IronMan Kona:

Today is IronMan Kona, you can watch it online: http://ironmanlive.com/

I wish you all the best of luck.

-Brian

Goals and the Master Plan:

I have some current goals, and I need some new ones.
My goal that’s on the horizon is the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon in northwest Georgia, Saturday November 10th this is my next `A` race. This my first marathon and I am about a third of the way though my training, and loving every minute of it, even the running on a tread, and even though I bitch and moan about it, I’m still loving it. So this marathon thing that I am doing, its part of my master plan. My new love is triathlon, I have done two this season, and if I could manage the time I would of done one every weekend. The marathon is doing many good things for me, I am getting in better shape, I’m learning mental toughness, I am losing a few lbs, and every step that I take is getting me closer to my stretch goal.

Stretch Goals:
Ok, its time for Show ‘n Tell, my next mid-range goal, my `A` race if you will for next season, is to train for and compete / complete a Half Ironman, yeah I said it, a Half Ironman. I’ve been doing so good, eating right, training right, sleeping enough, taking days off, working my nutrition, and I don’t want to regress, I need a that next goal. This is going to be my dangling carrot, this is going to drive me all off-season, and my marathon is just the foundation for my next journey.

Need to do:
I need to pick a race, I have a few options.
NA Sports puts on the Florida Half Ironman 70.3, this looks like a flat and fast course, registration is still open, and its at Walt Disney World, so I could take the family and spend a few days having fun, this is if I can walk afterwards.
Georgia Multisports Productions puts on The Coliseum Health System's Rock 'N RollMan Half Iron Triathlon, in Macon Georgia in early June. I did the sprint this year, and they put on a great race.
I have also found http://www.trifind.com/iron-h.html to be a good resource to locate races.

So in the next few weeks I got to pick a race and signup.

Almost forgot to add, I signed up for a Master swimming program. The pool that I have been training at just started the program. I signed up last night and I got to talk to the coach and he said that so far everyone who signed up was training for triathlon. So I am happy about that, can’t wait for Monday.

-B

Emily and her first TRI, Iron Kids.

Emily and her first TRI, Iron Kids:
(Picture to come)
Wow, My Daughter Emily 8yrs competes in her first TRI.
August 19, 2007 was a great day, full of trepidation, smiles and esteem building that will last a lifetime.
I am so happy for her, because today she learned she can do anything, and that’s a life lesson that she will use over and over again.

Emily has been watching me train and race and said to me more than once that she would like to race. I thought how cool is that, my Daughter wants to race, and then I started to think to myself, why. Does she really want to race or does she want to please me. I really didn’t want her to race for the wrong reasons, she should race for herself and not for anyone else.
I found IronKids.com, Sara Lee sponsors 6 kids’ triathlons a season and it just so happens one of the races is just 20 minutes from the house. I talked to the family about it and Emily said she wanted to do it.

Emily’s Training:
Over the summer Emily has been taking swimming lessons at our local YMCA and she has been doing fine. We also have a 25 meter pool in out neighborhood so she is no stranger to water. Now that does not mean she can swim 100 meters freestyle easily, she mostly mixes it up swimming underwater, backstroke, and anything else that would get her to the end. We practices a few time in the pool, very low key, I did not want to put her in the position of having to please me. After a few times swimming 100 meters, I knew she could make the distance, so that was it.
Her bike was fine, we rode a few times and I knew the distance wasn’t an issue.
Emily’s running is good, we have done a few kids races so I knew she could do it.

