An Open Letter to Alberto Contador

Dear Al, (can I call you Al?)

I understand that you've gotten the short end of the stick at times and that in America's eyes you are the one who defied orders and "attacked our Lance" on stage 7 of the 2009 Tour on Arcalis in the Pyrenees. But let's put 2009 behind us. You know that was a bone head move, we know that was a bone head move and it got you more enemies than allies. Let's move on.

I feel as though I was finally starting to come around for you this year. You made a small effort to makes amends with Johan and the team that helped you win the Tour last year by delivering watches to them (as is customary of the winner) as a thanks. That was mighty big of you. My hats off. But just when I start to think that you're growing up and becoming less selfish you go and do something...well, selfish.

Let's take stage 12 as our first example. Very end of a 210.5Km day in the Alps. The last climb of the day, Cote de la Croix-Neuve, and your team mate has charged ahead for the win. He is absolutely of no threat for the general standings. He was going hard and had no one that was coming up behind him, he was going to win the stage. Then Joaquim Rodriguez (also a non threat to you) decided to make a go of it on his own and for some reason you decided to chase. Why? Rodriguez was 9th going into that day and over 4 minutes behind you, there wasn't 4 minutes left in the race. You could have stopped when he broke away, waited for him to cross the line and then started riding again and you still would have been ahead of him in the GC. Instead you broke one of the cardinal rules of cycling and chased down your own team mate that had been working for you the last few days in the Alps. I know you "let" him win the following day's stage but that really doesn't make up for it.

My second example comes from yesterday's stage 15. Again, the last climb of the day. A beast of a climb, again in the Pyreness, and one that many riders had been dreading. There's only 31 seconds dividing you and Schleck. Each of you were keeping a close eye on each other and the stage was turning into a great duel. Then Schleck's chain jumps as he attacks, just a few Kilometers from the peak, and he has to pull over to get it back on gear. The unwritten rule of cycling is if the yellow jersey has a mechanical problem then the second place pulls up the reigns and waits for him. This is not a sign of weakness from a competitor but of respect. The person that wins this race should know that he won it on a level playing field and not because he exploited his rivals misfortunes.

Now I've heard and read many sides of the argument. Some say that Schleck got his mercy when the whole peloton waited for him (and every other GC contender) on stage 2 when everyone crashed on the descent from the Col due Rosier. Some have said that it's karma because Schleck didn't wait for you when you had a mechanical during stage 3 on the cobbles and some have asked when are we going to stop pandering to the maillot jaune?

My response to the first claim is that, like I said, everyone that had any chance of winning the Tour was in a wreck on that descent. At the start of stage 4 there was more white gauze at the starting line then there was spandex. This had nothing to do with Schleck individually but the entire GC. The carnage was vast and it was in everyone's best interest to slow things down so that they could get back into the peloton so the standings wouldn't be turned on their heads. As far as stage 3 on the cobbles goes, you were in 7th place going into that day and Schleck was in 59th. I watched the Tour de Suisse just as I'm sure you did and had no idea which Andy Schleck was going to show up, 2009's Tour de France Schleck or 2010's Tour de Suisse Schleck (say that 10 times fast). I don't think anyone was sure that you were going to need to worry about him at this point in the race either. On a side note, Armstrong was in 5th place (ahead of you) heading into that day and I didn't see anyone waiting for him when he had a flat and now he's sitting at 31st place. My point is that during stage 3 of a 20 stage tour no one knows where anyone is going to end up on that last day into Paris. I know that I never would have guessed that S. Sanchez and Menchov would be up this high in the standings, would you have? Sure Menchov won 2009's Giro, but what has he done for me lately?

In the end my fear is that you're becoming the Terrell Owens of cycling. You're insanely talented but lack the teamwork and tactical skills to be a threat for the duration because teams just won't find that you're worth the trouble. Just like Owens I believe that you will find yourself abhorred by the masses (except Spain) and looking for a job towards the end of your career while you still have a few more tours left in your legs. All the while you'll complain that you did nothing wrong and play the victim role looking for one more shot at fame.

Please Al, winning is nice but not if you have to swallow your ethics to do so.

Love and Kisses,
Patrick

The Numbers Are In...Again

After the half Ironman last year I posted my total training miles and calories burned. This year I intended to do the same thing.

Training for this race start in the first week of December and ran all the way through to race day on May 1st. So all this was done in what was, more or less, a 5 month period.

Swim
113,132 yards
64.28 miles
34:53:40

Bike
2,353.29 miles (I could have ridden to the race and then back home)
141:32:17

Run
428.77 miles (I could have run the length of Utah and then some)
102:37:50

Calories Burned
143,470
41 pounds (That a little over the average weight of a 4 year old male)

Total Training Time
279:03:47

The Run & The Finish

I found a video of the swim start today here. The cannon doesn't go off until about 3:20

The run course was a 2 loop out-and-back course that is being considered the most difficult run course of any Ironman. It definitely chewed up a lot of racers that day.

I gave my bike to a volunteer, grabbed my T2 bag and headed into the changing tent to get my shoes on. When I entered the tent who did I see sitting there? Fat Cyclist. He was almost done changing and would definitely get out before me so now I had a rabbit. Heading out of the tent and onto the course met the runners with a steady climb for almost 3 miles. The climbing was steep enough to hurt but not steep enough to justify walking it. The first few miles I was really starting to worry that I might have over cooked myself on the bike. My quads were super tired and I thought that this might be a long run. I saw Kati at mile 2 and I think I told her that I was pretty tired but I don't completely remember.

After three miles the course turned and headed up a steep hill that I'm told was 8%. I had determined before race day that I knew I would be doing some walking on this difficult run course so that I didn't burn out on the first lap. This hill was the first time I walked but it was walking with purpose, I wasn't out for a stroll but when I did walk it was still at good pace. Once I reached the top of that climb there was a little flat another short climb and then it was downhill until the 6.5 mile turn around to face a harder path back. The downhill portions were where I felt that I got my legs back underneath me and got a lot of confidence back. As I was about to reach the turn around I spotted Fat Cyclist heading back towards me meaning that he was about 1 mile ahead. This meant that either he was over cooking himself early on or he was a much stronger runner than I anticipated.

