Taylorsville 1/2 Ironman

Well, another sub 5:30 half ironman and I basically just trained through this one as it was not treated as an “A” race for me. I’ll try to keep this short and focus only on the funny, terrible, and important things.

Friday Morning, EARLY: 2AM, I get an “urgent” work email for something Board of Trust related. It never fails that if I take ANY time off, something urgent comes up that causes me to stress about getting out of work on time. Anyway, came in early, knocked out the request, and was OUT by noon.

Road trip down: Patrick picked me up at work, so that was convenient. We got some Chipotle and hit the road. About half the way down, Patrick realized the Race was on Saturday instead of Sunday.

Course review: We got off the interstate and drove about 10 miles on a nice, flat, smooth road. I made the comment that once we hit the race course, it will start some massive rollers…. and it did. We drove about 15 miles of the course to get to the Swim and Transition areas. The course was visually brutal and I know Patrick’s hybrid car was NOT in hybrid mode. HAHA. We took our bikes out on the run course (which was THREE out and backs of the first couple miles of the Bike course). Terrible climb out of transition. We then ran about 14 mins and swam about 10 mins. We noted a few things: the lake was flooded, the bike (that we’d seen thus far) was gonna suck, and the run was gonna suck. Anyway, we packed up, drove the remainder of the bike course and noted the entire thing was “rolling” hills (i.e. hard climbs).

Dinner: Since Taylorsville and Shelbyville didn’t have much of a restaurant choice, we just randomly picked a place in the Garmin. “Claudia Sanders’ Dinner House”. This ended up being in an elaborate white house in the middle of nowhere with HUGE columns and rather fancy. Claudia turned out to be the wife of Colonel Sanders and she still had the 8 piece bucket of fried chicken on the menu. We didn’t try it; not the best prerace meal.

Race Day: (I’ll keep this on central time since that’s what we’re used to) Patrick woke up at 3:30AM, had breakfast, and stayed awake. Not sure how the man can do that. I got up at 5AM. Packed car, lost cell phone, searched for phone, gave up, left hotel with ONE hour before the 7AM race start. Patrick hauled ass to the race (about 12-15 miles away). We arrived with about 35 mins to check in and setup. I sat up my transition, went to the bathroom, put on my wesuit, and got to the swim start about 3 mins before 7AM. Race started about 15 mins late.

Swim: mass start (but no bigger than a typical wave in a larger race). Tried to draft, most people that were my speed couldn’t swim straight. Two loops. My wetsuit started rubbing my neck raw on the first out (it now looks like a nasty hickey on my neck). I’ve never experienced that before. Oh well, keep swimming. Nothing exciting here. Typical Jonathan Minton swim… just get through it. Turns out, based on calculating an expected pace for me and a few other racers, the swim was about 500-600 meters long. Swim Time: 51:20 (was hoping for 40:00, but OK since the swim was long).

T1: flew through in 1:00. Felt good and warmed up from the swim. Tried to mount my bike with the tri shoes attached (which I hadn’t done since Augusta nearly 8 months ago) and literally fell to the ground. Imagine this… the sweet ass bike you see photos of in previous post, coming out of T1 pretty late since I’m a terrible swimmer, and then the racer can’t even get on it.. he falls to the ground. That was me. Anyone knowing me pretty well knows that falling like that is a HUGE blow to me mentally. Anyway, got up and took off.

Bike: CLIMBED out of T1. Could not get my average over 18 the first 10 miles. Based on the terrible swim time (that I didn’t know was long until later in the day), crashing my bike out of T1, and knowing this was just training for me, I was already done mentally. I saw Patrick at about that point (10-12 miles in), discussed the day’s events thus far, found out the swim was long, and got the drive back that I needed. I dug deep and got into the best rhythm anyone could on a course like this. I was riding at 24+mph over the next 14 miles. Then, on an out and back, I managed 26mph out and about 21mph back (out was down, back was up). This put me at about mile 30 and a 22mph average. The course got even harder at this point. After getting my “drive” back on the bike, I knew I had to get that 22mph average before this point if I was going to get and overall good bike split. UP and down, UP UP UP, and down. That’s all the last 26 miles were… well, except for the 1.5 mile climb that caused me to find the easiest gear on my bike and set up and climb (I never stood). Got over that long climb, back into a decent rhythm, and turned onto the last few miles “the run course”. I counted the runners on my way to T2… only 23 runners. I knew I could get at least 24th place at this point. It sucks to come out of the water and see only about 20 bikes left in T1 (since everyone else is already on the bike), but it does feel nice to pass 80% of the field on the bike course, and get back to T2 with only about 20 bikes back. It makes me feel good to pass all those people who can swim better than me. HAHAHA. Bike time 2:39:57, 21mph, SUB 2:40!!! P.S. I love my new Real Design Disc... looked like a tool crashing out of T1, but road like a machine.

T2: Flew through in 53 seconds.

Run: another big climb out of transition. A very BORING out and back three times. First one was getting used to running, the second one was hot, and the third one was just so mentally boring that I was ready to just stop. I didn’t want to stop because I was sore or tired (neither of which I was). I actually felt great; I was just incredible bored. Ended up with a 1:54:22 half marathon (8:44 pace I think). Not really a good time for someone who PRed with two sub 1:30s early this year, but given the hills, the fact that this wasn’t an “A” race, and that I was just ready to be DONE, I’ll take it.

Total time: 5:27, 6th in age group, 18th overall. Not bad for a training race that I tapered two days for. Plus, this makes the 10th race/event this year… with only one weekend off, not a very tri friendly course (the t-shirt reads “at least the swim is flat”) and my first Triathlon of the season. I’m happy with a 5:27. This gives me two sub 5:30 ½ Ironman races in the 11 months leading up to IML.

Lessons: Since this was mainly about learning where I was for IML, I learned that I need to do LONGER/HARDER bricks. I need to swim intervals in the pool. I need to practice mounting my new bike and tri shoes. Nutrition was fine, endurance was excellent, everything else clicked just right.

