Week 8 of IM training

Today, February 26th 2012 marks the birthday day of my best friend. She turned 34 and we spent the day doing all the things that she wanted. We had a leisure morning with the news paper, coffee and an egg breakfast. The kids presented her with a new cordless drill and a caramel apple from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. We gave her the handmade card that we worked on a few days earlier and told Mom whatever she wanted to do we would do for her birthday. We went shopping at IKEA and had lunch there as well as taking it really easy with no workouts and a lot more television time. We are about to have breakfast for dinner and game night. I hope that she had a great day.
Looking back on this week I had to work really hard to get my training in and the hours that I did do seemed to be more difficult than last week. This week was a build and I had 12.5 hours of training to get in.
Rather than a grocery list of what happed this week I thought that I would write down some of the more interesting parts surrounding training this week.

1. Monday-During a run in Cherry Creek Res alone in the afternoon I decided I was very cold and underdressed but decided to gut it out. The chills came over me and stayed with me for a few days when I saw 3 Life Flight helicopters fly south over CCR as I was starting a tempo effort and kept me distracted from focusing on my run. I then saw them return together 30 minutes later heading north. It looked like they were heading for Children’s Hospital and I have been sad for the victims, families and the entire situation sense then.

2. Tuesday- Beth gave me the same Hypoxic swim set that I titled “Nasty” last week and I was tired and spent way too much time stressing about getting it done. I finished it but it took a lot more out of me this time with most being mental.

3. Thursday – We had plans to do a computrainer ride over in Lakewood (30 Minutes from my house in the early morning with good weather). I woke up early because I was told we would have a little snow. I pulled out of my driveway 1:15 minutes before the ride started and 6 inches of fresh snow. I pulled into the parking lot 5 minutes late passing 6 accidents and had a great ride with Beth and John.

4. Saturday- I switched my Sunday heavy day workout schedule to Saturday and had a great time swimming with Keith. We pushed each other and had a lot of fun doing it. The run was without gloves, no more than 2 layers up top and I was even able to not wear a hat. I put a visor on and enjoyed the warm sun for the first time in several weeks. I paid for it by having a ring appear after I got home and took my visor off. My head is sunburned badly and I look like a dork.

Next week is a huge week as my last build week and hope for success in getting it all done. I have 15 hours on the schedule and hope that I can get it all done. I have a huge amount of gratitude to Anne and the kids for allowing me to chase a dream that I have had for many years. I am very surprised how much this takes away from my life not only in training and money but this week I was not able to stay awake past 9pm 3 nights up from 2 last week. Anne is wondering how to adjust bedtime to include her very grownup but tired husband!

Week 7 of IM training recap

Week 7 of IM training recap
This week as I look back was a big week. The volume increased 3 hours over last week and the efforts of the workouts took a lot more out of me. I was able to get out of the basement (treadmill and trainer) and outside more this week than the last two combined. I did not travel this week and we had Grandpa Randy Crocker come into town on Thursday. Jackson had his Blue and Gold banquet and crossed over to the boy scouts. The scout troop that he joined has 3 big camp outs this summer with the first one in a month. I am invited but will sleep in a separate cabin from the 1st year scouts……My boys are growing up!
Saturday Jackson, Josh and I went skiing with John, Liv, Andrew, Rob, Max, Thomas and we stayed together most of the day. It was a great day with really no wind and a big blue sky. We had a blast and closed the lifts down. It was the first time skiing with Rob and Thomas and they snowboard which made it fun for us since we normally are the only snowboarders in the family.
I enjoyed the strength workouts that I was faced with this week because I really did not know the outcome. I month ago I was not able to finish a swim set because I maxed out and had to stop. That was really hard for me and I have worked at really not to push my effort more than I can sustain for the entire workout. I was required to elevate my efforts this week more than I have in a long time. It was good to feel tired; in fact I was in bed sleeping two nights this week before 9:30pm. The sad part of it was the nights were over the weekend and I was a terrible date for Anne. Glad her Dad is here and able to keep her company.
I have the Canyon Lands ½ marathon in less than a month and I am working towards a good run that day. I am planning on running it fast and seeing what my wheels (feet) will do. I am also looking at a unique race in Las Vegas called the Ledman Triathlon on March 31st. The swim is 2.4K the bike is 124K and the run is an 8.1 mile all uphill effort. This race is not going to be a fast race but a chance to make sure I can manage my effort and stay consistent the entire time to the finish line. I want to work on this part of my distance training and feel that this would be a good event for me at this point of training.
I am pleased with the results so far and pleased that I am staying healthy. I have been able to avoid getting sick so far and have been able to manage the stress really well. I have another build this week and I am excited to see how it goes. Week 7 is in the bank and off I go into week 8. 1:40 run today on a light dusting of snow outside in Cherry Creek Res on Presidents Day 2012.

