Part of the Process

I'm not sure why I decided to do a 1/2 IM in March but after training very hard for 4hrs in the basement and at the pool on Sunday with Amber I definitely feel like we are earning our holiday. It is freaking hard to train for a hot and humid race in the Caribbean when you live in Northern Canada and the temperature is 60'C different. It was -30' with the wind chill in Grande Prairie on Sunday and it was +32' with the humidity in Puerto Rico. It is going to be an absolute sufferfest when I try to race in those conditions but I'm doing everything I can to prepare.

Saturday I had a nice easy run with the guys and H-dog for 11k and then a coffee, it was a little nicer that day but the recent snow made for some tough footing. After coffee I went home and ran another 10k on the treadmill and felt pretty good, I was half thinking about getting on my bike for an hour because the previous week I hadn't done much training. However I thought it might be better to save myself for Sunday and Holy Hell was that a good decision.

Sunday Amber and I made our way to the pool and had a great 50 minute swim, I was really impressed with how fast Amber is getting after a few good weeks. She said she can feel herself getting smoother and faster and it's obvious when seeing her in the water. I had a good swim too and I finally feel like I can push a little longer, 1k before I start to die. After our swim we had a 3.5hr ride scheduled but I refuse to go longer than 90k for a 1/2 IM, I ended up picking a course that was 95k so I did that. I was dressed in a long sleeved jersey and leg warmers and immediately I was sweating heavily and didn't stop for the next three hours. I felt fairly good until about 2.5hrs and then my legs started cramping badly and at the end of the ride I could barely get off my bike, every muscle in my legs locked up and I was rolling on the floor in pain. Needless to say I couldn't do my 15 minute t-run and I spent the rest of the day in bed or on the couch. Let's hope the race goes better than that, I've put in a lot of hard work and I want to at least feel decent afterwards. After this I can say that I will definitely not do an off season Ironman, 1/2 IM is okay but I can't imagine spending 6 hrs on the trainer in the middle of winter. Thank God I have Amber to keep me motivated to get me through 3 hrs.