Ironman Coeur d'Alene

Well, the day is nearly here. Race start is 7am Sunday. The trip out was OK. Unfortunately we had a pet get a little sick earlier in the week so things were a little frantic. The house I rented out in Hayden Lake area is great. Plenty of room for the family. And let's talk about the important stuff...the fridge is packed of beer and food for Sunday night! I had the pleasure of meeting my coach and his wife for dinner last night. Tonight I'll consume a ton of spaghetti and then Saturday night is my typical pizza night! I always eat pizza the night before my races.

So between now and Sunday morning I'll be doing a lot of relaxing and trying to keep my feet up. We have a short workout tomorrow morning prior to racking the bike and then it will be chill time back up at the house. In and out when it comes to the Ironman scene. I have no desire to hang around the area longer than needed. It just gets the nerves going too much. Instead I'll come home, watch a movie or two and simply relax.

Health - I feel pretty darn good going into the event. My asthma appears to be under control. I was a little tight when starting my run today but was able to maintain 7-7:30 pace at 140-145 heart rate so that made me feel real good about my asthma. Hopefully everything will be in balance on race day and all I'll have to battle is the course and myself. Would be nice not to have to battle asthma issue for once in a race!

Finally, the weather. It appears like it will be around 70 on race day with sun. Today was pretty cold. The swim course this morning was cold as well. The water was cold and choppy. People were freaking out. I hope it is just as choppy come Sunday. As a good swimmer, the chop is good for me. That being said, I hope it will be a little warmer than expected for the bike. As long as it's not too windy, it will warm up because the sun will be out. And then there is the run. Man, I can't wait for the run. Thanks for all the support (emails, texts and phone calls I've received from everyone). I can't wait to get after it Sunday!

Bib number is 1142 for those that want to follow on Ironman.com on race day.

-T

Final week

IMCDA is now just one week away. It seems like it has taken forever to get to this final week! My preparations have been great. I have recovered well from that bug I had and hope to be close to 100% for race day. Wahoo!! I've been focusing on resting and recovering this past week and it all seems to be coming together well. I have felt strong in all 3 disciplines. Beyond triathlon, I've been preparing for our vacation after. Glacier National Park, here we come! So what am I most concerned about in regards to the vacation? Beer and meats, duh! Seriously though, I will have a cooler filled with spirits (with plenty more ready to enter the cooler as needed) and a cooler filled with cuts of meats for some fine dining by the campfire.

After a long few months of watching my nutrition so closely, it will be nice to relax in a beautiful part of our country after Ironman and not concern myself with nutrition for a week :) The weather is looking great and we are going early enough that we should have our pick of campsites! I haven't looked forward to a vacation this much in some time. More than anything, I think that I'm just excited to spend some time simply hanging with my wife. Work and training has been so time consuming the past 4 to 5 months that we need some chill time.

Well, not much else to report at this point. I'm off for a short run soon and then will be cleaning up my bike and finishing my packing for the race and vacation. My speed concept is totally race ready with my race wheels now on. The machine looks amazing. I'll post some pics. After much debate, I decided to go with my 808 Firecrest rear as opposed to my Rolf disc. This is for many reasons, but primarily because the 808 has proven to be incredibly aero (close to the disc), is much lighter (whether mental or not I can feel this on the hills), and accelerates better than the disc (think corners and after hills, all of which CDA has plenty of). So I'll be running a 58m front wheel and the 808 rear. Later today I will be working out how to fit my spare tubular and tools under my seat. That should be fun!

OK, well thanks for checking in. Looking forward to getting out to Idaho and getting this race underway!

-T

Taper

Well, incredibly Ironman CDA is just over a week away. Seems crazy. I mean, don't get me wrong, I am so happy we are finally nearing the date...but it seems like it was just yesterday that I was cursing the short December days wishing for summer to hurry up and get here. So here we are. I've been getting a lot of questions regarding what the last few weeks looks like for me heading into an Ironman so I thought I would take a minute to explain what I do. First and foremost, my plan seems to change slightly every year and each race I taper for based on past experience and current conditioning and health. This year, the plan relies a lot on my coach's plan. Muddy has me dialed this season and I'm not about to back away from his insight leading into the race.

