North Georgia Triaflete

Big Things are gonna happen in 2011

2011-01-24T18:57:00.000-08:00

2010 was a pretty uneventful year.2011 has gotten of to a rocking start. Where do I even begin?

Last week I was offered an amazing new job. I have been networking on this opportunity for more then half a year and it finally happened. There was never a doubt in my mind that I was their chosen candidate, it was just a matter of timing as this was to be a new position within their company. Back in May 2010, I did a charity bike ride called the http://www.allianceride.com/">Alliance Ride put on by Jackson Healthcare and the Scott Rigsby Foundation. I found out about this ride through a Facebook friend who used to be a member of our tri club.

Being in the healthcare industry, I was curious to see what Jackson Healthcare did. The more I researched the company, the more I was impressed. Though I was initially interested in a different position within one of their other divisions, my friend convinced me I was an even better fit for a position that he was about to pitch to his managers. This position would be a data analyst for their Anesthesia Division, which is exactly the type of area I have been most interested in and looked to focus my career on. Time went by and I met with management both unofficially and officially. I had actually expected to get my offer earlier, but between the holidays and the nearly week long shutdown of Atlanta due to snowmageddon there were several delays. It will tough leaving my current employer, but I look forward to new challenges and exciting opportunities.

My new boss (my friend from the tri club) is an Ironman finisher and there are many more Ironman finishers within the company. The company has a run/tri club and an impressive gym on site, so it will make it even easier to get my training in. There are other great benefits and the company has been in the Atlanta Business Chronicle's Best Companies to Work For for the last 3 or 4 years. I cant wait to start next month

2011 will very likely be my return to Beach 2 Battleship Full. Right now, I am only 100% committed to a single race and after that I will make my plans since B2B Full will more then likely still be open in June. I am planning on doing the http://gamultisports.com/rock-%E2%80%98n-rollman-race-series/"> Rock n Roll Man half iron race in Macon in June. If I can get close to the weight I would like to be at and stay injury free, I plan to sign up for B2B full after finishing the half in June.

In order to get to my goal weight, I have begun eating Paleo/Primal style. In the last 6 weeks, I am down over 10 pounds and definitely have much more energy. More to come on this later. I really must get to bed. Another part of my plans for 2011 is to start getting more sleep, which will help both my training and weight loss.

Race Report:Lake Lanier Island Sprint Triathlon

2010-10-04T19:42:00.000-07:00

After a very disappointing (and slightly expensive) triathlon season last year, I decided to only do one race this year. When I decided on this one, I hoped to be in much better shape then I was on race day. The ruptured tendon set me back more then a month. I really didnt know what to expect going into this race. I have done very little swimming this year and my bike training would be 2 days one week and maybe no days the following week. Prior to the injury I was riding once a week with the tri club doing a hilly route and getting faster with each week. In the last few weeks, I was starting to feel like my running was coming back, even possibly better then it had been before my injury.

While technically my 2nd race ever back in 2007, I consider this my first race because my first race was one week earlier and it was a one-time only event so I could never go back and race it again. Interestingly enough, this was also the last full distance sprint I had done.

Saturday we volunteered to work packet pickup. Because of the way the park is set up and the 3/4 mile walk from the parking lot to transition, this race required dropping your bike off the day before. We volunteered to work 12-3 but unfortunately some volunteers who signed up to work 3-6 no showed so we ended up staying to 5. We went home and I had a couple of PBJ sandwiches and a beer to calm the nerves and went off to bed at a reasonable time.

I was up Sunday at 4:30 AM. Transition was open from 5:30-7 but we didnt want to be parked to far away so we planned on heading out about 5. After another PBJ for breakfast (a staple in my diet) we headed out to the park. When I arrived I found a surprise awaiting me. Because this race had a large number of triathlon newbies who apparently decided to rack their bike on the wrong racks, someone decided to re-rack all the bikes in numerical order. Not a big deal, but a slight pain in the arse since the night before I chose an end spot. I set up my stuff and waited until about 6:45 to make sure that those adjacent to me did not mess up my bike or my stuff. I was in the first wave so at least I didnt have to likely worry about someone messing my stuff once the race started. I headed down towards the swim with a quick stop at the mens room.

They had announced that the water was 72 degrees. since this was such a short sprint, I was not going to use my wetsuit. I got into the water up to my chest and was pleasantly surprised that the water wasnt that cold. The only problem was going to be getting out of the water since it had to be in the upper 40s or lower 50s and breezy. I did a little swimming to get my head under water and loosen up my arms and shoulders until we were asked to get out of the water for the announcements and national anthem. I got shivers waiting for them to allow us back in the water. We got in the water a few minutes before the start. I chose a somewhat middle of the pack position given my lack of swim training this year. I had an idea of what I could swim it in and I swam right about what I thought I would. As soon as the gun went off, I regretted not taking a more aggressive position. I had forgotten how much of a washing machine a short sprint can be. The first thrid of the race was like a knock out brawl. My stroke is somewhat of a catchup in order to protect my face. As I got close to the first turn buoy I picked up my pace and it felt like I had to climb over other swimmers to get some space. Finally after the second turn in to the swim finish (it was a candy cane shaped course) I was able to get some space and picked up my pace. My goggles were totally fogged, but I believe I took a fairly straight line to the finish while others went wide to the outside. As I was getting close, I could tell the water was getting shallower. Once I could touch the bottom with my fingers, I stood up and started my LOOONG run to T1. I looked at my watch and I had finished in 7 minutes 5 seconds (about 1:45 per 100 yards) this is what I figured I would finish in based on previous experience

The thing about races done at Lake Lanier Islands as anyone who has ever raced there will tell you is the run from the swim to T1 is long and hard. I ran until I hit the steepest part of the hill and then resumed running once I crested the hill. When you reach the top of the hill, you are at the front end of transition, but have to run all the way around to the back end of transition. I reached T1 at 9:44, almost three minutes from out of the water to transition. When I look at my swim and T1 times from 2007, I suspect that the timing mat was at the bottom of the hill before you ever made it to transition whereas this year it was right as you enter transition.

I was in and out of transition pretty quickly. I ran to my bike, strapped on my helmet, shoes and put on my sunglasses and I ran on out of transition and mounted my bike. I had packed arm warmers just in case, but was just warm enough that I didnt need them. In and out of T1 in a speedy (at least for me T1).

The bike course is slightly challenging in the first half, especially given the fact that the bike is my weakest link. It begins with about 4 or 5 miles of rollers getting out of the park. I kept my resistance low and cadence high to get the blood back in the legs. I knew the first half was the toughest so I wanted something left in the tank for the second half of the ride. There is one challenging hill at about the 6 mile mark which had me out of the saddle. By this point my lower back was bothering me that I was worried may sabotage my run. One of my problems when climbing (besides the obvious spare tire I am carrying around) is that I really tense up when on a long slow climb. All this tension finds it endpoint in my lower back and has been known to then kill my ability to have a good run. Once I made it past this, I used every down hill to stretch out my back and legs. I was able to maintain around a 19mph pace on the flats which was decent, but every hill sucked every bit of speed out of me. I kept my cadence high and only used my big chain ring when going downhill fast so I didnt blow out my knees pedaling fast. In previous races I have overused my big chain ring a really used up too much energy. I finished the bike strong in 45:31 (17.1 mph), again about what I expected though I would have liked to have been a little faster.

T2 was a little slower then T1, but still not too bad (1:38) as I had to put socks on to head out on the run. I cant run without socks as I am really blister prone.

Heading out on the run I didnt really know what to expect. The run is also slightly challenging. It is an out and back course. The course starts downhill for almost a mile, climbs for a half mile and downhill again to the turnaround then do it all again the other way. Starting downhill, I was averaging about a 8:15 pace. This surprised me some, but my legs felt really fresh. I think I didnt realize I was going down hill at this point. Once I started the first climb, my pace became pretty inconsistent. At times I was close the 12:30/mile, but I was styaing at a fairly consistent effort level. I reached the first mile marker in 10:23, but the garmin showed I had almost done 1.1 miles for a 9:40 pace. Based on the rest of the race, I suspect the garmin was more accurate. I took a slight walk break to chug down my water since I am no good at drinking from a cup when running fast and picked my pace back up to the turnaround. I kept my effort level steady and walked the water stop again on the way back in. I only had to walk one other time for about 15 seconds as I headed up the top of the worst hill on the way back. As I got closer I could hear the crowds and I picked up the pace more. When I hit the chute I sprinted to the finish and passed several runners on the way in. I think that was the fastest I had ever run in my life. I crossed the finish line in 1:26:39 a PR by 3:22 almost all of which came on the run. My only regret was that based on how much energy I had at the finish, I probably could have run faster, but Im not going to complain. I am still learning the art of running fast. My 5K time of 28:23 (9:09/mi) is my fastest run in two years. Overall I am satisfied with my results

Up next for me is the Silver Comet Half Marathon, which is my PR race, which interestingly enough, I also ran in 2007. 2007 was a good year as far as first time accomplishments (tri, half mar) this year may turn out to be a good year for breaking those PRs from 2007. The other intersing thing is looking at my photos from 2007 I was lighter then. Once I can take off this weight, I should be able to make even bigger improvement.

Swim
2007 8:16
2010 9:45

Swim + T1
2007 12:40
2010 11:09

Bike
2007 44:25 17.5 mph
2010 45:31 17.1 mph

Run
2007 31:59 (10:19/mi)
2010 28:23 (9:09/mi)

I,Oohh I'm Still Alive

2010-09-01T18:58:00.000-07:00

For the past four months I have seriously considered retiring permanently from blogging. I've been busy and just haven't had the blogging mojo. It was much easier when I was in school and spending several hours at school 2 or 3 days a week and had some time between classes. Lately I have been spending my lunch hour reading technical books to help further myself up the career ladder. I've also been trying to get to bed earlier, which further reduces my free time. I've been back and forth about it but have decided to keep it going. I've met so many great people and have gotten lots of encouragement and advice from fellow bloggers. Now I just need to push myself to actually update it. I have been keeping up with reading the blogs I follow, but havent done much commenting. I am going to try and do better with that as well.

Things had been going well for me. My big focus this year was my running. little by little I was regaining my running speed. I was getting faster and faster and then BAM! In June, I was starting off on a run at my local 1 mile park loop when I felt a sudden burst of pain and felt/heard a pop in my calf. I tried to walk and stretch it out, but no such luck. The next day I saw an ortho who sent me off from a MRI. I had a ruptured Plataris Tendon, and a minor gastrocnemius (calf muscle) strain. While the tendon rupture sounds bad, it was actually the strain that kept me from working out for a month. From what the doctor said, this tendon connects to a "accessory" muscle that isn't really necessary and it will never heal. If I hadn't also strained my calf, I could have kept running without any complications.

A month later I was back up and run/walking. I have built back up to mostly running with some walking when necessary, especially on my longer runs. A couple weeks ago, I also started doing some intervals and tempo runs. I had hoped to still do the marathon in November based on a run/walk schedule from John Bingham. After I couldn't complete the scheduled 8 miler, I knew I wouldn't be able to make it through the full marathon plan. I emailed the RD and was able to switch to the half. So after that, I now have 2 half marathons and a sprint tri on the schedule for this year and the GA full marathon still on the schedule so far for next year.

This week I added another event onto this years schedule. There is a new 200 mile relay race this year in GA called the Souther Odyssey Relay. For those familiar with Georgia geography, the race starts in Athens, heads towards Gainesville, then through the mountains, across to Dahlonegha, and finally south to the Finish in Roswell. Each team has 12 members who do 3 legs of the race. It starts on a Friday morning and finishes sometime Saturday afternoon. When I first heard about this race I was definitely interested. Well this week I happened to be on the Georgia board on beginner triathlete and saw someone I know from a local group ride needed more members on their team. I thought about it for a little bit and decided to sign up. I am also hoping a few other people I know are going to be signing up for the team as well. It should be lots of fun and I hope to take lots of pictures.

October is going to be a busy month. This race is the weekend after my sprint tri and two weeks before my first half marathon. I am definitely looking forward to get back into racing.

I am already starting to plan out the next two years. I hope to do two half irons next year and am shooting for 2012 for my second attempt at a full Iron. I have tentative plans for which one I would like to do, though I may change that depending what others are doing. We had 10 or 11 people from our tri club finish Ironman Louisville last weekend. The support they had on facebook, from club members who werent racing and traveled to the site, and from their fellow racing club members was just amazing. It makes a big difference to have all that support. If I have that opportunity I definitely will take it.

Aprils Stats

2010-05-02T19:03:00.000-07:00

April has been a pretty busy month for me. I have not had the time to blog. I am working to expand my knowledge in certain areas that will help me advance my career. This is keeping me busy reading and programming SQL queries. I am enjoying it, but that combined with swimming,biking, and running has left me with no time to blog.

Even though my weight loss has slowed down in the last couple weeks, I lost another 4 pounds in April. The last couple weeks, I haven't really tracked my food intake and I have basically stayed the same or gained a single pound, so I am happy with that. Time to get back on the serious weight loss wagon.

With April comes pollen season and awful allergies and asthma. This has hampered my training, especially my running. This week was the first week in several where I finally felt like I could breathe.

I am swimming a couple times a week. My average swim is around 1500 M. I am mainly focused on building back my strength and a little speed. I am doing lots of 100M's right now on 2:00. I think I can bring them down to 1:45 soon. I did another 200 TT this month. I came in 15 seconds faster (7.5 sec/100M) and I think I may have had more in me.

My biggest focus on the bike is the Tuesday night tri club ride. There are lots of hills and the pace picks up to over 25mph on the flat segments. Each week I am getting a little faster. My first ride was 14.1mph. My last one was over 16. My goal is to be able to keep up with the A group by the end of the season. If I can keep losing weight, I should be able to reach this goal.

My running continues to improve, even with the setbacks of spring pollen season. I "ran" one 5K, but the problem was this was the peak pollen week, and by the 1st mile I was completely out of breath. I still finished in 33 min, but figured if I hadnt been out of breath, I could have ran it around 27-28 minutes. I am currently basing my training paces of a guesstimated 27 min 5K and it seems to be just the right amount of challenge. I resumed speed work this week after two weeks off from any speed work due to asthma. The paces felt good, but I had to cut the distance back down. I am reworking my 10K plan to peak at the Peachtree. I have also decided to add more volume to my plan and build up to 40 mile weeks for my 10K training and build from there to 60 mile weeks for my marathon training. I know as I lose weight, my body can handle this volume as long as I build my volume properly. The only down side is that it likely means I will have to be up in the morning at least twice during the week to run 3-5 miles during 10K training and 6 miles or so during marathon training.

April's totals
6,700 M swim
50.53 Miles Bike (Way too low, did over 200 in march)
40.84 Miles run (less then I'd like, but asthma kept me from running. The reduced mileage this month is probably good for my legs though)

What a month!

2010-03-31T19:57:00.000-07:00

March has been an amazing month in terms of my training progress. March was my fourth highest month ever in terms of run mileage and seventh in terms of bike miles. The last time I ran 60+ miles in a month was June of 2008. I feel like I am in better shape then I was at any time last year. I am looking forward to my next race in a couple of weeks so I can reset my training paces. My long tempo run on Saturday (7 miles) was only a minute off my 5K race pace and it didnt feel too hard. Plus, it included walk breaks every two miles to take a few shot blocks. While I have my set pace for my intervals, based on my last 5K, I am starting to push myself a little faster as long as I feel like the intervals are consistent and I am not red-lining. This week was 6x1/4 mile and I averaged 7:59/mi through the 6 1/4s. Needless to say, I am super stoked about how my running is progressing. I expect to be able to take another minute or two off my 5K time. Off course I need to be careful what I wish for, because a faster 5K means faster training runs, which may make my long tempos harder.

On the bike, I continue to see gains in my strength on the bike. Last night I did my third week of the hillacious Roswell Ride. After the ride, I do a quick 1.5+ mile run through the park where we meet. Each week, it gets a little easier to climb the hills. I can wait for the point I can keep up with the main group. I hope to achieve this before the end of the group ride season in the fall.

I got back in the pool for the first time this month since B2B in November. I started off with a 200M Time Trial to get a baseline pace to evaluate my progress and plan on testing it once a month. I also began adding push ups and planks to at least one swim each week. I did that on Friday and the shoulder/ab soreness lasted through Tuesday. Definitely an "easy" way to squeeze some core work in.

I am down over 13 pounds in the last 5 weeks. This is obviously one big contributor to my success so far. I hope to be able to reach my goal weight before November both for my goal race, the Chickamagua marathon, as well as our 10 year anniversary cruise that Cathy and I are going on.

March Totals
Starting Weight: 273.6
Ending Weight: 262
Weight Loss 11.6 pounds

Swim: 3,000 Meters
Bike: 187.61 Miles
Run: 61.25 Miles

A couple of Hillacious Training sessions

2010-03-16T19:42:00.000-07:00

The last two days of training have been fairly tough. I have a whole bunch of time running and riding uphill.

Last night when I got off work, I celebrated daylight savings time by heading to Sawnee Mountain Park to run the trails around the mountain. It is my hope in a few months to be able to run the entire 3-4 mile loop, including the steep uphills without walk breaks. The first mile wasnt pretty bad. It was mainly flat to just slightly uphill for the first half mile and then came downill pretty steeply for the next half. The next mile was pretty dang tough. I had to take several long walk breaks to make it up that mile. The last 1.4 miles were not too tough. I thoroughly enjoyed running in the mountain. It is so quiet and its a great way to work the core and stability muscles. I averaged about a 13 minute mile. Now that I can get there after work with the time change, I hope to get there often.

Tonight, I headed out with a group of folks from our Tri Club as well as folks from the Beginner Triathlete forums. The announcement for this ride says come challenge the hills of Roswell. Boy was it a challenge. I havent done that much climbing ever. 22 miles of oh so much fun. It is exactly what I need though to loose weight and get stronger on the bike. I look forward to getting out for this ride as often as possible on Tuesday nights. I averaged around 13mph, but my garmin was not set to autostop, so it looks slower then it actually was, though probably not too much slower. There were a couple of interesting experiences. To avoid traffic at a busy intersection, the route usually goes through a local park down by the river. Part of this route is a wooden path adjacent to the river that goes under the bridge at the intersection. Well apparently the river was still slightly above flood level, because we all had to come to an abrupt stop as the path was underwater. Then, about a half mile from the end, some idiot passenger in a SUV decided to smack me in the butt/thigh as they passed by me. Luckily it didnt really phase me and I was able to stay on my bike without incident. We tried to speed up to get a license plate #, but the car sped out as soon as he got past traffic. Some people are just real idiots.

Tomorrows run intervals should be interesting given the past two days workouts. My quads are almost ready to scream mercy. I must get on the foam roller now and give them some relief.

Race Report:Jog for a Cause 5K

2010-03-14T20:18:00.000-07:00

Saturday was my latest chance to judge my progress so far on the running front. I signed up for a local 5K on a relatively flat course I am very familiar with. This is the same course I ran my PR on 5 years ago. The only difference is the Starting/ending point on the loop. At the end of the race, I would find out the course was actually 3.2 miles. I confirmed this with several others who ran the 10K (two loops) and complained of it being 6.4 miles. This course was comparable to my first 5K of the year in terms of elevation. My final time was 30:28. When I used SportTracks to break it down by 5K, my 5K time was 29:47. My two other 5Ks this year came in at 35:10 and 35:19, so this was more then a 5 minute improvement. Overall, I felt I kept my effort level consistent throughout the race. My first mile was a little fast, but my effort didnt seem too hard.

Mile 1: Started about halfway in the large pack. I started my Garmin when the gun went off and didnt bother to lap it when I crossed the start line. For the first half mile, I was stuck in a large pack. I was averaging under 9 minute miles, but didnt feel like I was overdoing it. I kept this pace through the rest of the first, flat mile which came in at 8:51. Avg HR 176

Mile 2: I was slightly afraid I may have gone out too fast in the first mile, so I was hyper alert to monitoring my RPE at this point because I didnt want to overdo it. I also knew that this mile had the one main hill which can be somewhat challenging. I did have to take a quick walk break up the one big hill because I was totally out of breath, but once I crested the hill I was back on pace. The second mile came in at 10:12. Avg HR 183.

Mile 3: Now that I only had one mile left, it was time to push it. This section was mostly downhill with one short climb up to the finish. I especially picked it up for the last half mile or so of the race. This was the first time ever I actually had that feeling like I could puke if I don't stop or slow down. I pushed it through the rest of this race with this feeling.

Mile 3.2 Pushed it through the finish and surged to pass a few people right before crossing the finish.

Overall I am really satisfied with my results. Now I can plug this info into my Daniels Calculator from http://www.electricblues.com/html/runpro.html">Here to get a better set of training paces, as well as have a better idea of my running LT HR.

I am working on updating my blog layout. For those that haven't heard, Blogger has a new design tool that is in Beta right now. If you go to http://draft.blogger.com you can try it out. I am really liking this new tool as I can make changes in minutes that would have taken hours of plugging in changes to the code.

In Like a Lion

2010-03-09T19:14:00.000-08:00

So far, March has been an excellent month. I am hoping it continues through the rest of the month and on through the rest of the year. My training continues to focus mainly on running. I am still only doing three, sometimes 4 runs a week. Right now, I am basing it loosely on the FIRST plan. I am trying to build myself up for the 10K first plan, which officially kicks in for me next month. I did my first "tempo" run ever tonight. While it was only a mile at tempo, I really surprised myself. The pace I thought would be my tempo pace ended up being closer to my easy pace for the run. I was shocked that I maintained about a 9 minute mile and my HR was settling in right around/below my LT HR and my breathing was only slightly hard. I probably could have maintained it for longer, but I didnt want to push it too far for the first time. After a slow mile with some walking and stretch breaks, my last mile came in at what I thought my tempo pace was going to be. Needles to say I was very happy with my run.

Sundays long run was pretty good as well. I had a 6 miler on my schedule. Last weeks 5 miler was so-so, so I wasnt really sure what to expect. I also forgot to take my Garmin with me, which meant I was slightly flying blind. I say slightly because my day to day watch is my polar watch and, I had downloaded an app onto my cell phone (Motorolla Droid) that was able to track my run, though I wouldnt have the data until after the run. The run was nothing short of awesome. I averaged around 10:45/mile which was my fastest run of the year, and this was with 1 minute walk breaks every 1.5 mile. My last mile was the fastest of the run, and the slowest lap was less then a mile slower then the fastest. Since I didnt have my garmin, I dont have any HR data, but I could definitely tell I was staying aerobic and well within the proper zone for a long run.

I have been on the bike a few times so far this month. I am alternating between the Downward Spiral sufferfest and an easier ride on the weekend which will eventually become my "long" ride on the weekend. For this ride, I have been watching stuff on Hulu, which surprised me with how much stuff is available. One little twist on an easy ride that makes things interesting is that every commercial break (which usually lasts about 15-30 sec) I up the effort and either sprint or climb. It definitely breaks up the monotony.

I will be back in the pool either this week or next. At our tri club meeting last week, Cathy won a free entry into Iron Girl Atlanta, which is in July. This means she has to be back in the pool soon, which means I to will be back in the pool.

I have a 5K on Saturday that I am looking forward to. I need a solid race effort to set my pace levels and better judge my progress. It is on a course I am very familiar with and set my 5K PR on (though I wont be anywhere close to that). My goal is to break, or be really close to 30 minutes. Based on today's tempo run, I really think it is doable. So far this year, my two 5Ks have come in around 35 minutes. I hit the 5K mark in today's tempo at 34:45 and 33:54 during my long run, so sub 30 should really be doable if I push myself and keep my effort level steady yet hard. I wont be anywhere close to my 5K PR of 23:30ish, but at least it could be an improvement of around 5 minutes from my previous 5K races. At this point in March, I feel like I am in better shape then I was all of last year.

Ont the weight loss front, I am down another 1.6 last week, for a total of 6.2 pounds since I started eating right on Feb 23. I am trying to find the old widget I used to use on the blog to track weight loss, but cant seem to find it. If I can keep on this track, I expect some great results this year.

February in Review

2010-03-03T19:41:00.000-08:00

February has been a very productive month for me. I am starting to truly enjoy running again. I have seen my pace finally start to come down and my endurance increase. I am really looking forward to springing the clocks forward so I can run outside somewhere other then my neighborhood. Currently I am doing 3 key runs a week: hill repeats, intervals, and a long-ish run.

My hill repeats start with a mile warm up on the "flatter" roads of the neighborhood. From there I do 4 laps of a 2 hill loop in my neighborhood. Yesterday I headed out in the snow/sleet to do my hill repeats. I felt really good about them. My average pace was 30 seconds per mile faster then the previous week and I felt much more comfortable. The biggest improvement I saw was that I only had to walk for about 30 seconds after cresting the hill before resuming running. This is a definite improvement.

My intervals right now are pretty short. My first two were a 1 mile warmup and then 6 times 1 minute around LT and 3 minutes recovery run or walk. The first time I did this two weeks ago, I did it on the dreadmill. For my runs, I set the dreadmill to 6.5 mph (9:12/mi). Last week, I headed outside to a relatively flat trail and was surprised to find I can actually run faster, and at a lower HR when I do my intervals outside instead of the dreadmill. Plus, I find my recovery includes more running then it did on the dreadmill. I averaged 8:31/mi for the work part of the interval which felt really good. This week's intervals will be 6x 1 min work/2 min recovery. I am looking forward to it.

My longish runs are where I am having my problem. I am having issue with my piriformis causing numbness in my leg/foot. I have found some ways to treat it, but I need to be more consistent with doing the stretches/roller movements. I am really looking forward to running with my running group soon.

I only managed one ride on the bike last month which was the Sufferfest Downward Spiral video, which I also did tonight. It is a tough workout, but I already feel a little stronger.

I have restarted my diet and lost 4.6 pounds last week. I hope to be much lighter by the time I run my marathon in November.

I need to do a review of the bluetooth headphones I picked up. They were well worth the investment

Feb Totals
Bike
17.89 Miles
Avg 17.89 mph

Run
34.92 Miles
Average Pace 12:12/mi

More info on my change of plans

2010-02-23T18:18:00.000-08:00

When I set up my schedule, I had plenty of fun races, some weight loss goals, and goals to regain my running fitness, but I really didn't have a real goal race. I had thrown around a few different options and after much thought, decided upon doing the http://www.battlefieldmarathon.com/">Chickamagua Battlefield Marathon in November. I have always heard great things about this race. In the last Runners World marathon guide, it showed up twice top for "family friendly" (ok, whatever) and second for scenic. Oh, and it was third overall for best marathon. Before any of this was published, it sold out really early last year, so I knew it would sell out really quickly. I signed up last Friday when I got paid. I had already begun to work out my Marathon schedule in anticipation of signing up. I also decided that I wanted to do the Silver Comet Half Marathon in October. As it turns out, this will work perfectly because my training plan calls for a 13 mile run @ marathon pace that week. I am using the FIRST 3-day a week marathon plan. I have had to dial back some of my 5K/10K race plans to be able to meet the scheduling demands of marathon training.

After I laid that out, I figured out my training would start late July, early August. This works out perfectly for me to plan another A Race, the Peachtree Road Race 10K. In a few weeks, I start 10K training to peak for peachtree with a few more 10Ks before then. I then get a few weeks in July to recover before my marathon training begins.

Last week I finally began to add back speed work. Right now, I am doing one night of short sprint intervals and one night of hill repeats with a long run on the weekend and an option to add one or two short recovery runs if I feel up to it.

Today was only the second day of the year I got on my bike. I used my copy of the http://www.thesufferfest.com/">Sufferfest Downward Spiral I won from http://quadrathon.blogspot.com/">Stuart's Blog. Sufferfest is right. I plan on cycling a couple times a week initially. This will mainly consist of spinervals/sufferfest on the trainer and spin classes at the gym. Sooner or later I will add a day or two of swimming back in. I am only planning on one tri and it is a B race for me, though I will be seeking to PR. For me and swimming, the biggest thing I can do for myself is to lose weight. Once I get down some, I only need two or three months to rebuild for an early October Sprint.

This weekend I ran another 5K. It was the hardest hilliest race I ever "ran". The first mile or so was down hill. I actually ran an 8:24 for my first mile which was really fast for where I am at now. There was a small hill right after a mile and then it was downhill some more. The first 1.5 miles, I maintained a steady pace, but when it started climbing back at about 1.75 miles I fell apart. My calves were on fire. Just before 3 miles it flattened out and I sprinted into the finish for a 35:19 5K which is almost exactly what I ran my last one at.

Slowly I continue to make progress and as the training volume/intensity increase and my weight decreases, I see nothing but good results ahead

Slight change of plans

2010-02-19T11:16:00.000-08:00

I have slightly changed my plans for this year...

Janary in Review

2010-01-31T17:34:00.000-08:00

January has been a decent month for me. After a couple months off, I resumed running regularly. I have been running 3 or 4 days every week trying to rebuild a solid running base. I have a few more weeks of base miles before I add in the speed work. I am using a plan out of Daniel's Running Formula. I think the Zone 1/2 work is really important right now in order to build the framework for future speed work.

I did one ride this week, my first this year and it was a comedy of errors. My portable DVD player's battery melted, I couldnt get my garmin sensor to work (turned out to be the battery), and my laptop didnt want to play the spinerval Aero Base Builder DVD. Once I finally did get the DVD to play, I couldnt get the volume loud enough on my laptop. I need to convert them onto my old Zune video player, but have had issues that the conversion ends up out of sync. I just won a copy of The Downward Spiral by The Sufferfest from Stuart's Blog. I am looking forward to trying that one out this week and hopefully getting the spinerval copied over to my Zune. For now, I just am planning on 2 maybe 3 rides a week. Once it gets a little warmer and my rides get longer, I will head back outside. It will be a few more weeks till I get in the pool.

Last week's Polar Bear 5K was a mixed bag. The first half of the race went pretty well. I was able to push myself through the discomfort which is important for me. One of my goals this year is to finally learn how to overcome those mental barriers which slow me down. The second half of the race did not go well. My foot began to fall asleep about 1.5 to 2 miles in. I tried to walk it off, but by 2.5 miles I was hobbling in with a foot entirely asleep. My time was 35:10. If my foot hadn't fallen asleep, I believe it could have been under 33 minutes. My first two splits were 10:11 and 10:53, but my third mile was 13:12. My next race is in two weeks and I am hoping for better results.

I have a decent idea of why foot fell asleep and I am working to put a plan together to address this issue which includes yoga, trigger point, active isolated stretching and targeted strength exercises. Once I address these issues, my running should be much better.

