Titanium Man @titaniummanblog - Tumblr Blog

10-7-2019

Race week! Man, it is wild to believe that race week is already here. I’m feeling so many emotions as I prepare for a long travel day tomorrow to Kona, HI. I’m fit, I’ve made a good plan for nutrition, I’ve countlessly rehearsed the course mentally, now I just have to execute. With 5 days to go I’m feeling ready, but honestly I just want to get it over with. A fair amount of anxiety has accumulated the past few days but hopefully once I get to Hawaii and get to scope out the course I will get comfortable once again.

I had a great week of training. I tweaked my neck but OSPT got me healthy again. My weekend culminated with 2 short workouts; the Gift of Life 5K and a 20 mile bike ride yesterday. It’s only fitting that one of my final workouts be the Gift of Life 5k, as it was the first race I toed the line for after my accident. We had a great venue this year at the Clark County BCTC campus and a cool, fall morning made the challenging course comfortable. As always we had great support from the community and a few families there to give testimony for how the Trust for Life has made incredible differences in their lives through organ receipt as well as donation and communication. It is truly an incredible service the Trust for Life provides to donors, donor families, and recipients.

New kit for Kona. Gonna have a test ride tomorrow and make sure there aren’t any friction spots.

10-1-2019

October is here which means I’m 11 days out! Once again I have missed my long ride. My longest ride thus far is 85 miles and I know that will be enough but I would like to get one more in before race day. Chrissie was on call all weekend so I watched Waller all weekend and got in a couple of decent runs. I did, however, make a boneheaded mistake but trying to remove my pool stairs by myself and have strained my trap on the right side which doesn’t seem to bother me for any of the three disciplines but does make turning my head uncomfortable. Luckily, I went and visited my trust physical therapist and I’m already much better than I was on Monday morning.

One week from today Chrissie and I will lug all of my gear to the airport and embark on the wildest adventure I’ve been a part of. Lately a lot of folks have been asking me, “What next?” And the real answer is that I don’t know. Last year I completed the Ironman and I thought that was going to be the end of the road, but I always thought I might be able to make this Kona dream happen. Now, with my son developing so much I would like to be home more to play with him and relieve Chrissie from all the solo parenting she’s been doing. I know I would like to continue racing, probably shorter distances. I’ve considered trying to join the USA Paratriathlon team and now might be a good time to chase that dream. I know I would like to spend some time in the weight room this winter and add some mass to my legs in hopes for increased power. Realistically, I have some work to do around the house for a while. There are always small things that need to be done that I have ignored and Chrissie tells me she has a list, but refuses to tell me before our Hawaii trip. Whatever happens, it will be what it will be.

10 screws and a plate in my pelvis and a rod in my femur. That’s why I’m titanium man.

9-23-2019

Less than 3 to Kona! I had intended to knock out a 100 mile ride over the weekend and pair it with an 18 mile run on Sunday but I only got one of those workouts in. On Thursday my stomach was terrorized by a 12 oz ribeye so Friday I just rode 40 and ran my 18 on Saturday. I felt great! Now I need to get the big ride in this week and pair it with another long run before I can rest on my laurels. One more week of hard work, then it’s off to taper town.

Besides my workouts I had a fun week with Waller and Chrissie. We partied all weekend, got a final swim in the pool and Waller got to see both sets of grandparents. We witnessed a bad loss for UK, but nothing we haven’t seen before. This September heat wave has been good for training and it looks like it may continue right up to our departure on October 8th. I shot a couple of interviews last week, one for the Lexington Herald and another for LEX18 so we should see those coming up and work has been rocking and rolling. As this race gets closer and closer I’m truly aware of how blessed I am to have a great community of people around me from work, the community, friendships, and family (of course none of this would not have been capable without Chrissie.)

As I come to the end of this training cycle I have cut out booze and fried foods from my diet. Thankfully, Waller hasn’t minded consuming my share of Doritos. This was from Saturday’s tailgate against Florida.

