered back that I felt great. Then it was off to the run.

Back into the transistion area, now a series of ponds and mud. Someone grabs your bike and it goes away and you find your "bike to run" bag and go through the tent again. I made a point to get close by a door so I could see better and made better use of the time there. The volunteer in the tent asked if I had a marathon in me. I said, "yes, I have no choice". I felt really good anyhow and out the door I went. The run start is down hill for a half mile or so, which is interesting after the bike, and then you come up a good hill and flatten out. I was running well and got to the second aid station and got some cookies and gatorade. I ate pretty much everything they had on the course except pretzels. So, cookies (a few kinds), watermelon, energy gels, gatorade, oranges, bananas, chicken soup broth and maybe one or two other things. I was running about 9:00 pace which was fine. I hoped to keep the whole thing under about 4:20, and this would do that without a problem. On advice from friends who have done Ironman before, I intended to walk the aid stations and a few choice hills. I did this as planned to keep my heart rate in check. It worked perfectly. At mile 8 I met a guy who was just fed up with the rain (which was still dumping on us). I asked how he was doing and he mentioned that he had spent 35 weeks training for this and it was depressing him that this was the condidtions on race day. I said we were going to drag each other in and he was OK with that. We paced well and basically shot the #$%^ for a few hours, passing folks the whole way. Back in town, you get an energy boost from all the folks lining the street and it's nice because they print your name on your race number so people call out support to you. My running partner was named Mark also, so people had fun with that. The second lap was much of the same and only for a bit between about mile 19 and 23 did my legs feel not so good. Mostly my left knee and my calves which have been really tight for a bit here, probably due to bike volume.

The end of the race was great, I got my legs back and felt I could have gone on running. I paced at 9:38 which included the stops and hills, so probably was closer to 9:00-9:15 when running. Couldn't ask for more than that after 2.4miles swim and 112miles bike. Unfortunately, due to circumstances, my wife and kids, who were in the Oval when I finished, did not see me cross the line. It was a rainy mess of people there at the end. But I am and Ironman as a result. I can not thank my wife and kids enough for this chance to do this. It has been an incredible journey.  I also thank my Dad for helping Lisa with the kids on race day and giving up seeing me start the race to watch my older ones (who slept soundly in the apartment), and my mom and aunt who supported me in Lake Placid, as well. Also all the support during the year, from family, my swim group at South County YMCA, Fred for solid coaching and the race plan, Eric and Kristen for training with me and Ironman advice, Lee for tips up in LP, and all the others who helped get me there.

There will be another.

MW

buildinganironman.com

Well, less than two weeks to go. My swim coach, Fred, a veteran triathlete and Ironman competitor himself, said the other day that Ironman training is a journey. I thinkI know what he means. There have been many experiences, joys, hardships, injuries, thrills, moments of doubt, moments of confidence, that a journey is the only good description.

I'm at the edge.

Today started the taper, a two week fine tuning. Extra rest, less volume and some sharpening. This spring was blurry to say the least. My accumulated distances, for what it is worth were: swim 138190meters, bike 1548.39miles and run 376.99miles 

I had hoped for a bit more running, but not much. Maybe two more longer runs. But it is what it is. I have one long run on race day and that'll do. I actually feel alot better physically now than a few weeks back and much better than I did before my last marathon. So that is encouraging.

My excellent wife threw a surprise cookout for me over the weekend and pulled the wool well over my eyes. Several of my training partners and friends were there, two of whom I spent the entire morning riding with. Well, done Kristen and Eric keeping it quiet. Lots of fun. Lisa put us to work with our own mini-triathlon. Swim(run through) the kiddie poo, ride my son's bike or my daughter's tricycle around the cul de sac, and then run the same. Lots of laughs and fun. I told my wife that only she could get a group of established athletes, with probably 50 cummulative Ironmen and probably several hundred triathlon finishes, including national and world ranked athletes to ride a tricycle for competition.

Had to switch our lodging up in Lake Placid area in the eleventh hour. We moved off the race course to Lake Saranac so Lisa would have a better shot of getting to and from the race during the day.

Anyhow all for now. Going to bed. Rest........

MW

buildinganironman.com

Less than two months - Entry for May 28, 2008 53 days to go. Getting quite excited and ramped up. Managed to find Troy Jacobson's Spinervals training video for the virtual Lake Placid course ride. Quite cool to get a good look at the course and the tips from him to boot all while doing the loop. Hard to simulate the hills here, but we find 'em. Have been out on several big rides in the last few weeks. This is supposed to be a recovery week, but I will do hills on Sunday this week to get one extra in.

Lisa, my wife, pointed me to this page http://www.theraceforgrace.com/ . I had seen the flyer in the YMCA, but knew I was going to be out on a ride during the race. I have to contribute something for sure. Everyone go have a look and donate a bit to the cause to help try to save this little girl and others with Rett Syndrome. She lives in Narragansett, RI, where I grew up (and also our neighboring town now). This is a good cause. The race continues....