"I got the poo on me"

FINALLY! I got an open water swim. We went out to Percy Priest Lake (Hamilton Creek Marina) early this morning where we swam long OW swims last year. The lake was still very flooded even though it’s been nearly two weeks since the big flood. Kristin didn’t want me to go because “there’s still raw sewage spilling into the freshwater”. Surely there wasn’t enough in there to hurt us right? It’s a big lake. It was a big COLD lake too. First 5 mins were cold, but the wetsuit allowed me to warm up quick. We only spent about 20 mins out there since we’re racing on Saturday (and because there may have been poo in the water).

Hmm, first tri of the year… in two days. I am a little nervous, only because I haven’t really trained for the half ironman distance. I’ve been completely focused on ironman, so I’m not really sure how hard to go (or if I can even go at a faster than my planned IML race pace). I know some would say that a half should be easy if your training for a full, but I get all caught up in my splits. See, I should just have fun with it right? I’m not sure why I always get caught up in time and placing. Part of me wants to go “ALL OUT” and see what happens (obviously after I get out of the water) and the other part just wants to treat it like a hard brick workout so that I don’t need recovery time. I should keep IML as my focus and just enjoy this, but I know once I get out of that water and onto that bike, I’ll want to “make up time”. I honestly won’t know if I’m going to “race” this thing until I get warmed up on that bike and see how I feel. I went into the second half marathon of the year with that same mentality and ended up racing and incredible race (age group winner and 13th overall). So, I’ll post next week whether or not I decided to “race”.

TTX got an Upgrade

I’m terrible at keeping this updated. Here’s what’s happened since CMM. First, stats to date are as follows: 18 weeks in, 16 weeks to go, 210 hours and 1,965 miles of training. With a three week taper, that only give me 12 weeks left. YIKES!

TTX got an upgrade. Check out the pick…. Got some new race wheels from www.real-design.com. Everyone should buy their races wheels there. Hand built by Philip Martindale right here in Nashville. I got a rear disc and a front 90mm tubular pair. They are faster than they look too.

Rest weekend – last weekend was a rest weekend… NO RACES. I’ve been racing every weekend since the middle of March (the Tom King half marathon, first PR of the year). So, I rode an easy 30ish miles at a 20.5mph average and then knocked out a 10 mile brick run at a 7:32 pace. Great workout. I used Sunday as a rest day and got a LOT done around the house.

Three States Three Mountains. This is always a fun weekend and the rain help off for the entire 100 miles. We had a good group of guys going down and had a lot of fun on the course. We ended up sprinting down the mountains and chasing each other down.. not the smartest thing to do 60 and 70 miles in with another mountain, Lookout Mountain, to climb. Lookout wasn’t that bad, but after stopping at the rest stop at the top, my knee got tight and hurt a little all the way in. I’d say it was the combination of riding too hard, racing the past several weekends in a row, and running a PR the weekend previous. Just too much volume. Anyway, I cut back some and it feels good now.

Upcoming Events: Well, half ironman this weekend. First tri of the year too. My bud Patrick is treating this as one of his A races and will probably PR this weekend. I’m a little nervous about it. My swim is NOT where it needs to be and I still haven’t had an open water swim this year (well, since Augusta’s half ironman about 8 months ago). I think we’re hitting the lake tomorrow morning which will help. After that, I have a couple centuries and some smaller tris. I really start focusing on IML now, so weekend racing is very limited.

1/2 CMM = 1:29:04 (97th Place)

So, it’s been like three weeks since I posted. I’ll try to keep this short and just keep it grouped by races and special events. So far though, 16 weeks of training down and only 18 weeks of training left. I’ve hit 191 hours and 1,760 miles of training, PR’ed twice, done a century, and raced a couple road races.

Country Music Marathon (4/24/2010) -Well, I finally did it. I broke 1:30. This is where the Clementine Experiment all started. Mark and I wanted to break 1:30. I ended up running a 1:29:04 (6:48 pace) and came in 97th out of 24,636 runners. Paced with Johnny for the first mile, made my way to the 1:30 pace team over the next mile, paced with them until around mile 8, then my buddy Wim surprised me at mile 8. I wasn’t expecting him. So, we ran together for a couple miles and realized we’d left the 1:30 pace team altogether. He calculated that I could PR. So, around mile 11, we picked it up. Sure enough, I did. Thanks Wim. Ohh, I also did a 54 mile bike (19mph, LOW HR 129) and a 2 mile run (7:33 pace) the very next day. All of this took place on the fourth weekend in a row of racing, and NO taper (256 miles of riding, 27 running and 5 swimming in the 10 days leading up to this race). Am I ready for IM now?

Cheaha Challenge (4/17/2010) - 102 miles, 8,000 feet of climbing, and a 17.5mph average. This was awesome. If you take all the weekly mileage (and Jeff’s dirt road AL experience) all into account, we ended up with 210 miles over 6 days. Anyway, this was a rough ride. The big mountain climb (about 3 miles up each side) was nothing compared to the steep rollers that wore you down on both sides of it. Plus, at around mile 80, we turned directly into a terrible headwind. After 22 miles of fighting the wind, we found the finish line. I hoped off and ran about 3 miles at a 7:16 pace. Felt good too. Am I ready for IM?

RR in North GA (4/10/2010) - 32 mile, two-loop, relatively flat road race. The first lap was so slow that the official pulled up and said he was going to “neutralize” us and let the girls pass us. Well, after averaging about 19 during the first loop, we kicked it up to where we averaged 23 over the entire course distance (first loop included). Nobody on our team made the podium, but we avoided two large crashes, including one as the final sprint came across the finish line and nailed the pace car (a cop) who stopped AT THE FINISH LINE. We all climbed a nearby mountain for fun after the race.

