Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Sylvan it is!

Well I finally made a commitment and put my money down for the Sylvan Lake Half Iron Man. I haven't left myself a lot of time to fret about preparations as it is this Sunday, July 24th. I'm not feeling terribly excited about it right now as I have not quite felt myself in recent weeks, but I'm sure I will pull it together by the weekend. Sylvan Lake is about 4 hours from Hinton and is a resort town of sorts. The lake is about a good a lake as you will find in Alberta as there just aren't that many lakes. The swim should be alright as I have been doing okay there. I am not that worried about the bike. However, lately I have not felt the running endurance I normally have. I'm not sure if it is a function of the weather or what, but I just find myself tiring easily on the run. Well we will see what the weekend holds and I will report back next week!

Saturday, July 9, 2011

What next?

This summer thus far, has been one of indecision as I can't seem to get my act together and make any commitments to an event. I keep threatening to sign up for various races and then they come and go without me at the starting line.
Time to get committed and get myself entered in some races. Which brings me to my next point, the Sylvan Lake 1/2 Iron Man on July 24th. This is a race I really like so I hope this gets me going again and back into the swing of things. I am just waiting until Monday to make sure that weekend is clear for me and then I will get signed up. Last time I was 5:08 with a really slow run as I had a banged up calf.
I have been training very consistently and feel I am within weeks of being in full IM condition. A bit more time on the bike and a few long runs and I will be there. My cycling has shown some improvements again this summer. I'm not sure I am any faster but I have definitely gotten stronger. I credit that to the SUFFERFEST DVD's I have been training with lately. Their motto is "I will beat my ass today so I can kick your's tomorrow." Brilliant! And they are inexpensive, around $11 / each and you can download them directly from their site. So far they have 5 different ones in the collection and I have all of them.
So far this week I have logged 10 hours of training with one day to go. Today will be a longish run, 20km or so. Weather is not looking great but that's okay as I don't run well in the heat anyway!
Hope you have had a great week and happy training!