The Iron Geek

Having completed my marathon, I’m looking ahead to the next phase of this journey.  Last August, after a minor bike crash and a significant case of burnout, I had taken almost 3 months off from training.  Then I made the decision to focus specifically on my running in preparation for the Georgia Marathon.  I had became overwhelmed with the Ironman workout schedule and concentrating on my running was the right thing to do at the time.

But now the marathon is over and it’s time to get back on that horse.  With 31 weeks and 6 days until my Ironman, there is no time to lose!

I have worked with my coach and landed on a great schedule of warmup races this year.  They are as follows:

• 5/14 - Super Sprint - Peachtree City, GA
• 6/11 - Sprint - Savannah, GA
• 7/10 - Olympic - Chattanooga, TN
• 9/25 - Ironman 70.3 - August, GA
• 11/5 - Ironman 140.6 - Panama City Beach, FL

I also plan on sprinkling in various 5K and 10K races as we go, as well as some fun stuff (like the Warrior Dash on 5/15).

My top 3 goals for the next 32 weeks:

1. Improve My Swimming
2. Lose Weight
3. Increase My Speed

You may remember that my swim is in pretty bad shape.  My overall swim fitness is low, my stroke needs some work and I need to get comfortable in the water.  I have signed up with a swim coach at my gym.  We seemed to hit it off on our first visit and as both a swimmer and a triathlete, he understands what I need.  I’m looking forward to working with him.  My triathlon coach wants me to focus on beating the swim cutoff for Ironman (which is 2 hours and 15 minutes).  That means I need to be able to do 2 laps in the pool in about 3 minutes, 42 times!

Losing weight is another top priority.  I estimate that have 47 pounds to lose before race day.  I’m not going to force my weight to a certain level, I say that I should be about 180 pounds based upon other people that I know, and consider to be in good shape, and using their relative weights.  The fact that I woke up to a 227 this morning, compared to the 235 I have been at for weeks, is a great start.

Finally, I need to increase my speed.  I just re-read a great book called Brain Training for Runners.  It talks about how your mind does some internal calculations about the distance you are going to run, and the pace you can run to meet that distance/time.  The book goes into ways that you can train your brain to increase that pace.  I would absolutely love to get down to an 8:30 pace.  My last 10K was at 1:05, and that involved too much walking.  An 8:30 pace would put me at just under 52 minutes, so that is my new 10K goal.

I’m writing this post at 5:30 in the morning, getting ready to head out for my workout, so hopefully that is a trend that will continue.