After the turn around I already knew that the way back was going to involve some walking as most of the way back to the left turn into town was all up hill. I ran as often as I thought was not going to overly jeopardize my next loop and as I reached the highest point of the run and was getting ready to start the long descent into town I saw Fat Cyclist as I approached mile 10, turns out he did set out too fast. Heading downhill and back into town to finish my first lap I really felt great and started to toy with the idea that I might actually be able to come in under 13 hours if I could run my second lap as fast as the first.

As I started the second lap and headed out on the long steady climb my calves really started to burn like I had never felt before. At this point my goal was to not walk anymore than I did on the first lap but unfortunately that didn't work out quite like I wanted to because my calf started cramping up and I had to take salt tablets at two consecutive aid stations which helped prevent the cramps but didn't put a dent in the pain.

While physically I was starting to hurt, mentally I was still holding very strong and the way out on my second lap was over before I knew it and I was on my way home. I knew that I wanted to finish this race strong, have no regrets and I also knew at this point that unless I completely collapsed and had to crawl in I was going to come in way below my goal time. I knew where the mile 23 mark was and so once I hit it I told myself that was it and there was no more walking until I crossed that finish line. So I pushed the discomfort to the back of my mind and tried to keep some semblance of a running pace. When I came into 1 mile left I started looking around to see who else around me might be coming into the finishers shoot at the same time as me so I knew whether to speed up or slow down a bit so that I had my moment alone at the end.

Crossing that finish line was one of the greatest experiences of my life. About 100 yards before the end the emotions started to well up. I crossed the line and immediately got snagged by one of the volunteers known as "catchers", these fine people have the responsibility to grab people as they finish to make sure that their legs don't give out and they don't hit the ground. I was the given my medal, finishers hat and shirt and ushered over to the Ironman backdrop to get my picture taken and from there was taken over to my patiently waiting family to get hugs from everyone.

I can't imagine there is anything on this earth as great as hearing the words "Patrick Stoddard, you are an Ironman" announced over the loud speakers. I've watched so many Ironman races on TV and I always get emotional when I see the age groupers come across the line and hear that. Now it was my turn and it was exactly what I thought it would be and more.

So how bad did I really look during the race you ask? Take a look at the pictures. Just type in my bib number (921) and judge for yourself. The race number that went on my helmet flew off the day before the race so I had to go searching for my bike pictures. To take a look at those type in the following number in the photo ID field.

60045-075-012
60045-123-029

60045-459-011

The Bike

The bike course obviously started from the reservoir and made it's way 22 miles into St. George before the 45 mile loop started that we would do twice that day. 112 miles is a long way to ride but this course was set up so great that it was easy to break the whole thing up into more manageable bites. All you had to think about was either 22 or 45, what you had already done or what you still had left to do didn't matter.

The weather trend over the previous few days had been calm in the morning, really windy in the afternoon and then the winds would die down again into the evening. Knowing this I had debated about pushing a little harder on the first loop to get as far into the bike as possible before the winds started up. Kati suggested that this was not a good idea since then I would only be more tired and have a head wind. She was probably right. So I took the first 22 miles relatively easy to save myself for the difficult climbing that lay ahead and I got passed like no one's business. This is also when I realized that I had forgotten to put sunscreen on in T1. That mistake was either going to be inconsequential or absolutely disastrous as there was no shade or cover of any kind on the entire ride. For the first 22 miles I was averaging 16.6mph (All these average speeds I didn't know until after the race) and felt really strong.

For the first couple of miles of the loop there weren't really any hills to speak of until it turned northwest onto highway 91. From here the road conditions deteriorated and got a little rough. Then the turn onto Cr-3184 met us with less patches and tar but worse chip seal road surface, this was our lot all the way up to highway 18. There were three significant hills on the Cr-3184 section of the course. One race report that I read called it the Three Bears because there was a baby bear hill, a momma bear hill and a daddy bear hill all within about 10 miles of each other and each one significantly worse than the last. Baby hill was a longer climb of about three quarters of a mile at a steady 9% grade with a little 13% bump up, momma bear hill was shorter but way steeper. It went about a half mile but was hitting around a 13% grade at it's steepest. When I got to the top of that hill I actually pulled off to the side of the road and got off my bike to make sure that I had my full range of gears because for thinking that I was in granny gear I was grinding on those pedals pretty hard. Unfortunately I was in granny gear and that hill was really just that steep. Then there was Daddy hill. This climb isn't called "The Veyo Wall" for nothin'. This sucker went for 1 mile, the first half mile was steady around 8-9% with a bump up for the last half mile that peaked somewhere around 11-12% and then got even steeper right at the top, this thing was long and the first time that I started to break a sweat all day. Luckily there were crowds at the top that were cheering us on and keeping the motivation going. After I topped out there was a right turn onto highway 18, one more long 5-6% climb and then it was all downhill from there to the start of the second loop. The descending was uber fast. At one point I topped out at 44mph without pedaling. Even at this speed there were still racers that were putting their all into it and passing me at what had to be around 55mph. One of them learned that this was not a good idea because at the last aid station before the second loop started there was someone laid out on the concrete with an ambulance next to them. I can't even imagine the road rash on that guy.

With the start of the second loop I still felt great but noticed that there was a crosswind that was coming in that I would soon be turning into. I started talking to myself and saying that the next 15 miles were going to suck until I got back onto highway 18 so I needed to get ready for that. It was also at this point that Fat Cyclist passed me. I paced him for a little while until my heart rate got too high and I had to tell myself that this was stupid. Beating Fat Cyclist was not my ultimate goal for the day, finishing the race and having a enjoyable time doing it was, so I let him go.

The second 45 mile loop, in my eyes, went just about as well as the first except for the three bears. They were much tougher this time. Not only for me but obviously for others as well since there were people walking up some of them. I had determined along time ago that there was no way I was getting off the bike and walking any hills on this course so I clamped down, steadied my cadence and went griding up the hills. On momma hill I had to get out of the saddle to get some weight on my legs to push down the pedals and on daddy hill I had to alternate between sitting and standing to give different muscles a chance to pull their own weight up. Topping out on Veyo Wall for the second time was such a great feeling. I knew from here I was at about 90 miles and that most of the rest of the way to the end was down hill. But the race coordinators had one more surprise up their sleeve for us.

