IM CdA Training - Week 7

Heck yeah!  Week 6 is done and I'm now a quarter of the way through my training!  On the one hand, that's pretty exciting, but on the other hand, it's sort of nerve wracking too!  It's crazy to think that in just eighteen short weeks I'll be racing in another Ironman!  Aaaaaaahhhhhh!  But, no time to focus on that for too long, because I need to focus on the training I'm doing right now.  And on that note, here's the plan for week 7:

Monday - REST

Tuesday - 1 hour swim.  1 hour 30 minute bike.

Wednesday - 1 hour swim.  50 minute run.

Thursday - BRICK workout: 1 hour 15 minute bike followed by 20 minute run.

Friday - 1 hour swim.  2 hour bike.

Saturday - 3 hour 45 minute bike.  30 minute recovery run.

Sunday - 1 hour swim.  1 hour 40 minute run.

And I already know that I have a pretty hefty scheduling conflict this week.  I'm going to be taking part in the Great Urban Race on Saturday, which puts a big damper on the long bike ride of the week.  I think I'm just going to have to erase any sleeping plans I had on Friday night and just get on the bike at about 3 a.m. on Saturday morning in order to get it done.  Sounds like a good plan, right?  Yeah, I thought so too.  Tune in next week to see how this one plays out!

Thanks again for reading!

Are you kidding me?

The Wife was surfing the world wide web of electronic information, when she came across a pretty troubling video.  Rather than me describing the video, because there's no way I can do it any justice, I've included the video below (hopefully you can see it!):

If you can't see the video, you can go here to see the video, along with an article about the incident.  The driver of the bus is going to serve 17 months in prison for intentionally hitting the cyclist.  In short, the situation went down like this:  the bus drove too close to the cyclist at a round-a-bout, causing the cyclist to engage the driver in an argument at the next stop.  Following this stop, the bus driver decided to intentionally hit the cyclist, resulting in a broken leg, fractured wrist and thumb.

I personally can't believe that this goof ball got let off the hook with only 17 months.  In fact, the judge on the case ruled that the driver can be considered for release after serving only half of his time.  So it's possible that someone who intentionally ran over a cyclist with a bus will only serve 9 months in jail.  Are you freakin' kidding me?  Can someone explain to me why this isn't assault with a deadly weapon, or attempted manslaughter?  This story makes me pretty sick.

Now, in defense of the driver (which, regardless of whatever defense he may have, there is absolutely no excuse for this), I wasn't there so I don't know what happened prior to the attempted murder.  Who knows what the cyclist said to the driver.  It's completely believable that the cyclist said something so horrific that it would have been the logical next step to try and run him over with a bus (yeah right!).  The one bright spot in this story?  The bus driver lost his job.

Wow.  That's all I can say.  Until next time!

IM CdA Training - Week 6

Well, after a rest day and another rest day (I decided it would be best that I not do any training on Valentine's Day, and instead dedicate my entire existence to making the family happy on Cupid's holiday), this week started on Wednesday (today).  And it's actually a little crazy, because I had to add Tuesday's training to Wednesday in order to not miss the workouts....well, I still left out the swim workout.  So, here's what week 6 was supposed to look like before I moved a couple things around to fit my personal schedule:

Monday - REST

Tuesday - 1 hour swim.  1 hour 15 minute bike.

Wednesday - 1 hour swim.  45 minute bike.

Thursday - 1 hour 30 minute bike.  55 minute run.

Friday - 1 hour swim.  1 hour 55 minute bike.

Saturday - BRICK workout - 1 hour 30 minute bike followed by a 30 minute run.

Sunday - 1 hour swim.  55 minute run.

Livestrong and WTC

Whether or not you agree with the allegations against Lance, and now the clearing of his name, you can't deny that he has spearheaded one of the most well known foundations which raises money for people affected by cancer.  Through the Livestrong foundation, Lance has changed the lives of a countless amount of people, and now that he is free of those doping charges, has taken another step to raise even more money!

On February 9th, 2012, this article was posted on Ironman.com.  In short, Livestrong has formed a partnership with WTC (read: Ironman) to raise $1 million for people affected by cancer.  As part of this partnership, Mr. Armstrong himself will be competing as a professional triathlete in a few Ironman branded events, in hopes to qualify for Kona (which, based on the amount of news coverage he will bring to the event, I'm 99.9% positive he will be there).  Those races will be Ironman 70.3 Panama, Ironman 70.3 Texas, Ironman 70.3 Florida, Ironman 70.3 Hawaii, and Ironman France.  In fact, Ironman 70.3 Panama was today, so the results should be up on Ironman.com, but I'll locate them and post them some time this week.

I'm pretty excited to see what Lance can do.  He is quite the cyclist, and I'm sure he is going to do just fine.  I'm not expecting him to win or anything crazy like that, just to qualify for Kona.  Which brings up my next goal:  finding a way to race this year in Kona so I can race against Lance and challenge him to a duel, much like my epic duel with Eric Byrnes!

Lance Armstrong is off the sauce!

Just this week, the legend known as Lance Armstrong was finally cleared of his drug doping charges!  Whether or not you think he ever doped, I'm just glad that it's finally over.  Here is an ESPN article about the charges against the super-human cyclist being dropped.

And funny that those charges were dropped.  A few years back, there was a guy named Alberto Contador on Lance Armstrong's team during the Tour de France.  In 2010, Contador and Armstrong were the favorites to win the Tour, and it was assumed that Armstrong would be the chosen one for the team.  However, Contador had different plans, and as the Tour unfolded, Contador was in a better spot to be supported by the team.  Well, he went on to win in 2010 (among other years).  The funny thing is, he has now been stripped of his 2010 Tour de France title!  That's right.  The guy who beat Lance has been found guilty of doping (he claims he was he ate contaminated meat...) and is now serving a 2 year ban.  His ban won't actually be 2 years, because they are back-dating the ban to include some time already served.

So we have Lance being found innocent, and the guy who beat Lance being found guilty.  I find that to be pretty funny.  I can't help but wonder if Lance would have ended up winning if he had his entire teams support during the 2010 Tour, instead of having a rogue clenbuterol-doping teammate trying to out work him.  Interesting.

And that's my deep thought of the day.  Could Lance have won another title if Contador hadn't been doping, and had supported Lance during the Tour?  Maybe, maybe not.

IM CdA Training - Week 5

Oops!  I totally blew it on posting my training plan for week 5.  I have no excuses...just dropped the ball.  I can tell by all of the comments that were flooding in that you all out there were on the edge of your seat, just wondering what I was going to do this week for training.  Well, your prayers have finally been answered!  Sorry to anyone who may be training along with me for the delay.

Week 5 is another BASE week (the first 8 weeks are BASE weeks).  It's just some more increasing of times/distances, and a little bit of speed work built in.  Here's what is going on:

Monday - It's the new Sunday (which is supposed to be the day of rest!), so I'll be resting.

Tuesday - 1 hour swim.  1 hour 15 minute bike.

Wednesday - 1 hour swim.  45 minute run.

Thursday - BRICK workout: 1 hour bike followed by 30 minute run.

Friday - 1 hour swim.  1 hour 15 minute bike.

Saturday - 3 hour 30 minute bike.  30 minute recovery run.

Sunday - 1 hour swim.  1 hour 30 minute run.

Now, since I'm writing this on Friday afternoon, I need to go get ready for my bike ride of the day and start preparing for the long one tomorrow!  

Thanks for reading!