1 week and 6 days!

Ironman is just around the corner!

From this point on its taper time. My training should be, ever so slightly getting shorter.

Crappy thing is on Thursday night I started to feel a little irritation in my sinus. The beginning of a slight cold. :( :( :( This happens to me a few weeks before every race. It happened before Lavaman and the Hawaii 70.3!

Friday:
Masters swimming and that was it. The main focus point for the last couple of weeks has been to follow through with my left hand and reach more with the right. This lengthens my stroke and opens up my non breathing side more. Lately this has made me faster and more efficient.

I've been wearing my race suit and the blue seventy suit to get used to it. The main reason is to make sure I don't rash anywhere. I would recommend one of these to anyone. You feel like a bullet in the water. ITS AWESOME! Everyone gives you crap about wearing it too!

Saturday:
Group Ride action. The usual familiar faces. No sprint finishes for me, due to the illness. The nose was plugged and every know and then would drain like a faucet. I didn't want to risk over working my body and flaring up the illness. I still took some good long pulls to get in the workout, but didn't sprint for the line. A group of us went to the King Shops. We had a steady train pushing all the way back into town. If this was a team time trial race we would have been crowned champs. It was like a system, everyone pulled at their strength. I would pull at the end of a downhill leading up the hill, then Jimmy would jump in and pull the rest of the hill, after the hill Gary would take a pull and then Kris would pull after Gary. This worked FANTASTIC! After the group ride I still had some time to burn so I rode Alii Drive with Jimmy.

On a funny side note: I went into Bike Works to give them some stuff and ask a few questions. Linda has been trying to get me to ride with some pros while there here. She wanted to introduce me to Max Longree who left on a ride and should be back shortly. She also said that he has a cute sister who his here with him and I should meet her too. We went downstairs and sure enough there she was. One word "Beautiful!" %100 my type of girl! LOL!

Sunday:
Long run. I had the same run as last week. 2 hours and 20 minutes with hills. The easy thing to do was the same route as last week. It took me at least 3 or 4 days to recover from last weeks run, so I figured it would be a great benefit to do it again. Sure enough it was just as tough as last week. Ran Walua road out and back twice then murdered myself on the surrounding hills. It will be interesting to see how long it takes me to recover from today's run.

My sickness is one of those things that only last for a few days. I'm thinking by Tuesday or Wednesday it should be gone. I ran the snot out today! HAHA!

This is one of my favorite pictures. Lavaman. Running onto the Lava Rock portion of the run just after T2. (The Lady in the picture is yelling at me to SLOW DOWN!) That didn't happen!

2007 Ironman World Championship's (Flashbacks)

SWIM 1:03 BIKE 5:30 RUN 3:49

It's already begun! Last night was the first night where it was hard for me to fall asleep. Last year's time's and splits were rolling through my head. Then I started to think about what could happen this year. I have no idea what started it, but I have some ideas.

1) All the athlete's starting to arrive in Kona.

2) The pro's swimming at the pool.

3) The many unknown riders riding on the Queen K.

I'm sure it was a number of things that got me excited and the thoughts just wouldn't stop flying around my head. I'll let you into the thinking mind of Cody while trying to sleep.

1) The numerous different splits you can swim, bike and run to complete your race.

2) The many unknown factors that mother nature will produce on race day.

3) Training up until race day. How I've trained in so many different conditions.

4) My strategy for race day, strengths and weakness'.

5) Expectations of myself. Goals!

6) How anything is truly possible and to throw all this out the window and run my race!

Number 6 is what my conclusion was before I actually fell asleep. People have asked me "what time do you want to finish in"? "What place", "How will you do in your age group"? "What did you do it in last year"? I've already answered many of these questions, but now the answers will be different. The slogan for Ironman is a good one. "ANYTHINGS POSSIBLE"! With this said, my new answer is I'm running my race and what happens, happens. I've trained harder and smarter than last year. Have a support team that is unmatched, both friends and family. I have 1 year of experience under my belt, which I believe has been valuable for me. Overall, I feel much stronger both physically and mentally. Previous races proved I'm faster. Only on race day will we find out how much stronger and faster I've become.