I bombed down the descents again reaching 44mph and spun my legs so that they wouldn't lock up on me before the run. At the end of the second loop we didn't get to continue on into town but had to add on an extra little loop on a bike trail through a neighborhood. We also had to do this loop at the start of our first loop and I hated it. The loop was less then a half mile, had some steep descents into sharp turns that were just asking for someone to crash on. The difference on the second loop was that we had to ride down a good descent, do the loop and then climb right back up that descent that was about a half mile long and went about 9%. Remember this was after we already had 110 miles on our legs. After this final climb I made my last turn and had a slight descent into T2.

Dismounting my bike at T2 was really the only snag that I had on the bike and I do mean a "snag" literally. When I went to kick my leg over the seat I caught my tri shorts on my seat mounted bottle cages, ripped my shorts and ended up getting caught by one of the volunteers before I went all the way over.

The bike leg went far better than I could have expected. Being from Texas there was really no way to train for the hills that I would be faced with on race day. The race reported to have 4,500ft of climbing but on my long rides where I purposely climbed as much as I find I was only able to fit in about 2,800ft. This was obviously a concern going into the day. I also thought that there would have been a number of times where my mental strength would start wain and that I would have to pull myself up by the boot straps and be my own drill sargent. It never really happened. I can only guess that it had to do with the fact that I was never really alone on the ride, there were always other people around that were still pedaling so why couldn't I keep going?

Race Morning & The Swim

By the time the alarm went off at 3:50am on Saturday morning I hadn't had a good night sleep in 3 days. Once we arrived in St. George on Wednesday the gravity of this entire event really sank in. If my mind was occupied with something like the expo or driving the course or even just sitting and talking to family or watching TV I was just fine but once the lights went out and I was left to my thoughts my mind would race over everything that was about to happen. I was nervous, anxious and worried that the preparations I had made over the last 5 months were not going to be sufficient on this difficult Ironman course. So when the alarm went off it was really no problem to get up because I was already awake.

The athlete shuttles from the finish line to the reservoir ran from 4:30-5:30 so Kati dropped me off and I hopped on the bus. This is one of only two races I've done alone so that shuttle down to the swim start was a long lonely ride. Once I got there I got my bike set up and sat down next to it to eat breakfast which consisted of a bagel (270 calories) and peanut butter (approx. 500 calories), 1 Ensure (250 calories) and 1 Gu gel about 15 minutes before the swim start (100 calories).

My sweet bike spot right at the end of the row, easy to find running out of the changing tent

Luckily Kati and I were able to find each other at the race start, especially since she had to take a different shuttle that morning. It was great to have some company until the swim started. We were also perfectly placed while I was putting on my wetsuit because one of the last spectator shuttles unloaded right next to us which had my mom, brother-in-law and cousin on it. It was great to see them and be able to get their well wishes.

Right after I got my wetsuit on I heard the cannon that started the pros race, this meant that I only had about 10 minutes before I was suppose to start swimming.

The swim start was the main thing that I was most nervous about. I've only had a few races where there were mass swim starts and some of them went great, others went horrible. Mentally I had to realize that I wasn't surrounded by 2,000 other athletes but only 6 or 7, which in actuality is really what's going on. I figured that the pecking order of the swim start would sort itself out by those that were anxious to get a sweet spot near the starting line getting in the water first and those that were a little more reserved getting in a little later. Apparently this doesn't work when the water is 59 degrees and no one wants to get in. I eventually just had to get in and made my way to the starting line while more than half the field remained on the beach. I had predetermined that I would start farther away from the buoy line and let those more anxious to take the straight shot to the first turn battle it out however they wanted. In my spot I was only about 5 people back from the starting line which made me a little nervous as I didn't know the intentions of those behind me. When the gun went off was I going to get completely steam rolled or were the people behind me more nervous then I was?

The announcer called out 7 more minutes, then 2 minutes later he called out 3 more minutes and I wanted those two extra minutes that he stole from me back. Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" started blaring over the speakers, getting the adrenalin going and then the cannon went off. I must say that it was very chaotic in the water but not nearly as physical as I was prepared for. I occasionally got an elbow to the head or someone trying to swim up over me but in those times I would just kick harder to either get away from flying elbows or to kick the person behind to dissuade them from their current path.

The swim course is a 1 loop swim which is pretty unusual for an Ironman race, usually they split it up into 2 loops. In the athlete's meeting on Thursday night the race director announced the distances between the swims. From the start to the first turn was 1,000 meters, first turn to second turn 600 meters, second turn to third turn 1,600 meters (1 mile), and from the third turn to the exit was 600 meters. I was a little concerned about that 1 mile stretch of swim with no turns or anything else to break it up and thought that I would lose focus.

Somehow after the first turn I made my way all the way across the the hordes and ended up about 30 yards inside the buoy line. I still have no idea how this happened. From there I had to angle myself south so that I was pointed towards the second turn because you can swim inside the buoy line but you still have to turn outside of the turn buoys. The long 1 mile stretch was far less daunting then I imagined it would be and before I knew it I was passing the rock island that is just before the final turn.

I obviously had not looked at my watch up to this point but I was pretty sure that I just had a stellar swim. When I got out of the water I looked at my watch and it said 00:13. What? something had definitely gone wrong. I knew that I started my watch as the canon went off but I must have hit it upon exiting the water. So I just pressed on, grabbed my transition bag and made my way into the changing tent. This tent was a zoo. There were chairs set up everywhere and almost every single one was taken. I grabbed the first empty seat that I saw and started throwing on my sock and arm warmers (it was 45 degrees when the race started so by this time it was still in the 50's). Transition took far longer than I thought it would and I think that most of that time was spent trying to get arm warmers on wet arms, they don't slide on as easy then.

I finally got everything on, stuffed my wetsuit in the bag, gave it to a volunteer and ran out to my bike which is when I heard the announcer say that we were 1:17 into the race. From there I knew that I had swam the 2.4 miles somewhere around a 1:10 which was far better than my goal. I wanted to have the swim done and be out of transition in under 1:30. Great start to the day. It wasn't until I had finished the race that I found out that I had actually beat 14 professional triathletes out of the water!

I believe that I had a pretty big advantage over a lot of the field in the swim. Not that I'm some fantastic swimmer but being in Texas I had been swimming in the lake in cold temperatures for the previous 5 or 6 weeks whereas those that were from further north didn't have that opportunity to get any open water swims in until a few days before the race.

The race was off to a good start.

