Beautiful Rain

So, after complaining about the heat and how miserable it's been I received a wonderful reprieve on Saturday in the form of rain. A lot of rain. The plan was to ride 50 and run 10, and to do them both at race pace. The overcast morning didn't give me too much hope as I had seen the same thing the prior week. The sun eventually had burned off any cloud cover that we'd had. We'll this week the clouds stuck around. I started to get rained on a little around mile 16. It was intermittent and really wasn't an issue. I was alone and could stay in my aerobars while I kept my planned pace. At mile 21, the clouds started looking a bit ominous so I decided to turn around and see if I couldn't avoid the storm. Nope. It hit quickly and hard. The streets quickly flooded and as I made it through a small downtown area, the water came in too fast to be drained so I found myself riding through 4-5 inches of water. My feet were in the water at the bottom of each peddle stroke. Cars slowly rolled by with their mouths open in disbelief that someone could be so stupid to be riding in this mess. I was just glad that they saw me which was my biggest concern. Despite the heavy rains I came in just under my planned pace goal. Legs still felt good and the rain had slowed to a more gentle shower. That was a good thing because it was time to run.
I'm not sure if it was the cooler temps or the slower paced bike, but I had legs unlike I'd had in a while. I cruised along the streets running through puddle after puddle. Looking for swollen streams and runoff from driveways. The cool waters felt great on my feet which were pretty comfortable in my water squeegeeing K-Onas. They absolutely rocked.
I ended the 10 mile run almost as strong as when I started. It was the best run I've had in a while.
It's recovery week time. I'm sleeping in a little later and resting up. Life is good.

Blam! It's Hot!

I've exhibited basically all of the characteristics of the absentee blogger this summer. Really I should only characterize myself as a blog reader rather than a blogger. My posts are basically crap compared to the well thought out works I read on a daily basis. So thanks to all of you for keeping up your end of the bargain while I soak in your words and your funny stories.

This is my last week of before a recovery week, which will kick off my final big push before race day (Sept 26th). I've stayed consistent in my training which I'm very proud of, but I'm still left wanting a big on the run. You need to note that I'm in Birmingham, AL where the heat index is 93 at midnight. So even though I'm starting my longer bricks at 5:30 in the morning, I'm working through some incredible temperatures that is draining every single ounce of liquid possible from my body. I've been on top of my hydration, and I've yet to experience cramping. My biggest issue has been fighting battle between being constantly thirsty and consuming more liquid than my stomach can process. I thought that it might be easily solved by cutting back on the gatorade and adding more water. Not so much. I'm still finding myself having a belly full of water on the run. While I don't feel sick, it feels like if I just threw up I'd feel a lot better. So what's a guy to do? HTFU? Underhydrate (NO!) Maybe a little fluid moderation combined with a little HTFU. Everyone could use a little HTFU anyway right?

So back to the run. I would say that with consistent focused training and on the right day, I can run well enough to qualify for Boston. Whether or not I could pull it off or not, I wanted to give you an indication of where I am at my best. Except for now. I seem to have wandered over into the "hey, I just completed my first 5K category." It really feels that slow. I went out for a hard 6 mile run the other day and to my horror discovered that I had only barely averaged a sub 8 minute mile. What the hell? While I wasn't killing it, I felt like I was pushing myself. Maybe it wasn't my day. Maybe I'm feeling the effects of tired legs. Or maybe I'm just that slow.

So this next week (rest week), I will rest. I will swim long and slow and rest. But! Come week 1 of the big push, speed will be the name of the game. I've worked to hard to finish this race satisfied with just finishing. I want to wake up in the med tent with a bust chin from hitting the asphalt at the finish line. I want to know that I worked as hard as I could and ran my race (as smartly and) as hard as I could.

No regrets.

Half IM Training Event

Untitled by bulletmultisport at Garmin Connect - Details

Humidity: A study of things that suck

I love summer. I love it. I love the longer days, the sun tans, the outdoor activities, trips to the beach. You name it, but what is really taking it out of me right now is this God-awful humidity. Temps in B'ham have been relatively mild, upper 80's and low 90's. Not bad, but with the humidity being what it is, fall and winter don't look that bad any more. For example, I went home last night and took my wife and daughter out for a walk. It was around 5:45 or so. Temp was 88, but the heat index was 99! There was no wind to speak of either. Not even a warm breeze.

