"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

Never, Never, Never Quit.

FIGHT....................FINISH

Countdown to B2B

I CAN

Friday, June 13, 2008

June update

It's a been good but tough week. Started out with my first day off of the month last Friday, June 6 as I went to my daughters junior olympic rhythmic national meet. But in the next week, I was able to get in 2 10 mile runs, a 7 and 5 mile run, 3 swims for 5500 yards, and a 70, 40 and 30 mile ride. I'm at 21+ hours so far this month with another 70 mile ride scheduled for tomorrow.

The heat and humidity are at full summer levels and I'm having to compensate accordingly. I've had to add an extra bottle to my 30 mile rides as well as extra enduralytes to my long workouts. I ran into a problem on my 70 mile ride with the conveinence store I usually stop at to refill being closed on Sunday. Luckily I had taken some power that I mixed with a water faucet they had to get me through till the next store 20+ miles later. I felt terrible for a little while but after I got enough fluids back in me was able to find a little strength to finish up.

That will be the biggest challenge of training through the summer is recovery. Not from the physical exertion but from losing all the fluids. For instance, on my 70 mile ride last Sunday, I drank 7 liters of fluids during the ride, drank almost the entire time afterwards and still felt worn out the next morning. Where as if I had ridden 70 in cooler/less humid weather, I would have bounced back much quicker. But, having trained for several of my 1/2 iron races in the Florida summers, I know what to expect and have learned some things along the way to help.
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1 comment:

Stan said...

Hello Chris,

My name is Stan, I'm 51 years old and also in the quest for Ironman. My first tri is this Sunday, the 22nd, in Philadelphia (www.phillytri.com). It's an Olympic distance.

My Ironman is on September 7 in Sherborne, England. That is a short 80 days away.

Being a veteran of nine marathons, I never doubted the effort required for Ironman. At this stage in my training, the true significance is being felt.

I have been training since October under the guidance of Jeff Devlin (www.jeffdevlin.com). Jeff has two 3rd place finishes in Kona in 91 & 94. He has a total of 5, top 10 Kona finishes with a best time of 8:27:55 and has been coaching for 12 years.

This close to my Ironman, I am getting nervous, especially about the swim. Actually, I past nervous and into scared.

I wanted to reach out to a fellow in this quest for Ironman. I feel you my friend. God speed and good luck.

Regards,
Stan

June 18, 2008 at 11:15 AM

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