Category — Training

Winter’s still here but the miles have slowly been accumulating. Now 11 weeks into training and happy that the sun is finally starting to make an appearance again. As of today there are 126 days until Ironman 70.3 Switzerland.

Grand totals thus far are:
Swimming: 61.0km
Biking: 0.0km
Running: 99.0km

Finally, here’s a video from a recent SwimSmooth swim clinic I attended. It’s definitely given me some more self-awareness and a few things to look out for!

It’s been about 5 weeks since signing up for the Ironman and I’ve been steadily making progress in the pool. I’ve been following a training program from SwimSmooth which has been great for keeping to a schedule but also, keeping it interesting.

I’ve updated my Training Progress page with automatic charts to track my progress. It uses Google Docs to update things automatically as easily as possible.

Grand totals thus far are:
Swimming: 39.7km
Biking: 0.0km
Running: 26.0km

I’ve been waiting to pull the trigger on this, but the idea has been rumbling around in my mind for months. I’m happy to say that I’m now registered for my first Ironman 70.3 race next June in Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland (Official Site). For those that aren’t familiar with the Ironman series, the 70.3 is a triathlon with a 1.9km swim, 90km bike, and 21.1km run. The full Ironman is twice that, so we’ll save that for another day!

Key details

When: June 6th, 2010
Where: Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland (Google Map)
Why: One thing leads to another…
Goal: < 6 hours based on a back of the napkin calculation

It’s been a long time in coming, but between completing my first marathon last year, finally learning to swim this year (seriously), and entering my first sprint triathlon in August, it’s time for a big one.

Along the way I’ll be posting my training schedule, progress, and tricks I learn here on Across the Pond. If you happen to be racing or would like to show your support, consider joining our Facebook group.

And of course… if anyone’s looking for a vacation in Switzerland in June… it’d be great to see you!

A few weeks ago Jen and I completed our first triathlon (400m Swim, 20km Bike, 5km Run) with a few friends of ours. Everyone did great (if we do say so ourselves), and for me, it felt good to finally tackle swimming; something I never actually learned as a kid.

As with the marathon last year, we’re taking a slight breather from training while we contemplate plans for next year. I think it’s safe to say that we’ll continue with more triathlons though. The combination of specialities really helps keep things interesting and offers more well-rounded overall fitness than running or cycling alone.

When I picked up my Forerunner 301 a few years ago, Garmin’s support for the Mac left much to be desired. MotionBased was clunky, the connection required some finagling, and on it went.

When I really picked up running last year I tried out a few different tools for syncing my training progress to my Mac. Ascent is very powerful. You can literally relive your runs and rides and dissect your performance by the minute. It’s handy for exporting routes but it really was more than I wanted. I ended up going with Runner’s Log which I loved for its simplicity and fun little progress awards to keep you motivated. Although it’s specifically for running and doesn’t handle routes or mapping, it was perfectly what I needed last year.

With our first triathlon coming up, I’ve been back in the market for an easy way to track progress, and share/discover great routes both on foot and the bike. I tried MapMyRun.com at a buddy’s suggestion, but for me, it was overkill. There were ads all over the site, offers to upgrade to premium, and a never ending set of details to enter about each and every training session. The UI was, very much, out-of-control. After using it once or twice it was quickly taking the fun out of any training progress I was making.

…

Enter Garmin Connect. Somehow I came back to Garmin’s site to see how they were getting on with the Mac support they promised oh so long. After downloading my entire GPS history and using the site the last few days I have to say that Garmin Connect is fabulous!

Syncing my GPS was fast and easy after installing one simple plugin in Safari 4. The interface is clean and appealing, and the feature set is focused. You can view routes in Google Maps, playback your route, chart speed, elevation, heart rate, and cadence, set goals, export in various formats, and post to social networking. Searching for routes in my area led to some really good finds: enough to motivate me to get out on the bike for 47 miles today! Now I can’t wait to explore some more.

It’s been a long time in coming, but Garmin, I like what I see so thanks!
Link to my Garmin Connect profile.

Screenshots