THE IRONMAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS,

SWIM 1.2 MILES, BIKE 112 MILES, RUN 26.2 MILES,

"BRAG FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE"!

Everything's Looking UP!

AT THE GROUP RIDE TURNAROUND I SPOTTED MY NAME WRITTEN IN THE CORAL ROCKS. HOW FUNNY!!!

Friday:

All I had to do was swim. Worked on my technique the entire time. Trying to get this drilled in my head and hold it the entire practice. We had some long interval sets and at the end was a 100 for time. I finally went under 1:10!!! WAHOOO!!! Later in the day went to BIKE WORKS and hung out for a while. Talked about who their going to hook me up with. HAHA! GREAT BUNCH!

Saturday:

Group ride, which is one of my favorite day's. On the way out to the airport, I stayed in my little chain ring and spun fast in the same gear. After the airport the pace starts picking up as usual. In the front pack everyone took their fare share of pulls. On the second to last hill I jumped in the front for my second pull. At this point I was feeling really strong, so I kept a steady fast pace. Going up the last hill is where you have to really pay attention for the tall tale signs of the speedy group trying to make the last sprint pass. Sure enough I heard a few gears click and the wheels whistling behind me. The second I heard this I switched to my biggest gear, stood up and started pumping as fast as I could. Finally, held um off until the resting point! In a nut shell the same thing happened again at the scenic point turnaround. This was where I saw my name written in the rocks. I'LL TAKE IT AS A GOOD OMEN! On the way back into town we rode fairly easy and steady. More socializing and catching up with friends.

After the group ride Jimmy Day and I rode down Ali'i, up Kam. III to Wailua RD, then to Teshimas. This was a good ride to spin easy up some tough hills. When we reached Teshimas we turned around and headed down Old Mamalahoa HWY. This is where things got a little interesting! This was my first time riding down this road. It's a great descent with a lot of turns. Before you reach many of these turns a sign will say "25mph", of course I'm on a bike so I ignore this and go fast.

Just so happens one of my worst fears came true! In the middle of one of these turns I hit a sharp rock in the road, which instantly blows my rear tire. My first reaction was to jump out of the aerobars and hold my line as good as possible. This meant trying not to lean to much where the rim would spark up the road and not too little where I end up in the bushes. My butt cheeks and teeth were clinched tight and was like "AAAAHHHHHHHH" rounding this curve!!! I was literally inches away from running off the road and into the bushes with lots of lava rocks. This would not have been a pretty site by any means, especially at 30+mph. I feel sorry for Jimmy who was behind me, probably having a heart attack! Pulled over, fixed the flat and finished up my 2 extra hours of riding.

I got some very inspiring and uplifting comments while riding the club ride! THANK YOU club riders and I appreciate it!

Sunday:

Watched the Team Mango Triathlon and supported my local favorites. Took some photos and talked with Lucy from New Zealand here for Ironman. Would have rather been racing than spectating, but It's for the better. Some dude from Switzerland won it. He looked pretty fast and strong, but I think I could have taken him. HAHA!!! Congrats to Bree for another strong finish! Harry the "Hammer" Yoshida looked like his usual power house self along with Kris Kiser.

After the Team Mango Tri. it was time for work and then a run.

Time for the long run! I liked Walua road so much I decided to run it. It's a small out and back loop with small, gentle hills on the way out. It's 6.6 miles total. On the schedule was 2 hours and 20 minutes with hills. The first out and back was in :51 minutes. The second was in :48. All the while it was raining and I got drenched from head to toe. This was good because my shoes and socks usually get wet during a race. I hate running with wet shoes and socks. After the second loop I didn't feel like doing it a third time, so this lead me to Lako Street and all the surrounding massive hills in the area. I ended up spending the next :40 plus minutes working the hills. It was the equivalent of doing the Palani hill 10+ times. The crazy thing is I felt great the entire time. Just tried to pretend I was climbing up Palani and Otec. Another GOOD DAY!

FEELING GOOD!

Here's a good random photo! In Track I ran everything from the 400 to the 5K including this AWESOME event the STEEPLECHASE! Please don't tell ASI I got this photo! ;)

Sunday:
My longest run of the year so far. 17 miles! I felt good and stayed on a steady pace the whole time. My very first and only marathon was Ironman last year. I'm very excited to see what happens on my second go!


Monday:
Masters swimming and work. Pretty boring day!


Tuesday:
Biked with Breezo! Easy day, only went to the scenic and back while Bree went on. Good thing too cause I heard it got pretty windy. HAHA! Missed out on the 6mph crawl fun!


Wednesday:
Swimming 101, I was informed of a technique change! More reach with the right and follow through with the left. Worked on this that morning and thought about it all day. Couldn't wait to work on it at masters!
Masters, got bumped down to lane 3 to slow me down and work on technique. This got frustrating at times, but it was for the better. I'm thankful Coach Steve did this because everyone was chipper and ready to swim fast this day. Everyone's good attitude and happiness rubs off on me and makes me want to swim fast too! Happy to get demoted down a lane to focus on the basics, which in the long run will allow me to step it up!


Today Thursday:
Rode with Breezo and Davo out to the Vet. cemetary and then it was my turn to go on. Luckily the wind wasn't to bad today. A little head wind on the way out and caught the tail wind on the way back. Today, I felt awesome on this long easy endurance ride. My nutrition was on point along with the fluid intake. After the bike I did a :40 minute brick run, which went awesome! I still think I'm starting out a little to fast. Really trying to get this part dialed in.

Here's a pic for the ladies! This is one of my own shots and please don't steal it without permission!

LAZY SATURDAY!

LITTLE BRO DILLON AND I. (LAST YEAR ON A SNORKEL CRUISE)

Nothing to exciting going on today! Last night I took my little brother to the Kona Farm Fair. They have the same games and rides just about every year. Played a few games, won a few stuffed animals. My favorite game is the car racing one where you have to roll the ball in the hole. You either move 1,2 or 3 spaces forward with each roll. The key is to be quick and consistant. My little brother is also pretty good at this game. He finished 2nd twice behind his Big Brother. Rode some of the rides. My little brother is scared to go on the more exciting ones like the Zipper or Fire Ball. He's only 11 but I try to peer pressure him every year to go on them. Thats what Big Brothers are for right?

Friday at masters swimming we did 30x100 on 1:30 send offs. I forgot how many times I lost count of which one we were on. Luckily Steve announced to me every once in a while how many were left. I held a steady pace throughout all 30 of them. Usually finishing around the low 1:20's range.

Today was the usual Saturday group ride. I tested out the Counterpart Coaching one-piece that I'll be wearing for Ironman. It should work great, except the only gripe I have is about the leg portion. They go up twice as far as my usual cycling shorts. Needless to say it looks ridiculous with my tan lines. HAHA! It goes from a tan line to pure white boy! I have a whole month to move the tan line up about 2-3 inches. Shouldn't be an issue by the time Ironman rolls around. Not a huge fan of short shorts! LOL! OH and you will never catch me in a BANANA HAMOCK! HAHA!

The Malibu Triathlon is today! Go Chris Lieto and James Cotter!

Next week should be an exciting week of training with only a month to go and counting. I may be posting random pictures just for fun, so enjoy! HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

THIS IS A SECRET WATERING HOLE. NO CELL RECEPTION, PEACE AND QUITE, AND WONT SEE A SOUL! GREAT FOR THE MIND!

Past and Present...

I work for a family run Taxi company. (ALOHA TAXI) Been in the business for over 10 years. Before I had a drivers license my job was the car washer. At the age of 16, I moved up to dispatcher. This was when we had the largest taxi company on the Island. Close to 20 vehicles and multiple hotel contracts. Stress levels were out of sight and the complaining never ended from both drivers, customers and resort employees. This is where I learned you can't keep everyone happy, but you can try your best. Multi tasking was a must, answering phones, taking reservations, telling drivers where to go and doing all this at the same time. Basically tried to keep everything going like a well oiled machine.

