Plan Created, Knighthood, and Fundraising!

1/27 - 2/23: Training Log and Update: Ironman for a cause

General Update

The past month has gone by so fast! It's amazing how time flies as you get "older". With a new job, time goes by even quicker! Finding the routine that works for the entire family will take some time (What time in the morning do I need to wake up and is there enough time at lunch for a run? Is there a shower I can use at work? What time at night if I'm doing a double? All the while making my family my number one priority!)

I started my new job in Providence on February 3rd. On my first day, I was on a plane to Madison, WI for training and would be there for two straight weeks. Once I got back, my wife had to go to Illinois for a few days with the kid. By the time she came back, I had to go back to Madison, WI for training again. My wife and I were home together with the kid for 6.5 days. Out of that 6.5 days, my wife's friends were there for four and the other two we were working. Now granted, this isn't anything like the military, but it was definitely a tough month.

Plan Created

I've created a 21 week training plan for Ironman Lake Placid. The first three weeks in March is base mileage, but adds doubles and longer workouts. By the fourth week, begins more doubles (5 a week) then slowly moving to six days a week. Saturday and Sunday feature the long days and at least one brick per week.

April features intervals, tempos, and longer brick workouts. Staying with the same theme of every Saturday being a long brick day and Sunday being a long run. The continuation of doubles are now six times per week.

May and June is the bulk of the training. This is going to require the most amount of time, doubles six times a week, long brick workout on the weekend and long runs on Sunday's. Hopefully these being the only two months out of the year, Lisa will be more lenient? We shall see!

July is the peaking month. All the training has come down to this month. There is a heavy week early on, but pretty much just coast from the second week until the big race day.

Here are screenshots of my workout plan:

                                       

Knighthood

This was an epic day. It was challenging, fun, entertaining, and thoughts of "what am I doing" crossed my mind. Nonetheless, I carried through and completed the task!

What is Knighthood? Knighthood is the passage way in a fictional nation called Sufferlandria. This fictional world was created by a company, Sufferfest, that creates and produces cycling workout videos. Essentially it is to put you on a "team" as you ride against other individuals within the video so you are able to use your imagination to push yourself harder. So in order to become a "citizen" or a "Knight/Dame" in Sufferlandria, you must pass their Citizen/Knight/Dame test by completing 10 of their videos in consecutive order. This isn't any walk in the park either. Sufferfest produces videos to make their cyclist truly suffer. You push yourself as if you were racing, going up hills, high resistance, low resistance so forth. 

So what is the big deal? Anyone could just ride 10 hours on a bike and it wouldn't hurt that bad? Well, then you are not doing Knighhood correctly. Here is a link to one of the videos that I did: http://www.thesufferfest.com/video-sufferfests/violator/ You truly push yourself to the next limit. For runners, imagine racing 10 10ks back to back to back, 15 5ks back to back to back. 

So my day started at 6 a.m. and had a normal breakfast. I didn't want to do anything out of the ordinary just because I was about to ride my bike for nearly 12 hours on this certain day. The previous night I went and bought some Powerade, Lays potato chips, grapes, oranges, bananas, granola bars, and pickles. All of which were used throughout the day.

In my mind I split the day up in three different phases, the first four videos, second four videos, and the last two. 

Videos 1 through 4

The first four videos went very well, this was a total of 70 miles (18.1 average m.p.h.) at 183.6 watts of output, which is about 65% of my FTP, so perfect for what I was shooting for. I drank about 20 ounces of water along with eight ounces of Powerade per video. After video two, I ate a banana and a handful of grapes. However, nothing I was eating currently was going to hold me all day. But this early on in the videos. 

Videos 5 through 8

The next four videos was were I started to struggle. At the start of this next phase, I have been on my bike for four hours and just staring at the computer screen.and no one was in the house (Lisa had a business trip, February was just a crazy month!). So this venture is completely self supported and the house is silent with the exception of some of my pain noises. I hadn't really been able to figure out my nutrition, something I've always struggled with. By video six, or number two in this phase, I finally figured out what I needed. Pickle juice, chips, and water. 

