Free Fitness/Wellness Seminars

I wanted to let you know that I'm giving FREE seminars at 7 Flags Fitness Center in Clive. We are located at 2100 NW 100th Street. The seminars are free to both members and non-members of 7 Flags. Participants will receive handouts from the meeting as well as a free personal training session. The sessions begin on Oct 7 at 6:00PM in Joe's Cafe, which is directly above the front desk. Below is the schedule. Feel free to contact me at mgetting@7flags.com or 515-490-4670 for more information.
Oct 7 - Nutrition: Guidelines for a Healthy Lifestyle and Weight Loss
Oct 14 – How to Effectively Lose Fat
Oct 21 - Benefits of Interval Training
Oct 28 – Benefits of Functional Training
Nov 4 - Introduction to Alternative Tools for Functional Training
Nov 11 – Aerobic Training vs Resistance Training
Nov 18 – Benefits of Personal Training
Nov 25 – Core Training
Dec 2 – Sport Specific Training
Dec 9 – Keys to Injury Prevention
Dec 16 - Being Physically Fit will help you be Mentally Fit
Dec 23 - Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation for Exercise
Jan 6 – Resistance Training Basics
Jan 13 – Keys to Fitness Success
Jan 20 – Importance of Training and Aging

Off Season Goals

Since I've been in my off-season for a while, my training as been inconsistent and nutrition has been off track. In order for me to get back on track I need goals. For the next few months this is what I've got laid out:

Off-season goals
Weekly:
4 - 30 minute weight training sessions a week
2 swim workouts a week - one long, one technique focused
2 run workouts a week - one long run and one moderate long run with hills, progression, or intervals at no more than 10K pace
2 bike workouts a week - one long and one moderately long w/ intervals/progressions

Sept - December
Focus on building up base to half-ironman conditioning
lose another 5-7 pounds
improving strength, technique in all 3 disciplines (notice I didn't say speed, just strength, technique and endurance)

Pigman Half-Ironman Report

Pre-Race

It's taken me a while to post this race report because it required me to do some introspection and self-reflection to come to terms with this race, as well as the future of this season.

The weekend started off with a wedding up in Minneapolis on Friday night. Grace, our 17 month old came down w/ something so that made Friday night a restless night for us all. Saturday morning we woke up, I went for a quick 3 mile run to get the blood flowing, and then we met some family for lunch and then headed for Cedar Rapids. I was hoping to get their in plenty of time for registration and then to try out my race wheels for the first time.

We arrived in Cedar Rapids about 6 PM, 2 hours later than I expected and rushed to get to packet pick-up before it closed. Once I had everything picked up we went to Olive Garden for a pre-race meal and then checked into our hotel at about 8:00PM.

Throughout the night Grace was restless and didn't feel good so we got about 3-4 hours of sleep.

Race Morning

When we arrived at the race site it was cold, windy, and rainy - not ideal race conditions. I got my transition set up and headed down to the beach. it was a wave start so I had about a 45 minute wait before I went off.

Swim:

The swim was a wet suit legal triangle swim. I opted not to wear a wet suit and headed out. I generally felt pretty good on the swim, but it did feel longer than 1.2 miles. Not much to say about the swim, but it was the first time swimming in the rain - not a big deal though. I was extremely disappointed in my swim time - 44 minutes.

Bike:

I was expecting nothing but good things on the bike - boy, was I in for a surprise. Keep in mind that I didn't have a chance to try out the wheels (808 front, 1080 rear Zipps) before race day. As I headed out on the course the wind was whipping me all around the road and I was forced to slow down to 12 miles an hour in fear that I would end up in the ditch. For the first 20-25 miles I was struggling to get in control of the wheels and going into a straight head wind. I was extremely frustrated and about through in the towel more than once. I held on and reached the turnaround. At this point I had figure out how to handle the wheels and headed straight back with a solid tail wind or cross wind - I had about a 20 minute negative split on the way back, but the damage was already done.

Run:

I started off on the run a bit too hard (7:45 pace), but felt OK for the first 2 miles, I knew I had to back it down so I slowed the pace to 8:45 for the next 2 miles and then, WHAM! I felt like I hit a wall. I took two electrolytes and water, but it just wasn't enough. I attribute it to lack of sleep, and a lack of fitness. I ended up finishing the race using a walk/run at 6:41 - PR'd by 5 minutes, but extremely disappointed in the race.

