Monday, June 23, 2008

Biking is Getting Long and a Running Tip!


A few thing to talk about today, but first I wanted to fill you in on Kristine Crane with the Charlotte Observer (remeber the suspense from last week's entry). Kristine had contacted me a few weeks ago and she had heard about my Lottery winning for the World Ironman Championships in Hawaii and wanted to do a story on me and my road to the race.

I thought this was awesome and I looked forward to getting more exposure for the SOWF which is the charity I am racing for (see earlier entry).

I spoke to Kristine over the phone a couple times and she seemed to be on top of her game. She always had great questions and has really been thorough in her questions trying to really understand what this whole Ironman thing is all about. In part of our conversation I told her I was going to be racing in an adventure trace which took place last weekend and she asked where it was and said she may show up.

Not knowing Kristine very well I didn’t think she would travel all the way to Highlands, NC for part of the story, but to my surprise she did. I spent a while answering more questions with Kristine and all I have to say is she is very sharp and dedicated to what she does and she has great questions!

So now you know all I know about the evolution of this story in the Charlotte Observer and I will certainly have it in my blog when I think it will be coming out in the paper.

Now let’s talk about this past weeks training. I feel like it was all about the bike, bike, bike!!!! I put in about 155 miles this week. Wow!!! I still can’t believe I did that! It was broken up into 3 sessions that Coach Sonni had set up.

The first was a 1 hour and 15 minute session that had some speed work involved. This was during the week. The second and third session were on the weekend. 45 miles one day and 85 mile the next.

You may think this is a lot of miles to put in but the longest part of the course will be the bike and if the course is windy and hot like it usually is….the bike will be a big challenge and Coach Sonni is focused on getting through the bike before the cutoff time no matter the conditions. I am on board, because Coach Sonni knows all!

So what about the Run??? The thinking is that I have to make the bike cutoff in 10 ½ hours. So that leaves 6 ½ hours to run the 26 miles. So the run isn’t quite as important as the bike the way we see it. But don’t worry I am still working my long runs once a week on Wednesdays. Each week I have been escalating in two mile increments and then having a rest week the 3rd week. So This past week was 9 miles and this next run will be 13 miles and then I will have a rest week (relatively speaking).

Every week I try to bring something educational to the table. This week I have some advice for the male triathlete out there and it something that sort of an unspoken problem, nipples!!!

There is goes, I said it and actually you now have it in print and on line!!!. But this is a serious and painful problem. You may have seen the picture of the poor guy who has apparently never run a marathon before and was wearing a cotton shirt with streaks of blood…ok, enough said.

So recently I was out for my 9 mile run and it was pretty hot outside for a morning run anyway and I was sweating pretty heavily. I had the latest running shirt with the hi-tech material that was made for marathons. Ouch! I got back and still had this problem to a certain degree.

So with this problem unsolved, I went back to the guru, Coach Sonni! So I called Sonni and we had a lot to talk about and the last item was, uhm …nipples. However, I couldn’t really come right out and say it for some reason (my macho side coming out I guess) so I told him I was having issue with my running shirts causing chaffing and irritation. So Sonni being the consummate professional that he is, he zeroed in on the problem quickly and had a quick solution. He said that I had to wear a tight fitting running top on the long runs, A tri top would be perfect and it would help me avoid this whole problem. He said no matter the material if you have a long run and especially If your shirt is wet from sweat, it’s just like sand paper after a while. I will vouch for that!!!

Swim has gone well this past week. I haven’t mentioned it because it was really uneventful. I swam 25 yards, flipped, swam 25 yards, flipped and then repeated 50 times. Of course I have drills in addition to this which is the most important part of the swim session.

Lastly, I wanted to thank everyone who has e-mailed me and given me positive feedback on the Blog and I want to especially thank everyone who has donated money to sponsor me for this race. Keep in mind ALL money goes directly to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. Go to www.firstgiving.com/daletweedy to find out more about this great charity!!!

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