Training plan for next year

I am really making an effort at putting together a plan for next year.  I have to admit to feeling like I pretty much "phoned in" Ironman this year.  I didn't swim much at all.  I rode a decent amount (especially long rides at the end) but my training lacked a focus on speed and strength.  Running was ok but not great.  Like the rides I think did every long run I think except for the heat and humidity induced walking in Cabo San Lucas but I skipped a number of weekly speed workouts.  Strength training was non-existant as was stretching.
How did I ever finish the race?
So here are my training goals (this is a work in process)...
Bike - Long base ride Saturday with Monday and Wednesday intervals and Thursday threshold rides.  These will be done as rides to work usually so there will be some base training in the afternoon.  Now honestly I skip at least one of these per week but the rides home make up for it.  Summers here are a bear to ride home in but if you don't take a lot of time off you get used to it quick.  Although it is hot the ride in is generally OK even in the Summer months here.  I can clean up pretty well with a towel or if I get to the gym to swim that works as well.
Run - Long base runs on Sunday with Tuesday interval and Friday threshold runs.  I have written extensively about the benefits of ice baths and let me say that my advocacy of these has not waivered.  Pretty much I think ice baths have prevented injury to me for the past 4 months.  Lately I've been doing my weekday runs on a treadmill.  I enjoy it a lot and the weather here seems cold, although I realize that's a relative term to those of you in Alaska.
Swim - Monday threshold; Wednesday long, slow, and steady; Friday interval. 
Are you sensing a patter here.  This isn't rocket science.
Joe Friel's latest work suggests that I should swap the Saturday and Sunday.  Run on Saturday and ride on Sunday.  Something to do with acute v. chronic fatigue.  I guess that the long ride that you do on Saturday beats up your legs a lot and so you don't get the best possible workout on your Sunday run because you aren't fresh enough.  I think my biggest hurdle here would be that I would miss a lot of church on Sunday and that wouldn't fly with Katie.  Plus, nobody else that I know rides on Sunday.  Look around, you see more runners on Sunday and more riders on Saturday.
My big concern here is swimming.  This should be the easy one and here's where I lack will power.  I belong to a gym right by the office so it's no big deal to go out at lunch and grab a swim but inevitabally I end up getting Chinese food with everyone instead which explains my 1:43 swim time this year.
Ideally this is what a week would look like:
Monday - Ride in early and grab a swim and shower at the gym before work or swim at lunch.  Ride home.
Tuesday - Run before work hit the weights after work.
Wednesday - Ride in early and grab a swim and shower at the gym before work or swim at lunch.  Ride home.

Thursday - Drive to Mike's and ride in early with him and grab a swim and shower at the gym before work or swim at lunch.  Leave my bike at Mike's house.
Friday - Run to Mike's then drive in with him and ride my bike home and hit the weights after I get home.
Saturday - Long ride.
Sunday - Long run. 
What this plan is really designed to do is get me as much time as I can training without sacrificing any family or work time.  Most of the summer even my long rides get me home by noon and if I get out of the house early enough I am home from my long run before anyone even wakes up.
Anyway that's the plan.  It's not very flexible though and I end up missing workouts when something goes wrong like having to drive on a ride day because of a meeting.  Days like that I just have to focus on getting out of bed early and getting a ride in before work.  It's not impossible, I just have to make it happen.

Back to working out?

Saturday I went out for a 3 hour ride with Doug.  Pretty cold outside.  Managed to get in 50 or so and felt great.  I'm going to try and get a couple rides in to work this week.
Sunday I ran 12.5 easy with Keith.  He's got a 1/2 Marathon coming up on January 17th.  He should get through it no problem.
Funny thing.  Although I know it's stupid for me to look at my weight every day for changes I do.  Myfatsecret.com has a very nice tool which integrates with my phone to help me track my daily weight.  It also would track calories burned and eaten if I used such a tool.  Anyway, even though for the past week or so I have been rather diligent about my exercise my weight has been gradually creeping up.
Then I went out to lunch and had the italian beef & sausage combo at Lukes.  Go figure.

Ken's Christmas Present

Ken got this pretty cool 7' tall water powered rocket.  We took it to the park today and shot it off a few times.  It really was fun and he was excited out of his mind.

Santa Barbara Marathon

Congratulations to my good friends Marty and Deborah Lynch for posting a spectacular 5:44:47 time in the Santa Barbara Marathon on December 6!

Treadmill running

I got home last night and Katie wasn't home.  She went to the Nutcracker with Paige and Ken.  I decided to get a run it and I decided to do it on the treadmill.  Yesterday's workout was 15 min warmup, 4 x 100 yd sprints with 1 minute breaks between followed by 4 x 7 min level 5 intervals with 3 minute recoveries and a 7 minute cool down.
The TV in the office/workout room doesn't have the sattellite hooked up to it.  I looked around and there was nothing good on DVD in the house.  I grabbed my computer to watch The International, which I ripped to the hard drive but my speakers and headphones aren't working.