Now the walk was tolerable, but let's now take that to triathlon. Being one that sweats easily anyway, the humidity is drawing fluid out of my system faster than I can replace it. I run with a fuel belt that allows me to carry two small bottles of fluid with me to help, but these last around 5 miles. Either I'm going to have to HTFU and start running with 4 bottles or I'm going to have to keep running into convenience stores to buy a drink during my run. I never mind the break, but the last I checked, they don't allow breaks during a race.

So far, majority of my training is done pre-work during the week so the temps aren't so bad and I'm able to rehydrate through out the day thanks to the work-sponsored bottles of Powerade Zero. Between that and green tea, I'm keeping our supplier busy.

This week is the 1/2 IM training race. As mentioned before, I'll be going in with tired legs per the plan. I'm interested to see how I will do especially with pacing and race planning. It's always a good idea to have a well developed race plan for nutrition and pacing. This weekend will help me determine what my limiters are and where I need to do some work. I'm going to bet that it's on the run, but hopefully a smart pace on the bike, will enable me to finish strong.

Getting Stronger and Sweating

If you haven't noticed, it's hot outside. Being in Alabama I'm reminded of that every time that I crack open a window or look at my power bill. Running the A/C is expensive, but oh so worth it. I was served with a hot steamy notice of Alabama heat and humidity this morning at 4:50 when I stepped outside and started sweating immediately. I hadn't even begun to strap on my Sidi cycling shoes or even push the first pedal.

Thursday morning is my day for being on the trainer. It's the best option for me in getting in a good steady ride before work without having to waste a lot of time getting out to open roads. My trainer is set up in my garage which is separate from the house and without any climate control unless you count the two windows and a stationary fan that blows in my general direction. I'm currently watching Season 4 of the 24 series. Jack Bauer is at it again and this time, not THIS time, all gloves are off. It seems that every season Jack goes rogue and does something that is supposed to shock us all, but it's only par for the course for Agent Bauer at this point. Any way, it's a great series to watch while on the trainer because something is always happening.

I'm really starting to see some gains in strength since the beginning of the year. I've got to tell you my body has really adapted well to the LSD verses the short fast and hard work that I started out with. This morning's workout involved 30 minutes of steady work, 2 X 12 minutes of out of the saddle climbing with 5 minutes of rest between, and then another 25 minutes or so of steady work. The floor was totally drenched with sweat, and I was done. Jack Bauer couldn't have come up with a more grueling act of torture.

No crazy news of speak of other than that. Life right now is good. I'm getting good mileage in on all three sports and each are coming along nicely. I have a race simulation coming up in a week and a half. Looking forward to putting all three together to see how I'm progressing. Lots of work to do before then as this week's schedule seems to be grueling. I won't have the freshest of legs for the simulation, but that's not the real point of it all.

Tailwinds to all...

Great Training Weekend

This weekend Dr. Nitrous and The Zoomer and I took off at the way too early hour of 5:30 am for a 3 hour ride. The route would be fairly easy for the first 30 miles, but then the climbing would commence and continue for the next ten. Since coming off of the chest cold and trying to recover for the last 3-4 weeks I was a little anxious to see how my energy would hold up. While we didn't go out and try to kill ourselves on any part of the ride, we did keep it brisk. Being in Alabama, we did have the luxury of a very muggy and sticky weather forecast, but there was enough cloud cover to keep most of the heat off. Once we made it through the final climbs of the day, I was overjoyed in the fact that I still had good legs and felt like I could have kept going. This is a first in a long time. Zoomer and I took off for an easy 3 mile run afterwards to stretch out the legs. It feels so good to be going long again.
Today, the legs were a little heavy, but I was able to put in 11 miles on the run. The big goal for me was to keep the HR in the 150 range. I ended up averaging 155 which I think might be the perfect zone for racing. Now, I've got to work on dropping my pace while keeping my HR in that zone.
Also key for me this weekend was being able to recover well after each training session. I took in good calories and took ice baths to help the legs recover.
I'm not sure how I can explain it. Maybe the LSD (long slow distance) just suits me over the balls to the wall hypoxic training I'd been doing. 14 weeks to go until Augusta. Can't wait, but I don't want it to get here too soon. I'm having too much fun preparing for it.
Tailwinds....

