The Road To Kona is getting Shorter by the Day!

13 Ironman's Down, 1 To Go to officially validate my 2018 Ironman World Championship Legacy Slot in Kona, Hawaii.  My final validation race will be in April at Ironman Texas.  After finishing there, I'll be off to Kona for the October 13th race.  This has been a 23 year journey to reach this goal.  Reaching the Finish Line in Kona will be an amazing moment. 

Please stay tuned for updates along the way. 

I'll be running in this weekends Mississippi Gulf Coast Half Marathon.  My goal is to just have a nice training run with 1000's of other random running buddies.  It is looking like it will be a chilly run

New Update with Pictures :-)

New Update with pictures, click here:   http://pages.teamintraining.org/wa/ironboul14/tegeder#Update-better-late-than-never

Currently training for my 5th Ironman which will be held in Boulder, Colorado on August 3, 2014.  This race will be extra special because I am doing it with Team In Training and raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as well.  Want to make a donation?  Click the Donate Now button in the upper right of this page. 

T-Minus 32-102-361 Days until my next IRONMAN Race(s)!

It's been over a year since my last post, it's about time that I update this site don't you think?  Well here you go!

The clock is ticking and my next 3 Ironman races are not getting any further away. I am currently trying to squeeze in my final training sessions before Ironman Wisconsin on September 8th as well as begin my fundraising efforts for Ironman Boulder in 361 days. It's a balancing act. Here's to hoping I don't drop any of the balls.

For those of you who have donated or will be volunteering as a part of my group at the Iron Girl Triathlon in 2 weeks, I really appreciate the support. If you would like to be a part of the group and want to volunteer as well, you can do so by signing up under the group name iRONTNT, just click here. Make sure to mark down which shift you would like under the comments section of the sign up page though. For all of the available shifts click here.

So, my next few weeks are busy with work, training, travel to see family and of course fundraising. I know that for some, it's not the best time for me to be asking for money but if you could just spare a $1, please make a donation of that amount using the donation link on the right side of this page. Most of you can find that under the cushions of your couch or if you are anything like me...in the cup holder of your car. Don't forget, every little bit counts.  

"JOE TEGEDER YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!"

Where do I begin on this entry?  So much has happened over the last 3 weeks.  I've been waiting to make this post so I could get my pictures together but in doing so my thoughts are very jumbled together in regards to my trip down to Houston and what I was able to achieve.  I honestly feel that it is the Greatest Accomplishment of my Life.  Even though I don't feel like it has completely sunk in yet, I do know that the experience of crossing that finish line was every bit as special as I had hoped it would be.  Going from someone who was not even a runner and could not even run for 10 minutes without stopping to someone who finished a 140.6 mile endurance event just amazes me....and I was along for the entire journey too!  Trying to explain how special this weekend was to me and being able to share it with all of my family and a lot of my friends is difficult but here it goes:

I flew down to Houston a week early thinking that I could acclimatize to the high heat and humidity before the race.  This was a great thought in theory.  Mother nature however had a different plan.  I arrived after a week or so of some pretty significant thunderstorms in the area.  These storms not only lowered the air temperatures but decreased the humidity to very low levels as well.  There were days where I was even wearing pants....yeah PANTS!  Even though this was extremely pleasant it made for acclimatizing a little difficult.  I continued on with my plan.  I went to the local gym for some pool sessions and went for a few runs along the Marathon course as well as a bike ride that took me on the out of town route for the bike course.  I only went a few miles though before turning south to ride over to my childhood home in a neighborhood about 4 or 5 miles away (as the crow flies)....I took a longer path to get there than on my way home.  It was surreal to be an adult biking in the very neighborhood where I learned how to ride a bike as a kid.  Especially

biking down the street that I use to ride to and from school everyday in elementary school.  Also there was one section of roads that I was on outside of our neighborhood that I can remember biking on at one point when I was around 10 years old on my 1st ever 10 speed road bike with my brothers (we should never have been biking on these roads at that age and needless to say my parents had no idea we were doing this....but we did it anyway because if I remember correctly we wanted to go try and feed some ducks at this small commuter airport about 5 or so miles away, this does not seem like a lot now but when I was 10 it seemed like we were doing a cross country expedition).  Anyways this particular ride always pops into my head at random times when I'm biking.  It's a neat memory, mostly because it was something I did with my brothers that I have no memory of fighting with them :-) 

At this rate of my story telling I'll write a book before I get to the end.  So I'm going to skip over a bunch of stuff.  Basically I went out to dinner while there on several occasions with some old family friends and several of my old roommates from graduate school in Hawaii.  It was great catching up with all of them. 