9-16-2019

Less than four weeks to Kona! Last week was a recovery week and I needed it. I went for a 50 mile ride on Saturday and an 11 mile run on Sunday and my legs were toast. No telling how I would feel if I had to knock out a long week again. I am feeling ready, but honestly I’m getting a little burnt out with the monotony of training. Last week (like an idiot) I decided to switch one of my bike workouts to a mountain bike session and ate it on the trails ending up with a bruised shoulder and abrasions where a tree jumped out at me. That kind of put things into perspective; don’t mess up the training!

Last week had some important dates, my accident anniversary and my wedding anniversary. Looking back at photos and conversing with folks about the accident always reminds me that I have the best partner in the world. My family is incredible, but without having Chrissie to lean on during the tough times of recovery I could not and would not have the great story that everyone has followed. Happy 3 year accident and 6 year wedding anniversary.

Prepping the grill from Saturday’s bounty for the cookout. Chip was eagerly awaiting something being dropped but I’m more coordinated than my 15 month old, Waller.

9-9-2019

I’m coming off of a great week of training and feeling better than ever for Kona. I’ve got just over 4 weeks to race day and everything seems to be coming together. I rode 85 over the weekend and felt tired but my effort was sustained and my nutrition held up well. I think it probably helped that it was in the 70’s for the entirety of my ride. Then, I was able to run 16 with my friend and physical therapist, Jim, and feel good finishing up. I ended up being on my feet for the rest of the weekend which didn’t lead to immediate recovery but with good sleep and an foot massage machine at the house I’m feeling great today.

In addition to all the exercise I was able to squeeze in a Friday night GRC football game, where they got the W against Tates Creek. The new stadium is incredible! Saturday I was back in Clark County for a dove shoot, and Sunday we had Chrissie’s office over for a cookout. It was a busy week, finished by a super busy weekend but as always, my friends, family, and especially Chrissie made it all possible. This week is a bit of recovery week and then two more hard sessions until Hawaii. Aloha (I’m practicing)

Most of the world would have to get on a plane to find beautiful, emerald waters. After 3 shock treatments and a visit from professionals I will too.

9-3-2019

Well, my Monday update got pushed to Tuesday. Thank you Labor Day. I had a good week of training but a better week of preparation. In particular I got a bike fit from a fitter who is used to people with physical limitations. Because my ankle and knee do not bend as well as most folks my bike has to be setup to allow me to be comfortable and stick to the fundamentals of riding instead of compensating for limitations. I will say, the last few weeks of training has taken its toll on my other chores. This week my pool turned green, not like a tint of green, but opaque. I’ve got it on the mend now but I like to think I was just preparing for open water siting practice.

I’ve got a busy week ahead. With less than 6 weeks to go I’ve got to really push through this block of workouts. In addition the Tri for Sight is this weekend, which Shuffle Bean always sponsors so I will need to be there slinging beans all day. I’m going to try and push my workouts forward this week and knock out 85 biking miles Friday and 16 running on Saturday so I can chill after my volunteering is done on Sunday. Anyway, back to it. I leave for Hawaii in 5 weeks from today!

Chip needed a nap too yesterday. Chrissie took this while I was conked out.

8-26-2019

I got served a little bit of humble pie this weekend. My week of training had gone well, as usual. I had intended on going to Morehead to compete in the Murky Mile swim race and ride back to Lexington from Cave Run Lake, but I couldn’t find anyone with the same plans and did not want to solo ride the approximate 90 miles. So, I stayed in Lexington and joined the Bluegrass Cycling Club on a 50 mile ride through Fayette, Bourbon, and Scott counties. The ride was not overly hill or hot, but the wind was brutal. I had intended to ride 20 miles afterward to fulfill my 70 mile ride goal for the day but after finishing 50 I went home and sat on the couch to regain composure. I did get another 7 in with my dog later on a gravel road surrounding the Clark County Reservoir. I went through and looked at my stats of my 50 mile ride and realized how I messed up so royally. For the entire ride I averaged 167 watts of power which is pretty typical, but I had some major spikes throughout the ride. Those spikes were probably times I led the pace group and riding into the wind. Anytime you are training for an endurance event the whole training cycle revolves around consistency. By being incredible inconsistent on this ride I wiped myself out. Realistically I need to be riding 175 watts for the Hawaii race but keeping my spikes and lows within 20 watts of the 175 goal. It was a good lesson to experience this far into the training cycle which led to an interesting run on Sunday.