So, without giving too much away (that's why I pay the guy after all!), here is the gist of my plan. The two weeks leading into the race are about rest, recovery, yet remaining sharp. I have rested too much previously and have been flat on race day. I have not rested enough and have been tired on race day. This year we are after the perfect balance. So we start by resting more than normal and then resuming normal interval training 1.5 weeks out. We will then rest more and take this weekend very easy before getting back to short and fast workouts next week leading into the race. I will stay active every day leading into the race outside of my travel day. Part of this is physical and part is mental. Bottom line, when you are accustomed to putting in hours a day of training, your body and mind crave some sort of activity most days. Especially when you start to rest because you start to feel really good. What we need to avoid during these periods is for the body to enter into full recovery state.

The whole idea of a taper for a full Ironman distance triathlon is still a work in progress among most you ask. Many would tell you just back off a little each week. Others will insist that you must rest and then when you are done resting you must rest some more. The truth, at least for me, lies in the middle. You must allow the body to recuperate, but not allow enough rest that it starts into deep recovery. This will railroad your chances for a solid race. Meanwhile, if you don't rest enough, you run the risk of not allowing your muscles and energy systems to recover properly from the big blocks you put them through. So what is a guy to do? Heck, I got Muddy. I could care less about my taper this year. It's such a nice feeling. I just trust this guy. I also trust myself. I know if I'm not feeling right I will speak up and we will make adjustments. But at this point folks, the hay is in the barn. The only real danger you run beyond resting too much (hard to do really) is to train too hard (easy to do).

So, I'm getting excited for the trip. I've prepared for some time for this opportunity and hope to enter the race healthy for once (knocking on wood currently). I truly appreciate all the support and interest from everyone. More soon.
-T

Patience

Ironman racing is all about patience. Whether training, recovery, or the actual race, patience is key. Having patience can be a challenge. There are times in training when you feel like you need to push beyond what you should. You follow your schedule despite knowing you need to back off. You train while sick or injured. You become a slave to the philosophy that more is better. This is when you must exercise patience. In order to ascend to a certain level in triathlon, especially long course triathlon, you must take some risks. You must, at times, push your body to the edge in training. But once you get there, you must exercise patience and know when to back off.

This year, I feel like I've had to be more patient than ever before. I have chronic sinusitis as well as asthma. I'm on more medication than anyone should be on, especially a healthy triathlete. But, that's my life. And I realize it and have accepted it. In fact, what normally happens to me is I get sick prior to big events. Not like a cold mind you, but anytime I get a cold or the sniffles or whatever, it translates into a sinus infection and an asthma flare up. Hence, the common medical tent story. In fact, I have raced to date: 2 Ironmans, 3 half Ironmans, and dozens of Olympic triathlons. I have never raced a half Iron or longer while healthy. That's 5 for 5 when it comes to being sick. So this year was going to be different! I started seeing specialists. All the time it felt like. I went through all kinds of tests, exams, and appointments. Ultimately it was decided that I did indeed have some bad nasal passageways which, when my immune system was low, were allowing/contributing to sinus infections. Which in turn would compromise my asthma. After IMCDA, I will be having a second surgery to hopefully correct this. Or at least make it better.

So fast forward to this past week. I was finishing my big build. I was feeling pretty good until about a week ago. And then it started. I was feeling run down. My sinus specialist had called in a course of antibiotics that I was supposed to take once I started to taper (the point at which most people contract colds leading into endurance events). But here it was, over a week from taper and I could feel it coming. What was going on? I thought about the patience. Just be patient Yates, you are over thinking it. I slept on it. Still felt run down the next day. Overly tired. I started going through my old training logs and journals and realized something. I don't get sick because of the taper, I get sick prior to the taper! I get sick when I'm putting out the most volume and the stress and anxiety of the race is starting to build!! Damn, how had I missed that all this time? I immediately started on the course of antibiotics. Which was good, because that weekend (last weekend) I picked up some kind of cold. Shit.