Infinit – I’m trying a new sports nutrition. This is a custom blend of carbs, calories, taste, protein, sodium, etc. that you mix with water and consume during endurance events. So far, this is working out well. You don’t consume anything solid when using this product. I like it. I kinda miss some solid items, so I sneak some GU Chomps in there sometimes. So far so good. 18 more weeks of testing before race day.

Other – Weight is staying about the same. Still around 163. I’d hoped to drop some so that it would be easier to pack myself around for hours and hours of racing, but no such luck. I picked up a one-piece tri suit from Endurance Sports and Rec in Cool Springs. Sugoi. Love that stuff. It fits well and I’m pretty sure I’ll race IM in this suit (gotta do anything to save time in transition to make up for my crappy swim time). I also got in my Xterra speedsuit. While I am far from “needing” a speedsuit in a swim, IML will be a non wetsuit legal swim. So, I wanted something to protect me from the nasty Ohio river. Plus, it will smooth out my body surface and I won’t have pockets trying to slow me down in the water. Again, anything to make me a bit faster in the water.

Question – Why is the sport of triathlon so expensive? Tires, tubes, bottles, nutrition, bars, bikes, wheels, suits, training, coaches, race fees, etc.

On the 13th wk, I won 13th Overall (and 1st in age group)

13th week in: 153.5 hrs and 1,280 miles of training so far (165 miles this week). 21 Weeks of training left. This week has honestly been the best week so far. Great pool swims, incredible track workouts and age group half marathon win, and a crazy bike ride (for me anyway).

Swim: Swam nearly 4 miles this week. It’s getting easier and better. I finished the week of swimming with a 1 mile swim, short course, in just under 32mins. This was the best swim so far this year.

Bike: I went out Wednesday for and out and back to Ashland City with the expectations of averaging somewhere around 17-18mph (a typical base/endurance pace for me). I ended up Knocking out a near 32 mile ride at 21+mph and kept my HR in the 150s. CRAZY! On Thursday, I showed up for the group ride at Trace Bikes and headed out for the 25 miler. However, due the track workout earlier in the day and knowing I had to race the weekend, another guy and I broke off and finished the 18 mile route. Felt a little guilty/bad, but boy did it every pay off during the weekend. On Sunday, after having raced a half marathon no more than 20 hour prior, I did an 85 mile ride in KY (what was supposed to be a base/endurance ride) and averaged 20.8mph. Two loops: first loop was 20.4mph and second was 21.2mph (a negative split time… HOW?). Cadence was 88, HR was exactly 150, and I had 3,200 feet of climbing and two 12 mile stretches of incredible headwind. So, the cadence and HR both suggest a base building endurance ride yet the speed and wind indicate a challenging ride. Has my endurance paced increased? I’m pretty sure it’s because I’m on my TTX and not the road bike, but would it make that much of a difference or am I really getting stronger? Anyway, the people in Livermore, KY looked at me like I was from another planet when I stopped in at a gas station for nutrition. I guess I was on a funny looking bike, wearing a crazy aero helmet, and in full spandex (probably not something they see every day). Ended up downing 7 bottles of Gatorade, 1 payday, and two Cliff Bars.

Run: On Tuesday, Brett and I met up for a tempo – 8 miles with 4 @ 6:36. Thursday was 200s on the track with Johnny at 28-29 seconds. Saturday, race day, was truly a remarkable day. I went to the Oak Barrel Half Marathon with Mark and had no intensions on “racing”. In fact, I had not tapered, carb loaded, and knew I had at least a 4 hour bike ride the following day. Plus, the week leading up was crammed full of hard workouts. Anyway, the race started and ended in the rain. It even included periods of terrible crosswinds and rain slamming you in the face. When they said “GO”, I started at what felt like an easy pace. Within seconds, I was running in the top 5-6 places. Then, about 2 mins in, I decided I was going to race. I ran the first mile in a sub 6:30 pace. I continued to follow a couple hundred yards behind the top 4 runners and was leading the second group of runners until we reached THE hill around mile 4.5. This hill was incredible. It would have sucked on a bike. I lost two minutes, and a few places, on this switchback climb. I just dug deep and kept on climbing. It felt as if rain was trying to wash me back down the mountain. Once I got to the top, all the endurance training proved to pay off as I quickly recovered and took back off. Except for the first mile and the hill, I kept a 6:48-6:52 pace. I had never been so glad to see a finish line in my life. The mile leading up to it was miserable and wet. As I wondered why I was doing this, I could hear a guy’s feet slapping the wet pavement just feet behind me, so my body’s first reaction was to dig as deep as I could to not let him pass me. As the finish shoot came into view, I heard someone yell “GO Jonathan”. I didn’t know them, so it had to be the guy behind me. I wasn’t going to let a guy with the same name beat me. I knew I was in at least the top 20. So, I somehow took off like a rocket (legs were screaming with pain). I crossed the line in 1:32:13. The other Jonathan crossed in 1:32:17. I found out later that day that I won 1st place in my age group and 13th overall. The other Jonathan happened to be in my age group and got second place by 4 seconds. FOUR SECONDS. I pushed my body into a level of pain I hadn’t ever found to end up winning my age group by only 4 seconds. I’m glad it was only 4 seconds; it makes it that much better. Racing like this will only make Ironman more manageable. Mark came in 3rd in our age group with a 1:42:04. Even though this wasn’t a PR race (1:29:15 in Tom King just three weeks ago), it was the best race I’ve ever ran. 1:32 was so much stronger than 1:29 at Tom King.

Gosh this week was awesome. Like I said, great swims, great race, and great bike. I don’t know where I got the power and energy for such a rewarding week. I think the intense attention to nutrition, stretching, sleep, and listening to my body is starting to finally payoff. I have to thank Kiki for putting up with all of this. I love you!

First Real Endurance Week.

