Carissa Kennedy 70.3 Champion (to me)

She said she would, so she did.

I just can't say enough about the amazing person who chose to grow old with me.

We went as a family to Palm Springs for her half iron triathlon in December.  I am hoping she will write about it, as I would not be able to do this accomplishment justice.  If she ever does I'll attach a link for you to read.

Here is the Coles notes version for her race, it get's it own page. I might do one for the kids races later. They were great as well, but back to the star :)

Swim:
Froze her ass off in the water.  It was so cold, unbearably cold.  Did I mention cold? She swam through someone's puke. Ugh... but finished off that swim in spite of everything going against her.

Bike:

Seemed to be out there just enjoying the day.  She was so pretty out there.  She always has this way of making things look so fun and enjoyable.  She nailed it.

Run:

She pole walked this bitch into submission.  I am sure she wanted to quit a million times but she didn't.  Soooo awesome.

Overall, suffered a lot and finished strong with a smile.  Amazing.

Now the real crazy parts:

-She has/had an achilles heal issue that wouldn't let her run, requires surgery to fix and is constant pain.
-Her shoulder was a mess from a bike accident in the summer.  She was unable to practice swimming since July and was swimming in great discomfort. 

So all that pain and suffering and she still did it, despite me asking her not to.  Crazy Baby.  You have done what most can't on a good body with your busted ass one.  Even though you shouldn't have :)

Ironman Whistler: as ready for this as I think I can be

Ironman Whistler, I think I am ready to play.

2.5 weeks to go.

Since December I have focused on training for this crazy triathlon.  Who decides that mountains are a good places to put on these events?  And why is it so hot this year?  They are saying that the race might not be wet suit legal as the water temperature may get to high (above 24.5 C).  This is unheard of for this lake but this summer has been so hot. There are also major forest fire concerns that could cancel the race altogether if the smoke continues in the area.  So lots unknowns still at this point.

I feel ready but nervous as hell.  The training is in and now it is taper time.  Still working on swim, bike and run training at the same intensity but clawing back to total time and distances by half or more and adding extra off days as we get closer.

I thought it would be cool to see how much time I have put into this (although maybe it's best not knowing). So here are the numbers from December until today on what it took for me to be ready for this. 

Workouts completed:

Swim: 52
Bike: 114
Run: 66
Weights: 27

Time on each discipline:

Swim: 61.25 hrs
Bike: 174.25 hrs
Run: 61.5 hrs
Weights:  27.5 hrs

Distance per discipline (note that I spent almost all bike workouts indoors and I did not calculate the distance on those)

Swim: 150.15 km
Bike: 632.75 km
Run: 598 km

Totals:

Workouts: 259
Time training: 323.75 hrs
Distance: 1378.9 km

Unfortunately putting in all this work guarantees nothing.  So many things can go wrong in these that could end your day or prevent you from preforming to level you hoped for. Here is to hoping for a great race day.

What am I hoping for?  Well I have two plans.

Plan A - everything goes as planned - if so then I think I can break 12 hours. 

Plan B - things go like Penticton, things happen out of my control ex: heat, non-wet suit, flats... - then it just about finishing and enjoying it the best I can

Ironman Whistler - Race Recap

I am an Ironman! - Again!

This was my first experience in an Ironman branded event.

The atmosphere was great from the moment we got there.  I was so excited to be in this event, but also calm and so relaxed just taking everything as it came.  It was busy, the expo was huge and you definitely knew you were at a large event.  As far as triathlon goes, I have no other comparison.  It rocked and kept me excited the entire time we where in Whistler.

Everything about the race experience was similar to Challenge Penticton.  Amazing volunteers everywhere and very well organized.

The Race:

Night Before and T1:

I packed everything in my transition bags that I could think of as the weather forecast was all over the place, but all stated it was going to be miserable in the morning. Cold and wet.  So in the end, I was in T1 with everything I could need to be warm enough on the ride.

Swim: 1:10:20 - wow, fast.

This was my first massive swim start. Obviously, I have done other races, but none with nearly this many athletes.  Other than looking around and seeing so many people it really didn't feel any worse than any other swim start.  In the end I guess you can only be personally surrounded by so many people. 

T1: 11:24 - ummm, slow :(

So it was raining on the way into transition.  I grabbed my bag and tried to find a spot to change.  The tent was packed.  It was actually really stupid busy.  Maybe smaller events have some advantages.  Anyways, since it was cold I put socks on and some homemade sock booties over my bike shoes,  arms warmers and over my tri top that I wore in the swim I added my cycling jersey.  Then I was almost ready when I thought (why do I think?), "maybe I'll be really hot with the extra layer as I had a vest on as well.  I am over dressed!"  Took off the jersey and put the vest back on and left the change tent. 