Race Planning - Going Long Again

I've had a change of heart. After a few months of training specifically for the shorter distance races, I discovered that my heart just isn't in it. There just doesn't seem to be a big drive for me to compete in the hour plus races. So, I decided this past week to scrap the season and pick up Augusta 70.3. It's my first sanctioned HIM since 2007. Last year was all about the IM with one training HIM thrown in for giggles, but it was completed at IM pace. I have 15 weeks to get my legs and lungs into shape. It shouldn't take too long, but I'm starting with a bit of a disadvantage. Three weeks ago I took on a massive chest cold that has seemed to zap my ability to maintain a high HR. I'm still dealing with some of those issues, so until I can right the ship in that area I'll be completing a lot of slow long distance workouts. I'm actually looking forward to that.

So I officially started 70.3 training yesterday with a 10 mile mid morning run. The plan was to incorporate the IM Talk/John Newsom plan which is the 9 minutes on and 1 minute off. The 9 minutes on are run at a faster pace than you normally would run your 1/2 Mary. The 1 minute rest is there to give your HR a chance to recover. Their studies have shown that you will actually run faster and have better legs toward the end than if you had set out at one consistent pace. The hardest thing about it for me was getting into a rhythm. I seemed to be too concerned with when my 9 minutes were going to be up. It did take a little of the enjoyment out of the run. I'll keep giving it a try and see if it improves.

This morning was my first 1.2 mile swim in several months. I was very pleased with the results and time. I was spot on for where I want to be come September. I was very encouraged by that. Going forward any extra fitness earned in the pool is just icing on the cake.

That's all for now. Tailwinds to all.

Intervals, Intervals, Intervals

Yeah, I don't have any stories about an epic ride or X number of laps in the pool. The past few weeks have all been about intervals aimed at increasing speed. Nearly all of my races are sprint distance races that last just around an hour. I really miss the 4-5 hour rides and 3 hour runs that came with training for an Ironman distance race, but the sprint distance is a whole different monster and requires different training.

Here's what yesterday looked like:

Run:

1 mile warm up

800 m in 2:56

400 jog

800 m in 2:54

400 jog

800 m in 2:55

400 jog

800 m in 3:00

400 jog

2 miles at 6:51 pace

1 mile jog.

Not a long workout at all, maybe 6.5 miles? But it was a great workout and definitely stretched my limits.

Today we did time trial intervals on a semi-flat course that was just under 1 mile long. I didn't have my garmin with me so I didn't get any splits. The goal here was to make it hurt. Dr. Nitrous and I swapped off acting as rabbits for one another giving us someone to try and catch. There's a little pride that's lost in being caught so there was some extra motivation keep the speed up. We conducted 6 TT sessions that have left my quads still burning 3 hours later. It's either a sign that I'm just not in peak form right now, or that this was just a good workout.

Tomorrow is a 5K run at 100% effort. I'm going to try and break my previous PR of 19:46 on this course. I'm not sure if I'm there yet, but we'll find out. More on that later.

This weekend is the 1st Annual LibertyMan Duathlon. It's a practice race created by the good Dr. Nitrous. It consists of a 5K run, 14 mile bike, 5k run. This is going to be a real challenge for me, especially in trying to keep the pace hot. Looking forward to throwing down and earning my stripes.

Check That One Off of the To-do List!

This morning's planned session consisted of speed work. My good buddy JWest told me about an exercise his coach has him doing that he really "enjoys". Since JWest is crazy fast, I thought I'd give it a try.

1 mile warm up

24 X 400 with 45 sec break between

1 mile cool down

Now JWest is able to throw down 1:15 reps, but I'm not quite there. The Zoomer, Dr. Nitrous, and I set out to tackle the task this morning. I gotta tell you, after the first few there's no way that I would have ever guessed that we would complete all 24. All in all it was a difficult session that totally made us work and stretch our limits.

Staying with the workout and not quitting early was a huge boost in training mentality. All this adds up to being able to SwimBikeRun faster come race day.

My Most Recent Favorite Workout - Ever

In doing a little research on how to SwimBikeRunner faster, I came across an interesting article about plyometric jumps. During a twelve week study, two groups of cyclists were put through similar cycling workouts except one group completed sets of plyometric jumps twice a week. Over the course of the twelve week study, the group performing the plyometric jumps increased their power output by 3% over the control group. It doesn't sound like much, but 3% change is huge. Best of all, these little workouts take about 10 minutes to do.

I did my second set of these this morning after my swim and oi! They were difficult. Where running and cycling require a consistent amount of pressure and power applied against either the ground or your pedals, these require an explosive amount of force applied to complete the jump. Definitely a shock to the system and definitely something that I will continue to do in my effort to SwimBikeRun faster.