12th week in: 140 hrs and 1,114 miles of training (149 miles this week alone). Finally broke 1,000! (Just FYI, last week was crazy at work, so I’m just now posting from two weeks ago). This was the first real endurance week I’ve had with very little interruption or deviation in the overall training plan. Two swims, three runs, three bikes, and two strength training sessions and everything was long and at a base building pace.

Swim: I ended up swimming two nice 1 mile swims in the pool. One long course and one short course. Felt good to get out and swim long (as bad as I hate to admit it). So, I’ve totally given up on alternate breathing. I can breathe on both sides; I just can’t go three strokes without a breath. Oh well, I’m not looking to kick ass in the water anyway. This decision turned my crappy swims into nice, long, easy swims. Finally able to build distance.


Bike: On Wednesday, we decided to time trial Percy Warner Park (the 11.2). After warming up and cooling down, I ended up with about 20 miles. My TT time was just under 37 minutes. I think Jeff came in somewhere around 35 or just under, so I feel pretty good about my workout. On Thursday, I actually did 16 miles on my TTX on the trainer (since it was storming outside). This was the longest “ride” I’ve done on the TTX since buying it last year. Saturday ended up being the first very long bike ride of the year (75 miles in Jan was previously holding title to the longest). I finally broke the TTX in by putting 91 miles on it. Patrick and Robert came out and we went to Fly via the trace and back via other roads. Once we were backed, I hopped onto hwy 100 and crossed over the hill and did another 30 out on a decently flat course to Fernvale and a few other places. Turns out I love this bike (imagine that). It was incredibly comfortable given the 5+ hours I spent bent over the bars on Saturday.

Run: This week, I decided to start swimming on Tuesdays during lunch instead of hitting up the track workouts. I did this because I really need to be swimming 3 days a week and it’s the only schedule that works with the pool hours. Anyway, I’m supposed to be doing tempos and track workouts on Tues/Thurs, so I can do my tempo runs by myself on Tuesday AM and I’ll save Thursdays with Johnny to kill myself on the track. However, due to legs being tired from racing and my work schedule consuming nearly every minute of the day, I just ran 6 easy miles Tuesday and Thursday. I ran 8 on Sunday after the long ride Saturday. Total running miles was 20 (which will surprise you as being one of the longer weeks I’ve had over the last 12).

So, as you can see, this weekend ended up really falling into the endurance pattern that I am attempting to transform my workouts into. The first part of this year was all about base and building workout quantity volume; now I’m adding on the distance.

Hell of the South

11th week in: 127 hours and 965 miles of training. This week turned out pretty awesome with the Hell of the South bike race. Ended up raining all day Sunday, so training got cut short 5 hours (no long bike and run). That was cool though since the race effort Saturday was on the 13th day in a row of doing two-a-day workouts (with a couple 3-a-days in there too).

Swim: Back in the pool. 4 workouts, one of which was long course, and I hit a mile (which unfortunately was nothing last year). Swimming still sucks… and so do I… so nothing else new to report here.

Bike: Got two good workouts and a race in this week. Tuesday was about a 22 miler at 20+mph on the trace. Thank god for Jeff and Matthew to drag me in the last few miles as I was struggling. Wednesday was hill repeats in Cool Springs (not a great idea a few days out from a race). I saw more of Lynnwood and Hollytree Gap than I have over the past 6 years of living here. Saturday marked the first bike race I’d ever done. Sure I’d raced my bike in triathlons and done some group century rides, but never a pure bike race. WOW was this fun.

Hell of the South: This race was put on by Swiftwick, SVMIC, and several other sponsors and volunteers. Jeff, Matt, and I went to race for Trace Bikes. It turned out to be an incredible event for its first year. The course was meant to be rough and mimic the old world style European type of racing; it even had about a mile stretch of dirt road. The course felt fast. I spent about the first 8 miles in the front half of the group. Jeff and Matthew held tight the very front and did a lot of work. About 8 miles in, Rachel pulled past me and said, “let’s go”. We sprinted to the front then she pulled off behind me and we kept going up the road. Unfortunately, this was a false flat, but the good thing was, it broke the pack in two. About 20 riders went with us and 30+ were in the second group. Rachel, and especially I, paid dearly for this move. It took 5 miles to bring my HR back down in the 160s. We sat on the back of the lead group and recovered as the course entered a moderate rolling section. At around 20 miles in, the pace picked up a little and Rachel and I moved forward in the group (keep in mind, Jeff was still on the front). We road along there making sure nobody really got away from us, but weren’t in any rush to move to the very front. Nobody seemed to worried with a get away (surprisingly). Anyway, we came up to the last turn, Jeff had sprinted off the front and Rachel and I took off after him. We had intensions on giving him a draft for recovery and keeping that break; however, Jeff had done way to much work on the front and was about done for the day… so Rachel and I moved ahead only to find out it was NOT the last turn… there was about a mile left. We were then swallowed up by the lead pack (but stayed with them). The pace continued to grow as we hit the 1k to go mark and then again at the 200M. Next thing I knew, Matt crossed the line in third and the rest of us crossed with the lead group. The second group crossed a few minutes behind us. It was SOOO much fun to race like that. The distance ended up being 25.65 miles, total ascent was 1,212 per my Garmin, my average HR was 170 (max hit 184), average speed was 22.1mph (max hit 39.1mph). I would like to have helped Jeff and Matt more, but I'm happy with how I performed considering I'd race a 1:29 half marathon the weekend before.

Lift: This will probably be the last time I mention lifting as I have really scaled back. I'm currently only going one day a week and a second day here and there when rain causes me to miss key outside workouts. I will say that the last 3 months has built a great foundation. It has put about 4-5 pounds on me though that I hope to lose as my workouts get longer. The goal is to keep the power and lose the bulk.

Race Schedule is in full swing now. Second race weekend in a row. Next weekend off for training (hopefully ride my bike to my mom’s house in KY) and then 5 race weekends in a row to follow. It’s exciting!

