'ike loa

After the 85 mile hilly bike ride followed by an hour run, on schedule today was the long run for the week – 2.5 hours.

I expected to be very sore and uncomfortable on the run, but surprisingly, I felt strong, without much soreness.  I was still tired from yesterday’s training so keeping my HR down in zone 2 was tough.  I settled into a 13:40 pace and my HR floated between high zone 2 and low zone 3. I could have slowed my pace down, but feeling as good as I did on the run, I decided to stay at the 13:40 pace. At a 13:45 pace, I am looking at 6 hours to complete the marathon distance portion of IMNZ, a time that I am very comfortable with. The route I took also had about 800′ feet of elevation gain, so my HR would have been lower if I ran a flatter route.

Thanks to the generosity and support of my mother, I purchased a new Cervelo P2 on Friday.  I don’t have much time left until IMNZ, so I decided to break it in on the hilly 85 mile ride from Solana Beach, to Lake Wohlford, and up Coal Grade Road.  The P2 has a compact crankset (FSA 50/34) and a 12-25 cassette so I was hoping that the hills wouldn’t be torture.

Coach Ginger suggested that I skip the hills and instead ride the coast as I was breaking in a new bike and that I was recovering for a sinus infection.  At the first SAG stop at about mile 20, I told her that I would go up to the bottom of Lake Wohlford Road and see how I felt since everything was good so far.

The ride out to Lake Wohlford was great.  Bike was smooth and comfortable and I felt great.  At the base of Lake Wolhford, I decided to give it a go, and headed up.  Took it nice and slow and paced with teammate Grace.  Kept heart rate fairly low and just took it easy on the climb up.

Hills, yay!

I ended up committing myself to the rest of the ride once I went down from Lake Wohlford and through Valley Center past the Indian casinos.  At the SAG before Coal Grade, I chatted with Coach Steve and Coach Ginger and I decided to give Coal Grade a go. Wow! The first part of Coal Grade was tough.  Teammate Jay said it was a 12% climb and it was a serious challenge on the P2 with the gearing that I had.  I ended up standing for that section of the climb and my heart rate climbed into mid zone-5.  The climb was definitely working me.  The rest of the Coal Grade climb was a more reasonable 6-8% grade.  It felt good to reach the top. From that point, only about 30 miles (mostly downhill) left on the ride and I was still feeling comfortable.

I made it back to Solana Beach after about 6hr 44min of moving time and more than 5500′ of climbing that my Garmin 305 reported.  Other team mates recorded more elevation for the same route, so it was more likely closer to 6500′.  I felt surprisingly good after the ride.  But I still had to follow up with an 60 minute transition run.  The P2 was fantastic and after the grueling ride, I felt so much better than I did on my older road bike!

I did the run at a decent 13:12 pace and felt that I could have run more than 60 minutes.

Ride and run profiles:

I had the best swim session of the training season thus far.  3400 yards (136 laps, just under 2 miles) in 90 minutes.  The race distance is 4225 yards or 169 laps in the pool.  While I still have a bit more to go, I should be at that distance next week.

During the 2011 Christmas holiday, I came down with a fairly nasty sinus infection.  It caused coughing that wouldn’t clear up and my last hard ride was on December 23.  As we were heading into a recovery week after Christmas, I focused on getting healthy, but it just didn’t happen that week and I was only able to do minimal training.  So I saw a doctor about it.  The doctor checked for pneumonia and I was clear there and then put me on antibiotics to clear up the infection.

Thinking I was on the road to recovery, I was looking forward to getting back into training after New Years.  Unfortunately, my father passed away on New Years’ Eve after a long battle with a terminal disease Multiple Systems Atrophy (MSA).  I travelled back east to be with my family during this very difficult period. My father was a great man and I miss him dearly. I am sad he won’t be able to follow my progress during Ironman New Zealand.  He is much of my inspiration for attempting such a difficult challenge.

While back east, my infection was clearing up so I did manage to get a few good runs in.  No bike or swim, so I am a little behind on that.