On Wednesday, the athlete village opened up and I went and picked up my athlete packet that contained my timing chip, all of my transition bags and my numbers to stick on my helmet and bike as well.  Most importantly this packet consisted of an IRONMAN TEXAS BACKPACK......it's pretty cool.

On the Thursday before the race I went for that long bike ride I mentioned above and then went to the Athlete Dinner and mandatory meeting.  It was a great way to start off the weekend getting into the Ironman Spirit, as if I needed extra motivation to get in the spirit....plus it was free food :-)  My parents and older brother Jimmy (along with his family) arrived on Thursday night as well.  This was really fantastic because I finally got to meet my newest niece Olivia.

I awoke at 5am on Friday morning for a quick trip out to the airport to pick up one of my IRONsherpas.  What's an IRONsherpa you ask?  Well, its a term at these races for any friend or family member who takes on the role of  helping you with carting all of your gear around both before and after the race.  Trust me, the last thing you want to do after this race is go hunt down all your transition bags and your bike and then get them back to you hotel room.  When my buddy Jason did Ironman Arizona in November I was his Sherpa.  So he came down to Texas to reciprocate the favor.  In addition to Jason I also had my Team In Training Co-mentor and friend Louisa there.  She was fantastic and she ended up contributing more to the cause than she will ever know.  I'll get to that in a second.  After picking up Jason at the airport we came back to the hotel, changed and then went for a run over to the swim start for my practice swim in the lake.  Good thing I did this because it was good to know that there would be ZERO visibility on race day.  After that we ran over to the Ironman village where I did some stretching with a physical therapist and looked at all the booths.  I then went back to the hotel to grab my transition bags and bike and headed back to the transition area to drop them off for tomorrows race. 

  

Once that was done, I went back to the hotel just as my younger brother Danny (along with his family) arrived from Mississippi.  Their arrival was the first time that we had all been together with all of the grandchildren.  My parents obviously loved this.  That night we went out to dinner with our old neighbors and then went back to the hotel to try and relax and get to bed early.  IronSherpa Louisa flew in from Seattle and came over to the hotel to hang out for a bit.  We walked over to the grocery store so I could get some bananas for the morning.  These bananas tasted fantastic the next morning :-)  Along the way to the store we saw Chrissie Wellington as we left our hotel and listened to the Dave Matthews Band who was playing at the Amphitheater right next to the Transition Area. 

RACE DAY

I awoke race morning at 3:45am, did my morning race rituals and then met up with Jason and Louisa to head out to the swim start.  Luckily for me, Louisa was willing to drive me to the bike transition area to take care of my last minute stuff and then onto the swim start.  The walk was a half a mile to the transition area and probably about a mile from there to the swim start.  I really did not feel like walking all that distance with about 2 gallons of water.  Anyways, She drove us over to the bike transition area and we were one of the first people there. 

I waited in line for about ten minutes to get my tires pumped up and then put my water bottles on my bike and then headed back to the car to go over to the swim start.  We made it over there easily.  As we pulled up I realized though that I forgot to put my sunglasses in my bike bag (they were hanging from the collar of my shirt).  Mild panic set in.....I just tried to remain calm and told myself that is why you left yourself so much time before the start.  So we had to drive all the way back to the swim start.  By this time there was loads of people around and the car traffic was getting worse.  So I quickly hoped out and got to my bike transition bag and deposited my sunglasses in my shoe where I knew they would be safe. 

Once back in the car we were able to get back to the swim start area fairly quickly.  At this point I had a huge sense of relief because I knew that I had plenty of time.  I then got body marked before getting in line for the Port-a-Potty to take care of some business.....this would be the 1st of many stops in the Blue Box of Relief! 

THE SWIM

I made my way into the water around 6:40am so I could make my way towards the front and not get caught with the masses up on shore at the last minute.  The water temperature was 81 degrees with patches of water that felt much colder.  I tried to relax while treading water, but it became difficult to do when I had to go pee and couldn't....have you ever tried to pee while treading water?  It's kind of difficult.  I suppose I should practice that too for future races :-) 

 

 

8 DAYS UNTIL THE SABBATH TRUMPET SOUNDS!

Yup, it's practically here.  In just 8 Days, myself and 2600 of my closest Triathlete friends will be corralled into Lake Woodlands which is just North of Houston by about 30 miles or so.  I grew up in Spring, TX in a neighborhood (Northampton) which is about 5 miles from the Swim Start (in case you were wondering...that is one of the big reasons I chose this race).    

