Ryan Schneider's Diary of Ironman Training & Life in General
I raced at the San Dimas Turkey Tri yesterday, where I personally played the role of turkey. I misunderstood a turn sign at the end of the first bike course loop, dropped from fourth place in my age group to fifth, and lost out on another chance to qualify for the Age Group National Championships -- by one place. I have a good reason though, I swear.
Read MoreIt's appropriate that volunteering at Ironman Arizona this past weekend coincides with Thanksgiving. As soon as I got home from Tempe yesterday, I called my parents and told them how truly grateful I was for their support last year along with the rest of my family. Sure, I wasn't as physically fatigued from volunteering, but still my feet cracked with pain, my lower back was on fire, my senses were overwhelmed and I darn near felt delirious as Mike Reilly started dancing down the finisher's chute before midnight.
Read MoreOne year ago today, I arrived in Tempe, Arizona, scared and excited to reach a yearlong quest to become an Ironman. My feelings then are still so vivid now. The unabashed pride entering the Athlete Registration tent and Body Marking tent. I never wanted that paint to wear off my arms and legs. I remember how I knew I belonged in that tent and there was no place else on the planet I'd rather be in that moment.
Read MoreA year ago tonight, I was walking around the neighborhood with Stephanie checking out Trick-or-Treaters' costumes after my final Build phase workout leading to Ironman Arizona taper.
Tonight, it's an off-day of training and recovery from a hard 40-mile ride yesterday.
A year ago this past weekend, I completed nine hours of training in two days back-to-back.
This weekend, I completed less than half. Though it's far more intense with back-to-back track workouts and a 4,500 foot climb at the Malibu Gran Fondo yesterday (benefiting the Livestrong Foundation). A year ago, I learned the lessons of someone trying to figure out why I was so exhausted heading into the taper phase. A year later, I'm missing the naivete that comes with the wonderment associated with "Can I do it?" Yep, I miss the nerves from a year ago. The giddy sensation. The fear of the unknown. But what I'm learning now is that my fitness level isn't really that far removed from my Ironman race shape.
Read MoreI'm not a big country music guy, but since my wife is a somewhat closeted country music gal, I've been exposed to it over the past several years. I'll even admit that I kinda like Rascal Flats and that maybe if one of their songs was on the country music station I happened to flip through on the radio dial, I'd stop and take a listen. Just maybe I might turn the volume up a bit too. As long as I'm by myself.
My favorite country music song is by Toby Keith, "As Good Once as I Ever Was." If you don't know it, Keith sings about how he may have lost a step or two over the years, but that when it ultimately matters, his mind (if not his body) thinks he can muster just one more virtuoso tryst/bar fight, etc.. I think it's the ultimate Weekend Warrior song, and it aptly describes how this past weekend's Playa del Rey Triathlon went.
Read MoreYou know you haven't blogged in a while when you forget the password to your own site! (But I did write a piece recently for my buddy Jim Gourley's blog. You can check it out here!) First off, I expect nobody to read this. I don't blame anyone for that but myself. I took people on a journey -- one that I'm very proud of after re-reading my entries from more than a year ago -- and then I abandoned whatever audience I had accumulated. I needed a break, plain and simple. I needed more free time. Time with my now-wife. Time with friends and family I had also abandoned at times in pursuit of my own Ironman quest.
Read MoreSo this is what it's like to be a "retired" athlete. Now that the Official Wedding Countdown Clock is ticking loudly, I've noticed that my workouts are becoming fewer and farther between. What used to be a 1.5 hour trail run has become a 30-minute jog around the block. A 1.5 hour bike ride at Griffith Park has become a one hour (albeit quite intense) session on my new CompuTrainer. About the only thing I've kept up with is my swimming, on strict orders from Coach Gerardo that I get in the pool four times a week to work on improving technique. I've even failed at that, hitting three swim sessions a week appears to be my ceiling at the moment.
