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Packing all the stuff for my trip to IMC has slowly been refined and confined from five rooms in my house to two, soon it should all be contained in my foyer and living room and then I have to delicately and strategically load it in my car.  In an effort to help the environment, reduce the chance of a search of my car (not that I have anything to hide), and force me to not pack everything and anything I might possible need I'm going to drive my Mini (clubman that is) up north.

The decision of what to drive (I know a luxury most people don't have and one that I probably shouldn't) is not taken lightly nor is it an easy decision.  It's like every single decision that goes into packing for the Ironman from the smallest of things to the big things. 

Things to consider when considering what car to drive up north.  Bike inside the car saved from wind, rain and the smash of bugs or strapped to the roof exposed to the elements.  Passing efficiency let's be clear it's a 7 hour drive and if I can shave 15 minutes off that I'm going to, god forbid I get stuck behind an Okanagan farmer (nice people but slow drivers) on one of those north eastern Washington roads that passes for a highway, Mini wins (heck 70 to 100 in 2 seconds). 

I'll digress for a minute for non Ironman racers we've been waiting months for this event patiently training away and so we're anxious to get there and want to get there as quickly as possilbe, hell I'm showing great restraint in having not left for Canada on Wednesday.  The funny part is everything leading up to an Ironman race cannon is one big slow line. Wait in line to register, in line to eat at the reception dinner, in line to check in at my hotel, in line to cross the border, in line to purchase race logo clothing we really don't need, in line to get my tires pumped on race morning, in line to pee on race morning and finally in line to get into the water so we can finally get going.

Where was I?  Oh yeah, I need to decide which tools to take in my bike tool box since I only know what half of them do so I took those that I don't know anything about out of the box, it didn't make more space in the car but I was able to get more other stuff in the box thus reducing the clutter in the car.  I have to decide which camera(s) to bring and how many the fact is I'll probably only use one of them so I'll bring 4.  I need to decide which clothes to bring, both for looking fancy around town and looking fancy and keeping cool or warm on race day (down to two relatively small bags.  How many helments,  how many spare tires, how much nutrition (for training, pre-race, during the race), how many pairs of run shoes, how many pairs of bike shoes, swim googles, mirrored, clear, tinted, which race wheels disc or 1080 or 606... this is the mind of an Ironman in the week before race day it would make most people dizzy but for an Ironman athlete it keeps your mind busy in the week leading up to the race and keeps your demons and doubts at bay. 

Things not too think (and fret) about, the weather, your race number (#976 has a nice ring to it), the training you didn't do, the nagging aches and pains, what other people are doing.

So what's the point Ironman athleletes are generally a nuerotic, compulsive, list obsessed bunch but really I'm just trying to keep my mind off the race until it's time to race.....12 hours until the strategic packing of the car begins.

I hate tapering.  My body always starts to get cranky when I start my taper, my body seems sore, and by the end of the taper I'm anxious and ready to bust down the gates. 

Tapering is a pretty individualistic thing but for me it's about a slow reduction in volume and intensity.  So for exampe three weeeks ago I put in 21 hrs of training, two weeks ago I put in 19 hours and last week I put in 13 hours which was the beginning of the taper.  I still did some hard efforts including a longish run on Saturday with hard tempo.  This one of those confident booster runs, 15 miles the first hour at low end aerobic effort (for me it was sub 140 bpm HR and around 7:20 mile pace then crank it up for the last 45 minutes which I was holding 6:35/mile pace at 158 bpm.  My race threshold HR for the marathon in the ironman is right around 161 bpm anymore than that and I'm cooking the engine.  So what does all this tell me?  If I'm having a good day, good energy, body loose, hydrate well, fuel well on the bike and don't go anaerobic on the bike much I should have a good run in me.  It won't be 6:35/mile pace but I don't think low 7's is out of the question.  That's a lot of variables however. 

My bike power and endurance is there and my swim should be a good one based on my workouts and other races this season.

This week I really back off the volume as I'll drop to 10-11 hours of total activity, while maintaining a bit of longer workouts (not really long) and some intensity workouts but these are much shorter than normal the goal being to keep the muscles firing and sharp.  This was a problem at Kona last year.

Next week will be much lower volume but it doesn't dry up as I'll still be doing workouts and keeping some short intensity in there.  Most of all I'm getting really religious in my eating and hydrating the next two weeks. 