1:29:15 Half Marathon!!!

10th week in: 117 hours and 886 miles of training. This week was a taper week (only 7 workouts) into the Tom King Half Marathon where I ran a PR of 1:29:15 (6:49 pace). FINALLY, I broke 1:30… and not to mention in the middle of Ironman Training. Only 24 weeks left (21 weeks of training and 3 week taper).

Swim: Again, not much to mention this week. Only one 1,000 meter swim. Hopefully I can make myself get back into it soon. I did order an Xtera speedsuit for the Ironman Swim though… I’ll post some pics when it come in.

Bike: Laid off the bike workouts this week since last weekend was training camp and my legs were still heavy. I wanted to be fresh for the Tom King Half. We did end up riding 32 miles in the rain though on Sunday. Checkout how nasty the back of my jacket got.

Run: Tuesday speedwork, Thursday easy, and Saturday RACE. Gotta say it again… 1:29:15!!!! Never thought I could do that. The 5 weeks of speedwork really helped out. Let’s hope the next 24 weeks will really payoff for Ironman.

Lift: This was the last week regular base building lifting. We only lifted two days on account of my race, but going forward, it will be maintenance once per week as my weekend training is going to get long. Feel really good about the base we’ve built and I’m going to miss the gym.

Race season is definitely on now and I’ll be racing (or riding centuries) all but one weekend between this past one and the middle of May. A lot of them are simply key hard workouts with only a couple true all out race efforts (Tom King included), but still it’s going to be busy.

Training Camp and 5:55

9th week in: nearly 108 hours and 832 miles of training covered. The foundation is built, the real training will now begin… 22 weeks of HARD training and racing and then a 3 week taper down to IM. Gotta thank my track coach, strength coach, dietitian, ironman coach, and tons of friends and family who have pushed me this far. Feeling pretty good and strong so far.

Swim: Nothing this past week, pool closed for swim meets. BUT, it’s open now, and I’m back to doing what I hate… SWIMMING.

Bike: Trace Bike Race Team training camp was this past weekend in Chattanooga. We did about 110 miles and climbed 5 mountains (Suck Creek, Sand, and Lookout 3 times). Total climbing was about 8000 feet. I actually felt stronger the second day than I did the first day.

Run: Well, I finally did it. I broke a 6 min mile in my mile repeats. 6:01, 6:02, and 5:55 were my times on Tuesday’s workout. It left me very tired and I could only do my 800s around 3:00 on Thursday. But I was fully recovered and ready for the weekend bike camp (noted above), so I feel pretty good about how quick I’m recovering right now.

Lift: We cut this week down to two days instead of three since I had training camp on the weekend. Since race season will pick up this coming weekend (and I have an event everyday but one until mid May), weight training will taper down to maintenance.

Racing Weight: I picked up this book to read as I’d heard good things. Even though I’ve already worked with a dietitian and have a rather strict diet, I still have a lot to learn about properly tapering my bodyweight down to the optimal racing weight and getting my power to weight ratio exact for Ironman. Right now, I’m about 8 pounds heavier than I need to be for ironman. After getting into this book, I found that most endurance athletes will gain about 8% of their bodyweight during the off season. I also determined that my ideal race weight is about 157-158. Right now, I’m around 166, so it is perfectly reasonable to expect that I’ll be back around 158 when I toe up to the start line of Ironman Louisville (besides, who wants to carry around 8 extra pounds for 140.6 miles?). As my endurance training increases, the weight will fall off. Right now I’m eating about 4,000 calories a day and that will increase to about 5,000 as the miles grow.

6, 6, 6:01

8th week in: 96 hours and 710 miles to date. 26 weeks left. Not sure I was fully recovered from the long run at 6:59 pace the past weekend because this week felt a little hard. I will be taking the current week a lot easier in preparation for training camp and then race season picks up.


Swim: The pool was open on Monday, so I got in a 1,000 meter alternate breathing swim. Not bad for me considering I haven’t been in the water for two weeks because of these swim meets keeping the pool closed.

Bike: I did one spin night with hills and a 70 miler on Saturday. We only averaged 17.5 mph but for some reason, I was tired at around 50 miles. It was tough to hang on for the last few miles. I guess the volume of lifting and intensity of running caught up to me this week.

Run: I did three 1 mile repeats at 6:00.22, 6:00.77, and 6:01.27. Felt fantastic during them. Left me TIRED and sore afterwards. I’ve never been that close to breaking a 6:00 min mile. I tried very hard to break 6 but just couldn’t. Thursday was hill sprints. Yeah, fun… NOT!
Lifting: 3 days, 1:30 each. Friday incorporated one back/shoulder exercise that totaled 500 reps after the 5 sets were complete. It was a tough week lifting. Fourtunately, I’m only lifting two days a week in the next two weeks then we transition to maintenance over the next 3 weeks. Come April, I’ll focus more on the endurance side of biking and running instead of building a strong base in the gym.

USANA: I’ve been taking my personalized vitamin packs from USANA now for about a week. I think I can tell a slight difference in how I feel, but it’s hard to tell considering I was trashed going into this week. I was currently taking GNC products, so it’s not like I was going from no supplements to using them. Hopefully these will pay off in the long run and keep my body clean of all the toxins and free radicals that build up from the training. See the photos, it’s an AM pack and a PM pack, so 16 vitamins a day (well, it’s a multi, fish oil, glucosamine, etc.). They come in that nice back that just dispenses what you need. It’s very convenient.


Giro Aero Helmet: As part of my Valentine’s Day gift from Kiki, I picked up this sucker on Sunday (my rest day; I figured I could do something on my rest day to help make me faster right?). I think Cozmo looks pretty fast in it.

19 miles @ 6:59 or Faster

Seventh week in: 84 hours and about 606 miles of training. Only 27 weeks left! This week yielded only 8 workouts; however, they were all very hard key workouts.

