The 112th Running of the Boston Marathon, Revisited

Here's a flashback to the Boston Marathon earlier this year:

http://www.imcoaching.com/Myles%20Boston%202008.htm

Resurrecting The Blog

I've been thinking about resurrecting this blog for a few weeks now, especially since I've just started ramping up my training for Ironman Arizona on November 23rd, and there are some interesting training challenges coming up as another Calgary autumn settles in. In addition, today is the third anniversary of my first (and hopefully not last) Ironman victory, winning the 45-49 age group at Ironman Wisconsin in 2005. Since then, I've raced five more Ironman triathlons, a couple of Boston marathons, and worked/lived/trained in Cuba, the Middle East and northern Italy. So if the related stories don't interest you, the pictures might!

Back to training for IM AZ. I am 11 weeks from race day, and the serious volume is kicking in. I had a pretty good base of fitness coming in to this build cycle, but turned an ankle over a couple of weeks back which forced me out of a local Olympic-distance race, and off of running for a week. I used this as an excuse to go easy for a couple of weeks, and recharge mentally. It's been a long training year, as I was training for the Boston Marathon since January. Much of that training was done in stupidly hot and humid weather (which I love) in Yemen, or in stupidly cold weather (which I freaking hate) here in Calgary.

I went to Ironman Canada as a spectator; and had a great training day there with an 11km run in the morning, and a 130km ride following the bike and run courses. It was a fantastic day, seeing the pro male and female athletes at the front of the race, then cheering on friends on the run course. I'll do it again next year, then sign up for 2010 so I can race it as a 50-year-old!

I started swimming and weight training again this week after a couple of weeks of slacking, and managed a 300km cycling week, thanks mainly to Monday and Friday off. Funny thing is, 17 hours plus of training, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Triathlon is so simple: No politics, no judging, no perceptions. Just beat the clock. The clock never lies!

Below is last week vs. this week. There will be some bigger weeks ahead!