Feb 17, 2017 5:11 am

Good morning,

Again, thanks to those who have taken time to read my previous 2 blogs. Really appreciate it. I am not going to write every day ( at least I don’t think I will ) but right now I have a few things to get out there to help with the overall sense of training for an IRONMAN.

I didn’t get my bike in last night. Did get my swim in though first thing in the a.m. Had a full day at work and then got home in time to get my puppy and off to puppy training. By the time I got home last night it was 7:30 pm and I was beat. There was time to get the bike in but I was too tired and unmotivated. This happens during training, during life, but it can’t happen regularly. I will make that bike ride up Sunday. Today, I have weights this a.m and then a 10 km run this afternoon.

GOALS

All we hear is that you need to set goals and tell someone about them for the goals to become real. I never really believed in that. I can set goals, I can accomplish them without telling a soul. With this blog I guess I am telling someone so this is new to me and a bit uncomfortable.

My first IRONMAN in 2004, IRONMAN CANADA (when it was in Penticton) my goal was to finish in one piece. Done. Accomplished.

My second IRONMAN in 2008, IRONMAN CDA, my goal was to beat my time in Pentiction 4 years previous. Done. Accomplished. Beat my 2004 time by just over an hour if I remember correctly.

Today, in 2017, my goal is to go back to IRONMAN CDA and as a 50 year old beat my time that I set in 2008 as a 41 year old. Here is my official time from 2008:

IRONMAN CDA 2008

Swim: 1:33:34       Bike: 7:46:45     Run: 4:58:23   Total: 14:34:45

So how do I go about doing that? How do I move faster 9 years later?

1. LOSE WEIGHT
2. GET FASTER ON THE BIKE
3. GET FASTER RUNNING
4. SWIM

LOSE WEIGHT. I was 203 lbs in 2008. I was heavier in 2008 than I was in 2004 but I was an hour faster. CDA has a rolling bike course. You are never on flat ground, you are either going up or going down. I don’t recall any sustained climbs like Richter Pass in Osoyoos or Yellow Lake but you are climbing all the time in CDA. So being lighter will help a great deal. Right now, last time I checked I was 192 lbs. 11 pounds lighter already. I want to be at least 185 lbs on race day. Haven’t been that light since the early 90s when Pearl Jam came out with the album “10” one of the best ever (sorry not really relevant). You can’t out exercise a bad diet, especially at 50 years old so I have to focus on eating right. I can exercise all I want but the lbs won’t come off unless I am eating healthy.

FASTER ON THE BIKE. Indoor training when you live where we live. Winter can start early and stay late. In 2008, April, I was heading out to do a 100 km bike ride and it snowed so had to come back and finish on the trainer. I am working on my rpms, just pedalling faster for longer periods. I use various cycling training workouts that I have accumulated over the years. When the spring comes, Saturdays will be long ride days. Putting in the mileage. More on that in a later blog.

FASTER ON THE RUN. Losing weight will help. Running at a higher cadence. Hill work. Losing weight:-)

SWIM. I worked my butt off in the pool during my 2008 training and only improved my swim time by 3 minutes I think. I am swimming 3 x per week and yes I want to swim faster but the effort and the results aren’t worth it in my books. I can maybe shave another 3 minutes off my swim time by swimming 4 x per week or I can shave an hour off my bike time by losing weight and spending my time there.

So to recap. My GOALS for 2017 IRONMAN CDA are:

1. Finish in one piece, no injuries and a smile on my face. ( that is my first goal in all events I do. I ain’t getting paid to this stuff so I don’t need to be laid up due to injury )
2. Finish faster than 14:34:45. It could be one second faster, it could be one hour faster. But it will be faster!
3. Shave 60 min off my time. On a perfect race day, to take 60 min off my time would be amazing. That would mean that my bike was perfect, I was fast and light. My run was solid and steady. Weather was perfect. 

Well, there you go. You now know my GOALS and you can hold me to account whenever you like. Off to the gym now for a weight workout, to work after that and then a 10 km run later this afternoon.

I am meeting up with the 3 other fellows that are doing the race with me. We are getting together tonight for a couple of pints and to talk about how things are going. Diet out the window tonight:-)

I will go deeper into each of the 3 events in my upcoming blogs.

Take care

Scott