January Totals
Bike:30 min, 9.11 miles
Run:15 Runs,36.29 miles, 7.5 hours, Avg Pace 12:29/mile

Training Update

2010-01-19T19:35:00.000-08:00

My training continues to go well. I am in my third week of returning to running. Right now, I am doing at least 4 runs a week of 30 minutes. In the two weeks I have been running steadily, I have brought my average pace down by over a full minute per mile. I was finally able to break 12:00/mile average for my 30 minute runs, which right now for me feels like a big step. I have to remember that I have to take things one step at a time and I will be back to where I was a few years ago in not-too-long a time.

One thing I attribute my increased pace is using my foam roller and trigger point kit regularly. For the first week, I had tight calves and lower back pain. I have always known how to treat my calves, but the low back pain was new. The pain was in the muscles on both sides of the back, just above the hips. I discovered the cause of my pain were tight Quadratus Lumborum. After one very painful session with my foam roller, I was able to run without any back pain. I was surprised that my calves were also less tight, even though I hadnt treated them yet. Since then, I have had no back pain. My calves continue to be a little tight, though not as bad.

For my training, I am following Daniel's 5-15K plan. After this week, I will make one of my weekend runs a long-ish run. I am looking forward to adding a little more distance and hopefully getting out to run with the group again. Once I hit 6 weeks, I can finally add some speed back into my training.

This weekend I will be running the Polar Bear 5K. This will be a baseline for me to determine my current VDOT and HR zones. I am looking forward to getting back to racing.

I have taken the Callaway Gardens Sprint Tri off my schedule. I decided the drive down there really wasnt worth it. I am looking to add another tri, potentially an Oly to my schedule. I would love to do Chattanooga, but I would seriously have to save up my pennies to do this race. It's really not an expensive race perse, but I would have to drive up the night before and spend the night in a hotel. There are a couple of "local" olympic's that are within driving distance, so I will just have to see how things go. I have already signed up for my other tri, the Lake Lanier Islands Sprint.

New Year, New Goals

2010-01-07T19:42:00.000-08:00

I am glad 2009 is finally over. It really was a disappointing year for me in terms of meeting my goals. One of the most disappointing things (besides my DNF) was that I ended the year right around the same weight I started it at.

I am determined to make 2010 a much better year.I spent some time thinking about what I want to focus on in 2010 and what I could afford to do in terms of races this year that would fit into the budget. My most important goal for this year is to finally get to my goal weight. Based on my limited budget for racing this year and the fact that I really want to focus on losing weight, most of my focus is going to be on shorter distance (5/10K) running and a few sprint tris. The interval and other speed work will be a better tool for weight loss then the longer,slower stuff was in 2009. I also hope to finally break some PR's this year. Some PR's wont be too difficult to break while others will truly be a challenge.

To meet these goals, I started back to running on Monday. I am using the 5-15K program in Daniel's Running Formula. For the next 6 weeks, I will be rebuilding my base with 30 minute runs 5-7 days per week. After the first 3 weeks, I make one of my runs a long-ish (probably 60 min) run. From there, speed work begins in week 7. I plan on using my race paces to determine my training paces based on the VDOT score in Daniel's book to more accurately pace myself in order to gain speed. Other then the sprint tri's, most of the schedule is really flexible based on how I am progressing. Most of the 10K's I scheduled also have 5K options as well.

In the next week or two, I plan on adding a couple of bike rides into the schedule. One will be a spinerval trainer ride, the other I hope to ride outside, but this will depend on the weather. It has been brutally cold here lately. For my spinerval, I will use one of the base workouts through the same base period as my running and then add some harder intervals once I do the same with my running. Right now, other then maybe an occasional swim, I wont begin organized swimming until my running base period is over. All of this should set me up for a first peek at the Callaway sprint tri.

Here is my tentative schedule. I am trying to find another 5K sometime this month so I can get a baseline of my current fitness. ATC has a free one a on Jan 16th, but it is around an hours drive and I dont think I want to spend 2 hours in the car for a 5K.

2/13-Hearts and Soles 5K
2/26-Challenged Child 5K
3/13-Jog 4 a Cause 5/10K
4/10 Fallen Heroes 5/10K
4/24 Spring Chicken 5K
5/15-Mayors Challenge 10K
5/31-Celebrate America 10K
6/20-Callaway Sprint Tri
6/26-Central Park Trail 3.5M
7/4-Peachtree RR 10K
7/17-ATC Dekalb 4M
8/7-Old Soldiers 10K
8/14-ATC Grand Finale 5K
10/3-Lake Lanier Isl Sprint
10/23-Fast Pace 10K
Oct-Silver Comet Half?
11/7-USMC Trail 1/2 Mar

There are also some more free Atlanta Track Club races Sept-Dec, but they arent posted until later in the year. I may also consider a free Marathon on New Years Day. I had hoped to do the free marathon on Labor Day, but I think it is too close to my Sprint tri on 10/3. I hope for good results in that tri since it was the second tri I ever did, only a week after my first one (which was a race only held once) back in 2007.

Time to Bring It!

2009-11-17T19:12:00.000-08:00

The last week was real quiet. I didnt do much. Laid around, caught up on blogs and played lots of PSP. Well break time is over. The good news is that at least my weight is exactly what it was the week before Ironman.

I attempted an easy run from my house on Sunday. I had no expectations other then see how my legs felt and judge it from there. After a quarter mile, I knew my legs needed more time away from running. I had some pain in the ball of my left foot, which is almost gone now and a little pain in my right knee. I figure I will wait till after Thanksgiving to attempt running again.

In the mean time, I have begun P90X. This week, I am doing a preview week. I wont do my measurements and photos until this weekend and will officially begin week one on Monday. P90X has three defined plans: Classic, Lean, and Double. The Lean has one less day of strength training and skips plyometrics. I was really back and forth about which plan to do. Last night made my decision much easier.

Based on the schedule for week one of the classic version I did Chest and Back. Chest and back is essentially pull ups (or simulated pull ups using bands for us big boys) and push ups. After the second set of push ups, I knew this would be uber tough. I did my best to make it through the program. By the time I was done, I could barely lift my arms above my head. Today I feel sore in lots of places:shoulders, triceps, chest, and abs. The lean program does not include the chest & back routine until week 9, so this gives me some time to build some strength and lose some weight before attempting this again. Another benefit of the Lean program is that it is more open to adding some riding/running into the plan because of the extra cardio days. I am definitely going to replace the Cardio-X with riding/running and I may likely replace the Kenpo-X with riding running as well. Kenpo X is like a karate/kickboxing class, which is interesting, but I would rather get my cardio through triathlon specific training.

Since today would have been either plyometrics or cardio depending on the plan, I decided instead today to get on the bike. I picked up several spinerval videos to help get me through the winter. Tonight, I did Spinervals 4 - Muscle breakdown. It was an interesting workout with a variety of short intervals that mix up both speed and resistance. It was 45 minutes long, which was good enough to break a serious sweat and work the legs pretty good, but not too long to be boring or to overwork my legs. I really enjoyed this one and it definitely will become a staple of my off-season training and has potential for in season as one of several workouts on the bike during the week. I could definitely see myself getting alot stronger on the bike with these, and intervals are also great for burning calories.

Tomorrow is shoulders & arms which should be more doable then chest & back. If today is any indication, I should be super sore on Thursday night. I will try to update my progress as I go forward and will definitely post the measurements and other info next week.

Anatomy of a DNF Part II

2009-11-10T16:44:00.000-08:00

The Bike
I headed out on the bike, I was feeling pretty good about things. There wasnt much of a wind and I was keeping my speed around where I thought it should be. I was surprised how well I was able to keep my heart rate down after about 20 minutes of taking it easy. Once we hit the turnoff for the full, it was a pretty lonely ride. I was pretty far in the back and only saw maybe 10 to 15 riders that day. The peanut butter filled pretzels I put in my special needs bags were a motivation to push from mile 50 to mile 65. They tasted amazing when I got to them. The bag would actually last into the first mile of the run.

I felt great up until about the 70 mile mark. Once I turned on to hwy 421, I was hit in the face by a nasty headwind that did not seem to let up at all. This slowed me down majorly and probably added at least 30 minutes to my bike time. I finished the bike in 7 hrs 53 min. My average for the first half was around 16mph, while my average for the second half was only 13 (This includes potty breaks at every rest stop, including bottle refills and an extended stop at special needs).

My nutrition on the bike was right on. After coming off the bike nauseous at Augusta, I was leery of using the perpeteum. I decided to use a similar plan to what worked for me last year at the South Carolina Half. I used all solid food with nuun for electrolytes. My plan had me at around 400 calories per hour, which my body seemed to have no problem with. Every hour I would eat a Lara bar and at 20/40 minutes I would consume either a bag of sport beans or half a package of cliff shot blocks. I went through about 2-3 bottles of water per aid station which kept me having to use the porto-john at every stop, but at least I wasnt risking dehydration. The only problem I had with my nutrition was that almost everything I was consuming was acidic/sour (nuun, cherry lara, cranberry shot bluk, sport beans) so after about 8 hours I was really tired of the acidic taste in my mouth. Luckily I didnt havee too much further to go at this point and I had one lara bar that was not cherry. Here is a pic of all the nutrition I used on the bike. I think I had one lara bar, one pack of shot blocks, and one pack of sport beans that I did not use.

T2
As I rolled into the end of the bike, there were volunteers there to take my bike. I grabbed my bag and headed into the changing tent. I decided on taking my arm warmers with me, but left the wind breaker behind. The only issue I had was that as I was changing, I accidently hit the lap button on my garmin so it switched to run and my run splits were all off. I ran out of the tent and through T2 and out on the run course feeling amazingly well.

The Run
I ran out onto the run with the plan to immediately start a 4/1 run/walk plan. Unfortunately, my timer was off and after about a quarter to half a mile you hit the first of two bridges. This course is a two loop out and back course so you would have to run over each of these bridges 4 times during the run. I knew I was going to walk up the bridges and run back down them. I was feeling good, but I could never get into a specific run/walk pattern. I really wish I had my timex watch with me so I could have set up intervals to help me do this. I was afraid to change the garmin settings mid run. At some point in training I will have to test this out.

When I started the run, I was shocked that not only was my stomach ok, but I had no back pain and my legs felt decent. I couldnt run for more then maybe a quarter to half mile, but I felt good when I was running and was keeping a halfway decent walking pace. I have to wonder how much of this was mental, which is something I need to work on. My nutrition plan on the run was to use what was provided rather then having to carry anything. At each aid station, I took a half a hammer bar, a cup of heed, and a cup of water. This would work well for me until about mile nine. At this point I switched to alternating heed or broth and chasing it with water. Occasionally I could stand to eat a peanut butter cracker or a piece of bagel with peanut butter. My only complaint with the aid stations is that on the second loop, they ran out of broth and coke for awhile. At mile 4, we ran through a park over various paths and bridges. I found myself walking often in here, because it was really poorly lit. If I was to do this race again, I would absolutely wear a headlamp out on the run after dark. After the race I heard several reports of people either falling or hurting themselves in this park because you really could not see. The route also went past the hotel we were staying at. At about the nine mile marker, I ran into Cathy and told her I should still be able to finish sometime between 11 and midnight. Looking back, this may have been wishful thinking, or my math may have been off.

I made it back into the park at the turnaround point with around 3 hours left. I had put a change of socks and some gloves in my special needs bag, but I decided only to grab the gloves as I knew I would need them and I didnt have the time to change my socks. I knew I had to pick it up and I tried to run more often then I had during the first loop. This worked about until about the time I got into the park where I had no choice but to walk at times. I picked up my pace on the run as well, but when I saw my split at mile 19, I did the math and knew I couldnt run any faster then I was and at my current pace I would never make it to the finish before the midnight cutoff. I ran a little further and my legs just had nothing left. I hobbled to the aid station at mile 20 and told the volunteers I wanted to drop out.

I caught a van ride to the finish. I checked to see if Cathy was there and if she had gotten my bike. She had grabbed my bike and bags, but was back at the hotel by this point. I ran into Ryan who was picking up his helmet. I told Ryan I was heading to the medical tent because I felt I may be dehydrated and was nauseous and just slightly light headed. Ryan was awesome enough to hang out with me until we caught the boat back to our hotels. In the medical tent, they checked my pulse, temp, and BP. Apparently everything was ok. The made me stay there for about 45 minutes and drank three bottle of water before they cleared me to leave. I got back to the hotel and crashed after eating most of the burger Cathy ordered me from room service.

I look at my run splits and they averaged around 17 minutes. I really needed to be closer to 15 minutes in order to finish on time. The interesting thing is that now as I look at the graph of my splits, they were fairly close from start to finish. The first 10 miles averaged 16:46 and the last 10 averaged 17:52. The last five miles were only 30 seconds slower then the first five. This either means I paced myself well or I didnt give enough effort and tried to play catch up at the end.

Looking Back
I already knew before I started this race that there were two key factors that were going to hinder my performance on race day. After I sprained my ankle last year, I put on 30 extra pounds and could never seem to take it off. The other issue was that I got burned out about halfway through my training and the wheel just completely fell off and I missed way too much training. These two things combined made me almost decide not to even do the race. I really thought I could at least get through by midnight, but unfortunately that didnt even happen.

Before I attempt a full iron distance race again, I need to loose at least 50 pounds. This will help me on my second thing I need to do which is to get stronger on the bike. I also need to regain my running speed and endurance that I had a few years ago. It will probably be 2011 before I attempt another ironman. Will I do B2B again? Very possibly considering it is almost half the price of a Ironman branded race.

I havent really planned out specific races for 2010 yet. I know I want to focus much more on my running. I also would like to ride outside more, especially some of the local group rides with enough hills to help build strength. I would like to do at least one sprint and one oly during the first part of the season. Depending on how things go, I would really like to do another 70.3 race in the early fall. It would likely end up being Augusta as I could drive in on Saturday and race and drive home on Sunday.

In a couple weeks I will likely start running again and see where I am before I decide on the possibility of any spring full/half marathons. I have also picked up P90X and plan on integrating it in. I may initially do their 90 day weight loss plan and replacing the cardio days with running. Once I make it through 90 days, I may likely do 2-3 days of p90x along with running and biking. For now, I am just going to let my body recover.

Anatomy of a DNF (Part I)

2009-11-09T19:35:00.000-08:00

10K, 6.2 miles. Normally a piece of cake to run in an hour or less. But for me, running 6.2 miles in less then 90 minutes after having swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 miles, and ran 20 miles was just not going to be possible. At 10:30 PM, at the aid station just before mile 20, I decided to pull out of the race. I decided it was better to pull out then to attempt it and fail. I simply had nothing left in my legs.

Pre Race
I decided to take off from the Wednesday prior to the race through the Tuesday after it so I would have plenty of time to prep before the race as well as recover post race. On Wednesday I prepped my bike and packed all my bags. We headed out Thursday after Cathy got off of work. In order to save some money and not have to drive all the way into Wilmington NC in one night, we decided to stay in Myrtle Beach where we were able to get a room for much less then in Wilmington. We spent the night in Myrtle Beach and headed into Wilmington on Friday morning.

We were able to check in to the Hilton earlier then expected and then headed over to the expo. I picked up my packet which included a nice long sleeved tech shirt, socks, and a duffle bag. Based on some reports on Beginner Triathlete, I decided to search for a pair of Neoprene booties for the swim. Turns out both tri shop exhibitors were sold out as was the local tri shops. Since this was a beach town, I did have a few other options.

The "mandatory" meetings were held at Noon,2, and 4. We arrived too later for the noon meeting, but I knew several bloggers would be there so we decided to hang out till the meeting let out to see who we could run into. When the meeting let out, we ran into some of our local friends. Steph and her husband Doug. We also ran into Brian who we knew from swimming at LA Fitness. Doug and Brian were racing the full (both their first full)and Steph was there to support Doug. Based on my discussion with them, I decided it really wasnt necessary to go to the meeting since I already had the packet and pretty much everything was covered in the race booklet. Since it looked like everyone had left, we decided to head back to the hotel. As it turns out, the bloggers had decided to meet up inside the meeting space. As we were heading back to the hotel, we ran into Calyx, Donna, and John. We talked for a while and then it was time to go drop off the bike

We went back to the hotel and drove over to T1 to drop off the bike. At some point between Wednesday night and Thursday evening, my rear tire went flat. Luckily, a LBS was providing support at transition that day and was able to fix it for me for free. While he was fixing my tire, I asked him about surf/dive shops. He gave me a few options. We stopped first at the local surf shop, but they only had their winter ones which were too big and thick to swim in. We then headed to a dive shop where we were able to find a pair of neoprene dive booties that not only would keep my feet warm, but had treads on the bottom which would be prefect for the quarter mile hike to T1. By that point it was mid afternoon and we hadnt eaten since our late breakfast. We stopped at subway for lunch and then we found a neat little cupcake shop that made all sorts of small cupcakes. We picked up several cupcakes for post race and I splurged on a lighter angel food cupcake then that was delicious. We then headed back to the hotel to relax.

It seems like this year we have had bad luck with pre-race dinners (Augusta, never called us, lost our name??). For dinner, we decided to order delivery from a local Italian restaurant that I knew others had planned on eating at. Based on when we had lunch and the fact that I kinda wanted to just be in my own space, I thought it better to order delivery. They said it would be 45 minutes for delivery. No big deal I thought. An hour later we called only to find out they attempted to deliver to the wrong hotel. I mean, how hard is it to find the Hilton on the river that is only a few blocks away???? We finally ate after 8PM which I was a little disappointed with, but I scarfed my dinner down and tried to relax. I was able to fall asleep a little after 9PM.

Race Day
I set my alarm for 3:30 AM. I wanted to eat before 4AM so my stomach would be mostly empty by race time at 7 AM. I had a PB&J sandwich and a bottle of gatorade. I headed downstairs with all my garbage bags (transition/special needs) about 4:45 to catch the bus to T1 at 5AM. I checked on my bike to make sure the tires were still ok and drop off all my bags. While in transition I ran into Brian and Neal, another member of our Tri club who was doing his first full. I went to get body marked. I knew Steph would be there so I sought her out and had her mark me. I then waited for a second bus that takes us to the swim start. B2B is a spread out course. The swim is a point to point that starts upstream from T1 in Wrightsville Beach. T1 was in Wrightsville beach. The bike course heads North through rural parts of eastern NC and then heads back south and finishes at T2 next to the battleship in Wilmington. The run is then a two loop out and back course that goes 6.5 miles out through Wilmington and back to the battleship.

Swim
I arrived at the swim start about 6:15 AM. I decided to walk the five minutes down the beach to the actual start to check it out and then headed back to where the busses dropped us off. I made one last stop at the porto-john and then decided to get into my wetsuit. Luckily, it wanst too cold outside so I was ok in my sleeveless. I ran into Neal and Doug and chatted with them until it was time to walk down to the start. I dipped my feet into the water and thought it wasnt too cold. I didnt want to get all the way in because I knew I would be too cold if I had to stand out in the cold while fully soaked.
They played the national anthem and then we were off. This was my first mass start as well as my first saltwater swim. Overall, it started off ok. When I hit the water, I was definitely out of breath due to the cold, but that passed quickly. It was definitely crowded, especially up to the one turn buoy, but I made out ok. The only issue I initially had was that I nearly loosed my new neoprene booties in the initial skirmish of the swim start. The first half of the swim went by pretty well. I could tell when I passed the halfway point because I could hear those waiting for the 8AM start of the Half cheering us on. I think I hit this point around 30 minutes or so. Unfortunately, a little after this, things fell apart on the swim. Because of my extra weight, my wetsuit was slightly tight. I neglected to put any body glide on my neck and it rubbed my neck raw. That combined with the amount of salt water I that entered my mouth caused me to doggy paddle more then swim freestyle. It was easier on my neck and I didnt care for any more salt water in my mouth. I ended up finishing in around 1:13 which is an OK time, but I could have done much better.

T1
As you finish up a the swim, you climb up a ladder and there is assistance if necessary. you then come to the wetsuit strippers who have you sit on a bench as they pull your wetsuit up. I ran up off the dock and showered off and ran most of the way to the changing tent. I grabbed my bag and changed into my bike outfit.I wore my arm warmers and decided to grap my lightweight throwaway poncho in case I needed it. I applied my bag balm to my chafing-prone areas as well as a little to my neck where I had rubbed it raw. It seemed like I was really swollen because it took forever to get my socks and arm warmers on because they felt so tight. I made sure to dry off as best as I could and headed out to my bike.

I will finish the rest in Part II including my thoughts on why I failed and my plans for 2010 and beyond

The curse of the tight hips

2009-10-13T18:58:00.000-07:00

Last week I saw the Chiropractor that was at the Augusta 70.3 who does Active Release. My hope is to find some relief for my excessively tight hips. My hips have caused me issues for a long time. I have almost zero ability to rotate my legs internally at the hips. This causes all sorts of issues, especially for the knees.

The first part of the appointment was a thorough examination. Beyond my hip problems, I also have really tight calves. While he didnt come out and say it, I think I was probably one of his worst cases. He told me he thought he could fix me up before B2B in about 6-8 visits. In order to help loosen my hips up some, he had me lay on my side under this thing that creates heat in the muscle. What was interesting was that it got my legs really hot, but it wanst hot to the touch. After that, he took me into the treatment room and along with his assistant, stretched the heck out of me. At times it really hurt, but I could tell it was definitely helping. Once he was done, he repeated some of the initial tests and there was definite improvement. Unfortunately, when I checked out, I found out while my insurance covers chiropractic, it does not cover ART. DOH! At 90$ a visit, there was no way I could continue.

Instead of getting down about it, I decided I was going to figure out how to fix this myself. I have my trigger point kit, foam roller, and the stick. Working at a hospital gives me access to a load of electronic databases of medical journal's. I have been spending my lunch hours doing lots of research on stretching and trigger points and tightness in specific muscle groups. I have discovered I was using my trigger point kit slightly incorrectly and have adjusted my technique accordingly.

My #1 suspect is the piriformis. I actually found a video done by Texafornia (Brett) of the Zen and The Art of Triathlon podcast that shows a technique that he says has helped him with piriformis. I am going to begin doing this as well as specific exercises to strengthen my internal rotators while loosening up my external rotators.

I think I am finally beginning to understand the causes of all my trouble. Now I just need to put the techniques into practice that will help me fix my problems. I have already seen some improvement, and I hope to be fixed up by B2B

Yay!! Fal is here

2009-10-05T18:34:00.000-07:00

Tonight I finally felt good enough to get outside and train. I got home from work stepped out of the car and was happy to feel how cool it was outside. I actually had to dig out a lightweight long sleeve shirt tonight.

I headed out and felt pretty good. My pace was fast (relative to what it had been) and my HR was staying relatively low. I was a little surprised when the first mile came in at 10:17. Lately my runs had been averaging in the mid 11's. Because I was feeling real good, I kept the pace up and mile 2 came in at 10:25 and the third mile in 10:51. With my HR starting to rise and feeling confidant about my run, I cooled down for the fourth mile and called it a day

My average for the firs three miles was 10:30 and my HR averaged 166 which is barely into Z3 for me. This was all in my hilly neighborhood . I feel realy good about my running ability returning. I am really happy about fall returning, it is my favorite time of the year for running.

Well, I just thought I would share my awesome run today. I am off to use my new foam roller, the TP Therapy Grid. I have been through 2 of the standard target foam rollers. Both have eventually lost its shape. This one is totally different. It is a hollow plastic tube with the foam on the outside of it. So far, I am liking it more then the standard foam roller. If it holds up like they claim, it will be well worth the extra money. Once I have used it a little more, I will have to give it a full review.

One recent purchase I would have to recommend are the Croc Prepair sandles. They are the bomb diggity. They sounded kinda hokey when I first hear about them, but I am glad I bought them. They were the only thing that felt comfortable with the blisters on the ball of my foot. It hurt to even walk on the soft carpet. Once I put the prepair sandles on, I couldnt feel any pain.

Rewiew: Invigorator Socks

2009-10-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

I was approached on twitter to review Invigorator Compression Socks. I have been a compression sock user for about a year now. I have used both full sock as well as compression sleeves. In fact, for IM Augusta, I used my 2XU sleeves the entire race.

While the sleeves are great for racing, they look really funny wearing them out in public. I use the sleeves only for racing and use the socks for recovery

When I was asked to try them, I was asked both my shoe size and height. The other pair of compression socks I have only come in 2 or 3 sizes and they were loose in the heel. The first thing I noticed when I put the invigorators on was that they fit snug all the way from the toes to the knee. I also noticed that they offered much more compression then the other pair I have used. While I forgot to put them on for the car ride home from Augusta, I put them on Sunday night when I got home and wore them all day Monday. By Monday evening, my legs felt pretty fresh. I definitely feel the invigorators are effective for recovery after a long ride, run, or race. If I had to find a down side to these socks is that they are not designed to run in. However, because these socks are all black, they could be worn to work.

For someone who is interested in compression socks, I would absolutely recommend these. They fit well, provide adequate compression and could easily be worn to work under dress pants. At 25$ (Some sizes are even less right now on Amazon) they are reasonably priced.

If you are interested in possibly winning a free pair, they have been giving away socks almost weekly on twitter to their followers. Their user name is inVigorators

So maybe it wasnt anything I did after all

2009-10-03T18:02:00.000-07:00

First off, I want to thank everyone for the great advice. As it now turns out, I may have not done anything majorly wrong after all when it comes to my nutrition. I have actually been having a similar nausea and burping all week. It was at its worst yesterday and today I am finally starting to feel a little better. Not sure what might be causing it, but as long as I am feeling better by tomorrow, I am not going to worry too much about it.

I dont think I will change much with my nutrition. I drank 4 bottles of water on the bike. I probably should have drank a little more then I did with as hot as it was. I was definitely dehydrated by the end of the race.

Because it will be cold in November, I should be safe with about a bottle every 45 minutes. I probably need to take a bottle at every water station on the bike in addition to the three I start with.

I definitely need to get some open water swims done in the next few weeks. I dont think it is wetsuit specific because I believe I had back pain after a non wetsuit swim at calloway. I think it may have to do with how I sight on an ows.

Training has been nonexistant this week other then a 35 minute spin on the trainer on monday to loosen the legs up. I hope to do some form of training tomorrow and resume full training by Monday.

Ironman Augusta Race Report Part II

2009-09-29T14:55:00.000-07:00

The Bike
So when we left off, I was heading out on my bike after a decent swim. From here on out, things would go downhill.

As soon as I got on the bike, my lower back hurt. I thought back to South Carolina last year and Callaway this year and finally realized that my back pain in these races had all come from the swim?? This is something I am going to have to address ASAP. The first half of the ride felt great. It was mostly flat or downhill and was pretty fast. It took my about 20-30 minutes to get my HR down under 170 and from there on out, I tried to keep it in the low 160s. I was really feeling good about finishing close to 3 hrs. Unfortunately, the next 10 miles or so were tough. It seemed like the hardest hills were packed into these 10 miles. It was at this point I knew that 3 hrs wasnt achievable, but I was OK with this. I should still be able to put in a reasonable time. At mile 40 I had to make a stop to tighten the water bottle cage because it was rattling and I didnt want to lose my bottle with the perpeteum. The last 10 miles were pretty good, but my legs were getting tired from the hills plus I think I had a headwind at that poin. My back hurt through most of the ride, but I dont think it hampered me too much. My legs definitely felt looser thanks to the Chiro.

My bike time was just under 3:30 where at South Carolina, I was able to finish the ride in right about 3 hours. I felt OK with it because I kept my effort level where it would need to be for B2B One thing I will be addressing in the off season, in addition to my weight, is climbing. There is an awesome 30 mile group ride right in my back yard that runs from spring to fall that has a whole lotta climbing. I will be riding that as much as possible. I may even ride it on my own throughout the winter.

The Run aka the 4 hour death march
Then things just fell apart. I started out on the run and immediately felt nauseous. I was fine if I walked, but when I ran I could not stop burping. All I wanted to do at this point was to vomit. I thought if I vomited, at least I would feel better. No such luck. i think at most I ran a half mile continuously . My legs felt great, but my stomach wouldnt quit. The run course was pancake flat. It went up and down the streets of Downtown Augusta. Much of the course was quiet with no spectators, but the main section that did have spectators was great encouragement even though I felt like crap. You always know when you are coming up to the tri club - North Atlanta Multisport's tent because they are loud and the cowbells are a rockin. By the second half of the run, my stomach was a little better, but unfortunately at this point I had nothing left in me. My feet were painful because my shoes were too tight and the balls of my feet were blistered. It took everything I had to walk all the way to the finish

By the time I was out on the run, it was super hot and maybe 25% of the course was shaded. I drank mostly water and was eating shot blocks. Because I was afraid that I might not get enough sodium and I forgot to grab my endurolytes on the run, I started taking both Gatorade and water on the run. One thing that really upset me was that the aid stations were 1.5 miles apart. On a hot day like this, they really should have been every mile. By the time I was finished with the "run" I was really dehydrated. I was going to try and see if I could get an IV, but the line was long and you would have to also wait to see the Dr before you could get an IV. I wasnt feeling well, but everything ended up ok. What really concerned me was that I hadnt urinated at all the four hours I was on the run course and at some point, I dont think I was sweating anymore, though I couldnt tell if that was because I was no longer exerting myself that highly. When I finished, I headed to the food tent to find out that all they had left were bananas and cookies, they were completely out of pizza. They only had water and no gatorade. I grabbed some cookies and Cathy got the car. I got my bike and stuff out of transition and went back to the hotel and showered.

Post Race
Other then my blisters, I am not in any pain. I have a few tight muscles I need to work out. I took today off of work so I could rest and relax. I plan on resuming my training tomorrow in the pool. I may not be able to run for a few more days until the blisters go away

Lessons learned and unanswered questions
I learned alot from this race. Some of the changes I need to make are obvious, but others are not so obvious

Why is my back hurting coming out of the swim. Thinking back to Callaway, it hurt even after that short swim. My back never hurts after a swim in the pool. I am going to try to get to the lake as much as possible in the next six weeks to see what I can figure out.
The wetsuit may not be an issue since I am considering renting a full suit
I need to spend more time in the pool
I need to do much more hill training. Obviously losing weight will help as well, but I need to get out and grind the hills.
Why was I nauseous on the run? I have used perpeteum on the bike almost all year without any issues. However, I have not used it in a race. One possible though it it has to do with using it at certain intensities. I was reading Chris's Blog as he prepares to do South Carolina Half again this year. He had a GI issue with his nutrition and he was saying that what he had used in his lower intensity training gave him trouble at the higher intensities of racing. This had me thinking that that could be my problem. Dinner the night before had been intentionally bland: pasta with olive oil, garlic, chicken, and tomatoes so I doubt it was that. My breakfast wasnt anything too different from what I have used other times, other then the bagel. The only different thing I used was that I did have some gatorade that morning, but I doubt it was that. The only other thing I can think of is that I had been having some GI trouble all week, but that did not involve nausea. That, and my nausea was only when I ran. My stomach bothered me all yesterday and in through this morning. i am finally feeling fine now.
I need new, wider running shoes. My shoes have been working for all my training runs, but they were too tight when I got to the run because my feet were so swollen. Most shoes I wear a 13-EEEE, these were only EE. The pain I got on the inside of my left foot were definitely from the tight shoes.
How did I end up with blisters on the balls of my feet? There are too many variables to truly figure out what caused this.