Swim: This one is easy, the pool was closed all week for swim meets so I didn’t have to swim at all. HAHA, I’m sure I’ve lost all the great form I’ve built up too (HAHHA, what form?).


Bike: I didn’t spend a lot of time on the bike this weekend at all. I went to one spin class and one trainer night at the bike shop where I had a relatively hard workout for about 1 hour each. Legs were just a little shot from Monday’s strength training and a got a very long ride in the weekend before, so I focused on the run this weekend. Jeff went out and rode the Hell of the South race course (we both signed up for the race this weekend) with a group of about 25 guys. I wish I could have gone, but my plan called for a long run. Oh well, maybe next time.


Run: Now this is where the week’s work went down. Tuesday, I did 4 mile repeats at 6:20, 6:30, 6:23, and 6:27 (total workout was 6 miles). Thursday, I did a 5 mile tempo at 6:53 (total workout was 8 miles). Saturday, Mark and I met up for a long close-to-race-pace run on the Tom King course (just 3 weeks away). I ended up knocking out a 13.5 mile run with 10 miles in the middle at a 6:59 pace. I’m very sure that was the best run I’ve ever had (races included).

Strength Training: As always, three days a week, full body, for about 1:30 each day. Monday’s workout with Jasper though was very rough and left my legs tired the rest of the week; I barely got recovered in time for Saturday’s long run mentioned above. After the workout was done, we ended with suicides. I was ready to die. One of the exercises on Friday (yes, only ONE of them in the 3 circuits that I repeat five times) required a total of 375 reps. I just did the calculation too, between every workout rep I did (total body) on Friday, I had 1,455 reps (shoulders, arms, chest, legs, etc.). No wonder I’m sore.


Best day of the week though was probably Friday. Kristin and I both were off work we had a great day together (granted, she hasn’t had a day off in a month and I had to work the whole weekend). I still lifted early in the morning and she took the dog to the vet and dog park, but after that, we had lunch, bought her some nice boots, went and painted pottery (ironman theme on mine, can’t wait to see it done), went to the See Spot Bakery, she went to McKay’s, then we went and had dinner at a new place and had ice cream. It was like a daylong date.


IZZEs are back in my diet (Clementine of course)! WOO WHOO! Also, just started up on my new USANA personalized vitamin packs; I’ll update next week on how well USANA is working for me.

On the 15th day, I rested

Six weeks in: 74 hours and about 540 miles of training already! I am very glad this week is over as it turned out to be a combination of some very hard key workouts.

SWIM: Thankfully, only because I hate it so much, the pool was closed most of the week and I only got two swims in. The pool is also closed all of this week for swim meets, so I won’t be swimming at all. YES! I do plan on spending the extra time on the bike though.

BIKE: I got one hard spin class, one trainer night, and one long ride in. Trainer night at Trace Bikes was good because John and Kristine stopped by to give the team a presentation on nutrition and USANA supplements while we road. Turns out my current vitamins suck and I’ll now be taking USANA (at a team discounted price, THANKS!). The long ride was probably the hardest bike ride I’ve had since I started riding; I was very sore once I got back home. It was about 35 degrees and came on the 14th day in a row without a rest day. My legs were toast before Jeff and I even began. Ended up with 72 miles, 4:16 total time in the saddle, 16.8mph, average HR 155, 4060 feet of climb and supposedly 4009 calories (Garmin cannot always be trusted in caloric burn). Anyway, it was a great base building ride and good for me mentally to push when I didn’t have much left to push with.

RUN: This week picked up with speedwork outside with a track coach Johnny Pryor (yes, another coach/trainer). We did mile repeats at 6:38, 6:36, and 6:30. The second session was a tempo run. After warm up, we did 3@6:53 (splits were 7:02, 6:56, and 6:40 – really kicked on that last one). The temperature was in the low to mid 30s during these runs… hopefully I can keep it up when it hits the mid 90s this summer. Since Mark and I did a hard long run last week and I needed a rest day (and had a long bike on Sat), I did not get a long run this weekend. The addition of speedwork was enough I think.

Weight training is really progressing. The quantity of workouts that we pack into an hour and 30 mins is out of control. Friday, we packed in 5 circuits that I went through 5 times and each circuit had 3 exercises that I repeated 15-20 reps. That’s 75 things that I did sets of 15-20 of. INSANE. Most of the individual exercises were single leg stuff that I had to do on each leg too, so even another multiplier. The workout was NON STOP, had speed sessions on the bike between circuits, and lasted one hour and 45 mins too… very tough and nearly all legs. Maybe if I can every fully recover, I’ll notice a some improvement on the bike.

As noted from the picture above, it snowed again on Monday (that much came down in only 1.5 hours too). Unfortunately, I’d just lifted weights and it was dark or else I’d been out running in it. Snow running is awesome. I also cooked some great food this week. One such dish to speak of would be the mesquite grilled pork chop, mixed steam veggies with almonds and ginger, and the

steamed potatoes with garlic, chili powder, and cumin. ALL organic and all natural. Healthy and tasty! Rest day was Valentine’s Day; however, Kristin had to work until about 3:30. We still celebrated with some Chipotle (how romantic right?) and watched some movies at home with the dogs. It was a great rest day.

Hmmm, I wasn't sleepy this week?

So this week turned out to be a very proportioned IM training week. I got in a long run and long bike, along with my all of my other runs being outside (regardless of how cold it was). This is the first week that I feel a lot of things coming together (being able to withstand the quantity and volume of workouts). I’m not nearly as tired and I’m not requiring as much sleep at night (8 hrs versus the 9+ I was getting the first 4 weeks or so). Granted, I am only hitting about 14.5 hours a week right now, but I feel really good and not completely wiped out. The weekend endurance workouts were not as difficult as I thought they may be given that I’d completed 9 workouts during the work week prior.