Other than that I'm picking up the last few things I need for the race, my bike is in the shop getting some much needed TLC so I hopefully don't have any problems on race day and I'm getting all of my race stuff laid out so I know I have everything I need and starting to glance at the forecast so I can get an indication of what the weather is going to be like on race day. 

The reality is that I like to race with as little as possible in my transition bags and on my bike.  Just keep it simple.   

More updates to come with pictures hopefully.

I'm in the final push to IMC.  This past week was a big week, not my biggest in terms of volume or time but seriously big in terms of the combination of volume and intensity and just plain suffering.

The week opened up on Tuesday with some hard running.  30 minute negative tempo, 10 min warmup, 30 minutes at a good clip of 6:49/mile pace then I heated it up for the same 4.4 miles I had just covered at 6:18/mile pace followed by a 10 minute cooldown.  It was comfortable, that in and of itself is a little scary.

Wednesday was a nice solid swim of 4K comprised primarily of 6 x 500 all of which were near my fastest ever for that distance. That was followed up later with a nice little 2 hour ride, nothing big just easy tempo.

Thursday was another good solid run of a little over an hour with a bunch of fartleks.  Another solid run.

On Friday I headed south to Hood River.  I arrived early and headed out on a nice little 5.5 hour ride.  East I headed out past The Dalles, the wind was light, slightly overcast, feeling perfect.  Up over the top of State Road.  As I started down the crazy descent I noticed the wind had picked up, it was a white knuckle descent but just a tast of things to come.  I headed out through The Dalles and onto 7 mile road before turning onto Emerson Loop.  Cruising along at a flat section feeling great holding 28 mph, damn I feel good.  After turning onto Kelly Cutoff I understood why I felt so good a few minutes earlier, as I headed west I came to a standstill.  The wind was raging in my face, I was working huge effort and only moving at 6 mph (on the flats).  Twice I was actually blown to a standstill by the gusts and twice blown off the road.  Now I'm not the most sensible person and sometimes I just like to suffer well this is a bad combination as I came back I debated and headed out for another loop, just plain stupid. I realized the error of my way about halfway through the second loop.  At the conclusion of the second loop I then realized that I still had 25 miles of riding directly into the teeth of the wind (I would only find out later that the reported average in The Dalles was 46 mph with gusts to into the 60's).  It was pure suffering, the only time I've ever been scared on my bike, and much windier than anything Kona and the Queen K can throw at you.  The only highlight was riding up to the Rowena Butte.  Riding uphill (7%) grade as I turned around a switchback the wind was at my back, I going uphill at 14 mph, not pedaling.....sweet, but it only lasted for about 50 yards.  I was cooked, fried and pretty much done and never wanting to get on the bike again.

Saturday started off a little stiff but I headed out early for a nice little run.  I ran a new route on Klickitat trail which goes along the Klickitat River.  One of my best runs ever.  The trail climbs at 1% for I don't know how long but I went 9 miles before turning around.  It was beautiful, peaceful and relaxing.  18 miles of pure bliss.  After a quick nap and food I headed out a nice little ride.  I found a ride which is supposed to be good for windy days.  The ride headed out towards Mt. Adams and started off climbing for the first 20 miles for 3000 feet (into the wind....sigh).  The road was beautiful however, butter smooth and almost no cars.  I was supposed to hit a turn off but never got to it as the road turned to gravel before I got to the turn, so I turned around to head back the way I came.  After climbing for another 2000 feet I started my descent with a tailwind.  It was a nice way to end a tough day, riding for 15 miles averaging 35 mph, probably the most fun I've ever had on the bike just flat out going fast with not much effort.  When I was done though I was tired, dog tired.

Sunday going to be another good ride effort.  Again I found a new ride that again was supposed to be good on windy days.  It was definitly better wind-wise but the ride was anything but easy, it climbed for the first 30 miles, nearly 5000 ft of climbing in total.  The ride went onto the approach of Mt. Hood.  I finally turned onto a fire road called Wathum Lake Road and then onto Branch Lake Road.  It became clear early this road didn't see a lot of traffic as there was debris all over the road and a few weeds growing in the cracks.  At one point I looked up and the road just continued to climb straight up for what seemed like ever.  The ride as bit eerie as I was very alone climbing through the forest on the deserted road.  I finally rounded a bend in the road and I suddenly wasn't alone, rumbling down the road towards me about 100 feet in front of me as a huge black bear.  I began yelling "go home bear" and waving my arm, only later did it dawn on me that telling the bear to go home probably didn't make much sense to the bear since he was home.  The bear reared up on his hind legs looked at me for moment, then in a single instant motion he turned and began galloping up the road and into the woods.  I was glad he ran away because with the speed that bear was running I would have been toast if he decided I was lunch.  I rode past where he went into the woods and continued checking over my shoulder to make sure the bear hadn't had a change of heart.  Just about the time my HR had come back to reasonable level I looked up the road and what do I see....another bear, this one was much smaller just as scared of me.  That was the highlight of the weekend.

