The word yesterday is that the race is now sold out. For those outside of the Ironman community, five days to sell out is a rather long time; Ironman races are worse than rock concerts. Registration for Ironman New York opened at the same time as Ironman Mont Tremblant, and even at $900 sold out in 10 minutes.
Speculation is that the course profile scared off a lot of folks. There's no doubt it's a challenging course. But I'm going to treat my naivety as an advantage — it got me in the race.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Saturday, June 25, 2011
A Man with a Plan (or at least the start of one)
The Links section on the right side of this blog now has a link to my training plan. (Here it is as well.) Anyone incurably curious enough to take a look might be confused. No, it isn't really blank. It's just that the plan doesn't start until next January, so you have to skip past a bunch of empty months to see anything. The plan is based on Joe Friel's work, particularly from his latest book Your Best Triathlon. Friel claims that you can't really sustain a training plan longer than the 24 weeks (plus preparation) without burnout. That definitely matches my experience, and working backwards from the race date sets the start of official training.
So what happens between now and January? That's easy to say, but less easy to do: Lose weight. It seems like every year I end up having to get down to my racing weight while working through my training program. That means losing weight and building fitness simultaneously, and it's hard to do. Some years (2009) I've managed to pull it off, but others (2010) haven't worked out as well. The biggest conflicts occur on rest and recovery days: my training plan says "take it easy," but my diet says "burn some calories." I'm going to do my best to avoid that battle this time. And given the elevation profile of the bike course, power-to-weight ratio looks to be critical. My ideal racing weight is probably close to 135 pounds, and although I've never quite gotten that light in the past, it will be my big hairy audacious goal for this race. The scale this morning showed 153.7 pounds (which is already down from 173.7 pounds in early May). Reaching 135 pounds by the start of training means losing less than 2/3 of a pound per week, and that doesn't seem too impossible. All I really need is to develop a fatal allergy to chocolate chip cookies.
By the way, the training plan so far only maps out the macro and meso cycles. Eventually I'll add the details for each week.
(As noted in other posts, it might be confusing to figure out how to add a comment. Just click on the title to see the full post with a comment section. Alternately, you can click on the number of comments text right below here.)
So what happens between now and January? That's easy to say, but less easy to do: Lose weight. It seems like every year I end up having to get down to my racing weight while working through my training program. That means losing weight and building fitness simultaneously, and it's hard to do. Some years (2009) I've managed to pull it off, but others (2010) haven't worked out as well. The biggest conflicts occur on rest and recovery days: my training plan says "take it easy," but my diet says "burn some calories." I'm going to do my best to avoid that battle this time. And given the elevation profile of the bike course, power-to-weight ratio looks to be critical. My ideal racing weight is probably close to 135 pounds, and although I've never quite gotten that light in the past, it will be my big hairy audacious goal for this race. The scale this morning showed 153.7 pounds (which is already down from 173.7 pounds in early May). Reaching 135 pounds by the start of training means losing less than 2/3 of a pound per week, and that doesn't seem too impossible. All I really need is to develop a fatal allergy to chocolate chip cookies.
By the way, the training plan so far only maps out the macro and meso cycles. Eventually I'll add the details for each week.
(As noted in other posts, it might be confusing to figure out how to add a comment. Just click on the title to see the full post with a comment section. Alternately, you can click on the number of comments text right below here.)
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Lord, What Have I Got Myself Into?
After talking myself into signing up, and then chickening out, and finally closing my eyes and squeamishly clicking Submit, I am now officially signed up for Ironman Mont Tremblant, my first full Ironman race. If I suddenly disappear from the real world, it's probably because my wife has had me committed.
Reading someone else's blog today, a note of regret caught my attention. The writer was sorry that he hadn't taken the time to keep a record of his first Ironman travails. No one would accuse me of being sentimental, but I suppose you never know, and it's true the first time only happens once. Thus this blog. As long as it still seems like a good idea, I'll keep writing. Thanks for reading.
P.S. Someone noted that it's difficult to see how to comment on posts. I agree, but it looks like a problem with the blogger template, and I can't see an easy way to fix it. (I'll keep looking, though.) In the meantime, just click on the title to see the full post with comment area.
Reading someone else's blog today, a note of regret caught my attention. The writer was sorry that he hadn't taken the time to keep a record of his first Ironman travails. No one would accuse me of being sentimental, but I suppose you never know, and it's true the first time only happens once. Thus this blog. As long as it still seems like a good idea, I'll keep writing. Thanks for reading.
P.S. Someone noted that it's difficult to see how to comment on posts. I agree, but it looks like a problem with the blogger template, and I can't see an easy way to fix it. (I'll keep looking, though.) In the meantime, just click on the title to see the full post with comment area.
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