Bike: 6:38:23 - pretty damn good

Immediately regretted the decision not to have the cycling jersey on.  It was cold and raining, not just rain, biblical rain.  Froze within minutes of getting going.  Froze all the way to Callaghan where the first major climb was.  To be honest, I was so looking forward to it.  It would slow things down and warm me up a bit.  On the way there I noticed my biggest brain fart.  Nope not the jersey, I forgot my gloves in my T1 bag.  How the fuck did I do that?!?  My hand were now blocks of ice.  So cold, I was actually laughing at myself because I could not move my thumbs or fingers.  Had to palm the shifters and couldn't eat my nutrition normally.  I just couldn't rip off the top on my gels.  I was that cold.  The roads were also very wet and slippery as well. Trying to avoid people passing me, me passing others and trying to avoid the large puddles, it was hectic.  It was actually really unnerving to say the least.

Once climbing Callaghan, things got better for sure.  The descent on the other hand, was down right terrifying.  So fast, so cold and the conditions just made it scary. This continued until I hit Pemberton.  It started to warm up and my hands and feet finally had some feeling in them.  From there back to Whistler was pretty good.  I felt really fresh until about the 155km mark.  At that point I could feel the climbing in my legs and they were pretty tired, but I held my pace to transition.  At this point I knew the fast run was done.

T2: 7:41 - still slow

No excuse for this one.  Just took a lot of time.

Run:  4:35:57 - wheels fell off - but held it together.

Was a struggle from the first km.  Nothing felt good, feet, glutes, quads, everything I could find any reason to stop running hit me.  For the first time since Penticton, I caved.  I was just not willing to hold that much pain.  So I ran/walked as best I could.  Was really frustrated with myself.  I still am to be honest.  I am stronger than this.  Or at least I think I should be.  I can run!  I just wasn't willing to suck it up.  FAIL.  OK, trying not to be that hard on myself.  I pushed through ok, I ran enough to have an good overall time.  Still ended sub 13 hours.  I am still really proud of myself.  Just a bit pissed at the same time.  Nothing pulled, broken or cut. All the pain was mental, not physical limitation to force me to walk.  Grrr.  I want another shot at this bitch.  Bad.

Overall: 12:43:45 - Awesome.  Enough said. I am hooked still.  Would love to do this again and again.  Just not every year.  Loved the training and the race week. 

As with everything good in my life, it's all due to the support of my wife and kids. I am so honored to have them in my life.  Carissa is amazing and made the entire experience so special.  Can't say enough about how great this family is.  Love you all so much.

Soleda's First Tri

Our youngest took on her first triathlon last week.  She did great and had such a fun time racing.

Her swim started out really strong. The first 25 meters she was going so fast I was a bit worried she went out way to strong.  She did, but still managed to hold it together by rolling to her back and float kicking.

 Then volunteers escorted the kids into transition and help them get changed and ready to head out on the bike.  It was so nice to see all the youth volunteers helping all the little ones.  Made for such a great race experience and kept the crazy parents at bay.

On the bike Soleda looked like she was on a nice ride.  She didn't look like she was riding fast but at an enjoyable pace.  We did stress to her to make sure she rode safe and not try and push and potentially crash.  It was so nice to just see her out there having a blast.

On her run she set a nice steady pace and held it until the finish line.  We got to see a bit of her competitiveness when she saw another racer catch her on the run but she sped up to ensure that was not going to happen.

Can't say enough of how proud I am of her for just going out here and taking on a new challenge.

The event was extremely well organized and made for a great day.

12 and a bit weeks to go

Well, it's getting closer.  I do love to train and I feel great once it's complete, but this training seems so long and never ending.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining too badly yet and with 8.5 weeks left of hard training until taper time, there is finally light at the end of the tunnel. 

I'm not really sure what to write about but I haven't posted anything in a while so I

thought I should keep anyone who actually reads this updated. The pics are from the mini tri this year.  It was a great time and the people and tri group are amazing.  Always one event I look forward to.  Not sure why I always pick on Paul as the person to beat, but oh well. I thought Pamela would be there to hunt down, but she moved a bit further out so she couldn't make it. Again Paul was the target of choice. He is getting so good and his running is crazy fast.  So Paul, you rock!

