My Path to Kona: Part 2

3 Oct 2011-

In my last blog I talked about what it took to get to Kona briefly.  I have now been here for 2 days and have just been soaking it all up.  It is such an unreal feeling to be here, almost feels like a fantasy world.  The vibe here is crazy, the place is electric and everywhere you look there are all kinds of fit people.  It is the lifestyle that these people live, there are people here who aren't even racing yet they are out training along with all the other athletes.  We all share a common goal, we are all trying to get to that finish line on Saturday, some faster than others, but we are all reaching for that same line.

Everyone took different paths to get here.  Some people train to get to Kona for years, others have been doing this race for years.  Everyone's journey to get here is unique, some people have been fortunate to qualify there first time, others have missed it by seconds or minutes and have had to wait a whole year to try again.  Some people repeat this process for years on end trying to get here, some people are realistic and realize they will never be fast enough to qualify so they attempt to get selected in the lottery year after year.  Everyone has been on a journey to get to the start line on Saturday, here is a little bit about my journey from a training stand point.

As mentioned in Part 1, I spoke about the biggest changes I made this year.  Getting a coach being the biggest change.  With getting a coach came a structured plan, guidance, experience and knowledge.  All of the things I needed to get to where I am.  I use to just go out and bike, now I have a structured workout which at times has intensity at others just an easy spin.  This is what most people know is what they need in their weekly schedule, the problem is they don't quite understand how each workout correlates to the other and how to properly structure a week, month, months of workouts.  This is why I searched for a coach and chose to go with Team TBB Online Coaching and chose Scott Defilippis.  Here is a look at what last years training looked like:

(Click image to enlarge) From 12/01/09-12/01/10, Total Hours Trained per week

So to most people the above image is a pretty heavy load of training.  In actuality it is pretty light for training for a half IM in May and a Marathon in September.  Below is a chart from this year, you have to remember this is what I DID, not what my coach TOLD me to do.

 

(Click image to enlarge) From 12/01/10-9/30/11, Total Hours Trained per week

As you can see this past year has been a lot bigger with the training load.  The one thing that is not included on there is the amount of classes I was taking and how high our ops tempo(work load and prep to fly, fight and win against North Korea).  So from October 2010 till October 2011 I took 6 college classes and still worked a FULL time job, believe it or not I actually do work for the Air Force and don't just train all the time ;)  The hardest part of all of this was from Feb 15th- Mar 15th when I was taking 4 classes at once, that created 0 social life.  You can see the weeks vary and the prep for Kona has not been as ideal as it was for Korea, but I am feeling stronger than before Korea and am feeling really fit right now.  When your season goes as long as mine has been, people tend to face burnout.  I came across this after IM Korea, as you can see, and it took a few weeks to bounce back.  This was not the "plan" but this is just what happened.

Like I talked about a little bit in my last blog was the lifestyle.  So as you can see above my life has pretty much consisted of work, training and school.  I haven't really had time for much other of a social life.  It has it draw backs to be training and that focused on something, but as you can tell I am now reaping the rewards for the "hard work".  I am not in a place or in the right situation to be seeking out a relationship, Korea is a short tour and I know I will be leaving soon, so it is not ideal.  Now by all means if the right girl comes around, then so be it, but I am not actively out there searching.

With the above chart from this year, here is what kind of mileage those hours produced:

Swim-148 miles/79 hours

Cyclilng- 6,054 miles/323 hours

Running-1,221 miles/155 hours

So that is what the past 10 months have looked like.  They have been full of excitement, craziness, and a lot of good memories.  You can call it hard training, structured workouts, and a lot of focus, but I look at it as just going out and having fun on a daily basis.  Well for the most part at least, as with everything there are the bad days and good days, but for the most part if you go out for every session wanting to have fun, then it is FUN!

Here is a link that was posted on Team TBB's Website in regards to the AG Athletes racing in Kona: http://teamtbb.com/?option=com_content&task=view&id=1294

If you have any questions about my training I would be more than happy to answer them, as long as they aren't specific to my exact workouts, those are my coaches and if you want that information I am more than happy to put you in contact with him.  Contact me via email at: airforcebadbrad@yahoo.com with questions or for my coaches information.

Thanks to my coach for taking and putting in a great effort to my training plan, it was by no means a cookie cutter plan.  I doubt there are many others out there that have a schedule like me, or have to make changes here and there due to my crazy work schedule.  Thanks again for everything you have done and all of the time you have put in to get me to where I am!  Thanks to everyone else who follows this blog and my journey to Kona.