When the SABBATH TRUMPET sounds it will be a free for all to see how long it will take you to complete the 140.6 mile swim/bike/run adventure and get to hear Mike Reilly say those words you have thought about over and over again in your head since your dream of doing this first started........."Joe Tegeder, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!" I only hope that when he is saying it to me, that he's not carrying me across the finish line at the same time :-) 

This past weekend I did a final bike ride with some friends.  We rode out to the Redhook Brewery for Lunch.  It was a great day for a ride and part of me wanted to keep on going but I knew that was not the best idea.  I've been trying to take it easy this week focusing on eating plenty of carbs and drinking plenty of water and electrolytes.  I'm going to need those for sure next weekend (current air temperature is in the upper 80's with really high humidity levels as well). 

My bike was also shipped out on Tuesday so I had to start packing earlier this week to figure out what I was sending with it. Currently, everything that I need for my trip is spread across my living room floor.  The picture to the left is what it looked like 2 days ago but now it looks much worse. 

I will be flying out to my home town of Houston tomorrow afternoon.  I'm looking forward to it....I'm also terrified but I keep telling myself that feeling is normal. 

If you would like to follow my progress online next Saturday May 19th, you can at ironmanlive.com.  There should be a link on there for the Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas (make sure the link DOES NOT say 70.3 in front of it...that was for the half ironman a few weeks ago).  Click on the link and then either do a search for my name or bib #1569.  I'm 100% positive that I'm the only "Tegeder" in the event so you should be safe doing just a name search.  

I'm off to go for a short run and some long stretching before I not-s-neatly finish packing my bags for the trip tomorrow.  I am also really looking forward to seeing all my family and friends next week. 

Thanks as always to all of you who continue to support and encouragement me.  My next post will likely be my final race report.   

 

TICK TOCK!

30, 28, 26, 24 Days To Go....TICK TOCK GOES THE CLOCK!

It would seem that there's no stopping the clock now.  There is just 24 days until IRONMAN Texas and 17 days until I fly out to Houston for the race.  As it inches closer and closer, everyday it becomes more and more real.  Just yesterday the race officials released the Athlete's guidebook for the race and they have even started sending out various emails as well.  In addition they sent out our Race Numbers....I will be BIB #1569 on race day (you well be able to follow my progress at Ironmanlive.com). This of course makes me very excited but a little nervous too.  I think the nervousness is healthy though, at least that's what I tell myself anyways :-)

"ARE YOU READY?"
The answer to this question for some reason always is more complicated than just yes or no.  Yes I'm ready...ready to have my experience, ready to share this experience with my friends and family, ready to see my hard work pay off.... But No, I'm not ready.....not ready because I feel like there is more I could have done to prepare on the bike, the swim, and the run......but all of these are I'm sure normal doubts for first time Ironman Athletes.  So basically, I'm ready as I'm going to be and I'm going to make the most of it and do it hopefully with a Smile on My Face :-)

Mt. Rainier

Long Bike Ride with Friends

As far as my Training goes, over the past few weeks the weather here in Seattle has slowly gotten better and there were several really nice days that allowed for me to get out on my bike for some long bike rides.  My longest ride was 106 miles but I did several rides that were over 80 miles.  So I do feel like I got enough time in the saddle to somewhat know what to expect on my race.  Although there's no telling what that wind will be like in the final 30 miles of the course.  Here's to hoping that the wind is my friend o May 19th.

Masters Championship

In addition to my biking, I participated in the PNA Masters Swim Championships (This regions Masters Championships) at the King County Aquatic Center.  This pool is the nicest pool that I've swam in since I went to swim camp in 1987 at the University of Texas.  The facility will be hosting the US Olympic Diving Trials in June as well.  As far as the meet goes, I did pretty good.  I ended up only swimming 2 of the 5 events that I signed up for.  I got 5th in my age group in the 500 yard freestyle and 9th in the 100 yard freestyle as well.  I was going to swim the 50, 1000 and the 1650 yard freestyle events as well but the weather was so nice that weekend that I decided to scratch those events and go for a bike ride instead.  I figured that I needed more time on my bike than I did in the pool. 

JOE ON THE RUN
Over the past few weeks I've been keeping my weekly running miles between 25-30.  I'm not sure if this is enough or not but I feel like it's a good balance without risking injury this close to my race.  After all, getting hurt this close to the race would be horrible.  I guess you can say that I'm not really in Taper-Mode right now, I'm more in a Maintain-Mode with emphasis on not getting hurt.

