Training and Planning for 08

The past few weeks I have been taking it pretty easy with training. I think this has been a good thing since I know I was burnt out by September. However, now after a few weeks of this I am slowly working my way back into a training mode. The past two weeks I have gone on 5-6 mile runs pretty much 4 times a week and have snuck in one swim session and a very short cycling session. At this point I really cannot do much more due to everything going on in my life right now ( selling Condo, buying house, tons of work). However that has not stopped me from Thinking about training :)

I have two races that offer me training challenges. First is the IM race which is now a whole new category of training level. Second I have the IAMS world Championship Doggie Duathlon, which now involves training my dog. For regular training I have already identified and plotted out some of my training areas around my new home such as open water swim training, a great dead end straight away that runs for about 300 meters, excellent for speed work. Challenging rides can be found anywhere in Westchester so I did not plot those out.

My main challenge for IM training will be in finding the time to do the necessary training and well developing a strategy that will help me make the most of the time I have. This will be tough. I fear I will have to depend on mostly quality training in order to prepare. I was hoping to upgrade the bike and some equipment. However, after buying a house, there simply is no money around to get that done. However, I CAN train with what I have. So perhaps the money I do have is best invested in preparing a quality training approach.

The second race of note is the Doggie Duathlon. I know what you guys must think..."What a nut". But I am looking forward to this. Its different and that adds a little spice. Sometimes maybe its good to do something that is half witted ;)

Anyhow the challenge here is that now I have to train my dog Simba for endurance events. The run will be easy since she is faster than me by multiples. And already runs 5 to 6 miles with me fairly regularly. The real problem will be the swim. She can swim pretty good and enjoys chasing a ball in the water. In a race she has to swim 1500 meters ( .9 mile) without a ball to chase. And go straight too !! Yes I'll be swimming with her, but that will not be easy if she is going to be struggling to swim to the sides. I also don't want her to panic. I would like this to be fun for her as well as me. So I need to figure out a way to train her in the water.

Its a challenge, but its a fun challenge.

IM in :)

Well It seems I made it...Finally! Not that I had any friggin notice from them, or shall I say I have received 3 different notices that asking me to register to finalize the process. This time it seems to have taken because my name appears on the participants list. Thats good enough for me!

Now I have to figure out what to do from here!

As predicted

I knew getting into the race would be hard. Just never thought this hard!!

Online registration for IM Wisconsin was suppossed to open at "around" 11AM race local time. Which for NY is around 12PM. I was online checking active.com for an hour before that to see if "about" meant within an hour. Well it was and at exactly 11:08 I first saw the Ironman Wisconsin link. Clicked on it and it said it was full!! What the .... FUCK!!!!!!



It was almost an hour before it was even supposed to officially open and it was already full!!

Anyhow, I had basically given up on signing up yesterday. I was bummed but what can I do. I was back to squar one. Then this morning Adam came up with a suggestion of me getting a community spot ( or actually Race with Purpose getting it for me) and then I could fundraise to cover the cost. I agreed and today we both sent out checks and applications. So here I am with some hope of getting in thanks to Adam and race with Purpose. But I still have "7 to 10" days to find out if I get in. If not I will have to rname this site to "Operationtryingtogetintorace.com" :)

Ironman Wisconsin 08

I watched yesterday as fellow TriScoopers were on the race course through Ironmal live. It was inspiring to watch them finish their journeys. Glad to say they all ended happily. Now its time for me to kick off my own journey. I sit here monitoring the online world to wait for registration to open. I also have Coach Adam onsite on line who will try to register me there. This part is almost as difficult as teh race itself! Lake Placid sold out in 9 minutes! Lets see how it goes.