Road to IM 70.3: The First of Many

This begins a series of posts about my many adventures (and misadventures) as I train for Ironman Cebu 70.3 on August 5, 2012.  “ROAD TO IM 70.3” will be posted every Monday, but, if I have more to share, I may post another within the week.  This will be a countdown of sorts to race day.  A journal of my training…and all my whining (I’m not sure if you’ll want to hear this), bragging (hey, who else do I share my little achievements with?!), and learnings.

If you are a runner completely uninterested in triathlon, just sit back and enjoy.  You may pick up a thing or two to help your running or you may be inspired to try swimming or cycling or both.  At the very least, you may be entertained with the craziness of triathlon training.

If you are a triathlete, this could be a walk down memory lane as you recall the days when you were once a clueless, unbalanced, inflexible, yelping newbie like me.  Please stop yourself from laughing about my little mishaps or, worse, major idiotic moves.  If you can’t, then run to the bathroom, shut the door, let out a big guffaw, then come back to read more.  Oh, it would be great if you could drop a tip or two for myself and other readers, too.

Now, if you are a runner contemplating on getting into triathlon or hastily signed up for Ironman 70.3 like me, you’ve come to the right place!  Take this journey with me. It’s definitely merrier with more newbie triathletes thinking in unison:  “What the hell did I get myself into?!!”

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COUNTDOWN TO IRONMAN 70.3 CEBU: 10 WEEKS

10 more weeks to Ironman 70.3 Cebu. 5 more weeks to Tri United 2.  My coach, Andy Leuterio, reminded me about this early last week when he emailed me my program. Distances, particularly for the swim and bike, would substantially increase to build up for race day.  I swear my index finger was shaking when I clicked on the mouse to open Coach Andy’s file (which we’ve been tossing back and forth every week as he sends me the program on Monday and I return it filled up every Sunday) entitled: “Jaymie Pizarro’s Battle Plan.”  Total hours of training: 14 hours.

That week is over and I only hit 10 training hours.  Life got in the way you see!  That’s not to say that the week was not filled with things to be proud of or happy about.  Here are many firsts that made this week fantastic for me:

1) First time to ride alone…and I hit 65k!  (I was supposed to ride 100k that day in JalaJala with friends, but my ITBS started acting up. Aaargh!)

2) First time to drink from the internal bladder on the Shiv. (Don’t laugh. I’ve had the Shiv for over a month now, but it’s taken us (me and him) quite some time to get familiar with each other.)

– This is the straw for the Shiv’s internal bladder which makes it accessible while riding –

– Shiv’s internal bladder in the pink circle –

Special thanks to Coach Norman Pascual who allowed me to be saling pusa for a day in his bike skills session at SM MOA. We spent 2 hours going around in circles just to get me and another student, Patty, to get to drink while riding!  While I can drink from the straw, I still need to learn how to drink from the bottle!  Need more bike skill sessions!

– with Coach Norman Pascual, Jun, Rex, Monching, Patty, Tina, Dennis, Weng, and Ruben –

3) First time to attach my Garmin 310XT to the Shiv!  Got myself the Garmin bicycle mount kit (which I’ll be changing to the Quick Release Kit) and the Garmin Speed/Cadence Sensor.

– Garmin 310XT will be for the Shiv now.   I’m using the Garmin Bicycle Mount kit here, but I’ll be changing it to the Quick Release Kit –

– Attached Garmin Speed/Cadence Sensor’s three components: GSC 10, pedal magnet, and spoke magnet –

– Close up of pedal magnet –

Garmin Speed/Cadence Sensor: P3,550
Garmin Bicycle Mount Kit: P1,750

Where to buy:
Navco, 3/F Millennium Place, Meralco Ave. cor J. Vargas Ave. Ortigas Center, Pasig.
Phone: 782-5913 / 571-6716

4) First time to swim this far: 2.5k!  Woot woot!  Don’t ask me to clap though because my arms were extremely exhausted the day after.

5) First time to post on my Road to Ironman 70.3 series!  Here’s to 10 more to go before the big day!