We start at the beginning, in October 2008. It was the weekend of the Twin Cities Marathon, and Stu, Michelle and I were enjoying breakfast in downtown Minneapolis. We had all signed up to race in the inaugural Ironman 70.3 in New Orleans, LA. You see, I was now a part of Team Evotri, and the get-together race was in Charlie's back yard. So the team decided that what better way to meet up with Charlie and do a race at the same time. April 5th is late enough, no? Anyways, getting back to breakfast, Stu and his big mouth offered a wager between him and me. Just some motivation to get through the winter training doldrums. It was now on.
Then, around Halloween, Stu, I and professional triathlete Will Smith sat down for lunch at The Great Dane. We discussed my athletic history so that Will could put together a plan for me to prepare for the race properly. Will Smith was also sponsored by several of the same companies and as a gesture of good faith, offered to help me train. Now I had motivation and guidance for the race, all I needed was some equipment, expected to arrive in January.
In the interim, Will's workouts helped build my base. I was recovering from a disastrous finish at the Twin Cities Marathon, so running was slow and easy. Since the days were getting shorter and colder, I resigned myself to rides in the basement. To pass the time and monotony, I expanded my Netflix subscription and caught all the episodes of The Wire. As the winter drew on, I worked my way through Baltimore, from the streets, to the docks, to Hamsterdam, through the schools and finally the media; all five seasons of some of the best television ever. Sprinkled in were trips New York to see what was happening at 30 Rock, and Madison Avenue in the late 1950s via Mad Men. Throw in a bunch of other movies and you have one heavily used Netflix account. All told, I spent over 92 hours on my bike in the basement in front of the television between November and March.
As part of the Evotri sponsorship, my BMC bike was supposed to arrive in January, but BMC decided to go in a different direction and we had to scramble a bit to get me a matching frame. One finally came my way, and then so did all the other goodies. It took a bit, but I finally got all the parts and the bike fully assembled and ready for a bike fitting one week before we left for New Orleans.
While I was busy watching TV on my bike, my run bounced back earlier than expected. That allowed me to participate in weekly speed sessions with some of Madison's elite runners and triathletes. All of whom where much faster than me, but were also supportive and happy to have me. I also regularly met a few of them on Sunday mornings for runs around the Arboretum. Again, most were faster, but it was good to get pushed and keep my training moving forward. All in all I ran for more than 40 hours, covering 286 miles.
My time in the pool varied from week to week, mostly depending on my work schedule. As swimming is my strength, that's usually the first to go if things get hectic. I missed the annual high school alumni meet due to a cold, so I no real way to gauge my swim fitness. There was one swim, a continuous 2000 yard swim that I finished in twenty-five and a half minutes and that was all. That was a good sign, but without anything else to back it up, I didn't know how I would react to open water, especially one with lots of waves. However, I did get some distance in; since November, I swam over 111,000 yards, or more than 63 miles in the pool.
And then, seemingly out of nowhere, it was late March. The "spring" date of April 5th didn't seem so late any more. There was still snow on the ground, and even more in the forecast. There would be no rides outside, let alone rides on the new BMC. I would have to rely on the precise bike fit and the flat terrain of New Orleans to mimic my indoor rides. And what about the heat? Without a sauna, there would be no way to train in similar conditions. We would just have to go there and find out.
Leave a comment