Category Archives: Ironman Triathlon

Looking forward to 2015

Training Plan

2014 is pretty much “in the books” and while there were lots of great things that happened, I did not make the progress that I wanted towards completion of my first Ironman Triathlon.

In fact, I haven’t run for weeks now which is not a good sign.  OK, I’ve done some aggressive yardwork that might be considered “cross training” but nothing that helped that much in the Ironman department.

2015 will be different.

6 month Ironman Training PlanFor one thing, my financial situation will be changing.  I have a number of different “opportunities” or changes of direction which should make it easier financially and consequently easier to find time to train for an Ironman.  If 2014 taught me anything it is that I need to rearrange my business life!

I’ve also signed up for the Boston Buildup Series which is a series of races which go from 10K to 25K over the course of a couple months in increments of 5K per race.  I’ve done them in the past and while some of the winter races are VERY COLD, I’ve found that having a race on my schedule makes me much more likely to do the runs to support them.

2015 Training Plan (so far):

Sunday Long Runs…

This page will be updated as the plan comes together…

Dec. 21 – local long run – 4 mile loop (or 5K race?)

Dec. 28 local long run – 6 mile loop

Jan.  4th Boston Buildup Series – 10K, Norwalk, CT

Jan. 11th

Jan. 18th Boston Buildup Series – 15K, Ridgefield, CT

Jan. 25th

Feb.  1st

Feb. 8th  Boston Buildup Series – 20K, Fairfield, CT

Feb. 15th

Feb. 22nd

Mar. 1  Boston Buildup Series – 25K, Norwalk, CT

Mar. 8th

Mar. 15th

Mar. 22nd

Mar. 29th Danbury Half Marathon (13.1 miles), Danbury, CT

Apr. 5th

Apr. 12th

Apr. 19th

Apr. 26th

May 3rd, Redding Half Marathon, Redding, CT

May 10th,

May 17th,

May 24th,

May 31st

Jun 7th,

Jun 14th

Jun 21st

Jun 28th,

Jul 5th,

Jul 12th,

Jul 19th,

Jul 26th,

Aug 2nd

Aug 9th,

Aug 16th,

Aug 23rd,

Aug 30th,

Sep 6th,

Sep 13th

Sep 20th

Sep 27th

Oct 4th

Oct 11th

Oct 18th

Oct 25th

Nov 1st

Nov 8th

Nov 15th

Nov 22nd

Nov 29th

Dec

Dec

Dec

Dec

 

I also found this 6 month training schedule for my first Ironman race and my plan is to sign up for a race this year, complete at least one (maybe two) marathons this year and prepare for the BIG race in 2016.

Wish me luck !

What do you have planned for 2015 athletically (or otherwise)?

I would love to hear what you have planned as well as any ideas you might have that could “kick me in the butt” a little bit.  I’m happy to hold you accountable to your goals as well… just leave them in the comments below !

<-----[ Guest Post ]-----> You ARE good enough – by Doug Comstock

Clydesdale, Ironman Triathlon,

1621904_10204360068654352_2522504863274472563_nThe following is reprinted from Doug’s post on Facebook, Oct. 2014

I arrived at the Kona Ironman HQ office for the mandatory athlete check-in two weeks prior to the actual World Championship Triathlon in October of 1993.

I was greeted by a nice enough fellow that quickly asked me; “What division are you in?”

To which I replied “I don’t know”.

I couldn’t help but notice that he scanned me from head to toe. I have to confess it was a little disconcerting having him gawk at my clean shaven legs.

He quickly asked “How much do you weigh?”

To which I responded “240 pounds”

1016594_10204360072694453_4383170939813621392_nWith a snicker on his face he said; “Oh, you’re a CLYDESDALE!”

Its important to understand….

The Hawaii Ironman Triathlon is recognized as the pinnacle of all Ironman races in the world. A race reserved for the best of the best. It is a race intended for THROUGHBREDS and here I was a freaking CLYDESDALE!

For me, being a “CLYDESDALE” was kind of like the Ironman’s way of saying; “YOU DON’T BELONG HERE” in a nice sort of way.

It hit me like a ton of bricks. What he said was, “You’re a Clydesdale”. What I heard was…

”YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH!” …I wanted to quit. I wanted to go home, but I didn’t.

How familiar I was with that feeling of not being good enough. A feeling first introduced to me by my third grade teacher at Cherry Brook School eons before.

Once again it was not so much by what she said as much as what I heard.

YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH!

I have come to understand that each of us has our own version of not being “good enough”. It might be delivered to us in the form of other words like not being “young, pretty, fast, smart, slim, educated, experienced or whatever” enough.

It is not a question on whether that feeling will come to each of us; the question is what we will do when it does. It’s can be a scary time and place.

I have come to understand one thing in life. We can back down at those times we don’t feel that we belong; those times we feel that we are not good enough, or we can advance in the direction of our fears.

Advance you must as your best life is often waiting just beyond your greatest fears.

