Has it
been 2 months already! Jeez, time flies when you're having fun....or
incredibly busy. Here's a mind spill. My Boys
My 3rd son was born early in April and once again I got to add another day to my list of Most Incredible Days of My Life. Have you ever been so happy that you've laughed and cried at the same time? I'm not talking about "oh, man that was a funny joke, my eyes are watering". I'm talking about actually laughing and sobbing and smiling and sniffling with joy. I'll admit, I'm not even remotely close to an "emotional guy" but for some reason each of these little ones have reduced me to a blubbering mess. Maybe I am human. 3 BOYS! All I'm gonna say about that is we're gonna have one hell of tag team!
On to the update...
Busy
Everyone loves to talk about how busy they are and how much is on their plate. How hard they work, how much they train and how many commitments they have. I'm no exception. Being a family man and juggling the rigors of training for an ironman is no joke. I wouldn't be being honest if I told you training is always fun....this time around it'd probably be a stretch to tell you it's mostly fun. When I didn't have anything better to do with my time I used to love to train. Things are just different now. Sure I still love to go for a ride or run but now I'm occasionally sacrificing Saturday morning cartoons and/or afternoons on the swings.
After IMOO in September it'll be interesting to see where this all ends up. After a substantial break, shorter distance racing is something that I can definitely see in my future.
Spring Training
My past iron builds have had me in Ironman race shape by the American Triple T by May. That's the one huge difference this year that I have to keep reminding myself. I chose not to sign up for the TTT this year because there was no way I could put in the time required to participate in that event and not hurt myself. As I keep plugging away I have remind myself that only being in 3hr ride or 1 hr run shape is okay. There was a specific reason why I picked IMOO and September is a long way away!
Power Meter
Last year I had a love-love relationship with my PM. It was always telling me how strong I was and how much I was improving. This year, not so much so, more like hate-hate! It's been telling me I'm not pushing hard enough and that I'm way behind where I want to be. I've had to two separate FTP build cycles and I was quickly able to get back up to the power levels I was pushing last year. And then shit got crazy! I'm completely swamped at work and if it's possible, even more so at home. My sleep, nutrition and recovery took a dive for about a month and now I'm trying to get back on track. As a means of self preservation, I've reduced my FTP so I can build in some volume. Prior to this realization, if I could achieve a FTP workout...it was leaving me shelled for days. One of the major downfalls of my plan last year was too much power, not enough volume. So now, rather than moping around after failing workouts and constantly worrying about how far behind I'm falling, I've eased back on the intensity and have rejuvenated my joy of spring riding and raking up some much needed time in the saddle.
Comfort and Speed
Speaking of saddles, I've moved away from the Fizik Arione that I've been accustomed to for the past three years. My old bike had a round seat tube that allowed me to slightly turn the saddle off center a bit. The Cervelo not so much so and dead on center was just too much for me to handle. I tried a Cobb VFlow Plus on recommendation from a friend, road it for a month but then once I got outside found it just wasn't doing it for me...the channel cut and little nubbies were just too narrow. So after many painful hours and searching, the Cobb VFlow Max is the saddle for me. I think it looks really dorky but this is the most critical area where comfort is trump.
My new bike is sick fast. A bunch field testing on my standard routes have shown the bike to be faster by about a 1min per 10 miles. This is a testament of how sweet the new bike is but also how shitty the old one was!
So while I'm a little behind on power (about 15W from last year), I'm ahead on technology. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one to get complacent from technology. If I can stick with it and get my power numbers back up later this summer, I honestly think I'll still have a shot at getting up on the AG podium at IMOO.
Everyone loves to talk about how busy they are and how much is on their plate. How hard they work, how much they train and how many commitments they have. I'm no exception. Being a family man and juggling the rigors of training for an ironman is no joke. I wouldn't be being honest if I told you training is always fun....this time around it'd probably be a stretch to tell you it's mostly fun. When I didn't have anything better to do with my time I used to love to train. Things are just different now. Sure I still love to go for a ride or run but now I'm occasionally sacrificing Saturday morning cartoons and/or afternoons on the swings.
After IMOO in September it'll be interesting to see where this all ends up. After a substantial break, shorter distance racing is something that I can definitely see in my future.
Spring Training
My past iron builds have had me in Ironman race shape by the American Triple T by May. That's the one huge difference this year that I have to keep reminding myself. I chose not to sign up for the TTT this year because there was no way I could put in the time required to participate in that event and not hurt myself. As I keep plugging away I have remind myself that only being in 3hr ride or 1 hr run shape is okay. There was a specific reason why I picked IMOO and September is a long way away!
Power Meter
Last year I had a love-love relationship with my PM. It was always telling me how strong I was and how much I was improving. This year, not so much so, more like hate-hate! It's been telling me I'm not pushing hard enough and that I'm way behind where I want to be. I've had to two separate FTP build cycles and I was quickly able to get back up to the power levels I was pushing last year. And then shit got crazy! I'm completely swamped at work and if it's possible, even more so at home. My sleep, nutrition and recovery took a dive for about a month and now I'm trying to get back on track. As a means of self preservation, I've reduced my FTP so I can build in some volume. Prior to this realization, if I could achieve a FTP workout...it was leaving me shelled for days. One of the major downfalls of my plan last year was too much power, not enough volume. So now, rather than moping around after failing workouts and constantly worrying about how far behind I'm falling, I've eased back on the intensity and have rejuvenated my joy of spring riding and raking up some much needed time in the saddle.
Comfort and Speed
Speaking of saddles, I've moved away from the Fizik Arione that I've been accustomed to for the past three years. My old bike had a round seat tube that allowed me to slightly turn the saddle off center a bit. The Cervelo not so much so and dead on center was just too much for me to handle. I tried a Cobb VFlow Plus on recommendation from a friend, road it for a month but then once I got outside found it just wasn't doing it for me...the channel cut and little nubbies were just too narrow. So after many painful hours and searching, the Cobb VFlow Max is the saddle for me. I think it looks really dorky but this is the most critical area where comfort is trump.
My new bike is sick fast. A bunch field testing on my standard routes have shown the bike to be faster by about a 1min per 10 miles. This is a testament of how sweet the new bike is but also how shitty the old one was!
So while I'm a little behind on power (about 15W from last year), I'm ahead on technology. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one to get complacent from technology. If I can stick with it and get my power numbers back up later this summer, I honestly think I'll still have a shot at getting up on the AG podium at IMOO.
Racing
I have a handful of races coming in the next 6 weeks. The goal is to go out and have fun. Minimize the recovery needed to keep training and establish the amount of work that will be needed in July and August for my final build to IMOO. First up is a local OLY distance race (Island Lake) on Saturday. Main objectives include: getting the new bike out in Race Mode, trying not to get passed by anyone on a bike that costs less than one of my new wheels and being able to resume ironman training after a day of recovery.
That's all for now.
Hope all is great!
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