Greetings and Happy Holidays, As I write this I am at home with my family having just ate Christmas dinner! I have completed my lease and turned in my truck. Wow! Three years living in that truck and now I am at home for the next four months to take my kids to and from school, go to their games, change diapers, cook, go out on dates with my wife. . . and, oh yeah - train for Ironman South Africa. I have just completed my Base 2 period and during the past four weeks a lot has happened. In order to improve on the bike (which is my weakness), I bought a set of Powercranks (Entry5 which lets you adjust the crank lengths). I also took advantage of some Cyber Monday deals and got a pair of Newton Distance Neutral, a pair of Saucony Kinvara 2, and a pair of Pearl Izumi IsoTransition shoes. I also had a creative breakthrough for training while living in my truck. Check out my video to see what I'm talking about: http://youtu.be/wh9MGO0qKdc My Training Volumes were as follows: Week 5: Swim: 9150.00 Yd - 2h 10m 32s Bike: 100.40 Mi - 5h 15m 26s Run: 22.24 Mi - 3h 03m 39s Week 6 (Recovery): Swim: 5300.00 Yd - 1h 17m 19s Bike: 55.60 Mi - 3h 13m 47s Run: 19.91 Mi - 2h 12m 16s Week 7: Swim: 9350.00 Yd - 2h 10m 39s Bike: 104.37 Mi - 6h 16m 40s Run: 12.78 Mi - 1h 51m 35s Week 8: Swim: 10049.21 Yd - 2h 28m 03s Bike: 101.06 Mi - 6h 08m 02s Run: 22.73 Mi - 3h 1 8m 54s My biggest concern when I started was injury, particularly towards the end of my training when the volume was well beyond what I've ever done. So I was surprised when I got sick and missed a day of training (Nov 29) in Week #5. This really messed me up psychologically. I decided not to do my long run since it is very demanding on my body and worried I would cause myself greater illness and more missed training. Amazing how missing one training day in week #5 of 25 affected me. My brain kept trying to figure out how to make up the missed 8.7 mile run and strength training without sabotaging the remaining workouts or causing greater illness. I didnt recover until December 4th. On December 5th I did my first run with the Newton Distance Neutral shoes. Just a two mile brick run. The following day I did 5.8 miles and start feeling some left leg and foot "issues". The next day was first go with my Powercranks. Good thing I was in my recovery week because I could only manage 20 minutes. I was somewhat startled at how difficult it was and the recruitment of new muscles during the pedal stroke was alarmingly obvious. The day after that (December 8th) I gave the Saucony Kinvara 2 a test spin. My shoe of choice had been the original Nike Free. The Kinvara 2 was tighter around the midfoot and stiff. Initially I felt an "issue" on the inside arch of my left foot but it went away. By the end of the run, the inside of my left ankle hurt a bit just below and forward of the ankle bone and it remained after the run. The pain is most noticeable when I'm running on cambered roads (roads that slope). It continued to bother me until Dec 13th. Halfway into my 9 mile run it started hurting so bad I had to slow down and became worried about a serious injury. Since then I have been icing and foam rolling regularly and though I have been able to run on it, it has been a problem. I have returned the Newton Distance for a half size larger (I like the shoe and have learned they run a half size small compared to other shoes) and I have given up on the Kinvara 2 (don't like em!). The original Nike Free are hard to find so I think Im gonna have to go with the Nike Free 2+. I purchased Running Anatomy by Joe Puleo and Dr. Patrick Milroy in order to solve and prevent my left ankle issue and any other that may come up. As far as the cycling, the first week with the Powercranks was very tough and I worried I wouldn't be able to ride more than an hour and would be forced to either miss some training or ride two bikes. So I called Frank, creator of the Powecranks, and explained to him how I felt. He assured me that within another week I would be feeling much better, which, it turned out, was true. I can now ride 3 hours with the Powercranks at the 130 length but I still can't hold the areo position. My next week is a recovery week, and after that I'm going to move to the 145 crank length. I'm a little concerned about my sartorius muscle in the inside of my right leg which tends to make itself known while Im riding. Its more annoying than painful. Well, such has been my training for the last four weeks. I've managed to get through it, though not smoothly and with a few "hiccups". Now that I'm home and can focus on my training and, hopefully, rest, I expect to manage the training better. Full warm ups and warm downs, massage, foam rolling, ice, consistent strength training, weekly yoga sessions, and of course continuing the Paleo Diet for Athletes.