As usual, my friend Jim joined me for a long run on Sunday morning. The weather was great and I mapped out a 14 mile route to shake the scenery up a bit. In doing so we hit more hills than usual, but my legs had a bit of a concrete feeling to them that eventually led to 3 short walks. After the run I knew I was going to be hurting and was lucky that Chrissie pitied me enough to not ask for too much effort on my feet. I ended up catching a 2 hour nap while my son slept and still made it to bed at 9:00 for a 10 hour slumber. I’m feeling much better today and looking forward to a bit of a recovery week.

8-19-2019

Oops, I lied! But, it’s not my fault. Last week I said I was going to race over the weekend and I did not. I was going to, I had a great week of training and was excited to put in a race effort on Sunday but as I was prepping I looked at the web site to make sure I would show up on time for registration and the race was sold out. Instead of racing I slept in until 6:30 am and then went for a 50 mile ride and a four mile run. I was supposed to run 10 according to my training plan, but my legs were shot and based on some piriformis pain I had later in the day, I’m glad I listened to my body and called it quits. That being said, I had a great ride yesterday, even in the heat.

This was a busy weekend, as they almost all are these days and as I am less than 8 weeks out from Kona I’m making sure to prioritize the workouts accordingly. As I’ve discussed earlier, I’m a much stronger swimmer than I am cyclist or runner so I have skipped a few pool workouts but am feeling as fit in the water as I have in probably 8 years. I use https://www.swimdojo.com/ for all of my workouts and it has been very beneficial this training cycle. I found that without structured workouts I have trouble sticking to the distance I need as well as hitting efforts and times I should to improve fitness. On my bike, I’ve got all of my gear to hold gels, water bottles, and aero bars (though I’ll only use them in Kona into a headwind most likely). I’m considering getting another bike fit before then and now and if I’m going to pull the trigger it needs to be soon. For the run, I have ditched my insoles that I touted a few weeks back. I went to UK’s bio-motion lab to have my gait analyzed and there was not significant benefit noticeable with the insole in versus the original insole so I chose the squishy, original insole. Now, I’ve just got to keep grinding to continue to improve my fitness. This upcoming weekend will feature the Murky Mile, an open water swim competition in Cave Run Lake so I’ll go down there and get an iron distance swim of 2.4 miles in and then am planning on riding back to Lexington, which should be around 90 miles or so. Should be a nice weekend of training again. God bless my wife for putting up with all this. It should be back to normal in a couple months.

Got in the long run yesterday and celebrated with festival food and a couple libations. Had a great day at Railbird.

8-12-2019

Feeling excited after coming off of another good training week. After last week’s race I made sure to add bottle cages so I don’t have to worry about hydration issues again and with two cages behind my seat and the addition of some stubby aero bars my bike is looking ready for the apocalypse. I had a solid week last week. Same schedule as usual; 3 swims, 3 rides, and 3 runs. I got 65 miles on the bike on Saturday and am not having any discomfort in the saddle like I had last Ironman training cycle. Since then I’ve changed my seat and handle bars. I got a nice 13 mile run in yesterday morning with my buddy Jim, and ready to keep things rolling. This would normally be a recovery week with a shorter ride and run over the weekend but I think I’m going to go to Louisville and race an Olympic tri instead. In addition to all the training this weekend, I was lucky enough to be invited to a soft opening for Appollo Pizza’s new Lexington location and it is incredible. Their pizza is always great, but their space in Meadowthorpe is incredible too. I highly recommend it. On Saturday, Chrissie and I went out to celebrate her birthday. If you see her on Thursday, throw her some good vibes. And, on Sunday Chrissie and I joined Cole and Mark for the 1st Railbird Festival at Keeneland. The festival seemed to be very well run and attended. I had a great time and can only hope this year was the first annual! We are truly lucky to have grandparents who are always willing to come and watch Waller while we have little escapades. Anyway, back to a day of rest, work, and planning. Adios!

Lake Logan, NC. Had a nice weekend racing. This was my all time favorite open-water swim.

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