Enlisted…. Miami Half Iron Man – Here I come
I started thinking about a half iron man way back and to be honest after a couple of marathons I kind of dismissed the idea, it just wasn’t hard enough. The only problem with this line of thinking is that the next step up is wildly more difficult. 70.3 is nothing compared to 140.6. There just isn’t a whole lot of middle ground. The only thing I can think of is an Ultra and that borders on the realm of unreasonable as well. But what the hell that is what they are there for.
After a year of butt sitting management and a knee injury I think it is time to get back in the game. I have seen my stress level climb, my fitness decrease, muscle tone has gone the way of the donut. In short, middle age has started to rear its ugly head. I think a half ironman may be just what I need to get my butt in gear and start the spiraling up process.
Can I start a new business and train for the semi grueling race while working a demanding full time schedule? I don’t know we will see. But I do think my days of showing up confidently on race day without training are over. This time I am going to have to earn the finish line but I do plan to have fun doing it.
I don’t quite have a training regime ironed out yet. I am thinking something along the lines of a running intense program with some long rides. I will be using the theory that if it has been done in the last 3 weeks then my body is conditioned to go 5-10% farther. Not sure where I came across this idea but it seemed to hold fairly true for my last marathon training program.
Main training goals at this point:
• Hit the 20 mile run mark at a nine minute per mile pace.
• Do a century ride, no specific time.
• Hit some mountains on the road bike, there may not be any in Miami but it will be hot. Mountains will be my heat.
• Hit the bike to run transition pretty hard. Work on sprints in this area to get the intensity level up.
• Swim the 1.2 mile distance at least once.
• Stretch – In the past I have totally avoided stretching while training for endurance activities and I feel like this has decreased my overall flexibility and recovery.
My theory here is that if I can confidently train for the hardest part of the race I will be fine.
The knee injury hopefully will continue to improve. Up to this point it has felt better the more I actually use it but I have also not really put too much major stress on it, with the exception of a 24 mile hike carrying 60lbs.
I must also say thanks to the friend that invited me on this adventure. Without the motivation of a pal talking trash I don’t know if I ever would have taken the step to take on this animal.
One early note on training…
I have started running in the low profile semi-barefoot shoes that force you to run more front footed and avoid the heal strike. At this point I am sold on the theory but putting it into practice proves to be slow. The additional impact on my feet tends to be pretty harsh and after running on heal strike shoes for 33 years my calves are protesting. I do notice some level of adaption but it has been much slower than I had anticipated. At this point I am run walking for an hour due to the shoes and the knee. To put this in perspective, out of 15 years of running I have never run walked. Winter running in Alaska may also prove decisive in this area. I will keep at it for a while with the low pro shoes but if I do not get to a point where I can run two days in a row without noticeable soreness fairly soon I think my next shoe purchase may be the standard issue heal strikers.
Enough for now I will keep you posted.
Swim – Been so long I don’t know if I remember how to swim.
Bike – Road bike is in the shop and hasn’t been ridden in over a year.
Run – Too slow to publicly document.
Weight – 201