When Life Gets in the Way

What happens to your training when life gets in the way?  In my case, it wasn't life, but rather an escape from life - a week-long vacation - that got in the way.  Spending a week on the beach with your family is a great time, but it's not a good way to get your workouts in unless you're really disciplined.  I went from commuting to work by bike (20 hilly miles each way) and lunchtime runs to lunchtime cookies and late-night Doritos.

In years past I have brought my bike, but I left it at home this year.  I did bring my running shoes and goggles, expecting to get in a daily open-ocean swim and a decent run.  I did none of that.

Training totals for last week:

• 4 miles walking on the beach carrying a 30 pound kid on my back
• 1 hour of tennis
• 1 hour of bodyboarding

Too much food and way too much junk food + no real workouts = 7 pounds gained in 7 days.  Sweet. 

Can you blame me?



The View from our Deck

Which Race to Do - Part 2 (The Swim)

Note: This is part 2 in my many, many part series about how I chose the race with which to pop my iron-distance triathlon cherry.  Part 1 talks all about race logistics, but if you'd like to go all the way back to the beginning, click here.

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Now let's break down the possibilities by the individual events.  Up first, we'll look at the swim, which can have multiple formats and slightly different rules.  One thing is constant, though - all "Ultra" distance events have a swim that's 2.4 miles.


The swim is the first leg of the race, the shortest leg by both distance and time, and it's also my weakest, so I'm looking for a course that will give me the least amount of trouble.

Remember from Part 1 of my race selection series that there are five contenders:

• Ironman Wisconsin (IMMoo)
• Ironman Louisville (IMLou)
• Ironman Chattanooga (IMChoo)
• Ironman Lake Placid (IMLP)
• and the home race, Rev 3 Cedar Point

Here's how the swims break down:

 

 

Which Race to Do - Part 1 (Logistics)

Note: This is Part 1 in a many, many part series on choosing and training for an Iron distance race in 2015.  The intro, where I explain all of this, is here.

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The first thing we need to do is decide which race to do...

There are 5 contenders for me:

Ironman Wisconsin (IMMoo)
Ironman Louisville (IMLou)
Ironman Chattanooga (IMChoo)
Ironman Lake Placid (IMLP)
and the home race, Rev 3 Cedar Point

Let's kick off by deducting points for the last two since they don't rhyme like the first three.  

The first real question is probably brand (IM vs. Rev3 vs. Challenge), but we'll ignore that for now since it's a way bigger discussion.

Instead, let's talk logistics.  

Going long

So the other day I broke it to my wife that before I turn 40 I'd like to go for a full iron distance race.  It's been on my radar for a while, but I've always tabled it due to other priorities leading to a lack of training time.  Now that my kids are a little older, my job has settled down a bit, and my base fitness has come up, I think it's time to start planning for a race next year.

If you know any triathletes you know that we tend to be a little bit type 'A'.  That's my gentle way of warning you that I'm about to launch into an epic, multi-part series on race selection and all kinds of other things that you'll find quite boring.  Since there are no readers anyway, there's no harm done.

Let's begin, shall we?

Part 1, where I look at logistics, is here.