Here's my workout:

3 X 7 box jumps with Zero added weight, 10 lbs added weight, then 13 lbs added weight.

3X 10 split jumps with same additional weight plan.

3 X 10 side jumps with no additional weight.

Here are some links.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuKx0PvW37w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK11KovyaP8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hADsX-H2O5w

Busting The Draft - Frank Maples Tri Race Report

Saturday, I drove up to Scottsboro, AL for their whatever'th annual Frank Maples Reverse Triathlon. The race consists of a 2 mile run, 15 mile bike, and a 200 yd pool swim. Very short, but it's balls to the wall.

The morning started at 4 am. Since I had preloaded the car, I was able to walk out the door, coffee in hand, at 4:20. I arrived for the 8 am start at 6:45. I picked up my goodie bag and t-shirt and decided with 30 seconds that both would be thrown away as soon as I got home. Well, I did put the t-shirt in our bag of stuff to give to Goodwill. I'm not completely heartless.

Around 7 am, I pulled the trainer out of the car and warmed up the legs for 15 minutes or so. Afterwards, I went for a jog that included some race pace intervals. I tried my best not to look around at the competition. I undoubtly start psyching myself out by looking at everyone's all carbon bikes, zipp wheels, and shaven legs. Self doubt has a way a losing a race for you before the gun even goes off.

At 7:55, everyone found their way to the start line. I lingered back just a bit to see who would be jockeying for a quick start. We listened to a local minister in a stereotypical Alabama accent say the prayer and sing the national anthem. And then it was 3, 2, 1, GO!

Legs felt great from the start. The pack thinned quickly and I found myself in 4th place within 400 yards. At the one mile mark, a guy ran up beside me with a Garmin. I asked him about the pace, he said that it was a 5:50. I let him go and reeled back the pace. I knew my limits, and I wanted to save some for the bike. Was this a mistake? Two more guys passed shortly after and I was in 7th. The next guy behind me was choking on his flem, so I knew I was good. I came into T1 in 12:00 flat. Right about where I wanted to be.

In T1, I stuggled with the strap on my helmet for what seemed to be an eternity. It was enough for the flem choker to pass me, in transition!

I finally got on the bike and was in 8th place. Luckily the legs were there and I kept the guy in sight. He had to stay ahead of me for 15 miles and I didn't think he could do it. I was correct. I can't really say too much about the first 6 miles. The legs felt great and the roads were fairly flat. Pace was right on target the whole way. At mile 6, I looked back and saw a familiar sight. A pack of riders bearing down on me. I thought, they may catch me, but they're going to have to earn it. Well, they earned it at mile 8th. I decided that I was going to stay out of the draft zone and attack at various points. Each attack was met with someone jumping on my wheel. So much for the individuality of the sport. Three attacks and no luck. The pace stayed hot and it took a lot out of me to stay with them. I decided that if I didn't make a move soon, then my 7th place was going to turn into a 13th place. I knew their would be no passing in the pool with just 200 yards. With a half mile to go I made my last effort to break away and it worked. I held a good lead coming into T2. Since this wasn't a USAT race, I didn't even bother to rack my bike. I left it on the ground and grabbed my goggles. It was my fastest (and easiest) T2 ever.

I jumped, not dove, into the pools. Oh, it felt like molasses! I couldn't even consider using my legs. It's a good thing that I had 6 years of experience while swimming without my legs. Yeah, my swim technique isn't the best. After the first 50 yards I looked back to see where my chasers were. They were all bunched together and not within reach. The guy in front of me wasn't in reach either. I knew all I had to do was to complete the swim and I was golden. I hit the final stretch and found the end of the lane to collect my 7th place finish. I was dead, but happy. It also enabled me to finish 2nd in my AG. The winner of my AG finished 3rd so good effort on his behalf.

Overall, it was a great race. I feel good for where I am physically right now. Best of all I am happy for the way that I raced. I had a good tactic and fought through some pretty tough odds to finish strong. If I had given it 3% less, it would have cost me 6 or so slots in the overall field. Hopefully, I can build upon this experience and use it down the road.

It's Race Week!

