17 Hour Training Day
We cannot tell you how happy we are with this journey into extended distance training. Many discussions have been had about junk miles, over training, burnout and injury and our belief that we could implement an extended distance theory training philosophy to Ironman training without experiencing any of the aforementioned symptoms of over training. The actual 17 hour training day was designed to be a long, slow, distance effort day. The goal was to be on our feet training for the entire 17 hours. There was no speed to be had this day, and it was important to involve other Practical Coaching teammates to participate in the day.
Tyler spearheaded "Camp 17 Hour Home Base" and did an amazing job keeping the day organized for us. He had people meet us coming out of the water to do the first portion of our bike ride. Others were ready to go for the 2nd half of the bike ride. Once we returned from the 8.5 hours of riding Tyler had burgers ready for us to eat and had people organized to take off on the first lap of the run. In the inbetween times Tyler had activities planned for families so everyone had a great day. Thank you to each and every person out there who offered a smile, food, encouragement, or themselves to us this day. Your support and comittment to teamwork made our day spectacular. And, on a side note.... it was Troy and Sonja's 7th anniversary! Happy Anniversary to them!
Going into the water at 5 in the morning was a pretty cool experience. We owe a thank you to Chatfield State Park for granting us a special permit to swim early. It was a risk for them to allow a group of swimmers to be out there early on a holiday when the park is busy with people doing many different activities. Laura was a rock star kayaker who paddled around the lake keeping an eye on everybody and taking pictures. The general consensus on the lesson learned in the pond this morning was that even when taking it easy we are moving pretty quickly. Our goal for the Iroman swim is to take it easy as to allow for more speed on the bike and the run, but not under-pacing ourselves to come out of the water too far behind. Mission accomplished.
The bike ride was the wild card of the day because the weather forecast was predicting rain. Our goal was to get to LookOut Mountain and turn around and get back for the 2nd group of riders to join us for the 2nd half of the ride. We meandered through Ken Caryl at a pretty easy pace and made it to Golden and decided we had taken it a little too easy to make it up LookOut and make it back to pick people up. Also the weather on top of the mountain looked a little ominous, so we decided to head back and pick up the pace a little bit. The second group joined us and we headed to Deer Creek and finished doing laps around the Chatfield area. Overall we hit approximately 100 miles and felt we could have gone a little bit faster without compromising the run. In hindsight, we would have planned the bike portion of the day a little bit differently...so next year there is a different plan in place. You may be already thinking in your head, "Next Year? Really?" YES!! But even better we are opening up the 17 hour training day to more athletes who are commited to this type of training to join the team for 2010 Ironman Wisconsin training. More information to follow later.
So, after a nice bike ride with the weather holding out perfectly for us we headed out to run 10+ mile laps around Chatfield. Sonja, Anthony, and Steve got 3 laps in while Andrea got 2 laps in. The only issue encountered on the run portion was Andrea getting some blisters that were pretty painful, but totally manageable. The first lap of the run the clouds let go of the rain they had been holding onto all day and believe it or not, it was pretty cool to be out running in the run. It didn't slow us down or affect us negatively in any way. The fact that everybody was running was pretty fantastic. The mental side of Ironman can really real its ugly head and wreak havoc on many people's experiences. One of the goals for the 17 hour group was to work on the mental aspect of training and racing with the extended distance theory. Running at Chatfield on the fourth of July was pretty awesome because there was a panoramic view of all the firework displays in the surrounding cities and mountains. It was too cool to watch the sun go down and run surrounded by firework displays. While we were all very tired at 10:00 at night we were not exhausted. We were ready to be finished but not unable to do things to get ourselves home. All in all, it was a perfect day that ended with huge smiles on everyone's faces!
Ironman is going to be difficult both mentally and physically. Racing for these distances is going to be a challenge, but we think we are going into the race well prepared and with a little bit of knowledge of some of the struggles we may encounter during the day. Going prepared puts luck on our side!
If you are looking to be a part of something remarkable and are commited to your triathlon passion we are opening up registration for the 17 hour training day for the 2009-2010 race season. One of the races we are targeting is Ironman Wisconsin.
OUR MISSION
To prepare passionate triathletes of all abilities with a deep athletic base by capitalizing on their commitment to excel in multisport through extended distance training, while fostering professional, charitable teamwork.
If you believe you you fit into this model please CLICK HERE to go to the Practical Coaching website to begin the application process.