I was protected right? I tried to be patient and let this thing take care of itself. But after an off day on Monday, I wasn't feeling much better on Tuesday. And come Wednesday I was devastated. I now had a sore throat and was still tired. I was watching my season and goals fall by the familiar sickness wayside. I was struggling to make it through the day I was so depressed. I was trying to stay positive, but couldn't. All the hard work down the drain. And then I called my Dad. He is a doc, so he immediately handled me like a patient and not a son. He gave me orders of who to call. What to ask, what to say, and ultimately he reassured me that we would get through it. I then talked with my wife. And she helped me get even more positive. I was quickly in contact with my sinus doc. After an exam, I was reassured that I hadn't developed a sinus infection! Most likely because I got started on those antibiotics when I did. I had most likely caught some of this viral crap that was going around. I almost hugged him right there.

So, now we are just over two weeks away from the race. If I had to guess, I'm about 80%, maybe 85% going into this weekend. My asthma isn't great, but it will get better every day without having to fight a sinus infection. What did I learn from all this? You must have patience when dealing with Ironman training and racing. You also must learn from the past. History is there to be studied, not dismissed. And sometimes, shit is going to happen. You can either hang your head (like I did for part of that day) or you can develop a plan to overcome. As I think about the upcoming race, I'm just damn happy I will have an opportunity to toe the line. And hopefully do it as close to healthy as this poor schmuck can get :) Thank you to everyone that was sending me positive vibes over the past week. It helped. 2 more weeks. And then it's on.

-T

Final touches

Well, the last big volume weeks are now behind me. The process of finishing the preparation for Ironman Couer d'Alene has begun. It's funny, I've been so damn busy the last 6 months I still feel like the race is months away. The nice thing is...it's not. It's just over 3 weeks away! So this week Muddy and I backed off the volume and intensity a little which was nice after we really finished last week with a bang. I have another relatively long ride this weekend and then my final long run this Sunday. The week after the foot goes back on the gas with high intensity and then we taper. It is really amazing how fast the time has flown by.

So what goes into these last few weeks? Well, whenever I have a big race coming up I concentrate on my plans. In triathlon you need a plan. At least I do. And my plans need to have back up plans. Ultimately you are required to make "on the course" decisions (especially in long course racing), but you need to have a plan to accommodate the change. Here is an example: I have a very defined nutrition plan. Let's say for whatever reason I'm not taking the calories in properly. Well, you can't race without calories. So, I have an A and B plan to survive. Trying different food, more sports drink, less water, backing off the heart rate to help the digestion, etc, etc. I have pace and heart rate goals for both the bike and the swim. What happens if the heart rate is too elevated on the bike? How do you react. Keep it rolling or back off? I have a plan depending on when in the race this potentially happens.

Why do I concentrate so much on the what ifs? Because, 1) what else are you going to think about when you are training so much :) and 2) this race is important...I want to be prepared for anything. And most importantly, I want to truly enjoy this race. If I know that I have a well thought out game plan then it's much easier for me to go out and simply race.

Speaking of racing. This will be my return to racing in a way. Two years ago I was coming off a pretty good year. I had a couple top 3 age group performances at Olympic distance and had debuted with a 5:01 at the half iron distance while being sick. So going into that summer I was feeling good. I did a tune up race a few months before Ironman Arizona after having a disappointing start to the year (sick again...seeing a pattern?). At this Olympic tune up race (it was a small, local field), I led out of the water and set out onto the two loop bike course. I remember it was raining buckets out there so I had to take the cornering easy, etc. But I remember the main competition that day was this ex pro cyclist. He finally caught me at the halfway mark of the bike, but I had a decent bike and gutted out a tough run for third overall. This was at the end of a large training block and I have to say...it felt great. It felt great to be truly racing out there. Racing for podiums.

Since then I've struggled some. I have fought over-training. I have had some disappointments when it comes to races. Sure, I am proud over going sub 11 at the Ironman distance in my first two attempts. And I'm proud of running sub 4 hours at Ironman Canada this past year. But in each of those events I was capable of more. I promised myself after Canada that I would remove the work behind the sport and hire a coach so I could just enjoy training and racing again. I did. I vowed to get a proper bike fit to help eliminate all this back pain when racing. I did. And ultimately, I committed to embracing and enjoying the process of preparing for a Kona attempt. I have. As Muddy and I put the finishing touches on the preparation for IMCDA, all I can say is...I can't wait.

-T