What have I done?

I just officially signed up for Ironman Cozumel in November 2021. I can't believe I actually did it.

So what led me to do this in 2021? 

It started when I noticed a swimming friend who announced on Facebook that she had signed up for Ironman Arizona and I commented on her page that I was going to ponder about that race too. That got me really thinking that since I am going to be training for the Aqua-Bike worlds which will be the same swim and bike length as an Ironman, so why not take advantage of all that bike training and just complete and Ironman too. But as I have well documented on here, my running is a BIG problem, especially with injuries.

So that meant a conversation with my coach. I laid out that my only goal was to FINISH the Ironman race, and I would basically just plan on doing a lot of walking during the marathon. My coach felt confident that with my swim and bike where they are, I could bank of walking the marathon and still making the cutoff time, so he agreed to the plan.

The next step was to sign up for Ironman Arizona which was going to open for registration a few days later. Less than 24 hours before it would open up to general public, it was closed as full. I suspected this might be the case because IMAZ had been cancelled just a couple of weeks prior so I assumed many of those that had signed up would just transfer their entry to the following year.

So CRAP. Now what was I going to do. Nothing else in the US worked in my schedule or was open, then I noticed that Ironman Cozumel was open. We had been to Cozumel on our last cruise a few years back and went on an amazing snorkeling tour. I then had to discuss this with my wife as I am sure she would want to come with.

She was all excited about the possibility of going to Cozumel and we found an all-inclusive resort just a few blocks away from the finish line and on the bike course. So she gave the green light. I just needed to decide if I wanted to do a hot and humid race, that was in a foreign country as my first Ironman experience.

I spent a couple of days reading race reports and everyone seemed to really enjoy their experience in Cozumel, both the race experience and the post-race snorkeling and diving. I was really worried about the hot and humid conditions. I don't do well in that weather and I don't experience much of it where I live. It is still my biggest concern about the race aside from the run.

So after much internal conflict I did it, I signed up for IM Cozumel. My wife and kid are going to join me and we plan to stay a few days after the race to enjoy the sights and relax. I have almost 12 months to train, and as long as I can stay healthy, I will be ready. I am excited and nervous, but I plan to enjoy every minute of my training and racing in 2021.

Gobble Gallop

 Well due to high COVID numbers, this year's Gobble Gallop was moved to a virtual race. But the family got up, got dressed and did the race outside in our neighborhood. It was actually a really nice day for the race. I choose a route that turned out to be pretty slippery, and I tried to push myself a little bit. It was fun, but I have a feeling I injured myself again.

New Toy for the Pain Cave

 I have been considering it for a while, and with COVID shutting down half of them at the Y, I decided to pull the trigger and bought myself a treadmill. It was nearly 8 weeks from order to delivery, but it finally showed up today.

I am still slowly building up to running again, but having this in my basement will be a game changer for me this winter. Now I just need my own pool....hmmm

Outside Bike...in November?

It was surprisingly warm today for the first full weekend in November, so I figured I would take advantage and get outside on the bike. Just a long cruise with a couple of short intensity intervals is what I was after today and I was successful.

The wind really picked up for the second half of the ride. It was about 12mph when I left but an hour in, it really picked up and was 20 gusting to 30. So much of the ride home was either a crosswind or into the wind.

By 2 hours in, my legs were pretty toast. I didn't sleep very well last night so that didn't help matters either. But it was sunny, upper 50's in November, and great to be outside riding again.

Got a text from a friend today that I found funny. "Saw you on the bike today on industrial. You were heading home. I said, whoa, that guy is fast...then I said..wait, is that Tim? Saw your Strava and yep sure was."

Off Season

 I am pretty much just in off season mode now. I am still doing some workouts every day, but the intensity is dialed back some and the duration is down too. Just staying active and doing some different workouts to keep it interesting.

My kid mentioned to me that she wanted to go hiking so today turned out to be a perfect day for it. The leaves were just a bit past peak but still a lot of color as we walked a few miles of the cross country ski trails at Lester Park. It was really nice being outside on a leisurely walk around nature. Winter will be here soon enough and we will be stuck inside for most of it, so trying to take advantage of days like today to get outside.

