6 months in, 6 months to go (Sept. 2008)

-Taken from a note I wrote September 7, 2008.

At some point mid January, around the time I was going crazy and depressed because of my back I decided it was time to get on with life and train for Ironman. Looking back it seems rather impulsive to sign up for a race in a year that would take no less than 10 hours and I would have to travel to the other side of the world when I could barely make my way to class without being in pain.
I've said for a long time I wanted to finish an ironman, and doing one before I graduated was a big goal of mine. Well..... here I am 6 months to the day till I race IM New Zealand (3.8 km swim, 180 km bike, and 42.2 km bike) and 8 months before I graduate.

Training comments: training from March to May was going really well. Got several high volume weeks of base training in with lots of good long (+150km ) rides in. Running came along as it should; orthotics have kept me injury free and thanks to Tara I got some really good high intensity runs in. Swimming was what I want. This year I will maintain base line fitness in the pool; if I can exit the water comfortably holding 1:16/100 I am more than fine. Really there is no need to be faster than that. Training June to Present was fragmented, and challenging. I found with traveling around most of my great training happened in 3 or 4 day macrocycles with little active recovery on the rest days. Priorities were not in the right place, and felt that on the bike and in the pool I was using my base to get me through. Also, got shin splints 2 months ago and have been trying to get more proficient at running while rehabbing. Also not an ideal circumstance.

Am scheduled to do lab testing the week after this race to re-establish training zones for the next 3 months. And hopefully see some mild improvements in aerobic threshold and VO2 max from last set of lab work done in May.
Training this fall/winter will look like this: swimming with UBC club. bike: I traded in my trainer and other extras for a computrainer so hoping to log some solid hours into my legs (will need to find a new tv show to watch; I heard entourage is good). Run: lots of brick work but also run with run group to break the monotony. Am thinking about a training camp from Dec 26th to Jan 7 in San Antonio, Texas to get some dry and warm training in.

Race day is march 7am Saturday March 7th New Zealand time. Goal time: 10:00 (weather permitting) which based on previous years should qualify me for world champs in Kona