Well, IMC is nearly here. 5 weeks left until I toe the line up in Penticton. I don't know quite what to feel as the event gets closer. I feel like my training program has been solid all year, I just haven't always been terrific at following all aspects of it. There have been so many interruptions this year compared to last year. Which is weird since last year was such a tough year. Although this year has been nuts! A job transfer, a move, becoming a land lord, working harder than I have in a long time, oh...and a little thing called a wedding that is upcoming. Actually 6 days post Ironman to be exact.
From a fitness standpoint, I feel as fit as I ever have. I think I wrote up a good training program for this year which required me to get a lot of early season cycling miles and have a solid run focus in the spring. I am disappointed about getting sick prior to Boise 70.3 as I feel like I was ready to put a very fast time on the board. The only discipline I don't feel great about is my swimming as I have neglected to make many early morning workouts due to work and life constraints, but I had the fastest split the other weekend at Hagg so I guess that is coming around as well. But none of that matters. Pentiction is what matters this year. So I have just over two more weeks of large training volume and then I will ease into a 3 week taper for the big dance.
This past week has been an interesting training week. It started out slow as I was just totally wiped out. So I backed off on one session and cancelled another. I then woke up this morning to get in my 6hr ride. I did the same course as last week. Out to and then up Larch Mountain. It takes me almost 2.5 hours to get to the bottom of Larch so it's a perfect distance away for Ironman simulation. This week my Dad met me at the bottom and he started up the mountain ahead of me. I gave him a ten minute start and then took off. I started this time at Women's Forum instead of just at the turn off to the mountain. I had a pretty good ride up. My legs were pretty sore from some intense training lately and the temperature was damn near triple digits out. My goal was to better my time from last week of 73 minutes. I was able to make it up in 70 minutes, and that included the extra 60 seconds or so it takes to get to the base from Women's Forum. I was very pleased with this effort.
So in 5 weeks I will be sitting in my rental house in Penticton wondering what tomorrow will hold. Will I be able to stay with the lead pack on the swim? Will I be able to hold back on Richter enough to bring it on the Yellow Lake climb? Will my bike and run prep be enough to allow me to run the sub 3:45 I want on the marathon? Will I have a mechanical? And on and on and on it goes. But you know what? It doesn't matter. Give it everything you have and the outcome will take care of itself. That is my motto this year. Be smart, and be strong. The rest will take care of itself. Thanks for reading and enjoy some pics from our trip up Larch below.
-T
That's Mt. Hood from Sheppard's Point.
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