There had been a lot going on the last three weeks. The one thing that has not been going on is blog posts. Although there is no set schedule for posting updates, I really want to update them more frequently than I do. In reality, I just do not have that interesting a life so I have to wait until races take place or something worth writing about. Actually, being a "old dude" I am allowed to post cranky notes about how the world is going crazy and that America is falling apart, but I have relegated that to the Tea Party people, or as I call them , "The Angry old white people party".
The last few weeks have been devoted to closing out work projects, race planning, vacation planning, then the execution of said race and vacation. So, to catch up, here is what I have planned over the next couple of days. I plan on writing several updates to cover the race and post race activities. It is important to capture these thoughts and actions before they get replaced with a diatribe on the neighborhood kids trampling across my lawn or how the neighbor's dogs keep crapping on my lawn.
In reality, capturing the race experience and putting it on paper allows me to analyze what I did right and what I can improve on. Making it public allows others to learn from my experience and also lets others suggest areas and means of improvement.
About The Race
The Memorial – Hermann Ironman 70.3 Texas or as I like to call it, the race in Galveston. 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and a 13.1 mile run. This was my A Race. I have been planning / training for this race since November 2009. Back in November, I had just finished the Conroe Half-Ironman and my race results matched the training effort that I had expended. Putting it in other words, my training was half-assed due to many different variables, most of which are my own fault. So, my race sucked, but I learned so much from that race experience. I was able to finish the race but it was not pretty and it was not something that I was proud of. As soon as I had finished Conroe, I knew that I was going to sign up for Galveston and I knew at that moment, I was going to have a great race. Going into Conroe, from the start of training, I did not have a goal, and my training reflected that. Immediately after I finished Conroe, I started planning my Galveston race. It started out with a very simple goal; I was going to have a great race. A great race was beating my previous best time of 6 hours and one minute. I did not go public with that goal but I did talk it over with Chrissie. I had several weeks to go before I started the training schedule for Galveston so my mindset was all oriented towards the goal of having a great race.
I went into training with secondary goals of a) changing my eating habits and b) training with a purpose.
Previously, I ate anything and everything without any thought to what I was putting in my mouth or how it impacted my athletic capabilities. So, by changing my eating habits, I was hoping to improve the way I fueled the engine that carried me from workout to workout and ultimately through the race. What I did not think about, was how, by changing my diet, I would be improving my whole state of mind and well-being. Over the years of training, I have fallen into a rut that was driven by "just getting in the hours". I made sure I was logging in the right number of training hours. I had forgotten that training sets up the habits that I carry into a race. Racing is not about going through the motions and training should not be that way. "The habits of success are forged in practice" – Gary Mack
"Practice time is when you put brain into your muscles" – Sam Snead
For 2010, I tried to train with a bigger purpose than to just log hours. Sounds simple, but like I said, I forgot.
That is enough for now, I need to go pick up dog poop from the yard and yell at the neighborhood riff-raff. Next Blog post, I will re-cap the race.
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