March 2007 Archives

Well today is the day ... the official start date of my training plan for Ironman Coeur d'Alene. 13 weeks (91 days) to a sub-13 hour Ironman, by Gale Bernhardt for intermediate triathletes. At least that's the plan. But as I sit here pondering my goal, I have all my toes and fingers crossed (makes typing somewhat of a challenge I can tell you).

I signed up a few months ago with TrainingPeaks.com, and today I received my first e-mailed workout based on the training schedule in the plan that I purchased. I have been both eagerly anticipating, and dreading, this day. Up until now I've been telling myself that the regular workouts I do in a week are all grist for the mill, and should be counted as "bonus" points. In reality, I know that these base building weeks are just as fundamental to reaching my goal, as the "plan" itself. But there is something different about today ... the receipt of this e-amil signals the end of a relaxed and steady-as-she-goes training attitude, and the beginning of a serious, dedicated regimen - real work, with real commitment.

Today was my friend Julie's husband's funeral. He was taken from Julie and the boys suddenly, and without much warning. They have been going through a lot, and I am humbled by the "grace under pressure" that I have witnessed in Julie during these past four weeks. Given the circumstances I could understand her wanting to recede into a corner and not interact with anyone, or loosing it under the crush of well wishes. She did neither. She is Julie. She is amazing, beautiful, strong, grounded, and responding to what really matters.

As a friend, but not a 'best' friend (someone who knows you inside-out), a bystander really ... there is little that I can do to help, no matter how much I want to. Nothing that I say or do can heal my friend's pain and anguish, anger and frustration, or fear of a future without her husband. The best I can do as an outsider is to deliver food to feed the mourners bodies and keep them going ... and to share in the public rituals that make it, perhaps, somewhat emotionally bearable for them.

I have 100 days until IMCDA on June 24th, 2007. Yikes. I made two decisions about how I was going to try to improve on my training this year, as compared with IMC in 2005. I signed up for the "13 Weeks to a 13 Hour Ironman" at Training Peaks.com, (officially my plan starts on March 26th), and I finally got a new HR monitor - a Polar RS200SD - which also calculates speed and distance, but not the way a GPS unit does. It's got this nifty little footpod that you attach to your running shoe laces, and turn on before you start to run. The watch picks up a signal from the footpod and uses some physics formulas (way beyone me) to calculate speed and distance. This time around the Ironman training merry-go-round I am determined to focus on quality vs. quantity in my training, and to abide by my vDot pace chart for each of my target workouts. In order to do this effectively I needed a new gizmo.

I'm not ashamed to admit (well maybe just a little) that I am somewhat technophobic ... and this from someone who lives in Silicon Valley - hmm. Just ask any of my running friends - it's all I can do to get my shoes on the correct feet. So it's no surprise, when I went to calibrate my footpod, that it didn't go so well the first couple of times. A couple weekends ago, at the end of a hilly 5 mile run, I happened to end up at the track, and I decided this was a golden opportunity to perform a calibration. Even I should be able to handle this, or so I thought ...