Thoughts going into B2B
Overall, I am positive about B2B full which is in less then 6 weeks from now. If I can address the issues that came about from Augusta, especially the back pain and the nausea, I think I will be well off. The swim is with the current. If I spend more time in the pool the next 4 weeks, I will be better off. From what I understand, the bike course is really flat, though there can be a strong wind. I just have to keep my effort level steady. The run will be the biggest crap shoot. It all just depends how everything else goes. New shoes will definitely help and not being nauseous is key. But the run is definitely the big thing I cannot plan for.

I am contemplating reworking my nutrition strategy. I may go back to a carbs only solution and skip the protein in the perpeteum. The problem is that there isnt alot of time to test it. I am so afraid of repeating the nausea at B2B. I didnt have any problems with my nutrition at SC Half last year, so I could pull out my notes and go back to that. I just liked the ease of perpeteum

Race Report: Ironman Augusta 70.3 Part I

2009-09-28T16:16:00.000-07:00

This was by far my worst race experience ever. The biggest thing I learned yesterday is no matter how you train, how well you stick to your race plan, things can happen that you dont plan for. Yesterday was one of those days where the unplanned completely ruined my race. I finished the race, in 8:12. I walked almost the entire 13.1 miles due to bad nausea every time I started to run. I am still trying to figure out why I got nauseous and now I may be completely rethinking my nutrition strategy going into B2B

Pre Race
On Friday morning, I dropped Cathy off at work and headed to the gym to get in one last swim. I wanted to do a short, sub-max 500M TT. I havent swam much in the past few months and I wanted to get a quick feel for my capabilities at this point and to remind myself how to pace. I did the 500 in about 10 min which is about what I though I had in me. I knew that the race was downstream with current so I felt good about the swim. Stupid me left my race-day goggles in the locker room. Lucky for me, one of the guys from the tri club who was also racing Augusta was there and noticed I left them. Unfortunately, I ended up not getting them until I ran into him when I was going to pick up my bike after the race. Went home and cleaned up my bike and put the good tires on and had it all ready to race. I picked up Cathy and we got on the road to Augusta about 4:30. We got in about 7ish and checked into the hotel. We drove into downtown to find something good to eat. We setlled on Nacho Mamas which had been mentioned by several folks on BT. It was really good food, though I dont know if it was a good idea eating it two days before the race.

I slept in Saturday morning and headed to the Expo about noon-ish. As soon as I walked into the expo area, I was unimpressed. Every athlete was required to attend a useless 30 minute race briefing. Most of the info covered was already on the website, and the new info could have easily been disseminated through the race packet. I attended the 1PM meeting and it was standing room only. From what I understand from others, those that attended the later briefings had to wait for hours before they could get into the briefing. Once you sat through the briefing, you went to pick up your packet. This too was a mess. They had this set up in a side hallway. They had about 6 lines set up alphabetically, but you couldnt tell which line you needed to be in until you got close. Once you signed the waiver, you had to go wait in yet another line in a conference room. As I walked into the room, there was a line out the door. I found out after waiting in this line for about five to ten minutes that this was actually the line to buy race merchandise. After finally getting my number, I started to browse the expo. There werent too many exhibitors, which based on my triathon expo experiences doesnt really surprise me. It seems like the running expos always have more exhibitors. I found out that the Chiropractor I have been wanting to go see who also does ART had a both and was doing five minute sessions. I signed up and had to wait about 30 minutes, but was glad I did. I have had tight hips for as long as I can remember. Based on my readings, it could be due to structural issues, or tight muscles. Based on his observations, he believes I do have muscular issues. He was able to loosen them up some then and I plan on making an appointment with him soon to seek further treatment.

We drove to transition which was about 1.5 miles from the host hotel right near the finish. Everything for this race was spread out and parking was in a shortage. I ended up having Cathy drop me off at a Chevron about half a mile from transition and walked my bike in. I was happy with my position in transition, even though there were nine bikes per rack. I was about three racks from bike in/out and it was carpeted the whole way. It was a long walk for the swim in and run out, but at least I didnt have to run my bike too far.

After running a few errands, we headed back to the hotel and waited to meet Wes and his wife Dee Dee, Danni, and Molly for dinner. We made a 6:30 reservation at Carabbas and Wes had actually gotten there at 6:15 and told them we were there. We checked several times and about 90 minutes later, we found out they thought we werent here even though we had a buzzer and Wes's cell phone number. The service wasnt great, she was slow and messed a few things up, but the food was decent and the company was great. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel room and called it a night. We packed up the car because of a problem with our reservation, we were going to have to switch rooms on Sunday.

Pre Race
I set the alarm in the room for 5AM (actually 4:50 because the clock was 10 min fast), or so I thought so. Apparently I set it, but never turned it on. I had set my Ipod alarm as a back up, but Cathy has this uncanny ability to wake up at the right time without the alarm, so she got me up right before 5AM. I had PBJ on a blueberry bagel from the hotel and a small bottle of Gatorade. We left the hotel at 6AM and headed to transition. The parking lot close to transition was already full so Cathy dropped me off at the same Chevron from the day before. She headed off to the parking lot that she bought a pass for that was close to transition.

I set up my transition area and tried to find the guy with my goggles. After about five or ten minutes, I knew I didnt have more time so I headed to catch the bus to the swim start. While waiting on line, I ran into Wes. We caught the bus to the swim start and parted ways at the chip pickup. In order to be able to tell who actually made it to the race, they had the bright idea to have chip pickup at the swim start instead of in the packet. The biggest pain was the fact that you couldnt see the signs for how they broke out the lines. Luckily, since I was 241, it was easy to find out I was in the first line. Once I got my chip, I found my way to the staging area for my Age group and met up with Cathy. I had about 30 minutes till my swim start.

The swim started off a dock that was temporarily added. The pros got to dive off and the rest of us started in the water. I was in the fourth heat which was the first A/G heat. When I jumped into the water, it was a little cool, but not too bad. I planned to go out fast enough to find some space and then try to settle into a groove until about 20 minutes in and then pick it up again. I had my Garmin 310 set in Multisport mode and for the swim I had it only displaying the time. I couldnt see it under water because visibility was very poor, but when I wanted to see it, I could if I looked up when I was stroking. because it was a straight river swim, I knew sighting wouldnt be much of an issue, but at one point coming under a bridge I did have to swim towards shore because I was a little far out. One issue I did have is that my wetsuit zipper came undone at least four times. I suspect the extra weight on me may have contributed to it. Each time I would have to turn on my back and rezip it.

I finished the swim in 31:15. This is 6 minutes faster then my SC half which was 37:15. I was very happy with my time, though based on how I felt during the swim, I could have done much faster if I had been in the pool more often. The current was definitely strong. Hopefully the current at B2B will be as good.

I got out of the water and was completely out of breath. I decided to walk to my bike. According to my garmin, it was a quarter mile from the mat out of the swim to my bike. Once I got to my bike, it didnt take me too long to get my helmet, shades, and shoes on and head out of transition. My T1 time was 5:08

Unfortunately, the rest of my race did not go as well as the swim...

CONTINUED IN PART II

Final Countdown to Augusta

2009-09-24T19:25:00.000-07:00

It is almost time to rumble. This is the first race I am going in to with no real idea of how I will perform. For me this race is a B Race to test out my pacing and more importantly my nutrition for B2B Full in just over a month.

Because my training has gone as well as planned, I dont know what I am capable of right now. I think I have a decent chance of a PR, but I really dont know.

I have three goals in mind at this point
1. My primary goal is to finish feeling good about my status for B2B.
2. My reasonably achievable goal is to PR. Last year at the SC half, I did a 6:39 with a really bad run
3. My Pie-in-the-sky "goal" is sub-6. The stars would truly have to align for this to happen and the race would have to go flawless.

I plugged the numbers based on last years race and where my training is/was to try and come up with an idea of where I stand going into this.

Swim: At South Carolina I swam 37:15. I was in about the same shape swimming last year as I am now. That was a lake swim, this one is down stream. Depending on the current, I am thinking I can go at least under 35 minutes, maybe even faster if I pace it right.

Bike: Last year 3 hrs (18.6 mph). This is my biggest question mark. I have put much more time on the bike this year, but my emphasis has been on longer/slower rides. I have averaged around 15-16 mph. I spent alot more time on the trainer last year and only did one long ride outside where I do all my long rides this year. That ride I averaged over 17 mph. My long rides are primarily flat. This is a rolling course similar to S.C. Given that, I have a good feeling I can average at least 17mph which would put me in around 3:15

Run: Last year: 2:57:05 (13:31/mile) When I got off the bike at S.C. my back was seriously jacked up. I was so tight I was afraid if I bent over, I wouldnt get back up. I had to walk most of the course and, it was rolling hills. Given that this course is flat and I have been doing core work and using my trigger point kit, I dont expect this to be a problem. Of course, some really bad roads on the bike could mess things up for the run. Most of my long runs have averaged around 12 min/mi including the walk breaks every mile. I havent decided if/how often I walk, I will base it on how I feel. I am thinking I can average 11:30 per mile, if not better. That would bring me in around 2:30

With transitions under 3 minutes, this would put me in around 6:15-6:20. I would be very happy wit this. I figured to break six hours, I would have to swim in under 30 (1:30/100m), Bike around 3 hr (18-19mph) and run around 2:20 (10:45/mile). On paper it doesnt seem entirley out of reach, but as I was typing this, another iportant thing came to mind. For me to come close to this pie in the sky goal, I would have to race all out. I dont think I can afford to race this all out as I need to recover as quickly as possible so I can resume training to B2B. Because of this, I really need to keep my intensity under control so as to not overwork myself. I plan on an ice bath post race and will be wearing my new Invigorator socks that I was sent to review.

Well, I must get on the floor and stretch out my tight muscles. I havent trained at all this week due to some GI Issues. I am gonna get in the pool in the AM to test my goggles and try and get an idea of what kinda pace I can handle with no effort. I might even run a mile or two to stretch out the legs.

For those who might be following on the ironman website, my full name is Kevin Tierney

Rain, rain go away

2009-09-17T17:45:00.000-07:00

It has been raining almost nonstop for the last couple of days. While it has stayed cool, the humidity has been high. I am so ready for the rain to be gone already. Unfortunately, there is rain in the forecast all the way till next weekend, though after this weekend, there is a smaller chance of rain. I am hoping it isnt raining too bad this weekend. I am supposed to run around 2.5 hours or so on Saturday and Sunday I need to get to the lake to get in an OWS and get my wetsuit on.

With the way our weather has been here in Atlanta, I have been really curious how the weather will be for Augusta. Looking at the weather forecasts, Augusta generally runs about 5-10 degrees warmer then Atlanta. Weather.com only forecasts out 10 days, so it will be interesting to see what they say tomorrow. So I decided to see how far out Accuweather forecasts. Sure enough, they forecast out 15 days. My jaw dropped when I saw the forecast

Screen shot from accuweather.com

I really hope they are wrong or conditions change by then, because that is really going to make Augusta a tough race. Definitely will have to adjust my nutrition and pay extra attention to hydration and electrolytes with that kind of humidity.

I am not going to worry too much about that which I cannot control. I just have to monitor the forecast through the next week and plan accordingly.

Did another 30 minute run tonight. My legs are feeling better. Still have just a little bit of back pain. I hope to be close to 100% by Saturday's long run

Zensah Giveaway

2009-09-16T18:23:00.000-07:00

I am not sure how many of you already read Chic Runner's Blog but she is giving away a $75 certificate to Zensah's website. Zensah, among other things, makes compression sleeves and sports bras

Here is the direct link to the giveaway http://chicrunner.com/?p=975

99 Bottles of Beer + 1 Chicken dance = 100 miles on the bike DONE!

2009-09-16T16:55:00.001-07:00

I did it. I conquered my biggest challenge so far. I made it through 100 miles in 6 hrs 40 minutes ride time (7 hrs 20 min total time). It took all I had in me to make it through it. Towards the end, I couldn't help but think about how the heck I am going to be able to do another 12 miles on the bike and then run a full marathon? My next 100+ miler will definitely be followed by a short run to see how it feels.

I headed out to the Silver Comet early Sunday morning. The weather was pretty good. It was in the mid 60s and overcast. It would stay cool the whole time I was out there. It did rain for about an hour of the ride, but it was never more then a light mist.

Rather then doing 50 out and 50 back, I decided to do to loops of 25 out and back. This would give me the right amount of distance between stops for bathroom/water. Because I would go back to the car, I only had to carry one bottle of perpeteum which gave me an extra bottle of water.

I headed off just after 8 in the morning. I did a good job of keeping my HR in check and controlled my pace. I did not want to use up all my energy. Things felt good. I reached the 25 mile turn around point in about 90 minutes and turned back towards the car. About halfway back, my knees began to hurt some. I tried to focus on keeping my knees in since I know that letting them fall outward is a definite contributor to knee pain.

Made it back to the car about five minutes slower then it took me to go out. Not too bad, but I knew the next 50 would truly be a challenge both mentally and physically.

To pass the time as I headed out, I played lots of little mind games. In order to distract myself from thinking about the distance, I went through 99 bottles (plus some) of beer on the wall. This of course only got me about 5 miles or so. as I hit about 60 miles, I started to doubt myself. I seriously started to consider turning around at my next stop at 66 miles. Once I reached the restroom and filled my bottles, I knew I had come too far to turn around now. I made it the last 9 miles to mile 75, took a few minutes to stretch, and I headed back in. The second 50 miles was about 30 minutes slower then the first half. While not great, I am ok with that.

At some point, I was sitting up and was "flapping my wings" to loosen up my shoulders. For some reason, this brought back memories of the Chicken Dance. When I was a kid at summer camp, we went to the local skating rink (Galaxy Skateway for you SoFla folks)several times a week. One of the tings they always did was the chicken dance. Appropriately the lyrics I remembered (which based on a google search arent the actual lyrics) were "I cant believe I'm doing this I must be nuts!! There were several times throughout the ride that those lyrics kept coming back to me.

Once I cooled off and changed my clothes, I headed home. To reward myself I stopped and got my favorite post-ride cookies from QT. I dont know how they taste normally, but they just taste amazing after a long hard ride. I came home and took a nice soothing Ice bath, donned my compression socks and chillaxed for the rest of the day. Monday, I was still a little sore, but after using my trigger point kit, I felt so much better. I went for a run yesterday and a short ride today. I am definitely feeling the effects of the century ride. I will take it easy to the weekend and I have a long run on Saturday and then I think I will hit the lake for an OWS on Sunday to test my wetsuit that I havent used since last year at South Carloina.

I cant believe its only 10 days till IM Augusta 70.3. I dont have any real plans for this race other then enjoy it and test my race nutrition for B2B. A PR is possible since I had to walk most of the run, but I will not be disappointed if I dont get a PR.

I feel pretty good about my bike nutrition. I had no problems using Perpeteum on my bike. The run is the big question. I have been training mostly with Mint Chocolate Gu this year, but I am almost out and have kinda gotten sick of goo, so I am moving back to what I used last year, cliff shot blocks.

After this ride, I have regained a new respect for the distance. I feel like the mental challenge is going to be much harder then the physical one. I have done the math and worst case scenario (barring something truly oncontrollable) I know I can complete the distance before cutoff at 17 hours, I just have to have the willpower and confidence to complete it.

Has it been a month already?

2009-09-09T17:18:00.000-07:00

I cant believe it has been that long. I am such a bad blogger. I just havent had the motivation lately. Part of this I think has to do with my training. It just hasnt gone as well as I would have liked. When I am training, I am super tired and just havent had the energy to blog.

The one positive for me right now has been my running. I am finally seeing my running speed/economy improve. It has been a long slow recovery from my ankle sprain.

My cycling is so-so. Most of my long rides have been on Sunday after a long ride on Saturday. Cycling on tired legs has been deceiving for judging my progress. For a variety of reasons I have missed out on opportunities for organized century rides. I had two opportunities to do my first century this weekend. The one on Saturday sounded like an easier course, but things blew up at work Friday and I was stuck there late and I knew it wouldnt work out for Saturday. I knew Monday's option was a hilly one, but figured what the heck, I'll give it a shot. FAIL!

To start off with, the road markings were the number 6 and the top of the 6 pointed in the direction of the turn or no-turn. There were no arrows. Well, after the first turn, there was a series of freshly painted left arrows next to a number 6. So many of us turned. At some point, others turned around. Unfortunately, I ended up in a group that was doing some other ride. I found this out after being about 3 miles off course. I backtracked, and made another wrong turn. Luckily, I had my gps-enabled cell phone to get back on track. Unfortunately, my detour was full of hills.

I almost turned back to go to my car and call it a day, but I decided to push on for at least a while. I got to the turn around for the 20 miler and stopped for a few minutes. I made it to the 20 mile mark (27ish for me) and knew I couldnt go much further. The thing was I think the first/last 20 miles (in my case all 40) were the toughest, but I was now at the back of the pack, and I knew I would have to make it through a tough 20 miles. That and I felt like there was no on the road sag support compared to hearing others stories. So I had some cookies and headed back. In 40 miles there were over 2500 feet of climbing. My knees were so sore.

This week is supposed to be recovery, but based on my schedule, I am going to move that to next week and this weekend I will make my attempt at 100 miles on the silver comet. I was going to do a century ride the following week, but that is one week before IM Augusta and I dont want my legs completely trashed going into it.

I dont know how Augusta will work out. I still have high hopes for a PR as I went 6:36 at SC Half walking almost all the run. The bike course for Augusta is comparable. I think I can maintain close to the same speed as S.C. If I can keep that close and even run something like 12 minute miles I will PR. I dont know that my goal of breaking 6 hrs is still feasible. It will mainly depend on my run performance.

For B2B, my only goal is to have a great time and to finish. I know I can finish in time fairly easily, the only question is how long.

I am already starting to think past the end of this year and what I want to do. I am leaning towards next year being a run focused year with an additional focus on losing weight. I have been totally unsuccessful with weight loss this year and I can feel the difference. I am about half way between my heaviest and my leanest and I want to be back down by my leanest. This will also help me to get back to the running ability of several years ago when I was running 8:30 miles for my long runs. I would also like to take a stab at some ultra marathons.

Review:Garmin 310 XT

2009-08-06T18:57:00.000-07:00

So I have had my Garmin Forerunner 310 for a few weeks and I have to say it is working great. I have ran with it several times, biked with it several times and tonight I did my first brick with it.

The watch is less bulky then the 305, but the display is slightly wider. It fits fairly comfortably on my wrist and has a fairly secure latching setup. The start and lap buttons are slightly harder to press, but that is mainly because they are recessed as part of the waterproofing.

The user interface is slightly improved from the 305, but it pretty much resembles the same interface and has the same button sequences to control it. The 305 allowed many of your training settings such as auto pause, auto lap, and alerts to be set separately from run and bike. Basically if you were in run you were setting run settings and if you were in bike you were setting bike settings. With the updated interface, it is much clearer which sport you were setting. I also felt like there were less menus to drill down through to get to the settings. If you have the 305, then moving to the 310 should be fairly easy, unlike the 405, which Cathy has and I thought was a little harder to change settings.

So how does it work? Very good.

I havent used it on the swim yet. The GPS is not accurate on the swim, but if you are doing laps you can lap it and then fill in the distances manually in sport tracks. The one feature I think I will likely use on my iron swim is the alert. Becuase the 310 also has vibration beside the sound, I can set an alert to go off every so man minutes so I can pace myself accordingly.

On the bike and run, there arent any big changes. The GPS seems to pick up the satellites much faster then the 305 did. There are now 4 configurable screens for each sport. There is a HR Zone graph you can use on one of the screens. I only used the training partner once or twice on the 305. I found the 310's training partner to be something I might actually use. On one screen, you get the icons as well as two fields: miles ahead/behind and time ahead/behind. Other then that, I dont think there were any big changes.

When I did my brick tonight, I was super happy with how the 310 performed. The 305 worked fine for a totally outside brick/ However if I rode inside on the trainer and then ran outside. I would literally have to stop and reset the bike and switch to the run. Otherwise, it would show my speed as something insane in the 100s of mph. The 310 worked almost flawlessly. I set up the multisport just like in the 305. I turned off GPS to save battery. I probably didnt absolutely have to since it should revert to the sensor, but didnt want to mess with that. When I finished my bike, I hit the lap button to switch to transition. Got my shoes on and went outside. Before I hit the lap again to go to run, I had to turn the GPS back on. OT picked up signal in less then 30 seconds an I was off.

Downloading the data is fairly painless. I use Sport Tracks to track my data. It did take a little figuring out how it would work. Basically, when you plug your ANT receiver in and turn the garmin on, it downloads the data and then you open up Training Center or Sport Tracks and you then have to chose to D/L from the ant agent. The most important thing I can recommend is to go to the website in the quick install instructions and download and install all updates before using it. When you update the S/W on the forerunner, it deletes all the data. The only other thing I've noticed is that it downloads much much slower then the 305 did. Not a big deal, just a little bit of a nuisance.

I have not seen a quick release kit for the 310, but I may not even want it. I will need to see how secure it is because I dont want to risk losing it on the swim. Because the HR and Speed sensors only communicate one way (they send out data but dont receive any communication from the forerunner) I am able to use my 305 on the bike as a dedicated bike computer at the same time my 310 is on my wrist.

The calorie calculation function is supposed to be much improved. It definitely looks closer to reality. I havent looked at it any further yet to see how accurate it actually is.

Out, Out Damn Slump

2009-08-04T17:50:00.000-07:00

I have been in this frickin slump for around a month now and it is time to HTFU and more importantly STFU (Smarten TFU). Last week I was sick with the second head cold in the last 6 months. I would get home from work and had no energy. I tried to run on Friday and could barely make it through 2 miles. I was really disappointed because I had my first century planned for Saturday and it was one one of the flatter ones in Georgia. So, instead, I took the entire weekend off. This gave me some time to think about my progress, my current plan, and my diet. In addition, I have also been having GI issues on my long runs.

Over the weekend, I re-read parts of the Paleo diet and read several articles from various sources. I looked back through some of my training logs. I knew it was time for a few changes.

The biggest disappointment, besides the slow recovery in my running is my inability to lose weight. I think my weight has been one of my biggest hurdles to success. With that, I knew I needed to change both my diet, as well as look at my training plan and make adjustments.

I am phasing out most of the processed "food" I have been eating, including all those 100 calorie snacks. I went to costco and bought lots of fresh veggies and made a massive salad to get me through most of the week. I am going to cut down on my consumption of bread. My focus is eating natural, less processed foods. This has always been the basis of my usual diet, but with iron training and other things keeping me busy, I have neglected my diet because I did not make time to cook or prepare the good foods I need. This is the first part to me losing weight. I have also restarted taking my supplements, including fish oil, Vitamins B,C, and E, and Bromelain.

The second thing I did was to analyze my training plan and think about making some changes. I am not going to really change the weekends long run and rides or my weekly bricks, but I am considering some changes to my weekday training plans. There are a couple of different philosophies when it comes to training for ironman. The usual method involves training long and at low intensities, mainly Z1-Z2 with a small amount of speed work. There is another school of thought that stresses quality over quantity. I have about two months left until my 70.3 and then another month after that is B2B. By training mainly at lower intensities, I have not been getting the metabolism boost that I would get with higher intensity training. It has also been harder for me to regain running speed under my current plan. I am considering doing more tempo runs and hill repeats at high intensity. Some of this is already in the plan, but some of it isnt. I also think I need to get back to running with the group on Saturday mornings, because that is also a big part of how I got faster. When I first started running with the group, I couldnt hang on with the group. Eventually I was at the fromt of the group and at some point I was running faster then the main group. By running with the faster folks, it'll help me push myself.

On the bike, my training has been at a high cadence and low resistance. On the trainer, I can barely get into mid Z2 on the bike using this method. In order to build more strength in my legs, I am going to build in periods at the same high cadence at higher resistance.

For the swim, the biggest thing I can do is loose weight. I cannot seem to get my splits down on the swim. I have a strong feeling this has to do with the excess drag.

While I may be taking some risk by altering my training plan at this point, I really feel that the metabolism boost that comes at slightly higher intensities will do more to help me lose weight. I feel the benefit from losing weight will be more then the benefit of training at lower intensities during the week. I will continue to train long, but I may also allow my HR to go into Z3 on the bike and possibly low Z4 on the run. This is the first year I have trained by HR and I feel like I have made the least progress. As long as I do this in a smart way and listen to my body, I feel I will see better results on race day.

Its a good thing that gas station was there

2009-07-26T16:47:00.000-07:00

Its kindof ironic that my last post was on mental toughness, and Wes happened to comment on bonking with 30 miles to get back home and it nearly happened to me today. Todays ride was truly a test of my mental endurance.

Today I had a 4 hour ride on my schedule. I made the mistake of sleeping in. I had set my alarm for 5 AM, but turned it off when it rang and didnt reset it. Instead, I slept till almost 8. BIG MISTAKE I will never make that mistake again on a hot summer day. I began my ride at about 11 AM. I headed out to the Silver Comet, which is mostly flat, but there are alot of small hills and one big one on the 33 miles out to Rockmart and 33 Back. I have done this route a few times this year once or twice last year. When I did it last year I was peaking for the half and was able to average about 17 mph. This year, so far I can only seem average just over 15 about 30-40 minutes slower :(. Going the 33 miles out isnt bad. The two times I did it this year, my problem is making it back in.

Today was especially tough. Because I slept in, it was already over 80 when I started. Heading out wasnt too bad. I saw Wes as I was flyin downhill and he was o=heading back towards the start. I averaged more then 16.5 mph. When I reached the turnaround at Rockmart, I was in for one heck of a ride.

This is the profile for the course. The highlighted section is the climb back out of Rockmart. I never really realized it before, but you climb over 400 feet in the 7 miles out of Rockmart.

By the time I got past that climb, I was in bad shape. I didnt feel right. I wasnt sure if it was not enough fluids or electrolytes, but I new I needed to get more into my system ASAP. Luckily on the way out, I noticed there is a gas station not too far from where you cross the road when you get to Coots Lake Beach. I stopped there and picked up two gatorades. I drank one down and filled two of my bottles with the other. At that point, my legs were toast. I knew I had about 20 miles to go and I had to make it back. With Cathy out of town, there really wasnt anyone to come pick me up. Every little climb was tough. I could only manage about 12 mph.I kept telling myself I could do this, I had to do this. I took advantage of the downhills and flats when I could. By the last few miles, I was looking at every mileage sign trying to figure out how much I had left.I pushed through it and finished the ride back 20 minutes slower then the ride out. If the gas station hadnt been there, I probably would have bonked completely.

The most important thing I learned today is to not sleep in on those long ride days. It was so hot out on the way back .I think it was closer to 90. Even the little breeze I had was a warm one. I also need to better control my fluid/electrolyte intake. I think I will start taking my camelback in addition to my bottles. I brought my endurolyte caplets, but didnt start taking them until it was too late. While the perpeteum has enough calories, it does not have enough electrolytes. I may also start taking some gatorade with me as well to mix things up. It is good to know that the gas station is where it is. Thankfully, I had consciously got cash before I headed out so I had some on me.

With each ride, I know I am getting stronger. I look forward to when doing the 33 miles back is no longer a test of my mental toughness.

Been in a slump

2009-07-25T15:23:00.000-07:00

So I have been in a real slump lately, both in terms of training and blogging. Between work and life, things have just been crazy. Things at work are slowing down, so that should help and the thing that has been keeping me busy outside of work the last few weeks: car buying research/test driving which concluded yesterday. Thanks to the Cash for Clunkers program, we were able to trade in our 2001 explorer with over 196,000 miles that only gets 18mpg for a great deal on a 2009 Honda fit that gets over 30 mpg. The only thing left to do is to get it tinted and put a hitch on it so I can put a bike rack on it.

I am learning Ironman training is as much mental if not more mental then physical. I still need to learn to push myself more whether it is getting out of bed at 4:15 or not slowing down. I am getting better at this, but everyday I have to tell myself I WILL do this. I think back to my half from last year. No matter how much pain I was in,the only way I wasnt going to finish was if my back completely locked up. Even if I had to crawl to the finish I was going to do it. I know come race day I will get through it barring some uncontrollable circumstance, but the more I push myself to do what is necessary now, the easier race day should be. I think I may even order the black HTFU armband that I saw one team wearing during the tour de france.

After a long wait, my Garmin Forerunner 310 finally came in today. Once I use it a few times, I will post a review including pictures. I wore it on my run today and it felt more comfortable, and it is a little smaller then the 305. There are a few new features I have noticed so far, but nothing big yet. It truly will get tested come race day. If anyone is thinking of getting one, make sure you download all the S/W from garmin and update the firmware on it before you use it because the firmware update on the web site wipes out all the data

I feel like my running speed is coming back. I am seeing my paces come down and my endurance has improved as well. It has been a long road recovering from my sprain and I still have a long way to go before I get back to my best running form. I am seriously thinking about spending the winter, and possibly even all of next year focusing on my running and regaining and going further with my speed. I may focus on running speed in the winter and then for tri season do only sprints and Oly's. One thing I have noticed this year training for Ironman is that it is super hard to lose weight. Because the majority of my iron training is done at Z1-3 (though some speed work is coming into my plan now) I dont burn as many calories, and the residual burn post training is much less. I can look back at this year so far as well as last years HIM training and this has been the case. That and I am always hungry and it is hard to find the proper balance.If I focus on my speed, I believe I will be able to burn more calories both during training and after training and weight loss will be a little easier.

Now I am off to read your blogs

Great News

2009-07-07T17:59:00.000-07:00

First off, I want to say thank you for all your great comments. We have such a great community here of athletes who support each other through the ups and downs of training and racing.