Emily’s Race:
The day started like most race mornings, got to Transition and got set up. Iron Kids really did a great job on this, on the bike rack they placed a duplicate race number (bib) on the rack so you knew exactly where your bike went. We set up and I went over with her how to lay it out and in what order she needed to get things done in. You could see that many of the kids racing had parents that raced, chalk marks in the pavement at the end of the bike racks, tidy gear, it was cool. Ok T is set up off to the pool, this was the hard part. The pool was 6 lanes and the kid were to start 2 per lane, but for some reason they were starting them on per. First went the older kids (Seniors) ages 11-14, they had to swim 200 meters. This took a long time, and on top of that every so often they would take a break to let the racers on the cycle leg finish so the bike leg would be safer, and I am all for it. The swim started at 08:00 starting with the older kids and going down to the younger kids. Emily didn’t get into the pool until 10:45, but at this point the kids were swimming 2 per lane so it was going faster. It was hard for the kids to wait so long, and for the younger siblings to wait, it was getting hot. The swim was fine, on her last lap I ran out of the pool area and got into position just outside the transition area and waited. Here she comes! Some of the older kids that had already finished lined up on either side of the path to the transition and joined hands to make a human tunnel and when a racer came down the screamed and yelled to “Good job!”, “Go!”, “You can do it!” and it was just awesome. I cried when I saw my Emily run threw the tunnel of well wishers, I might be making more of it than it was, but it was true sport, and it was good hearted kids showing true sportsmanship.
So, into T1, this is where Iron Kids was real good, transition was laid out with number on the bike racks and they had staff that would see the kid’s number marking and lead the kids to their bike. Emily hit T1 fast, got out in the bike in about 2-3 minutes, not bad for a newbie kid. She road her three laps quickly and by the look on her face she was having fun. Back to transition for T2, and she was lead to her rack, she racked her bike and out the other end for the run. Now this was cool, the run mat was at the end of the transition and they had a water stop next to the mat. Emily blasted out of T2 grabs a water, drinks half and pours the other half over her head chucks the cup all while running, I though to myself wow she looks like a pro. I ran around to catch up with her on the run, and she was past the halfway point and running up a long grade and I could see that she had a side stitch. This is where I could see the lack of real training and heat where taking a toll on her, but this is part of triathlon, getting past the pain and pushing yourself. I though to myself this is what she needed, she need to fight through something hard and see that she can do it. She saw me as I stood their cheering her on, and I could see a smile take the place of the pain, and I could see that walk turn to a run. It was a downhill run to the finish, and finish she did, she is my hero.

Thoughts:
This is my opinion, so take it or leave it, but I believe triathlon builds kids both physically and mentally.
It worth the effort to expose your kids to as many things as you can, and let them decide if they like it or not.
Please do not mandate that your child do anything but get good grades and eat their vegetables.
Let them decide if they want to race or not.
And if nothing else, let then know you love them.

A proud dad,

-B

P.s.: I can not believe I forgot to add that we got to see the awesome Sara Mclarty.

Sara helped run the Iron Kids Atlanta/Dacula Georgia and did a great job. I heard many kids say that they wanted to be Sara including mine.

Sara is going on a world tour to train and race for an Olympic spot, and we wish her the best of luck!

Please check out Sara's blog at http://www.saramclarty.blogspot.com/

Go Sara!

-B

Next Up: Old Colony YMCA Triathlon International distance.
Date: 07/15:2007

Location: Middleboro Ma.
Distance:
Swim: 1 mile
Bike: 24 miles
Run: 6.2 miles

Hooah!

For me this is a stretch, I am still a bit of a green horn, I need a few more races under my belt before I can push myself to my limits, that is my rush.

I completed the Rock ‘N Roll Sprint Triathlon a little over a month ago, and kept up the training adding mileage. For me the one discipline that I need the most help in is the swim, not because I can shave time off, but because of the open water swim freaks me out. I have been swimming in a pool a few times a week so I am not too worried about the distance, but when I put my face down in the black abyss (I do have flair for the dramatic), Its easy for me to lose my cool.
A few times a day I try to picture the swim, the smell, the taste of the water, the temperature, my fellow swimmers, and the colors. This has done so much to relax me, and I know it is helping, so over the next week if I look dazed and I I’m drooling you’ll know what I’m thinking.

The bike/run is a 6 mile loop, so I’m sure I’ll be a little board. That’s somewhat of a lie, the pros of a loop is that you get to do it more that once. The first time around you learn, so the second, third … you can hit it with some intelligence, you know where the hills are, you know when you can let it out, and when you reel it in. This isn’t a fun run, it a race and I am ready to do battle with myself and the clock.

Training Day:
Today, I swam 1700 meters in the neighborhood pool, I had set up T1 at the pool, so I hopped out of the pool onto the bike and rode 25 miles, then back to the house for T2, then on the 10K run.
This was sweet, I had not done the complete distance before and I had some doubts about it, but not anymore. The weather was cloudy and a little dark and not too hot, with a few sprinkles. The swim was nice, not quite open water but at least it was outside, I felt it was somewhere between the lake and the indoor pool I’ve been training in. The bike went great, not too many cars on the road, and the hills were just rollers, the legs felt strong and I had a little left in the tank for the run. The run was good, T2 was at the house so I went inside changed out of my tri shorts and into my running shorts, grabbed my ipod and water bottle and hit the road. I chose bike/run course that was close to what I am going to be racing on next week.

Afterwards I cleaned up and the took the family to lunch and a movie followed up with a trip to Dick’s Sporting Goods, what a day.:)
Final thoughts:
So all in all I thought today was the breakthrough day. I had some reservations about the Olympic distance, but after today I am feeling a lot better about it.
Got to spend some time with the family that I love so much and we all had fun.

-Brian