Place Your Bets

I'm not going to be accepting bets on finishing time, while I have a goal time that I won't divulge here, just finishing is a big accomplishment. I will be accepting your bets on how many calories I'll burn during the day though. To be a nice guy I'll give you a base to start from.

I did a 110 miles ride one Saturday where I burned just over 4,800 calories and an 18 mile run where I burned almost 1,800 calories. unfortnuately I don't have a swim for you.

So start your guessing.

1 Week

In 1 week I will be in St. George, Utah participating in the inaugural Ironman Triathlon.

What am I nervous about?

• The swim start. The swim start can be brutal. With all the other "mass starts" I have done, the swim start has been only with other racers in my age group but the way Ironman does it is that everyone starts at the same time and I mean everyone. I haven't yet decided on my strategy for the start. Do I sit in the back and pass people as I need to and sacrifice time or do I take the more offensive approach and get into the mess of it all? This might be a race day decision. I do know that in order to keep my faculties I nned to keep in mind that I'm not surrounded by 2,000 people but that I'm only surrounded by 6 people
• My ankle. I had some tendinitis flare up in my ankle a few weeks ago. It's definitely not disastrous or a game killer but I have no idea how this is going to react on race day. It doesn't tend to rear it's ugly on the ride but on the run it becomes a little uncomfortable.
• Hydration. This is a double edged sword. You have to drink a lot but then you also have to use the bathroom more which also eats up time. I usually have to hit the bathroom far more than I would like so I need to try and get this done while still on the bike and moving forward.
• Weather. I have no control over this one so I'm trying not to think about it too much. At this point the weather is showing that the day will have a high of 63 with a 30% chance of rain, this would be great weather. The X factor is the wind though. The wind could be hard enough to actually cancel the swim due to excessive chop. Let's hope this doesn't happen.

I must say with being this close to the biggest and most difficult race of my life I am relatively calm. I've trained through horrible cold and ice, rain, sun, wind and every imaginable weather condition that Texas can throw at me so I feel as though I have earn myself a good race. I've done multiple rides of over 100 miles, 7 runs of half marathon length or longer and last week did a 2.7 mile open water swim in 1:24. Due to these facts I feel as though I'm justified in my confidence.

What's going to keep me going through this whole thing? More than anything the fact that I'm going to have quite a bit of family there cheering me on. They'll be Kati, my mom, sister, brother-in-law, niece (the one that doesn't like my beard) and two cousins. Knowing that I'll see them multiple times during the day is going to be my driving force and motivation.

So what are you supposed to do if you can't be there? Not a problem. Just go here and at the top of the screen in the middle there is live coverage, click on "Athlete Tracker" and type in either Stoddard or my bib number which is 921 and you will be able to see what my splits have been during the day. There will be one swim time, multiple time checks on the bike and run but unfortunately it won't show you exactly where I am at that moment. I'm also going to be giving Kati my phone so that she can do Facebook updates with where I'm at and how I look and feel. There will also be a way to watch me finish but I'm not sure whether that will be on Ironman's website or on the actual races website. The race starts at 7:00am (8:00CST) and my goal time is to be finished in 13:30 which would put me crossing the line at 8:30 (9:30CST). That time is if everything goes pretty well.

I guess that I don't have anything else to say. This is it.

"A Big Day"

16 Days

Last Weeks Totals
Swim: 7900 yards
Bike: 135.4 miles
Run: 31.9 miles

Last week was my last week of hard workouts. From here on out it's time to taper down to race day. Meaning that workouts will fall in amongst more rest days and they will be far less arduous then they used to be. This is the time that we try to let the muscles recover and rebuilt from the last 5 months of training and hopefully end up stronger than when I started. But of course we couldn't end the hard stuff with anything less then "A Big Day", at least that's what the coach called it.

I had been looking forward in awkward anticipation to this day for months. I knew that it loomed in the horizon but wasn't exactly sure when it was going to happen.

The original plan for this day was to swim the full 2.4 miles, then take a few hours of recovery, ride for 5:00, another few hours of recovery then a 1:20 run. The purpose, I'm told, is to get the feeling of what it's like to go all day. Unfortunately some of the more important workouts don't always seem to go as planned. The original plan was to swim at the lake but Kati had to go into school Saturday morning and preferred, understandably, that I not swim at the lake alone. So then it was off to the pool for 80 laps, no excited about this. I got up at 4:30, to try and simulate race morning wake up time, and began eating my race day breakfast. 1 bagel with peanut butter, 1 bottle of Ensure, Gatorade, and 2 Gu's - one 45 mins. and one 15 mins. before I was to get into the pool. That's approx. 1,100 calories before most people were even awake for the day.

So I get to the pool around 7:00, when the swim leg of the race would start, and to my surprise the gym was not opened yet. So I drive to another one, not open. I call a third and there's no answer. What respectable gym isn't open at 7:00 on a Saturday? LA Fitness that's which one. So I got the coach on the horn and we decided to bypass the swim for the day. My Big Day is now turning into not such a big day.

I proceeded to drive down to Cedar Hill to find the closest thing I could to race day climbing. The schedule was for a 5 hour ride no matter how many miles that ended up being. The last time that I drove down to Cedar Hill I forgot my helmet so this time I made sure that I had all the essentials, that is except sunscreen.

The ride went remarkably well considering the wind and that I was riding solo. The whole thing was over before I knew it. That's one thing that's been interesting to see happen over the last few months. Workouts that once seem daunting have now become the norm and no more unusual then having to go to work. A five hour ride used to be something that I fretted over during the week and now unless the ride is over 100 miles I don't even think about it until the night before as I'm getting my gear together for the next day. I guess that was really the goal in all of this. As I pulled in at 5:20 the ride ended up being a little under 90 miles. Not a bad day on the bike.

I would have preferred at this point to throw on my running shows and bang out the 1:20 run that was scheduled for later in the day just to see how my legs would feel on a hilly run with that many miles underneath them but I had to obey the coach or face his wrath. So I drove home.

I was supposed to take a few hours to recover and eat. I made the mistake of laying down on the couch and watching the world championship cyclocross race and ended up falling asleep in the process. What was intended to be a 2 hour rest turned into 3 before I got out the door for my run.

I wish I could say that something eventful happened on the run but it was just a regular run on tired legs and nothing more.

