And so the training in earnest begins....

Well it's April, which means I now have less than 5 months to get Ironman ready. While I have been trying to keep my training levels consistent doing each sport 2 times a week, work and regular life have been kicking my butt hardcore. I'm notcing that I've been taking at least two rest days a week, which isn't a bad thing but is hard to comprehend for a type-a athlete type like myself. So this month I'm trying to cut my off days down to one or when I feel totally run down. On the plus side it's springtime which means I'm home in daylight, the snow has melted and I can begin my outdoor runs and rides again. No more treadmill halves for me. I've been trying to train on the Rev3 Half Iron course out in Middlebury to get my legs in shape for a possible attack at it in June and my onslaught of Ironman Louisville in August. It's been so warm the past few days that I've actually been able to run in *gasp* shortsleeves. Today there's some rain forecasted but a wet 13 miler isn't anyhing to worry about. Another sign of spring is I'm notcing my equipment is starting to reach it's max life. My jammer is getting see through, and my running shoes are approaching the 500 mile mark, likewise I need new racing flats, quick laces, fuel belt bottles ( as my current ones have little traces of mold in the creases. yet somehow I still continue to drink out of them, yes it's gross I know but when you hit mile 10 of a long run and you still have 5 miles to go you will drink anything.) I've also needed bike shorts for the past two years, but I just keep putting off some of the purchases until I have more money, or my naked butt cheeks are hanging out, or the writing wears off the soles of my shoes...etc but the time to bust out the wallet is coming and soon. And on the running shoes I'm stuck in a debate: Do I stick with Saucony or head back to New Balance? I mean for years I was a New Balance fan boy but last year I tried on a pretty sick pair of Pro Ride2's and except for some rubbing in a couple of long tread mill sessions ( in one case I ended up with a bleeding toe and turned my left shoe a lovely shade of pink because I didn't cut my nails.) have been pretty decent. I haven't had a lot of sorenesss except for the usual I just ran 10 miles at 8min/mile pace tightness and I just found a light weight trainer that would make a perfect racing flat. the problem is right next to it is an equally sexy New Balance lightweight trainer the would make an equally perfect racing flat. Granted the New Balance shoe is about $20 more. Unfortunately neither one is my signature Orange racing flat ( Saucony or New Balance please Sponsor me and make a limited edition Orange Racing Flat.) So it looks like I'll be a little harder to pick out in crowd of runners this season. So my week ahead looks like this Today a 13 mile run and a possible lifting or swim session Tomorrow: A sufferfest spin class and swim Wednesday a short run before I go into the office as I'm driving my mom out to Rhode Island Thursday a swim and trainer ride Friday: I'm supposed to see the girlfriend but I might be heading up on Saturday: so either a run or a swim Saturday: I really want to get 3 runs in this week so regardless or where I am I'm getting between 8 and 10 miles on the pavement. Next week I'm hoping public works will get out and clear the sand from this years epic winter off the roads so I can begin my loops of death out to Lake Waramaug and back. I'm hoping to do a 200k in July so stay tuned for details. Happy training every one. R.D.

Wow, it's been nearly, two months since I last posted

Well it's been a while since my last post, but a lot's been going on since. I've been left homeless, found a place and went off on my own, winter ended, I've begun sort of volunteer coaching, celebrated the longest relationship of my adult life, and oh yes winter came back just so we wouldn't miss it. That's the cliff notes version.

Below is sort of the bloody gory yarn:

