Anniversaries, Trips and Training

It's been a whirlwind the last 11 days. Colleen and I celebrated our ten year anniversary in Europe and just arrived home yesterday, 4/28.  We had some unbelievably fun times in Munich, Salzburg, and Prague.  I would rank this vacation up there with the best of the best.  Here are some snapshots of the memories...

It's been a great ten years of marriage and was a great anniversary trip, but today is a little bittersweet because the date (4/29) marks the 13th anniversary of my dad's passing. I still think about him a lot and really wished he was around to see some of my successes in life including my marriage, first house, and graduation from graduate school. I know he would have been proud of me.   He was a great man who loved sports and was very athletic himself.  I know he would have enjoyed watching me pursue my Ironman goal and would have certainly supported me greatly and this is why my 2012 Ironman journey is dedicated to his memory.

The 20 week training plan

My how time continues to fly.  My 10 year wedding anniversary is in 3 days and tomorrow we leave for an 11 day trip to Europe.  We spend time in Munich, Prague, and Salzburg.  We will surely do a ton of walking and also plan on doing city bike tours of both Munich and Prague.  Ironically, as I've mentioned before, week 1 of my training plan starts next week while we are in Europe.  I am wrapping up 4 solid weeks of training with a 7 mile run this morning and a 25 mile bike ride on the trainer tomorrow before we depart to O'Hare around noonish.  I feel really good about where I am fitness-wise and although I won't be swimming or biking in 11 days, I do hope to get in some running in the Old Towns.  I believe I will come back refreshed and ready to begin week 2 rested and well.  In the meantime.....PROST!

Working Hard

Finally getting to the time of year where it isn’t pitch black through my entire morning runs. I love this time of year! Wake up call for me today was 5:30 followed by a little light stretching and out the door for a 7 mile run by 5:45. Unfortunately it is still pretty cold this time of year and today it was right at 30 degrees. Full winter gear still in effect which means hat & gloves. I was only in the dark for the first 20 minutes because sunrise is creeping up to 6:10 this morning. Ran through the hills and when I reached the top of one of the biggest hills the sun was just coming up on the horizon. A great sight for tired eyes.

Anyway, the legs are a bit tired at this point after 4 solid build weeks which included what I have coined a double doubler (two days in a row with double workouts). I’ve gotten through Thursday, but still have a couple more workouts to finish out the week. Here’s what things look like…...

Monday – 2500 yard swim in the morning, 14 mile bike ride in the evening.
Tuesday – Tough 4.6 mile tempo run in the morning & a 16 mile bike ride in the evening.
Wednesday – 2000 yard swim with intervals.
Thursday – 7 mile run in morning.
Friday – 1500 yard swim
Saturday – First (and probably only) big golf outing of the year. 36 holes at Grand Geneva!
Sunday – 40+ mile bike ride

Course Changes and Misc Updates

Got an email on Friday from Ironman that the course is changing a bit this year.  Some fairly minor changes on the bike course, but a big change in the swim course.  Now instead of doing two loops of a rectangle in Lake Monona, we will be doing one large 2.4 mile rectangle instead.  The consensus is this is a good course change becuase it limits the number of turns and it will allow swimmers to get into a groove and find open water sooner.  WTC listens to the athlete's and makes changes based on our opinion.  They do things the right way.  Here is how the 2012 version of the swim is going to look for me......

As far as my training the last 6 weeks have been awesome.  My body has responded well to the increases in training and I am ready right now to start my 20 week plan.  I have built up the adequate endurance at this point where I have been spending 7-8 hours a week doing endurance work.  In addition, I have been hitting the weights 2x a week for additional strength training.  Things are going well and I am right where I wanted to be and then some.  I've listed my totals for March below.

March's totals:
Bike:	15h 37m 20s - 257.35 Mi
Run:	8h 34m 30s - 53.8 Mi
Swim:	4h 47m 18s - 13450 Yd
Strength:	1h 55m

I've also have some of my personal life ducks in a row by making few purchases to help make my summer easier while doing my training.  Here is the latest additon ---->

Last but not least, I leave on a funny note.  This has gone around for a while amongst Ironman.  I saw it first last year from one of my friends who did Ironman and I still look at it often for a good laugh.  It  sums things up pretty well for me......