Details of the ironman race are trickling in from all friends who have been there or done the race. It's quite helpful and I'm feeling like I'm on track finally. Lots of work left in the two months or so, but its all moving in the right direction. There's never enough time to bike enough, but that's that.

More soon, MW

buildinganironman.com

Under 80 days to race time. Now it's about 9 hard weeks and then a taper. This week was a down week, so I had a few minutes to write  a blog note. I had delusions I'd write more regularly, but life gets filled up pretty quickly. Had a great party for my older brother's 40th birthday the other night. A friend asked about why I was doing this. I told him, I figured if I get this under my belt, my kids will one day learn about it and hopefully realize that anything is possible. Their mom, my wife, is a PhD and I'm working on an Ironman. What's the saying "Impossible is Nothing." So he also asked if going out that night would affect my training. I said "no", I'd be up at 5:30 for 4 hours on the bike, and there I was rolling back by the restaurant where we had the event the next day at the end of my ride...

The week before I garbled my left hip a little on a climb. Anyone who knows Shannock Hill knows the S turn on the Pine Hill Rd side. I must have gotten too tight on the turn and nearly stopped myself and got out of the saddle and yeoowch! Well, the following Sunday was rolling terrain without Shannock hill, but this week we do Punchbowl Trail, another one. I'll hvae to be more conscious this time.

Swim is going well and run numbers are increased well also. Have to go long on a run this week, probably 2- 2:30. Was going to do the Innagural Pvd. Marathon, but time better spent on the bike. I can always run in the dark. Time is truly at a premium with three kids, one under 1 year old, a full-time job, training, and life (what, oh yeah have to mow the lawn to keep the dreaded ticks away).

all for now.

MW

Can't believe it, but it is so. Less than 4 moths to the Lake Placid Ironman start gun.  Long time, no write. I'll keep it brief. Last two months are very fuzzy, February included many hours of work and a decent dose of workouts, a trip to Denmark. Lame-o. Worked like 12 hours a day. May as well have been in New Haven... just staring at a computer screen debugging software. :-( I got back to the States and read in the Projo that there apparently were 6 days of riots in Copenhagen while I was there. Had no idea!

March... Beware the Ides of March, and the revenge of lingering winter colds. Was sick for three weeks with chest fever, Bronchitis, flu-like misery and then a sinus infection. Had to scratch from this year's New England Master's Swim Championships this very weekend. Have been on the bike a bit since I couldn't get in the pool and running was out of the question for two of those three weeks. Well, time to rebuild and get in game shape here.

Baseball season is starting so that is always a good thing. Nice distraction....

Out, MW

So, kids are sick, wife was sick, I was a bit sick too. Happy holidays and all that sort of stuff. Merry Christmas. Please take home some leftovers and some air-bourne illnesses. Son had the croup last week, hardly any sleep for us. I was on the floor there two nights. Then baby Hope caught the cold. She's still got the cough, and stufffffffy head. Kindly the FDA has removed pretty much everything for kids off the shelves of all the pharmacies. Even the dog managed to run away, eat some garbage, throw it up, eat it again and then go to the bathroom all over the downstairs. This was a day before my 4 year old's birthday party that we hosted yesterday.

And on top of that, Oh yeah, I am training for Ironman. And in the immediate future, the 1 hour Postal swim. Always seem to wind up either sick or with a sick family for this event, and then have little to no sleep. I've pretty much learned to function on 4-7 broken hours of sleep and still go out and workout, either at 5:30 am or 9:30 pm. It gets done one way or another.

Have been heavily attending physical and massage therapies and they seem to be paying dividends now. Things seem to be loosening up a bit. Still some little quirks here and there. Neither run nor bike volume have dramitically increased yet, but that will be about the third week of February. Swimming on the other hand is cranked to it's annual monumental volume for the Postal. The other night we did 72 50's, as well as warm-up, pep-up and cool down. Jammin'! Arms were draggin like Grape Ape.

Anyhow, back to the sick bay to see how the bodies are lying. Tomorrow will try to get in an hour run.

Out, MW  

OK , sorry for the absence, but this is probably mostly for my sanity and not yours anyway. Things are getting on track, but not without much issue. Experiencing ridiculous tightness when running still. It's become a real fat pain.  I've been diligently doing my Physical Therapist visits and homework, have been to the massage therapist (she beat the h$%& out of me) and am still increasing training slowly. The running is really not encouraging. I'm hoping to turn a corner here. I mean I'm able to run for an hour without issue, but then a day later, all sorts of tightness and weird pains. Like Charlie Horses again. Ran five or six miles the other day, real easy, with the dog, and two days later it still felt like some one hit me in the lower leg with a hammer. real joy. 

