29 weeks away

The time has come for me to buckle down and start preparing for my Ironman in Boulder, Colorado. I’m really quite excited about the whole experience, even though I know it’s going to be rough going the first several weeks as I adapt to working out again. I signed up for the race late in July last year, and I had in mind at that time a training plan I wanted to follow to prepare. My training plan is a 27-week block of time that begins on Monday, January 27.

Do I feel prepared to begin? No. I could talk about how I’m kind of prepared, or how I have done this and that to get ready so far…but in all honesty, no, I’m not prepared. The week of January 27th starts off right away with 11-14 hours total training volume. The good news is I have two weeks to build up to this volume (I wrote this post last week). The bad news is two weeks isn’t a lot of time, but I have started already; two weeks ago I did a strength training session that left me sore for about a week. Good thing that’s out of the way. Now I feel like light weights and low intensity will allow me to approach an 11-hour week safely. We’ll see how it goes.

We all know I’m a cyclist…I’ve ridden a bike, anyway. It is true that I haven’t raced much lately, and my training volume has been punctuated many times in the previous couple years by some major life events, like moving to Omaha, buying a home and getting married. Eh, those are my biggest excuses. Anyway, cyclists often shave their legs, and I happen to be one of those guys. Judge as you will, but I believe I’ve made shaving a man’s legs just a little more manly. Added benefit: no more red bumps! Here it is. This week, for the first time in my life, I shaved my legs…with a straight razor! As a close friend put it, “All man.” No nicks or cuts and definitely something I intend to continue. It’s meditative because I have to be so focused on what I’m doing the whole time, and I like that.

Here we are, 2014, with a new year’s resolution bigger than any I’ve made before. Boulder, Colorado, here I come.