Speaking of getting hurt, after a year of saying that I was going to do it, I finally went to my first ever Hot Yoga Class last night to try and get use to moving around in Hot and Humid climates.  With the projected race day temperatures in the upper 80's/low 90's with close to 100% humidity (this will be at 3pm as well when I am on the run), the more comfortable you are in the heat the better.  Training in Washington where the average temperature year round is probably 55 degrees, getting use to the heat is a difficult task.  This 1st experience was about as fun as I had expected.....It was not fun at all....in fact it sucked.  I really did not want to push it to hard so I opted out of the majority of the moves....it just kept going on and on and on for 90min (actually it turned out to be good mental toughness training....it was all I could do to stop myself from bolting from the room for some cool air).  I had to just lay there and hope that I did not faint....NOTE TO SELF....60min of HOT YOGA will be fine next time!  Needless to say. I wish that I would have started a while ago but oh well, at least I have a few more weeks to try and get a little more adjusted to it. 

"Perfect Game"

Besides all of my training, I did manage to go to a Mariners game on Saturday and it turned out to be yet another Historical Baseball Game that I've witnessed in my life.  To go along with the Nolan Ryan No Hitters I witnessed as a kid, on Saturday I saw what I thought was the most boring game ever.....  The Mariners were getting killed by the White Sox 9-0.  It was the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs and then all the Mariners Fans started to cheer for the White Sox....some were even booing when the Mariners Player at bat would swing at the pitch.....my buddy Jason and I were just looking around saying what the heck is happening....then I noticed the scoreboard and realized that it was about to be a No Hitter.....oh wait not just a NO HITTER, it was a PERFECT GAME, 3 Batters Up-3 Batters Down for 9 innings (hence the most boring game ever!!!!!!) This has only happened 21 times since 1876.  Even though it was a historical game, it was super boring live.  I'm sure it was way more exciting on TV as the announcers I'm sure hyped it up.  I'll take the excitement at an IRONMAN FINISHLINE betweeen 10pm and 12am anyday!

50 Days & okay I'm Counting!



Jason, Sean and myself taking a break at mile 52

on the banks of the Snoqualmie river.

Just 50 days, 13 Hours and 6 min, crap 5min now to go until the gun sounds for Ironman Texas.  How is my training going has been a very popular question as of late?  I'm not sure how to answer it.  I usually say okay.  After all this time I had expected to be in a little better frame of mind.  I'm kind of in a "blah" mood.  I can blame it on a lot of things but basically I think I'm just ready to have my Ironman Experience and just try and soak it all in.  I mean it's not everyday when one tries to reach a 17+ year goal.  So whether I finish in sub 12, sub 13, sub 14 or just under 17 hours (yes at midnight Jason!), I want to finish with a smile and hopefully if all goes well I'll have a great finishing time as well. 



Rented some wheels for my long ride.  Not sure if they made

me faster but they certainly made the bike look better :-)







Bathroom break around mile 72.



The last few weeks here in Seattle have been raining with a bitter cold wind making training bike rides a challenge and the idea of getting in a pool a little challenging.  I've been a fairweather biker to say the least but I did manage to squeak several long bike rides followed by some short runs when the clouds parted.  The longest of my rides (actually my longest ride ever) was last Friday.  I did a 106 miles and then followed it up with a short 3.5 mile run.  All in all it went pretty well and I was happy to have two friends along for the ride with me (thanks Jason and Sean for keeping me motivated). 

In addition to my bike rides, I've had a few really good and fun runs as well.  The most challenging run was a 13.5 miler that took me up the steps from Golden Gardens Park on the Puget Sound all the way up to the top of 85th St NW.   



Starting up the stairs at
Golden Gardens Beach Park. 





Golden Gardens Beach Park showing off my Ragnar Shirt.





The other run I did was the
annual St. Patricks Day Dash.  This years race was both rainy and snowy.  As you can see I made the most of it.  My time was pretty good but I think I could have done better.  I went out way to fast though and bonked in the last half mile.  The most important thing here though was that I finally got to go to the beer garden afterwards and drink with my friends at 9am.....BEER, It does the body good....sometimes :-) 

Anyways, it's now down to 50 days and I find myself wondering how hard should I push myself over the next few weeks?  What's the balance between not enough and too much training?  Well, I guess I won't know until race day?  So I'm going to just keep training as best that I can and give myself a few days a week to rest.  This week I've been taking it easy.  So next week I'm going to try and have a high intensity week focusing on the bike trainer.  After that, who knows?  If the weather gets nice again I am going to go for a few more mid-range bike rides (oh it's rainy and cold here again.  To get an indication of how rainy it has been, the local ski resorts have had over 13 feet of snow since March 1st).  I think the most important thing for me at this point is to just try and stay healthy and positive.  After all, I got my long bike ride in....so that right there to me was a huge hurdle.

Must go train some more :-)