Ironman Training Diary - May 11, 2026

This morning I completed session #5 of the Garmin Half Marathon Plan program. My goal in following this program is to run a sub-2 hour 1/2 marathon on August 23 (The OhioHealth Grandview Yard Half Marathon - https://rungrandviewyard.com/). My unexpectedly dismal performance in the April 25 race led me to conclude I needed to be much more methodical in my training and not just rely on being “in shape” to break two hours. I think there were a few extenuating circumstances that contributed to the poor showing, but even so as my earlier analysis shows I very clearly “bonked” during that race and I don’t plan on letting that happen again.

Today’s run was categorized as “easy” by the trainer, 40 minutes in duration at an average of 11:30/mile pace. It was indeed easy and I covered 3.51 miles (5.64 km) during the run, averaging 11:25/mile pace. I am still working with Apollo (my custom-built AI fitness analysis agent) to create useful and interesting infographics, and below is the latest attempt:

Remaining runs for this week include:

• Tuesday, May 12: 30 minute easy run
• Wednesday, May 13: 40 minute easy run
• Thursday, May 14: 30 minute easy run
• Saturday, May 16: 80 minute easy run

In other news, last night I spent some time looking at endurance and triathlon bikes. I rode a Cannondale for many years and absolutely loved that bike, so I’m gravitating in that direction (https://www.cannondale.com/en-us/bikes/road/endurance/synapse). Obviously not one of the models that cost more than my first, second, and I think third car cost together, but a quality bike nonetheless. A local store here in town actually has one of the lower end models in stock so this weekend I hope to head over to ask a few questions.