Welcome Smart Toyota...iHope Business sponsor

The week was another big one in the block of training for Ironman Chattanooga.  I have made the bike and overall long workouts my main focus.  I biked 325 miles this week, ran 36, and swam 7,500 yards.  It was a challenging week time-wise with the start of a new school year.  All of a sudden I have 8 hours a day that are taken up that I haven't had in a few months.  I do a lot of my bike miles in the evening after the kids go to bed.  I constantly have to weigh the costs and benefits of a ride from 8:30-10:00 PM versus the extra sleep I could be getting.  If I'm riding until 10:00 it's rarely before 11:00 when I'm in bed after stretching, core, massage (with the Podium Legs), and then shower.  I continue to ride and run long on Sundays.  This week I changed my long run to Saturday.  Payton was doing the Hy-Vee Kids Triathlon and I wasn't going to miss that.  I ran 20 miles before and after her race.  It was awesome watching her compete.  To be honest I was not excited about her doing it and tried to talk Jen out of signing her up.  She just learned to swim and had never gone across a pool and back like she would in the kids triathlon (50 yard swim for 6-8 yr. olds).  We just got her a new Specialized bike and I've ridden with her a few times on it and she's pretty shaky on it so that had me worried.  Being around hundreds of other kids in a race setting without being confident in the swim or bike had me very nervous for her.  The bike was 2 miles and the run only 500 yards.  To my pleasant surprise she did awesome and had a blast.  When she was done I asked her what her favorite part was and she said, "All of it!"

Sunday I followed up the long run with a 112 mile ride.  I was feeling awesome early and averaging 21.6 mph at the 1/2 way point before I started my efforts at Ironman wattage.  I rolled off the next 35 miles at my Ironman wattage zone of 235-240 but it felt more tiring than I was hoping.  It was warm and I had steady drips of sweat coming off my helmet.  The wind was picking up by the hour and I was battling it on the way home.  I was happy to make it 112 and my average pace was still 21.6 even though my last 20 miles were pretty slow.  I rode another hour on Sunday night after the kids were in bed to loosen my legs back up. 

I was super excited this week after meeting with Nick Tarpein, the general manager of Smart Toyota of the Quad Cities in Davenport.  Nick notified me that Smart Toyota would be joining on as the 14th iHope business sponsor in 2014 and at a Gold level!!  The contribution from Smart Toyota will help so much in providing low-income students in our community that display outstanding character and work traits with iPads and scholarships.  I'll be pleased to add the Smart Toyota logo to my jersey next year!  In addition to the contribution Nick said that Smart Toyota would be happy to contribute an additional $300.00 to the iHope Foundation for anyone who purchased a new or used vehicle at Smart Toyota with a mention of the iHope Foundation as a referral.  He assured me this referral credit to iHope would not affect the purchase price in any way as the referral money comes from a different pot than what they make on a vehicle purchase.  If you are looking for a new or used vehicle please give a visit to Smart Toyota and mention iHope to help the foundation in an incredible way.  The website for Smart Toyota to see inventory is here.  If you'd like to make a tax deductible contribution to the foundation click either link on the home page to contribute to either the iPad fund or the scholarship fund.  I'll be buying my next Toyota Prius from Smart.  I set a new PR on my last tank of gas in my 2005 Prius with 50.1 MPG.  I hope that is the start of a new PR streak as I get ready for Ironman Chattanooga in just over 5 weeks.  I can't wait!  DREAM BIG!!

Scheels Dam Duathlon Report

Sunday Jen and I participated in the final duathlon of the Scheels Series.  We both came out well with wins in the race and overall series wins.  It was a bit disappointing to find out after the race that they decided not to pay out for the series win this year.  Earlier in the year I e-mailed the race director and he said they were going to pay out less for the series because they were paying more for the individual races.  I didn't realize less meant nothing.  I was a bit disappointed because I was hoping to give more to the iHope Foundation but still was happy to earn $300.00 at the final race.

