We're in the 50's...

Ironman China is not far away, 59 days and 7 more long rides and runs to be exact. At first when I started this journey I chose China because I thought I'd have a good chance to qualify for Hawaii.

Last year, the fastest qualifing time in the 44-49 AG was a 10:51 and the slowest was a 12:19. Mind you it was 43 C. I know I have a sub 11 hour race in me and figured I'd have a good shot to qualify. Now I'm not so sure. I have a feeling that a lot of guys saw the same results, and like me, looked at China as a good place to qualify for Kona. I think the competition is going to be much tougher than last year and I'll have to be a 10:15 or less to qualify. It's just a gut feel.

My experience is nothing happens like you predict it. In 2008, Muskoka was a sleeper and I could have qualified for Clearwater if I was at the roll down. In 2009, my goal was to qualify at Muskoka for Clearwater based on the times being the same as 2008. Turns out that had I not qualified at Steelhead, I wouldn't have qualified for Clearwater as per my original plan, Muskoka had a much deeper field and faster times than 2008.

I have a feeling China is going to be the same as Muskoka. I've already been bold in my VLOG by naming it "Journey to Kona", but I can't take anything for granted. As a matter of fact, I think I need to err to assuming the competition is going to be TOUGH and getting a spot is going to be VERY difficult.

NOTHING GREAT IS EVER EASY! This is a direct message I got from Jevon @ironmanj on Twitter. It resonated with me. Getting to Kona is NOT going to be easy and I've got to treat it as such. For the next 7 weeks I need to be as focused as I can be on completing all my training and eating healthy to lose weight. I'd hate to go to China and not qualify with regrets.

If I go ready and don't qualify, I'll know I did the best I could. With that said, I won't give up on my dream. I could still try to qualify at Lake Placid and if that doesn't work I could try to get into Ironman Canada with a community slot and try to qualify there as well. For some reason I just want to get to Hawaii this year. I think I know why, but that's a blog post unto itself.

On the training side, I finally got my underwater swiMP3 to work. Unfortunately it's not as loud as I thought it would be. I was expecting clear orchestra level sound and it is more like light elevator music. Hear-able, but not loud enough to be motivational.

I did have a decent swim and was happy with one 600 meter interval that I did in 10:17, which is a 1:42 per 100 pace and a PB by 5 seconds. The guy in the next lane was fast and my competitive juices kept me working hard for that 600. The other 3 x 600's were fairly mediocre.

Tonight I had to draw on that "if you want to make it to Kona, get your ass off the couch and force yourself onto that trainer". My legs were fatigued from this weeks training and tonight was an interval tempo ride. I knew it was going to hurt, especially since I was going to do low cadence intervals as per Simon at TriTwins suggestion.

I put the trainer to its hardest resistance and I put my gearing at the highest level. In the beginning it was hard to get up to 26 kph. As I loosened up I was able to overpower and push through it. Unfortunately I wasn't able to put enough resistance on the unit to keep me under 60 rpm. My goal was to keep it in the 50's.

My session went like this, one minute rest and then go as hard as I could for two minutes or until I hit 143 bpm. For most of the ride I'd max out at 36 - 42 kph, then at one point I gaver and got it up to 60 kph and then all hell broke loose. It started with a squeak and then turned into a buzz saw sound with no fluid resistance. It was like the unit had no grease in it. It was hot to the touch and started to smell. Eventually it got so bad I couldn't ride anymore.

The good news was that I was able to cut my session short by 21 minutes. It's like getting let out of school early. It was the PERFECT excuse for not finishing and now I can proudly say I "destroyed my indoor bike trainer. I rode it to it's death".

After I officially finished the session, I tried to really fry it and got it up to 70 kph and was hoping it would explode, but it didn't. Dang. I had the video ready to capture the moment and everything. Anyways, I'm glad it happened tonight and not during Saturdays long ride.

Does anyone have a suggestion of what brand of trainer I should buy? Quality and quiet is what I'm looking for, need to buy one by Friday. Something that works well with a future Compu-trainer is another consideration.

184.0 / 21.6 BMI

Long Swim - 1:04:55 / 3050 meters

Tempo Ride - 1:08:14 / 35.92 km / 31.59 kph / 138 avg hr