We're one year out from Ironman Tahoe 2013, which will take place on September 22, next year. With one year left to train and one year left to fund-raise, things are looking good. Let's take a look at where I am. Things are going well on the fundraising front - This thing has been officially "on" for almost two months and I'm at 20% of my goal of raising $8,000 to fight blood cancer. You can check my current progress at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and donate if you'd like. If I can keep this pace up I should make my goal before the race next year which would be totally awesome. Thanks to each of you who have already donated!
I'd like to make a special shout-out to the newly wed DiVerdi couple, who donated $250 and then had it matched by Adobe! That's huge!
As far as training goes I'm also doing well. I'm working on endurance in all three sports and trying to avoid sprints or over-doing anything in order to keep healthy. (except for one teensy-weensy little half marathon - see below.) I've managed to go half-Ironman distance in all three sports in the last month which is reassuring. Not in the same day - just individual efforts.
I'm nowhere near ready for the real thing right now but it's nice to be able to swim 2,200 yards or bike 56 miles and visualize what's needed to double the effort. I'm feeling good about both of those sports and I can see how to build the volume to get where I need to be.
Running, however, is a different story. Running is clearly my weakest sport and given the magnitude of the run and the fact that's its the last event, the run is going to be the hardest. The only way I'm going to be ready for that leg is a slow, steady, smart build up in run endurance.
Having said that, last weekend had some over-exertion in the form of a half-marathon at the SF Giants Race. It was way longer than I would ever go in a training run at this point but it was a lot of fun and it was a good chance to collect some data and experiment with my run/walk strategy.
The run/walk strategy went well (6 minutes jogging, 1 minute of walking) and my heart rate was looking good up through mile 11 when it started to climb a bit, indicating I was at the end of my range. I couldn't have gone much farther without digging WAY deeper. Normal amounts of soreness followed for the next couple days, so I think everything went very well.
In summary, things are looking good. I've got a year to go and I'm pretty sure I've got the training under control. I leave it up to all of you to make sure the fundraising part gets done as well. I appreciate the help!