RUN: The first run started out fast as all of these runs have.  I've gotten used to it going out fast.  Being in the middle of a huge block of Ironman training I wasn't sure what my legs would have in them.  I've worn myself out with big loads of training for the past 4 weeks and did not back down for this race much at all.  In fact I was so tired on Thursday I had to walk in my long run and pulled the plug after only 11 miles of a planned 20 miler.  I was pretty dehydrated and it led to a complete suffer fest the last 2 miles.  I woke up weighing 158 after being 163 just 2 days prior.  I was sweating heavily and suffered.  In the first run of the duathlon I hung back about 10 seconds behind the leader and entered T2 with another guy who was new to the series.  I had been told he was one heck of a bike rider being Cat 1/2.

BIKE:  About a mile into the 10 mile ride the strong rider went by me.  I was able to hang back 7 meters without too much difficulty.  I wanted to share the work with him and press the lead on the others hoping to make it a two man race.  Every time I would pass him he would almost immediately pass me back.  I'm pretty sure he didn't know the USAT overtaken rule but I wasn't upset about it.  This was a small race and I was more than willing to let him lead the majority of the bike.  I probably passed him 4 different times but each time he would almost refuse to let me be in the lead for more than 20 seconds before passing me back.  I sat back the required distance to the end of the ride and we both had super fast transitions heading out on the run.  The bike course was brutally hilly which I expected since I did the race last year.  He had a faster bike split than me by 5 seconds.

RUN 2: I almost forgot to take my helmet off I was in such a hurry to get out of transition.  I was almost out when I noticed my shadow and realized my helmet was still on.  I disposed of it just before the end of the transition area.  I tried to set a strong pace early and I could tell he was fighting to hang on.  I could hear his breathing on my shoulder and I continued to press as the first mile is uphill before returning a mile downhill.  I'm not a very strong hill runner being a bigger guy.  I still tried to lift the pace and about 1/2 way out to the turn I was able to put some ground on him.  I wanted to press hard to see if I could get him to throw the towel in.  At the turn I was about 20 seconds up and knew I had done the job.  I still pushed hard back and actually ran about the exact same time as my first run and it didn't feel as hard as the first one.

After I finished I waited for Jen to come in.  She won by quite a bit so it was a good day for the Paul family with double wins.  Now my focus will shift back entirely to getting myself as ready as I can for my best race ever at Ironman Chattanooga in just 6.5 weeks.  I'm in the middle of the really big weeks as I focus all of my workouts around this one race.  I'm struggling to get leaner like I normally can before an Ironman.  I'm keeping the faith and remembering to trust the process.  My body always seems to lean down for me before the big ones.  It's been a tough week with the start of school.  More than the extra 8 hours a day is the emotional energy that goes into the classroom as I get back into the swing of things.  Hopefully by next week I'm back in a good routine and the stress of getting ready for school is in the rear view mirror.  I'm excited to have the opportunity to be a positive influence on a new group of kids and realize the impact I can potentially make on them.  It motivates me each day to make a positive difference in their lives and get them to set high goals, work hard, and DREAM BIG!  If you'd like to help contribute to the iHope Foundation click here.  I'm hoping we can provide 3 more students this year with an iPad and a $1,000.00 scholarship.  THANKS!

8 weeks to Ironman Chattanooga

I got officially registered this week for Ironman Chattanooga.  I wiped everything off my racing schedule except a duathlon that is part of the Scheel's Series next weekend.  I wanted to be able to devote a big chunk of training towards 1 goal date...September 28th. 

