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Thanks to Carlos, I got a spot in Ironman Lake Placid!

Today (July 27th/2010) I got an unexpected call at noon, which fortunately I answered, as I was on another call… Carlos could only say: “Hurry, there are some spots available for Lake Placid!!”. That was all it took. I went to IM Lake Placid’s website and registered!

The nice thing about this Ironman is that it is the closest one to home. We can drive there, no need to fly, no need to rent a bike box… which all translates into a much more affordable trip.

I was concerned about which Ironman I was going to do in 2010, and if I had a choice, I would still want to do the IM Canada… but Lake Placid looks awesome too! As soon as I finish the 70.3 Ironman Muskoka… I will start training for Lake Placid. Oh man, that feels good.

Thanks for calling me Carlos!!! Lake Placid, here we come!

This time it will be different. Well, beating my IM France time wont be that hard! 🙂

Slowly getting back

Now that I completed IM France, not in the time I wanted, but still… It is time to get back to my training routine.

I didn’t train for 2 weeks after the race, and the third week I only did a few workouts (5 and half hours). Now I’m training again. I’m now following a 20 week 1/2 Ironman program, but my next major race (Muskoka 70.3 Ironman) is in 7 weeks. So I’ll do the first week of the training just to get the hang of it and then I’ll jump to week 14, which is the last week of the build phase.

I’m assuming I have enough base to jump to the peak phase again in two weeks, specially because the half Ironman plan has less hours per week then the Ironman plan I was doing. If I can and I’m feeling well, I’ll try to increase the intensity a bit. I really would like to get my biking power up, but 7 weeks wont be nearly enough for that. As of now, I don’t think I’m at my best yet. I’m running 10% slower to keep the same heart rate as before the IM race. One would think that after 3 weeks I would be recovered, but I don’t think I’m quite there yet.

On Tuesday Morning, I biked 1 hour and 20 minutes yesterday at a ridiculously low wattage of 154W. At least I included some 8 x 30 seconds @ 550 Watts. In the evening I swam 53 Minutes (about 3 km).  Today I’m doing a 45 min fartlek run…

As per my short term plans, on August 9th I’m going to participate in the Niagara (Subaru series) sprint distance race and on August 29th, I’m doing the HSBC Olympic race in Cobourg. Cobourg is actually a slight change on my racing schedule, which will replace Guelph (Subaru series) Sprint. Although I love the Guelph race, doing a olympic distance will be much better tuning race for the 70.3 Ironman. Funny how I was much more worried about the 70.3 last year… It is all relative!

I’m starting to look at the races for next year and I’ll do my best to sign-up for IM Canada. Next year I’m 40, so I have to finish another Ironman, but this time I want to make it right!

I’m also thinking about the 2010 race schedule. Once I figure that out, I might get an online coach too. Most likely I’ll use Mark Allen. I’ve exchanged a few email with him and I was very impressed with the quality and speed of responses. I also have a friend (Bryan) that uses his services and really likes it. Needless to say, Bryan is way better then me. He finished Muskoka like an hour before me last year!