So apparently I do not have a hernia. A day or two after the original Dr Appt I was pain free which made me suspicious. When I saw the surgeon today, he examined me and determined it is actually a hip adductor strain which has already been healing as I have no pain. Apparently he often sees patients with this same situation where the primary doctor diagnoses a hernia, when it is actually a groin strain.

I took Thursday through Saturday off (Including the peachtree)and chose to get back on the bike on Sunday. He gave me a script for some anti-inflammatories and told me to just be smart about it and back off if the pain returns. If it does, I may go see a sports med doctor.

So I am back to training full force. I just need to be extra careful and be extra diligent about stretching.

Just when things were going well

2009-07-01T18:18:00.000-07:00

I had to go and develop a freakin hernia. I started having some pain on Monday, yesterday it was a little more noticeable and by today, every time I coughed, sneezed, laughed, etc it would hurt. So I found myself a new primary doctor since I hadnt seen one in a while and was able to make an appt for lunchtime today. She confirmed my worst fear. Based on my symptoms, I had a feeling that was what I had.

Unfortunately, there is no other option then to have surgery. One of the advantages of working in a hospital, including working in the OR for awhile, is that I had worked with many of the surgeons. One of the better general surgeons is also a triathlete so I went ahead and made an appt to see him on Tuesday. I will let you guys know how it goes. I suspect I may not have to immediately have surgery, but I think I would be better off doing it before it gets worse. Until I find out, I am going to limit my training to swimming, though I will still do the Peachtree RR on Saturday since I was looking to take it easy and run with Cathy anyways.

A Kick Arse Long run

2009-06-30T17:42:00.000-07:00

Since I wore myself out doing my husbandly sherpa duties Sunday morning, I was in no shape to run Sunday night. Since I took Sunday off, where Monday is usually my off day, I decided I would do it Monday night after work. I knew it would be hot, but at least it would be under 90 degrees.

When I got off work, I headed off to the Roswell Riverwalk, my new favorite place to do my long runs. It is a 3-4 mile trail with a big park right in the middle of it. The trail varies from concrete to asphalt to packed gravel. The best part is that the majority of it is shaded. Truly a great place to run.

After a quick stop at the gas station to fill up and get some cold water and gatorade, I got to the park. I filled up my fuel belt with cold water and had a few sips of gatorade and stuck both bottles into one of those grocery store hot-cold bags. That was a really smart thing to do as my water stayed cold the whole two hours. I headed out towards the one end and about a quarter mile in I realized I left my Ipod in my car where it could be visible to anyone walking by. I probably could do without it, but I didnt need it getting stolen. After grabbing my ipod and refilling my first bottle, I was off again. I made it to the other end and back and I was feeling great (other then a rush to the bathroom. Thankfully the bathrooms at the park are super clean compared to most other public parks). I went out and back on the other end with no issues (other then another potty stop). Other then mile 8 which involved some walking due to abdominal issues, I kept a fairly steady pace. I took walk breaks every mile and still managed to average 11:49 which is one of my fastest runs since my sprain and my fastest longest run since then. I finished 9 miles in 1:46.

I am now seriously considering moving my long runs to mid week. I remember reading ,I believe,in the book "Going Long" that the authors recommend not doing your long run and long ride both on the weekend. Other then making some adjustments to my diet on the long run day so that my stomach is empty, I dont see any reason why I cant do my long runs during the week.

With Saturday's long ride, I have broken 1000 miles on the bike for the year. It was also my biggest month in terms of bike miles so far at 390 miles.

June--Year
Swim 19,700--81,400
Bike 390--1049
Run 48--208

I am definitely looking at well surpassing my milage from previous years

Today, I finally found a pair of Wide Tri shoes and have ordered them. I have had issues with pain in the side of my foot as it swells. Lake actually makes wide tri shoes and I am looking forward to more comfy tri shoes. Because the site I ordered them were offering 20% off if you spent 150, I also got a great deal on a pair of 2xu compression sleeves. From what I understand, these can actually be warn in the water and/or under a wetsuit so you dont have to worry about getting them on in transition for a long race. I will have to review them when they come in.

I have been using Oxysox for several months and find myself wearing them much more often now that I am training for the ironman

If you have a chance, you should visit Chic Runner's Blog as she is giving away a $75 Zensah Gift Cert. Zensah is a maker of great compression gear and other athletic apparel.

My much neglected blog

2009-06-28T16:53:00.001-07:00

First off, I announcement. I have made a slight change in my schedule. I was planning on doing the South Carolina Half again this year. After some thought, I have decided instead to do Ironman Augusta 70.3! It is slightly closer, it is easier to get to, and it is much bigger a town then where the SC half is. That and I know so many of you and so many of my tri club friends are doing it.

I am also contemplating a century ride and a 1/3/5k OWS in two weeks.

I know I have neglected my blog lately. Ironman training is really taking up so much of my time. I used to go to bed most nights at 11 or 11:30. Now I am getting to bed on most nights by 9 so I can be up around 4 AM to train. It has been hot here in Atlanta so I have been trying to do as much training in the AM as possible.

Last week I raced the Callaway sprint tri. Really not much to say about it. I finished 10 minutes slower then the previous year thanks to the run. I was about a minute slower on the swim, about the same on the bike and had nothing left for the run. I hammered my swim and bike and just had nothing left. I am not too worried about that race because I am wholly focused on Iron training and only now in week 5 beginning to do short bouts of speed.

My running otherwise is finally beginning to get faster. My speed and endurance is slowly coming back more and more each week. I realized last Saturday when I did my long run that I needed new shoes. I have been using New Balance 1061/1062 for several years. I began my running career as a overponator and heel striker. This year I have been focusing on mid-foot striking and decided it was a time for a change. Unfortunately, with my big feet, the running store had only one other option. I tried on the Mizuno Wave 12s and immediately knew they were the ones for me. I dont know if it was simply because my old ones were worn out or if it truly are the new shoes, but so far I am truly loving them. Tomorrow evening's long run will be the best test so far.

Had a great, but hectic weekend. I was up super early for a 4ish hour bike ride. It was a decent ride, but my legs were a little tired since that was my 4th day in a row on the bike. Normally, I do my long ride on Sunday, but with Cathy's Iron Girl race today, I had to do my ride on Saturday. Once I got home and showered it was off to the Iron Girl packet pickup/expo/bike dropoff. We went home relaxed for about an hour and then met up with Wes and Dee Dee for dinner at a local italian restaurant. We had a great dinner and then it was time to go home and go to bed. We were up at 4AM this morning and headed off to Lake Lanier Islands. Wes and Dee Dee pulled in to the lot right behind us so we headed down to transition together. I hung out with Wes all day taking pictures and cheering the ladies on. It was a great race, though super hot. Cathy was happy to finish the super tough course in about the time she expected. We came home and crashed for the day. I was supposed to do a 1hr45min run today, but I have decided to postpone it until tomorrow evening. Hopefully it wont be too hot.

I will try to update the blog more often. I actually have some gadgets and stuff I can review. I am still awaiting my Forerunner 310. They keep pushing the ship date further and further back. Also know that even though I may not get a chance to comment on everyone's blogs, I am reading and keeping up with everyone's training

Lessons Learned

2009-06-10T19:05:00.000-07:00

Today I learned something important about my training abilities. Because I got to bed late last night, I chose to sleep to my normal non-training time and double up in the evening. I didnt think it would be too big a deal, my swim was an easy set totaling 2100M. My run was only supposed to be 50 minutes followed by 6 20sec strides. I figured ok, no big deal.

The swim went well with no issues. I got home from the gym and put dinner together real quick so I wouldnt have to eat too late and then headed out for my run. Right away, I knew it wouldnt be a good one. It was almost 90 and humid. I struggled through it and stopped myself at 30 minutes. I just had no energy and my legs felt like lead weights. If for some reason I ever have to double up like this again, I know I need to run before the swim.

While I have a training plan that is on paper and have been doing fairly well at executing the planned workouts, there are certain things not part of the plan that are almost as important that I have so far struggled with.

I need to make the effort to get to bed much earlier during the week (as I write this at 10:15 and really should be in bed). This way it will be easier for me to wake up early to get my scheduled training in.

I also need to schedule my weekday runs for the AM through most of this plan. It was 88 Degrees around 7PM this evening. I may also need to push some of the swims to the AM. The longest workouts during the week are my bike rides. The problem is that other then Friday, I leave for work at 6:30 AM and usually get up at 5:30. This would mean that I would often have to be up around 3AM if I needed to ride in the AM!! Knowing how it can be difficult for me to fall asleep, this is really not a preferred option. The one issue I may run into is I may end up some weeks doing rides 3 nights in a row from Wed-Fri. I know this wont be too bad. I would just need to strategically shuffle my rides around so that my easier bike is the middle day of that set.

The other big thing I know I need to be doing better at though I cant seem to get right is my diet. I need to at least lose the 20 pounds I put on over the winter. I dont eat too bad, but it is really difficult for me to lose weight so I need to be super careful what I eat. I have been reading the Paleo Diet for Athletes book. It is a really interesting read. Overall, it isnt too bad, but I just dont know if I could give up everything they consider to be unhealthy. The toughest thing is that it recommends to give up what most consider "healthy" carbs such as whole grains and beans. It does make the exception before/during/after training that you can eat the carbs.. This could possibly make it doable. I did a search on BT and found that those who did it struggled for a little bit, but felt so much better after that.

Finally, I need to make more time for some sort of functional/core strength training as well as yoga/trigger point/roller. These things are super important to keep me strong, flexible, and injury free. The other thing I am doing to try to stay injury free is changing the way I run. I have reread the important chapters of Chi Running and have begun to try and implement their method. I have noticed when I am in the groove and in the right position, running definitely feels easier and I dont get any aches in my knee. I find myself while I am running visualizing the three parts to the correct form and have to pull myself back into proper form. The problem has been holding the position. I know that will get easier with time, especially as I lose more weight.

Well, let me head off to bed before it is too too late

Bag Balm is da bomb

2009-06-08T16:43:00.000-07:00

So week 2 of my Beach 2 Battleship 24 Week plan is in the books. Overall, it was a very productive week of training. So far I feel good with only the occasional little aches and pains. I have had a decent amount of energy.

This week, I did have one setback. I have been spending alot of time on the bike (relative to where I had been). Apparently, I forgot one day to use either body glide or chamois butt'r. BIG MISTAKE. Ended up with a saddle sore. This has made it painful to ride this week. With lots of Neosporin, I am nearly healed. As I was doing some research, I think I found something that works for me better then Body Glide and costs less:Bag Balm not only does it work well as a lubricant, but it also helps heal saddle sores and chafing. Sure, its made for cows, but it seems to work great. The only warning is that because it is petroleum based, it may break down certain fabrics quicker.

Saturday, I broke out the road bike to do a ride with Cathy. For me, this would be an easy recovery ride. I found that riding upright on the road bike was a little less painful then riding in the aero position on my tri bike. We drove out west and met one of her co-workers (and family) all the way in Rockmart. Normally, when I ride the silver comet, I ride towards rockmart and back. It is a good thing I normally ride this direction, because there is an awesome italian restaurant in downtown Rockmart that is known by all the cyclists. Frankies has awesome breadsticks and great pizza. I defintely ate my share of breadsticks for lunch that day. I had to reload the carbs for my long run that evening ;-).

After getting home and taking a short nap, I headed out for my scheduled 50 minute long run. As per my plans, I took walk breaks after every mile. I felt really strong throughout the run. My pace continues to come down while my heart rate is staying relatively low. It feels great to finally be making progress. IT is so weird how for months I felt like I was getting no where in terms of running and then wham! It just started clicking. Part of it may also be my focus on running at a lower heart rate.

Overall, my swimming continues to be decent. My long swims are averaging just over 2 minutes per 100M. Compared to last year, this is a little slow, but I know I will get faster as I take some weight off.

I have two weeks till my first race of the season, the Callaway Sprint Tri. This will be my second year doing this race. I really dont expect to be super fast since my running is slowly coming back and I havent been doing any speed work. My plan for the race is haul butt on the swim. Hammer the bike and try to pace myself on the run. Last year I came out of the water with the fastest time in the clydes, but lost it on the bike. If I can repeat the swim and hammer the bike, maybe just maybe I can hold the competition off on the run or at least place this time.

Well, I need to be getting to bed as I have a Looong day tomorrow

Week 1 is in the books

2009-05-31T19:06:00.000-07:00

It has been a pretty good first week in my Beach to Battleship IM training. I missed one swim day due to the weather, but otherwise I have gotten all my training in and feel pretty good. I even managed to get up at 4:15 AM twice without being overly tired. My running, while slow is getting more consistent. Saturday night, I was actually able to run for 25 minutes without a walk break. Sure it was an 11:30 pace, but my legs felt great. Today is a recovery day and my legs feel good and I am looking forward to being back on the bike tomorrow morning at 4:15

Week 1 consisted of almost 10.5 hours of training. The most I have done in a long time. I Swam twice for a total of almost 4000 meters. I was on the bike 4 times (including one brick) for a total of 95.87 miles in a little lest then 5.5 hours and ran almost 17 miles in 3.5 hours.

Saturday morning I got up and rode the Lifetime Fitness Alpharetta ride. This ride was my first off the trainer since September 28th, 2008. I really wasnt sure what to expect having not ridden this route before and not having ridden the road in a good long time. This was one tough ride. Every time I got over one hill, there was another one. It felt like there were no flats to be found. When it was flat, my legs felt good and I could hit 20+ mph without too much problem. Unfortunately, every time I hit a longer or steeper hill, my speed slowed to like 5mph. At one point, I felt like I could have walked the bike faster. There was great scenery and it was a great training ride.I think it was the hardest ride I have ever done. I managed to average 15mph. As long as my training plan fits with the timing of it, I plan on doing this ride to build more strength in my legs. I really want to focus on getting stronger on the bike.

My run will come along as I stay consistent with my training and as I lose the excess weight I put on. I think I have a lot of room to make gains on the bike with some effort. In fact, May was my highest volume of cycling so far and my training has just begone

Totals for May:
Swim: 10,100 Meters
Bike: 241.97 Miles
Run: 36.51 Miles

I think I have found my new choice for long distance fueling. After doing lots of reading and pricing out several items, I have settled on perpeteum. I picked up a container of the orange flavored variety and liked the taste. It tastes almost like an orange creamsicle. I like the fact that I can mix 1 bottle with up to four hours of fuel. For my IM I plan on having two 3 hour bottles:1 on the bike and one at special needs. I havent decided if I will premix the special needs one or mix it when I get there, but two bottles will cover my entire nutrition need on the bike. To keep it cold, I have found that the new Camelback Insulated bottles are great. they have the camelback nipple, they are insulated, and they are supposed to be antimicrobial. Two and a half hours into a really hot ride and it was still cool.

I dont know yet what I will do on the run yet. I recently discovered Cliff Mojo bars. I especially love their PB one that is salty and sweet. For the run, I may use gels and the mojo bars. The one good thing for me this year is that both my 1/2 and my full are run by the same company, so the fueling will be hammer products on both courses. My only issue may be gels, because I am not a big fan of Hammer gels.

Well, I need to be heading to bed. Gotta be up at 4:15 to get on the bike

And so it begins (T Minus 165 Days and Counting)

2009-05-25T16:27:00.000-07:00

Today officially begins my 24 week Beach to Battleship Full Iron Distance training plan. I am really looking forward to getting back to an entirely structured training plan. The only thing I am not exactly looking forward to is getting up at the butt crack of stupid again. This time around I am looking at at least two days during the week of doubling up as well as doubling up both days on the weekend. I am using Level 6 of the Triathlete Magazine Week by Week Training Plan guide. As Part of the plan, I will be racing the South Carolina Half again this year.

The last few weeks have been slightly unproductive as far as training goes. Between school projects, finals, and our hospitals Joint Commission inspection. Needless to say training suffered. Now that all is done, it should be smooth sailing where training is concerned.

I have had mixed results dealing with my running difficulties. I think I have find the root cause of my problems. I have mentioned (too many times) about my tight hips. After reading a few yoga-related articles I have found a series of stretches for dealing with tight hips. I have been practicing these stretches almost nightly and I can see some slight improvement. From what I have read, fixing these types of things can take a long time.

On Saturday, I did a test run to see how my running is going. The first long run next weekend is 80 minutes so I wanted to see how 60 minutes felt. Because I am likely to be run-walking the run portion of the ironman, I am building it in to my training. For the first half I walked a minute after every mile and then the second half I walked a minute after every half mile. While it was slow and I only averaged 11:49/mile, my legs felt good. As I work out the kinks in my legs, I hope to be able to only take walk breaks on the mile. The speed and hill work in the plan should help me build some strength and speed in my running.

Today I suffered through a 5K. It was hot and humid. Initially my legs felt good. At about 1.25 miles in I started having to tell myself I was not going to walk. By 1.5 miles i started to take walk breaks. I think I didnt stretch enough last night and I didnt warm up at all so my legs were tight. I ended up finishing in 32:34 which was an avg of about 10:30 per mile. With walk breaks that wasnt too bad, but still disappointing. On an interesting note, as I sprinted to the finish line, I registered my highest HR ever (at least highest accurate one) at 200. What really ticked me off, (besides walkers at the front, walkers on the left side, and those with strollers) was as I am being pushed through the corral, trying to catch my breath, some old guy is trying to shove a flyer for another race in my face.

As it gets closer to race day, I will disclose what I have in mind as far as goals. Obviously my most important goal is to simply finish. Beyond that, I have a few different time goals in mind, but I wont disclose them till I know that they are more realistic based on my long rides and bricks.

I also hope to be more active with my blogging now that I am training full force. Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend

Epic Hill Climb Ride

2009-05-08T19:05:00.000-07:00

So yesterday's run was another disappointing one, though my feet did not fall asleep. I put in some inserts I had laying around into my shoes. They helped, but they are too big for my behemoth feet. I suspect I may have Mortons Neuroma in my left foot. Apparently us flat footed overpronators are susceptible to this. I need to find thinner inserts with the extra cushion in the front of the foot. So m feet were ok, but my legs hurt. This comes back to my tight hips. Because of all my "issues" I have decided to take it easy on the run for now. I may only run twice a week for the next few weeks. I am going to have to really focus on stretching out my hips via yoga and trigger point. When I sit at my desk, I cannot keep my knees together. It hurts like I am trying to hold up some heavy weights. I think I have tight glutes and possibly pirformis muscles.

In the meantime, I am going to focus on getting stronger on the bike. I am going to add at least an extra day on the bike during the week. I am focusing overall on keeping my cadence up. One ride I am working on bringing up my resistance up as I progress while keeping my cadence steadily above 85, preferably 90.

My second ride I am calling my "epic hill climb". I did this ride last night. This ride focuses on high resistance. Over time, as the resistance gets a little easier, I plan to work on bringing the cadence up, but for now my rides are focusing on building power in the legs. I envision at some point my rides will get closer together and then I will changer it up and turn them into intervals and tempo rides.

Of course, I have my longer rides on the weekend. This weekend I plan on joining the group ride at my gym (Lifetime Fitness) for a 40 mile ride of rolling hills.

For my "epic hill climb" ride, my favorite songs come from movie scores. Many of them come from the Lord of the Rings series. Last season, on my longer trainer rides, I made it through all three LOTR movies. I really noticed that the music in the movie were great for spinning. My current playlist is a work in progress, but here is what I have so far

Name Time Album Artist

1. The Steward of Gondor - The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King - Billy Boyd & Howard Shore
2. Requiem for a Dream (Orchestral Version)- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Clint Mansell
3. Minas Tirith - The Lord Of The Rings: The Return of The King - Howard Shore
4. The Ride Of The Rohirrim - The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of the King - Howard Shore
5. The Fields Of Pelennor - The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King - Howard Shore
6. The Riders Of Rohan - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Howard Shore
7. Helm's Deep - The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers - Howard Shore
8. The Council Of Elrond - The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Enya
9. Molossus - Batman Begins - Hans Zimmer
10. The Might of Rome - Gladiator [2000 Original Score] - Hans Zimmer
11. Am I Not Merciful - Gladiator Soundtrack - Hans Zimmer & Lisa Gerrard
12. Another Brick in Hadrian's Wall - King Arthur - Hans Zimmer
13. Nycteris - Batman Begins - Hans Zimmer
14. Nara - Unfaithful Soundtrack - E.S. Posthumus
15. Top Gun Theme Song - Top Gun the Movie - Hans Zimmer
16. Now We Are Free - Gladiator Soundtrack - Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard
17. Leave No Man Behind - Black Hawk Down - Hans Zimmer
18. Ladder 49 Soundtrack- Firefighter`s Funeral - Hans Zimmer
19. I See Dead People In Boats - Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End - Hans Zimmer
20. Jack's Suite (Paul Oakenfold Mix) - Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End- Hans Zimmer And Paul Oakenfold
21. The Kraken - Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - Hans Zimmer
22. Skull And Crossbones - Pirates Of The Caribbean - The Curse O... Klaus Badelt

Sleepy feet and the incredible shrinking lane

2009-05-05T17:39:00.000-07:00

Last night, I had a decent bike ride on the trainer. I really feel like I am getting much stronger on the bike. I am really focusing on bringing my cadence up on (almost) every ride, including my long rides. The other thing I am doing is hill simulations to work on leg strength. The majority of the time, I am in high Z1 or low Z2.I feel like the bike may be my strongest leg of the race this year for me which is a big change. Last night I did an hour on the trainer I did 19.22 miles with an average cadence of 87 and an average HR of 138 which is mid Z1. Towards the end, I cranked it up into a harder gear and pushed Z3. Tomorrow, I hit the "hills"

Unfortunately, my running hasnt been as productive. It seems like as I fix one issue, another arises. My latest dilemma is that my feet are falling asleep. I initially suspected it was because I hadnt stretched in a week. I have been stretching and it has improved slightly, but they still fall asleep. Today, I re-laced my shoes as per a guide on Runner's World, but no luck. My feet still fell asleep again. I wonder if part of it is due to the hills, so I may run a few times on the dreadmill and see if I have the same issue. All I want right now is to be back to at least running 10 minute miles. I am not asking for too much. Today, with walk breaks I averaged 11:38.

While the run really sucked, I had a fairly decent swim. The biggest issue was that they have taken over 2 of the lanes at the pool for the kiddos swim team. It would have been nice if they gave us some notice!! We found out they will be using 2 lanes every night for the next few weeks until the outdoor pool opens. That leaves only 3 lanes. Luckily we didnt have to wait too long, but I really expect there to be longer waits ahead. So anyways I had a decent endurance speed set that felt pretty good. Right now, the biggest thing I can do to regain my speed will be to lose the extra 20 pounds I put on when I sprained my ankle.

In slightly disappointing news, I did find out that the Garmin 310XT has been delayed a month and wont be released until June 6th. For those who asked, the version with the HR monitor will not be out until July. This is because they have a new HR strap coming out in July that has a soft strap like the polar HRMs. However, the 310XT will work with all the 301 accessories, so I was able to save the cost of the HR strap and get it about a month sooner.

Well, I must get to streching.

Happy Cinco de Mayo

Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel

2009-05-01T20:21:00.000-07:00

SCHOOL IS ALMOST OVER!!! Only one more test on Sunday and I will graduate. No more homework, no more tests, no more presentations (at least for a few years).

School is ending just in time for my B2B Training to begin. My 24 week training plan officially starts at the end of this month. I am looking forward to training full time and not having to worry about school

Training has been so-so lately. My running has come back slow from spraining my ankle. I had one good 8 miler and since then it has been inconsistent. I have noticed lately though that my HR is coming down on the run which is a good sign. My asthma has been acting up and has limited my running the past few weeks.

My swims have been decent. I have been focusing on improving my form and increasing my stroke rate to try and become a more efficient swimmer. The biggest thing I need to do to improve on my swim is to lose about 20 pounds. After spraining my ankle I gained like 15 pounds. I am currently around 262, I would like to be down to 225 by B2B.

I feel like my cycling has been going really well. I have been focusing on keeping my cadence at a minimum of 85, but preferably over 95. Keeping my HR in high Z1, sometimes getting into really low Z2, I am averaging about 18mph. My bike fitting was interesting. Because of my tight hips, they had real difficulty getting me into a position where my knees wouldnt flail out. The ended up putting extension bolts on the pedals that bring them further out. Hopefully as I lose weight and gain flexibility, I can get into a lower position.

In March's indoor tri, the swim and bike went great, but I couldnt run much because it was hard to breathe.

Last weekend was supposed to be a big weekend. I had a 5K on Saturday and the second indoor tri on Sunday. I got sick early in the week and was not recovered by the weekend. I was only able to run a mile in the 5k and had to walk the rest. If Cathy hadnt also been doing the 5K, that could have possibly been my first DNF. Sunday wasnt much better. I almost skipped it all together, but decided to take it easy. Taking it easy on the swim, I did the same number of laps I did the previous month. I think in the first indoor tri I went out too fast. The first half of the bike felt good, but by the second half, I was sweating profusely. I took it easy from there on the bike and walked most of the 20 minute run.

My training plan for B2B has just about come together. I am using level 6 from the riathlete Magazine's Essential Week-by-Week Training Guide: Plans, Scheduling Tips, and Workout Goals for Triathletes of All Levels. After reading several books and looking at several plans, I decided on this one. All I have left to do is move some things around to coordinate my plan with Cathy's. One good thing on the plan is that it has a half ironman scheduled for week 20. It just so happens that the South Carolina Half is in week 19, so I will have the opportunity to have my revenge on that course. I am really hoping to break 6 hours without even racing too hard. Since I did a 6:36 with back pain and mainly walking the run (nearly 3 hours), it shouldnt be too hard to do since shaving 36 minutes off of a 3 hour half shouldnt be too hard.

Other then that, my schedule really hasnt changed. I may not do the organized century rides I originally planned to do. Given that B2B is flat, I may be better off riding the nearly flat silver comet, though some hills would probably help me for SC 1/2.

Now that may has finally arrived, I will be watching my inbox for a very important email. Cathy allowed me to preorder the new Garmin Forerunner 310XT

This thing is da bomb. They have finally made a water proof unit and it has 20 hours of battery life. AND it works with all the accessories from my Garmin 305. It is supposed to be available some time this month. I will be sure to provide a review when it comes in. This is the perfect watch for Ironman.

Well, I think that is all for now. It is after midnight and I need to get up in the AM and run. I am trying my best to catch up on everyones blogs as soon as possible

Yes, I am still alive

2009-03-19T15:46:00.000-07:00

After several of my blogging/facebook friends reminded me I havent posted in a while, I figure I could at least give you a quick update. Training is a little hit or miss right now. School is draining so much time/energy out of me. I am counting down the days till I can just be done, right in time to officially start my B2B training.

My running fitness is finally coming back after recovering from Octobers sprain. Two weeks ago, the eight miler I did was my fastest run (of any distance) since the sprain. I am not completely back to where I was, but I feel better. I am now running twice a week at lunch time in order to fit all my training in.

Biking is ok, I just need to rebuild my endurance lost from a few months off. I am not as fast as I had been, but I feel like I am expending less energy. I am now training by HR after getting my LT HR by doing the Time Trial. It went ok, I thought I might have had more speed in me, but it was more about getting my LT HR then really racing.

Swimming is going well, except I continue to fight shoulder pain. As long as I am proactive with my trigger point kit, it doesnt bother me too much.

I have my first "race" in a couple of weeks. It is the first of two Lifetime Fitness idoor tris. It will be an interesting test to see where my fitness is.

Saturday, I will finally be going in for a new fitting on my bike. We went into the shop two weeks ago when they had a sale and got Cathy her new tri bike. It is the next model Felt up from mine. We bought it from the same guy I bought mine from so we got to talking and I knew I needed to get back in for a refit.

School is finally over the first week in May. I will be so happy then.

Finally out of the funk

2009-02-11T20:15:00.000-08:00

I am finally getting out of the funk cause by the stomach bug. I was in the garage on the bike for about 2 hours, but only rode a total of 1 hour. I spent the rest of the time dialing in my fit.

WARNING:Techie Tri Geek Stuff Ahead

I had an aha moment recently when watching some YouTube videos. There are two great sources of info for triathletes on YouTube. Active.com has many videos there starring former Ironman world champions. The other great one is Mark Evans coaching. I have downloaded many of them to my ipod for viewing on the go.

I was watching a few of them when I came across one on "Maximizing the Aero Position"

I took away some key points I hadnt previously understood well.

1. 85% of your weight should be on your sit bones on the seat and no more then 15% on your arms.
2. Ideally your aero pads should be about 1-3 inches lower then where your butt sits on the seat. But, if you have tight hips like I do you can actually keep them parallel
3. You shouldnt be bending too much at the hips because you can close them too much and change the muscle utilization patterns.

I had been having a few problems with my position.
1.Too much weight on my arms/shoulders
2.My legs moving in a V instead of straight up and down. This is due to my chronically tight hips
3.some issues with my achilles I think has to do with #2

So I raised my base/aero bars up and bang I was better able to keep my weight on my butt, my legs moved in a straight line and I felt so much more comfortable. I also dropped my seat about a half inch because even though I had the little bit of bend in my knee and I didnt feel I was reaching, I felt I needed to bring it down a little more. My legs felt better in this position. I have a leg length descrepancy and I think the height had been right for my longer leg and my shorter leg had to reach a little

So with these adjustments, I think I may have finally dialed in my perfect fit. Now I just need to work on increasing my cadence from 80 to about 90 and to work on the proper pedal stroke

So I think I have my position pretty well set. I will go with this position this weekend at the Time Trial. As I continue to do yoga and hopefully loosen up my hips, I can lower the bar back down and get a slightly more aero position.

May 7

2009-02-09T16:11:00.000-08:00

Besides being Cathy's birthday, that is a really important day for me. That is the last day of finals of my last semester of my Bachelors Degree. I am counting down the days. I am ready to be completely done with school (or at least for a good long time).

The reason I bring this up is that right now I am taking a total of 4 classes, 3 online and one on Sunday afternoons. This is taking up so much of my time. I have been mentally drained lately. I just have not had the time to update my blog, or to comment on your blogs.

I will continue to sporadically update my blog, hopefully at least once a week when possible. I will also try to comment on all of yours when I can. If I dont comment and I usually do, know that I am at least reading through your blogs and keeping up with all of you. For those of you on facebook, I try to update my status often.

