Ironman North Carolina 70.3

Well this has been an odd season for me.  Several of my favorite races that also coincided with my training as marker races to see how I was progressing were cancelled.  This threw me in all sorts of a tailwind.  In addition to all that, I started to loose my focus and passion for this sport towards the last two months leading up to Ironman (IM) North Carolina (NC).

It could have been the copious amounts of travel I was doing for work, roughly 22 days a month.  After all, it was insanely frustrating to not have the equipment I needed.  When you needed a bike and all the hotel has in a recumbent bike, and there is not a gym for miles, well...it sucks.  I got in plenty of runs on hotel treadmills but I seriously probably missed 70-80% of my swim and bike training sessions the last two months.

I decided I was out way too much money for IMNC 70.3 that I was not going to back out.  I also knew that my drive to not quit anything was strong and that I could make my mind get through my first Ironman 70.3.  Despite the fact that a devastating hurricane just came thru the state a few days before.  I thought to myself, I'm mentally rock solid, now my body may not be but mentally I can do this.  I've always heard that this journey is as much mental as it was physical.  Well I was about to put that to the test.  All I could imagine was that I was going to be that guy crawling across the finish line and everyone was cheering me on, only for me to stand up and they realize it was only a half-ironman and then be booed out of Wilmington!

Anywho, the journey has started and I decided to go down a day earlier than the rest of the family, as they didn't want to miss school and frankly I wanted to time to freak out privately and through a hissy fit about doing this for the first time.

So off I went for the roughly 5 hour drive to Wilmington, NC to get checked in to our hotel and the event itself.  The drive took way longer than expected and my legs were hurting from the constant braking  and pressing the gas.  Maybe an omen to what would occur two days from now.  I finally got to the hotel, a little too late to make the registration on Thursday, by like two minutes....I was bummed.

I woke up Friday morning first thing and headed over to get registered.  Plenty of time I thought as I still needed to prep my bike get stuff to transition areas and all that fun stuff.  Well I walk in and a line is out the door.  All in all, a two hour wait just to register.  Well there went the plans for the day, walking the expo without kids asking a million questions or knocking things over, that's out the window.  What was now in session was a sprint distance triathlon for the day to get everything set up.  Oh, I didn't mention the two different transition areas a mere 10-15 miles apart from each other.  That was a first for me.

Then I headed over to rack the old bike and the volunteers were absolutely fantastic.  One of the reasons I chose IMNC was that I knew the volunteers would be great and showing true southern hospitality.

Then I drove back over to T2 to drop off the bags for the run course.  Did I mention all the IM bags?  Geez, there were a lot!  Makes me really appreciate the ones with just one transition area.  Okay, now back to the room to rest from my mini sprint triathlon of setting everything up.  More to follow later on the actual race and my experience there.  Its been a month and I'm still trying to process all of this.

Good news continues

Things continue to go well.  I've recently switched coaches to Susan Kitchen, who is a certified Triathlon coach and also a Registered Dietitian and a slew of other certifications and licenses.  She has a few other athletes she works with who have diabetes and since I was having a problem with cramps I decided to work with her in hopes to really make some gains and finally figure out the nutrition part of this triathlon thing!

So far, I am making good gains, cramps are going away almost gone but not completely.  I'm really pleased so far.  Susan, like bricks for workouts, which is new for me but I am hoping that helps program my body that doing multiple events is normal.

My sugars continue to be good, I have noticed though that they get pretty low right before bed time.  Low for me, usually around 80 right before bed.  Continuing to experiment with the proper nutrition there.  I'll keep you updated!  Thought you may enjoy the pic of my 2 hour stationary bike ride while I was on the road this past week.

A1C level dropping

Well I am happy to report that my A1C levels, related to my diabetes, continue to drop. The latest reading has me at 6.1 which is fantastic!

My doctor, is truly a partner in this fight with me and I am so thankful for her support, encouragement, and guidance. For me it was a long process to find a doctor that fit this mold.  I tried MD's, endochrinlogist and everything in between. I did a lot of research before deciding on an DO which is just like an MD except they take a more holistic approach and incorporate it into medicine. It's been a perfect fit for me. 

This latest round even has me coming off one of my medicines!  I AM BEATING DIABETES. 

Triathlon Season 2016

Triathlon season 2016 started and there's plenty to be thankful for. Allow me to list them out and then explain. 

