The future is yellow

First, some pictures from Ironman that didn't get included in the original post:

This is me with Colleen, the Iron Diva! We got to meetup Friday, it was epic! I met so many new blog friends there.

I just dropped off my bike and transition bags. It was sunny but cool, so the jeans/black shirt was perfect. Yay Kenneth Cole!

So many transition bags!

That's me with Wes and Andy Murtha. Murtha trains with Wes all the time, I really enjoyed getting to know him.

Yes my eyes are closed dang it, but Wes got a great shot of Kelley and I just hanging out checking out the Gulf. Fun times.

I can't name all of the bloggers on here because there are so many. I'm really going to enjoy following this whole crew from now on though. Lots of really neat people in here! I think I've got everyone here added into my blogroll on the left.

What I didn't mention about Ironman in the race report

I really believe I can do better. This time was my first Ironman, I put together a strategy and executed it, and that's all I could ask for. 13:06 is a great finishing time, and I'm very proud of my accomplishment. Most of my friends were surprised that the tattoo was so small; they expected me to get the M-Dot on my chest and belly, a foot wide, and with a picture of my face inked inside of the dot. You know, just in case anyone who saw me shirtless forgot who the iron man was. These people know me too well.

But I could have gone harder. I wanted to run faster the entire marathon. I wanted to pick a bike course with less wind and more rolling hills. I think I can break 12 hours overall, and I think I can break 4 hours in the Ironman marathon. This means I will have to try again. Not sure when or where yet, but I seriously doubt that this will be my only 140.6 attempt. If I went under 4 hours on the run, and near 6 hours on the bike (under or over), that leaves 2 hours for the swim and transitions to break 12 overall. My transition times were over 26 minutes this time, typically they are no more than about 4 minutes total. There has to be a happy medium somewhere.

The first week of post-Ironman recovery is going really well. I ran 3 miles on Wednesday just to work the kinks out of the legs. Then Friday I did a short brick - 15 mile bike 5k run just because I wanted to. Sunday I really wanted to get in a 12 mile long run but after 9, well, the legs decided they wanted another week of rest before doing anything like that.

All of this free time is strange and unexpected. I didn't think I would miss the twice a day workouts. Now I feel like I should do something else besides just eat all of the remaining Halloween candy. Like something with my career. Technology changes so fast that it can be hard to keep up with, and I've enjoyed being in my little bubble the last several years. Modernizing my skillset would take about as much time as ironman training but is a helluva lot more boring. At least I'll have the time to research what I want to do next.

Oh yea,

Today is the 13th wedding anniversary for Kelley and I. We got married in a small town in SC back in 1998, and it rained the whole day. Now 13 years and two kids later we get to celebrate by having leftovers for dinner before I take Bigun to an Indian Princess meeting. Getting old is really quite thrilling, I know (hey - we just did that week's vacation on the Gulf of Mexico remember?). You don't stay married this long without having ups and downs for sure, but I'm really glad that today is here and it is happy and peaceful. I could never ask for anything more than what she provides as a spouse, mother, supporter and friend. I love you always my dear!

Next Goals

Over the winter we're going to be doing lots of running. I'm going to keep on swimming tuesday and thursday nights for cross training, but the focus is going to be on fast running.

We only have three races on the schedule right now, but they are kind of key to the next goal. Kelley and I are both going to try and qualify for the Marathon Maniacs! This insane asylum has strict qualification criteria, and you have to really enjoy running full marathons to want to qualify. I really hate that Ironman was the only full marathon I got to run this year, so I'm making up for it next year. The criteria we're using to get in is three marathons inside of 90 days:

Charleston Marathon 1/14/12
Myrtle Beach Marathon 2/18/12
Tobacco Road Marathon 3/18/12

Full marathons in January, February, and March will really test my recovery skills. On one of those I will try to break 3:30 and see how I feel. They each have pace groups to get to that time, so I should be able to keep up. 3:30 finish time is an 8:00 pace, and that's what all of my Ironman long runs have been at so it seems totally do-able.

Kelley's marathon PR is 5:56 from 2009, so she's going to be trying to break 5 hours in there. I'm predicting that she'll break 4:30 because she's awesome like that.

We're also trying to recruit friends to join us out there just to make it more fun. If you can make it to one of those races please come on down and let us know where to meetup with you. I'll also be glad to help coach anyone to meet a time goal at any of these if you want to do that. Kelley is well into her training plan already and is feeling confident about a PR in Charleston.

My brother Michael is currently on another european tour, but he lives in Charleston. I always enjoy running when I go down to visit with him, so the Charleston Marathon (and even the TryCharleston 70.3) seemed like a great choice to get back to 26.2. Kelley's first marathon was the Myrtle Beach full in 2009, and we found a great hotel to stay at down there - it's cheap, has a good breakfast, and is walking distance to the start/finish line. And it shares a parking lot with a Mellow Mushroom pizzaria. Not that we would take advantage of that or anything ;)

I ran Tobacco Road full back in 2010. Seems like a really long time ago, but that's where I set my pre-Ironman PR at 4:31. We get to recover at home, so that has a lot of appeal. It will be a nice local mostly trail marathon and a great way to finish out the qualification process. I really enjoyed this race last year.

Along the way I'm sure there will be a few half marathons and 5k's. I'm still going to try and break 20 minutes in the 5k, and break 1:40 in the half. I might even be able to get under 1:30 in the half, if I can find enough to run in. There are no half's around Raleigh in December! So strange and disappointing.

I'm thinking about starting with this 5k because it benefits Girls on the Run and doesn't start until 10 am. And it's only a few miles from the house. Last years winner clocked a 15:48, so there's no chance of a high overall placement, I can just get out there and run my race and set my time.

Hope you guys had a great week! Come join us at one of these marathons. seriously.