This weekend is the Annual Frank Maples Reverse Tri in Scottsboro, AL. Now you may be asking yourself, where in the world is Scottsboro, AL? Or, where is Alabama for that matter. Scottsboro is a little town in northeast Alabama that's about a two hour drive from where I am in Birmingham. It was made famous, or infamous rather, a few years ago due to Dennis Covington's "Salvation of Sandmountain". The book tells the story of a fundamentalist church dead set on proving their faith through handling of snakes and drinking poison. Despite their crazy habits they were pretty much left alone until the pastor tried to off his wife with said snakes. It's a sad and odd tale that I'm sure the community would like to distance themselves from. Now, they are known for one of the largest unclaimed baggage stores in the US. Ever wonder what happened to that snowboard that never made it back from your trip to Colorado? Well, there's a good chance it found it's way to Scottsboro. I've been to the store, but have refrained from purchasing. I just can't do it. Well, unless someone just happens to have lost a pair of Zipps. Then it's game on.

Alright, so on with the race. It's a short short race. It's barely worth the drive, but it's a good early season test that will hopefully give me a benchmark to work from. The race consists of a 2 mile run, a 15 mile bike, and a 200 yard pool swim. This race is heavily weighted on the bike if you ask me which is pretty much like throwing me into the briarpatch. I can't say that my bike is still where I would like for it to be, but it should be in good enough form to go balls out for 15 miles.

The last time I did this race was in 2007. I finished 14th, but felt that I got shafted a bit due to getting passed late in the ride by a peleton of 5-6 riders. I didn't know how to handle that then, but I do now and will certainly not let that happen again. The race is too small to have sufficient draft busters so I'll have to let a little anger fuel my legs and keep me ahead of these bastards.

More to come later. Hope everyone enjoys the weekend.

Squash

You know those days when even though you manage to get out of bed to do your workout, you find yourself looking at the trainer saying to yourself, “I don’t know if I can do this”? Walking down the stairs at the house this morning I could feel the effects of yesterday’s run. I found the 8 minute warm up on the Chris Carmichael DVD to be more difficult than it should. The easy chain ring was only allowing me to churn out 80 RPMs this morning. The first set of intervals was 5 sets of 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off, followed by 4, 3, and 2 sets. I was able to complete these, but was not able to enjoy the effects of the recovery. It never seemed to get “easy”. After a 5 minute full recovery, the next set of intervals was 5 sets of 2:00 max effort and 2:00 recovery. During the first set I found myself having to dig deep and find that extra bit of strength that comes from the core. I wasn’t sure that I could keep it up. After the second set, I started looking at the time and allowing myself to reason that this has been a good workout and that if I were to stop, it would be justified. But I continued. Despite having my eyes roll back into my head and my total lack of being able to disguise on my face the pain I was in, I was able to finish all five sets without giving in to the temptation to take it easy. It’s days like this when you don’t feel like you can keep it up or that you have every excuse in the world to call it a day that you can draw upon during the race and know you can dig a little deeper and persevere. I may not have been able to produce elite level watts this morning, but I put a huge deposit in the training bank that will pay dividends down the road.

Shipment from Clif Bar

Oh, it's a good day. I love it when UPS brings something by. It's like having a miniature Christmas. Today, I received a little something from one of my sponsors (read: people I buy stuff from). Opening the box I feel a little like the Old Man from "A Christmas Story" - "Well there could be anything in there!" Well, except that I know exactly what's in there.

It's a little taste of goodness. My favorite type of energy bar hands down, Clif Bar's Blueberry Crisp. You can have your Powerbars and your Snickers Marathon Bars. These daddies are the bomb. The blueberry's (and yes they are real blueberries) keep the bar moist and oh so tasty. Next is a bit of an experiment. I've been a long time fan of Powergel's espresso love, but I decided to give Clif's "double expresso" a try. It has the self attaching tab which cuts down on litter on the road and provides 100 calories with 30 mg of Potassium, 25 g of Carbs, and 40 mg of Sodium. Not a bad mixture.

Lastly, I decided to replace my race hat. I've raced and trained (and pretty much lived in) my blue USAT sweatvac visor. I decided to give Clif and plug and switch it up a bit. It's a sweatvac visor as well so no worries with performance. So yeah, I guess it is all about style.

Training for today:

Swim: 200 warm up, 100 kick, 100 pull, five 200's on 2:45.

Kept good pace throughout the sets. I was consistently between 2:15 and 2:18. Can't be upset with that.

Bike - 40 mins on trainer - easy spin.

That's all for now. Happy training.

