Because If You're Not Training 20 hours/Week, You Need a New Project

We're happy to announce that we're expecting a baby!  

Baby Craig will be joining us Spring 2013!!!

Michael Craig, You Are an Ironman!

Michael raced Ironman Wisconsin on September 9th, 2012!

Michael and our friend Emily at the Team Z Ironman Send-off.

Michael's niece Erin getting ready to cheer

Monona Terrace goes IM

Checked in and finally got a backpack as cool as his wife's!

Ready to swim!

2.4 mile swim, done!

Michael's niece Erin and nephew AJ cheering in cow country

Looking good on Loop One of the 112 mile bike course

Michael's sister Mary and AJ

Erin LOVES the camera!

Michael had the biggest cheering section ever!  Sister Mary, nephew AH, Nikki, Step-mom-in-law Jane (and Dundee), Step-dad-in-law Bruce, Dad Wayne, Cousins Russell and Patricia, Niece Erin, Cousin Burt, Walter the Dog and Grandma-in-law Mary

Nikki got to spend awesome time with Rocky and Walter!

Still looking strong on Loop 2!

Out for a 26.2 mile run to finish off the day!

Crossed the finish line..feeling like his legs are numb.  (This is a normal feeling for most people after a run, it took Michael racing an Ironman to feel it for the first time.)

Recovering.  He slammed 3 chocolate milks, which would exit his body a few hours later without really being digested.  Chocolate milk as a recovery aid needs to be ingested in MODERATION.

Michael and Nikki post-race.

Luray Triathlon

Michael did his last practice race before his Ironman this week! Luray Triathlon

 Michael placed 3rd in the military division and got his award from Ironman legend Dave Scott!

Nikki did the swim leg of a relay and volunteered at aid stations all weekend, a welcome break from racing.

After the races, we toured Luray Caverns

Disneyland. No, world. The one in Florida. Whatever, it's hot.

We went to Disneylandworld this month with the Craig Family.

Yes, it was hotter than hades, but we had a good time regardless!

Michael, Nikki, AJ, Wayne Adam, Russell, Patricia, Erin and Mary

 Mark this day... Nikki beat Michael at something!  Michael lost on Buzz Lightyear by 15,000 points.

 We had a fun day at Animal Kingdom with Kim, Meredith & Sean Graves

And we finished off our weekend by eating our way through Epcot!

"Nicole Craig, You Are and Ironman!"

Nikki is an Ironman!

Ironman Coeur d'Alene was amazing!  Nikki and Bruce finished at 11:45pm and had an amazing time!  For details and more pictures, see the Nikki's ridiculously long race report HERE.

Countdown to Ironman Coeur d'Alene 2012 (Aka How to Almost Derail a Year of Preparation 3 weeks before.)

It's May, and IM CDA is in June.  Yikes!  Its very surreal to see something you've worked so hard and so long for come up so fast.

 

Nikki's last race in prep for IMCDA was the Columbia Triathlon.  Columbia is notorious for being crowded, hectic and very hilly...perfect practice for an Ironman!  It was the first very hot day of the year, and The Team Z Coach kindly told Nikki the night before the race that this is "The single hardest Olympic distance run course in the country."  Awesome.  Note to Ed: Silence is Golden.  Especially the night before a race.

 

Here is the transition, 3000 people (around the same size as a standard Ironman field.)

 

 

Training rides and runs have gone from "hot" to "surface-of-the-sun" requiring more frequent stops and creative cooling-down techniques.

 

On Nikki's last long ride (120 miles, 3 weeks before Ironman) she had little oopsie at mile 54.  Her bike and a patch of dirt got into a fight, resulting in some sort of damage to the scaphoid bone in her wrist.  (Possibly broken...won't know until the bone starts to grow back.)  Some very friendly strangers threw her and her vomit-and-blood covered bike in their SUV and drove her to the emergency room. (somewhere...Leesburg, maybe?)

Huge thanks go out to our friend Sam who kindly drove 60 miles (one way) out of DC to pick her up, also bringing clothes and shoes.  (Because Murphy's Law clearly states that the day you end up in the ER is also the day you decide to "test out" your race day clothing and are inevitably sitting in the hospital dressed like a $3 hooker in bike shoes.)

 

Huge thanks also go to friend Liz for putting on Nikki's deodorant and doing her hair for two days.  And, to the stranger in our elevator who kindly didn't run away screaming when Nikki had to ask her to unclip her sports bra.

 

Friends always come to the rescue..."Oh, you can't do your 20 mile run and are having an emotional breakdown because you might not be able to race your Ironman?  Come to brunch!  We'll even cut your food for you."

 

Note: Writing left-handed is HARD. 

 

 

After two days of emotional turmoil and uncertainty, the Orthopedic surgeon at Fort Belvoir gave his blessing for Nikki to finish her training and race IMCDA.  "You can't damage it any more than it is, so if you can go through the pain, go for it."  He even gave Nikki a handy brace that allowed the doing of hair, application of deodorant and removal for swim practice.

Hair by Liz

You might have a question...where was Michael during all of this??  KOREA.  Where he went without leaving Nikki information on where was going, staying or how to contact him.  He regrets these actions.

 

 

Now the countdown begins!  There is a LOT of preparation into an Ironman race, particularly one three time-zones away.  This is the chart on the bathroom wall just to keep Nikki's head on straight (you should see the Excel spreadsheets!)

 

 

Ironman Training

Obviously the posts this year have a theme:  Ironman!  A few people have asked for details of the training, so here is a breakdown of our week-

 

Monday-

A "recovery" run or bike of about an hour (An hour used to be a workout!)