Training had been going well up until I got sick in the past week. I have been fighting a stomach bug since Thursday. I felt better yesterday, but came home from work with stomach problems again today. I have been trying to get back on the weight loss wagon, but I never wanted to do it this way. I need to feel better by Saturday because I have my first little race/fitness test of the season with the Tundra Time Trial.

Even though it is more of a fitness test for me, it officially signals the start of my racing season. I cant wait to actually race even if I am not up to full strength yet.

6.68 Miles

2009-01-31T17:51:00.000-08:00

That is how many miles Map My Run says I ran today. It feels great to get back over the 6 mile mark. And why am I going by map my run you ask? And why 6.68 Miles? It is another one of my funny training mishap stories

I charged my Garmin last night and I went to turn it on this morning and it was dead. I pulled it off the charger last night when it was done. Apparently it must have turned itself back on when I pulled it off the charger and it was completely dead!! I have noticed it will someitmes turn on after syncing.

Then, this was my first run back with my running peeps the Windward Road Runners. I looked at the route online quickly last night, but I didnt print it out. Normally, they would have copies of the route available. I dont know if they were still doing that or not, but I didnt have a copy. I stayed with the main group probably for the first 3 miles, but backed up as my RPE/Breathing went up, especially on the hills. This was an interesting as it was the first run in a really long time that all I used was a stopwatch. I think I may cover my garmin (or change screens) at times to only see HR or not even that, so that I can better train myself to run at the proper intensity only by feel. It was just great to get back and run with the folks I hadnt seen since October.

So back to the story. At some point, I fell far enough behind that I lost track of the main group. Luckily there were some behind me who I thought were also doing the 6 miler. As we hit a certain point, I realized they were doing more then 6. Turns out, they were doing 12. So I backtracked a little and made it back to the start. I think my pace was somewhere around 11 minutes per mile, which is slow, but the course is hilly. Through base training, I plan on keeping my long runs around 6 miles until I can get them back under 10 minutes and keep my HR below low Z3.

Training has been going really good. I continue to train by HR. My goal is to stay in Z1/2 right now based on my guesstimated max HR (based on training/racing), ventilatory Threshold (When it get noticeably hard to breathe and I can only get out 1 or 2 words per breath), and RPE. Based on all my reading during this so important extended base period of Ironman training, I need to build my aerobic endurance and enhance my bodies ability to burn fat for energy. I have added a little speed work and my meterage this month was almost its most. I will begin slowly adding some speed work to my cycling training in the next few weeks. Running will all be easy and LSD until I feel like my running fitness has returned to where it was last season. I have been doing lots of trigger point therapy and stretching. I have also picked up the The Athlete's Guide to Yoga: An Integrated Approach to Strength, Flexibility, and Focus by Sage Rountree. It is a really well written book and gives detailed instructions on each yoga pose and gives instructions on creating sets to address a variety of problems. These are my keys to training smarter

I have been doing well at not missing any training, unless I feel like I need a rest day. I rode 90 minutes on Sunday watching Run Fatboy Run. I could watch that movie a hundred times and still enjoy it. I think it may be time to break out the Lord of The Rings DVD as my trainer rides are getting longer. Going to School on Sunday afternoons is cramping my ability to get outside to ride on Sunday since it is so dang cold and I would have to get up super early to ride on Sunday. It is either that or I miss out running with the group to ride on Saturday. I figure I am ok right now training indoors since I am only base training. As soon as it warms up, I will move my training outside.

Monday, I ran an easy 3. I felt like I could have kept going, but I dont want to push it. Tuesday was a 2800M swim whose emphasis was force. This meant lots of pulls using the paddles. My arms were truly tired after that set. There were no real issues at the pool, but I did have to wait 20 minutes for a lane.

I took wednesday off because I was completely exhausted. Things have been super busy at work. That combined with a heavy workload of homework is turning my brain to mush.

Thursday I was on the trainer for a easy 1 hour ride.My rides have been mainly in the big chainring, keeping my cadence over 80, and my HR low. I have been averaging about 18-20 mph and trying to keep my HR in Z2 or less.

Friday we were back in the pool, and I had to make somewhat of a scene. Two guys who had not been waiting as long as I had tried to take a lane that opened up. I told him that Cathy and I were there first and he backed off. I had a 70 minute swim set to complete and I didnt want to wait forever for a lane. Friday's set was a 2900M endurance set. All my swims are coming from Swim Workouts in a binder.

Tomorrow will be a 90min-2 hr ride depending on when I can get it in. If I get up early enough, I will ride in the AM. Otherwise, I will ride tomorrow evening.

January Totals
Swim 20,350 Meters
Bike 108.36 Miles + 2:15 of Spin (2 Classes)
Run 29.18 Miles
Trained 24 Days (1 Double), Off 7 Days

Triathletes vs Little Kiddos or Near Riot at LTF

2009-01-24T18:38:00.000-08:00

I went to Lifetime Fitness on Thursday night for a swim. I got there and all the lanes were in use. Not only that, but I saw a staff member putting cones next to two lanes. This wasnt a total surprise to me because they had the same thing the week before. The problem is that they already take over several lanes most of the night Monday and Wednesday and now they are taking two lanes over on Thursday? Plus, it isnt on any of the printed schedules. They kicked the two people out of those lanes. One went and shared with another, the other got out because he was waiting for his wife. We were all completely ticked off. The one who was waiting for his wife was the most verbal. The manager came out and was nice and said he would look into the schedule. I had to wait almost 30 minutes just to share a lane.There was like 4 or 5 of us all waiting for lanes. At least I was still able to have a good 3000 Meter swim.

Little did I know, the craziness would continue, though the second part was my fault. Cathy had to work really late because they were moving their office that night. I came home, made dinner, and then went to working on my bike since there wasnt anything on TV that night I just couldnt wait to see. I went about putting the angled stem back on my tri bike. This position is definitely more comfortable. I finished up about 10:30ish and was wide awake. I decided what the heck, I am awake, I can sleep in slightly (extra hour of sleep on Fri) , and I should probably test the new setup. So, at 11PM on Thursday night I rode my bike on the trainer for 45 minutes.

I took Friday off and I was originally planning on running this morning. I was looking forward to running with my group again. I was planning on running 4 miles. I set my alarm for 5AM, woke up, it was raining so I rolled over and turned the alarm off. I ended up sleeping for the rest of the morning. I may have been making up for Thursday night. So after running some errands, I headed out to the local park for my run. My plan was to do 4 miles. This would be my longest in months. The park has a 1 mile loop with only really 2 uphills. I felt great. I took no walk breaks. I only had to stop once to re-tie my shoes. I never thought I would be so happy about 4 miles. I was generally able to keep my HR down. I even noticed that my HR was only 60 when I put my HR strap on. This means my true resting HR is back down under 60 which means I am truly regaining my fitness. Up tomorrow is a ride, probably on the trainer since I have to do it early while the temp is still around freezing since I have school in the afternoon.

So, the first few races on my schedule are now official. Cathy and I are signed up for both indoor tri's as well as the Calloway Sprint Tri. I am also signed up for the Tundra Time Trial cycling race. Since I am only base training right now, I think I may wait to do my LT test until then.

One more quick thing

2009-01-20T19:50:00.000-08:00

I know many of you out there (or your kids) have the Nintendo Wii and the Wii Fit board. Well for Christmas we got a gift card to Best Buy. With it, we bought the new Shaun White Snowboarding game. This thing is the bomb. I have only had a chance to play it once for an hour or two, but it is great. You move your snowboard by shifting your weight around on the Wii Fit board and simulate jumps and twists. It is truly lots of fun, and I even broke a sweat playing it while the house was ice cold. Definitely well worth it

Training is going smashing

2009-01-20T19:23:00.001-08:00

Well, at least I have one thing to be especially happy about today. My training is going smashing.

On Sunday, I was able to run 3 miles without a single walk break. Yes, my HR was still a little higher then it should be at this point in training and I am averaging over 10 minute miles, but I was able to run it without walking. It was my fastest run since rolling my ankle in October. All this smart training is paying off.

Today, I had my hardest and longest swim training ever (or at least since HS since I dont really remember my swim team workouts). IT was 2800 Meters altogether with a main set of 4 Times (200 Moderate,2*75 Sprint). By my 4th set, my arms were toast. Then, I had to do a stinkin 400M Kick. I hate kick sets, especially long ones. I was happily surprised when I got home and looked through my logs that this was my longest. I already knew it was my hardest. While I had decent swims last year, this year I am trying to increase my yardage and quality of my swims so that I can take further advantage of my swim. I am really liking the Swim Workouts in a binder. It has a good variety of workouts and distances to keep things interesting.

Saturday morning, we headed to the gym for an indoor spin class. With temps in the teens, there was no way I was venturing outside to ride. Mila's class is killer and it was great because lots of folks from the Tri Club showed up. I ended up doing 75 minutes of spin and a quick half mile run off the bike.

Looking at my logs for 2008, this will be my first solid month of training probably since July. I continue to use the Trigger Point torture kit several times a week. Last night was the first time the quad roller didnt hurt like heck. This is definitely a sign of progress. I really look forward to this being a strong year.

Depending on how the weather looks next week, I hope to finally get my run and ride LT tests in. Worst case scenario, I may postpone my bike test until the Tundra Time Trial race on Feb 14th.

Feeling Great, but super busy

2009-01-14T19:14:00.000-08:00

Things are going pretty well as far as training goes. My final semester of scholl has started and it looks like it will be a busy one. Things at work are crazy right now. On Friday, I walked into the parking deck and could not remember which level I parked on. I am lucky to have my triathlon training to clear my mind. It continues to amaze me how easy it is to clear my mind and forget about all the craziness when I am swimming/biking/running. I would probably go crazy if I couldnt train right now.

With lots of stretching/foam rolling/Trigger point my knee is feeling good. I skipped my run this weekend and took an extra day off.

Saturday I rode my bike for 45 minutes. I realized, based on some of the Ironman reading I have been doing that I should probably go ahead and put the angled stem back on instead of the more aggressive straight one. For the Ironman, comfort is going to be more important then a more aggressive position. I think this position may have also caused some of my shoulder pain. I know I need to get in for a followup fitting, but I just dont have the time right now. I am not getting any knee or back pain, just not completely comfortable in my current position

Sunday, I was off. Since my knees felt good, I decided to try running on Monday. I really did not want to get on the dreadmill, so I decided to put on some warm clothes and run in my hood. This was my first run outdoors since I rolled my ankle in October. It went really well. I still took some walk breaks, but they were less structured. I walked some hills, and other I would run and then walk afterwards. It was slow, but my legs felt good and it felt good to get outside and run. Of course, my next run may need to be indoors due to the dropping temps here in Atlanta.

Yesterday (Tues) I swam a total of 2550 Meters. This was my first workout using the Swim Workouts in a Binder, and it felt pretty good. I am going to start using their shorter "B" workouts for now as I build up my endurance.

Today I got on the bike for 45 minutes. My legs felt strong. My average mph is definitely getting higher. I need to start extending those and get back outdoors since the Time Trial is in February. This weekend I will work on adjusting my position. Once I get my position right, I need to do my TT/LT Test outdoors.

Well, I really should be getting off to bed, I have another hectic day tomorrow.

TGIF

2009-01-09T18:46:00.000-08:00

I am so glad this week is over. Things are crazy at work. This was my first full week since the beginning of December. By the time I left work tonight, my brain was fried. I couldnt even remember what level of the parking deck my car was on.

I was so happy to make it to the gym tonight. It always amazes me how much a good swim/bike/run can really clear my mind. By the time I left the gym I was completely relaxed and felt so much better. I did a total of 2000 yards of drills today. My shoulder is doing great. The trigger point therapy has really helped

My knee is still a little achy. I will likely skip running this weekend, and maybe for a full week. It isnt anything major, in fact it doesnt even hurt when running. I just know I need to keep myself healthy. I think the trigger point therapy has helped some, I just need to keep at it.

I took yesterday off because I got home so late and was so exhausted. It was definitely the smart thing to do

I picked up another book. Since I am such an ANALytical person, I tend to read and absorb lots of information when I am doing something new. I think I may end up using this book for my training plan. It is really detailed and has a certain amount of optional workouts. Start to Finish Ironman Training 24 Weeks to an Endurance Triathlon has lots of great info. I had been looking for another book I previously mentioned and one that Robin mentioned, but I couldnt find either in my local bookstores.

Hope everyone has a great weekend

Get out of the pool now!!

2009-01-06T19:58:00.000-08:00

My training streak continues. 6 for 6 in 2009 and 7 for 7 in the last week. I continue to feel good overall.

Monday morning, I awoke to a little knee pain from Sunday's run. It felt similar to the bursitis I encountered last year. I have been icing it and using the trigger point stuff and it feels pretty good. If there is any hint of pain tomorrow, I will skip the planned run and either ride or strength train/yoga.

Monday night I got on the bike for an easy 45 minute ride. I primarily rode around Zone 2 with occasional bouts into Z3. In addition to steady pacing, I did low cadence/high resistance, high cadence/low resistance, and high cadence/high resistance. On the bike, my legs feel rather strong. It will be interesting to see if the bike is my strength this year. I am hoping in the next week or so, possibly this weekend to go ahead and do my LT testing on the bike so I have a baseline measurement.

Up tonight was a 1000M Time Trial that I have put off a couple times for a variety of reasons. When I got to the gym, I was glad to see that the lap pool was nearly empty. I warmed up with an easy 200M to loosen up and bring up my heart rate. Then I was off. I knew it wouldnt exactly be pretty with the limited amount of swimming I had done since South Carolina.I started out feeling strong, but by about 500 in, I could feel my arms tiring. My halfway split was 8:19 and my second half was in 9:45. I definitely dont have the endurance I had last year, but overall, I feel good about where I stand. I would like to see those 2 500s get closer together.My average per 100 was 1:48. Back in November, I did a TT of 3 300s and my average was 1:52. That is a big improvement given that there was no rest in the 1000 and there was rests between the 300s. Last year, my best pace racing/training on anything over 100 was about 1:33. This gives me hope that in another month or two, that my base swimming fitness should be back where it needs to be. I think the trigger point self-treatments on the shoulder has been helping. While I have not been able to completely get rid of the pain yet, it hasnt been too bad.

So the title of this post refers to what happened as I was cooling down. About 50M into my cooldown we were told to evacuate the pool because we were under a tornado watch. I was just happy that I was able to get my TT in before this happened. Luckily, we didnt have any tornadoes around here.

In addition to my technical reading on training for Ironman, I found a great book on the human aspect of Ironman.Becoming an Ironman: First Encounters with the Ultimate Endurance Event is a great book with many stories of first encounters with Ironman distance races. I have only read through a couple stories so far and it is very inspiring.

The slow road back

2009-01-04T18:35:00.000-08:00

I realized today that regaining my fitness will truly be a slow road. I think I read somewhere it takes twice as long to regain fitness as it took to lose it. I have come to the realization that the majority of my running since resuming training has been at or around my Lactate Threshold Heart Rate (somewhere in the low 170s).While I have not done any LT testing yet, I can feel it getting hard to breathe at that rate and I cannot maintain it for more then about five minutes.

Today, I did my three miler with walk breaks every half mile. I think I may need to take walk breaks right now closer to every quarter mile. At 6mph, which is the slowest I can run on the dreadmill, my HR slowly climbs above 170 after about the first half mile and climbs quickly back up their after my walk breaks. The other thing is that I need to get back to running outside. Outside, I can run at a slower pace and possibly keep my HR down. In order to regain my aerobic endurance, I need to train at an aerobic heart rate. Right now, most of my running has been anaerobic. I have got to do what I can to keep the HR down even if that means more walking.

At times this can be a little frustrating. I want to get out and run faster or run longer. I know I cannot do that safely right now and I will not do anything that obviously puts myself at greater risk of injury.

As with almost everyone else, tomorrow officially begins 2009 for me as far as training goes. My hope is to train at least 30 minutes every day whether it be swimming,biking,running, strength training, or yoga/stretching. I want to try to blog more often, even if it is to log my training. I plan to continuing reading lots of books/magazines/etc on running,triathlon, and nutrition. I have several books I have bought and have never read, or have read through and havent completely abosrbed. Once I finish the Triathlete's Training Bible, I have a 1000+ page book called the Lore of Running that is like the encyclopedia of running and trainin. Because I cannot afford a coach and I am now "coaching" Cathy, I want to be as knowledgeable as possible.

I also plan to eat much smarter this year. I would like to lose about 30 pounds or so by the time November rolls around. No more excuses, no more eating junk. It is time to get serious. To that end, I was busy in the kitchen tonight. I made whole wheat thin crust veggie pizza for dinner and tomorrows lunch and prepped a humongous veggie lasagna for dinner tomorrow and lunches for this week. I also took my first shot at a homemade protein bar. In order to ensure I eat right, I need to stay ahead of the game in the kitchen. The trick is to prep meals on the weekend and plan other meals that take little time to prepare.

Hope everyone has great things planned for 2009
Kevin

Starting off 2009 Strong

2009-01-03T17:12:00.000-08:00

So far things are starting off well for 2009. My official planned out training should start on Monday. I am trying to decide if I want to do all base until the 6 month IM training or do a modified sprint plan until may with long rides and runs on the weekend. I think I may do a mix of both. Right now I am reading the Triathlete's Training Bible and am getting alot out of it. My motto for this year is to train smarter, not harder.

Initially, I am going to stick to base training until I feel like my fitness is back where I need it to be for doing any sort of speed work. I plan on assessing my fitness about every 4-6 weeks. Initially, I need to do Lactate Threshold Tests for both running and Biking. I also need to do a 1000M TT in the pool. Once I am starting to see improvements, I will start to add some speed work back. My thought is I will try to pick up speed while I can, and then once Iron Training kicks into full gear, I will focus specifically on endurance.

I also want to try to get at least one strength workout and at least two of my 20 minute yoga sessions a week. In order to be successful, I need to be strong and I need to be flexible. I am planning to focus on specific weaknesses as far a strength and flexibility.

So far, my 2009 training is going well.

My running is a slow recovery. My legs are feeling good, but my breathing has been holding me back. I think it is a combination of things, but I have gone back on the strong Asthma meds that should get my breathing under control. My HR has also been a little higher then I would like.

I ran 2 miles on Monday.Took Tuesday off and then Swam 1800 on Wednesday. It was all drills 200s of swim,kick,pull with paddles, swim with paddles. Thursday, I ran again, but it was really tough. I nearly gave up after 2.25 miles, but after walking for about 7 minutes, I picked it up and finished my 3 miler. It was this point that I knew I needed to be back on the asthma meds in addition to my rescue inhaler I use before training. Friday, I got back into the pool. This was the first time since joining Lifetime Fitness that we actually had to share a lane. I definitely dislike the new years amateur season at the gym. At least it should only last a few months. I was planning on doing my 1000M TT, but that wouldnt be feasible with the narrow lanes.

With the weather being rainy and foggy, we decided to hit the gym for a spin class. This would be my first spin class at Lifetime, but I knew the instructor because se is a member of my Tri Club. I was thoroughly impressed with the class. Given my current fitness level, it was definitely challenging. I really like the fact that at lifetime, they use HR zones as the primary indicator of training intensity. Now, I just need to do my LT test so I have a better indicator of my Zones. Up tomorrow is a 3 or so mile run, likely on the dreadmill.

Looking back at 2008 and ahead to 2009

2008-12-31T19:50:00.000-08:00

Looking back, 2008 has been a most amazing year. I didnt really set any new PRs, but before my injury early on in the year I was easily on track to smash my 10K PR. This was unfortunately a year plagued with several injuries. I have learned alot about my body and how to feel out the aches and pains. I am hoping in 2009 to prevent injuries through core training, yoga, and trigger point treatment.

I am still nursing a little bit of remnant pain in the ankle I sprained, though it is not right at the spot where I sprained it. It is almost more foot then ankle. It really only bothers me when I am stretching it, otherwise I dont even feel it. My shoulder continues to act up. I have been working to treat the trigger points and it seems to be getting better.

Who would've thought almost a year to the date from my first ever triathlon I would be doing my first Half Iron! The training was long and the race was hard, but I made it through it. This year I completed my first olympic and my first Half Iron. I thoroughly enjoyed both races.

2009 is going to be a stellar year. After my half this year, I knew I wanted to do a full. Because I have one more semester of school, I was going to put it off to 2010. After our recent cruise, we decided we wanted to cruise again in 2010. That combined with some other possible plans for 2010 would make it tough to do a full iron that year. I knew that B2B was on my radar as a possibility for my first full. I had heard nothing but good things about it and I knew there were a whole bunch of bloggers doing either the half or full in 2009. After talking it through with Cathy, I decided to do the full IM this year. In the process, Cathy also decided she wanted to do the half IM. So we are both signed up for B2B 2009

I am really not setting any goals for 2009 at this point other then train smart, stay injury free, and race strong come B2B. With that I almost completely wiped out my 2009 schedule and have started over. I am keeping my 2 indoor tris and Callaway on the schedule. The 2 indoor tris are a great way to test my fitness. Depending how these next few months go of recovering the fitness I have lost since SC Half, I may seek to come top 3 in Clydesdale at Callaway. With the bike fitness I have picked up since then and riding the tri bike instead of the road bike, I should have a decent shot. I came in 12th out of 47 last year. I came out of the water first, but lost it on the bike. I was 17h on the bike. So it should be interesting this year.

Beyond that my schedule is open at this point. I have put a few centuries on my schedule, but those may change. I like the idea of doing my longest rides with BRAG support, but B2B is flat whereas most of the century rides are hilly. I may split my rides evenly between centuries and doing them on the comet. As I sit here writing this, I am thinking my earlier 100+ will be done with the century rides to build my endurance and do my later ones on the comet to simulate race day conditions.

I am keeping the option open to possibly do the S.C. Half Iron next year also. Because this race doesnt fill up until a few weeks before race day, and I doubt it will fill up given Augusta 70.3 is the same weekend, I dont have to decide till it is really close. After having such a disappointing ride, I wanted to redo it. When we had decided to go down to Miami in November that changed. Now that I am not doing Miami Man, it might just work out to do SC again this year. It would be nice to get my revenge on that course, but I will only do it if I truly feel it will not hamper my iron training.

Ironman is truly my focus for this year. There will of course be 5Ks and 10Ks here and there, and I think there is a mid-year half marathon I might do, but the absolute most important thing is going long. Depending how I feel post B2B, I might do a late winter marathon

The training plan I currently am planning on is 24 weeks. That means my true IM training starts some time in May. Between now and then, I will initially will focus on regaining my fitness. This means alot of base work with a little speed work mixed in here and there. For my running, it is all base work right now. My HR is way up there just at 6mph on the dreadmill. I need to rebuild my fitness and get my milage back up before I consider any speed work. Hopefully it will only take me a couple of months to be back to a decent level of fitness so I can develop a plan of attack for the shorter races before I begin my long endurance training for the full

I hope all of you had an amazing 2008 and wish you all a stellar 2009!!

This is not a test!!!

2008-12-30T17:06:00.001-08:00

Custom Countdowns & MySpace Layouts

Cruisin the Caribbean, Concluded

2008-12-29T18:16:00.000-08:00

Day 5-St Maarten
We didnt really have any specific plans for St Maarten. We didnt even set an alarm. I woke up as we were pulling into port. Once I had some breakfast and woke up fully, the ship had finished docking. I got dressed and headed up the deck to run loops on the track. Each loop was about .2 to .25 miles. It was definitely a run with a view

I did a total of three miles and took in the sights as I ran my loops

After showering, eating, and getting dressed, we headed off the boat. Through the cruise line shopping show, we had many coupons for freebies. We hit up as many as we could and then did a little shopping. Once we finished up shopping, we walked along the beach, heading towards the ship. We came across a decent looking place for lunch, Taloula Mango'sOnce again, we lucked out and the food was great. We also enjoyed a couple Caribe bears each.

Apparently its bar upstairs has an interesting name

There was also some excellent entertainment playing across the boardwalk. There was a local reggae band whose lead singer was very entertaining.

After lunch, we stopped at a little tiki bar and split a frozen drink. We headed back on the ship and took a nap before dinner. It was the second formal night, and we took additional formal pictures.

After dinner, we met up with our dinner table mates for the nightly trivia game. It was fun, and I think we came in about 3rd place or so

Day 6-At Sea
It was hard to believe that the next time we would be getting off the ship it would be back in Miami. While Cathy slept, I headed down to the gym for some decent training. I did a 60 minute self guided set on the spin bike followed by a 1 mile run on the dreadmill. I finished it up with a 20 minute yogamazing yoga session and some time in the sauna. I was starting to feel like some sort of cold was coming on and I was trying to fight off the congestion at this point.

After breakfast, we headed out the pool deck to watch the belly flop contest. Once again the cruise director made this extremely entertaining

That night we had dinner in their specialty Italian restaurant. It was absolutely worth the extra money. We came back to our towl monkey, shock

We then headed out for another game show. This time it was based on the Scene It? board/DVD game. It was a great time, and our team won. We each won a Royal Caribbean hat.

From there, we headed for the Quest Game Show Adult Scavenger Hunt. This was absolutely hilarious. They set up volunteers into teams of 2 men and two women. The first couple of tasks were easy things like the cruise compass (daily guide). Then, they got more interesting. The men had to come up to the cruise director in women's shoes.

Then the men had to come up wearing lipstick. Of course he never said it had to be on their lips, but all the men came up with it on their lips.

Then the women had to do perfect splits

After cracking up at the game show, we hung around for the 80's dance party which was pretty cool.

After that, we headed off to bed, heading into our last full day aboard

Day 7-Last Day at Sea
Day 7 was fairly uneventful. I did a 3 mile run on the deck. We did a few game shows. We had a couple of excellent margaritas with great take home glasses. Otherwise, we pretty much chilled out, hoping the last day would not end

We got off the ship the next morning. Cathy's parents picked us up and we headed back to their place. We packed up the rental cal and got back on the road towards home. 10.5 hours later and we were home.

We had the most amazing time during our 7 night cruise on Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the seas. There were so many things to do to stay busy. our only regret is that is was not longer. We are already looking towards 2010 for another cruise. We are definitely Royal Caribbean Cruisers for life.

Oh, and with that being said, stay tuned for possibly a MAJOR change to 2009's schedule. Nothing is set in stone yet, but those of you who are on Facebook know what I am thinking about

Cruising the Caribbean Continued

2008-12-27T08:01:00.000-08:00

DAY 2 - AT SEA
After getting to bed early on Day 1, we decided to get up early to do the spin class. It was 12$ per person, but it was not worth it.

I found the instructor to be uninformed on certain basic aspects of spinning. The set was badly set up and once he had people going side to side while standing, I knew something was up. I ended up doing my own thang for the 40 minute spin class and then jumped on the dreadmill for a Half Mile run. My new philosophy is that for all indoor rides/spin classes and many outdoor rides I will do a short 5 to 15 minute run off the bike. Even though this is the "off season", I think it is a good idea to keep your legs used to the act of running off the bike. What made the ride and the run especially challenging was that the ship was seriously rocking. During the run, I had to hold onto the dreadmill to keep from falling off it. I thought it was one of the toughest run I ever did.

After showering and having some breakfast, we headed to their "Port and Shopping Show". This gave us the info we needed on where to go at the various ports. Royal Caribbean has certain Trusted Sellers that they guarantee for 30 days. That night was the first formal night in the dining room and we had lots of great pictures taken. If I get a chance I will scan those photos.

What made Day 2 interesting was the waves and the wind. I was glad neither of us got sea sick, but many people did on the ship. It was often tough to walk a straight line. It was so bad that they had to close the pools, the rock wall, and the flowrider.

When we got back from dinner, we found our first of many towel animals.

DAY 3 - SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO
I got up that morning and headed to the gym for a 3 mile run. The seas were still rough, though not as bad. I have been taking a 1 min walk break after each mile. After I finished my run, I did the 20 minute yogamazing yoga for runners podcast to stretch out.

After that, we just chilled out till we got to San Juan. We were supposed to get in about 3PM, but we didnt get in till almost 6PM due to the rough seas. This meant that all the touristy things to do (shipping, forts, Bacardi tour) were shut down.

As we got close to the island, we went out to the heliport to take in the sights and take pictures. Since we wouldnt be able to tour the fort, at least I could take some pictures

When we got off the ship, it was 6:30 and it was already dark. We decided to find somewhere to eat. We walked a few blocks into Old San Juan. We came across Restaurante Raices. It had tables outside that were all full. We figured this had to be a good restaurant. We were not disappointed. The food was absolutely delicious. We both had the local specialty, Mofongo. It is a fried green plantain mashed with onions and mine had mahi mahi and Cathy's had shrimp. Cathy had a killer mojito and I had one of their local brews. We finished it off with the best flan eva.

We are already trying to find a local Puerto Rican restaurant here in Atlanta so we can have it again. This restaurant must also be the place that locals go to when it is their birthday. They had this whole singing and dancing routine they got the birthday people up for that was definitely entertaining. I only wish I knew what they were saying/singing. I found a video of it on the net

After dinner, we headed back to the ship. We decided to go to the spa and see if they have any free slots. Not only did they have open slots immediately, but they were running a special. Cathy got the seaweed wrap and massage and I got the hot stone and full body deep tissue massage. The massage bordered on torture, but it is definitely what I needed.

DAY 4 - ST THOMAS
When I woke up, we were pulling in close to the island. Because we didnt have to meet our tour until 9AM, we got some breakfast and took our time getting ready.

We were supposed to be touring with Sunny Liston Tours, but he overbooked and he had us go with Godfrey Tours instead. The tour was the same layout as the one we booked. We headed first into the main shopping area. We spent most of that time looking for a new engagement ring for Cathy. She wanted one that she could wear all the time. We found a really nice one for not too much. Once we were done shopping, we met back up with the tour guide to do the island tour. We stopped at the so-called "Famous Mountain Top"

It had a great vantage point of Magens Bay, one of the best beaches on the island.

It is also the home of the banana daiquiri. Cathy and I split one that had lots of rum. It was pretty good.

After that, we saw other sites around the island.

We saw Drakes Seat

Sapphire Beach

And a variety of other landmarks. We had the option of swimming at the beach, but chose not to because traffic on the island is a mess and we booked this tour on our own. We headed back into the port where there was more shopping. We hit up the local liquor shop to pick up a variety of libations to bring home for ourselves or as gifts. I found a new Fossil watch at a great price.

We sat down and had a bite to eat at a local eatery with an entertaining singer/guitarist. We had pretty good crabcake sandwiches and a bucket of my new favorite brew, Caribe.

After lunch, we headed back to the ship. We saw an interesting sight. Apparently Santa Claus was taking an early vacation on a Norwegian Cruise Line Ship.