Masters Swim

 Finally the gang is back together in the pool led by our wonderful Coach Lindsey. With new COVID protocols, the group was small, but it was great to be back in the pool under the watchful eye of the coach. I have mentioned this before, but I really like this class. There are several people who are all about the same speed so we tend to push each other. But we have a coach who stops us to tell us what we are doing wrong and uses video to help show it. Together that means we see slow but steady improvement, even with only 2 days a week in the pool.

One of the many downsides to this new COVID swimming is that we are limited to just 45 minutes. That really shortens the yardage that we can do in a session to 2000-2500 tops. So we try to make the most of that time, and really focus on technique.

But we all make the most of the time we have.

My First Multisport Win! Square Lake Race Report

Like most of us, 2020 was a turbulent and weird year for me. The year started with taking a job in Phoenix that was to start April 1, but then COVID happened and cancelled those plans along with so many others. But another summer in northern Minnesota isn’t so bad, we adjusted to the new routine, and I continued to train.

A running injury in May meant that I did very little run training this summer (I am a terrible runner anyway). Three mornings a week I open water swam in various lakes around Duluth with a few other athletes, and I also did a ton of biking including my first century ride. I much prefer biking to running and the weather here was fantastic all summer for training. So when I saw that Square Lake 70.3 had an aqua-bike division I saw it as a chance to open water swim one last time before being stuck in a pool all winter, and to see how fast I can ride 56 miles.

On race morning, when my alarm went off at 5am, the first thing I did was look outside and saw that it wasn’t raining. Then I looked at the radar and it looked like most of the rain had already gone through. All good news since I was not looking forward to racing in the rain. I packed up the car and drove through the fog and light rain to the park.

After picking up my packet I headed to transition to set up. Everyone was well spaced out for the race and that was really nice. I wish every race could do that! With a delay to the race start due to fog, I got to spend a bunch of time just chatting with the people around me. A mix of veterans of 70.3 and first timers of this distance. All of us were glad to be able to get out racing this year so much thanks to the organizers.

With bib numbers being assigned alphabetically, I was in the last swim group. The first swimmers were coming into transition to head out on the bike as I walked to the swim start. I chose to wear my sleeveless wetsuit today as the water temp was reported to be mid 60’s on Thursday which is typical for what I have been swimming up here in Duluth all summer. However, once I dove in, I found the water SHOCKINGLY cold. It took me a bit to recover from the shock and then get into my groove.

A solid middle of the pack swim time just as I expected.

After a quick (for me) transition I was out of the bike. The course was every bit as hilly as I have heard! I had driven it the day before but riding in a car you just don’t get the same sense of elevation. But I train on hills quite a bit up here, so I was pretty used to it.

Aside from hilly, most of the course was quite beautiful. I saw turkeys, deer and swans during my ride. I made sure to smile and thank all the volunteers along the way and was appreciative of the spectators out on the course cheering on all the racers since my Sherpas and cheerleaders stayed home.

When I started the bike, I had no heart rate displaying on my bike computer which I found odd. About halfway through the race I realized that it was a NEW HR strap and I had only ever paired it with my watch. So, as I was riding, I paired the HR strap to my bike computer and then I had HR. Stupid me.

I held a good power number right up until about mile 53 when my legs started to really complain, and I started that internal dialog between my brain and my legs. “Just keep going until the next turn.” “Just one more hill to the park.” Thankfully the brain was convincing, and the legs held out to the end.

I crossed the finish line super happy with my effort. Power and HR exactly where I wanted it, speed was a bit slower but that I blamed on the wet conditions. I knew I had done pretty well because there were not a lot of bikes in transition yet.

When the results came out the next day, I got my first ever multi-sport victory!

This race was a lot of fun. It was a difficult bike course, much different than what I have done before in races, and the weather made it more difficult too. But the organizers, athletes and volunteers made the whole event worthwhile so a big thanks to everyone for creating a safe and fun event.