My First Marathon (x2)

  Some race reports are easier to write than others. Some take a while to process everything that happened. On September 26 th  I set out to do my own full Ironman distance triathlon (2.4 miles swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run). When coach at I first started talking about it we talked about maybe as a one day effort (race format) or three days (like some of the virtual options have been). My last big training weekend (biking 100 on Saturday, running 20 on Sunday, and swimming 2.2 miles open water on Monday) confirmed that I needed to shoot for single day because I had come so close to the three day in training. So we were full steam ahead with the plan already in motion. I had planned routes, marked my bike course, secured volunteers for aid stations (amazing people all around), dropped off aid bags…finished training and tapered.   Race morning Trena arrived at my house early and we headed over to Andy’s for the swim. Trena and Jen were doing safety kayaking for me. Andy and Anna wer

There are relatively few road running distances I haven't raced and the same is true with triathlon. But there's a whole multisport world I never really planned to explore. I always teased David that duathlon was for people who can't swim. And it still may be, but the why we can't swim has changed. Pools are closed and it is still a bit early for open water (never mind you shouldn't really swim open water alone). And so I did my first duathlon. It wasn't what I would call an exceptionally well planned event. It was more like semi-spontaneous shenanigans. Semi being like 10 days lead time. It started with a social pose from Ironman Virtual Reality with the upcoming schedule for their VR events. April 24-26 was listed as half Iron distance duathlon. I looked at my Training Peaks plan and my weekend was going to be "close enough" to that that I asked coach. He said sure and rearranged my weekend. I took Friday off work to plan everything for my Saturday

When the Carmel Marathon was rescheduled from April 4th to June 14th I was sad. I knew it was necessary. I also knew that I have Ironman 70.3 Wisconsin in Madison that day. And assuming we can race by then I will be in Madison. Normally I would just completely be - oh well, can't so a race that isn't happening. I don't do virtual races. I kinds thing they're dumb. But they're cool for some people. I had deferred my Carmel entry to 2021 and figured my streak had ended...this was supposed to by my 10th year of the Carmel races and I am one of the remaining streakers. Then coach encouraged me to to a 26.2 mile "race" as part of my training for Ironman Wisconsin. So I stuck with the original date, and eventually running in Carmel. Not on the course as they had asked us not to and part of the trail is closed anyway. Here's the tale of my solo, self-supported, self-entertained Carmel marathon. The end of taper week was kinda driving me bonkers because ther

There's a first time for everything. Today is the first time I've missed a 20 mile run in a marathon training cycle. Yesterday I got hit hard with what is likely rotavirus. Like puking into my trashcan in my office hit hard. After that the only thing I ate the rest of the day was about a half cup of cream of rice in the evening. Even if I wasn't dehydrated, didn't spend all night getting further dehydrated with sweating, and felt great I would have too much of a caloric deficit to attempt a 20 mile run. And so I spend this morning on the couch writing instead of training. Coach says getting healthy is the most important thing for my training. Fortunately I have enough time for at least one more 20 before Carmel and I already ran one 20 miler so I should be ok. But it is hard to skip. I might be able to pull off some kind of long run tomorrow. Or at least some kind of run. And in the afternoon it will be in the 40s so I won't be further stressing my body with cold.

I'm a planner. And a dork. And I wrote a lot of Vision 2020 plans around 2000 so now that it is 2020 everything feels weird. Ok, that's out of my system. Let's talk about 2020. I've already done a self-assessment of last year and met with coach to plan 2020. Everything is focused on Ironman Wisconsin on September 13.The milestones have been set, but there will be some infill along the way. Milestone 1: Carmel Marathon - I did a spring marathon (also Carmel) in 2018 ahead of Louisville and it seemed like a good idea to do that again. So for the 10th Carmel Marathon I am running the full. Spring marathons feel undertrained compared to fall because the time between recovering from fall and getting ramped up to multiple 20 mile training runs is not there. I take the spring effort as a see what happens sort of race. Must finish to keep the streak alive, but I will see how everything else unfolds. Milestone 2: TourdeLou - not so much of a race as a supported event ride