The long run took place Saturday on the Smyrna greenway. This was a nice 14 miler flat run with Mark. We had intended on keeping an 8:30 pace, but I guess the 30 degree weather, sleet and wind hitting us in the face, and Mark’s frozen and swollen fingers caused us to pick up the pace. We ended up running the 14 miles at a 7:51 pace.

The bike ride was a 47 miler at a base building pace on Sunday (16.7mph I believe, with about 2,400 feet of climb per my Garmin – the perfect winter long ride). However, it was 28 degrees with a windchill of 24 when we started. Much like the run, snow and sleet were coming down at times. These were not Louisville conditions in August.

I also got signed up for some more events. So far, the race schedule has the following:
-Tom King Half Marathon – 3/13
-Hell of the South bike race – 3/20
-Oak Barrel Half Marathon – 4/3
-Cheaha Challenge (bike century and training camp weekend) – 4/18
-Country Music Half Marathon – 4/24
-Three States Three Mountains (bike century) – 5/1
-Taylorsville Half Ironman – 5/15

These should help build the base and provide some higher paced workouts for Louisville in August. So far, YTD totals for swim, bike, run, and lifting are: 60 hours and 412 miles in 5 weeks.

Snowy Run Week

This week of training was cold and ended with a rather big snow. According to my IM plan, this was a “rest” week in the four week rotations that I’m doing. Anyway, I ended up lifting weights 3 times at 1.5 hours each, ran 3 times (only 5-6 miles each, though, with some speedwork), road the bike (trainer) two times, and swam three times. So, 11 workouts but only about 11.5 hours of training. A good active rest week actually. I am finding that the weight training, I believe, is causing me to gain a little weight. I’ve put on about 3 pounds over the past 8 weeks of lifting. Hopefully as the cardio workouts pickup and weight training dies off in late March/early April, the few extra pounds will fall off.

The best workout this week has to be the run I did just a few hours ago. Friday, and into Friday night, we got a rather big snow (and some ice). Due to the weather, I had to take Saturday off as I could not get out of the house. Kiki and I spent Satuday getting dad to the airport and then we watched 4 movies. That’s right, we sat on the couch and watched 4 movies. Awesome rest day with my Kiki! So today, Sunday, I went to the park and ran the 5.8 mile loop. As you can see from the photo, the roads were completely covered with ice and snow. This actually made it a lot of fun and somewhat technical. The 5.8 loop has a couple big climbs and several other rollers. I passed one other runner and several walkers but other than that, I was alone in the woods running through the snow. It was a lot of fun and running through the deap snow at times made it a great workout.

A couple other cool things happened this weekend. I participated in a study at Vanderbilt where they are doing research on glycogen in leg muscles. The study involved getting an MRI in a very strong MRI machine (7 Tesla – not even sure what that means). Anyway, something didn’t go right with the images, so they’re gonna call me back in later sometime.

The other cool thing was that Scott (Trace Bikes) refitted me on my road bike. He has been trained by the guys who fit Lance and the Radio Shack team so hopefully this new fit will get a little more power out of my legs. Who knows, feels a little weird right now and will take some getting used to, but it makes good sense.

As of right now, next week isn’t looking so good for a long bike, so it might be the week after before we can get another 4+ hour ride in.

75 miles in Jan?

This past week was the longest week of training I’ve had so far. I guess it was only the third week of this year, but I ended up with 11 workouts and a total of 14.5 hours of training. I swam about 1200 meters on Wed, Thurs, and Friday while focusing strictly on form and breathing. I lifted weights with my trainer on Mon, wed, and Friday. I did speed work (running) on Tuesday and a tempo run on Thursday. I also road the trainer on Tuesday and Thursday nights and did a long bike ride outside on Saturday.

The best workout to speak of was the long ride. I don’t think many of us had been on the bike outside for more than 40ish miles since October’s Jack/Back. Somehow, we ended up with a nice day in the low 50s on Saturday in January. Jeff and I decided to do a 75 mile ride (recognizing it was very early in the season… if it even is the season yet). Several people joined up but broke off for various reasons as the ride continued. We kept the tempo down and treated it as a base building ride. Little did we know, it was going to be a windy day. Somewhere around mile 60, we turned right onto a very rough road that would lead us about 4 miles, directly into the wind, to the start of the last 3 climbs (leave it to Jeff to place the last three biggest climbs in the last 10 miles of the ride, he likes a challenge); I don’t think with all our effort that we pushed our bikes much faster than 13mph into this headwind either. Anyway, it turned out being a fantastic workout this early in the year (especially after 10 other moderate to hard effort workouts during the week). We averaged 16.2mph (very slow for our group actually, but the wind killed us and this was base building) and climbed nearly 4,900 feet. I didn’t hurt as bad as expected after the ride; however, I still took all of Sunday off for a full recovery and woke up Monday to start it all over again.

Bye 2009, Hello 2010, and Hogpen

Well, last year proved to be a good year and I'm very thankful for being able to do and train for everything. Fantastic 5k, CMM Half Marathon, 3 States 3 Mountains, Tour de Caves, Monster Tri (won age group again), Old Hickory Tri, Clarksville Century (first bike crash), Age Group National Championships, Augusta Half Ironman (5:11), Bourbon Chase, Jack and Back, and the Clarksville Half Marathon. In addition, I logged just over 5,700 miles of training (total of swim, bike, and run) during 2009, got over my fear of open water, got a new road bike, a new tri bike, race wheels, and really increased my overall fitness to prepare myself for 2010. A LOT of good luck and very HARD work went into 2009. Soooo......

It’s finally here… well, the training that is. Two weeks into my 34 week Ironman training plan. This week is actually the beginning of the third week. The focus this first 12 weeks is to continue spending a lot of time in the gym working out with Jasper (my athletic trainer) to build a very strong strength base. In addition, I’m doing about 3 workouts a week in each activity (swim, bike, and run) to maintain last year’s end-of-season base/fitness level. I’m really focusing every ounce of swim effort into perfecting, to the degree possible, my stroke. This currently yields about 12 workouts per week for a total of about 15 hours. Not too bad so far.

