Week 2 IronMan training recap

Week 2 IM Training recap
This was a build week and so I wanted to try to focus and get everything out of it that I could. I started working on the basement exercise room and was able to get a treadmill to use thanks to Peter Atwater. We set our bikes up as well as weights. It will be interesting to see if we use the room as much as Anne and I think we will. Working from home this week it was pretty easy to get all the workouts done during the week. The workouts seemed really hard this week but I was able to surprise myself when it was time to get going because I could and I did. The swim on Tuesday night was disappointing and I will try to learn from it so the next time I will do better. I hate when I miss judge and run short of the finish line. The strength day really took it out of me and ended up producing soreness for a several days. I did 3 workouts this week in the basement and felt good about being able to get them all done. It takes away the “It does not fit mentality” that I get sometimes when my days are busy. This weekend was the Walton’s winter 48 hours of fun at the YMCA of the Rockies. We rented a cabin and had 28 people come and stay Friday-Monday. We did not ski since the kids just wanted to hang with cousins and do the activities that were onsite. Saturday we went sledding for 2 hours, Ice skating for 1 hour and then swimming for 3 hours. I woke up early and went to the swimming pool and did one of the swim workouts that you asked me to do. On Sunday I had a super fun adventure running on the snow shoe trails that were hard packed so I was able to run with my Yak trax's. I ended up going over the requested workout time and felt great with the event. I am proud that I was able to get these workouts done since in the past I would not do any real training while with the family. The snow sledding, swimming and ice skating had to count for something because the next day I was totally sore!
My attitude this week was pretty positive and I look back at the week and was proud of what I was able to get done. It looks like the best thing that I did this week was planning. Family, work, training, vacation was all done and nothing was really pushed out.
Happy Anne, happy Tyler, happy family.

5 Months, 7 days, 16H:55M:31S until IMCDA

IM training week 1 recap.

I was hoping to jump out of the gate strong this year and take what I learned from the marathon and have it influence me for the first few months of IM training. I know that I need to build a base that will allow me to be active the entire IM race and hitting more workouts and doing better to regulate my HR is another focus.

On my ride last week I had 30BPM swings while riding on a "Easy" ride and kept popping into z4 so I took the second half easier and tried to ride smooth and balanced. I did not get to my Tuesday workout because of such a big travel day and I let it go quicker than normal. I hit the other workouts this week and felt good with the steady effort. On a treadmill I can regulate a low HR better than outside and so I took comfort in having 2 workouts done this way.

I was up early each day this week while traveling and felt good because I was able to get everything done that I needed to. I liked the swim outdoors in Valencia and feel that it will be a treat while I am in California.

Skiing was good and it looks like I am getting some value out of the day. I enjoyed the swim workout today and as I write this recap my arms are starting to become sore and tell me that my efforts to pull better took a toll on me today as well as the 20x50's on the minute.

The run this afternoon I tried 6 times to jog, waddle, bounce or anything but fast walk and after 6 times jumping well over 140 I gave in and walked at a moderate pace and stayed in the 130's for the hour and 10 minutes that I was out. I averaged 15minute miles today and felt good about giving in and getting the base work done.

The next two months theme will be Faith. Faith to be willing to come outside of my norm and get it done. Faith to slow down and walk if I have to, get up when I don't want to and get a workout in that I usually would not. Faith to know that base work at 130BPM for the next bit of time will bring a smile to my face while I am running (maybe very slowly) but running after 18 miles on the run course in CDA.

Getting my long day in the past few weeks was also something that is working out well thanks to Anne giving me this time to train and chase my goal. It is a team effort and being able to focus on getting my long day done and not being worried about the family is a very kind act. Thanks Anne!

The next few months I will have faith.

2011 NYE

New Years Eve 2011
By: Tyler

15 years ago was a very special day
Your mother said yes and committed her life away
We were married forever and our journey started
Then off to Dallas the pathway parted
A year later we moved back to Utah and built a house
Jackson was born and was NOT as quiet as a mouse
We were learning how to be parents and best friends too
Most days Dad did not know what to do
Then to Ohio for a job Rob was kind to give
The house was old and a different style of life we would live
The food was strange and the weather was bad
Josh was born and we both were glad
We bought another house and that lasted a short while
Then off to Colorado we went with a huge smile
We found a home and a Lexi too
Our family was complete, happy and true
Dad worked hard and started to succeed
Mom turned the house into a home and it rocked indeed
We are learning how to be friends and be nice and kind
Some days we do good and some days we are behind
So I wanted to give this bracelet to you
Every time you look at it be kinder be true
Because if you wear it
It will tell us you will try
To be kind to your family and never lie
Wear it proud so all will see
On that day kinder you’re going to be
I also want to invite you to join a special trip
A hotel, good food and a pool to take a dip
Mom and I thought that we would invite you this time
On our anniversary weekend with so much design
So pack a bag with a swimsuit, warm clothes and fancy ones to0
Swimming, dinner, fireworks WOW there is a lot to do
2011 our voices you will hear
2012 as a family we will bring on the New Year!

