October Totals and Ironman Goals

October Totals

Today is the last day of October, and since it's Monday it's a rest day. Here's how the last month of Ironman training went down:

Swim: 17,200 meters, 6 swim practices
Bike: 366 miles, 12 rides
Run: 117 miles (new PB!) 14 runs
Strength: 1 workout
Yoga: 1 hot session

Good numbers on the swim/bike/run, especially since the last week was all taper for Ironman. So almost all of that came in only 26 days. The 117 running miles is my highest running month ever, and I'm willing to bet that 366 on the bike is close to the top. This is the bulk of the Ironman build phase mileage, and seriously brought me into Iron shape.

Tomorrow I'm going to do a small (maybe 1 hour) bike/run brick, then all day on Wednesday we drive to Florida. Once we get there I will swim, bike, and run once over Thursday and Friday mornings just to be sure everything made the trek OK, and be ready to race on Saturday.

So how did the Ironman training plan play out? I absolutely loved it. The really long base building phase had me really in shape. The build phase had some seriously long workouts towards the end, and as soon as I got used to that kind of volume we go into taper madness. Since February 28, 2011:

Swim: 125,845 meters over 50 swims
Bike: 2,639.9 miles, 105 rides
Run: 785.4 miles, 121 runs

Good thing I'm not OCD for round whole numbers. I would have to go out and bike a tenth of a mile right now just to get that squared off. Wow that's a lot of miles. I've said all along that Ironman training is no joke. That's the kind of commitment it takes and the time you have to put in to cover 140.6 miles with efficiency.

Fall Outing

Yesterday was the Fall Outing with the Indian Princess program, so Bigun and I got to roll around in the woods again for a few cold hours. It was a lot of fun, and I have some neat pictures to prove it:

Bigun really knocked out a trip up the climbing wall!

Daddy fails a trip up the inversion

The group on a hike

In front of a big tree we found on the hike

Conquering the ropes course

Ironman Goals

Yes, even though it's my first Ironman I still have to set some goals.

1. Finish, don't die.
Basic survival is a fun target. As long as I cross the finish line intact and the medical personnel at the event site can treat whatever is currently ailing me I'll call the trip a success.

2. Under 14 hours
Given my typical pre-ironman speeds and the online estimation calculators available this seems like a reasonable time estimate for a worst-case scenario.

3. Swim: 1:20
My half iron swim times are regularly under 40 minutes and without the added speed from the wetsuit. If the water is calm out there I should easily be able to execute an 80 minute swim.

4. Transitions: 20 minutes
I'm going to completely change clothes both times in transitions and might end up taking my time getting through there. Since I'm not pushing for a kona slot there's no need to rush here.

5. Bike: 6:30
I'm going to start off at a pace known as "stupid easy", then after the first 20 or 30 miles upgrade to "easy". 6:30 is a 17.2 mph speed, 6:00 is an 18.6 mph speed. My typical easy pace around here is over 19 mph, and we have lots of hills to climb. There might be some wind to deal with down there, but I have high hopes for a calm day. The main goal is to have a decent run, so I don't want to drain my legs on the bike.

6. Run: 4:30
Yes, I know my current marathon PR is 4:31. I haven't run a full marathon since March 2010, so it's been about a year and a half. My next full marathon I'm going to try and break 3:30, so I figure giving myself an extra hour here can still set a marathon PR in the Ironman. I still think I can break 4 hours in the Ironman marathon, but again I just want to finish this one. Just get to the finish line alive. A one minute marathon PR would be a bonus.

Add those up for #7: 12:40 expected finish time. Well under the 14 hour original time frame.