I had a terrifying thought last night as I was going to bed. I will be spending more time on the course this Sunday than I have ever spend training in an entire week. On the positive side, these doubts are mentally preparing me for Sunday. I’m finding myself spending more and more time mentally micro managing my race. Today I noticed hat I was able to visualize portions of the race; hopefully I will begin to feel the strain of the swim and hills by tomorrow and have run the entire race in my head by Saturday. Then Sunday will just be a physical re-hash of past week’s mental race. I consider myself fortunate in that I do have a very “vivid imagination” or as coaches might say: “an ability to visualize”.
I’m getting butterflies just thinking about Sunday!
Talk to you soon;
Bill
5 Sleeps til Ironman!
A FEW LAST MINUTE RANTS
6 Sleeps to go!!! …. And worried!
They say it is good to talk about what worries you so get ready for me to bear my soul.
It just seems like just yesterday when I spent the night on the sidewalk in line for a chance to register for Ironman Canada 2008. The excitement and camaraderie of […]
Yahoo! Finally - a swim without problems! I made two significant changes to my pre-race routine which I credit for my improvement: 1: I had a complete breakfast - 2 fried eggs, toast and coffee (5:00AM) and went for a twenty minute pre-race run (6:15 to 6:35). I had always blamed anxiety for swim problems […]
Where Did That Mack Truck Come From???!
Do any of you out there find it hard to re-start something after relying on excuses not to do it for so long? This is actually my 6th or 7th attempt at writing this blog entry and I think that I may have finally done it this time! As for me, I find it amazingly […]
Message from a friend
It’s been a while since my last blog. A wedding and the start of 2 months of home renos have given me the excuses that I needed to avoid blogs and training. Unfortunately I have less than 2 months till the big day in Penticton so.
I did my first swim in two weeks today. 4.5Km […]
A Lazy Week
My Highlight of the past week was watching Donald (Jarhead) perform at the 24 hour Easter Seals Run last evening. Cheryl and I dropped by at 8:00 in the evening as Don was finishing his 70 to 75th kilometre. I have got to tell you, he looked better after 75Km than I usually do after […]
A Shawnigan Lake Education!!
Well, I was right about the education (I had mentioned in my last blog) that I believed I was about to receive on Sunday. Before I give you my feelings on the race and my performance, I have to make a comment on the quality of Victoria and area athletes. Not withstanding the fact that […]
1 Nervous Sleep to go!!
Here I sit at the Internet Cafe in Shawnigan Lake waiting to go out to West Shawnigan Lake Park to register and I’m nervous as hell!! I drove by the spot earlier. While walking around, I over heard two 40 to 50 year old types talking about a training session that they were running. As […]
6 Sleeps till Shawnigan!
Wow, What a great week! I guess that a couple of weeks off with swimmers ear can help a body recover.
This week I was able to get out on the bike twice; 54Km with hills training on Wednesday and 90Km on Saturday with a new high avg. speed of +/- 27KMH. I finished both rides […]
Cool Swimming!
Well, I’m back to training again. My ear is still sore with about 50% hearing but seems to be getting better.
I managed 3 hours of training last week; 2hrs on the bike, 0.50hrs barefoot running and 0.50hrs in the lake.
I especially enjoyed the lake swim - Thetis Lake to the island and back. The water […]
Out from Hiding!
Well, I managed to do it again……. Go a month without an entry!
Since we last talked, I completed the Sooke Sprint Tri, did a 100Km ride together with several shorter (50 to 60 KM) rides. All was going well till my very first bout of swimmers ear from which I’ve been suffering with for two […]
I Love My New Shoes - So Far!!!
I take back what I said last blog about the new Vibram five fingers that I am now running in. I went for my first two outside runs in them yesterday and they performed exceptionally. My first outing was an easy 5.5 miles with my friend Tom. Usually we are about equal in our running […]
New Shoes!!!
Training went well this past week; 2Hr in the pool, 5Hr on the Bike and 3Hr on the road.
My 2 hr Parksville run was particularly good. Parksville streets and sidewalks aren’t as pitted as Victoria’s so I was able to do about 35 min of the run in bare feet – a really nice feeling!
The […]
I managed 2.5 hours of training in the pool and at the gym today. I have started strength training to improve swimming and (fingers crossed) keep up with the swimmers in the club. It seems to be working. My timed 400’s averaged 2m30s per 100, down from 3 minutes last week. I have a long […]
Monday Blues
I’m not sure if the cause is over training, diet, old age, illness or plain old laziness but I have been tired as H_ _ _ _ the past few days. I find myself having trouble sleeping at night and needing catnaps during the day. (Which is where I’m going as soon as I am […]
Weary Wedensday
I’m not sure if I’m feeling tired from the weekend or if I’m coming down with something but the last three days have been hell! I wasn’t able to complete the Y Tri run last night and barely got through my swim class this morning. I have been sleeping or dozing for a couple of […]
Monday, March 10, 2008
5:30 AM always comes early for me. Especially this week when I remember that 5:30 AM was 4:30 AM only 2 days ago. I can’t imagine living further out where I have more than a 5minute drive to the pool. There is one poor lady who used to swim with us that got up at […]
UBC Sprint Tri
What a nice day for a race and what a pretty venue! I was especially impressed with the run course. Most runs are out and back so you always know how much faaarrrrtherr you still have to go. The UBC course had us run past where most races would have turn for home so I […]
Day Before Sore Body Blues
Before talking to my good wife Cheryl this morning, I was sure that I was the only person that developed a bad case of sore body the day before a race. Once again this morning I woke up sore all over; sore knees, calves and feet, lower back and shoulders. Even my head hurt this […]
Thursday
Yesterday was another very productive day. I started with a timed 800M in the 50M Crystal Pool. The first 200M were pure hell but after that the 50M lengths were kind of nice. My time: just under 24Min. Not a great time but not bad for me.
I did 2 afternoon runs again. The first was […]
Monday Swim
Up bright and early - 5:30 AM and off to the pool. I struggled through 2100 M in 75 minutes with the kick drills knocking the H___ out of my legs. I’m now to the point that I can get across the 25M with a flutter board so I guess that I’m improving. I finished […]
Saturday Ride
Another wonderful day in Victoria. I woke up at 4:00 to the sound of a heavy rain and wondered if we would be out today. But, true to form along with sunrise came the sun! I marvel at this city; it seems to rain at night and be beautiful most of the day. I think […]
Lost in Victoria - Again!
Feb 28, 2008
Another two run day and I sure did feel the 15 miles that I did on Tuesday. I ended up with a couple of small blisters so today’s runs were with aqua sox. My running friend Tom was telling me about Heart Rate Spikes at the start of a run and the fact […]
Feb 27, 2008
Feb 27, 2008: 6:00 AM swim class. Surprisingly, I was awake 5 minutes before the 5:30 alarm. Those of you who know me know that I’m definitely not a morning person so this is a major feat for me. They say that 21 times makes a habit, so ….
Did 1700 M in the pool; I […]
Today felt like a Training Day
Feb 26, 2008: Wow, Watch out Don (Jarhead), I’m coming at you! What a day! 2 runs - 15.5 miles inc. 4 barefoot miles, 5 miles of hills and NO Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies.
The workouts are finally starting to feel like training!
The barefoot miles felt great. My only problem seemed to come on the down […]