When we got back to our cabin, we found our next towel animal

We were so tired after walking and splitting a bucket of Caribe that we crashed and missed dinner in the main dining room. After eating in the buffet, we saw a great magic show. I tried to take pictures, but because flash photography was prohibited, I couldnt get a good shot with the digital. Then, the battery on my camera died. Of course ths happened after the day where we could have gotten an extra battery cheap.

After the magic show, we stuck around for Win a Cruise Bingo. Obviously we didnt win. After bingo was one of the funniest things on the cruise. It was their version of the Newlywed Game called Love and Marriage. They found three couples, one newly wed, one married over 50, and one in between. We were cracking up the whole time. Our cruise director was a ham. He really made this show entertaining. What was great was that they replayed it all week on the tv. After all that, we hit up the midnight buffet.

Well that is enough for this post. I will finish up Days 5-7 in my next post

Cruising the Caribbean (Part 1 of ?)

2008-12-24T19:04:00.000-08:00

We had the most amazing time on our 7 night cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. We were on Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas, one of the world's largest cruise ships. It was a much needed vacation and an 8-year overdue honeymoon. When we were married the only honeymoon we had was 2 nights at a hotel on the beach in Ft Lauderdale.

We packed all our bags on the night of the 11th. We were off of work starting on Friday the 12th. That morning, we dropped the dogs off to be boarded at the vet and picked up the rental car. We ended up with a dodge caliber. Not the best car for packing 4 suitcases though the cabin was roomy. We then proceeded on our 10-11 hour drive to Cathy's parents house in Davie,Florida. We arrived at their house about 9PM and unpacked the car.

Saturday was spent seeing family. We spent the morning with my mom,brother, and nephew. We had dinner with Cathy's family and then it was off to bed.

Day 1-Setting Sail (12/14/2008)

Sunday morning, we got up, packed up Cathy's dad's car and headed down to the port of Miami. They dropped us off about 11:30 AM. While all the paperwork says boarding starts officially at 2PM, I had been informed by several cruising regulars that you can usually board around 11AM. We dropped off our checked luggage and made it through security fairly quickly.We were inside the terminal at 11:30. We were informed, however, due to an increased number of people on the previous sailing who came down with a GI bug that we would not be able to board until 1PM. We found a "cozy" spot on the wall and sat down and chilled out. We lucked out and was able to board around 12:30

Once we boarded the ship, we were getting hungry and we knew our rooms were supposed to be ready about 4PM. We headed over to the self serve buffet known as Windjammers. We grabbed a bite to eat and relaxed for about an hour.

We walked around the ship for awhile and took lots of pictures. The cruise ship was all decked out for Christmas which made things feel extra special

We took a tour of the spa and checked out the gym, the pool deck, the rock wall, and the flow rider

We toured the spa and Cathy got to try out some sort of hydro therapy thing that was like a heated water bed that vibrated

We were finally able to get in our room just before 4PM. We had a balcony suite with a really comfortable queen sized bed. We checked out the chocolate-covered strawberries,flowers, and champagne that came as part of the romance package I ordered for our cruise.

At 4PM, we did the mandatory sit around in your life jacket assembly drill. We lucked out that our meeting spot was inside one of the restaurants so we got to sit in the A/C while others stood outside. After sitting around for like 15 minutes twiddling our thumbs were were allowed to leave

Sail away was 4:30. We tried to find the elusive helicopter deck that is not well known. I mistakenly thought that it was on deck 8. After googling it on my cell phone, I found out it was actually on deck 5. We rushed down to deck 5 and it was definitely worth it. There were very few people here and the view was so much better.

As we were waiting there, some idiot in a speedboat decided to fly by our ship in a no wake zone. What he didnt know was that a coast guard ship was waiting to escort us out. Next thing you know, the coast guard boat chased him down with lights and sirens. I dont know if he got a ticket or a warning, but he was quickly able to proceed on.

We headed out as the sun was going down. Shortly we were out of the channel and out to sea

After sailaway, we headed back to our room. Only Cathy's luggage had come so far. We found out from our stateroom attendant, George, that it would be ok to go to the main dining room in shorts the first night. We had dinner and met our table mates.

After dinner, we came back to the room and crashed. We were completely worn out after two very long days.

I will end this post here as there are lots of pictures, lots more pictures to post, and lots more to tell. Coming Up

Day 2-At Sea (a very rough sea at that)
Day 3-San Juan P.R. (an amazing dinner)
Day 4-St Thomas (Tour,Shopping,bucket of beer, magic show)
Day 5-St Maarten (Shopping and more beer)
Day 6-At Sea (Trivia, Belly Flops,Game Show, 80s music)
Day 7-Last Day at sea

An Early Christmas Presen

2008-12-07T18:55:00.000-08:00

I received an early Christmas present on Friday. I dont know how many of you read the Everyman Tri blog or listen to the Everyman Endurance podcast. Both are excellent resources for information on the latest news in triathlon and endurance sports. They are the creation of Roman Mica, who also is the creator of theB-Fit B-Day Challenge

In return for adding the widget to my sidebar with the latest news from Everyman Tri, I was entered into a drawing on Friday for a free Rudy Project TT Helmet

I checked back on Friday and lo and behold, I won!! I can wait to put it to use in 2009. Once I get it in I will post some pictures and then when I do my TT in February I will definitely post a review. It's funny I havent won many things in my life, but I have three times now won something from blogging.

My training is coming along ok. I swam on Friday for a total of 1000 yards (250 swim/pull/kick/swim). I had a little shoulder pain, but I have been able to work it out with trigger point massage.

Today I did 45 minutes base building in the bike. For most of the ride, I kept a low cadence with a high resistance and tried to keep my HR in Z1 or low Z2. I about a month, I plan to do some threshold self testing so I can get a good idea of my Lactate Threshold HR. Part of my plan for training smarter this year is to train by HR.

I have been using my stick to roll out some knots in my calves. I think this has been the cause of my achilles issues. I have gotten the green light on the trigger point kit. With this I can complete my self-torture(injury prevention) kit. I was reading about a triathlete training for Ironman who was having the exact two issues I have been having and working out the trigger points helped him finally be pain free. I have had some luck with the foam roller(which cant seem to keep its shape),tennis ball,and the stick, but this TP kit should be the best thing to help work out all the pain.

Now that this semester is over and training is starting to build back in, I hope to post more often and try to stay caught up with all your blogs. Well I am off to torture myself some more with that darn stick

Quick update

2008-12-04T18:57:00.000-08:00

Not much going on here. I am finishing up the semester of school this week and it has kept me really busy. One presentation on Saturday and I am done with this Semester. Only one more to go!!

I have not been on the bike at all since my Half Iron. Last weekend, I finally got around to fixing her up. I replaced the base bar I bent the night before the half and added some new red camo tape to it. I also swapped out the headset back to the more aggressive manufacturers one. I knew I have wanted to be in a more aggressive position. I rode on it quickly while I was setting it up and it feels ok. I still may need to take it back into the shop for my free refit.

My weight training is going ok. It would be better if I can get more consistent. Once I get back from the cruise we are going on soon, I will be back to training consistently. I plan on taking the strength band with me on the cruise, and I know the cruise ship has a gym as well. Sunday we did a fitness pilates class at the gym and it was brutal. I was sore in odd places. My abs hurt for days. I definitely plan on going back. It fits right into my plan for training smarter in 2009. A little bit of core help will go along way come 70.3 time.

My sprained ankle is like 90 percent healed. It only hurts occasionally when I bend it the wrong way. My achilles tendonitis is under control and I think I may be close to the root cause. I still get a little bit of popping when I flex it, but otherwise it is good. I ran today for the first time in about a month. It felt pretty good. No pain, but I was out of breath and my HR was way too high for 6 mph. I did a total of 3 miles as a run walk in about 35 minutes.

I have swam several times in the past week.On Thursday, I did a swim test. I did 300 warmup and then 3*300 with 2 minute rest followed by a 300 cool down. My average for the 3*300 was 1:52 which is seriously slow. I did a 2500 yard swim set on Saturday. By Monday my shoulder was achy. It is fine now.

With the shoulder and achilles, I really believe these are issues with tight muscles. I have been reading alot about trigger points and have been working through them. I have even dropped a hint to santa that I would like the Trigger point set for Christmas. I think that set would work better for me then the tennis ball

I have about 2 months before my official 70.3 training starts. My goal for these next two months is to build back a base and build back some speed while staying injury free. Then I start my 70.3 training in mid-February. I am using the minimalist training plan that was in Triathlete magazine last month. Since I will be taking 4 classes, I just dont think I will have the time to do 2-a-days all week. I may add some additional training in as I see fit, but for the most part I will stick to it. For Miami Man I plan on training hard and training often. My training starts just before the end of spring semester. Once I am done with school, I will be able to really train hard.

A New Day, A new look for my blog

2008-11-23T17:27:00.000-08:00

I have spent the last few days working on updating and rearranging my blog. I dug through the HTML and CSS code and read what I could find on the net. I think I have the layout I like at this point. Based on how I have reworked the code, it will be really easy for me to change the colors,fonts,and backgrounds of my blog to go with the seasons or whatever may be going on at the time. Blogger seems to work well, once you figure out the basics of how it reinterprets the HTML code. The best part is that even with all my changes, I still can use the layout and font color tools to make most my changes going forward.

The banner picture is from the South Carolina Half Iron. I don't know If I am in it or not, but I just thought it looked good. With how I have set it up, it shouldn't be too hard to change the pictures now. I found the quote the other day when I was flipping through Triathlete Magazine and thought it was perfect.

I am really glad we decided to leave LA Fitness to join Lifetime Fitness. The club is so much nicer and cleaner. There are so many options as far as group fitness classes, including several yoga classes. I am looking forward to trying out the rock wall. Today we went in for a free fitness test. This test consists of weight, body fat via calipers, bicep strength, hamstring flexibility, and an estimated VO2 Max. The best thing is that I can go back and be retested as often as I want. I am thinking about once a month to see how I am progressing.

My results were mixed. My weight today is 252. That is about 10 pounds heavier then I was at the SC 1/2. These last 2 months of little to no activity has really done a job on me. My body fat, based on the calipers is estimated to be about 20.8 %. That is close to what my scale at home has me at. It varies around 20-22% depending on time of day. Based on that, I currently have 200 pounds of lean body mass and 52.4 pounds of fat. When she went over the numbers, I realized how well I have been doing, even with the extra 10 pounds. My BF% of 20.8 is just above the optimal range that ends at 19%. Based on her recommendations, my ideal BF% should be around 13%. This means I only need to lose about 25-30 pounds. This would put my goal weight around 220-225. This is higher then I expected. I really thought my ideal weight would have been around or even under 200. That explains why I could never get below 220. I guess I will always be a clydesdale, which isnt necessarily a bad thing.

My biceps strength measured 86lbs which is in the high end of average. 88-100 is good and >100 is excellent. My sit and reach measured 9.4 inches. This is in the poor range. This was a sit and reach test done without any sort of workout. Average is around 13.6-15. My Estimated VO2 Max is 36.7 ml.kg min. According to the trainer, this number tends to read lower then ones true VO2 max. Even if this number isn't right, it should be consistent from test to test in order to give me an indication of process.

It gave me an overall fitness level of 40%. 41% is average and 61% is good. The computer then calculates an overall body age. Mine read out 35 (I am 31). It tells me with work, I can get that down to 22.

Overall, my results were a mixed bag. I definitely have much room for improvement. The VO2 max will go up once my training begins to be consistent again. I am going to work to get my diet back to where it needs to be. That may be a little tough for the next few weeks, especially given that we are headed on a 7 night cruise in 3 weeks. It would be nice if I could drop a few pounds before them.

Strength training is going well. I did 2 days last week. I realized that 5 days a week isnt feasible right now. Plus, I am hoping to at least get back in the pool I am going to incorporate core into my strength training. Many of the moves in the swim plan also work core. After our fit test. We hopped in the pool for a quick swim. I did about 1250 total. It felt pretty good, but I will see how it feels by tomorrow. Up tomorrow is strength training and week 1 of the 100 pushup program. I started it last week, but only got to do the test and W1D1. So I figured I might as well start week 1 ant the beginning of a week.

My schedule is also starting to come together. It looks like the ING Marathon and the indoor tri are on the same day. I am planning to do the indoor tri's (2 this year) as an all out fitness test. My two 70.3's are going to be RnR Macon and Miami Man. This gives me enough time to recover from RnR before I start training for Miami Man. Plus Miami is flat, and we have family there.

Overall I am feeling good. The little bit of running I did for the VO2 test didnt bother my ankle or my achilles, though I still can feel some rubbing on my achilles. My shoulder feels good so far. I really think strength training is going to be the thing that keeps me from injuring myself.

Ouch. I've never been sore there before

2008-11-19T02:45:00.001-08:00

Wow. I was surprised when I didnt have any soreness yesterday after Monday's strength training. Right afterwards on Monday I was a little sore,but that was gone when I awoke Tuesday morning. It had been so long since I did any strength training I forgot it takes about a day and a half for the soreness to rear its ugly head.

I woke up this morning and was like ouch and it took me a little longer to get out of bed. I am sore in areas I have never been sore. Definitely worked well.

Last night was supposed to be abs, but I didnt have a chance because we went to LifetTime Fitness and decided that we will be switching over from LA Fitness. It is a little bit more a month, but they have so many great features. The best part is that they have cycling and running clubs with group rides/runs several times a week.

Tonight will be my second strength training session. I will be using the Strength Training for Cycling article from NSCA.

Tonight's workout brought to you by the internet

2008-11-17T19:56:00.000-08:00

Tonight was my first night of strength training. After researching through various books and articles, I have begun to hammer out my training plan for the next few months. I plan on trying to do strength training 5-6 days a week and including yoga/stretching/foam rolling as many of those days as possible

Tonight's workout came almost exclusively from the internet. It kicked my butt tonight.

I started out with the initial test for the 100 Pushup challenge from http://hundredpushups.com/. I was able to hammer out 10 perfect pushups which was the same amount I was able to do the last time I tried to start out on this.

Then, I moved on to "Functional Training for Swimming" found in Vol 2 Issue #4 (pp 14-20)of NSCA Performance Training Journal which can be found at http://www.nsca-lift.org/Perform/backissues.asp. This one really kicked my butt. It was a total body workout that used only an elastic training band and a 8lb medicine ball. My plan is to do this one twice and do "Resistance Training for Cyclists" found in Vol 1 #5. I may add other exercises here and there. In Vol 7, #2 there is an article titled Training Tips to Help Triathletes Reduce Overuse Injuries. I may add some of the exercises in from this one.

Then, two or three days a week, when I am not doing the other weight/resistance training, I will be doing core work. I havent decided 100% which plan I will use. I am deciding between a plan from NSCA PTJ and one found at http://www.d3multisport.com/articles.php I am leaning to the D3 one since it seems to be more comprehensive and includes exercises both on and off the ball.

I also did some stability training on my Wobble Board

Once I finished my strength training, it was time to wind down with some Yoga. I found a great video podcast, YOGAmazing which can be found on ITunes or at http://yogamazing.com/. Tonight I did the Yoga for Triathletes program that was about 20-25 minutes long. It wasnt to technical a program, though I did struggle through a couple of poses. They also have episodes for runners, cyclist, leg, back, neck/shoulder, etc. Definitely a great resource and you can take it with you on your video Ipod.

Once I showered, I recovered with a big glass of Chocolate Soy milk. Cathy and I have been phasing out the meat, and now most dairy and going to a more vegetarian diet. The more we read about the health benefits and all the lowsy chemicals in our food, the more we are being extra careful about what we eat. I dont miss the meat at all. I have found so many great ways to cook tofu and a variety of veggie goods. I really enjoy cooking. If it wasnt so costly in both time and money, I might have even considered opening up my own restaurant.

Well I should probably get off to bed now. For those of you who have offered advice re: fitting. If I dont get positive results going back to Roswell Bikes where I bought the bike (and get free fittings). I will definitely go to Curtis. I didnt want to take the bike in until I had replaced the base bar I bent in SC, but I didnt have a chance to do that yet. No sense gitting fitted and having to realign the aeor bars once I put them on the new base bar.The fitting I got at Roswell was very thorough. They even swapped out the stem to one with a different angle to get the right fit. Part of the problem is that as my knees come towards my chest, they naturally flare out to the side. I cannot keep my knees together and bring them to my chest. I dont know if it is a tightness, or if that is how my hips were formed. Oh well. So hopefully they can get me dialed in to a slightly more aggressive position as well.

Falling Apart and Tweaking Next Year's plans

2008-11-16T19:05:00.000-08:00

While I am not actually falling apart, I sure feel like it.

I saw the doctor on Thursday. My sprain is healing well. It should be fully healed within a month. However, as I suspected, I have achilles tendonitis in my other leg. I suspect this is partly due to my bike fit. I didnt have a chance to get in to get re-fitted, so I may try some slight adjustments until I can get into the shop. I wont even attempt to get back on, however, until the pain is gone. he also diagnosed my shoulder pain as bursitis.

Both of these injuries were brought on over time. He suspects with the right precautions I should be 100% within a month. The important thing, and what I am going to focus on for the next month is strength training. Based on his recommendations and several articles and books I have read, these injuries tend to be caused by (other then overtraining) muscular imbalances and/or a weak core.

I am going to use a combination of information from several sources to devise my routine. In the last issue of Inside Tri, there was a good general strength/core training article. I also found several really good articles with specific weight/strength training for swimming, biking, and core. They can be found Here. I have found lots of good information and training tips reading those NSCA Performance Training journals. The swim specific stuff addresses my symptoms specifically and how important strength training is to prevent these injuries in the future.

My focus will be mostly stability ball exercises using an exercise ball as well as a medicine ball. I do have a set of free weights, but I doubt I will use them too much. I will also resume the pushup challenge once my shoulder pain is gone.

I am going to take the next month really easy as far as training. I may start running again in the next couple of weeks. The doc kept telling me I could keep training as long as I worked to prevent these problems in the future. The only real restriction he put on me was to stay on even surfaces when running. Until I feel 100%, I will definitely stick to the dreadmill. I wont get back on the bike until my achilles feels good, and I am not sure about swimming. I have to be as close to 100% as possible in 4 weeks because Cathy and I are taking a cruise and I want to be able to enjoy it all without any aches or pains.

As far as next season, I have begun to make some adjustments. My plans still aren't 100%.

1.I will definitely be doing the Chattahoochee Road Runner 10K on March 7th. This is a super fast almost all downhill 10K. Definitely a PR making race

2.As far as ING, the marathon is off. I may still do the half, but I am not certain

3.If there is another Lifetime Fitness indoor tri, I will definitely do that that is somewhere around april.

4.On Memorial Day, I will most likely do the Celebrate America 5/10K - though this may depend on #5

5.Rock n Roll Half Iron - Macon GA. Since I will not be able to build up to the marathon in March (ING), I thought it might be a good idea to do a spring half iron instead. This one is less then 2 hours away, so I could drive down on race day if I had to. This is why I am in no rush to get back to training right away. I need to sit down and plan out the calendar, but 20 weeks of training should start right around January 1. Plus, I want to try out the Half Iron training plan in this month's Triathlete mag. It is designed for those with limited time. The only day that doubles up is one day during the weekend and it rotates which two sports. Since this will be right during my last quarter of School, two-a-days may be a little rough. Plus, it looks like Steph and Doug will be doing this one as well.

6.June 21- Callaway Sprint- I did this one last year and it was Cathy's first tri. It is a super speedy, really short course. I came out of the water in first place in the clydesdales and lost it all on the bike. I am really looking to go out there and go out strong on the swim and hold it up on the bike now that I have the tri bike and am much stronger on the bike.

7.July 4- Peachtree RR - What got me into running, worlds largest 10K. Nuff said

8.July 12? - Chattanooga Olympic - I really enjoyed this race as my first olympic-distance. I want to see how much better I can do this year with a tri bike and a stronger core. The bike course is hilly, but at the SC 1/2 I felt really good on the bike.

From here my schedule gets a little dicey depending on which way I decide to go

Part of me wants revenge on the S/C 1/2 IM course. But I'd also like to try a new one. I am seriously considering Miami Man (November 8th) for several reasons. We could travel home and see family. The race is totally flat. Plus, you get to run through the Miami Metro Zoo. Plus, there is an International Distance race, so Cathy might be interested in doing that one. Also, this would allow me to start my Half training a little later and give me more time to recover from the RnR Half. The only bad thing about this date is that it is the day after IMFL 2009. As of right now, I am gung-ho about IMFL 2010. This year, the registration didnt fill until the Tuesday morning after. I may just have to have someone else sign me (and hopefully Cathy?) up by then.

Assuming I do Miami Man, the silver comet half marathon will likely be out since it will be the week before the 70.3. This also eliminates most fall marathons. I would be looking at early spring for my first marathon. Most likely I would shoot for 2 in the spring, one early one late and then it would be all IM training.

I also need to try and fit in a century ride or two this year. I know the Beautiful Backroads Century in Late September is always a good one

I froze my fingers off this morning doing my sherpa duties as Cathy ran another 5K. While I was waiting, I met Danielle who was riding the course doing medical support and Tat who was doing the half.Cathy set a new PR which is especially great considering, like me, her training has been hit or miss for awhile. The good thing is, with me coming back from injury, I can train with her and start helping her build the necessary strength and endurance.

Whole lotta nothing

2008-11-08T17:16:00.000-08:00

I am still here, still alive. My ankle is doing pretty good. I am itching to go for a short run. I have no pain walking, only some tenderness when I put pressure on the side of my foot.I may try a short run tomorrow.

I was on the bike on the trainer last weekend for the first time since the SC 70.3. I need to get re-fitted because my right knee flails out and it feels almost like my achilles rubs. I will be back on the trainer tomorrow. I have two days off later this week so I will try to get in to get my fitting done then.

I just wanted to give you guys a quick update. I am hoping to get back to regular training this week.

Status Update

2008-10-28T19:28:00.000-07:00

Thanks guys for all the kind words.

I saw the ortho doc on Wednesday. He confirmed I had a sprain and that it was a partial tear. He sounded very optimisitic. When Cathy mentioned Saturday's half marathon, the doctor said something like isnt their another half on thanksgiving. He expects me to be fully healed in 6 weeks. I have been on crutches for a week, and today I transitioned off them. As much as they were working my arms and core, they were just to darn annoying. My foot does not hurt when I put weight on it. He also gave me an "air cast" ankle brace as well as an exercise rubber band with instructions.

I have done some research and have read several articles. I have a rehab plan put together that includes the rubber band, as well as my wobble board. From what I read, as long as you can bear weight on it without pain, you need to start rehab asap. If you wait too long, your ankle will heal weaker then before. I am also getting the "laser" treatment at the chiro to help the healing.

My ankle does not hurt when I put weight on it. I have a small amount of pain if I put pressure on the outside of the foot, but otherwise it is good.

I want to get in the pool, maybe as early as tomorrow. By this weekend I plan on getting on the bike, on the trainer with low resistance.

I see the doctor in two more weeks. I am hoping to be able to start running after I see him.

I have been trying to plan out 2009

Here is what I have been looking at

2/14 Run the Reagan Half
3/7 Chattahoochee RR 10K
3/29 ING Full
6/21 Callaway Gardens Sprint
7/4 Peachtree RR 10K
7/? Chattanooga Oly
9/27? SC Half IM--Vengence will be mine
10/? Silver Comet Half
11/ Chickamagua Full
11/ Atlanta Half

There are a few possibilities, though unlikely depending how recovery goes and school goes

2/22 A1A Half/Full Marathon--Depends on the financials, the half would be more likely and would be instead of the Reagan

3/7 Snickers Albany marathon --Flat, but would have to do a 16 week plan over the 18, or could do it as a training run for ING

5/30 Rock n Roll Half IM-- I really should try to do 2 halfs next year, but with school and everything, this may not be possible. I would have to start training for this first week of january. This would mean training first through alot of cold weather for a stinking hot race

6/14 Westpoint oly - not likely only because callaway is a race for both cathy and I and is the next week

I also need to fit in several century rides in prep for IM 2010. I am leaning towards IMFL

There is always a very slight, though highly unlikely chance I may do the B2B full or the Great Floridian. I would have to start training around mayish, though I could probably bounce off my half training for the South Carolina half. Again, this is highly unlikely. I would have to be in tip top shape before then. Otherwise, I will wait as planned and go down to IMFL 09 to sign up for 2010

#$!&%---My trip to the ER

2008-10-21T19:48:00.000-07:00

Well so much for all my plans.

I had a 10 miler on tap for Saturday. At 2 miles in I new I was going to have to turn back to my car because my achilles was acting up. I got back to my car, stretched a little and decided to put on the new pair of sneakers I got for free that I had been contemplating running in or not. These were double-e's whereas the ones I was running in were Quad-E's. So my 10 miler turned into a 3 miler which turned into a 5 miler.

I headed out tonight in my new shoes, I was feeling great, no Achilles pain whatsoever. 2.5 Miles in an BAM!! I roll my ankle and fall onto my knee. I immediately thought my ankle was broken. I got dizzy and nauseous. I immediately limped to the curb and called Cathy to come pick me up. Luckily, I was just in da hood. So we drove home so I could dry off and throw some different clothes on. I was still a little nauseous.

If I hadnt thought it was broken, I would have probably just gotten it xrayed at work. So we headed off to the ER. They took some X-ray's. It wasnt fractures. Oddly enough, there was evidence of a tiny fracture that didnt heal properly. Dont know where that came from. So they splinted it and handed me a script for some strong pain meds. I had to go by the CVS to pick them up and some crutches. I cant really put any wait on my foot except a small part of my heel.

I am going to try and get an appointment with an ortho tomorrow and I already have a schedule appointment with my chiro on Friday. I am hoping my chiro will be able to help the healing along, especially with her laser.

Well my bad luck may be anothers good luck. I remembered I had seen someone on BT looking for a race number for Saturdays half marathon, so I sent them a message. Hopefully, I can sell it to him (for close to what I paid), since the race is sold out.

I dont know how long this will take to heal, but I guess on the bright side, it will give my achilles time to fully recover. If I see a regular ortho (versus a foot and ankle one) I am going to have them check out my shoulder. Hopefully, I can at least get back in the pool, and soon maybe even get on the bike on the trainer.

Quick Update

2008-10-16T18:27:00.000-07:00

Not much new going on here. I have run several times, but have not been back on the bike or in the pool since South Carolina. I plan on getting back on the bike on Sunday, but wont get back into the pool until my shoulder is pain-free.

My running has been going better then expected. It has been slow, but I keep having to tell myself it hasnt even been three weeks yet. Tuesday was the first time I felt like some of my speed was coming back while keeping my heart rate down. I did a long slow, but pain-free, 8 on the dreadmill on sunday. I would walk a minute or two every half mile, because it seemed like I couldnt keep my HR under 170.

Tuesday, my legs felt great and I was actually able to keep it mostly under 170. Saturday I plan on running 10 miles. Next Saturday is the Silver Comet half. I really dont know what to expect yet. Last year this one was my first half. I finished in 2:13, but would have finished much faster if my hamstrings werent so darn tight.

If I am feeling good, I think I can easily PR and possibly even break 2 hours

If that goes well, and I still feel strong, I plan on attempting the Thanksgiving Marathon. I have a plan mapped out. I wont sign up until the very last possible minute to avoid losing any money or feeling like I have to run it.

My chiro has been doing amazing things for me. I told her my achilles had been bothering me since the SC 70.3 and she used this cold "laser" on my achilles on saturday and it didnt bother me at all until after yesterday's run and it only hurt a tiny bit. I have been icing it and she used the "laser" on it again last night. She has even been helping my super tight hips. I have an appointment scheduled for Friday so I can get an adjustment and "laser" treatment right before the half marathon.

I must go now so I can torture myself on the foam roller.

Recovering well after SC Half

2008-10-04T19:09:00.000-07:00

I am feeling much better no a week out from the SC Half. This morning I went to see a Chiropractor who is a member of our tri club and spoke at Thursday's club meeting. She did about an hour long exam and was nice enough to do an adjustment today, which she doesnt often do on the first visit. I am happy to say I am pain free right now. I will be back to see her next week. By then she will have been better able to analyze my tests and x-rays and have a more detailed treatment plan. I am hopeful this will produce amazing results.

Since the Half IM, I have swam once and run twice.

On Wednesday, I got into the pool for an easy 1000M swim. Overall it was good. My shoulder was sore and afterwards my back hurt.

Thursday, I met up with some folks from the tri club. Before the monthly meeting, there is always a group run (and usually a ride too except during the winter). My plan was to just see how I felt. I was really aware of what my HR was. My legs and back felt good, but my HR stayed high for the effort level. Any time my HR got over 170 I stopped and walked. I also walked the hills. The goal was to get out and loosen my legs out, but not to overdo it. I did 4.5 miles in 47:57 (10:39/mi) that is really slow for me, but necessary to fully recover.

This afternoon, I hopped on our new dreadmill to run while watching the UM-FSU game. Last week we got a good deal on an 08 model they were closing out. It has a built-in lcd video screen and lots of built in programs. Looks like I will be learning to love the dreadmill this winter. My only pet peeve about it is that it only shows mph and not min/mi. For now I will print out a chart, but I plan on getting the foot pod for my garmin so I can also upload my data to be able to analyze it. Overall, my run was alright. My legs/back felt great. Unfortunately, I did not eat like someone who was planning an afternoon run and I paid for it. also, I realized I cannot handle the fizziness of nuun on the dreadmill. The bouncing and the fizzies do not mix well. I may just need to mix it and leave the bottle open for awhile to let it fizzle out. My stomach was really gurgling throughout the urn which made me slow down and stop at times. My HR was staying down a little better then Thursday's run. I think I am recovering well, but wont push the pace too much until next week. I did 6 miles at a snails pace of 1:04:45 (10:47/mi).

Tomorrow I'll be on the trainer for an easy ride. Depending on my back, I will do somewhere between one to two hours.

This afternoon I signed up for the silver comet half marathon. This was my first half last year and I am hoping for a decent improvement over last years 2:13. Based on how my legs feel and the lack of pain, I should have a decent race. I am going to figure out what pace I would like to run it in and stick to that pace. I am thinking I may shoot for right around a 9 min mile which should be doable, since the course is flat, if I stick to that pace and not go out too fast.

The week after the Silver Comet Half Marathon, there is a 15 mile race at Stone Mountain. This will be a good hilly race to test my tired legs.