It's kind of strange to think that the last long day is behind me now and that whatever physical and mental gains I've made over the last 5 months are all I'm going to have going into race day. Sure, over the the next few weeks as my muscles recover I'll gain some more strength but at this point what I have now is what I'm going to have on race day and that's a little frightening. I find myself looking back on all the long rides and runs and wondering if there is something else that I could have done more of or harder or longer to make myself feel more prepared but since this is my first Ironman I guess I don't know what it's supposed to feel like to be prepared so I have to assume that I am.

Lesson Taught But Not Learned

22 Days

Last Week's Totals (Rest week)
Swim: 3400 yards
Bike: 139.9 miles
Run: 20 miles

I've always been one of those people that has never had to watch what they eat. The only way that I do watch what I eat is as the food enters my mouth, from there it was of no regard to me whatsoever. I've never weighed over 140 lbs. and even before training couldn't gain weight if I tried (which I did). I don't say this to brag but to point out in this post that this "blessing" is not as much of a blessing as you might think it is.

Since I started training and racing triathlons a few years ago I've lived by the adage: "If the furnace is hot enough it will burn anything", meaning that if you're working out and training then your body will use whatever fuel you provide it. I still believe that this is true to a point but have learned many times that doesn't mean your body will burn the fuel efficiently.

In my last post I said that I had a back up plan for my botched weekend long ride. That plan was to call in "sick" to work (with my bosses permission) on Wednesday and head up to Muenster (1 hour drive NW) for 115 miles of hills. Muenster is a great place to get a long ride, hilly in. Each April this German town hosts a road rally in conjunction with their German festival. So you go out and ride, then come back and eat your weight in bratwurst. That's my idea of a perfect weekend. Unfortunately it had been a number of weeks since I had been out there and they've been doing some road construction so the roads were so rough that they actually unscrewed my bottle cages and then proceeded to tighten them again.

115 miles is a tough distance both mentally and physically, especially when you're out there all alone. Heading north with the wind was so very nice. I ended up averaging 19.7 mph for the first 25 miles. But then I had to turn south for the long 25 mile journey into the wind. This is when my head started to mess with me and doubt started leaking in. It was understandable to start getting tired fighting the wind for over an hour and a half but I was more tired than I should have been and my motivation and confidence were fading. It wasn't until mile 75 that I started to realized what was going on. Again.

What clicked in my mind around mile 75 was what I ate for dinner the night before. I went over to Jonathan and Milina's house for dinner to watch the MMA fights and play with the kids, this used to be a weekly occurrence before Ironman training started. The standard dinner all the years that we've been doing this is homemade pizza but this time Milina also made fried pickles (I love fried pickles). This pre-ride dinner was definitely not sufficient for the next days training ride and I started to bonk around mile 85 and knew that I didn't have 30 more quality miles left in me. I even ended up calling Kati at one point for a little encouragement, that's when you know things are going down hill (I wished that I was going down hill). In the end I decided to cut my losses and call the ride done at 103 miles. 12 more miles might not seems like that much further to go but when your head is in a bad place 12 miles is an eternity away - that and I still had to go for a short run, which went surprisingly well considering how the ride went.

Since that ride I have been thinking a lot more about nutrition, what I eat and what I should be eating in order to fuel myself and perform the way that I want to and know I can. My coach read somewhere that a person doing 15 hour training weeks (this week will be somewhere around 17 hours) needs to be taking in 9 grams of carbs per kilogram of weight. That means that I need to get about 573 grams of carbs per day, that's almost 2,300 calories in carbs alone. That's the average, moderately active 30 year old's entire daily allotment of calories just in carbs. I can't imagine that I was getting this and even if I was they weren't good carbs.

So since that fateful day on the bike I have been really watching what I eat. Eating whole grain breads, whole grain brown rice, quinoa, fruits and vegetables with lunch and dinner, less Dr. Pepper and less refined or processed foods. I have found that this new diet is quite a bit more expensive though - why is it so cheap to eat crap foods? I wish that I would have learned this lesson the first few times that it was taught so I had time to compare older workouts to workouts on this new diet but there aren't too many more long workouts left.

Don't worry though I still enjoy my ice cream most nights and a few Chips Ahoy Soft Batch cookies each day. So I haven't completely fallen off the wagon.

Spring "Break"?

25 days


Last Weeks Totals
Swim 9964 yards (5.66 miles)
Bike 174.7 miles
Run 20.6 miles

I haven't written anything in a while. That's not because there hasn't been anything going on, quite the opposite is true, there's just too much going on. I took the week of Spring Break off of work to get a long training week in, bought a new bike and had my first ever 30+ mile running week.

Before Kati got injured we had planned on me taking Spring Break off from work for a tough week of training, one that would be very difficult to balance alongside work. I was scheduled for 21 hours total, 200+ miles on the bike, 30+ miles running and about 9,000 yards in the pool.

This was a great week of training that I rather enjoyed. Generally I'm trying to fit training into a work schedule that gets to be a juggling act but having the week off, being able to sleep in and do the workout whenever I wanted to was oh so very nice.

This was the first week of really pleasant weather we've had through our long Texas winter so I was finally able to start training in race day gear to make sure that there wasn't going to be any chafing issues. Our highs were in the low 70's and I actually got sunburned for the first time this year because I just wasn't used to putting on sunscreen before heading out on a long ride.

Over all the week was fairly uneventful except that I made one of the vest purchases ever. I sold my Specialized Allez Elite and bought a Felt B16. This is such a sexy machine. On my first ride I had to get used to the new wheels and being down in aero position for as much of the ride as possible. As an example of how much a good bike can do for you, Monday I rode 45 miles on the old bike and on Thursday did 55 miles on the new bike and had a 1 mph average improvement between the two rides. I was stoked!



The weekend threw me a huge curve ball that I did not expect. Throughout the week the weather was perfect but then Texas weather did what it does best and brought in the snow for Saturday and Sunday which sidelined my planned 115 mile ride on Saturday. This was unfortunate but I had a back up plan.

The Two Sides To Training

There are two sides to training for an Ironman. There's the physical side, the one that most people are aware of, ask questions and are curious about. They want to know "How many miles did you ride this week?" or "What is your long run up to now?"

The other side is just as important if not more so. And that's the mental side.

I think that we can all agree that the brain is just like any other muscle, if it's not worked out and kept sharp it will lose it's strength. For me that mental strength has come from doing many hours in the pool, and on the road. But also like a muscle that mental strength can get injured, sore and fatigued when pushed too hard for too long and then it needs a little bit of a break.