I completed the race that year. I even returned to Hawaii to race again two years later. That year, 1995, the legendary head winds on the Queen “K” Highway averaged 25 mph with gusts to 70 mph. 25 Athletes were blown off their bikes that day and couldn’t finish the race.

Not one of them was a Clydesdale.

Yes…you ARE good enough!

Ironman update July 2014

Ironman Triathlon, Training Tips, ,

In case you are wondering how the Ironman training has been going in July 2014, here is a quick update.  After I did a long run of about 6 miles at the end of June, for some reason, my running habit dried up. Not exactly sure why.  I wasn’t exceptionally sore after that long run.  As a matter of fact, the run was nothing special, except for the fact that it was the first time this year that I did my 6 mile loop.

Whatever the reason, I saw the picture below on Facebook this morning and it got my head back in the Ironman WishBuilder game … so today I will definitely go for a run.

Ironman Triathlon Wont Train For Itself

 

The Real Ironman Challenge…

What do you do to combat boredom during training?  How do you get yourself “out the door” consistently?  I am sure I CAN do it… I need to “just do it”.  Maybe a sponsorship from Nike is the answer. 😉

 

Ironman – Action List page 1

Action Steps, Founder Project, Ironman Triathlon

Ironman-page1

This is the start of the brainstorming of an Action List for my Ironman project.  I am using TheWishBuilder.com process and I will us this blog to let you know what I learn along the way.  I will also post my action steps for your review.

Here is a picture of the first page of actions that I came up with for my Ironman project using TheWishBuilder.com process.

Commentary

I noticed immediately that there were some actions that will need to be expanded into smaller steps such as an action step for each workout.  I will be marking them as I go along.

I also found that when I started to write an action description that included the word “and” that I was probably better off breaking it into two different actions.

 

What’s next?

I set up my bulletin board and calendar in my bedroom so that it will be the first thing I see in the morning and the last thing I see at night.  I will post a picture of it if anyone is interested.

More Action List pages will follow on this blog along with pictures of some of the pages / notes I took as part of completing an action.  (Still need to get my 1000 sheets of paper so I can fold some cranes for the actions I’ve already finished!)

 

I need your help

As you follow my creation of the Action Steps (they will be posted on this blog) you may see something that I’m missing.  Please leave a comment with your ideas.  Or, if you can help me accomplish an action step, such as any of the ones around Sponsors, please let me know as well.

TheWishBuilder community  is stronger together than any one of us are alone.  Your support, encouragement and ideas are definitely appreciated and if you believe in karma, your good deeds will come back to you !

 

Ironman – WishList

Decision Time, Founder Project, Ironman Triathlon, Wishlist

IM-Wishlist

The first part of TheWishBuilder process is to figure out your goal or wish.  Since most adults aren’t experienced “wishers”, I’ve found it helpful to write out your complete wishlist and then decide what is the single wish where you want to focus your attention.

The key when making your wishlist is to not hold anything back.  Write down everything that you can think of that you might want or do or… whatever.  Some say that “the sky is the limit” but now that space travel is being privatized, are there really any limits?

For my project using TheWishBuilder process, I thought about what I could wish for that would give me personal gratification.  What would provide a legacy for me after I was gone.  How might I have an impact on the world?

On the more mundane side of things I thought about how I might satisfy or improve on the basics … food, health, money.

What could I wish for that would be Life Changing?  What “Once-in-a-lifetime events did I want to experience?  Who did I want to experience them with?

I explored other occupations which I might enjoy and that might challenge me to achieve more.

I thought about what I wanted to create in my life and, more importantly, with my life.  We all have a limited number of minutes and we have to make the most of what we are given.

Decision Time …

After listing all the wishes in the picture above, it was time to make a decision.  Which would be my ONE WISH… Completing an Ironman Triathlon !  2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and a 26.2 mile marathon… and the pinnacle Ironman race is the World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, so that is my wish.

Tune in to future blog posts to see how my mental focus training (step 2 of TheWishBuilder process) and my action plan (step 3) come together.

Why ONE WISH?

The key to getting your wish is to focus on a single outcome so nothing will get in the way of your efforts to achieve it.  Like I say, “If you want all, you get none.  Choosing one gets it done.”

Why THIS one wish?

That’s an even better question.  If I was smart, I would concentrate on making a million dollars and I am sure my bank account would be better for it, but I chose this wish for two reasons.  First, I wanted to elevate the importance of my physical health for quite a while.  I used to run marathons years ago (mostly walked them, really) and while I have improved on my eating habits recently, I still needed to exercise more consistently.  Plus, I know me… if there is a race on the calendar, I am much more likely to get out there and put in the miles.

My second reason for choosing to complete an Ironman Triathlon is to see if I could actually follow through with TheWishBuilder process in its entirety given that I knew there would be financial and potentially health obstacles in the way.   Could I take something that I was passionate about [Hearing the words as I cross the finish line, “Dave Wheeler, You Are An Ironman!”] and still keep the rest of my life on track?  It seems like it will be a good test for the process don’t you think?

 

If you liked what you read in this post, please sign up for our email list with the form below.   (* indicates required fields)