First on the being left homeless. Shortly after my last post when I tossed the DMV a pretty hefty wad of cash to re-register my Subaru, I headed up to visit my girlfriend. On my way out the door my mom got a call from the friend's who's house we were renting/ house sitting, while they were selling their other one. Apparently they sold faster than expected so instead of waiting until May 1 we had to be out March 1. Well through out the coming week that date got pushed back and we had to be out the second week of March. Well this left us in a bind. My parents hadn't started looking for places and my security deposit money for my own place was now being spent by the governor of Connecticut, so essentially the shit hit the fan. To add insult to injury my dad got pulled over for driving unregistered, uninsured and on an expired license. My parents solution was to borrow my car and put me in a pretty sweet rental. I'm not going to bitch about driving a rental and that little red ford focus drove well and had decent mileage, but part of me feels that some of that money would have been better spent re-registering their cars but anyhoo enough about that.
After a hasty regroup in a motel that looked like something out of a 1970's horror or porno flick.
Seriously this place had Formica and red vinyl couches. Before we moved in I told them about that this was my last move with the family. I starting browsing Craigslist hard core and found a few decent places in Waterbury and the surrounding area. There was one up in the Bunker Hill section that was going for about $500 a month. It was on the high end of my budget but the owner got back to me really quick. I went up and took a look at the place, really nice house in a really good section. The one downfall utilities weren't included but they would come to about an extra $100 a month. $600 was the max I could afford and Looking at the other adds anything that came remotely close was charging weekly and was in "da hood". i took a few days to think it over another plus was he wasn't charging security and the dude was pretty freaking cool so after three days I called him back.I pretty much told my parents I was moving out on my own. While the reaction was expected. One parent was like it's about damn time and if you need anything let us know, the other was like how could you be so selfish we need you right now, and if you comeback we're going to charge you rent. I could understand their feelings of I was abandoning them in their time of need but the other part of me was screaming that I could not support a family of 7 on my meager salary. I had gone broke nearly 3 years ago bailing them out ( granted I was also doing a heavy race schedule as well so there was column A and Column B contributing to the breaking of the bank.) Another fear was that if my parents put me on a lease with them and if they couldn't pay I'd be saddled with a rent anyway, and if I was going to rent then I was going to rent something I could afford. Plus I'm 25 it was about time I left home. Essentially I needed to be in an environment that I was in control of, granted I certainly would have liked to do it under better circumstances but sometimes Life has to give a good swift kick in the ass, so this was my swift kick in the ass. I moved in that Sunday and life has been pretty good granted I do have to adjust to living on a more limited budget, but overall I feel I'm going to make it.

Likewise the weather in New England has been a roller coaster. We've thawed out a bit and those mounds of snow from "snowmagedon" and the "storm of the century" and "snowpocoyspe now." finally melted off. I've actually started running outdoors again granted we did get a dusting on Wednesday night and it's been a little chilly but I'm running outdoors again damn it and yes Claire the shorts are back. I'm beginning to create new running loops in my new neighborhood. I've also started running swim sessions for the Waterbury YMCA tri club. ( still haven't joined yet but they are throwing out some nice goodies like Timex Watches.) I have a hard core group of 5-10 swimmers every Wednesday and Friday and they vary in ability from just did total immersion to I was a high school swim champ. It's been good to pass some of my knowledge along and some people have actually started asking me to analyze other parts of their training as well, so a USAT cert maybe in my future.

Sorry about the lack of positing but it's been a crazy time. Hopefully there will be more promising post in the future. Until then it looks like it is going to be a very very good Spring.

Thawed and Recharged
R.D.

Chills and DMV

Well it's been a rough two days on the training front. Yesterday the treadmills at the Y were packed so I ran 4 miles on the microscopic 1/24th of a mile track. I had hoped to get a swim in early in the afternoon but went to visit Josie and got some quality time in with an old friend and met her four month old, Amelia. o I was going to swim that nigh but for some strange reason I had a strange case of the chills. Not the normal its cold on the pool deck chills, but the I'm coming down with a cold shivering like a malaria patient through 3 layers of blankets kind of chills. I coached a couple of the Waterbury Y tri club swimmers and then went home and bundled up under the covers to sweat out the bug. To put how bad this shivering fit was I was sweating buckets and was curled up under two heavy blankets but I was still freezing. This went on for most of the night until I got up for work this morning.

Today I packed my gym bag just in case I was feeling better but I sort of knew my chances of hitting the gym were slim. They became even slimmer, when I saw the Connecticut State Police Crusier in my rear view. My registration had expired and I was going to head down to the DMV on Saturday to renew it. Well long story short the Trooper was pretty cool and just gave me a ticket, but I decided to head down to the DMV to at least get a temp registration until I could re-up my emmissions.
I will say this the CT DMV is a pit of despair!!! And my quest to gain new registration for my little Subaru could parallel Dante's Inferno. The long story short I'm going to need to call out to work to get documents proving I paid my taxes from town hall and then get a temp plate go through emmissions, then go back get my "real plates" and head up to see Steph on Saturday.