Week 6 Ironman Training recap

I still have a bit of Hawaii on the brain. Jumping at 7 pools in Hana with the Cleveland gang.


This week back at training was the first solid week I had at home in the past 3 weeks. I was able to jump back into family, work and yes a good solid week of training. The time seems to be rolling by fast and as we talk about IM CDA it use to seem very far away and now it is close enough that I can see it.
I was nursing a little cold that came back with me from my travels and so I was sleeping more and trying to eat really well. The week’s workouts went really well. Putting the gym in the basement has allowed me to hit each workout for the required time needed with little pain. Even though I have a 24hr gym 2 miles from my home it takes me prep and travel time of nearly 45-1 hour every time I need to get a workout done. I can change and be in the basement in 30 seconds and the kids still have Mom or Dad home and accessible.
I am swimming more than I ever have and it feels good to be in the water so much. This week I finished 11,000 yards between 3 workouts. I was on the trainer for some power bike efforts and then had to do two longer run workouts. I had a 5x1km hill effort at 4% incline. I was not sure what that translated to miles so I did ¾ a mile and by the end of the workout I was toast. I feel really good about the strength phase that I am in as I continue to build my base. I came out of my major travel and vacation feeling good and pleased with the results. I am not sure after 6 weeks with all that I am doing I could be in a better spot. Anne and the kids seem happy, work is going OK and I am pleased with the training efforts.
Simply put…..Positive week 6!
Love you Anne

Recap for weeks 3, 4 & a little bit of 5

When you sit down and try to plan for 15 days in 3 city’s with no return to home base it really felt like I was packing everything and still missing items that I am sure I would need.
I really had 3 main goals for this trip.
1. Get the work done that I needed. The first week was spent in presentation from industries leaders at my home office in Valencia. The second was spent focused on my BFF in Maui and the last part was at my customer’s annual conference.
2. I needed to make really good decisions on eating, sleeping and workouts. This two week block had training last on a short list.
3. I needed to come home not totally trashed and sick where I would then need to take an additional 10 days off to get better.
Right now the tides seem to be on the very stressful side of work. Budgets, goals and changes to make the goals are the main focus of the Deluxe right now and this is taking a huge toll on me. Anne was able to come a few days early and see that I really am going to work and I do have an office with co-workers.
We quickly jumped on a plane to meet our Ohio friends and spend a few days on Maui. We packed about 10 days worth of activities into 5 days. We saw the sunrise from atop a crater at 10,000 feet and then rode bikes down to breakfast. We owned the road to Hana with over 600 180degree turns and several hundred 1 way bridges. We stopped and hiked into every waterfall we could find and swam around. We went whale watching, sea kayaking and snorkeled with the turtles from turtle bay. We took surf lessons and ate fish that was caught that morning. Maui was spectacular, the 4 other couples that we were with are incredible people and to spend one on one time with Anne was priceless. We even were able to go running together several mornings together. I swam in the ocean when the wind was high and felt good about getting into a grove as I went from beach to beach. I swam over a reef that was fun to focus on and made swimming very easy. Maui is a splendid place and I look forward to returning there with my entire family next time.
The Miche Conference in Salt Lake City was my last stop so we took a red eye to stay in Maui as long as possible and as we landed in San Francisco at 4am I kissed Anne and we parted ways. She went home and I went to Salt Lake City. I spent the next 10 hours working in the Conference store helping during the open hours and restocking when it closed. I was very happy to let me head hit the pillow that night. I worked the next few days like that and was pretty tired when I made it to the airport to return home. Anne had to manage a huge storm that dropped over a foot of snow while I was gone. I returned to a winter wonder land tired, sick of eating out and just a little sick. I think that I did really well on my main three goals and look forward to being home for a few weeks.













Love you Anne,

T