Ironman New Zealand 2012 is rapidly approaching and the team is still a long way from our goal of raising $500,000 to help cure blood-related cancers.

Your donation can help us achieve our goal.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if 2012 was the year that a cure was found?

Your support for the team and the cause can possibly make this a reality.  Any support you are able to give is that much more that can be given for research, supporting patients and supporting their families and it really makes a difference in so many lives and in so many ways.

If you are able, please support with a 100% tax-deductible donation. $5, $50, $500.  No amount is too small or too big.  No matter what you can give, you can make a difference.

As I am recovering from a fairly tough cold and severe cough, my training for the year is more or less wrapped up. Fortunately, this past week was a recovery week so getting sick didn’t put me too far into the hole.

I have logged over 1400 miles riding and running.  And over the past month logged about 20 miles swimming.

We now have about 5 weeks of fairly intense training left, then we start tapering in February.  Only 2 months away from the event!

Today was a beautiful day for a ride.  Clear and crisp in the morning and warming up to the mid 60s by the afternoon.

The workout was Cabrillo Repeats: meeting at Liberty Station, riding up to Cabrillo National Park and then riding up and down to the tide pools on the west shore line six times.  Then ride back to Liberty station and do a 45 minute transition run.  Made for a fun elevation profile and about 3K of climbing over 32 miles.  The most fun was going down the hills where I hit a maximum speed of 40 mph.  Too bad IMNZ isn’t all down hill!

The transition run was pleasant and very flat.  I was able to maintain a decent pace while keeping my HR in zone 2 and I was able to keep it fairly consistent over during the 45 minutes.

My life seems to have been on hold for the past few weeks as I attempted to balance work, training and personal and family commitments.  Fortunately, I made it through November and the Thanksgiving Holiday relatively unscathed!

The daily schedule challenges, balancing 3 different aspects of life (as well as trying to find time to sleep whenever possible) only serves to remind me how fortunate I really am.

The challenges I face are by my choice.  I can choose to do something or not.  There would likely be consequences if I skipped training or decided to take a break from work.  But the choice still remains.

While on my long 60 mile ride this weekend, I had ample time to reflect on everything going on in my life and then think about those that have been robbed of any choices.  Our honored team-mate, Dave Orlowski, for example.  He didn’t have a choice about cancer.  He doesn’t have a choice to battle his disease.

My father is in a similar place.  He was robbed of choices when he was stricken with Multiple Systems Atrophy.  The life he worked so long and hard for is no longer his to enjoy.

So when the different aspects of my world collide in a spectacular manner, I reflect on the fortune that I have a choice whereas those that I am honouring through my journey to Ironman New Zealand do not.

Today the team road the Great Western Loop.  It is a wonderfully hilly ride that through some very scenic and remote areas of eastern San Diego county and the Cleveland National Forest.  As per our training, this was a long, slower ride at sub-lactate pace as much as possible.

A winter storm had passed through the day before so it was a bit chilly in the morning.  Broke out the arm warmers, jacket, leggings, and full fingered gloves for the cold weather. Nice amount of climbing, about 4200′ over 45.5 miles of distance and some good grades so it was easy to stay warm going up the hills.  Going down, it was quite chilly but very fast and fun!

For much of the ride I was able to keep my HR sub-lactate on average but it did get a little high on some of the steeper climbs.  Felt good when I did the transition run that followed so I worked the ride at just the right intensity.

The team also was fortunate to be joined for the ride by our honored teammate Dave Orlowski!  Dave introduced himself to the team as many of us haven’t met him before. Dave shared his story, including completing the very first Ironman on February 18, 1978!  In January 2010, Dave was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphonic Leukemia.  Though Dave is battling cancer, it hasn’t stopped him from pursuing challenges and he has completed 18 Ironman competitions.  He embodies everything we are doing as a team and individually — raising $500,000 to help find a cure for blood cancers and completing Ironman New Zealand!

Riding with Dave made a great ride an exceptional one!

Now for the general ride profile: