This week and next I am reducing the training intensity before ramping up again. It's funny to think that I am calling this a recovery week because I still trained 12 hours this week. Much more intense than marathon training... In a couple of weeks I'll go back up to about 20hours a week!! 
This is proving to be a very time consuming endeavor. But I am committed. I think the Ironman race in September will require every minute of the training I am going through to be able to complete without a trip to the emergency room.

I am finding myself to be in good shape on the run, but I have a lot of catching up to do on the bike and the swim. 
In fact, it will probably take a couple of years of persistent training for me to reach a level that I find satisfactory (top of age group shape). 

I am slowly getting more comfortable on the swim. I now swim 2000 yards several times a week and it does not feel terribly hard as it used to. When I switch to open water though, I seem to lose my bearings. I can't swim in a straight line, I don't feel comfortable, my wetsuit seems to pull on my shoulders... I am really not there yet. Sure I can swim a mile, but my already slow swimming pool pace collapses in open water. I am trying to do one open water session a week now to try and find my groove.

On the bike, I am a bit better, but very far from where I want to be. On the rides with my tri club, I can really measure the difference of fitness between the triathlete that have been riding for years and me. I am still one of the slowest riders of the bunch which is not a pleasant feeling.
Furthermore, I rarely (if ever) feel ready to run after a long run. Somehow, I am going to have to start practicing that soon.

Transitions have been a total disaster in all of my races so I will need to practice that seriously.

7 WEEKS before the Ironman race! I still feel far from ready...

The date is approaching fast and while I feel just about ready to complete the course, I don't feel any confidence at all to be able to 'race' this distance. None of my long rides have gone particularly well. I usually am completely out of energy past 3 hours of riding and I have never quite been able to complete the planned long ride times on my schedule.
The half Ironman distance demands more respect than other races I have participated in. I will probably be on the course for about 6 hours so I better take it seriously and have a good plan to handle the rigors of the race.
It is quite challenging because I have no experience racing for that long especially not in a triathlon.
This race is my B-race. I signed up for it to gain experience for my Ironman distance race in September.

I have been thinking about this race for a couple of weeks now and the more I try to think about the details of the race, the more questions I have. What pace should I go for on the bike? Should I go really easy to make sure I can run afterwards? In any case what does easy mean on a relatively flat course? Should I use heart rate zones exclusively to pace myself? How fast will I be able to run? My experience running sub 1:30 half marathons may not be relevant here and I probably need to adjust my expectations. But by how much? How should I pace the different parts of the run? How about nutrition??

Just thinking about it does not help without a method.
With all these questions in mind, I decided to learn by reading on line blogs, forum posts and articles.
With all that information, I created a detailed racing plan from the pre-race stages to the end of the race (below).
The main concern for me is proper pacing. I am worried to pace too slow because I know I will be disappointed with an average time, especially if I don't push myself hard.
I have to try to remain realistic though. I AM a beginner triathlete and this is my very first half Ironman. This is a B-race which main purpose is to learn.
This means that everything considered, the result is not that important but it also means that I can allow myself to find the upper limit of my ability on this distance without too much fear of bonking.

With all these ideas I designed a plan for a sub 5-hour target finish time. I think for my ability, this would be a best case scenario time, but right now, from the comfort of my armchair, it does not seem completely impossible to achieve...

I entered the peak phase of my Ironman training a couple of weeks ago and I am really starting to feel how much of a commitment to the sport this really is.
Last week I ran 33 miles (well more like 36 - 37 if I include the warm ups), I biked 130 miles and swam about 10000 yards (if I include club swims). And this is just the beginning. I will ramp up the bike training a couple more notches as I approach the weeks leading to the event. This is so much harder than marathon training! Well it really is 3 times harder...

Sometimes I dread going out for a long (~5hr) ride by myself. But in the end, it's always worth it...

I love races. They keep me motivated to train, they're exciting to participate in, and they always offer learnings, insights and a good reality check.
I booked so many races for the end of 2013! It's almost idiotic. Probably too many.. I just can't help it . I just love races! Check out my race calendar!
In fact, I still have in mind that elusive sub 3 hour marathon.. Might squeeze in a couple of marathons before the end of the year to try my luck again. I'm not getting any younger but maybe I can still get a bit faster! 

What an adventure!...
As usual with relays, the race experience is enhanced by the teamwork dimension. And it is a lot of fun!
I had not been able to find friends to form a full team for this relay, so I left my contact information on the race website and I was contacted by a team 2 to 3 weeks before the race. Of course I jumped on the opportunity to participate in this promising race, a 195 mile race in the incomparably scenic landscapes of southern Utah. 
The course begins at Capitol Reef National park and ends at the top of Zion National Park.  The majority of the course is along Utah’s only “All-American Road” which passes through  Dixie National Forest,  over Boulder Mountain, through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument,  Bryce Canyon National Park, Red Canyon, and by Anasazi state park, Ecalante Petrified State Park, and Kodachrome State Park.

I had not done a lot of running to prepare for this race but with my triathlon training I was more than in shape to join a novice running team.
My team mates were recreational runners that had had minimal preparation for the race. 
The race took place of 2 days and one night of continuous running (6/28/13 to 6/29/13) with a team comprised of 12 runners and 2 support cars (we actually had 3 cars).
I was assigned to sub-team / car #1 with Dawnelle (a weight lifting 30ish year old woman), Nancy, 47, the most experienced runner of the team, Paxton 19 ( used to play sport but now a smoker with asthma and hardly any running background), Nina 16 and Denis 14 both of which had been running for a few months).
The second sub-team was a bit older in age (almost all in their 30ies but not much more experienced in running. Gordon, 52 was the most experienced runner of this group).
The fact that I was the most "hard core" and probably the fastest runner in the team put less pressure on me but I really wanted to perform well to help as much as I could.

I got the chance to kick off the race at 5am on 6/28/30. My leg assignment was tough but not the toughest of all. I was runner#1 and the most difficult assignment was for runner #2 (Denis). Since we had some uncertain and slightly injured runners in the group I had proposed my friend Florian, a very fast runner to join the team. I was supposed to be runner #2, however, at the last minute he cancelled and we maintained the assignments.
My leg assignments were 
#1 - 9.4 miles rated Super hard with a 1262 ft gain
#13 - 7.0 miles rated Very hard with 758 ft gain
#25 - 3.3 miles rated Easy with 299 gain
We ended shuffling the assignments a bit and I helped a few runners in the team that were either too tired or too much in pain to run.
I ended up running the following:
     -Leg 1, 
     -leg 13, 
     -end of Nina's leg 15 (2 miles) (she was in so much pain because her shoes were to small, 
     -leg 18 with Dawnelle (3.6 miles) (she was a bit scared to run alone at night so I ran with her), 
     -leg 30 (5.8 miles with 805 ft climb, rated very hard. Gosh that hill was tough at the end!...),
     -beginning of leg 32 (about 0.5 miles - Meredith's leg : she was not ready at the start of the leg)
     -end of Gordon's leg 36 and last leg of race, about 2 miles. It was so hot that afternoon (107F when I started this leg) that we decided to help Gordon out. 3 different runners helped run that leg.

The team allowed me to finish the race for them which was so nice of them and such an honor.
The whole race was a joy. I ran about 32 miles total, felt great, no sign of injury or fatigue the next day and I met a great bunch a people. AWESOME!

I took a few picture during the second day of the race but unfortunately, I missed the first day (no batteries)...