Read MoreTwo weeks from tonight, Stephanie and I are getting married. It feels pretty similar to that overwhelming feeling I got two weeks before my first Ironman. Instead of relying on all the training that got me to that moment, all I could think about was the unknown of whether I'd reach the finish line. This past week, it was hard not to think about the statistics working against Steph and me, the high divorce rates, shrinking marriage numbers and total strangers I met during my bachelor party weekend who bitterly told me of their failed relationships and why I should reconsider my own. On top of that, wedding planning reached a feverish peak. We had tension in the house, deadlines closing in, bills to pay, seating charts to make, and one hell of an Excel spreadsheet filled with to-dos.
It almost became too much to handle.
Then, I recalled my Ironman training and the race itself. First, I got to the finish line. I made it! I trusted the hard work and it paid off. Then, I remembered the team of supporters I had rallying around me. I didn't do everything on my own. More important, Steph was such a supporter to me of my Ironman journey that I needed to rally here at the hardest of moments and be the same kind of rock. I then recalled that simply staying calm and focusing on the immediate task in front of me can pay huge dividends. Marriage can seem difficult and overwhelming when you present it in the same metaphorical terms as a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and a marathon run. Now that I'm not training as much, I'm getting more easily overwhelmed by those distances and wondering how in the world did I pull it off? However, when you break down each distance into more manageable mini-races, the task seems more reasonable.
I never thought that completing an Ironman would change how I approach even larger life milestones, but it has. I've learned how to remain calm and focused when I used to freak out. And more important, I have a successful blueprint for how to handle big changes in my life.
I've heard many of my friends tell me that the final two weeks before their wedding were the worst. Lots of fights, lots of tears, and ultimately people trying to block that period from their memory banks. I was on track to be exactly like everyone else, until I remembered my Ironman training and that though the event is much bigger, I've been down this road before. Once I realized that, which essentially occurred during a morning jog by myself today, I took a huge breath and let a lot of stress out of my system.
What a relief!
So, with exactly two weeks and counting to my wedding, I think I'm officially "ready" for my Lifetime Ironman.
I'm atop the Westin San Francisco, staring out at AT&T Park and a setting sun on a Monday evening. It's quiet in my room, as I'm alone in town for a marketing and PR conference tomorrow. It's rare moments like these where I can stop and assess my life. I'm always juggling multiple projects and multiple thoughts in my head. To be able to calm myself, after a glass of wine and a rich meal, is a treat.
So what am I thinking about? My mind races, trying to process the last year and a half. Training for and completing two Ironman races. Maintaining my career. My writing. And above all, counting down ever so slowly to a wedding that's now just a couple weeks away.
Where did the time go?
I feel proud that I've accomplished what feels like a lot in the past 18 months. But I wonder what lies around the next corner. As I sipped on some wine at my favorite Indian food restaurant (Amber...drool), I realized that lengthy solitary moments for quiet contemplation -- minus being in a pool or on abike/run, are going to be even further and farther apart. Right now, life feels like a series of daily transitions, where I'm constantly on the clock from one activity to the next. The finish line really does occur around 17-18 hours later when it's time for bed to do it all over again.
Every day feels like an Activity Ironman.
I'm not complaining. Not by a longshot. But I am trying to make some sense of it all in my own context. I'm looking back at my 15-19 hours of Ironman training a week wondering how in the hell did I do that? Now that I'm "only" working out 7-8 hours a week, triathlon training seems like an impossibly large time sink. I have no idea how I made it work now that my life has become consumed with other activities.
I suppose it comes down to what's important to you. Those are the things you make time for, whether it's friends, family, work, hobbies or something else. For 18 months I made time for triathlon and squeezed everything else in as best I could. Right now, as my schedule has balanced itself out, I'm still adjusting. I'm learning to live with "good enough" with my training, if you can even call it that. I've struggled at times, but I'm also relishing a greater sense of balance between all other aspects of my life. I'm catching up with myself while I beat myself up at the same time. I think that's the strange dichotomy of post-Ironman race depression talking.
But in two weeks, I'm about to become a married man. And that's strange too. I've been single for 37 years and in two weeks, there's someone called Mrs. Schneider and it's not my mom. I'm super excited and to be honest, I'm a little scared. I'm scared of the unknown, just like I was scared of competing in my first Ironman. I'm not scared of whether Steph and I will work, I know we're rock solid on that front. I'm just scared that I'm getting older and entering a new phase of my life. But if you're not a little scared at a juncture in your life, maybe you're not pushing hard enough?