Overall, here is where I am at.

Swimming - seems to be the same with one exception.  I have been working on using more rotation and less on powering with my arms.  Seems to be working as my times are not much faster, but I am not dying after my sets with sore arms and out of breath. 

Biking - feels really strong right now and I have put a shit load of work into it.  I was really disappointed at the PMC Mini Tri this year as I thought I was going to fly on the  bike, but didn't.  However, after putting the bike on the trainer afterwards I was struggling again.  Then I noticed my rear brake was rubbing on the rear rim making it so much harder then it should have been.  So hopefully that was the issue at the race.  Brakes are broken and are being held together with a zap strap until I get new ones.  I knew they were going but thought I could get a bit more out of them. Guess not.  Also my rear tire is messed up and feels like there is a constant flat.  Swapped it out with an older one and bam, like new! WTF, so now I need a new one for the front.  I was going to get it anyways for Carissa's race so she wouldn't have green tires so it's not a big deal, but yet another expense. 

Running - just started upping the long run. Up to 20 km at a easyish  pace.  5:20 pacing seems to be working.  I have to slow myself down all the time at that pace, but it's still not easy.

So everything is going great so far.

11 Week Base Training - Complete, Next up 8 Week Endurance Build

Just finishing my 11 week base training plan and now I need to start the next 8 week build set.  The focus is on the bike, the weakest part of my repertoire,

So I have the bike plan set and now need to build everything around that.  My run has stopped for February so I need to slowly bring that back into play starting in March.  I also need to stop racing everytime I do a run and actually build up a nice long run without injury or wrecking my legs. The bike plan is very aggressive so the runs will need to be set up with some thought to that.

I will be riding on the trainer 4 days a week still but there is no easy one this time.  They are all hard or somewhat hard, but long.  For the last 6 weeks I have done one 30 minute recovery ride, two 1 hour interval sets and one 1.5 hour endurance interval set.

For the next 8 weeks on the bike it will be two 1-1,5 hour interval sets and two 1.5-2.5 hour interval sets.  There is a recovery week on the 4th and 8th weeks.  They don't look too recovery to me just not big interval sets.  Still long and tough rides though.

After this 8 weeks I will have one more 12 week plan with 3 days of biking down from 4 and start to bring more running into play.  Then a 3 week taper to get set for Whistler.  Seems so far away until you write it down like this,  Now 23 weeks doesn't seem so long.

It's funny though, time is just flying and I really don't feel all that worried about it. I have really been enjoying watching Carissa get back into her groove.  She is amazing and so strong, both physically and mentally.  I want to keep up with her in her journey of weight lifting, but I just don't think it's going to happen.  I can't do the heavy weights and recover to hit the bike and run hard.  I tried last week and I am still messed up.  I do love it but I just can't do both hard.  I'll have to figure out how to work around this as being near her makes life better.  Maybe I'll start running on the treadmill while she hits the weights in March.  We can still do a good core day together.  I'll have to run all this by her of course, as she signs off on my training plans.  If they don't meet her criteria for proper rest and training then the plan gets modified until it does.  I will also have to accept that she will end up much stronger than me.  I think I can handle that.  We are close to the same now, but she has just started so that won't last long.

She also just had her professional bike fit done yesterday and is even more excited to get on the bike. She is going to rock her races this year and meet all her weight lifting goals.  I can't wait to see how proud she is going to be of herself.

This is a great year.

She asked me a question while we went on a long walk the other day.  What are you planning for next year?  For the first time, I really don't have an answer.  I have always been looking forward to what is next.  This year I am just looking forward to right now.  It's really kind of a cool frame of mind to be in,

Carissa's first swim

Let's just say I never seem to get shown up and amazed more often then when Carissa sets her mind to anything.

So she hasn't swam a length since the summer when she, out of the blue swam 750 meters in the MEC sprint race, and finished just fine.  Last night I gave her a swim set to do, total of 1000 meters and she crushed it.  Did an extra 100 for fun.  Is there anything she can't do?  Nope, it doesn't appear so.

I never really doubted she could swim the full iron distance, She is amazing and there is no quit in her,  I was worried more about the time needed to finish to make the cut off.  Am I still worried about this? Not after last night. She will be ready.  She has a plan and she will get this done.

Anyway, I had a great swim with her last night.  It was quiet in the pool so we pretty much had a lane to ourselves.  As always, doing things with her makes it instantly better.

Love you Baby, happy training.