This is where I found myself last week.

The last 12 weeks have been met with early mornings, runs that end just in time to take a shower, grab something to eat, give Kati and good morning and good night kiss and pack my bag for the next days workout just before going to bed. Constantly smelling like chlorine which also continues to permeates from your skin to the point that you sweat the smell. 12 weeks of this would drive anyone to the breaking point eventually. Mornings start to feel earlier, long rides go by slower and get a little bit harder and runs start to get inexplicably slower. It is at this point when I started to lose the desire to train and wonder if all this was worth the reward at then end of the tunnel. A reward that was less than guaranteed and one that I had no idea what it would be like. If I cross that finish line will I say all this was worth it? I do believe that I will.

I wish that I could say that I thought I was immune to these mental struggles for some special reason. That as a person that had signed up and was training for an Ironman I somehow superseded the average Joe's ability and mental capabilities. But in the end I always knew that it was going to happen sooner or later. I'm just glad that it was later into training.

I am glad to say that fortunately this difficult period passed within a few days and I was back on track and ready to hit the road. This is good since next week is going to be my most brutal week yet and probably the most difficult in all my training. I'll have to write about that after it happens.

Rest Week & The Wall

Rest weeks are always a sight for sore eyes - and muscles for that matter. Typically rest weeks come about every three weeks or 16 days of hard workouts and then 5 days of rest. Now rest weeks aren't 5 days of sitting at home on the couch eating Bon Bons but are just decreased volume weeks. Where last week was a 14.5 hour week this week was only 8 hours. Through all the training for the Half Ironman and during the first 10 weeks of Ironman training I've never really felt like I needed a rest week for any other reason than muscle recovery, until now. Last week was the first time that I've really felt just fatigued and as if I couldn't get enough sleep. Hooray for rest weeks!

On the Saturday after a rest week comes some of the hardest days though. Usually this is when you have a hard brick day - or a day where you have a long ride immediately followed by a long run. These days are important because they are basically race day rehearsals, you get a chance to try and hone in your nutrition plan on the long ride and make sure that it will work and not upset your stomach on the long run that follows. You also try and wear what you're going to wear on race day to make sure that it's not going to chafe. Last Saturday was one of those days.

In a masochistic kind of way I really like these workouts. It's a good way to gauge your increased fitness from the last time you had a hard brick day a few weeks before. It's definitely hard to get motivated to get out the door and start one of these workouts but once you finish a hard 5+ hour brick day there is a great feeling of accomplishment for the rest of the day if not weeks to come.

Last Saturday consisted of a 70 mile ride and a 7 mile run down in Cedar Hill with the coach. I learned that Cedar Hill is called Cedar Hill for a reason, there are hills there to be had. Most hills are just "hills" but only the epic ones get names like "The Wall". We first approached The Wall from the direction that would put us descending it. I usually do pretty good with steep descents and getting up to fast speeds on the bike without being shaken by the speeds, maybe it has something to do with driving a motorcycle. As we approached The Wall it was just like going over the first drop of a roller coaster, as you approached the crest of the hill you couldn't see the road in front of you or just how steep the hill was until just before you started descending. At this point it's too late to turn back and I might have let an "Oh sh*t" slip out. The decent was super fast and luckily on a fairly decent road without many bumps. After the decent we turned around and decided to climb it. I changed the display on my watch so that it would show the gradient of the hill as we climbed so I could see just how nasty this thing really was. 99% of the time I tend to stay seated on climbs because I prefer to keep my cadence steady and reserve some strength for the rest of the ride instead of standing up and getting real physical with it and expending a lot of energy. The climb didn't give me much of a choice, If I didn't stand up I was going to be going backwards. After I stood up and made a couple of peddle strokes my rear tires started skidding out from underneath me. I had to stand up in order to peddle but if I stood up I didn't have enough weight on my back tire for it to get traction. I looked down at my watch and saw 23%, 27% 35% and finally 37%! I tried to confirm this gradient on Map My Ride's website where you can map a stretch of road and it will show you the profile of what you've mapped out along with the gradient of the hills but I found that Map My Ride won't show you anything over 20%. So I'm going to have to trust what my watch was showing me.

I have no idea what the true gradient of that climb was but I do know that I've never seen a hill that steep, climbed a hill that steep or even though that it was legal to have a road in a neighborhood that steep. Luckily it was really only about a tenth of a mile long or I wouldn't have made it.

Bad News

75 Days

Last weeks totals
Swim: 6500 yards
Bike: 136.2 miles
Run: 25.4 miles
Total time 14:38

Of all the things that an athlete can get - sore muscles, satisfaction, exhaustion - the one thing that they don't want to get is an injury leading up to a race. One thing that I've been surprised to find is that for some reason doctors don't understand that the ability to recover from an injury in time for a race isn't good news. Recovery 12 weeks from a race is good news. Being healed by race day means nothing more than you're healed but now unprepared for the race and could possibly re-injure yourself due to the lack of preparedness.

I say all this because Kati has found herself with a nice little injury. She had an MRI done with the speculative diagnosis being a torn Labrum in her hip. This diagnosis was squashed by the orthopedic surgeon that we visited with to see if she just needed physical therapy or if surgery was in order. The surgeon explained that a torn Labrum is common for football players, gymnasts and dancers who take falls or get hit while their legs are in unnatural positions and that runners just don't get torn Labrums. This was good news as well as bad news because we had received the original diagnosis about 5 days before we met with the orthopedic surgeon, that was five days in which Kati was able to prepare mentally and emotionally to the idea that her race might be done. Now to get the news that it just might be either Tendinitis or a stress fracture may just mean that the door still has a crack of light coming through or could still be a game ender. Now we didn't know what to prepare or hope for.

Before we even started training for this race Kati and I made an agreement that if one of us was unable to continue training or race due to injury that the other would press madly on. Talking six months ago it seemed like the appropriate thing to do. Why should both of us sit out when only one of us can't race? But actually having that decision to make was much more difficult than I ever would have imagined. Kati has been my rock during this training. For some reason being out on a 5 hour bike ride is much easier knowing that Kati is out there too, even if we aren't riding together. I know that she's out there suffering through the same cold and the wind and that she's having a good time and somehow that knowledge strengthens me no matter how many miles we are away from each other.