So hopefully tomorrow will be more productive, I'll reup my registration and hopefully I'll kick this cold or at least be able to train through it.

R.D.

Trying to plan a season

The Old Bobby is coming back...is this a good thing or a bad thing?



Ok for the first in nearly two years I'm trying to plan out a season. Last year was crazy as I was trying to figure out if the Navy was going to take me, plus some crazy life issues. Now I've signed up for another Ironman. Now this time my Ironman will be different. In 2008 and 2009 Ironman New Zealand was my season opener. I essentially spent four months training with no races on my schedule. This year Ironman Kentucky is toward the end of my season, which now means I have to give thought into what races I should enter as qualifying for Kona is my ultimate goal. Now in a normal year I usually do 2 halfs, 2 olympics and 2 or 3 sprints. I know my body is capable of doing 3-4 halves but with the Ironman I have to watch my finances as well as my body as doing 140.6 miles in the peak of my season is a whole new ball game.

So 2011 has my inner coach fighting the inner accountant.
Initally I was planning on doing the Rev3 half at Quassy and the Patriot half. The positives to these two races is Patriot is $50 cheaper than most of M-Dot 70.3 races and Rev3 is in my own backyard so that cuts out a hotel. . Essentially I would spend the first half of my season building base and then work on going fast for the mid portion of it and then maybe race Montauk or Long Course Nationals to close it out. I wasn't planning on being able to get into an Ironman but when I saw that Ironman Louisville still had spots after Christmas I figured I would go for it.
So now I need to try to break my season down to be at optimal performance for August, which now has me wondering if I should break my season down further. Enter my inner coach.
My inner coach is saying well Rev3 or Patriot would be a good option and I should do Providence 70.3 as it falls in mid-July and would give me a good last warm up before Louisville. The problem Providence is more expensive than Patriot, and would require at least a one night hotel stay, and from experience a hotel for 2 nights in Providence would cost me the same as 4 nights with a rental car in Louisville.
I consulted another area athlete who has her degree in this stuff, essentially her call was play it by ear, and if I decided to race Providence to use it as a training race. $500 between race entry and hotel for a weekend in RI sounds like an expensive tab for a training day, so it looks like I maybe creating my own LD training race in mid July. Likewise I do have some shorter distance races that I usually do on the schedule. The Griskus Sprint like always, is on the list and my goal for that race is to try to top 15 as I was in the top 25 last year. I may go back up to Holliston and race my girlfriend's hometown Sprint, granted they shortened the distance, and I was thinking about going back to Park City to avenge a disappointing finish from last year. Ideally I want to do 5 races the thing I need to decide are which ones.

R.D.

Here we go again...

Well I finally committed to my third Ironman and this time it's a little closer to home.

Yep that's right I signed up for Ironman Kentucky. I've heard some good things from my teammates from HEAT who have done it in year's past. There will be somethings I'll have to get used to, first of all this will be the first Iron distance race I've done measured in miles, likewise it will be the first Ironman where I'll be biking on the right side of the road, and oh yes it falls in the middle of a good ol' hot and humid southern summer. The heat isn't serving as a deterrent as I've raced well in the heat. I nearly got a Kona slot a Eagleman a while back and I managed to podium in my age group last year at the Griskus. If I make sure I'm slathered in a good layer of sunscreen I should be fine. The other major change is this time my Ironman will be toward the end of my season instead of the beginning. Ironman New Zealand served as my season opener in 2008 and 2009, I put in training but had no races for nearly 4 months before, it will be interesting to see how I'll perform after a few races and nearly 6 months of training instead of the "Clyde Crashcup School of Ironman Training." I'm hoping that I'll be able to get that coveted Kona slot granted my fear is I don't want to burn my legs out early in the season. Likewise last season I didn't do anything longer than an olympic distance try or any runs over 20 miles. So there will be some more time spent in the weight room this winter trying to build my legs and core likewise I'm been putting in some marathon treadmill sessions, so mentally and physically I'll think I'll be tough enough to get this thing done.

