My 2013 Calendar is filling up fast!

2013 is certainly going to be the most active year I've ever had, in terms of registering for events.  Here we are in January and already my calendar is getting full and I'm having to look out for conflicts and events that are too close to each other.  Here's what I've already signed up for: Feb. 2:  Louie Bonpua tri at Pacific Grove - Not sure if this is open to the public or a private Team In Training thing.

April 7th: SLO half marathon (possible)

April 13th: Wildflower practice weekend with TNT

May 4th: Wildflower Long course (half Ironman)

June 2nd: America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride (around Lake Tahoe, out to Truckee)

June 21st: Tahoe training weekend with TNT

August 4th: SF Giants Race (half marathon)

September 22nd: Ironman Lake Tahoe

So that's where I stand so far, in terms of events worthy of putting on the calendar.  This is going to be a great year, but a lot of travel...

New Year update

Happy 2013 everyone!   I hope the new year finds you well - it certainly has found me well.  2012 was a pretty good year overall, but was mostly a year to catch my breath and get my bearings.  (The new house, the toddler, etc.)  After a year like that I'm ready to hit the ground running and make 2013 a great year. 2013 brings the next phase of the house remodel, an Ironman, and who knows what else.  I started the year off right with a great bike ride this morning up Mt. Hamilton, and the day was perfectly beautiful, if a bit cold.  The last quarter mile of the ride had pretty solid snow covering both sides of the road.

Speaking of training, December was a great pretty good for exercise.  My Team in Training effort started off with a swim workout cancelled due to a storm, and I skipped a workout due to cold and rain, and missed some "On Your Own" workouts, but overall it was a strong month.  Here's a picture of my training calendar from last month:

As you can see, it was a busy month.

Fundraising also goes well, with over $2,700 raised against my goal of $8,000.  That includes five people (or couples) that have donated $200 or more!  Thanks to everyone who has donated any amount towards my effort to help find a cure for blood cancers.

Rolling with Power

Training starts this weekend and been taking it easy, in preparation for the work I am about to do.  I've been spending the time since the Giants Race resting up, working on the house, being a parent, etc.  Things that I won't be able to do as much after 4-a-week workouts start next week.  (OK, really 6 a week workouts if you count the "homework" we're supposed to do on our own.) I've also been studying a lot about endurance racing physiology, diet philosophy, and training strategies, as well as making a few investments in equipment.  The main book I have embraced is "Going Long" by Joe Friel, which talks about every aspect of training for an Ironman, with much of it specific to the first-timer like myself.  One of the main thrusts is to train smarter, AND harder.  (but foremost, smarter)

Part of that is pacing and balance of training load, and one large component of that is learning to use a power meter during training and racing.  The power meter lets you measure your cycling performance much closer to the muscular chemistry than Heart Rate does, and is a MUCH better guide than "Relative Perceived Exertion", otherwise known as "How You Feel".

Craigslist came through with a PowerTap last week, just in time for my training effort.   Thanks to the all the fitness lost to 3 months of downtime away from cycling I'm almost back at square one.  That means that I'll be able to track my training and improvements right from the beginning all the way through race day.  (After which I'll probably be so sick of all this I'll be ready to hang up the bike forever...)

I picked up a bike trainer as well since there's a weekly spin workout every Tuesday night for the next forever.  Using a trainer with the power meter is a great combination because otherwise, how do you really know how much of a workout you're getting in?   Since the resistance of the trainer is so arbitrary and you're not actually going anywhere, the only thing you have to gauge your performance is heart rate.  Using power zones is a much better way to get exactly the workout you're looking for, and track the results much more precisely.

So that's the summary from the last month.  Not too much going on on the triathlon front, just preparing for the impending storm.  Fundraising has completely stalled at 25% but you can expect me to pick that up once things get going again as well.

Kona Ironman on TV today

Sorry for the late notice about this, but the annual NBC coverage of Ironman from Kona airs this afternoon on NBC. (Check local listings, as they say.) The show is 2 hours instead of 1.5 hours this year because NBC thought that Lance Armstrong was going to be racing back when they scheduled this.  Doing the TV show in October instead of later in the year was also because they thought Lance was going to be racing.  Of course, after his doping problems he wasn't part of the race but we still get the longer, more timely tv show because of him.

Trials riding on a carbon roadbike

If you like road biking, you need to watch this video:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZmJtYaUTa0 which shows just what a full-carbon road frame will put up with in the hands of Martyn Ashton. There's a short video of outtakes here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee54EP-nho4 where he mentions that the whole thing was done one one frame and one set of wheels.  Only two small nicks to the carbon, and one flat suffered the whole time!

I did some freeze-frame CSI-style analysis and the wheels are Hope RS wheels.  I can see the aluminum braking surface but I'm not sure if they're all-aluminum wheels or carbon/aluminum hybrids.  (carbon wheels with aluminum braking surfaces)

Either way, this answers questions like "Can I ride my road bike all the way around Perfumo Canyon Road to See Canyon Road even though it's not all paved?"  Yes, I think you can.

One year out

We're one year out from Ironman Tahoe 2013, which will take place on September 22, next year.   With one year left to train and one year left to fund-raise, things are looking good.  Let's take a look at where I am. Things are going well on the fundraising front - This thing has been officially "on" for almost two months and I'm at 20% of my goal of raising $8,000 to fight blood cancer.  You can check my current progress at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and donate if you'd like.  If I can keep this pace up I should make my goal before the race next year which would be totally awesome.   Thanks to each of you who have already donated!

I'd like to make a special shout-out to the newly wed DiVerdi couple, who donated $250 and then had it matched by Adobe!   That's huge!

As far as training goes I'm also doing well.  I'm working on endurance in all three sports and trying to avoid sprints or over-doing anything in order to keep healthy. (except for one teensy-weensy little half marathon - see below.)  I've managed to go half-Ironman distance in all three sports in the last month which is reassuring.  Not in the same day - just individual efforts.

I'm nowhere near ready for the real thing right now but it's nice to be able to swim 2,200 yards or bike 56 miles and visualize what's needed to double the effort.  I'm feeling good about both of those sports and I can see how to build the volume to get where I need to be.

Running, however, is a different story.   Running is clearly my weakest sport and given the magnitude of the run and the fact that's its the last event, the run is going to be the hardest.  The only way I'm going to be ready for that leg is a slow, steady, smart build up in run endurance.

Having said that, last weekend had some over-exertion in the form of a half-marathon at the SF Giants Race.  It was way longer than I would ever go in a training run at this point but it was a lot of fun and it was a good chance to collect some data and experiment with my run/walk strategy.

The run/walk strategy went well (6 minutes jogging, 1 minute of walking) and my heart rate was looking good up through mile 11 when it started to climb a bit, indicating I was at the end of my range.  I couldn't have gone much farther without digging WAY deeper.  Normal amounts of soreness followed for the next couple days, so I think everything went very well.

In summary, things are looking good.  I've got a year to go and I'm pretty sure I've got the training under control.  I leave it up to all of you to make sure the fundraising part gets done as well.  I appreciate the help!