Tuesday, October 28, 2014

IM Florida - My Trip to my 10th Ironman

If all goes well, IM Florida will mark my 10th Ironman - double digits baby! When I started out doing IM in 1989 I told myself that I would do 10. #10 is upon me and we will see what happens from here. Truth be told training has not gone well - family life and work have taken priority. On the family front it's been all kids stuff, some good and some not so good. On the good front it was Logan's 11th birthday on October 25th! The Dude is 11 - wow time flies! We went bowling and go-karting and had a blast. I won't bother with the not so good stuff - it's best to be left "in house". Suffice to say that it will all work out.

As for training I have not been that frequent. I managed to get a 4200m swim, 170k bike and 32k run in during my lead up. The bad news is I have managed to only swim once a week, bike and run twice weekly. My taper is a 3-week taper. I've never tapered that long before but I haven't been able to get out training as much so it will have to do. Perhaps being a little undertrained and more rested may help. Strategy on race day will be to lower my pace expectations and see what happens - not expecting any PRs this go around!

The drive down to Panama City Beach was the best we've experienced. The weather for the drive has been amazing - not a cloud in the sky and the roads were not too busy. Sara pretty much spent from Hamilton to Detroit on the phone - trying to get as much in before crossing the border. I really don't know how she will cope!

Sun setting in Tennessee. We stopped just past Nashville and stayed at a Four Points Sheraton on reward points. Next morning it was on through Alabama and finally through Florida. The cool thing about Alabama and Florida in this region is that most of it was on country roads. It was cool to see the rural areas and cotton fields.

Hard to see in this pic but the red sign says "Logan's Roadhouse"

Finally after 20 hours of driving we arrived at Panama City Beach. The evening was clear and beautiful. I took this pic from our 3rd floor balcony - gorgeous! We are at the Watercrest. It's a few hundred meters from the marathon course and about 4k to the race site and, of course, right on the beach.

Sunset our first night.

This morning on our balcony. We've seen lots of dolphins. Hard to see in this pic but the black dot in the middle of the picture is a jet fighter from the nearby Air Force Base. They routinely fly down the coast. I was having my coffee and 3 flew by in formation about 500 feet above the water - they are incredibly powerful. Too bad I couldn't focus my phone to get a better shot. Anyway that's all for now. I will be registering for the race tomorrow and will update regularly this week.
 
Cheers!

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