THE END
BOOO YAAAAAAA


This is a poem that I wrote for the kids to let them know about the New Years Eve party for this year that we are going to have. We have also had our fair share of fighting between the kids and simply put they are not treating each other kind. I picked up a bracelet for each one of them to wear as a reminder and promise to be kinder to everyone. We will see how it goes and hopefully we have a great NYE trip.
We were very blessed in 2011 and hope that we can some of the same experiences in 2012. Last Year on NYE we went downtown with my Parents and watched the fireworks in sub-zero temperatures. This year a hotel stay might make it a little better.

Sacramento Marathon race report

Coming off a tough day at Harvest Moon Triathlon I had every intention to get it right on my first road marathon. We had really about 7 weeks to prepare for this event and so we crammed as much running in as possible. I had to deal with a cold and missed one of the long runs and Anne has a huge bump appear on her knee 10 days before race day.
I have signed up for two prior marathons and due to injury was not able to run them and then I just let it go for a few years. I have personally been scared of this distance and did not think that running hard for hours was something that I would do well. Signing up for IMCDA made the need for a marathon experience important so our group (Beth, John, Keith, Jewles, Nancy, Anne) all signed up together, trained together and come race day some of us even ran together. Beth decided to get a long time injury worked on and did not run. Jewles and Nancy ran the half and Keith ran sick while Anne ran with knee twice the size of the other knee. The road to getting ready defiantly took its toll on us. I did not have a time goal and simply wanted to be able to execute a good game plan and be strong at the end. Very simple and very clean race plan.



Race plan segment #1
Start time was 7am and I was going to run the first 6 miles with Jewles and Anne. We started right near the 4:25 pace group and crossed the start line about 3 minutes after the gun start. My plan for the first 6 miles was to run between 10-11 minute miles and not to worry about heart rate. The course was defiantly bumpy and I had a tough time getting a consistent pace and so my mile splits were all over the place as you can see. Jewles was only running the half marathon and took off after 4 miles. Anne on mile 4-5.5 was running ahead of me and ended up kissing me and taking off. It was very hard to let my partners go but I was committed to executing my race plan and hope for a good finish. It was awesome to be running with thousands of other runners and the miles seem to tick away pretty quickly. Even starting as far back as we did I was getting passed a lot in the first 6 miles as those that I trained with told me to expect.
Mile 1-6 ( 10:24, 10:38, 10:09, 10:47, 10; 33, 10:37)




Race plan segment #2
After 6 miles and now being on my own I settled into just relaxing and trying to enjoy the next few miles. My heart rate would creep up on the hills and recover just a bit on the down hills since I was running the down hills at a quicker pace to make up for the slow effort on the climbs. For the next segment I was to keep my heart rate in high zone 3 to mid zone 4 (150-165 BPM) I set my Garmin to alert me if I went over my desired effort and I would slow down until it would stop alerting me which was my battle for the next several hours. Fun note here is my trusty Garmin 305 crapped out on race week. REI does not sell the 305 anymore so I had to upgrade to the 310XT which rocks. Its waterproof, better HR monitor and a much longer battery and best of all it has a vibrate alert so you don’t have to keep listening to the alarm sound. Bonus…. I was hoping to speed up a lot the second segment but my heart rates told me otherwise so I compromised and went to the highest part of my HR effort and even push that a few times. Miles 7-13 (10:24, 10:14, 10:04, 9:52, 9:51, 9:55, 10:13)
Race plan segment #3
I saw Beth yelling and cheering me on just past the half way mark and that totally lifted my spirits. I settled in for the hardest part of my day. I needed to relax and not go out of zone 4 until mile 20 (Under 175BPM). I adjusted my HR alert to the higher alert and the next 5 miles seemed to have longer climbs and shorter downhills. I had a hip pain creep up and so I stopped, stretched and filled my water bottle up at mile 14. These miles were painful and they seemed to last much longer than the first 13 miles. I was happy because I was now starting to pass people. I was not running by them fast but I was running past them. My alarm kept going off more and it would take FOR EVER for it to come back down and my alert to stop. I really started to hate my watch about this time. My leg acted up again and I had to refuel my bottle by myself at miles 18 and that cost me some time. Miles 14-20 (9:46, 9:56, 9:50, 9:49, 10:59, 9:29, 9:35)
Race plan segment #4 (this will hurt expect it, plan on it and deal with it.- Coach Beth )