Aero Bar Bottle

A while back I mentioned that I was looking into adding a bottle that sits on top of my aero bars. It's a trend that I've started noticing among some of the pro's setups. I have to agree that some of the alternatives out there have left the public wanting. Let's review:

The Profile Design Aero Drink - this invention hit the triathlon world like a storm. It provided a convenient way for the rider to stay hydrated without leaving the aero position. Also, studies were recorded that showed that it was more aerodynamic to have the aero drink on than nothing at all. Supposedly, it broke up the air around the head tube. Finally, it provided an "easy" way to refill the bottle during the ride through the hole in the top. Disadvantages - Annoying as hell. The propensity of the aero drink to lose it's yellow sponge is legendary. It's become almost a game within the race to count the number of sponges on the side of the road during a race. The lost sponge resulted in the rider being deluged with their drink the rest of the ride. Also, unless you used the optional aero drink holder, it was near impossible to keep the bottle straight which helps in producing that aerodynamic effect. These issues have led me to dump the aero drink all together.

The X-Lab Wing - This system which also comes in a more expensive carbon version allows the athlete to place two bottles as well as numerous other bits of gear (tube, air, etc) on the back of their seat. The system puts bottles within easy reach behind the ride which reduces the amount of added wind resistance caused with a bottle on the down tube or seat tube. There is some talk that it creates "dirty air" behind the rider, but I won't get into that. While this system does require the rider to get out of the aero position to reach the bottles, it does make for an easy bottle swap during a race. No need to struggle filling up your aero-drink, just drop a bottle and grab one from the volunteer. Disadvantages - this system launches bottles like it's their job. Slight bumps in the road wreak havoc on these systems. This leads to 1. lose of vital fluids and 2. risk of injury to riders behind you. Sometimes you have find just the right sweet spot for positioning your system which can reduce the number of drops. I have a friend who has loosened his up so that it bounces a little which reduces the shock. I used the X-lab during my IM race this past year and it could have cost me my race if it hadn't been for well spaced aid stations. See the picture below. Notice the odd looking water bottle on my seat tube and only one bottle in my X-lab holder. At this point, I was had lost two bottles. This was not the way I had intended to ride.

So when I saw bottles being attached directly to the aero bars I got a little excited. I doing my research I discovered that the two above-mentioned companies had already developed and were marketing products that allowed you to attach the bottle. Profile's was cheap but looked effective. X-Lab went all out and created an all carbon version. Understandably, it isn't cheap. So what's a spend thrift guy like me to do? Well, I copied the X-Lab version seen below.

I took a hard piece of plastic and a pattern based on a printed picture of X-Lab's version. Drilled the appropriate holes and attached a cage. I used pull ties to attach the holder to my aero bars. They are hidden from the wind and are virtually weightless. I'm not sure how it will hold up to the rigors of the season, but for zero investment I think I have a pretty good alternative. We'll see how it goes. Here are some pics.

Tough week so far.

In my never ending quest to swimbikerun faster, I am constantly working to push myself just a little harder and a little faster than my last workout. The winter months have come and gone. So has the time to work on endurance. Spring is here and it's time to work on speed. I don't feel too fast right now, but I now have some base line numbers with which to build my season on.

Tuesday, I ran a self timed and mapped 5K route to see how far off my numbers are from last year. I was pleased to see that I was only 45 seconds down from last year's peak. This number will still need to improve past my best last year as the run is still where I tend to lose time.

Wednesday was an interval workout in the pool. The plan was to do 5 sets of 150's on 2:50. This means, you finish in whatever time you finish, but when 2:50 is up you start again. After the 5 sets, we dropped the time 5 seconds and did 4 sets. We repeated this process down to 1 set of 150 on 2:30. It ends up being 2250 yards of intervals. While it never seemed that I had enough of a breather between sets, I was able to keep my speed with my last set coming in at 2:17. I'm proud of that. I have to give some of the credit to my attempts to actually kick while swimming rather than just relying on my arms.

This morning, Thursday, we have a regular 7.6 mile route that we run through the tiny kingdom. Last week, we just missed our goal pace by 23 seconds. The rain forced us to take our run in doors this morning and attempt to best our time on the dreadmill. (yeah, I know we're sissies who don't like getting wet). We knew that this wouldn't perfectly correlate to running our route since our course does contain some pretty good climbs, but we had to give it a shot. Well, we hit the goal by 46 seconds. It's not a legit win for us, but if nothing else we learned to suffer this morning. Running 7.6 miles on a dreadmill is 100% suckage. With no wind and nothing to look at except other people working out it absolutely drains the mind and breaks your will to continue. Doing runs like this can only help down the road if I ever find myself struggling mentally during a race. I can draw on days like this and know that I can press on.

