New shoes + new goggles + new pump = fresh start. Yes, December 1 marks the beginning of my yearlong Ironman training program. I use the term 'yearlong' loosely because, well let's be honest, there's only 9 months until my race. Not to worry though, I haven't just been sitting around lazily, carefully deliberating my attack on the next 277 days, I have been swimming, riding, and running with relentless vigor. That's right, so far I've been driving across North America without a map, backpacking through the Amazon without a compass, climbing Kilimanjero without . . . you get the idea.
One day sprints, the next day tempo, then intervals; I do lactate threshold rides and hill repeats (okay that last part is a joke, everyone knows there are no hills in Florida), long runs, long rides & countless swim drills; I have been working. I took 3 whole minutes off my 10mile time trial. I can run 6 miles with no little to no back pain (90% true 50% of the time). I can pretty much complete a mile in the pool without drowning. I am awesome without direction. Don't judge me!
Those leisure days are over, I now have direction, targets, volume & intensity goals. I, Eric Barber, have a plan. First, the Miami Marathon - 1/2 or full, I'm not sure, but I know the race is on a Sunday. Then comes my Oly in Tampa, when is that again? From there, the 70.3 or (aka Half-Ironman) in May; Orlando bound, I think. A couple of sprints in Key Biscayne later, my good friend Brandon's wedding, and bingo-bango, Ironman Canada will be upon us. As you can plainly see, the magic is in the details my friends.
All kidding aside, the yearlong training program is beginning to take shape. No more haphazard approach to training under the guise of training for 'speed'. I know have periodization, structure and testing to look forward to.
See you in August, that's right!
No comments:
Post a Comment