Starting From Scratch

After a post season lasting almost eighteen years, it would be safe to say I'm starting from scratch again. At least that is the way I'm going to approach this upcoming year. A newbie. When I came up with this crazy idea of doing another Ironman, I initially thought, well......I have most of the gear, all I need is a new bike, and I am good to go. The more I thought about it, and got up to speed again, I realized I was lacking more than I thought.

Without a doubt I need a new bike. To resurrect the old Cannondale would be costly and pointless. It needs a full overhaul, and then I am still dealing with 650c wheels, and a 20 year old shifting system. To upgrade those would not be cheap.

My local shop has a 2011 Specialized Transition Comp on sale for $1999........out the door. It sold for $3499 back in it's hay day. That maybe my best, most economical bet. More than enough bike for me. Honestly the $15K Cervelo P5X will not make me any faster, just more in debt.

I pulled my old Orca wetsuit out of the closet.......ya, that's not gonna work anymore. Time has not been kind to the neoprene. Sneaking another wetsuit into the house should be easy. I just hate to have to pay for another one, since I just updated all my rubber for surfing this year with a new 3/2 summer suit, and 5/4 winter suit, and booties.

So I figure that's gonna be $250-$350 for a decent wetsuit.

Runners. Both my road and trail Hoka's are nearing the end of their life expectancy. Mind you I haven't bought a new pair since 2014. I did take all of last year off from running, and just used them for hiking in the woods. Not too concerned about my trail shoes, since the forest floor is cushy.

Another 200 buckets for a pair of Clifton 4's.

I just bought another swimsuit. Call me Speedo boy again, much to the chagrin of my daughters. "ah gross Dad" The North American aversion to the Speedo. Why are we so ashamed of our bodies on this side of the pond. I should have been a European.

Of course I need access to a pool to show off that rockin' Speedo. That's another $400 for six months. All that aquatic fun does come with a fully equipped gym for when I start my strength training.

Ah yes strength training.......I loath it. I hate going to the gym and lifting weights. I know at my age I need it desperately, especially for an Iron distance event. I just hate it.

There is no Masters swim program as such in The Port City, but there is something called a Fit Swim Saturday mornings, which all aspects is a Masters workout utilizing the 50m pool. It's only once a week though, but is included in the price.

What else do I need????????? I think I'm gonna try a tri suit. At least at the half IM I'm doing, and see how that goes. Or I could go old school and do the whole damn thing in a Speedo like the real Iron men of the 80's. That alone would cause my family to vomit and leave me I think.

My last Ironman I wore bike shorts and a sleeveless bike jersey, since that's what I trained in, then did a full change in T2 to running shorts and singlet. I think the change into fresh gear was a slight mental boost on an almost 13 hour day.

I know a race suit will save me precious minutes in transition, and it is a race after all. It is what I call "free" time. I won't have to train to save those minutes. It could mean the difference between going under 12 hours or not. Worst case 16:59 and not 17:01. But that would have to be a very bad day.

Almost forgot, I need a plan, as in training plan. My last one was based on a very loose plan, and because of my wonky work schedule it got a bit mucked up at times. I found what looks like a decent plan on Training Peaks. It's by David Glover of www.enduranceworks.com He actually has a IMMT 2018 24-week plan. I traded emails with him, and he sounds like the kinda coach I'd like to work with, and I like how he structures the plans. 

That is gonna be $197.00 U.S. dollars, but will be invaluable in the long run.

Of course I'm not including small items like water bottles, electrolyte (Tailwind Nutrition is my go to stuff, used it exclusively in the ultra marathon), etc

Saturday I head to Orlando for seven days. It's a work trip, back to school and flight simulator. It's an annual thing. Unfortunately that means no biking for week. However I do get to run in the Florida sun, and depending on the hotel pool, might even get a little swimming in. Unless of course it's about the size of a hot tub, in which case it will be 30mins of flip turn practise.

One other bonus of this trip, is I get to watch the NBC airing of the Ironman World Championships. We don't have TV at home, so I wouldn't be able to watch it until the Youtube bootleg copy appeared.

So I'll be relaxing on the couch Saturday afternoon armed with a couple of Sam Adams, and a box of tissues to watch the finest in Ironman racing. I'll admit it, I'm an emotional guy, and there have been a few tears shed at previous editions of the show. Come on, just the sound of Al Trautwig's voice is enough to get the eyes to well up.

Next post will be from the Sunshine State, let you know what my thoughts were on the Ironman, and how nice it is to run in shorts and t-shirt again.

Let's Try This Again..........

On November 4th, 2000, I accomplished a goal of completing an Ironman. Twelve hours, forty-eight minutes and fifty-two seconds after the gun went off, I swam 3.8km, biked 180km and then ran my first ever marathon of 42.2km and crossed under the finish line banner at Ironman Florida.