I'll tell you one thing though that I've said before and will continue to say. This chick is a rock. Through all of the "I'm out, now I'm in" she's been able to find a silver lining that few would have been able to. Where most would have used this disappointment to fall into a hole of self pity she has used it to reflect on all the great races that she has done and begun looking forward to training for the Ironman race she might want to do in the future.

Through the next ten weeks I guarantee that she will continue to be my strength and motivation.

Cold & Stupid Cold

87 Days

Last week had quite a few events that made it post worthy. It was rest and recovery week so the distances that I would normally post are pretty inconsequential so I won't bother you with them since they are well below the normal weeks workouts and for other reasons that you will read about below. This is probably going to be a long post so grab some milk and cookies.

It all started on Tuesday when I was supposed to wake up early and get a run done before work. Right after getting up I knew that something wasn't right so I went back to bed thinking that I could get my swim in during lunch and the run done after work. So I slept in a bit. Even after a little extra sleep I wasn't feeling any better but pressed madly on with my morning routine and tried to head into work. Instead I headed right into the back end of a '94 Chevy 1500 truck and crushed the front end of my car.

This was a fantastic way to start my day and give my stomach a little extra jostling that it really didn't need on this particular morning. I finally made it to work and made no one any guarantees as to my ability to work or the duration at which I would be staying. My decision was made for me when I made a run for the bathroom and didn't know whether to sit or kneel. That's a decision that you don't want to leave to a coin flip. At this point I decided that it was time to go home for the day.

About 11 o'clock is when I started making runs to the bathroom and threw up every 1.5 hours for the rest of the afternoon. Normally being sick sucks but add on top of that the fact that my back was really starting to kill me from the accident and everything just compounded. I had to get to the chiropractor but the last thing that I needed was him twisting my gut in my current condition. I waited as long as I could and finally went in at about 3 o'clock and warned them that I might have to make a "run for the border" without notice or explanation - which I think was explanation enough. Luckily I only had a few false alarms during my visit but nothing productive. I spent the rest of the day on the couch and managed to eat 4 crackers in the afternoon and 2 pieces of toast later that night. Oddly enough though I felt nearly good as new the next morning. Go figure.

Saturday was the other very eventful day.

We've only had two really cold days this winter that just so happen to fall on a Saturday. One was right after Christmas and the other was last Saturday. The one that was after Christmas Kati and I used a Get Out of Jail Free card with our coach and stayed inside for our ride and then headed out for short runs in the afternoon. I always felt guilty about that day and felt as though we were unjustifiably copping out of a workout. So when this Saturday came and it was 25 degrees with a 16mph wind from the north that made the temperature in the mid teens I felt like this was something that we needed to do, that it until I went to let the dog out that morning. After I went outside for the first time I was constantly checking my email to see if our coach had emailed me to say that it was too cold to go out and gave us an alternate workout for the day. Alas it was in vain, no email. Then I was waiting on Kati to catch a draft of the temperature and say that she thought it best for us to stay in. This was for naught as well, that chick's a rock.

We headed out at about 9:30 and it was frigid. Heading south was no problem but once you turned north and into the wind it got a little tough. Overall I felt fairly well bundled for the day and was only really hurting in my hands, feet and face.
I learned early on not to let any water from my water bottles drip down my chin because it froze almost instantaneously. Taking in water became more of a difficulty as the day progressed. I had four bottles with me, two were in cages attached to my bike frame and two were in cages attached to my seat post. The two that were up front started to turn to slush at about 1:30 but were still of some use. I tried to start using the bottles in the back at about 2 hours and the nozzles were frozen shut and completely unusable. Eventually the bottles up front were completely slush and so I had to transfer water from the bottles in the back by breaking the ice up that was on the inside to get to the water that hadn't frozen yet and pouring it into the only properly functioning water bottle that I had left.

Nutrition was also a problem. It was so cold that the thought that controlled my mind was how much farther I had left and how cold it was instead of thinking when I needed to eat next and what I needed to eat. I still had a 5.5 mile run after this 60 mile ride and would need some kind of fuel in my system if I was going to have a good run. The other thing that was on my mind was how I was going to run on frozen feet.

I finally finished my 3.5 hour ride and couldn't feel my hands or feet and the colony of icicles on my beard was starting to get pretty ridiculous. My initial plan was to go inside for a little bit and put my feet under some warm water to get feeling back into them before I headed out on the run but I changed my mind at the last minute and knew that if I got warm then my chances of getting back out the door got less and less. So I slapped my shoes on, grabbed the dog and was gone. I don't know if any of you have run with really cold feet before but it's like slapping the bottom of your feet with 2x4's with every step. Eventually when you do get feeling back your feet start to feel unevenly swollen like you have marbles in your shoes. This took about two miles to get rid of. The problem now was that I was running on an empty stomach which generally leads to GI issues for me. I was surprised at how fast the run went by though, I was expecting it to feel like an eternity but once I started getting blood flow to my extremities with the higher HR things actually started to get mildly comfortable.

The entire workout was about 4.5 hours and by the end the temperature had risen to 30 degree but with the wind chill it was still in the low 20's.

There were two reasons that I never turned around and went home during this ride. First is I knew that Kati was out there also and she was slated to do 80 miles in those horrible conditions so what did I really have to complain about. Second was that I knew I could use this day in the future for mental strength. On the next hard training day when I'm doubting my ability to finish the day or the Ironman I knew I could look back on this ride and tell myself that if I can make it through that hard day I can make it through this one as well.

Initially after the ride I thought that Kati and I were pretty tough for making it through the day but as the day went on I realized that we were just really stupid. It was way too cold to be out there for that long (I believe Kati's ride was about 6 hours that day) and I will never go out in those brittle temperatures again. It is now Wednesday and I wish I was exaggerating but I still don't have all the feeling back in my fingertips. I'm starting to wonder if I got some minor frostbite and hope that it will eventually go away and isn't permanent.

To War!

100 Days

Last weeks totals
Swim: 5700 yards
Bike: 123.4 miles
Run: 19.3 miles

I haven't written in a while I guess because training hasn't really been as epic as I imagined it would be. I'm not saying that I'm not enjoying the training just that there aren't adventures every week that are worth repeating, except one that is so horrible that I won't relive it via text. The rides and runs are getting longer and longer while the swims are hovering around 5700-5800 yards a week, but I'm sure these will get longer soon enough.