I was looking forward to this segment because I was able to turn off my HR alarm and just run. My plan called for a steady effort speeding up my pace each mile and do what I could to make the last few mile the fastest of the day. I had several highs and lows during this last hour and the leg started to hurt more and more. I stopped a few more times try to get the pain to stop and each time I did it would help for a few miles. I was so excited about being able to run on feel that I went straight to fast and did not really do well with a steady slow increase. As I look back it was a surprise how long the lows lasted and how short the highs were. You really have to battle at this point in a race and face your demons and keep going. Having to run hard and then try to run harder at this point was one of the greatest challenges and I now understand what others were trying to explain in their own way about what happens after mile 20 in a marathon. At mile 23 I caught back up to the 4:25 pace group and moved passed them quickly and that was a huge boost for me. I hear the term “dig deep” often yelled at races and I am pretty sure I had already done that and still had 3.2 miles to run. I closed my eyes a few times the last 3 miles telling myself not to stop, just keep running, I will be done soon and I will have won. I heard Beth and Nancy at just before mile 26 and it was so needed. I closed my eyes again and then opened them and on the right side of the road I saw Jesus. He was holding a sign that read “THE END IS NEAR”. I had to smile at that and chew on it for a bit, I even laughed. I am not sure how I did laugh but I did and as soon as I was done I turned the corner to the finish shoot. I had finished the last effort and did the best I possibly could. I had nothing left at 23 and kept going to 26.2 and I finished my first road marathon with a smile on my salt encrusted face.
Mile 21-26.2 (9:11, 9:30, 9:01, 9:59, 8:59, 9:36, 8:35)




I did not like the next few hours because they hurt but a few weeks later as I look back at that race a smile comes to my face just as it did when I crossed the finish line but this time with a little less salt. I finished a race in control and accomplished my goal. I can now look forward to 2012 IMCDA and know that I have a marathon in the bank. A huge thanks to those that helped me get to the finish line, friends, family, Coach Beth and my training partner Anne you all rock.

Marathon Week

Race week has finally arrived and the rest has started to take it's effect. I am feeling stronger every day and I am looking forward to the weekend and the race. Over the last two months we have done a very steady build without any drops in training. After the 20 mile long run I was on a plane headed to LA to work and caught a cold that put me out of the 22 mile long day and several other training days. At the time it was hard to relax and not stress so my body could heal as quick as possible. Anne is suck a rock in these situations and on the phone one night was able to get me to realize stress was making it worse and I needed to relax. The very next day I started to feel better and I was running 2 days later. What a miracle worker she is.
I ended up going only 21 miles on the 24 mile day because my strength was not back to where it needed to be and I did what I needed to do on the day.
Training with Anne each week, doing our weekday workouts together and having the group that we did to do the long runs on the weekend made this Marathon training program a success. I have liked having our date night be date morning and spending time watching Anne grow as a runner. She is awesome and really will do well this weekend. We both are prepared and if the day goes well for both of us she will take the 1st position in our home. So no need to ask, Anne is the better runner!
We leave on Friday afternoon with several other friends and I am really getting excited thinking about what to bring and pack. We have run so many training miles to get ready for the 26.2 marathon. Over 5 years of multi sport activity and the day is finally her to see what a road marathon will do to me.
This is the next step in the Ironman CDA training program and will allow us to end the year with a positive.
The beginning of next year looks crazy with two half Ironmans before June.