In that respect, triathlon has helped me take more risks in my life whether it's this blog, approaching Lava Magazine cold and brazenly asking for a column, pursuing Ironman triathlons and ultimately, finding the fortitude to make my relationship right with Steph once and for all last year.
So while I may have been busy as all hell and not sure what the hell I was doing at times, this past year and a half probably produced the biggest emotional and spiritual growth period in my life. And, yeah, the physical fitness growth wasn't too shabby either.
In the end, the view from the 22nd floor of the Westin San Francisco is pretty astounding. Taking a few moments to stop and look around is a humbling experience. I've been so busy for so long that I forgot about stopping and simply doing nothing for a bit. In those moments, life comes into focus.
Damnit, I like what I see.
I've had SO much going on lately! Thanks for being patient with me, not that you're waiting with bated breath for the next blog post. The big countdown right now isn't a triathlon but my wedding. We're inside four weeks now. The RSVPs are pouring in, last-minute decisions are being made almost every minute and the anticipation continues to build. I'm really starting to get excited now. Before, my wedding was just a date on the far horizon. Almost like how Ironman Arizona was in 2010. But it's finally here in the foreground. The other night I was explaining to Steph that the feeling is very similar to an impending Ironman in that no matter what last-second mishap may occur, we're still "ready" for the wedding and it will be a great event no matter what. We've put in all the hard work and planning and that doesn't go away just because a new challenge may arise. I was afraid to use an Ironman metaphor for the wedding but I actually think it helped us keep everything in perspective.
On the training front, I've installed my CompuTrainer. Or rather, I had it installed for me by my buddy Pete, with support from Coach Gerardo. I have to be honest and say that the set-up process is not the most intuitive. The documentation feels outdated in an era where a set-up video would be practically expected. Instead, you're looking at manuals that don't provide the best overall direction. One example came in the form of installing the bike into the CompuTrainer mount. The directions don't indicate that you need to use the load generator knob to help adjust where it sits on the back wheel. This was frustrating because it seemed that the bike wasn't fitting in the mount. All that said, now that I know how to use the machine and the software, I can tell how powerful a tool CompuTrainer can be.
When I wasn't learning how to use my CompuTrainer, I've been focusing on overhauling my swim technique. You can see what I'm learning in this video:
As if that weren't enough, I'm dabbling in self-coaching for the next few months. Just enough to keep me in shape. I'm making my own training schedule via Training Peaks, reading about training with a power meter and signed up for a triathlon in Palm Springs this December to see how I do in training myself. I can tell you that it's a lot harder to self-coach than I ever imagined. All the reading, formulas, theories and time needed to craft a scientifically smart (and fun) schedule is quite the challenge. But it makes me appreciate what Gerardo does day in, day out, week in, week out for our entire team. The next time you get a schedule from your coach, make sure to thank him or her for their hard work on getting it just right. I do really like the empowerment that comes with creating my own schedule. I feel like I'm doing something important for myself and that if I perform well or don't perform well, it's nobody's fault but mine. In other words, I like the accountability.
On the writing front, I'm working on turning my first year's worth of posts into a self-published book. I think the lessons learned in there on what to expect mentally from training for your first Ironman may be valuable to others. It's taking a lot longer than I expected reading through each month's worth of entries and taking notes about what to focus on for each chapter. I'm thinking at this point I'll write an introduction summarizing that particular month of training and insights while including each individual entry after it. Hopefully the power of the daily entries is what people find interesting. We'll see. I'm open to suggestions though if anyone has any.
Finally, I can't finish this post without mentioning the T-shirts I'm creaing to benefit Season 1 Racing and Cancer Hope Network. I've gotten a pretty good response from folks who liked my "I may not be a runner...but I'm a runner today" mantra from Ironman Coeur d'Alene. So, here's a T-shirt design I'm considering at the moment. The shirt color will be a darker gray and the Season 1 Racing logo will be moved to the shirt sleeve. But otherwise, what do you think??? I'll be taking orders soon and then buy the shirts after I assess demand.
So that's what's been keeping me busy lately, not to mention changing times at work. And now, I embark on an even scarier mission...my bachelor party weekend! Lord, help me.