I picked this race for a few reasons.  I always look for a fall Ironman distance event to finish my season.  There are quite a few good options.  Being that it may be my last pro race I wanted to give 1 more crack at an Ironman branded event because it may be many years before I venture back into this brand should I stop racing as a professional.  I'd like to do more Rev3, Challenge, and independent events if I race as an amateur.  I get asked a lot about Kona as an age grouper.  That is a goal of mine some day but right now it is not something I am overly excited about.  The trip is incredibly expensive.  On top of that Kona is tough for teachers.  I wouldn't go there unless spending at least a week on the island and that week would be unpaid and also wouldn't be the best situation for the kids sitting in my classroom.  I have an obligation to them.  Kona is a goal of mine when I'm 55.  That will be my first year retired and I plan to train like crazy.  That's still 21 years away so I'm not thinking too much about it right now.  The best thing I can do to be ready for Kona when I'm 55 is continue staying fit year in and year out so when that day comes I'll have a chance to place really high in the 55-59 age group.  Another big reason I picked Ironman Chattanooga is because local friends Robert White and Dan Ward are racing there.  Robert has actually moved to Florida so this will be a great opportunity to catch up with him.  For both of them it will be their first Ironman distance event so I'm excited to watch those finishes.  Another big factor for me is a down river swim.  This puts me in a better position to be successful in the race because the time gaps after the swim should not be as large as what I'm used to.  One more reason was the rolling terrain on the bike course.  I've always ridden rolling terrain well and my plan to be lean for this race should help even more on this kind of terrain.  The final reason is the race is sponsored by "Little Debbie".  I've always loved my Little Debbie snacks and couldn't pass on a race sponsored by this brand.  Hopefully the aid stations will be stocked with Swiss Cake Rolls, Fudge Rounds, Oatmeal Cream Pies, Star Crunch's, Boston Cream Rolls, and Nutty Bars.  That fuel source should lead to a good marathon time :)

My 3rd week of Ironman prep was a big one by design.  I continue to make the bike my main focus in training.  I will increase my swimming a lot about 4 weeks before the race.  I only swam 7,500 yards.  I ran 43 miles (in 4 days of running), and I biked 350 miles.  I did hill intervals Tuesday, longer intervals on Wednesday, and Saturday was my long ride.  Saturday's ride I did 117 miles with the first 55 easy and then the next 56 at my Ironman goal wattage which is 235-240 for this race.  I hit my split to reset my average wattage every 7 miles of the 56 mile portion.  My watts for each 7 mile segment were 241, 240, 241, 241, 243, 245, 243, and 237.  I had almost 2,000 feet of climbing over that 56 miles.  I kept my normalized power within 2 watts of my average power on each segment.  Normalized power takes into account hard accelerations and these are what I intend to avoid.  I want to keep a steady smooth effort both up and down hills so keeping the normalized power close to the average power is important.  What I was most excited about is my 56 mile time was 2 hrs. 25 minutes.  This is about what I need to average speed wise to have a shot at breaking 9 hours.  I did it in a training ride with my training wheels, road helmet, and big saddle bag on the back of my bike.  I found at Challenge Atlantic city I was riding 1-1.5 mph faster during the race with my race wheels, aero helmet, and bike stripped down at the same wattage I had been training which at that time was 225-230.  This is a big confidence booster.  I also hope to pick up more speed as I reduce my body weight allowing me to get up hills faster without increasing my wattage. 

Sunday I ran 20 miles and I felt as good on the 20th as I did on the 1st mile.  I have run 15, 18, and 20 the last 3 weeks respectively coming off long rides of 110, 120, and 117.  This next week will be my only week without the long workouts until the week before the race.  After this approaching weekend I'll have 5 more long rides/runs.  3 weeks out of the race I plan to do a long brick of 100 miles on the bike with the last 1/2 at Ironman wattage followed by a 10 mile run at goal pace of 6:30/mile.  This week I only dropped 1 lb. which was frustrating.  On Thursday morning I was down from 165 to 160 but may have been dehydrated because by this morning I was back up to 164.  I'd like to be 150 by September 20th.  Lots of work to do. 

I was thrilled this week to get word of 2 VERY generous contributions to the iHope Foundation.  Huge thanks to Mark Nagan and Daniel Westbay for helping with the foundation.  I'm hoping we can award 3 more iPads and $1,000.00 scholarships to low-income students that display outstanding character and work traits this upcoming school year.  If you'd like to help with the iHope Foundation click here.  Speaking of Daniel Westbay I've been having fun coaching him this year.  I'm amazed and inspired by how much he has improved.  He placed 11th in the Crossroads Triathlon this year on Saturday morning moving up from 32nd last year.  His swim time improved from 9:14 to 8:11, bike time from 43:25 to 41:21, and run time from 23:09 to 20:51.  Overall he dropped 6 minutes 20 seconds.  I am super proud of the commitment he has made and the hard work he has put in to see these substantial improvements.  It shows when you are willing to work and DREAM BIG incredible things will happen.  DREAM BIG!