Keep you all posted on the progress,

Athlete tracker at www.runcim.org

Love you Anne,

Tyler

Marathon Training

As the weather starts to change to colder mornings and earlier sun sets it indicates the end of the triathlon season and ushers in the fall activities. Many of my friends over the past several years have used this time to transition training to focus on a marathon. I watched as they used this training build a launching pad to an Ironman the following season. I have joined them on some of the long runs and listen to them as they talk about the building long runs, weekly speed work and trying to stay free from injury. I even made the commitment several years ago when I was able to get into the St. George Marathon and on my 24 mile long run my IT band put me down for several months. I was somewhat glad that it happened because I am really scared of that distance and especially racing it. I have never done a half marathon by itself and by the time I get to the run on a half Ironman I spend more time walking then running (so far, this soon will change).
In signing up for Ironman CDA I know that I will have to change how I race and as much as it will be a physical journey it will be more a mental battle for me to learn how to execute a plan that will get me across the finish line strong and happy. I want to race the entire effort and not put myself into survival mode because I pushed too hard earlier in the day. This has been my reality over the last 3 half Ironman’s that I have done. I have spent more time walking a run course than running the run course. I have spent more time dealing with dehydration and making it to the finish by any means then running a stronger 2nd half of the run then the first. I really don’t care what the time on the clock shows as long as I am able to stay in control of the day. I do not have a problem taking myself beyond my limits and hoping that I can survive and being surprised when I come up short race after race.
So with such a specific goal I have been working with Coach Beth on a marathon training plan that requires me to follow a very detailed training schedule. Not just following a typical speed day, easy day and the normal long run with some cross training we are actually putting a lot more into what I do. We started with a current treadmill test to help me get a current read on my training heart rate zones. Each workout has warm-up levels and specific HR targets to stay in. My running has ramped up and so we are working hard to keep me free from injury . I use the HR alerts training aid on my Garmin 305 and stay loyal to where my workout tells me to be. This last week’s long run had 3 different efforts in the workout and it was fun to work hard to execute to the level that was written in the workout. I am training with 5 others for the Sacramento Marathon in December and all 6 of us are working hard to stay loyal to our training plans. We all did the warm-up together and as we moved into our second zone we split with a couple having to slow down and let the group go on. Falling back in a group run because it’s outside of your effort is one of the hardest things to mentally do. Everyone on that run could stay with the pack but that would mean blowing off the HR effort and not getting the most out of the workout. So at the halfway point I moved from the low side of my range to the high side. I had company join me on this build and so we were now into 3 groups. We had a third increase and by that time I was dropped and stayed loyal to my effort. When my alarm would start beeping I would have to slow down. Anyone within 25 feet of me would hear the alarm and know that I was at the top end of the written effort. I would then slow down and watch as others kept going at the same pace. But I finished the run strong. I executed 100% to what I was told to do and felt great about it.
At breakfast after the run we all joked about how we all went from staying with the group to stay more loyal to our written effort for the workout. I am excited to see how this progresses for we are only 6 weeks away. Even more exciting is that I get to run this race with Anne. This will be her 2nd Marathon and watching her build last year and then race was simply awesome. Being able to do a lot of the training runs with her has made this journey better for me and for us. She has such a smooth run and makes it look effortless even though I know she is working hard.
Cheers,
Love you Anne,

Is hiding an option?

I have loaded my blog page wanting to update date with a new entry so many times and have not been able to get myself to do it. I think when times are challenging and are hard some of the regular stuff that you do get's tossed to the way-side. My blog has been one item that was tossed and now that I am getting back on top I have wanted to write a post several times. The events of the past few months have been blog worthy but I just can't seem to pick one and start. Today I decided that the moment has passed and I need to focus on what's in front of me and not what's behind. So I will say sorry to the 2nd half of the 2011 summer and look forward to the end of the year activites. To make it fun I will list the top 5 events of the past several months and what my top 5 are for the rest of the year.

Past Top 5:

1. Lake Powell with my Parents, Liz and Tyler and 2 days alone with my family
2. Dying a teriffic death at Harvest Moon 70.3 Triathlon
3. Watching Jackson play flag football
4. Watching Josh play baseball
5. Work getting better, then worse, then even more worse, then much better!


Future Top 5;

1. Pumpkinman Olympic Tri this Saturday
2. Sacramento marathon on December 4th with Anne, Beth, Keith, Jewles, Nancy, John and others.
3. Skiing/Snowboarding at Winter Park/Mary Jane
4. Training with Anne
5. IRONMAN Coeur D' Alene June 2012......I AM GOING FOR IT!


Stick with me as I make a transition from the all out short course triathlete to Ironman Distance. You will learn over the next few months why my biggest goal is to "Slow down to finish fast". Stick with me as I make my run at the bucket list and hear how it goes. The good, bad and ulgy.