That’s it for the plan, a lot of repeats here so I will have to look for something fun and new to do as well.

How far out do you plan your races?

One of the most frequently asked questions after people hear you have done an ironman is “are you crazy?” closely follwed by what’s next?

For the rest of this season I am focusing on half distances (both  half ironman and half marathon) then in October when I officially go into off season I will focus on form and speed, that I feel I completely lost in peak training for Ironman CdA.

Luckily I do have a good answer to the question of what is the next big “A” race:

I am SO excited about Ironman Lake Tahoe!!!

I have already started working with coach on a plan and will start officially training in January. I am glad to have some time off before jumping into Ironman training again but am also looking forward to it.

 The run was two out and backs so we got to see all our friends a bunch of times and we knew what we were in for. I liked that there were no surprises.

 There was a long steep hill right before the first turn around, I will admit that I walked most of it both times. As we made our way back into town I made sure to thank every volunteer and high five the local college kids that were out partying and supporting everyone. The locals are so nice and set up their own aid stations.

I was so excited to be done that I didn’t hear Mike Riley announce our names, I am bummed about that but I still enjoyed every second.

Puffy and Happy!!

Where’s Cory???

I saw my family around mile thirty, I tried to put on a brave happy face, I didn’t want them to know I was hurting so early on in the race because I knew they would worry. They cheered like crazy as we zoomed past. Right after the turn around we both had to pee so we pulled over at the next aid station, it felt so good to get off the bike for a couple minutes and stretch I felt ten times better when I got back on. 

I cheered for other RMTC members when they passed going the other direction which was hands down the best part of an out and back course. 

I saw my family again and enjoyed the mostly downhill ride while we headed back into town. It was starting to warm up at this point and I was starting to feel a bit better. The miles were really starting to tic by and soon enough we were at our special needs bags. I grabbed my advil and stuffed my jacket in my bag, I knew there was a possibility I wouldn’t get it back but at that point I didn’t care. At about mile 60 the sun started shining and my back stopped hurting and my entire race turned around. I was able to pick up the pace and was passing a lot of people, my mood was great so I was chatting with all the other participants and volunteers as we made our way back through town and out one last time on the highway. I really didn’t expect to see my family again on the bike course because you have to wait so long and we zoom by in about 5 seconds but there they were to greet us after our last big climb. At this point I was having a great time and my smile was genuine.

2nd loop feeling a lot better

 When we turned around I was elated, it was mostly downhill and only about 25 miles left on the bike. I passed my family again cheered with them and headed into T2  where they caught up with us again, I don’t know how they did it!
 
I was happy to be off my bike after 7:34:32 of riding. A volunteer was there to take my bike from me so I could just run into the tent without having to rack it. I was handed my T2 bag and was greeted by a volunteer. She grabbed my bag dumped it on the ground and started asking me what I wanted. I felt a little brain dead so I took a moment to breath and concentrate so I wouldn’t forget anything. The volunteer helped me get my compression socks on that I planned to run in, my running shoes, visor and this time I remembered to grab my medicine bag to take with me.  I had put a full change of clothes in my bag in case I would want to change but I didn’t feel the need so ran out where I saw Cory getting sunscreen applied, I joined him, had sun screen applied and we were off for the third and last part of our day.

Up Next, the run!

You can read about the swim here and the prep here

I promise I will get to the actual race eventually!

But a big part of being successful in Ironman is very careful race prep.

After riding and running we headed to Ironman village, it was HUGE and the line for athlete check in was already really long. Luckily they made it up to us with some great race swag.

After check in we went to lunch with Randi, who offered great advice (this is her second ironman and she is an awesome athlete). On Friday we went back to town to try swimming where the race would actually start. On Thursday we tried swimming at our cabin and the lake was so cold that I couldn’t hold my hands in the water.

It shook my confidence so I wasn’t looking forward to trying to swim again at the swim beach.

It was still really cold but warmer than it was near our cabin so the swim was manageable and I felt better about race morning. After swimming we cleaned up and headed back to the cabin to pack our “gear bags”. Ironman gives you five bags for you to pack things you may need during the day.

I spread out all my gear and checked my list three times to make sure I had everything I needed.

There are a few things I learned during the race but I had packed everything I needed. After packing up we headed back to town for the athlete banquet, the food was bland but that’s just fine with me and it was fun to hang out with friends and listen to Mike Rilley’s presentation.

It was really nice to have so many athletes from RMTC there to share the fun!

On Saturday morning we headed down to drop off our bikes and bags.

I think it’s really nice dropping off your bike early so you don’t have to worry about it race morning.

 We then checked out transition to make sure we would know what we were doing on race day, holy confusing!!

After dropping off our gear we headed back to the cabin. I wanted to spend the rest of the day relaxing with my pups. On the agenda was eating an early dinner and heading to bed because our 3:30 wake up call was coming up fast!

Since I did not have internet access at our cabin in Coeur d’Alene I have a lot to catch up on. I will break it down so this post doesn’t end up being seven pages long and take me a year to write. I will start with the trip out and pre-race.

Packing for this trip was incredible, it is amazing how much more stuff you need tor a full Ironman compared to a half.

Note the iPad that had my pack list as a google document, let me know if you want to see it and I would be happy to share it with you.

We stuffed everything in our tiny car and left Colorado at 4:30 am

The drive out took 17 hours, very long but it was beautiful!

Bailey enjoyed the ride.

Our cabin was right on the lake with great views, we even had our own private doc.

On Thursday we met up with Randi and decided to tackle a couple of the major hills of the course before heading to check in.

We found that the hills weren’t too bad (we have great hills in CO to train on)

Riding along the highway and taking pictures is totally safe….right? We followed the ride up with a quick run, CDA is very beautiful, I could easily live here!

Check in was fun, we ran into a few people from our tri club, signed our life away and got some sweet swag.

they slapped our Ironman wrist bands on and things started to feel real.

To be continued…..up next race prep

What an awesome experience, I had the time of my life even thought there were some difficulties (aren’t there always in an ironman). Full report when I have a moment but wanted to report that I finished and am happy with my time and race. If you are thinking at all about doing an Ironman, DO IT! It was hardest best thing I have ever done.

Last week was a crazy week. The one way that I keep things sane in my life is by sticking to a routine, it’s really the only way that things get done. But last week my finely tuned plan was thrown out the window when I had to go out of town for work.

I say “have to” but heading to a breathtaking ranch in northern New Mexico to do field work is no a hardship for me. It does throw my Ironman training out of balance. No biking, no swimming and a crap foot means not much training happened early in the week.  I did get a chance to run a few miles and had one magical moment running on the dirt roads of the ranch.

The herd of bison that live on the ranch were about 100 yards off the road (this picture was not from my run but later in the day when the herd was further off the road)

With one standing in the middle of the road in front of me.

It didn’t let me get very close before running off to be with the others. My foot may not have been great but I finished on a supper runners high. Being able to mix two things I am passionate about (wildlife conservation and running) made this the best run I have ever been on in my life.

I will share more later on the rest of my week, out metric Ironman on Saturday and the progress of my foot. But for now I want to stay in my happy running place in New Mexico.