Tall Texan 70.3

As a tune up for Ironman Texas, I entered a the Tall Texan 70.3 in Boerne, TX.  My plan called for me to race the Ironman Texas 70.3 in Galveston next weekend.  It had sold out a few hours before I tried to register. Figures.  Instead I found the Tall Texan.  A much smaller race.  It seemed interesting with a lot of hills on the bike.  I had asked someone about it and how challenging it was.  I was told it would be not quite as bad as the Real Ale Ride.  Sounded like just the challenge I needed.

The race went well overall, much better than my last 70.3, and resulted in a 16 minute PR. This despite 1) it wasn't my full out "A" race effort, and 2) my bike portion was horrible (a lot of hills, wind and cattle guards) . Swim and run were much better than last race and I'm feeling pretty good overall. Also, it was 50 degrees when we started and 80 when we finished.

The water temperature was also 60 degrees. I'm glad I had that experience of the cold water swim.  This was better than that.  It took me a bit to get settled, but once I did I was pretty consistent all the way through.  I finished the swim in about the time I expected and felt pretty good coming out of the water.  Much better than my swim at the Austin 70.3.

My transition was a bit rusty.  I fumbled around a bit and it took me much longer than it should have.  I'm not sure exactly how long it took.  The race's timing mat was broken so the swim time was swim and T1.  I also forgot to hit the lap button on my watch until about 3 miles into the bike, so my watch's T1 was really long.

On to the bike I felt pretty good for the first half.  In aero the majority of the time and keeping a pretty consistent cadence.  The second half saw a lot of climbing.  Up and down a mixture of short steep hills and long rollers.  My Garmin showed ~3,000 feet of elevation change.  To top that off, there was about a 10 mile stretch where we had to cross 8 - 10 cattle guards.  It made it interesting.

The bike had really wiped me out.  My time was much slower than I had planned and it had drained me of a lot of energy.  I started the run, I was really sluggish.  It took me about 3-4 miles to get my rhythm. Once I did, I felt OK.  Not good, but not terrible either.  I faded in the last 4 miles and it was a struggle.  I kept telling myself this was training, this was a tune up race.  No need to kill yourself.  Just dig deep and give a good effort.  By mile 11 of the run, I realized I still had a chance to break 7 hours.  I pushed harder on mile 12, gearing up for a big push the last mile.  For that last mile, I gave it everything I had.  I was able to run the last mile at my target marathon goal pace.  I finished in 6:55 and excited that I could give that last bit of effort and finish strong.

The race was a really small race.  There were about 80 total participants.  That's about 40 less than there were in my age group at the Austin 70.3.  As such, a small field made for better chances at a podium. While my time is no where near anything that can be called "fast", I did end up winning my age group.  I had to find that out later since I didn't stick around for the awards ceremony.  Who knew? I'm not sure when I'll be able to have a shot at podium again.  I'll take it nonetheless.  So I've got that going for me, which is nice.

IMTX training volume/reduction from marathon training

I had a good but tough run today. The nagging injury seems to be getting a little better. I'm dealing with it at least.  I've had to adjust my training a bit.  I've got my triathlon specific training that I'm doing.  My run training is with the marathon group.  I've come to realize (with the help of my coach) that doing the marathon training workouts exactly is not a good plan.  It's not taking into account that I'm biking and swimming as well as running.  My long runs for marathon training have been far more than what my Ironman training plan is calling for.  I think in the end I'll benefit from having more distance in my early base phase, but I'm realizing now I can't sustain this.  So the Ironman training wins out and I'll adjust accordingly.

I'm also able to get outside more and do some cycling, though it's still pretty cold and nasty.  I've also started attending the group open water swims my triathlon club hosts.  This first one was a little brutal.  The water temperature was in the mid-50's.  It was hard to deal with and I didn't end up doing much.  At least now I know what that feels like and how I can deal with it.  I also know I need an insulated swim cap!

Weather struggles

We're having a very strange winter here in Texas.  I guess it's happening everywhere but this is really odd for us.  We don't normally get this many wintery days, to this extreme, for this long.  It's been cold, icy, windy and rainy.  Hasn't been very conducive to Ironman training and getting my long rides in.

Today I was determined.  I needed to get in a 3 hour ride and haven't been able to get many outdoor rides in lately.  I figured I could keep myself somewhat warm by keeping moving and just power through it.  My ride lasted all of 15 minutes.  That's how long it took for my fingers to lose feeling and my toes to feel painfully numb.  Just more interesting adversity to deal with I guess.

Austin Half-Marathon

Well, I finished the Austin Half-Marathon.  It was an interesting race.  I wanted to get back into a race environment and was excited to test my speed.  I haven't run an organized half-marathon in almost 6 years.  I also didn't want to risk injuring myself or doing anything that might get my training off track.  The advice of everyone was to run but don't race hard.  Easier said than done.

It was a warm and humid February day.  My IT Band (the other one this time) had been hurting a lot as of late.  My plan was to take it easy and not push too hard.  I was going to run my plan and maintain my ideal effort, but be quick to back off should anything go wrong.  I had a really good race for the first 10 miles.  I maintained my pace and nailed my plan exactly.  However, the last three miles were agony.  My leg was in a lot of pain and kept seizing up on me.  I wanted to keep going but didn't want to risk any long term injury.  I backed off the last two miles and even had to stop and stretch out my IT Band after a long downhill.

In the end, I finished within my goal of under 2 hours.  While not quite the pace I wanted, I wasn't far off.  I'll take that.  Despite the heat, humidity, and a sustained injury I managed to finish strong and PR. I'm a little worried about the IT Band.  I've got some PT work ahead of me.  Hopefully this won't linger for too long.  It was great seeing so many other familiar faces out there on the course and at the finish.  A lot of people running the full marathon.  It was different to be on the spectator side of a marathon finish for once.

Swimversity

I've started a 4-week "Pre-Season Plunge" Swim Clinic called "Swimversity". I think this will be a great way to get people back in the water before the race season kicks off in full force.  I need all of the help I can get and I really benefited from the swim stroke and efficiency clinic I took last year.  It's being coached by a long time swim coach and a former Olympian.  It's a lot of drills and technique focused work.  I can feel a difference after the first session.  It's going to be interesting to do my long runs on Saturday morning and then come to this swim clinic early afternoon.  I'm hoping this will really help with technique and comfort and make my training all the more effective.  After all, the swim is what I'm most worried about.

Ironman Texas Coaching with the Marshes

Now that I'm getting more focused on the Ironman specific training.   I've reached out to the coaches (professional triathletes Brandon and Amy Marsh) I worked with on my triathlon training program last year to see if they'll coach me for Ironman Texas.  They were all booked up with their individual coaching but did have some availability in their program coaching.  They will create a training program specific to Ironman Texas, but not specific to me. There is forum access through Training Peaks software but no real schedule adjustments or feedback other than the forum.  So, that's what I'm doing.  I think it will be good to have mix of my "lone wolf" training mixed with the group dynamic I'll have with my marathon training.

Back to Marathon Training

Well the break's over and it's time to start training again.  Ironman Texas will be here before I know it.  I've joined up with another marathon training group.  It's smaller than my other groups.  I guess they're not a lot of people running spring marathons.  Some familiar faces and some new.  I'm excited to be back in the swing of things and looking forward to working with my new coach who has done a couple of Ironmans.  I guess we'll see how much fitness I've lost.  My plan is to focus on my Ironman training.  I'll probably run the Austin Half-Marathon and try to get in a triathlon race or two before the big race.  It's going to be a little strange to have my big "A" race so early in the season.