I’ve joined a race team at my local bike shop (Trace Bikes) and have also been meeting with a dietitian to nail my nutritional needs. Hopefully the race team will keep me quick on the bike and hold me accountable for hard workouts.

First Race of 2010: A few of us went down to Helen, GA this past weekend for what has been called one of the toughest road races in America (running). The race was a 10.5 mile run the side of a mountain to Hog Pen Gap. It included over 2,500 of climbing with about 1,500 of that in the last 5k. I used this as a mental race for Ironman to NOT stop running. My buddy Jeff used it to kick everyone’s ass that showed up that day. I finished around 1:45: Jeff finished right at 1:26, 11th overall, and 1st in his age group. Another guy with us, Ben, finished just over the 2 hour mark. This was an incredible accomplishment for all of us.

I intend to keep this updated weekly this year. Hopefully it’ll be another source to keep me motivated in the long workouts that are not that far off.

A Womack Perspective, by Mark

The year 2009 was a great year for Mark and Amy...a year of PR's and firsts. The first race of the year was a bit of a disappointment. We both went into the Nashville Predators Fangtastic 5k looking for a solid start to the year. However, Mark missed his goal time by almost a minute while Amy narrowly missed hers. The wind and underestimated hills seemed to be the culprits.
With the hills of downtown Nashville behind us, we set our sights on the Purity Moosic City 5k at Metrocenter. The flat course and frigid temperatures set the path for a post-high school PR for Mark and an improvement of over two minutes for Amy over her Fangtastic 5k time. After the race, it was time to treat ourselves to some of the sponsor's frozen delights, which sent us further into hypothermia.

During the winter months, Mark (along with Jonathan) discovered the 11.2 mile route at Percy Warner Park. Wow. You've got to run this one. We ended up running it three times together during the year and Mark ran it once with another runner (I would have run it more, but it is a pretty decent drive from the southeast suburbs). A sunrise atop three mile hill is well worth the early start and arduous climb.
With the first two 5k's of the year under our belts, it was time for Mark to take on the Country Music Half Marathon. Training for the race went well and I set my sights on a finish somewhere in the 1:40 - 1:45 range. It would not be so. During the second half of the race I faded to a 1:52 finish. Though disappointed, I did not linger on this result.
On a side note, we took a trip in May to Oregon to attend the wedding of Amy's brother. Oregon is a beautiful state (I got to go back in August...more on that below). After the wedding, we went to Hawaii for a week and had a great time snorkeling, biking down a volcano, relaxing, and enjoying all other sorts of Hawaiian activities.
At the urging of Jonathan, Mark attempted his second sprint triathlon during June. This experience was much better than the first, as there were no equipment malfunctions. I finished about a decade behind Jonathan, but still managed to finish in the middle of my age group. During the run, I uttered the words, "I hate your sport," to Jonathan, who had finished the race, eaten a couple of bananas, downed a recovery shake, completed a 60 mile cooldown ride, showered, and doubled back to cheer me on. Oh, and I'm pretty sure that was Rooks that passed me like I was riding a tricycle at about mile five of the bike.
The Firecracker 5k awaited Mark in July and memories of blazing hot temperatures in 2007 haunted me leading up to the race. This was the second race I ran as part of the Corporate Challenge series with my company (the first being the Purity 5k) and I finished just above 22:00, which was perfectly fine with me given the temperature and slightly challenging course.
In July, Amy began her training for her first half marathon to be run in October. She kicked it off in August with a stellar effort at the Smyrna Parks 5k. Mark again ran right at 22:00, so consistency seemed to be the theme of the summer. The highlight of the race was our debut on local Smyrna television during a post race interview. After viewing the footage, we are both considering a career move to TV broadcasting. Ok, not really, but it was fun.
In late August, Mark got to participate in the "Mother of All Relays," Hood to Coast. It was an amazing experience shared with great people. The 36 members of Team Livestrong raised over $40,000 for cancer research. For those of you who have never seen a sunset over the ocean on the west coast put it on your "bucket list". Amazing.
September was an especially busy month. Amy's half marathon training continued to build and we both ran the Chik-Fil-A 10k on the Murfreesboro greenway. This was the first year for this race and the course was great. Amy set a 10k PR and Mark set a post-high school 10k PR. Oh, and that same weekend we moved. It was a bit busy, but all well worth it.
October rolled around and the big day was here...Amy's first half marathon. Near perfect temperatures, low wind, and a flat course provided for a great run. Amy destroyed her goal time and ran a 2:14. If you can only run one half marathon a year in middle Tennessee, this is the one. Great course support, a mostly flat course, and plenty of onlookers make for a great experience. You double back at one point and Amy and I were able to see each other. I ran probably one of my top three races ever and finished in 1:38:55. I secretly wanted to finish in the top 100 and when I entered the stadium and the PA announcer said that 100 runners had crossed the finish line, I was a bit disheartened. When all was said and done, though, I had finished 99th out of 1,564 total finishers and 10th out of 100 in my age group. Soon after, Amy decided that this would not be her only half marathon.
The next weekend was the final race in the Corporate Challenge series for the year, the Germantown 5k. With not expectations of a good run at all due to the half marathon the previous weekend, Mark set a post-high school PR of 21:08, which was a 46 second improvement over his previous season best.
For the fourth year in a row, we ran the Boulevard Bolt on Thanksgiving morning, both setting PRs in the process. This continues to be our favorite race and we hope to keep this tradition alive for many years to come.
This year was great for us as a family and individually. We are blessed to have stable jobs, good health to enjoy these activities, great friends, and to be part of a great church family. Amy is looking to complete another half marathon in 2010 and Mark is hoping to complete his first (and potentially only) marathon. We are looking forward to a snowmobiling trip in Wyoming in February with Amy's parents. Happy New Year!