1) Awesome family support

2) Ambassador for iamvelocity.com and Honey Stinger

3) Coach Keek

4) Continue to beat Diabetes

1) Awesome family support: I continue to be supported by a wonderful wife Angela and my two awesome daughters. They all allow me to train countless hours and support me every step of the way. I am grateful for their support and love seeing them out there cheering me on. 

2) Ambassador: probably the coolest thing this year is that I was selected to serve as an ambassador for Velocity Sportswear and Honey Stinger. It super cool as I was already enjoying my Velocity shirts and Honey Stinger products before I was selected so it was really cool to be an ambassador for products you already love. The Velocity gear is SUPER comfy and their artist is super talented. To boot, I am part of a cool family they put together. We call ourselves TriMafia and I feel like these folks are really kin folk as we encourage and support each other, super cool. 

3) Coach: I decided to splurge this year and get a coach. Mainly because years one and two I was "winging" it the whole way. She's really helped keep me accountable and I've made some pretty awesome gains with her. I placed in my first every tri and set a two PRs this year in 5ks. Broke my record twice already!

4) Diabetes: as most of you know I have type 2 diabetes and it's one of two main reasons I got into this sport. I continue to beat it and my last A1C reading, March 2016, was 6.1. I'm doing well and really want to continue to beat this disease. It WILL NOT BEAT ME. 

Below is a pic after I placed on my first triathlon this year. 

The next picture is the PR I broke in a 5k this year coming in sub 30 minutes, I'm a slow runner but getting better. 

Till next time,

Jonathan

My Favorite, the pool

Far and away my favorite triathlon activity is swimming. From what I have seen and heard its quite the opposite from what others feel. (BTW, my least favorite is running). I have already gotten into the pool twice this short training season after a 3.5 month break. I am excited about the results so far. I am already swimming at a comfortable pace and it turns out it is about 15 seconds faster than my 100 split last year.

I did decide to purchase some fins from TYR and some paddles. They have made all the difference and I can really tell when my form is poor. I love using them for a few laps and then switching to nothing to see how I need to correct things.

 In addition, I also got the Garmin 920FX and I love it (from Clever Training after the through review from DC Rainmaker). I mean I love technology as is, but this thing is awesome. On my swim I used the watch and it was awesome to see and analyze my time in the pool. I'm not sure what "good" is but I look forward to finding out which stroke counts are considered acceptable and getting better every day. It could be the excitement but I am swimming farther than last year too. If you follow the blog you know I had a few mishaps last year that led me to only doing 2 sprint triathlons. Both swims were like 250 yards. In my two swim sessions so far I have gone in excess of 1000 yards. I love being in the pool and it also does wonders for my blood sugar!

 Till next time, Jonathan

Training Season

Well the training season is upon us and I decided to run a 5.5k (yes, 5.5) to both ring in the new year and the new training season. Jones Racing Company puts on a wonderful event, I done a couple of them. The wife and I decided to change up our normal routine of running the Commitment Day run on Jan 1st in Charlotte and switched it toThe Running of the Lights in Tanglewood Park. 

What an event!  So much to do and such a beautiful run through the lights. The race begins promptly at 12:00am on Jan 1st and you ring in the new year running the course. The run was great although I quickly realized I have quite a bit to work on. Running has always been my weak sport, always!  You also can't beat warm hot chocolate and chicken noodle soup at the end, awesome!

All in all the event was great and you can't beat spending time with the Misses and exercising at the same time. 

Yep, it happen, AGAIN

Well just as I was getting to the tail end of my ankle injury I begin riding my bike and was even able to swim a couple hundred meters with minimal pain.  I was feeling good and ready to get back on the road to a triathlon.  

Just two days after getting back on the trainer at home, my family took me on an AWESOME Father's Day retreat.  It was amazing in so many ways.  We decided to leave an hour to two early since I was flying  out the next morning for work and I needed to pack and do some yard work.  Long story short, almost done with clearing some brush and overhang from some trees, only had one tree left and as I was walking the chainsaw back up the hill it slipped out of my hand and onto my leg.  Luckliy it was off, but it required a few stitches and sliced the leg up pretty good.  

My wife and daughters were awesome in helping me to mitigate the damage and stop the blood.  We went to Urgent Care first, they refused to touch me, then we went to ER, they were dumbfounded that I walked in and even said they could tell military training kicked in.  They actually called my moves RAMBO-esque, but hey whose bragging!  Anyways a few stiches later, I'm all fixed up and docs say I can resume activity within the next 10 days.  Heres to hoping I don't screw that up too!