You may be asking yourself, pickle juice? Seriously? I was just like that, until I forced myself to try it. I was beginning to cramp and not recovering, I was told through some people who had achieved Knighthood that pickle juice worked wonders. By video six, I tried it and it worked! 

I had a few sips of Powerade, but I found it was starting to bog me down. Between that and the fruit I couldn't handle with the added sugar content of the Powerade as well. By video seven, I was back and feeling great! This phase brought me an additional 55 miles (14.6 average m.p.h.) at an average of 118.75 watts. Just by seeing the m.p.h. and watts, its very apparent I went out a little to eager.

Videos 9 and 10

I was very excited to know I only had two videos left. My legs were at the point where I wasn't if I could get off my bike then again hop back on. The struggle didn't just stop there, restarting was something my legs didn't enjoy either. The nutrition aspect was down by this point and it wasn't even a concern. Salty chips, lunch meat, pickles, water, and by video ten Powerade. My body was reacting to what I was doing like a champ. Those viewing the live feed could hear my struggles ans I tried to ramp up the last two videos, which worked! I ended up with 30.8 miles (19.5 mph average) at an average of  137 watts.

Knighthood Totals

Miles: 155.8

Total Time on Bike itself: 9 hours 55 min

Total Event Time: 11 hours

Average M.P.H.: 17.4 m.p.h.

Average watts: 146.45 watts (52% of my FTP, 2.02 w/kg)

Total money raised for MMRF: $350

I was told that I am the first person ever from the state of Rhode Island to complete this task. Additionally, I become the 88th person in the entire world to complete this as well!

Fundraising

On this front, we are 50% there! Thank you to everyone who has donated! 

If you are/were planning to donate, but may have slipped your mind you still have time. Go to the Ironman for a Cause Donation Center button at the top of the page to donate. 

I will be thinking of something else to do in order to get over the final hump to get my goal soon. Stay tuned for those details!

If you have donated, ask your HR department if your employer does donation matching. Many companies will donate a 1:1 to the same cause. Your $100 donation just turned into $200!

Additionally, I was told that I can sell space on the MMRF racing jersey. If you are interested in putting your name, company logo, or someone else's name shoot me an email! (czeman04@gmail.com) I would gladly work with you on that!

Training

The month of February was a little rough. The traveling and not having a "normal" schedule truly puts a damper on the plans. I was able to swim, bike, and run throughout the month, just not at the levels I was hoping for. 

With my plan set, I am truly excited what my training can bring over the next few months:

1/27-2/2
Total: 101 Miles/ 9 hours 20 min
Swim: 5,103 meters / 3.1 miles / 2 hours 15 minutes
Bike: 83 miles (Trainer) / 5 hours 00 minutes
Run: 15 miles / 2 hours 05 minutes
Core: 0 hours 00 minutes

2/3-2/9
Total: 44.2 Miles / 7 hours 32 min
Swim: 6,000 meters 3.1 miles / 2 hours 15 minutes
Bike: 00 miles (Trainer) / 0 hours 00 minutes
Run: 40.5 miles / 5 hours 02 minutes
Core: 0 hours 00 minutes

2/10-2/16
Total: 43.7 Miles / 7 hours 30 min
Swim: 6,000 meters / 3.7 miles / 2 hours 30 minutes
Bike: 00 miles (Trainer) / 0 hours 00 minutes
Run: 40 miles / 5 hours 00 minutes
Core: 0 hours 00 minutes

2/17-2/23
Total: 180 Miles / 13 hours 20 min
Swim: 4,000 meters / 2.5 miles / 1 hours 55 minutes
Bike: 162.5 miles (Trainer) / 10 hours 04 minutes
Run: 15 miles / 1 hour 21 minutes
Core: 0 hours 00 minutes