On an average day we would do about 100 runs in 18 hours. One of my busiest days ever was during an Ironman. I logged between 250-300 taxi runs in a 10 hour shift, all while the roads were blocked, traffic at a crawl, and the phones blowing up. This day I didn't even have time to leave the desk and microwave my homemade lunch. Not a happy camper this day, but handled it like a pro. I hated the Iroman this day, but still knew someday I would be competing in it.

Today is much different. Now we have 5 taxis with 5 full time drivers, instead of 20 taxis and 50 employees. The system we have now is much less stressful and still makes money. The people we work with are happy and pleasant to work with. A huge difference from what it used to be!

This is usually the slow time of year. Hotel occupancy is way down, flights are empty, family's are going back to work and the kids are going to school. This situation is both good and bad. Good that I have plenty of time to train and bad because I don't make as much money. This is one of the reasons why I started training for triathlons. I love bodyboarding, but only when it's BIG. I got tired of waiting for big swells and work being slow, so had to find something else to occupy my time. 20 hours a week of training filled the void pretty fast!

Some day's I find it's too slow even with work and training. For example, if I just have to swim 1 hour for training and do 2 taxi runs that may take an hour. That's only 2-3 hours of my day. What else is there to do? Eating is fun, TV is boring for me, Internet gets old, I can only harass the Bike Works crew for so long. HAHA! I just get so bored and restless! The ideal thing would be to find something that takes up my free time and makes $$$$$$$.

I've tried other things in my life including; cook while in college, real estate agent, loan officer. Cooking worked out great while in college because I worked in an Italian restaurant and got all the pasta I could cook. I got my real estate license when I was a senior in college and tried it for 6 months after graduating, but to no prevail. Big dissapointment for me. I just ran out of time and had bills to pay. A really tough business for someone my age! Maybe in the future I'll try it again. As a loan officer I just got tired of giving high intrest loans. It made me feel like I was ripping people off instead of helping them.

NO TRAINING BLOG TODAY, JUST A LITTLE HISTORY OF CODY!

Today was sweet and sour!

As I lay in bed with my feet propped up, tired, lazy and getting ready to fall asleep, I figured I'd let the world know about my week. Start off on Wednesday then get back to why I'm recovering today.

Wednesday was the usual masters swim in the afternoon, except I started to learn how to do flip turns. Awkard, Weird and got water up my nose. It was a fast crash lesson on the basics of a flip turn. Thanks Jen! If I were to practice this every time before masters for a week I think I'll be able to do it. Thought about doing it a few times during the workout, but everytime the wall got close I chickened out. HAHA! Earlier that day I was told that Chris Lieto was in town and looking for someone to ride with. Got is info and contacted him.

Thursday, I rode with Chris for 4:30 hours. Every 90 minutes picking up the pace. This guy is one of the best in the world for a reason. HE'S FAST! I felt like a leech sticking on his wheel the majority of the time. We would get to a flat section or a descent and he would slowly pull away, but when we got to a hill I would slowly reel him back in. The biggest difference is the size between us. Me being the little guy, I'm able to power up the hills and he can own me on the descents and flats. For the most part I stuck on his wheel, but got dropped about 3 times. My coach told me to ride with him until I got dropped, but he's a cool guy and would slow down after he got a good distance ahead of me. Overall, great ride. The legs were sore afterwards but the 40 minute brick run helped to loosen them out.

Friday, was masters swim only. It took me forever to warm up and get my body moving. About halfway through the workout is when I started to feel better and the muscles woke up. I believe it was the Oreo cookie(s), recovery dessert the night before. I'M SO BAD!!! DOUBLE STUFF IS SO IRRESISTABLE!!!
We also got a big SSW swell that rolled into the islands. Of course I can't resist getting in the water and catching 3 hours worth of waves. At least I go to the sandy beach because I don't want to bounce off the reef like I've done many times in the past. For your information I only like to bodyboard when its BIG!

Saturday, PHEW!!!! Started the morning with the group ride and then went on to Hawi with Chris. Riding with the pro again got me pumped up! I have a few feelings while riding with him. One is that I want to ride the best that I can. (Dont want to seem like poonskee!) Another is that he's fast and I want to watch what he does and absorb everything.
With the group ride, pushed myself too hard in the beginning, which I paid for in the end! My nutrition was better today than Thursday for sure. I took in more calories and fluids. We had all directions of wind today, which was worse than Thursday.