If that goes well, I have a plan put together to reach the atlanta full marathon on thanksgiving. My longest run will only be 18, but it should get me to the finish line. The only downside to this race is that the last 10K is all uphill.

Once I am fully recovered, I am going to do some HR/Threshold self testing. Next season, I really plan on actively integrating my HR into training levels. If I am going to get faster, I need to be smart about my training and focus on the proper levels of training intensity.

I also plan on adding some serious core training to my schedule. That combined with my chiropractic care should help to keep me injury free.

Race Report - South Carolina Half

2008-09-29T15:18:00.000-07:00

Thank you for all your words of encouragement before and after the race. The triathlon community is so supportive. There were so many fellow racers out there giving words of encouragement along the course and all I can say is wow about my tri club. They are amazing and are a great support.

There were several things that almost sidelined me before the race even started. After I cleaned up my bike on Friday, I decided to practice mounting and dismounting the bike with the shoes clipped in. Well, when trying to mount the bike one time, I missed, stubbed my toe, and took a good chunk of skin off my second toe. It still kinda hurts. Then, on Saturday night, after unpacking the car and putting the wheels on the bike, I decided to ride around the parking lot to make sure there was no rubbing or clicking, and to ensure that it shifted smoothly. At some point a car was backing out and didnt see me, I made an immediate U-Turn, but mis-judged how much clearance I had from the curb. I was able to get my left leg out, but the bike went down to the side, and somehow I went up and over the bike, but landed on my feet. I was fine, but unfortunately, my bike had a little damage. It is still rideable, but the base bar is bent on the left side. I knew it wouldnt slow me down, but I couldnt seem to get it out of my head.

Backing up a little, the ride in was booring and felt long, but uneventful. Before we left at about 11:30AM on Saturday, I stopped into the LBS and picked up a couple of extra tubes and one of those plastic thingies they put in the fork when the ship it to protect the fork since I was taking the front wheel off to fit it in the car. It took us about 3.5 hours or so to make it to the hotel in Greenwood, SC. We were able to fill up the car when we got off I-85 since we still have problem with finding gas in Atlanta.We unpacked some of our stuff and then headed to packet pickup. After getting my packet, we ran into Wes and his Wife Dee Dee and their youngest son Matthew. We listened to the race announcements and then walked to the swim start and over to transition. After making a few stops looking for some things we forgot, it was time to meet up with the tri club for dinner at an italian restaurant right next door to the hotel. Dinner was alright, not the greatest, and I thought the service wasnt much better either, but it did the job.

When we got back is when I took my spill in the parking lot. I went in, checked out the damage and then spent about 30 minutes stretching, using the foam roller as well as the stick.

I awoke at 4AM, took a shower and had a PBJ sandwich, a banana, and a bottle of gatorade. We left the hotel at 5:30 AM after packing the car and checking out. On the way over I drank about half a bottle of water. When we pulled in, around 6AM, we were two cars down from Steph, her husband Doug, and Nat. Walking everything to transition, we ran into Wes and Dee Dee. Once I set everything up, Cathy told me that Wes was going down by the finish to get in the water. I headed down and got my wetsuit on a took a quick swim. The water was 73 degrees. It felt just right.

After checking our transition set up one last time, we all headed down to the swim start. There we ran into Steph, Doug, and Nat. While waiting for my heat, Chris found me and we talked for a while. When it was time for out heat, we made it down the stairs and into the water. We had two minutes until the swim start.

Swim-37:11

Overall, I would say my swim went okay. I tried to keep an even effort throughout. While my overall sighting was good and I stayed on course, I think the course I chose was too far out. I tend to stay on the outside so I dont have to avoid too many people. As a clydesdale, we usually go off towards the end. As a fast swimmer, this means passing a whole bunch of people. I felt like the course layout was a little akward. I sighted to each of the turn buoys. While I was right on with those, I was quite far off the other bouys. It may be me, or it may just be how it was laid out. I also heard that the course is known to be long and this year some felt it was excessively long. I did have to stop once about halfway through to fix my goggles, and I did get a cramp in one calf as I was making the final push back into shore. Overall I was okay with my time, but I thought it should have been faster given my effort. Also, with all my shoulder problems my training had been off. At least I wasnt to far off my 35 minute goal

T1-2:23
Not too bad. My wetsuit came off without a problem. I had a slight bit of trouble getting my shoes on because I was a little unsteady. I walked my bike out of transition and did just a safe easy mount. Overall, not too bad given that I was not hurrying through transition.

Bike - 3:00:25 (18.6 mph)
I was really surprised how well I did on the bike. My stated goal was 3:15, but I was really hoping to finish around 3 or below. I took the first 5 miles or so easy. I wanted to gradually build my pace up and I knew there was one bad hill about mile 10 and the rest would be rollers and slower, but not too difficult climbs. I tried to keep my average speed around 19 mph while keeping my hr down under 170. The first two hours came in almost right at 19 mph. I was really surprised how many people I was passing on the uphill, which is so unlike me. I usually end up passing people on the downhill who then pass me on the uphill.

In the last hour, I began having two issues: my right achilles began acting up, which didnt really surprise me, but the big problem was my back. The roads we rode on were in poor condition. I believe all that jarring may have caused my back pain, because in all my long rides, I never really have had any back problems on my new bike. It could also be something about the swim. The only way to find out would to be do some swim-bike bricks. Ultimately, I need to do core work to prevent this from happening next time.

T2 - 2:32
I came to a full stop and got off my bike, shoes on, rather then doing any sort of flying dismount. I got to my transition spot and changed my shoes and put on my race number belt and fuel belt. I tried to quickly bend over and stretch. I headed out but almost immediately knew something was wrong.

Run - 2:57:05 (13:31/mi)
My back problems from the bike messed up all chances of a good run. As I was heading out, I had to stop several times and try to stretch it out. I tried to run, but the back pain was just too bad. Every time I would run into someone I knew, or someone I didnt know gave me words of encouragement I would start running, or pick up speed. When I was able to run, my legs were feeling great and my pace was somewhere around 9:30 - 10:30/mile. I wasnt able to run much. By a few miles in, I could barely bend at all at the waist and I was afraid if I tried, my back would lick up. As I had made the loop back and was heading back towards the end of the first loop, I found out they had ibuprofen, so I went ahead and took 3. It took a mile or so, but once that kicked in, I felt better and was able to run more. Once it was kicking in, on my way back in on the first loop, I ran in to Doug. I ran for about a half a mile with him somewhere about a 9 min mile or so and I actually felt good. The only thing was I knew I couldnt keep it up. I did tell Doug that the only way I was going to DNF was if my back locked up. as I was coming in to the turnaround I came upon my tri club and they were cheering like madmen. It was so encouraging. I had even noticed that there were a bunch of messages in chalk written to each of us from the club.

I threw my fuel belt to someone from the club and told Cathy where it was when I saw her. I told her my back was bad, but there was no freakin way I was quitting. I found myself running more and more, but I could not run more then a quarter to a half a mile. When I could run, my legs felt good. My back just would not quit. As I hit mile 10, I started to get angry. I found myself grunting and pushing and trying to run. I just couldnt keep it up. I was proud of myself, but angry at the course. As I headed back into the park, I tried to run as much as I could. I sped past the tri club again with all the great folks. as I headed to the finish, straight uphill. I was going all out. It was a tough uphill to finish off, but I finished.

After the finish I got a burger, a couple of cookies, a couple of brownies and collapsed into the chair Cathy had out. Wes and Dee Dee were there, but getting read to head out. I relaxed for about 30 minutes and then it was time to head home. It was a long, slow ride, but we made it home safely about 7PM. Took a shower and laid on the heating pad for a while. Today, my back still hurts as does my achilles, but I am proud of my accomplishments.

I really want to thank all my friends and tri club peeps for all the great support. Steph, Doug, Wes,Chris, and Kellye all had encouraging words during the run. Steph was especially full of energy and was a real help.

The course beat the crap out of me, but it did not defeat me. Next year I will return to take my vengeance out on the course. I plan on breaking 6 hours next year. I know if my back had not bothered me I would have at least come close. I need to lose some more weight. I need to seriously do some strength and core work, and I am going to focus on speed in the off season and first part of the tri season.

Quick Report

2008-09-28T14:31:00.000-07:00

It was ugly at times,but I finished. Swin was good.bike was good.but my "run" was torture.The bike killed my back and it was tough to run. I will try to get a full report up some time tomorrow.

Total Time(unofficial): 6;39
Swim:37:11
T1:2:23
Bike:3:00:30
T2:2:28
Run:2:56:39

Its almost time

2008-09-26T18:20:00.000-07:00

Head shaved...check
Bike cleaned and lubed...check
Nutrition bought, planned out, and ready to go...check
Goggles test...check
Wetsuit swim tested...check
Car gassed up...check

It is almost time to race. We are heading out of here tomorrow around noon. We have to drop the dogs off at the vet around 11AM and then we can come home and pack the car.

I was back and forth about using the wetsuit. I decided to walk over to the neighborhood pool and test it out. I had bought it at the beginning of this season, but only swam in it for the first ows of the seasob. I tried it out and it fit will. I practiced getting in and out of it.My only slight concern is that the zipper might unzip slightly.

I practiced flying mounts and dismounts. I have decided I will put my cycling shoes on in T1, but will take my feet out of my shoes in T2. No flying mounting of the bike. When trying to run and mount it, i didnt get on fast enough and stubbed my toe. I will probably still fly off the bike as I have done that previously with shoes on.

While at work today, I wrote out my specific nutrition plan based on training. I am feeling pretty good about it. I just hope I can get more down during the run.

I am really looking forward to the race. I will be wearing a couple of "lucky" items on the run. I am going to wear my new socks I won through the Endurance Sports Bar and my new headsweat visor I just got in the mail today from the Quadrathlon weight loss challenge. I am hoping the luck I had in winning both those items will rub off on my run.

I cant wait to see all my fellow blogger peeps out there racing hard.

As Java Mom says " IT'S ON LIKE DONKEY KONG!!" SO BRING IT ON

I've got gas!!!

2008-09-23T20:00:00.000-07:00

It has been crazy here this last week in Georgia. I waited two hours this evening in line to get gas. When I went under half a tank this morning, I knew I was going to have to seek out gas today. After passing several stations, I found a BP with a tanker truck in the front. I pulled up and the lines didnt look too bad. First we had to wait for the tanker to finish filling the tanks. Then it turns out the front pump was broken on our line, so we had to wait for the 4 cars in front of us to use one pump instead of two. Then, it took almost 20 minutes per car to fill up because it was so dang slow. No I have to keep a close eye on things since we head for South Carolina on Saturday. I am hoping things will be better by this weekend.

So on Saturday, I did the local 10K. My plan really was to try and pace myself and see how my legs felt. The first half I felt pretty good. I went out a little fast in the first mile. I finished the first three miles in 25:06. Mile 4 was much hillier thus much slower. I still thought there was a chance to PR, but I really just wanted to stay steady. It seemed like the second half of the race was much more uphill then the first half. I hit 6 miles in 53:58. So my 2nd 3 miles were almost 1 minute per mile slower then the 1st 3. I sprinted to the finish and finished in 55:41. When I finished, I was a little disappointed. I had not used my inhaler before the race, so i felt my breathing was limiting me. But when I got home, I realized this was my fastest 10K race time in almost 2 years and like my 3rd or 4th fastest ever. I am thinking next year may be my year of speed and putting off my full iron until 2010. A real plus was I had no knee pain whatsoever.

Since I dont often get the chance to do one of the weekday group rides, I jumped on the opportunity to do the Monday night ride. Due to construction, the route was changed to one that was much hillier. I felt pretty good making it up the hills. Once I finished the 16 mile ride I went ahead and did a 10 minute transition run. I am feeling pretty good. I cannot wait for Sunday!!!

Then I can chill for a week or two and then I have to start thinking about the Silver Comet half, and Possibly the Half (or maybe run/walk the full if I am feeling up to it) and then an early 2009 marathon. I am thinking my tri season for 2009 will pretty much be the same as this year, but with the addition of some sprints and possibly an additional oly.

Feelin good about the swim

2008-09-18T16:10:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I had a spectacuar swim. I had not swam much in the last few weeks, because of my shoulder. Thr last 2 days I have been trying to address trigger points in my shoulder and it is starting to help. I am finally feeling some relief. I had a TT on my scheule this week.Tonight was the night to see what I had in me.

After 200 warmup, I did a 1800 Y/M TT. I did it in 28:48. That isreally close to where I want to be. I averaged 1:36 per 100. Depending of this pool (LAF?). that puts me under 30 minutes for the 1.2 mile swim. That makes me feel good. Now I need to work on my knee

Saturday. I am signed up for a local,fast 10K. I want to see how my legs are. I am not setting any specofoc goals.

I am getting really excited with just over a week togo! I just cannot wait

A whole lotta nothing

2008-09-14T18:18:00.000-07:00

That can sum up my week as a whole. I ended up with no training all weekend. I only got one day of each sport. My shoulder aches my knee hurts, and I am ready to just get this thing over so I can take some time off. School is keeping me super busy and super stressed.

I am glad to be beginning my taper. I need these two weeks for my body to recover to be ready to race hard. At this point, I have two foals, one of which may just not be doable at this point. Goal one: Finish. This is absolutely doable, and the most important. I have put the training in and feel confidant I will finish.

Goal 2: Go under 6 hours. Early in my training, this seemed doable. Right now, I just dont know. Based on this week's swim, I think I can still go between 30 and 35 minutes. My goal on the bike is 3:15. I think this should be doable. The real unknown is the run. When I ran off the bike on my big brick, my legs were tired and tight. If I can rest up, keep loose, and nail my nutrition, my run should go better. The other thing I have been contemplating is slowing down slightly on the bike so my legs feel fresher on the run.

Ultimately I just want to finish and have a good time. I also feel like I need some time to rest. Once I finish this, I am going to take some time off of swimming to let my shoulder recover. Depending how my knees feel, I may still do the silver comet half marathon, but as much as I want to do it, it all just depends how my legs feel.

It's all downhill from here

2008-09-07T09:00:00.000-07:00

Before I tell you about my mega brick, let me catch you up on the rest of the week.

Wednesday after work, we pick up my car. They replaced a radiator hose, a vacuum hose, and did an oil change. Since we were not going to drive the 15 miles back the way we came to the gym, I decided to go join the local Reality Bikes group ride. This is a seriously hilly ride. I ended up doing the C Ride plus a little 5 mile loop. I actually felt pretty good going up the hills. It was a 22 mile ride in an hour and 20 minutes for an average speed of 16.7 mph.

The biggest climbs on this ride are on Sawnee Mountain. This is the mountain by my house that I like to run on the trails. So Thursday I decided well since I rode it on Wednesday, I might as well run it on Thursday. I hit the trails for a decent run. I did not have to stop at all, though I did have to walk at times.The only bad thing was I did manage to play superman twice and went flying face first. Both times I skidded on the same knee. My knee is pretty scraped up, but luckily I did not injure myself. No more trail running till after the 1/2 Iron. I ran 4.87 in 58:54 for an average pace of 12:06 this is 20 seconds per mile faster then last time.

I took Friday off to rest up for Saturday's mega brick. I woke up at 5:30, had a PBJ sandwich and a banana and headed out about 6:30 for the silver comet. After stopping to fill up my car with gas and buy a pre ride bottle of Gatorade. I got to the comet before 7:45. I set my bike off, had a power gel, and I was off about 7:45.

The bike went spectacularly. My nutrition was spot on. I had 4 bottles of my weakly made gatorade. I took a gel every 20 minutes. At 1:40, just before my turnaround, I had a cliff bar. I started from the Silver Comet Depot and turned around at rockmart. I hit 65.79 miles in 3 hrs 45 minutes for an average speed of 17.5 mph.

At "transition", I put my bike in my car, grabbed my fuel belt, my race belt/gel holder and a cliff bar, made a quick pit stop and headed out towards the Mavell Rd Trailhead. The first couple of miles went great (9:58, 10:07), but it all went downhill from their. I ate the cliff bar in the first two miles, I think this was a mistake. At that point, all I could stomach was my gatorade until after mile 5 where I was able to force a gel down. My legs weren't necessarily tired, but they were suuper stiff. I was walking every half mile. I just couldnt seem to get my legs to go fast. I didnt hurt at all, which leads me to believe I might have been able to push faster

What I learned yestrerday

I need to adjust my cleats, or possibly change out to the older pedals on my road bike. I am having some pain in my left knee that I am pretty sure has to do with what direction my toes were pointed and how my knee was anglng out on the upstroke. My current pedals have almost no float on them so it makes cleat position that much more important. My older pedals have much more float

I may not be able to use my new tri shoes. They might be too tight on my right foot. I am having pain on the outside of my foot that I am almost certain is due to my tri shoes. I may be able to use them on shorter races, or I may just sell them on ebay. I have to look closer at them.

I need to focus on ankle flexibility: My right achilles was aching about two thirds into the bike. It obviously has to do with the flexion in my ankle when I am pedaling

I need to work on flexibility overall. I am going to focus on stretching, foam roller, trigger point, yoga, and maybe even a pre-race massage. If I can keep my legs loose, it will make the run go much better, plus it may alleviate some of my knee problems on the bike

A cliff bar at T2 is a mistake, and I may not be able to stomach gels during the second half. While I will not have another chance for a long brick to test the changes out, I feel confident in my new plan. I will not be changing anything on the bike. During the run, I plan on taking shot blocks, which I have used before, and gels if I can stomach them. My nausea is most likely due to the cliff bar. The one gel I did take on the run didnt bother my stomach at all, but I nearly gagged trying to take it down. I think I may bring a few different flavors of gel on the run to see if that helps.

I will not have a problem finishing this race. Can I do it in 6 hours? Only time will tell. I think it will really depend on how my legs feel. I like the fact that it is a two loop, out and back course. There will be lots of tri club and blogger peeps there to cheer each other on

I am not too worried at this point about the hills on the bike

Wednesday's Hills

Satudray's Hills

The Race's Hills

Well its a good thing we didnt drive to South Carolin

2008-09-03T06:14:00.000-07:00

First a clarification. There is no race this weekend. We were going to drive the SC 70.3 course on Labor Day. We decided since we were staying overnight the saturday before the sunday race, we would instead ride the course on Saturday, the day before the race (27th)

It is a good thing we didnt, because yesterday my car overheated (with the car only having been run for about an hour) and we ended up having to have it towed. I am waiting to find out what is wrong. My hope is it is something minor.

So once we got home, I decided to still go out and do my scheduled tempo run. The plan was 10 warmup, 20 tempo, and 10 cooldown. Overall, the run went well. I was able to push myself all 20 minutes. While I was completely out of breath, I felt great otherwise. On a positive note, I found $22 on the run. At least all my luck wasnt bad yesterday

40 minutes 4.24 miles Avg 9:26 Pace (Avg during tempo about 8:30)

Your Questions Answered

Marcy- The toe is okay. Since it is my little toe, it doesnt ever really bother me during training.

Meredith - I read bicycling mag every month, and I have read Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance. Great book. Park tools also has a great website - http://parktool.com/repair/. The numbers equal the number of teeth on the smallest cog and the largest. The larger the bigger number, the easier it technically is going uphill. Cathy's training is kinda leveled off right now until it gets cooler. She is swimming several times a week and walk/running as well. It will be easier for us to ride together once I am done with my 70.3

UPDATE: It was the radiator hose. I also had been having acceleration issues and that was the vacuum hose. Not too bad under 200 all together with labor

A Different kind of brick

2008-09-01T05:54:00.000-07:00

So most of my plans for this weekend have changed. We decided not to drive to South Carolina today with gas prices likely to be going back up due to the hurricane. With the race on Sunday, we will get up there early enough on Saturday to scope the course.

On Saturday, I did run the full 13 miles. I tried to intentionally take them slow. The story for that run was my dang fuel belt. A while back, I said I needed to get a new one. Well I held out until after Saturdays run. I had it as tight as it could go, but it was still bouncing too much. I kept dropping bottles. Ugh! That also helped to slow me down. Saturday afternoon, I headed to Fleet Feet and bought a new amphipod fuel belt. Saturdays total: 13 miles 2:18:34 avg pace 10:39/mile.

As slow as I took it, I knew afterwards that doing the full brick might not be the best idea since it would not give me a true feel for how fully rested legs would feel on race day. So since my new cassette cam in on Saturday afternoon, I decided to install it and take my bike to Stone Mountain for a two hour ride. I pushed myself through the 5 mile super hilly loop. This was my first time doing Stone Mountain on my new bike. While I was still under 10 mph on the worst hills, with my new casette I was able to keep my rpms up so my legs felt fresh.
28.86 Miles 1:49:01
15.9mph
approx 3800 ft total ascent/descent

Once I was done with my ride, I decided to hike up to the top of stone mountain. I had never done it before, and it's not something Cathy has wanted to do. It climbs almost 1000 feet in the mile hike up the mountain. WIth all the rocks to step up to, it ended up being a great way to stretch my legs. I enjoyed the climb, and the great views from the top of the mountain.

Today will likely be an off day and its back to serious training tomorrow. It looks like I will do my big brick on Saturday this weekend.

Totals for August
Swim: 7800 Meters - Still dealing with nagging shoulder pain
Bike: 226.43 Miles
Run: 73.32 Miles

Less then a month? No Way!!

2008-08-28T18:25:00.000-07:00

I cant believe the South Carolina is only a month away!! It feels like only yesterday I was think about doing this race. I am so stoked, though a little nervous. I have had lingering aches and pains. They might slow me down, but they will not stop me. The thing that bothers me most is still my shoulder. Swimming is my strongest point. I really want to finish my swim in under 30 minutes. Based on my Chattanooga time, that shouldn't be a problem. I did that race in 24:10 which equals out to 1:37 per 100 meters, which would mean about 31 minutes for 1.2 miles. But with my shoulder and not swimming as much, I wonder how much efficiency I have lost in the last month. I am not worried about the pain too much, as most of the pain happens at home after I swim. My broken toe is healing. It rarely hurts, and it is usually not during training. The one thing I think could slow me down on the run might be my knee. I have had a little recurring pes bursitis-ish knee pain. During my last few runs, my knee has begun to slightly act up after 5 miles or so, but Saturday's 10 miler and Sunday's brick wasnt too bad. This weekend will be a real test. It is my plan to run 13 miles on Saturday and then do my longest brick eva. I am planning on doing 50-60 miles on the bike and then run about 90 minutes. My legs felt pretty good during last weeks brick so I am hoping for the same this week.

Once I get through this race, there are a few more things I may or may not do depending how I feel. I really want to do the Silver Comet 1/2 marathon on October 25th. This is a super flat 1/2 and it was my first. One of my goals is to break 2 hrs in a half marathon. I did that race last year in 2:13. That was with a bunch of walking in the second half so 2 hrs should be doable if I have recovered. I also want to ride part the 45 mile option of the Sawnee Mountain Century on October 18th. This ride is right in my backyard. I literally can ride about 1-2 mies to the start. There is no way I would do the century this year as it has a Cat 2.5 climb with a total of like 2000 feet of climbing. The 45 mile has some decent climbing, but nothing too bad. Then, I may do the Titan/Warrior Oconee Challenge 15K Trail Run. I have wanted to do a trail race, and several of my running club peeps are doing this one.

Then there is Thanksgiving. Do I do the half? or maybe the Full? Only time will tell. I am not going to rush everything after South Carolina. If I am feeling good, I may try to ramp up over two months and do the marathon. We will see.

This weeks training has been ok. this is a recovery week (until this weekend),

Monday: Swim 2000M Main set was 6*100 easy 6*100 sprint
Tuesday:off
Wed: AM 60 min trainer "spin class" ride. I rode with my uusual spin class music and tried to match my pace to the music. I felt really sluggish.
Wed PM:Swim 1600 Main set 4*200. I felt really sluggish doing the 200s. my average was 6 seconds slower then a month ago when I did 5*200
Thurs: 38 Minute tempo run 4.13 miles avg pace 9:12- If I had not gotten nauseous, this run would have been spectacular. I warmed up with a mile at 9:15 pace. I stopped a sec and stretched and took off for what would be a 18 minute tempo run. The firs mile was great. I kept looking down at my watch and seeing sub 8 min pace. I ended up coming in at 8:14 (OMG!), I slowed down to take a big gulp from my fuel belt, but ended up nauseous. I spent the next half mile stopping several times. I still managed to finish that mile in 9:23. Once the nausea was gone, I was back running low 8. Once I was done with my 18 min tempo, I cooled down for 10 minutes. The whole run felt great.

On Monday, Cathy and I are going to take a short road trip to scout out the SC 1/2 course in Ninety Six, SC. I am going to try and take pictures, or maybe even video of the bike course. I have ordered a new 12-27 cassette for my new bike and hope to have it in this weekend. I will install it after this weekends long brick. That should be a big change from my 11-23. Even if it doesnt make me much quicker up the hills, it will at least keep my legs fresh by being able to spin at a higher cadence

Has it really been a week already?

2008-08-24T17:09:00.000-07:00

Wow I can believe its been a week since I have made a post. While it has been a busy week, unfortunately my training has been hit and miss. I havent had a training week where I got all my training in the last month since Chattanooga.

In the last week, I have swam once, rode once, ran once and today I did a brick

I swam on Monday. I did a total of 2100 meters. The main set was 7*100 Easy and 6*100 Lactate intervals. My swim was decent, but not as fast as I have been. After the swim, my shoulder bothered me the rest of the week.

I took Tuesday off

Wednesday I was up at 3:45 so I could I could ride for an hour. I had to leave for work before 6AM, so this was the only way to get my ride in that morning. I had been planning to swim that evening, but skipped out on it. Wednesday's trainer ride was 18.74 miles in an hour

Thursday evening, I went out for a run after work. Thanks to the effects of Fay, it was nice and cool for the run. Unfortunately, I hadnt stretched or used the roller in over a week so my legs were tight and my knee bothered my by mile 5.

Friday I was tired, because I had stayed up past midnight to watch the men's beach volleyball finals on Thursday night. I came home and skipped my scheduled swim.

Up Saturday was my regular group long run, except we would be meeting somewhere else to run. I thought I knew exactly where I was going, but as always seems to be the case when I meet someone or somewhere outside the normal arrangements, I ended up nearly missing the run. We were going to be running at Riverside Park in Roswell (GA). I arrived at the parking lot early. We were supposed to meet up at about 6:30. I waited and waited, but saw noone. Just before 7, I saw 3 ladies from my group running. I stopped them, and found out. I was at the WRONG parking lot!! Since it was dark, I didnt notice the bottom of the sign where it said overflow parking. SO I moved my car, headed out with them, but was soon way ahead of them. I was glad I took my I-Pod. All in all the run was good. I had spent almost two hours on the roller on Friday night so my legs feel a little more loose. I really liked the run, because it was almost all flat, and ran along the river for several miles. There was one Near- incident while I was running. I was on my second gel and I was running and trying to suck down the gel. Well I managed to nearly choke on it as part of it went down the wrong hole!! Yuck!! It took me nearly 5 minutes to truly recover from that. Total: 10 miles in 1:40 for a pace of 10:05

Up today was a brick. Since I wanted to sleep in, and I wasn't sure how the weather would be, I decided to do my ride on the trainer. I did two hours on the bike followed by an hour run. The ride felt so-so. I think I made my gatorade too strong. Also, Ive realized I dont like the "Ice" flavor of Gatorade. I am definitely going back to the fruit punch. I also need to adjust the cleats on my cycling shoes. I bought a new pair of tri shoes and the cleats that came with my new peddles dont have enough float, so my knees were moving outward too much. I just didnt seem to have enough oomph in my legs to stay at a decent speed. The run, however, went great. Its weird that my legs seem to feel better off the bike then they do fresh starting out on a run. I was really surprised how good they felt. The tri bike helps, plus I am definitely getting stronger. I did 29.69 miles in 2 hours and ran 6 miles in 60 minutes and 21 seconds for an average pace of 10:03. My run pace was only a couple seconds slower then my race pace at the Chattanooga Oly.

This week is going to be a big one for me. I am hoping to get a OWS in this weekend and do the full 1.2 miles. If I dont, I will at least do a time trial in the pool. On labor day, I am hoping to do a race simulation brick: 50-60 mile ride followed by a 90 minute to 2 hour run. The rest of the week, I need to focus on getting all my training in.

On another note, I picked up a book on trigger point therapy I once saw Marcy mention. I also picked up a hard rubber childrens bouncy ball just smaller then my fist. In addition to using the roller on Friday, I did some TP therapy on my hips and shoulders. My shoulder today feels the best it has all week. It is amazing how this stuff works. Unfortunately, it can be super painfull. Apparently if it doesnt hurt, its not working. Ouch! No pain, no gain

It IS all about the bike

2008-08-17T15:24:00.000-07:00

I dont care what Lance says, for me it is all about the bike. I went out with several peeps from my tri club and did a 65 miler on the silver comet. Compared to My last 65 miler this one when a thousand times better. I never bonked. I felt strong the whole time. I nailed my nutrition. I never had to stop and stretch.

I had two minor aches I need to work on. My lower back bothered me off and on. I need to work on my core strength to address this. My other problem was that my achilles was bothering me. I believe this has to do with the angle of my foot when I pedal. I need to work on flattening out my foot instead of my toes pointing down.

We headed out at about 7:30 AM. We all planned on a 65 miler. For the first half, I pretty much stayed with the group. At some point, I decided to pick it up. As I got to 32 miles, I decided to slow down because I wanted to turn around at the same spot as the rest of the group. We stopped at right around 32.5 miles. My plan was to take it easy and see how the bike felt for the first half. On the second half I wanted to open her up and see what me/the bike had in us. I had thoughts of negative splitting the ride, but there was no way that was going to happen. I picked it up and tried to go faster yet controlled. While the first half was probably about zone 2 (average hr about 130) I let my HR creep up to a controlled zone 3 (about 160 average)

Here is the breakdown of the two halves (I forgot to hit the lap button until about a minute after turning around

1: 32.99 miles 1:50:56 17.8 mph Avg HR 130
2: 32.73 miles 1:52:52 17.4 mph Avg HR 160
T: 65.72 miles 3:43:49 17.6 mph Avg HR 147

Last Time
68.84 miles 4:22:10 15.8 mph Avg HR 152

Definitely a big difference. This gives me hope that I may be able to break 6 hours in my half iron in September. In order to make the hills a little easier, I will be switching out my cassette from a 11-23 to either a Shimano Ultegra 12-27 or a SRAM 11-28. This will help so much. I wont likely change it until I start to taper. I want to continue to work with the tougher combination and then make it easier come race day. I figure I will put it on about 2 weeks before the race so I have several test runs before the race.