This weekend looks absolutely gorgeous. Temps in the 70's and plenty of sunshine. I'm ready to get on the bike and bring the pain. Later taters.

Finally Recovered.

Good grief! It seems like I've been dealing with this sore throat/cold thing for a month. Although in reality, it's only been a week, but I think I'm officially over it. I had a good run this morning with Dr. Nitrous and the Zoomer. We kept a fairly lively pace for our typical 7.6 miler through the Tiny Kingdom. We fell a little short of our goal pace, but it wasn't because of the extra snot I've been carrying around.

This weekend should be one for the books. The Zoomer and I will be staging a multi-brick session from my garage on Saturday. The plan is (after a warm up) to get on our trainers for 15 minutes of fast paced pain then transition into a 2 mile hard as you can go run. Then, repeat as long as you can. I'm shooting for 4 reps of this before calling it quits and heading over to Super Sams for a bit of deliciousness. I'm not sure if my bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich counts as proper recovery, but I'm not changing my ways.

Lastly, I've been working on an invention of sorts. I've started noticing a lot of pros using a bottle mounted to their aero bars. Not the Aero Drink! I have that and I hate it! The device holds a bottle in a regular bottle cage attached to your bars. Due to my bike fit, my aero bars won't support a full length bottle. My plan is to devise a system that makes use of a smaller bottle but still contains a straw just like the dysfunctional aero drink. More on this to come. Later taters.

Dear Triathlon

Here's an email that I sent to Dr. Nitrous today. Thought I'd share.

Dear Triathlon,

Please let this serve as notice that due to lingering effects of a sore throat, sinus pressure, continuously feeling like crap as of late, until further notice I am officially retiring from the sport of Triathlon. In turn, I will be sleeping in, eating what I want, and buying pants with elastic waistbands to make room for the impending gut expansion. I renounce any high ideals I might have had regarding striving to continually challenge myself and leave others in my dust. The amount of money that I will safe on entry fees and gear, I will put toward buying that nice set of golf clubs and getting a country club membership. I bequeath all of my power gels, apparel, and aforementioned gear to the triathlon community (aka: those misfortunate souls who haven’t figured out that you are evil yet). With that, I bid you adieu!

P.S. – You can stick this notice where the sun doesn’t shine. It’s going to take a lot more than a runny nose to keep me from kicking your ass every day. Game on!

Here's the Doctor's response. Love it.

Dear Bullet,

Thank you for submitting you comments. However, I regret to inform you that I do not care about you. I have broken down the most elite of your species and I will continue to torment the likes of you until all the oceans and lakes dry up. I will continue to recruit new members at an alarming rate, and it will take them years to figure out that I do not care about them either. My human agents, in the form of race directors, have sold their souls to me, and I will continue to make them rich as they aid in my quest for world domination. You may be one of the few enlightened humans who are able to see through my facade, but you do not stand a chance of changing the minds of those who are committed to me. I will destroy their lives, and they will not even see it coming. On the contrary, they will think they are actually doing a good thing. So, congratulations on escaping the matrix, but freedom is not all it's cracked up to be. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.

Sincerely,

Triathlon.

Come On Somebody Why Don't You Run?

Some how I've got this hokey country song stuck in my head. At one point it was getting annoying, but the more I think of it, it's a little fitting to my training right now. All I've wanted to do as of late is run. That's RUN! Yep, I'm not talking about the boring recovery runs or the garbage miles. I'm talking like running like you been caught doing something you shouldn't. Running has been my release as of late and my quads have been screaming at me.

I just received my new K-Swiss K-Onas in the mail on Friday and have been doing my best to wear them out since then. I absolutely love these shoes. They're super light and have these neat little holes in the bottom to drain all of the sweat that typically fills up my shoes during a race. They actually fit my wide foot which is an added bonus. They're great with or without socks. Enough words, here's a pic.

So since getting the shoes, I've been doing the best to work toward race tempo. My workouts have typically consisted of above race pace intervals. For the last couple of weeks, I've alternated between 2:00 mins hard/2:00 recovery, 2 miles hard, 4 min recovery, 1 mile hard/.5 mile recovery. Hopefully soon I'll be able to stretch these distances out into one consistent run. Endurance at race speed just isn't there yet, but here's to hope!

I'm about 1 month out from the first race which is a short little reverse Tri up in Podunk, AL. It'll be a good warm up and test for my fitness. There's always hope for hardware, but it just really depends on who shows up. More of that later. For now, it's time to RUN!

