A Weight Off My Shoulders.

Sorry its been so long since I've updated guys. Its been a BUSY week and a half. It doesn't seem like I have had any free time on my hands lately. Soccer just recently started up and it is A LOT tougher than I thought it was going to be juggling soccer and my ironman training schedule, not to mention physically draining. The weather the last couple of days has been pretty nasty so we haven't been able to get outside and workout much. Last week Sam, Dad, and Myself were able to get out on a ride around the Hayden and we hit some good hills. We followed that 22 mile ride up with a 60 minute run right after... needless to say we were all pretty sore the next day. I have to admit though, I have been slacking quite a bit on the riding and running. It seems like the days we are doing big workouts for those are always the day I have soccer. I have noticed the difference when riding and running with Sam and my dad. They are so much stronger and have the endurance to do the workouts without getting to broken down afterwards. I can say that I am keeping up on the swim though, I am feeling like I am getting a little better in the pool every time...granted there is still a lot of work that I need to do in the pool, but I'm getting better. Now for what the headline is all about, for those of you who don't know, I flew down to Salt Lake City last Friday where my brother picked me up. We road tripped down to St. George, UT so that I could go to a soccer camp at Dixie State College of Utah. The camp was awesome and I had a great time and really liked the campus. The camp went great and I played well. It opened the door for me because the coach thought I performed well too. I talked to him Monday night and I decided that I will be going down to St. George, UT next year to play soccer at Dixie State. I couldn't be more happy and it is such a great feeling to have decided what I am going to do next year. I just want to thank all those who have helped me achieve my goal of playing soccer at the college level. My coaches, both past and present for the skills that they have helped me develop. My friends who were always there to congratulate me or cheer me on. My brother and sister who exposed me to the game and helped me along the way by having a goal to reach. And especially to my parents. My parents have been there through every step and have worked extra hard to be able to afford to send me to tournaments all around the country. Once again thanks everyone for checking in on the blog and supporting our journey through the Ironman training process. Also, please be sure to check out Sam's and Brandon's blog which are linked at the top right side of my blog.

"The more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle." ~Author Unknown

A tough week

As you may have noticed, last week I didn't update my blog because I was sick and only trained 2 days. Both of those training sessions were just light and easy swims I tried running but just couldn't breathe effectively enough to maintain running for more than about an mile, and it was a very slow mile at that. Basically last week was like taking two steps back after really starting to see some improvement in my training times. This week was started out with a couple of swims that made me pretty sore after from being fatigued from the sickness last week. However, on our long swim wednesday (2500 meters continous) I felt great I swam it in just under 45 minutes. After the swim wednesday I headed straight to our first soccer practice. When I woke up Thursday I thought I was pretty sore. Thursday I had soccer practice after school and then played two indoor soccer games after that. Needless to say, I could barely walk Friday my legs were tight and sore all day, it felt like my muscles were wound up way to tight and they were just going to snap. So Friday afternoon my dad and I went on about a 26 mile bike ride. Basically, he kicked my butt that ride, we rode about two and a half laps around the area we were riding. We rode together about the first lap and a half, but my legs just didn't have anything left in them the last lap. Ill give him that ride, but I live to fight another day. Thanks everyone for checking in on our training!

"Don't bunt. Aim out of the ballpark."David Ogilvy

A Nice Easy Week

There really isn't to much to report on this week. This week was a recovery week in our training plan, and next week the training is really going to get ramped up. The biggest disappointment is that it is snowing outside right now so that could really make riding not a lot of fun. Hopefully it warms up so we aren't going to have to ride inside all week again. We were able to get out this week and go for about an hour and a half ride which was the highlight of training this week.

The ride was awesome this weekend, I could definitely tell that the spinning classes have helped to build the legs muscles used while riding. Also, the workouts in the pool are really coming along well. I can feel my form getting better every week and I have seen the improvements in my form translate into faster swimming times. I didn't do the long run Friday, but the shorter runs throughout the week all went smooth and I didn't have any problems. I put in about 10 miles running, 3.5 miles swimming, and 25 miles biking plus spinning so it was a pretty light week. I took Friday off because it was a busy day already with Fight For the Fish. We lost the fish, but it was a fun night so I can't complain to much.

Thanks for checking in this week, sorry there wasn't a whole lot of excitement to tell about make sure to check in next week. Hopefully, its a little more eventful.

