Chicago Triathlon Edition! (With a Surprise)

I think it's been almost two months since my last blog post, so much going on lately especially with training.  My volume has been steadily increasing and has gotten as high as 14hrs in a week with a long bike of 4hrs and a run of 1.5hrs.  Yeah, the fatigue is really starting to set in while volume will keep on going up...you know what that means??  Huge fitness gains!  It sounds crazy, but that's pretty much how it works; you keep training through fatigue and your body has no choice but to learn and adapt from it.  Your muscles are continually asking for energy for work and in response mitochondria increase in both number and size allowing your cells to produce more energy with more efficiency.  OK, I love the science of training, but I'll spare you any more geekiness!  As of today I'm still in the build phase of training adding in mileage/time and intensity.  In a few more weeks, most likely about a week or two before my next post, I'll enter the peak phase.  The peak phase is an even more intense ramp up in volume and intensity followed by  a sharp drop in training hours to relieve the fatigue and eventually hit your peak fitness to be ready to race.  It's a pretty critical period that everything you do is in hopes that everything has come together and you have gotten yourself  as ready as possible for that one day.  Before you say it....that's more the art of training and a little less science.  It's exciting if you ask me.

Wanna know something even more exciting (the surprise)?  I've actually got someone to do Ironman Cozumel with me!  And that would be no other than my best buddy, my brother!  He's come such a long way in the past few years, all the way from despising running to craving it, from swimming and cycling being chores to now being life.  We were both born triathletes at the same race, on the same day and have never looked back.  To some, triathlon is a race, to us...it's a lifestyle.  It's a lifestyle that teaches you to strive to be better everyday and in doing so you'll learn things about yourself and use that determination to make other areas in your life better.  You can't learn stuff like that from the race in and of itself, but rather from the journey getting there.  That's why we love this sport and I'm glad to say that we'll both be born Ironmen at the same race, on the same day.  Congratulations Marty, on taking the step, perhaps that toughest step, and signing up for IMCOZ.  You're going to do great!

So we did a couple races since I last posted.  The first only being worthy of mention since we had fun in our own Fit Lifestyle kind of way.  This was the Mud Wars event that some of you may have seen on the news as a big scam.  It was supposed to be one of those muddy obstacle course races, which the obstacles were crap and was only muddy if you wanted it to be!  I won't get into details about it here except that we made our own fun of it making sure we tackled all of our Fit Lifestyle group members and making sure no one stayed clean.  I even threw little Timmy (my son) in the mud pit and let him have some of the action, he enjoyed it!

Our second race, which is the second highlight of this post, was the Chicago Triathlon.  Seven of our group members finished the race.  They were:  Katie Villacres, Maureen Davis, Ed O'Connell, Quinn Huynh, Dan Ly, Marty Bernardo, and myself.  Just want to give some well deserved congratulations to Dan on his first ever triathlon, Quinn for graduating from self-proclaimed tri-baby to full on triathlete, Ed and Katie on completing their first International distance triathlon, and to Maureen and Marty on some nice PR's!!!  You're all inspiring, not only to me, but I'm sure also to your friends and families that support you through your training and your journey through this crazy sport!!

Personally, I'm super pumped after this race.  The results have gotten me so excited it's got me thinking again and I'm leaning toward changing my goals for next year.  I was planning on a similar start to this year focusing only on running and hopefully qualifying for the Boston Marathon, but then I was looking at last year's and this year's Chicago Tri, I took off about 11min, went from 237th overall to 70th overall, and 38th in age group to 11th.  I think if I keep up the hard training and continue to make gains, I'd love to win an Age Group podium (1st/2nd/3rd) spot in the Chicago Triathlon.  To tell you the truth, I never would have believed I'd make the gains I've been seeing.  It really goes to show that with hard work, determination, and consistency, you can get to where you want to be...and like I said, this goes for anything in life.  Make reasonably stretched goals, write them down, look at them and read them to yourself everyday, and go after them.  You think that sounds too easy?  Try it and promise yourself not to give up, because if you do, you aren't giving up on anyone but yourself.  Just remember that you're a human being just like everyone else, capable of so many things, so many that you are most likely not aware of it.  Most successful people aren't born with everything, they most likely just made the decision to go for it, so do that!

I'll leave you with what I was telling myself on mile 5 and 6 at the race this past Sunday during a tough time keeping the pace.  One of my favorite quotes:

     "Pain is temporary.  It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will                             subside and something else will take it's place.  However, if I quit it lasts forever." - Lance Armstrong

The boys at Bad Apple about to throw down on some recovery food!