Swimming And the Medius

Today's swim session included some drills and speed work. Typically, my Intermediate race goal is to keep my pace around 45 seconds per 50. Today's speed work involved 4 sets of 150 on 3 minutes, 3 sets of 150 on 2:50, 2 sets of 150 on 2:40, and 1 set of 150 on 2:30. I was happy to see my splits staying in the 2:14-2:18 range until the last couple of sets which saw times around 2:23 (I was toast). While it's still early in the season for me swimming wise, it was good to see that my lack of speed work over the winter months didn't totally kill what I had accomplished last year. I still struggle with kicking even the least bit. I'm working this extensively in drills. What could I do if I only knew how to kick?

Afterwards, I hit the weight room for some light shoulder and back work. Also as all good little triathletes should do, I made sure I did adequate core work as well. But the newest exercise to my regime is working the all important gluteus medius. I've listened to even podcasts and read enough articles on the importance of this little muscle to know that I need to start paying some attention to it. Having a strong 'G.M.' can greatly decrease your chances on IT band injuries. The muscle works as a pelvic stabilizer while running. Odd eh? The exercise is aptly name the "fire hydrant". Basically you get down on your knees and elbows and do your best impersonation of a dog peeing on a fire hydrant. 3 sets of 10 reps per side will have you screaming for mercy, as well as looking like an idiot.

That's all for now. Tailwinds to all.

Tuesday Morning Hill Repeats

First of all, this past weekend was amazing. It was our first sure sign of Spring. Temps were in the high 60's and the sun was blazing. Dr. Nitrous and I had a great ride on Saturday which left my aching during my run on Sunday. It was good to hurt.

After taking the "day off" with a pool session yesterday, I decided to tackle hill repeats this morning with my training partner, the evil Dr. Nitrous.
The good thing about the Dr. is that he's just a little bit better than I am on the run. He's on form right now with a recent 1/2 Mary in 1:33. Nice work and definitely on track for NOLA 70.3 in April.

The plan this morning was to get a 1 mile warm up in and then tackle a .32 mile hill beside my office. Yes, this is the same hill that I get to see the local Cross Country kids run during the day while I'm stuck inside working. After today's workout, I won't feel so bad about being the one in the office in the future.

I thought that I would have been fully recovered from this weekend's training after the day off, but half way up the hill I could start to feel the fatigue of the weekend start to creep in. During the second interval, my body was asking if this could be our last. My quads felt tight, swollen, and dead. Despite the pain, I was only 3 seconds slower. I could feel a bit of a change in my third hill and actually felt faster, but still was 3 seconds slower than my first. But no drop off. The fourth and yes final hill actually felt like my best. My body was adapting and my legs felt a little lighter. I came in 1 second slower than my first hill. Not bad.

The workout was short and sweet. Overall, only about 3.5 miles of running, but it was quality work. Next week, we'll see about adding a 5th and maybe a 6th.

Tailwinds.

Let's Talk 2010

Like a bear emerging from a long winter's hibernation, triathletes all around are gearing up for yet another exciting year of triathlon. This triathlete is no exception. 2009 was great. I made some great strides in stretching my abilities and have learned a lot about myself and where I want to go, but it's time to build on that and not rest on any past laurels.
2010 will be a year to focus on speed and more speed. Due to a new baby in the house, I've taken IM out of the equation and will focus on sprints and Olys. I've laid out a manageable and exciting schedule that has me racing twice most months this summer. The hope is seek out a few races that I either haven't done yet or haven't done in a while.
So physically where am I right now? Honestly, since my last post it's been a lot better. I've picked up two pool sessions a week where before I was maybe only swimming once. I'm not exactly happy with my technique right now, but the times are still there. I'm about 80% where I want to be on the bike. Endurance has picked up, but I'm just not climbing the way I used to right now. I'm on the bike/trainer at least three times a week right now so hopefully that will change soon. The run is still an unknown. I've had good days and bad days. I'm ready to stretch out some of the speed work I've been doing to see if I can maintain my goal pace for the entire run. This is where I've fallen back in the past in Sprint races. I'd love to be able to get under 20 minutes for a 5K in Sprint but I haven't been able to maintain that pace.
This biggest thing that needs to happen is for this damned winter to end. It's making life and training way to difficult and complicated. I'm ready to sweat and suffer on the road instead of in my garage or on the dreadmill. Regardless, the motivation is there, and it's time to get serious. 2010 is here and I'm ready to play. Game on!