"If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours." —Henry David Thoreau

147 days left

Another week of training down! It was an interesting week for sure. We started the week off with a long and boring swim workout on Monday, 3000 yards. We followed that up with about a 5 mile run, a fun day to say the least. Tuesday was a solid 40 minute run followed by an hour long spinning class. Wednesday we hit the pool for a nice recovery swim. It was a much needed workout to get the body moving and relieve the sore muscles from the previous couple of days spent running. Thursday we hit the pool again, this time to do some sprints to work on swimming fast. After our swim we went straight up to the endurance spinning class, which the gym puts on once a week. The class is catered for the triathletes with its much higher pace and the extended time. It was definitely a tough class, but very helpful and you can count on me being there every Thursday! Friday we went on an eight mile run. I was expecting to be pretty worn out after this one. However, it was exactly the opposite, I felt refreshed and energetic. It was a beautiful run on the centennial trail out around the lake and back into downtown. With the weekend came a crazy idea to ride outside! So at about noon we took off on another ride around the lake. The temperature was 25 degrees, but with the wind chill it was about 12-13 degrees. That was not the greatest idea we have ever had! 12 degrees is cold enough as it is, then think about traveling at about 20 mph on a bike in 12 degree weather. It was about as fun as it sounds. This week is our recovery week in the cycle of 4 week phases, it is the final week of preparation training and then next week the workouts really start to increase and become intense. The highlight of the week, our biking jerseys that we plan on wearing for the race finally arrived!

Thanks everybody for all the support you are giving all of us during our training. Especially my mom who keeps our workout clothes clean and ready to go, and my sister who is also there for moral support....even though she is 3000 miles away!

(Planning out our training schedule)

"The crime is not to avoid failure, the crime is to not give triumph a chance." —H. Weldon

Some Background Info

This blog is to keep everyone updated with how our ironman training is going. For those of you that don't know, my dad (Randy), my brother (Brandon), and myself have all signed up to compete in Ironman Coeur d'Alene 2009! Joining us in this madness are my best friend and neighbor Sam, and a good family friend Trey. Sam and I are graduating high school this year.Trey is in his second year of college after just returning from his mission. Brandon is in his third year of college, and Randy...well he is the old man of the group ;). Call us crazy....many people are... but we got the ironfever after volunteering the past couple of years at the race. None of us had even competed in a triathlon before signing up and we committing ourselves to the ultimate triathlon! So throughout the summer we trained a little bit competing in some local tri's. Soccer season came around so that meant basically no training for my dad and me. Trey and Brandon headed back off to college. Trey was busy with soccer in the fall. Brandon had a swimming class in the fall but I don't think a whole lot of training happened outside of that class. Sam....well Sam showed us all up and was working out and training all fall. Overall the fall of 2008 was a time spent studying the race, doing research on training and nutrition, and just getting mentally prepared for a physically and mentally tiring 2009. Brandon, Randy, Sam and myself kicked off the year with the annual 5 mile new years morning race, in the snow, a perfect start to a year of training. The run went great even though it was cold and snowing, like expected Sam smoked us!

(I think you can guess who Sam is)January 5th kicked off our official training regime. We decided to use the 20 week plan on beginnertriathlete.com, this gave us a couple of extra weeks because we also signed up to do a 1/2 ironman in Vegas in April so it gave us a couple of weeks of light workout to recover from that race. The blog will mainly be covering the training that Sam, my dad, and I are doing since we are all basically working out together. We are now 3 weeks into our training plan. Unlike Sam, my dad and I are not experienced swimmers. Swimming is something we picked up just this last summer so that we could compete in triathlons. With the help of Sam and his dad, who is an awesome swimmer and a swim coach, we can see our swim times and form getting better and better every time we hit the pool. The running hasn't been to bad, its been better now that the snow has somewhat cleared off the road so we finally got off the treadmill. Biking has just been horribly boring on the indoor training. I dont see us getting out on the road for at least another couple of weeks. For that reason we have turned to spinning classes at the gym, they are much better than riding by yourself on the trainer, but still doesn't compare to being out on the open road. We are all looking forward to getting out on our sweet new bikes! None of us have had many distance rides on our bikes cause we all got new ones near the end of the summer, so we are kinda itching to get out and ride! Well that is a little background information and a quick glimpse for ya, make sure to check back and keep updated with our pain... I mean training! I'm looking forward to this opportunity that I have to work towards my goal of completing Ironman 2009. Thanks to all those who read this and are supporting our madness!

"Life, to me, is a series of false limits and my challenge as an athlete is to explore those limits."—Lance Armstrong