That said, real encouraging Postal Hour Swim training going on. I'm feeling my pace coming back and my stroke is lengthening a bit. Getting comfortable. Still not where I was last year, but with the baby and all the Lyme crap, I was about 60,000 meters short of last years swim volume (to this point in the year). Last year I managed a bit over two miles in the hour swim (Note- I lose much time at the wall since I only flip turn in sprints, I open turn if I'm going for an hour). Anyhow, I hope to get about 3500 for the team and anything over that is gravy this year. The problem there is cramping during the hour. We did 30 minutes continuous the other night and that was fine save for a bit of tightness in my right shoulder and lat, but no cramps until the fin set (no brainer there, I guess).

So I'll try to report more regularly now that things are swinging into gear. I have a travel trip for work to Denmark upcoming in February. Not really looking forward to it too much, but I guess I'll run quite a bit over there, if I'm up to that.

More soon, MW

BuildingAnIronman.com

Well, November has been better than October and hopefully it continues. Last night was the first night in three weeks that all three kids slept through the night. I'm going to bed early again tonight. In about 30 minutes tops. Last night I was in bed at 9:30. That was nice. Tonight probably 10:30, but that is OK too.

Man, those little tikes have had us running. The cold season just bombarded us this month. Still, I have been able to increase the volume in all diciplines and have gone back to the Physical Threapist. She noted several things that need work, so I have some extra curricular activities too. Shoulders are a mess, but I knew that. Posture is a big part of it also. Ahh, the pitfalls of working at a desk. Right hamstring has only 30% the strenghth of the left, and the low back needs work again. also the calves are excessively tight. I have homework anyway.

Trying to get nutrition back inorder, but it's tough. You really are run around and needs come in second or third. Came home from 2 hour Sunday swim and was falling asleep wherever I was, but couldn't get any rest. Couch, kids wanted to play. Floor of kids room, let's play wrestling.... All good fun. The holiday was busy too, but managed to get in more work than I have in past years on this weekend. Lisa is back at the gym full time too, so we motivate each other a bit.

Anyhow, have to start lining up the 2008 race calendar and see where the pieces fall....

Out, and to bed soon,

MW

BuildingAnIronman.com

Well things are moving steadily in the right direction. I'm running again, slowly, but I've finished with the run/walk intervals. So now it is straight running again. I was out this a.m. and enjoyed it and had a little pop in the step again. That's been some time.

I think I'm set back about 10 weeks due to the Lyme. I don't know how far back that set me altogether, but no matter. I will just keep building run milage and continue the biking and swimming.

We're on the cusp of training for the Postal which I mentioned previously in the blog. So I'll probably start going to swim 3x a week. I have been only going 2x and working on strength training the legs and rehab running mixed with bike on the other days. So momentum is gaining.

Things are looking brighter, just in time for the time change. oh,well. more light in the a.m., right? for a bit. It's kids cold season again too, so I have to get through that gauntlet. Now with three, it'll be like dodging raindrops, but "hey", that's life. It's all good.

More soon.MW

BuildingAnIronman.com

So I started running again this week. real slowly. starting from scratch. somethig is still definitely up with my musculature. I have these regular knots in my lower leg that are like a charlie horse, but real knot like. I have tried to work them out and will get on the tennis ball again to try to massage out the knot (try that one if you have scarred muscle tissue that you are having issue with). I just think that the re growth of damaged muscle from the Lyme is a tricky process. I don't find much info on line about athletes that have had Lyme. not too menay testamonials, etc. 

Any Lyme experts that need a case study read clearly. "Lyme disease recovering patient going to do Ironman Lake Placid".  Financial contributions accepted.  Find the grant and give me a stipend to have all of my daily rantings and test my blood.... :-) LOL

Any way, so the procedure a friend of mine mentioned to me is like 7:00minutes test run, 3:00 minutes walk. no problems,... repeat. Etc. I am adding a clock each run. each week, I add a minute to the test run, as well. I am only running a few times a week, but hopefully things will click in and I'll be able to just go about my business. The aerobic stuff is being maintained on the bike and at the pool.  Oh, I also started adding weights after bike rides and sometimes on their own....

There's the update.  Still looking at Phoenix. we'll see if by November I can run steady. It's all up from here.

Anyone see that movie We Are Marshall? Good film. What a story. The true stories are always the most motivating. At some point I'll detail the various life experiences that have occurred along this particular 7 or so year journey. Births, deaths, new apartments, new homes, new states, new jobs, and on and on....

Later,

MW 

BuildingAnIronman.com

Kind of a Lame-o entry but here you go... I'm pretty beat and it's like 11:30pm.