I grabbed my phone, a Google Eris and I was going to go out and run when I realized that I had a television application on it.  Pretty cool.  The run took about 67 minutes and I watched an entire vintage episode of Star Trek. 
Pretty sweet phone.  Great run.

Escape from Alcatraz.....take 3

I seem to have pretty good luck in this lottery.  I've gotten drawn 3 out of 4 years.
They moved the race up from late June to early May.  I figure I have three more weeks of training and then I have my hernia surgery on January 6.  If I take it easy and pretty much write January off the list that leaves me with February, March, and April to train for that swim and then 1/2 IM Florida is 2 weeks after that on the 16th.
I think we're going to avoid a huge family trip this year up to SF even though we enjoyed it each time.  I'll just zip up there for 2 days or so.
I really want to do this swim better.  I've said that each time but if I don't train for this, well, SF bay is not something you do very well in if you aren't prepared.  They say it's 1.5 miles but I don't really think it was that far but it is way, way, WAY tougher than the 2.4 IM swim.

Sort of back into it.

My Brother Keith and his wife Vicki are doing the PF Changs 1/2 marathon.  Doug's doing the full and going for a Boston qualifier.
Sunday I ran 10 miles with Keith.  Actually it's 1/2 mile to and from his house so I ended up with 11.  We went slow and steady down Cave Creek to Pinnacle Peak.  He's in fine shape and should do the 1/2 without problem.  He'd be amazed how much fitter he'd be if he'd quit smoking!  Maybe he'll kick it up to a full after this.
Afterwards I went and stood in my pool.  I can't imaging how cold it is.  It really can't be very cold because it's just not that cold here yet, even at night.  But it seemed very cold and it's been a long time since I took an ice bath.  I couldn't stand it very long.  This morning my leg muscles start hurting right where the cold water stopped touching.  Ice baths are magic!

The last week in review

As you may have read, the day before the race I felt a little head cold coming on.  I complained a little then but believe me, I was fortuneate that I didn't get the cold a few days earlier because by Thanksgiving and then the whole week after I was a real mess.  I'm just now feeling like I am over it.  I still have a lingering intermitant cough that's pretty productive.  I got up this morning around 5:45.  I think it's getting to be about that time that I have to tell myself to get off my butt in the morning.

GPS Found!

It was under my sink in my bathroom.  I must have taken it off after the race Sunday night.  I think the cleaning lady came over Monday or Tuesday and stuck it in a bag and threw it under the sink.

Good news.

GPS

I think I lost my Garmin after the race last Saturday.  Talk about sucky!!

I saw a bunch of people with the new 310XT at the race.  I'm interested in it but it seems awfully pricey at $400 with the HR monitor.  I think Garmin has a $50 rebate right now and a few stores at which I shop offer 10% back so that gets it close to a more manageable $300.  Still, that's a lot when I can find a replacement 301 for $150.

The two cool things about the 310 are that it is waterproof (which longtime followers will remember I discovered was untrue of the 301) and that it has 20 hours of battery life.  Downside is that the reviews all say that the GPS doesn't work underwater.  And, how often am I out training for 20 hours?

I was at the GARMIN store in Chicago a couple weeks ago and I saw a minature version of the 301 but I don't see it online anywhere.

Decisions....decisions.

Surgery

I scheduled my hernia surgery (finally) for January 6.

Getting better

I'm feeling a whole lot better.  I anticipate being 100% by Saturday.

This is nice because I'm being forced to really, completely, utterly rest right now.  I really feel like this is something that I need, in so many different ways.

My pattern over the past several years has been to just turn into a couch potato.  After April 2007 IM my shins were really messed up and I didn't run at all until June 24th at Alcatraz.  I promptly hurt them again training too hard and didn't run after that until after the April 2008 IM.

I stayed pretty healthy after that and with the help of Tim over at Windhawk (the stretching gurus) I was able to train running and put together a decent marathon time at the November 2008 IMAZ.

6 days after the race I was at the ASU/UCLA game and I twisted the crap out of my ankle.  I don't think it is completely healed to this day.  That pretty much reduced my training for almost 6 months.

So anyway, I'm really hoping that this cold will pass and that I'll be able to get back to some comfortable fun running soon.  Of course I am then finally going to have my hernia operated on early into the new year.  That will take me out for a couple weeks.

I'm signed up for Ironman Florida 70.3 in May.  This will be my first 1/2 distance race.  For those new to the blog IM 2007 was my first triathlon.  I sent in my lottery application for Alcatraz.  They moved that race to May 2.  I'll keep you posted.

Beat to death (at least that's what it feels like)

I got done with the race and I haven't been able to kick this head cold.  We rode our bikes to work last Tuesday and I felt like I was going to die the entire time.

I'm really wiped out right now.

More later.  I hope I remembered to put beer in the fridge last night.