So breakout the Bourbon Boys Bobby's going to Louisville

R.D.

Snowpocalypse Now!

"You smell that salty smell, that smell smells like wet salt, that's brine, I love that smell, it smells like , like victory."

Ok before I start writing a 2 hour epic based on plow drivers stuck in the Northeast, loosely based on Conrad's The Heart of Darkness, I'll explain the title. The weather guys in the Northeast have been calling our continual storms Snowmagedon and Snowpocalypse. This week blizzard/ winter storm number 7 or 8 in a row is scheduled to hit Tuesday, Wenesday and Thursday, really throwing a crimp in my workout plans. ( Looks like no run or swim for Bobby, breakout the bike trainer.) Seriously this weather is starting to get old...in fact it's more than old I'm getting tired or cleaning my car every week and hearing how much over our annual average snowfall we are. I'm tired of my drive way being covered in a thick layer of ice. I'm tired of not being able to run on the streets because the snow drifts have clogged the far right lanes and shoulders I normally run in. I'm tired of snowmounds that are nearly double my size. I'm done with weathermen smiling with glee at their doppler radars and doomsday forecasts. I'm tired of this cold icy mess sucking my soul into a cold icy pit of despair. (Ok I went a little overboard on the last part.) Ok meltdown over. Last week was productive on the run front as I was able to gut out a couple of 4 mile speed session and a 10 miler on the treadmill. I did two pool sessions and hit the trainer. It looks like this week is going to be spent on the trainer, with my dvd collection. Likewise my income tax refund comes rolling in so I'll be able to throw down for my Ironman if there are still spots. Things are looking ok but there has been some personal/ family drama and like the snow it's more than old. I don't know why but my natural defense mechanism is to withdrawl and isolate myself, maybe I feel shitty if I go over in the corner and feel shitty by myself, it'll pass faster or make less people feel shitty but regardless that's besides the point, right now I just want to get my ass entered in some races and possible have a mid winter thaw show up so I can run outdoors again.

R.D.

Learning to love the Dread...I mean Treadmill.

Well this winter has been probably one of the coldest and snowiest in New England in recent memory. We've already received our average yearly snowfall in the course of 20 days and even more is expected this week. We've gone in to our annual cold snap of like 4 days where the temperature will not get above 20F, in fact tomorrow's high will be a balmy 8F. ( note to self I really need to move to someplace warmer.)

Reading Claire's, Charisa's and Bree's Blogs really makes me jelaous of those people who live in climates where 40F with a slight breeze is considered an Artic Blast. I haven't run out side since the end of December so to cope with the ice the snow and temperatures that would have an eskimo shivering I've had to start using to the indoor training tools. Now I'm not one to give kudos for the treadmill. In fact I rather layer up and suck it up in the cold but with nearly 4 feet of snow clogging up the road sides the treadmill seems to be the safest running option. As a result my Thursday run session saw me running a 10 miler on the treadmill. Now for a short distance and speed work the treadmill is a valuable tool as it can test your fitness and hold you to your goal pace. On Monday I did a 5k at 7:30 pace on varying grades. Thursday's run wasn't anything special. I kept the grade at 0% and ran at 8:00/mile pace. As I gutted out the miles I kept thinking of one of Hillary Biscay's workouts where she talked about doing a treadmill marathon. Apparently getting over the tedium of running to nowhere is supposed to build mental toughness. After an an hour and twenty minutes on the minutes on the treadmill I could understand why. Most people will gut it out for 10-20 minutes, occassionaly some will go for 30 even fewer for 45 and only a hardcore few will go for an hour or more, and almost all of them will have ipods. So I did feel a little badass after my run. With more snow and icy cold temperatures predicted in the forecast it looks like I'll be trying to up my mileage on the machine. But despite the mental toughness factor and the fact that I sweat out more calories than a weightlifter in a sauna I can't wait to run outdoors again.

R.D.