Swim-Bike has been the mantra lately. Have elected to rest the hamstrings by not running. Seems that the other two are fine and feeling stronger. Also have opted to start weights to rebuild some of the deteriorated musculature. It's a process.... But it feels good to get off the bike after an hour and spend 20-30 minutes working on squats and calf raises, some hamstring curls, etc.

a report on the family is that all is going pretty well at the moment. the cold season has not kicked into gear yet, which is always a joy. sick kids frompretty much november to april. hopefully they'll do alright this year. last year they were actually very healthy until about february, but then it hung around until may, just before Hope arrived. She's doing awesome. Rolled over today for the first time, Lisa reported. I haven't witnessed it yet, but look forward to it. She just smiles and lights up the room. All three are just awesome. I'll post a photo if I can sort one out here.

work is good now too. Man, it was hard going to work all through august and september on the medication and feeling like crap, and having the young baby. very zombie like. things have dramatically improved. will be doing some travel soon. DC this month and then maybe Denmark in Nov or Dec. Like to be running in a few days for a test run, and start building up again. Will probably try to get out by monday and willreport back then. Later, M

For the first time in a month, my shoulders did not absolutely kill when I used them for something, in this case moving garbage cans. This week, in fact, has felt better physically. I have been able to get on the bike 3 times and get back to Master's Swimming. That went a heck of a lot better than I thought it would have. I managed to stay in my regular lane and even lead  a solid portion of the sets. Definitely lost the feel for the water over the summer. But I think that'll come back pretty quickly. As I said, it could have been a lot worse. And with the pain I have been dealing with, this was actually ... fun.



I also finally received a new set of shifters for my race bike so I began setting that up. I stripped a wire running it through the housing. Pain in the back, because I was trying like heckto be careful with the old wire to reuse it. Oh, well.  Have to get at least one new one. I haven't ridden that bike all year. It's been in dry-dock since last September. Typically I go to my road set-up in the off-season any how, but the off-season lasted all summer this year. Now I have to figure out the running stuff again. The swim and bike feel pretty good for now....



More soon,

MW

BuildingAnIronman.com 

Well, it honestly can't be much worse than this. Today I ran 5 aching miles. I figure if I ran a 5K today, it would have been about 24 minutes. Aargh. Physical symptoms recap - left ankle no longer feeling completely sprained and tight, a good thing. In fact both ankles feel quite good, though the left still feels a bit achy afterward. Left knee, not good. hips, awful, particularly the left. deep seated pain there. hamstrings both sides are real tight and achy. It never warmed up. usually, after a mile or so, thing loosen up and feel fine. not tonight. right calf seems to have normalized again. that's a plus. that felt real bad last week. shoulders still are sore and achy too. some of that is rotator cuff stuff, but the front side pain in the musculature isn't. that's got to be the Lyme stuff. well, I figure it has to improve from here. I looked at my legs tonight after the run and thought... 140.6 miles on these limbs, ha. I'd probably force myself through it come hell or highwater, but there's quite a road to travel yet. about 300 days to go...



Out,

MW

BuildingAnIronman.com 

Well I underestimated Lyme for sure. I have been floored by this. There is high pain levels, muscle tightness, achiness, blah blah. This all started after taking the medicine. The doc says this is within normal for the Lyme and the doxycycline treatment. But I'll tell y ou what, I just got back from a 3.25 mile jog and it was S.L.O.W. Pain in the hamstrings, pain in the kness and generally speaking a pain in the BLEEP. I felt glimpses of the possibilities of being able to run long and strong again, but they were few and far between.  I am hoping that in January or March I can read this and say, remember when. It is hard to imagine it right now, I'll tell you that much. The M.D. said specifically that the residual pain could last for 2-3 weeks after the course of treatment is done. Well I have like 10 more days of treatment, so that is like another month of feeling like BLEEP. Not inspiring with an Ironman looming in the not that distant future. But I'd still like to get a marathon in 2007. Maybe it'll be alright toward the end of the year since I'll just keep the momentum going into 2008. I had planned to break after the marathon for a few weeks and do what I usually do in the months of November and eaarly December, which is recover. I focus on swimming and prepare for the one hour "postal" swim we do in January. That's one hour continuous in the pool and you see how far you get. This is done all over the U.S. and the results are mailed into a central locale (hence Postal). I've improved a bit each year and get a bit over 2 miles in the pool. I'm much faster in open water since there is not a turn every 25 meters. And the wetsuit sure helps too. We'll see how this year turns out. One year I gashed my finger an hour before the hour I was to be in the pool and had to swim with a tightly wrapped finger that included a cut off finger of a rubber latex glove to keep the nasty clorine water out. Much fun and throbbing that year. It's always interesting anyway... But it's only September. Masters swimming for the fall starts next week. that'll be enlightening and painful until this month of Lyme-ing is done. enough of my complaining for now. Ticks!

Out,

MW

BuildingAnIronman.com