It was pretty special and I thought it would be the beginning of many more triathlons and Ironman's. Little did I know at the time it was more or less the end.

After all the hoopla was over and we flew home to Nova Scotia, Canada, the post-Ironman depression kicked in. It was almost winter, I battled IT band issues, and the drive was gone. It was post season and I really didn't know what to do. My wife and I found out shortly afterwards that we were pregnant, and our first child was expected in July. Now life was changing.

Oh, I have to back this up a bit. Part of the deal of doing Ironman was..........it was to the first and last. Ok, I may have had a hand behind my back with crossed fingers when I made that deal. The other was we agreed to start a family afterwards. That was cool, and I was all for that, because now I have two beautiful teenage daughters that I am very proud of, and drive me completely insane at times.

In a nutshell the next two decades consisted of two marathons, a couple of triathlons, an ultra marathon (never doing that again) heavy involvement in adventure motorcycling, windsurfing, standup paddle boarding, surfing, moving around for jobs, changing diapers, then supporting my girls at dance recitals, soccer, hockey and rugby. In the last four years I've sent more time freezing my arse off at hockey rinks than I have in a pool.

Two years ago I finally bought a new bike. Yup, upgraded from my 1998 Cannonade MS900. Yes, it even had 650c wheels. Rockin' it old school. Mind you that bike cost me $900, and got me through the Ironman with a respectable sub-six hour ride.

I was now the proud owner of a Specialized TriCross. Yes a cyclocross bike. I wanted something comfortable, that I can ride on gravel roads. Not sure if being back on the bike and just riding for the sake of riding led me back to triathlon or not. I did a lot of riding, and it was fun, I had no specific time or speed to shoot for. I remember doing a 180km ride that took all day. I think it was 12hrs with all the stops along the way.

Geared up for a two day ride. 

So in October I was sitting in my Lazy Boy, surfing the net on my laptop and stumbled on the live broadcast of the Ironman World Championships. Watching fellow Canuck, Lionel Sanders come awfully close to winning the whole damn thing set a lightbulb off in my head, just like it had done in 1998.

November 1998, I was a newly minted captain with Air Canada's regional airline, Air Nova (now Air Canada Express/Jazz). I was on a layover in Ottawa, Ontario when I stumbled on NBC's broadcast of IMWC. That year another Canadian, Peter Reid won his first of three world titles, and inspired me to give this triathlon thing a go. Pete has since retired from triathlon, and is now a pilot. 

I initially decided to ease into it, and do a couple of half IM's in 2018, then go for the big one in 2019. The year I turn the big 5-0. Well that was short lived because in November I signed up for IM Mont Tremblant. I figured why wait, I'm in decent shape and I had 9 months to get even better. 

The one thing I was nervous about was getting the nod of approval from the missus. My wife has been awesome, and is used to me coming up with crazy ideas and putting up with them. Two week adventure motorcycle trips to far away places, ultra marathons, surfing trips, etc. But she had been with me through the last Ironman and I knew she would be concerned about the time commitments. 

Too my surprise she said "it sounds like fun" A family Ironman adventure in Mont Tremblant. 

My girls will be 14 and 17 next year, and they have never seen Dad do any kind of race. My oldest was only a infant when I did the two marathons, and they didn't come with me when I did the ultra marathon in 2014.  So a big part of me would like to do this to inspire them. Plus Ironman puts on such a good show it makes for a hell of a fun, inspirational weekend. I've been to Mont Tremblant before and it's a beautiful venue.

Six weeks ago I got back into triathlon specific training. I knew this time I had to be smart about it, and to use my time wisely. I needed a well structured program, and I found a 24-week one for old geezers. A 40+ Masters program. I reached out the creator and coach of the program to find out what I should be doing from now until March, the start of schedule.

This being the off season for most triathletes in the northern hemisphere, I too should be in the off season, mind you mine has been going on for 17 years. I knew without some good direction I would be ramping up the volume as soon as started feeling good. Really do I need to be suffering through two hour runs in January for no reason? I knew I'd be either injured or burned out before April being a slave to my Strava log. 

So far so good, no runs longer than an hour, no bike rides longer than 40km. Swimming.........well I was surprised how well I felt the first day back in the pool. I'll slowly work my back to 3000m workouts before March. I've already done a couple 2200m workouts and felt great afterwards. 

My life is in a good place right now, so it just feels right to be back at this, and I really believe it will be something that will go long past August 18th when I again toe the line at my second Ironman. 

So if you are really bored, need some extra motivation, want to see me struggle, bitch, complain, moan ( I am a pilot and we are really good at complaining) celebrate, and succeed, check back for other posts. I've got 18 years of catching up to do.