Finish:

Important lessons learned:

- never try anything new in a race (I preach this to my athletes - I should take my own advice)

- follow your race plan (I deviated from my plan to focus more on Oly races and was not getting in the mileage and time for the half)

- Get sleep - I think my combined 8 hours of sleep over 2 days definitely attributed to my race performance.

Based on this performance, I decided I was not ready for IM WI, so I backed out of the race. I'm dissapointed I won't be doing the race, but I think it's the right decision.

Ironman Consumption

With about 1 month away from Ironman Wisconsin, it seems that my mind has been overtaken by thoughts of Ironman - nervousness, anxiety, excitement, and a little relief that I will get a break from training once the race is over. I even have dreams about oversized salt tablets the size of hockey pucks.

So, I've got two weeks of training left, and 2 weeks of taper. This week I have a small taper for my 1/2 Ironman on Sunday which I will essentially treat as a long training day. Next weekend I intend to head up to Wisconsin to do two loops around the bike course to get a "feel" of the course. The bike is going to be challenging and technical with consistent rolling hills throughout the course.

Hopefully after next weekend I will feel a little more relaxed and ready for the race - I just don't have that feeling right now.

Big Creek Tri Dilemma

This weekend marks the 29th year for the Big Creek Tri in Polk City. Initially I signed up for this race as part of Flatland Series' special price for all 5 of their events. Herein lies the dilemma - this race lands right smack dab in the middle of my big volume training for Ironman Wisconsin (my 'A' race) - we're talking about a 100 mile ride followed by a 5 mile run off on Saturday and then a 2 hour run followed by an hour bike ride on Sunday. So, my options are:

1) Skip the big volume training and do well at Big Creek
2) Skip Big Creek and focus on big volume
3) Do both

A sensible person would probably go with either 1 or 2 - but I've convinced myself to do #3. So, I'm going to do a 1 hour ride tomorrow, open water swim on Friday - 80 mile ride with 5 mile run off on Saturday, Big Creek on Sunday, 2 hour run, 1 hour ride on Monday.

I don't anticipate setting a PR at Big Creek - not even close for that matter, but it will be fun and I'll still get my volume in for the week - best of both worlds.

RAGBRAI

When most people here RAGBRAI they think of pie and a huge party. I'm using RAGBRAI this year as a training opportunity. My plan is to head down to Indianola tonight and ride Wednesday - Saturday. Wednesday is a pretty short day (44 miles) so I'll use Wednesday as a speed day starting with a 5 mile warmup, then 7X4 miles at 90%, 1 mile recovery, 4 mile cooldown. Thursday is going to be my long day with a 100 mile ride (original route is 76 miles, with the option of doing 100 miles). This will be my LSD ride and making sure I can cover the distance - I will then follow it up w/ a 3 mile run-off. This is going to be a tough day and I'm going to try and only make a few stops along the way. The century ride will also give me an opportunity to test out my nutrition plan. Friday is a longer day 76 miles) - today I'm going to focus my time on the hills - we've got over 3,088 feet of climb. I'm going to put my energy into energy utilization on the hills and technique. After this ride I will do an 6-8 mile run-off. Saturday is a short day of 44 miles and I'll use this as a recovery ride - nice and easy with a few pick-ups to get the blood flowing.

I'm looking forward to getting out of DM for a while and enjoy the training, and time with the family and friends. For updates on my riding, check out my Facebook page.

Looking Ahead

Now that Hy-Vee is in the books it's time to re-focus training on the longer distance 'A' race - Ironman Wisconsin. Essentially, this means I will spend a lot more time on the bike. My goal over the next 4 weeks is to get comfortable riding 80 miles, with hills, at a pace of 19-20 mph. This will be accomplished with some long rides of 4+ hours on the weekends, 3 straight days of RAGBRAI in 2 weeks, and speed work of 1.5 hour rides during the week.

My other focus is the run - I will continue to build on the base that I already have and include longer runs on the weekend, and include interval, track, and speed work during the week. The goal here is to be able to comfortably run 16 miles at an 8:45 pace in the next 4 weeks.

The swim will remain the same, but adding some yardage to accommodate the longer distances of upcoming races. In reality, you don't spend much time in the water compared to the other disciplines in the water, so training should reflect that. I will also focus on speed, drills, and technique within the overall yardage.Thanks for reading