Needless to say it was a tough week and a hard weekend of training, but I'll put those hard efforts in the bank for three weeks from now.  Just 250 miles on the bike and 40 miles of running and a little swimming.  This coming week will be some pretty serious swim volume and still as solid volume week but the taper is underway.

I'm in the home stretch to IMC and this past week was a big one. 

I knew going in there was lots of volume, big intensity and the forecast was for some of the hottest weather Seattle has ever seen. 

The week started off innocently enough, just a nice little 2 hr ride.  It was warm but not sweltering yet.  The ride included some time riding 75% and 85% of TT effort.  In the end it was a good ride to just get the legs warmed up for the rest of the week.

Tuesday we ramped things up a bit with a nice little 3500 yd swim in the morning with lots of drills and some short pacing intervals.  Things started to really get tough later in the day when I headed out for my negative tempo run.   Basically for this one you warmup, then run at a mod/hard effort for 25 minutes, turnaround and cover the same distance you just ran in 25 minutes at a hard effort.  These are tough regardless but as I started the run at 6:00 pm it was 95 degrees.  It wasn't as fast as I normally run these but intensity was there given the heat with an average for the whole run around 7 minutes per mile.  This would just be a hint of the rest of the week.

Wednesday was a simple day.  Another 2 hour ride, only a little twist ride 26 miles at full time trial effort.  Pretty much this ride is ride as hard as you can hold for 26 miles, again normally a hard workout but as I cruised through Redmond towards the Snoqualmie Valley the temp was 104 degrees at 6:30pm.  The temps were as hot as my legs.  I had a great TT ride with an average of 23.6 mph for the 26 miles.

Thursday was another short day.  Just a one hour run with fartleks (short hard effort) in 96 degree heat.  I was really happy how my body was handling the heat, my HR was up a bit not it wasn't spiking or blowing the roof off from the heat which helps with my confidence if it's hot at IMC. 

Friday as a swim/run brick.  Another 3500 yard swim workout this time mod/hard 300 as in 9 of them all at even pace.  Immediately after off for another 1+ hour run again the temp was in the 90's.  This is my taper day before "big" Saturday. 

Saturday was supposed to be swim, bike, run brick day but as I hadn't slept well with the heat all week I pushed the swim off to Sunday and just did the bike/run workouts.  This was enough believe me.  I started the ride at 7:30am.  The call for the day was hills and pickup the effort in the 2nd half of the ride.  I did a double loop ride hitting 5 hills each loop none were really what I'd consider climbs as the longest was probably 2 miles but they were steep and at the start of the bike it was 70 degrees and humid.  It was a great ride I rode hard focusing on nailing the hills and rode them all in the big ring except one (it's 15% in spots).  In the end I rode 106 miles in 5:45.  Immediately off the bike and out for a run.  40 minutes of easy running.  I felt great on the whole run as was clicking off the miles at near 7 minute mile pace. 

Sunday was not going to be any easier just 2:15 minutes of running.  This is my low aerobic run but anytime you're running for 2+ hours it's a tough day.  The legs were a little stiff for the first 20 minutes then loosened right up and had one of the best long runs I've had in a long time.  It was humid and still warm but not sweltering.  17 miles in 2:10 @ 138 bpm average.  What did this tell me?  If I'm having a good day, I can run a fast marathon off the bike since my HR race threshold on the run is around 160 bpm.  I finished off the week back in the pool with another 3300 yards just 4 x 500 (first 3 were at even pace then ratchet up the pace for the last one. 

Whew....I survived and best of all felt great throughout the week. The totals for the week were 10,000 + yds in the pool, 180+ hard miles in the saddle and 50+ solid miles on the run.

One more big week this week with a huge 3 day weekend of training which will include a very long run and upwards of 13 hours on the bike over 3 days.  The weather is supposed to cool off so I'm headed south this weekend in search of some more warm temps.

Just one more week then I start the long slow taper.  I'm swimming well, riding well and running well.  I may be fitter than I've ever been before.  We'll see how it all comes together in 27 days.