40 Days and 40 Nights until IMAZ

Ironman Arizona gets underway at 7AM on 9-Apr, and that is a scant 40 days away.  I thought I would take this moment to update everyone on where my training is and the thoughts, hopes, and concerns that I have about the race.  Last week was a recovery week for me, and I have three more weeks of hard training and three weeks of taper leading up to the race.  Most of the hay is in the barn, but there is still just a little bit of work left to be done.

Swim

I don't have a lot of anxiety about finishing the swim in decent time.  I have two concerns regarding the swim.  The first is that I have yet to buy a wetsuit!  I had hoped to get a $100 Xterra from www.tribonzai.com, but they sold out before I could act!  Now, I gotta figure something out, you know?  The second concern is that Tempe Town Lake, the venue for the swim, has been overrun by flood waters all winter.  I just hope that the water is "swimmable" come early April.  On the bright side, I contacted the swim coach at LSU and he is sending me an LSU Swim Cap for the practice swims.  Won't I be cool?  As for training, my longest continuous swim to date has been 3000 meters in 56:16.  I did that five weeks ago, at the end of the previous period.  I have also done a set of 18X200 (3600m) three weeks ago.  I had planned on doing a 3600 meter continuous swim two weeks ago, but that week (and most of last week as well) I had a nagging cough that made it tough to swim with any consistency.  I bailed on the 3600 meter swim after (only) 2400 meters.   I have no doubt that I could jump in the water tomorrow and swim 2.4 miles.  Still, I plan on doing two more long "broken" sets of 3900 and 4200 meters, followed by a continuous swim of 4200 meters.  That'll be a fun 80 minutes... 

Bike

The bike is the area right now where I feel I need the most work.  Luckily, that is going to be my main focus for the next three weeks.  Here is where I am on the bike right now.  I have made one minor change, and I am about to make a slightly larger change to my bike setup.  Gulp.  This is 6 weeks out from an Ironman!  OK, the first change was that I took my bike in last week for a "tune-up" and the first thing the mechanic told me that I needed a new chain and cassette.  Not surprising because I got the bike secondhand last year and have since put about 3000 miles on it.  So because I never, ever, ever use my smallest cog, I replaced the old 12-23 with a 13-24.  Just give me one extra tooth all the way around, you know?  The other change that I have to make is to adjust my aerobars.  After these last few long rides, my shoulder muscles have really been hurting, and I think it is because my setip is too compact.  I am going to move the armrests out a smidge and move the handles forward and see if I can achieve a little more comfort for 112 miles.  Oh yeah, the guy said that the new chain and cassette should make me faster.  We'll see.

My longest ride to this point was 97.5 miles. (It was supposed to be 100, but flats ruled the day.)  This weekend, I am going to ride 5.5 hours or 105 miles, whichever comes first.  Then, I am going to do a ride of 6 hours and I will close with a 6 hour ride (maybe 6.5 hours ~125 miles) and a 4 mile run.  I have been doing runs off the long bike *most* of the time.  I feel good about my cycling abilities.  The major worry that I have is whether or not the "climbs" on the bike route will be similar to the South Texas-sized hills that I have been riding on.  But then again, I do have that one extra tooth...

My fuel plan for the bike leg of the race is pretty simple.  I plan on taking 3 Gu's every hour.  Every other hour, I'll eat a banana.  I set my watch to go off every 15 minutes and that's my cue to eat.  That'll average out to 350 calories per hour.  To that, I will add enough water and Gatorade Endurance so that I am only peeing about once every two hours, which is largely dependent on the weather I have discovered.  That should get me to about 450 - 500 calories per hour while on the bike.  Nothing to it, right?  Well, this is the level that I have found my body tolerates on long training rides.  If I try to stuff one more Gu in the "skipped" 15 minute, I get bloated.

Run

Ah, the run.  I love to run and that is for sure.  Having adopted and embraces Rich's "run for time" theory, I finished my longest long run of my preparation two weeks ago.  I covered just over 19 miles in 2:35.  My plan is to get 2 more 2-hour runs on the weekends.  The other weekend will be occupied with a long brick, where the run portion will be 1 hour.  During the week, I am going to add a second long run, at least for this week to see how it feels.  The second long run will be on Wednesday (don't tell my wife) and be 1:30. 

The biggest obstacle for me on the run is to avoid starting too fast.  On almost ever run off the bike that I have done in my IM buildup, I have run the first mile in 6:45 to 7:15.  Now, it would be great if I could string 26 of those together, and maybe someday soon I'll be able to in a stand-alone marathon, but my target pace for IMAZ is to run 8:30 - 8:45 pace and walk 30 seconds at each aid station.  In the next three weeks, I should have four runs off the bike, and my primary target for those runs is to run the first mile at 8:30 pace for race rehearsal.  In the long brick, I may pick up the speed after the first mile, but the first mile needs to be at race pace.

My fuel plan for the run is to do whatever it takes to get me to the finish line.  No, seriously, I plan on picking up one cup of water and one of Gatorade at each aid station, and to take a Gu at every other aid station.  But of course I'll have to pay attention to my body as the race goes, right?

Race

Now of course there are a ton more concerns, such as getting my bike put back together in Tempe, selecting the contents of my special needs bags, what to wear during each leg of the race (switch to bike shorts for the bike?), and last, but not least, what my Ironman tattoo is going to look like!