 

Tuesday-

Team Z Swim Practice at 5:00am

-We swim between 1.5 and 2 miles during each hour or hour and a half long practice

Lifting-Lunchtime (sometimes done on Wednesdays instead)

-About 45 minutes. Super important, especially for beginners to prevent injury and get us those awesome muscles needed to survive a 140.6 mile race.  Exercises include squats, calf raises, knee extensions, hamstring curls, pulldown, rows, tri dips, tri press, bicep curls, and about 20 mins of abdominal work.

Bike Intervals or Spinning-After work

We either do an hour long spin session with the Team, or in nice weather, intervals around Hains Point wth the team. 

 

Wednesday-

Track Workout at 6:00am

-Between 3 and 5 miles of intervals, drills, strides and speedwork with Team Z.  We have running coaches helping us with form.

 

Thursday-

Team Z Swim Practice at 5:00am

-We swim between 1.5 and 2 miles during each hour or hour and a half long practice

Lifting-Lunchtime

-About 45 minutes. Super important, especially for beginners to prevent injury and get us those awesome muscles needed to survive a 140.6 mile race. Exercises include squats, calf raises, knee extensions, hamstring curls, pulldown, rows, tri dips, tri press, bicep curls, and about 20 mins of ab work.

Bike Ride-After work

We either do an hour long ride that is steady and medium-paced. 

 

Friday-

For us beginners, this is a blessed day off!  (People trying to hit time goals or place in their age groups usually do an easy workout on this day.)

 

Saturday-

Long Bike Ride

Bikes rides are usually with the Team (and then Nikki has to do extra mileage afterwards because her race is sooner than the team race this year.)  Rides started about 20 miles and get increasingly longer throughout the training season, peaking with a 120 mile ride.

 

Sunday-

Long Run

Team Z hosts long runs, but we usually do these on our own as Nikki is always running a funny distance (again, different race than the team) and Michael runs at such a blistering pace that he rarely has a person to run with at Team events.  Distances started around 5 miles, and will increase to 20 miles.  **Just take a minute to think about that...120 mile bike ride on Saturday, 20 mile run on Sunday!

 

Our favorite places to run around DC include Rock Creek Park and the Zoo, through Northwest (hello hills!) and the Mt Vernon Trail heading into Virginia.

 

Fuel: Michael eats about 3000 calories per day and Nikki does about 2000 in our regular meals. (We've both lost about 20 pounds in spite of the huge amount of food.)  We have extra calories on Saturdays and Sundays when there are long runs/rides.  Our favorite super foods are apples, peanut butter, salmon, risotto (carbs!) and pizza on Sunday nights.  Workout foods include Gu, Ironman Perform, Clif Shot Blocks, Snickers, Pringles and Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwiches.

 

Some of our favorite training pictures from this year:

 

 The amount of bike maintenance and preparation required is amazing.  We've learned a lot, and Maya LOVES to help!

 

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 Riding hills in Shenandoah National Park...NOT for the faint of heart.

 

 

The day Nikki did 70 miles by herself, in the freezing pouring rain, without glasses.  And Michael was late to pick her up.

 

 

 

 Running at Haines Point through the fallen Cherry Blossoms.

 

 

 Peepshi (Peeps sushi) on our Easter Sunday team ride.  Yes, our teammates are super-human AND creative.

 

 

 The best part of training...HAPPY HOUR! (Which is almost always a fundraiser as our team is quite generous.)

 

 

Every Saturday morning at 4:00am we are up and out the door.  The streets are mostly empty, except for other cars loaded with Tri bikes going the same place we are!

 

 

 The fuel required (minus water which I got on along the way) for my first Century ride.

 

 

 100 Miles and the Garmin proof!

 

 

 The only other families out for such early morning Sunday runs along the C&O Canal in Georgetown.

 

Team Z tents at the Reston Lake Swim...turns out there are events that are *just* open water swimming.  Our first two-miler swims!  (Unfortunately the event was very poorly run and we can't recommend it.)

 

 

The W&OD bike trail is an excellent option for a bike ride if the Team Ride is cancelled or not convenient.  And there are some cool views of the quarry.

The 2012 Tri Season Starts!

April brought our first race in preparation for those pesky Ironman thingys that are looming later this year.  (It was Michael's first tri ever!)  We raced the Rumpass in Bumpass Olympic in Nowhere, Virginia. (We meant to race the sprint, but *someone* messed up the registrations.)

 

Nikki is used to triathlons in the Midwest (where we have nothing but useful space) and was amused to see that the transition area would be in a field.  Yep, a field.  Of mowed hay. 

Which Nikki is allergic to. And there were GIANT spiders everywhere.

 

 

The whole experience was a bit more down-home than anything we've been to before...

 

Transition assignments were done alphabetically, meaning husband and wife were right next to each other...NOT A GOOD IDEA.

 

 

 

The voluteers were obviously first-timers (especially the body marking folks.)

 

 

 

The swim was in a lovely little lake that was *just* cool enough to give us good practice in our full length wetsuits.  The bike was a windy loop around the lake, where even slow-as-molasses Nikki was able to pass the silly people who brough disk wheels.  The run course was a dirt and gravel path that resulted in not-a-few twisted ankles and knees amongst our team members (thankfully none for us.)

 

 The new bikes made their race debuts with few issues.  Yay!  Biggest lesson learned...you should probably tape your aero-bottle straw in place as it's very hard to drink out of an aero bottle without a straw.  Above is photographic evidence that the straw was in place at some point, just not from Nikki's first attempt at hydration forward.

 

 

 

 

 Between the hay and gravel, Nikki's eyes were just about swollen shut and her legs covered in giant red welts by the time she reached the finish line.  But, we had Team Z burgers and a smile to share at the end!