Chris ended up getting a bee sting on his quads. I ended up getting a flat coming back at the bottom of Kaiwaihae and we still had lots of wind. Luckily, near Hapuna the winds were in are favor w/ a tail wind. We were screaming all the way past the Hilton and then the winds changed. It felt so good! We reached the bottom of the scenic and that's when my legs started to feel like DUNG! For the next 15 miles I was struggling and Chris had to turn around and come back for me about 3 times. WHAT A PAL! He basically lugged me back into town! When we got closer into town I started to feel better and was able to pick up the pace. WEIRD how the body works its magic!

We ended up covering 112 miles in 5:30 hours with the wind! We rode the rest of the :30 minutes on Alii Drive marveling at the surf. Which is bigger than yesterday, so after I take a nap and recover for a few hours, its time to go enjoy my first love. (bodyboarding)

Overall, riding with Chris was such a bonus for me! We have a lot in common with the beginning of our triathlete careers. The future looks bright! We only rode twice together, but I've learned so much! He gave me a ton of info on things like nutrition, recovery, and ways to improve my cycling. Great Guy, Great Athelte!!! Can't wait to see him race in Kona! I look up the guy!

SWEET AND SOUR complete!

Another week another post...

This past week was an easy week of training. A great time to rest and recover for a big training block ahead. The hardest workout of the week was a 3 hour bike with a 1:30 brick run. My body is getting used to running off the bike, which is AWESOME!

On Friday I got a massage by Junko Shields. This was no easy nice massage. This massage felt like an intense workout. My last massage was in the beginning of May, long overdo! After the massage she told me to "go home and ice". I knew I was in for it after she said this. Sure enough the next day I was sore all over the place. Definitely getting a massage within the next couple weeks and then in another one before Ironman!

Saturday I rode the group ride. We had the big guns out this week with riders like, Luis De la Torre, Yan Sawinski, Kevin Murar, Jimmy Day, Kris Kiser, Grant Miller, Harry Yoshida. This is a great group of fast guys to be out riding with. We were all pushing from the very get go passing the airport. I took a good long pull about halfway through and sprinted with the big guns for the finish at the Vet. Cemetary. After the sprint I could taste the Iron in my mouth, a good indicator that I pushed very hard. Yan Sawinski got a flat on the way to scenic point and a few of the others stopped and helped him out while the rest just kept going. Kris Kiser and I battled it out for the sprint finish and he got me. He's one tough cookie that won't give up. Heading back into town a lot of the guys were chatting while Kevin and Yan peddled ahead. I decided to join kevin and Yan in the front. We tryed to make a break and pick up the pace while the other guys were busy chatting. Before the Four Seasons turn off Luis De la Torre went flying passed me. I instantly jumped up and started sprinting to jump on his wheel. During this mad sprint I nailed a rock and blew my tire. Son of a B****! This was my first flat in a really long time. MONTHS! It happened on my front Armadillo tire which I've had for over a year. GREAT TIRE by the way!Grant pulled over while the rest of the train went zipping by. The rock punctured the side of the tire so we had to stick a GU wrapper by the hole then put on the tube. This way the tube wouldn't pop out of the hole. BRILLIANT!!! Grant and I peddled easy the rest of the way into town.

On Sunday, I had my longest run of the year so far. 2 HOURS! I went about 15+ miles easy and it felt great. Long runs remind me how much I hate to carry a water bottle and how much I love aid stations. An aid station every mile during the run of the Ironman. LOVELY! Don't have to worry about carrying anything.

Monday, I did a total of 3700 yards swimming. It felt good and helped to loosen the muscles after Sunday's long run.

Today I did an interval bike workout with a brick run and then a run in the afternoon. Nothing to exciting, but did put it some hard 4 minute intervals. I'm pleased to say that I didn't go out to fast on my brick run. YIPPEEE! Thats it for now.