The real news this week is that I believe I have inadvertently started a civil war of sorts on another blog. That blog being Fat Cyclist, a very well known and highly regarded blog to most cyclists including Lance Armstrong. Fatty, aka Eldon Nelson, is an amazing man that has spent countless hours in the fight against Cancer, a war that took his wife's life back in August. During this battle he has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Lance Armstrong Foundation via his dedicated readers and many Fat Cyclist Chapters all over the nation.

Here's where I come in. I have been reading Fat Cyclist for a number of years now, mainly for the stories of epic rides that have gone wrong and the situations that Eldon has gotten himself into and somehow makes it out of in one piece. I rather enjoy Eldon's writing style and his ability to find humor in the most dire of circumstances. This gift has kept me coming back week after week, month after month and year after year. Until a few months ago that is. His confidence has turned to cockiness and his success turned to bragging.

On a much smaller scale I can relate. Writing for a music blog sometimes we get free albums as well as concert tickets. We use those opportunities to review the albums as well as the show to try and inform and help readers realize whether they will like the music or not. Eldon does the exact opposite. When presented with free items, items that I could only dream about getting in the mail, his time is spent more in a "look what I got" attitude. This attitude over the past few months has worn me out but I continued reading. Until yesterday that is.

Yesterday Fat Cyclist posted an article that nearly sent me through the roof, it's title "I Could Easily Do An Ironman". My initial reaction was probably knee jerk and I probably should have taken a few moments before commenting but I didn't. And then the flood gates opened and I had every dedicated reader coming out of the wood work with pitchforks and torches in search of my head. I even had Fatty's new girlfriend on my scent. I made mention to the fact that I believed the tone of the blog had changed of late and has taken a direction that I no longer find enjoyable and that Fatty may have gotten "to big for his britches" to which Fatty replied with a list of nonsensical explanation as to why the whole article was to be taken as satire. Explanations such as:

1. I make an outrageous assertion: that I can do an Ironman without working for it.
2. I go on to disprove that assertion for the entire post. Such as: I’m so tired by the end of the ride I need a giant meal and a good night’s sleep before doing anything else. I am only able to run half the distance, after which I am completely beat and starved again.

So you're tired and hungry after a hard workout? Aren't we all. For some reason that doesn't shout SATIRE! I might be able to see this as satire if Eldon hadn't brought up in the past that he was sure that he could complete an Ironman "without any particular training in the other disciplines." There's only so many times that a comment can be made in jest before you have to start thinking that this guy is serious.

Why am I in such an uproar about this anyway? I have a few ideas on that.

1. I have much more invested in an Ironman than 99% of Fat Cyclists readers. Therefore making such an "outrageous assertion" hits a little closer to home for me.
2. I have neglected my wife, my friends and my family in order to achieve this goal
3. I've spent countless amounts of money in coaching, bikes, equipment and nutrition. So to hear someone say that they could do it right now with no further training sets me on edge.

I had all but written off Fat Cyclist when I received an email from a friend saying that someone commented on the blog that had the same ideas that I have.

I usually subscribe to the “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all” school of thought but I have to agree with some of what Patrick said. I’ve been a reader for a long time, as was my husband, and we’ve bought a lot of fat cyclist gear and made a number of contributions to LiveStrong in Susan’s name. However, the tone of the blog has changed as have the comments. There used to be a time when those commenting were either teasing Fatty and/or each other, while Fatty himself lived up to the description on the Twin Six site as an “endearingly self-deprecating” individual. Those days seem to be gone (really a $190 sweater from the guy who once mocked Assos?) and some days the comments section borders on idolatry. My husband stopped reading as a result while I have lurked quietly. I would have continued doing so but felt maybe someone should put in a word for Patrick’s perspective.
(hyperlink added for clarity)

Eureka an ally!

It was definitely not my intention to start a rift in the Fat Cyclist kiddie pool but to maybe give Eldon something to think about and possibly re-read his last few months of posts in comparison to posts from a year ago in order to see the changes that have taken place. I might keep the Fat Cyclist sticker on my car and I will probably continue to wear my Win Susan T-shirt but my days as a dedicated reader are done.

Keep My Mouth Shut/HR Oddities

117 Days

Last Weeks Totals:
Bike: 116.9 miles
Run: 21.8 miles
Swim: 5700 yards (3.24 miles)

Remind me next time that I take an entire week off of work to keep my mouth shut and not tell my coach. Once he found out that Kati and I both had the week off he filled us up in what he called a "full week". The totals that you see above are very close to the end of week totals that we had during peak training for the Half Ironman but with just a little bit more pool time.

There was one interesting development this week though that I never saw coming nor can I explain. My average heart rate has dropped dramatically. During my first two long rides my average heart rate was 151 on the first and 156 on the second. The 151 is at the top end of my zone 2 which is the zone that I want to be in as much as possible so obviously 156 is too high for a long ride. On Thursday I had a moderately long ride of 35 miles and in the end my average HR was 146. This is low but not low enough that I started wondering what was going on but on Saturday I started to think that something was up. Saturday was a 55 mile ride with a 20 minute run following the ride. This was a long ride after a pretty tough week of training already so my legs were fairly fatigued already and not really firing on all cylinders to begin with so when I saw a low HR I wasn't initially too surprised (I tend not to look at my speed during a long ride so I can't attest to a certain speed attributing to anything).

By the end of my ride my average HR was at 140! There were times that it dropped below that and I pushed a little harder at some portions of the ride in order to bring it back up. 140 is insanely low for me considering that my zone 1 or warm up and cool down HR is suppose to range between 111-140. I have no idea what is happening and if any of you have any ideas I am all ears. We'll have to see what happens on this coming Saturday's 55 mile ride.

The other strange development with my HR is how fast it is dropping during rest. I had noticed on Thursday that it was dropping quite a bit when I was at stop lights and on Saturday decided that I would pay particular attention to it. At one stop light that was about 40 miles in I was at the top of a small hill and my HR was at 151 and by the time the light turned green between 1:30-2:00 minutes later my HR was at 108. That's a 43bpm drop in only 2 minutes! I know that this isn't completely unheard of but it is for me.

I understand that the lower your HR and the faster your HR drops after a workout the fitter you are but that is supposed to be something that is gradually gained over time not something that happens over night.

Any takers want to explain this one?