Right now here is what I am thinking

Swim: 30 minutes (This is where I am obviously strongest)

T1: 3 Minutes (Maybe quicker)

Bike: 3 hours (This is the biggest question mark. I know the course is rolling, but with my new bike and the correct gearing, I should be able to break 3 hours that is an avg of 18.7 mph)

T2:2 Minutes (probably quicker)

Run: 2 hr 15 minutes (this would be an average about 10 minute miles which should be doable)

Total 5 hr 50 minutes

I may revise these plans as we get closer to race day. I feel pretty good I can break 30 minutes on the swim. This would be 1:30 per 100, only slightly faster then Chattanooga. I plan on doing several 1.2 mile time trials to work myself into feeling out that 1:30 pace.

For the bike and run, I plan on doing a long race simulating brick on labor day. I havent decided on a course yet, but my plan is to do a 56+ mile ride followed by about a 6 to 10 mile run

I am going to keep alternating long rides with stone mountain hilly ride bricks.

As far as my injury goes, my toe feels ok. It only hurts occasionally. I dont think it really affects my running. I have really worked on landing midfoot, thus there is little to no weight place on my little toe. I think my knee pain had more to do with last Saturday's 15 miler. The last time I had an overuse injury on my knee, it was at 14 miles. After riding on Monday and running on Tuesday, I didnt get any other training in this week. This was due to several reasons, but I made sure not to run. I will try to ease back into running this week. I have scrapped my plans for a fall marathon. From now until I begin to taper, I am going to focus on my 13 mile run. I have decided to alternate normal LSD efforts with some tempo/pickup efforts. I want to work on picking up my 1/2 marathon pace. About a month after my half IM, I am still planning on doing the Silver Comet half marathon. Last year, as my first half, I did it in 2:13. This year I want to go under 2 hours.

Now that school is back in and I am taking 3 online upper level courses, I will have to cut back on my blogging time. I will continue to post, and continue to respond as much as I can, but I dont expect to be able to post on a daily basis.

Hope everyone had a great weekend

First run on my broken toe

2008-08-14T04:54:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update. I did my first run this morning on my broken toe. It wasn't pretty, but I got through it with absolutely no pain. I dont think I ever put that much pressure on that part of my foot when I run.

Unfortunately though, my legs were tight and I had a slight bit of pain in my knee. I need to keep an eye on this as this has been the knee where I have had recurring overuse injuries on. I am looking through the Core Performance book, which I have read previously. I know I need to work on core strength and flexibility in order to be stronger on the bike, and it will help with my flexibility and my hip tightness on the run

5 miles 53:01 10:36/mi

What the !#$

2008-08-12T02:53:00.000-07:00

Thats really odd. I had typed a whole lot more last night and none of it showed up.

As far as my toe goes, it really doesnt hurt too bad. I am going to at least take a couple days off of running. Once the pain is gone and the swelling is down, I will tape it up and try to run. It really didnt bother me at all last night on the bike.

So last night I took my bike out for its inaugural ride. I headed out to do a group ride I hadnt done in a while. The bike rode flawless. I felt so much faster. Climbing hills felt easier. There were two hard hills on last night's route. While I may have been around 10 mph going up the, I found that my legs were able to recover quickly and I was back up to speed. At times on my road bike I struggled getting back up to speed. I was surprised how fast I was able to go. If we had taken the route I was familiar with, I would have even gone faster. I had to slow or stop a few times since I did not know the route. Once things had opened up, I was pretty much able to stay in aero the whole time.

Total 16.66 miles 55:37 18 mph Avg HR 149

I dont think I have ever been that fast on such a hilly route. This really makes me optimistic about what I may be able to do on the bike at the S.C. 1/2

I cant wait to get the bike out on the comet for a 50-60 miler to see how she handles.

I may go out for another group ride on Wednesday if I can make it home on time. This one is a serious 30 mile training ride with alot of climbing.

The toe is broken !$%#

2008-08-11T19:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I wasnt expecting it to be, but when I had a coworker X-ray it and had one of the docs look at it, I confirmed I did have a small fracture and possibly a chip in my small toe.

Looong Weekend

2008-08-10T17:36:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a really long, but exciting weekend. I am not looking forward to the fact that school goes back in tomorrow. For those of us without kids, school's in means getting up at least 30 minutes earlier to get to work on time. Ugh!

Saturday morning I awoke at 4AM.I didnt have to be out of the house until 5, but I prefer to be up at least an hour before I leave the house for a long run, so I can take care of business. I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was about 61 degrees outside! I so long for the cooler temps of the fall.

I met up with one other person for the 5:30 run. Most of the regular longer runners had made plans to run on Sunday on a flat course along the river. My legs felt great after the first 5 miles. Unfortunately it usually takes about 10 minutes for the 5:30 and the 6:30 groups to regroup and head out. I need to start trying to squeek out another mile while I am waiting for the rest of the group.

The main 6:30 group usually has options of 6,8, or 10 miles. My goal was to be able to do the 10 for a total of 15. I knew, if necessary, I could bail on the 10 and do the shorter option as the routes tend to stay together for as long as possible. At the point we separated at about 3 miles in, I felt great so I headed out alone to finish the route. Because the area I run in is where I lived for 3 years, I know all the back roads inside and out. I chose to alter the route, because there were some bad hills on the 10 mile route that I really did not feel like doing. I added the necessary loops and did the full 15 miles. That was my longest run eva! My previous long run was 14 miles, just before I got injured. The first half (8 miles)of the run, I managed to average about a 9:45 pace. The next 4 averaged about 10:30 and the last 3 were just ugly (11:43,12:40!!,11:36). I was determined to make it through it even though it would have been easy to stop at about mile 13.

Now I am torn about whether or not to do one of the two marathons in November (Chickamagua or Atlanta Thanksgiving). My plan at this point is to build up to a 20 miler (maybe 2) in the next few weeks to a month. At the very least, it will help me with my overall endurance. Best case scenario, I will be ready for the marathon come November. My goal for a marathon is just to finish feeling well, not any specific time. Heck I might just run/walk it. The big what if is how long it will take me to recover from the S.C. 1/2. It took me two weeks to feel good after the Oly, I figure I will be taking a week completely off, a week short and easy and then try to run a 10 miler after 3 weeks and then build up to one more 20 miler in October, just in time for a quick taper for Chickamaagua. If it takes longer to recover, I may still be able to make it to the Thanksgiving Full. I really dont want to do this one as the second have is hilly, but my desire to complete one may just push me to do it anyway. I averaged 10:15/mile which isnt bad, though I would like to see it about 45 seconds faster in training.

Once I came home and showered, it was out for a long day of shopping and running errands. We had to take Cathy's bike in as her front deraileur was having issues dropping to the small chainring. They did a quick adjustment, cathy tested it out, and the bike was ready for race day. We headed to the mall to do some shopping an I landed a deal on some new lenses for my Oakley's. Unfortunately, I did have a little accident on Saturday night.

Molly, our youngest lab has lived in and out of a crate for the first year of her life. Little by little she has been gaining more freedom. Last night, coming out of our bedroom, I smashed my foot against the crate. Ironically, we are supposed to disassemble the crate as Molly is about to get free roam of the house. Tonight, it doesnt hurt too much, but it is red and purple and swollen. I dont hink it is broken, but we shall see.

So this morning I was up stuper early at 3:45 so that I could perform my requisite sherpa duties. I helped pack up the car and were were out of the house by 4:40. After a quick fill up (gas for the car, caffeine for me) we reached the park at about 5:45 and the park was already getting crowded. She set up her transition area, we hung out, waited for the start and ...

I will let Cathy look at her pics and see if she will is alright with me posting them, and to tell you more of how she did. She did well. I am proud of her finishing this race. I was glad to see her cross the finish line with a smile on her face. She said there were times she thought about quitting, but decided she could make it through this. She has said she wants to continue doing triathlons, which I am glad to hear. I will give her some time to recover and take it easy for now. Once it gets a little cooler out, we'll get her started on a more organized plan to getting her running more, riding longer, and riding faster.

Once Cathy was done, we grabbed some lunch, headed home, and she went about resting. Once she was settled in, I went back out to my LBS- Roswell Bicycles, where I bought my new tri bike. I needed to finish getting fitted, plus turn an old bike in as a trade-in to get another 10 percent off the price of the bike. I had to wait an hour while Taylor helped another customer and then settled an issue with a return (he must either be a manager or a senior sales person). The wait was well worth it. WE spent nearly two hours getting the best fit possible. We tried moving the seat up, moving the seat back and forward, adjusting the postion and direction of the aerobar pads, adjusting the length of the aerobars. He even ended up putting a different stem on (at no charge and I got to keep the original). Finally after about 1 hour 45 minutes it was perfect and I spun for about 15 minutes as he watched me and made sure it was right. Plus, I can bring it back in at any time to get the fit adjusted. I am really happy I bought the bike from them.

I must be off to bed since I have to be up earlier tomorrow with school in. Congrats to all of you who raced this weekend, and those who raced in the virtual race.

Surprise addition to the family

2008-08-08T18:32:00.000-07:00

When I woke up this morning, I had no idea I would be adding a new member to my household. When I got to work and checked my email I found out my LBS was having a massive sale, plus they were offering no interest for a year. So Cathy and I headed down there after work to see what they had. I told the guy what I was looking for: base model tri bike with tri geometry and aero bar end shifters. He plugged away at the computer for a minute and then figured out what he had in stock. I guess they must be starting to clear out their 2008 stock. He brought down a Felt S32 She was exactly what I was looking for. She was marked down by 10%, plus I am going back on Sunday with my 90s schwinn tempo with down tube shifters that I paid like 50 for and getting another 10% off for the trade. I spent about an hour getting an initial fitting. Because this wasnt planned, I didnt have my shoes/pedals/shorts, I will have to get fitted more specifically on Sunday.

It is definitely going to be a big change riding on this bike. My road bike, which I have always known was a little big for me, is a 60cm, where this is a 56. Its going to be such a difference riding Aero and shifting aero all the time. I cant wait to get her out for a long ride.

I was so surprised Cathy said alright to buying the bike. I owe her big time now. I can see the honey-do list growing by the minute. She has been so supportive of me since day one. On Sunday, I will be there sherpa'ing for her as she does her second tri, the Acworth Women's Sprint Tri. She is a little nervous, but I am sure she will do fine.

On Thursday, I did get up and do a brick. I did 30 miles on the bike in about 80 minutes followed by 3 miles in just under 30 minutes. My legs felt really strong on the run. I cant wait to do my first brick on the new bike. This morning I chose to sleep in and I was going to get in the pool, but that changed when we bought the bike. Tomorrow, I am up at 4AM (yet again) for a long run. I am going to use this run to judge where my running endurance stands right now and if there is any chance of doing the marathon in December. The good thing about our group runs is that I have the flexibility to adjust my route plans on the fly. I will do the pre-run 5 mileer and then I can do either the 6/8/10 miler depending how my legs feel

A whole lotta nothing going on

2008-08-06T16:52:00.000-07:00

It seems like there must be a bug going around the triathlon/runner blogger community. I am its latest victim. I really have nothing much to say.

I swam Monday evening. I felt great during the swim. My shoulder only bothered me during the kick sets if I extended my arms all the way out. Tuesday, I had just a little pain. At this point, I am going back full swing and am going to ice it and take alieve as needed. I just need to make it through SC 1/2 and then I can lay off the swimming for awhile. I was glad when I got home and looked at my results that my times for my repeat 100 sprints were right in line with previous times. I also felt like the new stroke (high elbow) is definitely a good thing to work on. Now I just need to focus on doing it all the time.

Tuesday morning I was up at 4AM to do run intervals. The funny thing was when I looked at it I was like, Oh great, I get a whole minute to recover instead of 30 seconds. Well I neglected to consider that the sprints would now be 1 minute versus 30 seconds. The first four or five went great, but the second have felt sluggish. Once I looked through my log, I was like DUH you just doubled your sprint interval.

This morning, again I was up at 4AM, except I chose to go back to bed!! For some reason I cant seem to get my butt out of bed in the AM on ride days. So what I may do is make tomorrow AM a brick.Get up at 4, force my butt out of bed and get on the bike, which has been on the trainer since last night.

Since I dont really have much going on here till this weekend, Id thought Id leave you with a photo.

Have you peeps seen this picture of the USA Olympic Cyclists looking like Hannibal Lecter? Lets hope the smog clears before the events start. Definitely not optimal racing conditions

Alligator in Lake Lanier

2008-08-03T17:13:00.000-07:00

Seems there have been sightings of an alligator at Lake Lanier here in Georgia. Alligators are not native to the lakes of northern Georgia. Luckily, they say it is too small to be a danger to anyone.

img source http://www.accessnorthga.com/img/stories/212026/alligator1_medium.jpg

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/stories/2008/08/03/gator_0804_web1.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

Weekend Update

2008-08-03T14:34:00.000-07:00

So I took Friday off so I could sleep in and be well rested for a 10K I had decided to run. The Old Soldier's 10K in Alpharetta was in its 30th year. I had run the course before (I am not sure if I ran OSD or the Mayor's Challenge, which is on the same exact course). Cathy had wanted to do the 5K, so I agreed to do the 10K. I knew the course wasnt too bad, so I was shooting for a PR. When we picked up our race numbers earlier in the week, there was a note that the course had changed this year and it was a double loop for the 10K. They really should have put further explanation, and possibly an actual map for the 10K.

So we get up early and head down for the race. After standing around for about half an hour, we lined up at the start. Things were already starting off bad when the RD was making announcements and the crowd kept getting louder. All I heard was 10K two loops, finish in the second shoot, past the first 5K. Apparently I missed a key point, or it was never mentioned.

My plan was to use the first half to feel out the course and save just a little extra for the second half once I knew what to expect. So when we started, we ran about half a mile in the opposite direction and then made a u-turn and began the double loop. My understanding was like other courses where I have run up a little and u-turned was that we would double up on the loop, but not re-do the u-turn. This would turn out to be wrong. As I was coming down towards the end of the first loop, I turned my Ipod off to listen to the person with the bullhorn. All he was saying was 5K go to the left. Well apparently he forgot to tell us 10Kers that we had to run the starting loop again before the main loop. I only figured this out when I hit the 4 mile marker at 3.25 miles. At this point I dindt know what I wanted to do. I pretty much took it easy since my time wouldnt be right anyway. Once I caught up with Cathy, I went ahead and walked with her till she ran into the finished. My final time for the almost 10K (5.46 miles according to garmin) was 51:07 with an average pace of 9:21. At 3.24 miles, when I said chuck it, I was at 28:01. My average pace at that point was 8:35. If I kept going, I probably could have PRd. DOH. I was really pissed off. It will be really interesting to see the race photos as I had a really angry face at the finish.

Once we went home, cleaned up and headed back out, we went to Performance Bike who was having a big sale which included a 15% off coupon off everything (including bikes). I wanted to get a tool kit and a bike stand for working on the bikes. On the way over, Cathy saw they were offering O% financing on bikes over 500. When we walked in, a tri bike caught my eye. It was a 2008 Fuiji aloha. I test out a size 58 and thought it was a decent ride. It orignally was over 1200, on sale for 999 plus 15% off. But, alas it was not meant to be. The sales girl thought the 0% was for 12 months, but no, it was only 90 days, plus, the guy I believe is the manager and I both felt that a 56 was the best option, but they did not have it in stock. They could order it, but I would have to pay in advance. So instead, I managed to walk out with what I came for: The Spin Doctor Essential Toolkit and the Spin Doctor Essential II Work Stand

I really want a Tri Bike for next year. I am currently weighing all my options. I am seriously considering building my own bike, unless I can find a deal on a whole bike on Craigs List. I have begun doing research on frames and components. Between Nashbar,E-Bay, Slow Twitch Classifieds, Performance Bike, and others I can put together a bike for less. Also, by buying it piecemeal, I dont have to shell it out all at once and I can take my time buying parts. I have begun doing my research on components. I know the two hardest things to install are going to be the Crank/Bottom Bracket as well as the Headset. These seem to be the most technical parts with the most compatibility issues. One of the things I did was to find a whole build kit with all the components minus the frame and started pricing them out individually. Right now, without even going to E-Bay, I could save at least 100 on just the components buying them seperately. Since I am in no hurry and hope to build it out through the off season, I have time to put the money together and buy the parts as cheap as possible

Today, I headed out to Stone Mountain. The first lap, I hung with Cathy. I have been working with her to try and teach her what gears to use when, as she has only ridden her bike less then 10 times. Once we finished the first loop, she gave me the go ahead and pick it up and go out on my own. I did 3 more laps around the mountain. Once I finished my 90 minute ride, I headed out for a 30 minute brick run. When I headed out, it was along the longest hill of the route. I ran downhill for more then a mile. I would pay for this coming back. After about a mile, I found a nature trail head and decided to take the detour into the woods. It had been pretty hot out, probably almost 90 by this point, and the wooded trail was a much appreciated change. It felt like 10 degrees cooler in the shade. I ran for about 5 minutes out and 5 minutes back in the woods. I really liked the trail. it was soft dirt, no loose rocks, some big rocks, and a little rooty. If I had more time, or knew more about where the trail headed, I would have kept on it. I forgot how much I actually enjoy trail running. When I first ran trails, I would do the superman many times as I would hit a rock or root and go flying. Now, I have gotten good at keeping my balance. These last two trail runs has really gotten me interested in doing alot more trail running. On the run back, I took a couple walk breaks as the last 10 minutes were all uphill. It is my goal to make hills, both running and riding my strong point.

Totals for the brick were bike 19.37 miles 1 hr 25 min (13.6 mph second half was probably around 15 mph avg) Run 2.52 miles 30 min avg 11:55

This week its back to business. I am planning on trying to swim tomorrow as my shoulder pain is nearly gone.

The Funk is Officially Gone

2008-07-31T18:22:00.000-07:00

Its official. I am no longer in a funk. I have had a couple good days of training.

Tuesday morning I was up at 5 to rum some intervals. My legs felt fresh for the first time since Chattanooga. My sprints were rather fast, but the recoveries were super slow. I am finding it is hard to really recover in 30 seconds, but I guess that is the point. I am really having to slow down on the recoveries so I can hit each sprint hard. I was even able to run the uphill sprints well. It was glad to finally feel fast again.

Wednesday morning, I was up again early to get on the bike. Because it was a short trainer ride, I opted to skip the dvd player. This was definitely the right decision. I used my Ipod and played my spin class playlist. I have compiled a large amount of songs that they used to play in the spin classes I used to do at Gold's gym (RPM). A couple of years ago, long before I started doing tri's, I was a spin class junkie. I would do three classes a week, including a 90 minute class on wednesdays. I often would arrive 30 minutes early to get an even longer ride. So as I was saying, I had a 45 minute ride on the trainer with some really good music. I find that on the bike, good music can make all the difference. I basically did my own spin class, letting the cadence of the music direct my speed and gearing. My legs felt great. I did a good mix of sprints, rolling hills, and climbs. My speed sensor on my garmin actually maxed out over 50 mph (that cannot be right) when I hit a cadence of 120 rpm while in the big ring/small cog. My average was 28 mph. I did a total of 21.14 miles in 45 minutes. By the time I was done, I knew I was definitely out of my funk.

Last night I didnt sleep to well. I think I am sleeping hard on my shoulder because the time it really bothers me is in the morning. Plus, I tend to wake several times during the night right now. When I rolled over at 4AM, I knew I didnt want to get up at 5. I decided to reset my alarm and I would try to get my run in this evening. Luckily, it rained while I was at work, but was done by the time I got home. I decided to head out to Sawnee Mountain to do some trail running. Its nice having this park less then 10 minutes from my house. There is about 3 miles of trails with lots of elevation change. I hadnt been there in almost 6 months.

Heading out from the trailhead, the first mile was almost completely downhill. The thing is, this means there is a whole lotta climbing in the next mile or so, because you have to climb back to your starting elevation and then climb even more to the top. I stopped at about the 1 mile marker to tie my shoes and snapped this picture of this cool accessible treehouse they built in the park

Then I was back off. At this point I had to start climbing again.After climbing for about half a mile, I came to a fork in the path.

I had a choice, go left and keep climbing to the top, or go right and head back down. Of course I chose to keep climbing. Not much later, I cam across a fox running around in the woods. I tried to take a pic before I scared it off, but they all came out blurry. So I kept heading up, up up. There was a good section of climbing I had to walk. Ultimately my goal is to be able to run it all. With stopping and walking, the second mile took me over 17 minutes. I did not have my garmin on auto-pause.

When I got to the top, I stopped to rest and take some pictures. At the top of the mountain are these rock outcroppings known as Indian seats

Apparently this area used to have some sort of ceremonial significance for the local indian tribes. The best part of this area is the great view.

The view is even better during the fall and winter when there are no leaves on the trees. The good thing about the view is that it looks out to the north and west. This way I was able to see that more rain was moving in (you cant really tell from the camera phone pic). At least the rest of the run back to the start would be downhill and much faster. So I took off and headed back down the mountain. When I got to the bottom, I had just hit 3 miles and figured I had another 10 minutes before I needed to head home, so I did 3 laps of a little .3 mile loop and added the last .1 to do a full mile. I finished just in time, as it began to rain. I did some stretching since the rain wasnt making it through the trees and then headed home, thoroughly satusfied in a strong, yet not really fast, trail run at the mountain. I will definitely be doing this more often as I plan on doing a 15K trail run in November, plus this is a really great way to get stronger on the hills and buld stronger ankles.

This was the first time I had used my Forerunner 305 at the mountain. I had used my 201 here and was unable to maintain satellite reception. I was glad that not once did my garmin beep that there was loss of gps signal. Its great that it works amid heavy treee coverage. So, when I got home, I loaded the run into Motionbased and look at this elevation

Now of course I wasnt able to run all of that big hill, but I want to eventually be able to. Its 400 feet of climb in right around 1 mile. Talk about some serious hill work. Oh and if anyone has any good suggestions for trail shoes, please chime in. I want to buy some dedicated trail shoes. I have been looking at a few new balance ones, but I am not sure what to look for

So here are my totals for July. Because this was a month with a couple of races, my bike.run totals are a little low, and my swim number is really off because of my shoulder injury. Hopefully August should be a big number month

Swim	12,300 Meters
Bike	187.74 Miles
Run	60.08 Miles

100th Post!!

2008-07-29T09:10:00.000-07:00

Its hard to believe I have hit my 100th post. That and I cant believe y'all have stuck around for 100. My first post was in August 2007. I did 2 posts and then didn't do another one until February 2008. At first, like everyone else, this started out as just a way for me to log my training on-line. Since then it has turned into so much more. When I added the "Sites I Stalk" feature, I was shocked to find out that I currently read (and usually reply) to 100 Blogs. No wonder I am stuck to this computer in the evenings!!

When I first got into triathlons last year, I hung out reading the message boards at Beginner Triathlete ("BT"). One day, after posting my info on the Introduce Yourself topic in the Georgia forum on BT, I got a PM from Sarah. It turns out that Sarah went to someone with the same name as I, about the same age, but at a different HS in the county (Broward County, Florida). I found Sarah's Blog and started reading it regularly, but I think I was too shy to post any replies.

Eventually, I decided "I should set up my own training blog". So I set it up, posted something... and didnt post another thing for 6 months.by then, I had done my first triathlon, my second tri the week after my first, my first half marathon, and a second half marathon. All those milestones, and I hadnt blogged about a single one.

Then, I realized, if I was ever going to get others to read and reply to my blog, I was going to have to read and reply to theirs. This started me on a sorta chain letter type approach. I found several from Sarah's blog, including Wes's. Initially I was focused on finding local peeps. Eventually, I realized I shouldn't limit myself to local bloggers. From it just snowballed and now I am up to 100 blogs I read. Thank goodness for google reader.

Blogging is such a great experience. I have made new friends, met some great folks, and learned so much. I have even been able to share some of my limited wisdom to bloggers as well. I look forward to many,many more posts.

Before I share my favorite of my first 100 posts, I think I am coming out of my training funk. I had a pretty good run interval session this morning. My legs felt fresh and ready to sprint. It works out that this is actually a recovery week in my 70.3 training. If I can stay out of the pool this week, ice my shoulder daily, and dont make an attempt at the pushup challenge (like I did on Sunday--Stupid me), I should hopefully be back in the pool next week.

Without much further adieu, here are my top ten favorite of my first 100 posts
The naming of the bike
New 10PR in a training run
My Story
I love Blogging(Got lots of great advice)
1st Annual Phat B's Mock Tri(Met Several Bloggy Peeps)
Lost in Transition
Best Long run ever and dinner with the blogger Iron Girls
Chattanooga-My first Oly and Photos
Me and my Garmin have it out
4:30 AM isnt all that bad (for all the you must be crazy comments I got)

In a funk

2008-07-27T17:22:00.000-07:00

In the last two weeks since Chattanooga, I have been in a funk. I am really hoping it is just part of recovery from that race, but I am not certain. From what I've read, it takes 2 weeks to recover from an Olympic Distance Tri.

Tuesday, I woke up at 4:30 to ride my bike, and I decided I was too tired. I was up, I should've got on the bike. Yesterday, I woke up at 4:15. I was supposed to do a 12 mile run. I used the bathroom and felt a little pain in my ankle and I decided to skip the run!! I have never skipped a run for a minor pain. I regretted it all day. My shoulder has also been bothering me.

Friday I was up at 4:15, and was on the bike at 4:30. For my early morning rides, I either get on the trainer, or ride the roads in my neighborhood. At 4:30 there isnt much going on in my neighborhood and there is only one way in/out so there isnt much trouble. Unfortunately, it also gets to be a little booring with only 3 or 4 miles of total roads to ride on. For the ride, I drank a bottle of my nuun/powdered gatorade mix. I also took a gel at 45 minutes. I felt sluggish on the bike for all but the last 15 minutes. I dont think I would not have made it through the ride on the trainer without my favorite movie of all time: Monty Python and the Quest for The Holy Grail. I just could not get the legs to move fast. Next time, I think I will try to take a gel before I get on the bike and maybe it will feel better.

After skipping Saturday's run, Cathy and I went to the pool. I was only able to do 1000 meters before I had to stop due to shoulder pain.~~I may need to take a least a week of no swimming. I will make that call after tomorrow's swim.~~UPDATE:I woke this morning with bad shoulder pain, so no swimming for at least a week. I have been doing a whole bunch of research online, and I want to work on adjusting my stroke some. I have been watching videos on youtube of olympic swimmers and some coaches tips on proper pull and I think this change will not only help my shoulder, but make my already fast swim even faster.I need to work on what's called a high elbow. Here is a link that shows what I am talking about.

Today, I drove out to Stone Mountain. There is a little less then 5 mile loop that goes around the mountain and is quite hilly. There is a good mix of rollers and longer climbs. Due to time constraints, I was only able to do 3 laps in 1 hour. Overall, I felt ok. If I had more time, I think I would have been better able to assess how I feel. I will definitely be back there often to train on the hills. From what I understand, there is a 7 mile option that has a few harder hills.

After last weeks really slow long run and this weeks no show, I dont think I will be doing the Chickamagua Marathon. Based on my recovery time for the Olympic, I will need at least 3 weeks if not a month to fully recover. That just does not give me enough time. I am not a big fan of the Atlanta course and dont think I want that to be my first. That would be my last option for the year. In lieu of the marathon, I think I will do a 15K trail race. It will be my first trail race. A whole bunch of my running group is planning on doing it, so I will likely do it too.

Looking at the beginning of the year, I have a few local options and possibly one travel option. If any of you have experience with any of these, feel free to give me your opinion.

There is the Museum of Aviation Foundation Marathon in Warner Robbins GA on January 19th. I dont know anything about it. It runs around an air force base which might be cool. Plus, it is relatively flat.The only thing is that Georgia weather is a little unpredictable in January. Apparently last year was windy with freezing rain

Warner Robbins Elevation profile

The next possibility is Callaway Gardens on January 25th. Again, dont know much about this race. It is run inside the park. I dont know about the elevation, but they say it is similar to boston? That may not be pleasant. I did enjoy the tri at Callaway, so I dont know.

The third option is the The A1A marathon in Ft Lauderdale on February 22nd. This is run along A1A, the main drag along the beach, and is pancake flat(other then 1 bridge). Since our family is in Ft Lauderdale, we would have a place to stay.

Once march comes around, there are three options: Alpharetta (no date yet), Snickers Albany (March 7), and ING Atlanta (March 29th). I have heard mixed reviews of Alpharetta, Albany is supposed to be fast, and ING is the big one here in Atlanta.

If I do one in January, I may then do one in March as well. It may also depend on Cathy. When I talked about maybe going home to Ft Lauderdale to race, she thought she might train for the Half, since it is nice and flat.

4:30 AM Really isnt all that bad

2008-07-24T17:42:00.000-07:00

I am starting to get used to this 4:30 thing. Of course yesterday I got up at 4:30, used the bathroom and then decided I wasnt interested in getting on my bike and went back to bed, but today, I was back up and running at 4:30. The thing I am dreading is that soon 4:30 will become 4:00 or maybe even um 3:30? There are two things that will conspire to get me up before even the butt crack of stupid. First off, school starts back in a few weeks. During the summer, I can leave for work at 7 AM and still get into work on time. Once school is in, I'll have to leave the house at 6:30. That combined with longer training as I peak for the 70.3 at the end of September means that I will be getting up really early.

So last night I hit the pool for the first time in a week. My shoulder wasnt really hurting when I got in the pool. By the time I was done, my shoulder hurt jsut a little. I think I have swimmers shoulder. I am pretty sure it was caused by a mix of unilateral breathing, and possibly also the paddles I use. I will continue to swim, but avoid the paddles and really focus on breathing on both sides. I did a total of 2000 yards with the main set being 5*200 Threshold. My times were rather consistent throughout. My shoulder didnt really hold me back.

I was up at 4:30 this morning and headed out on a 70 minute easy run. I really focused on keeping my heart rate down. I really wasnt too concerned with my overall speed. Any time my heart rate went over 155, I backed my speed off.I did 7 miles in 70 minutes.

I am loving my New Balance 1061's. They are really working well for me. They fit my big flat feet just right, and they provide ample support. There is just the right amount of cushioning, and the toe box has ample space without feeling too loose. These are the first pair of shoes I have been able to run longer distances in and not have any issues with my feet falling asleep and without any pain at all. This will be the first time EVA I have stuck with the same shoes for more then one pair. I am on #2 and will be ordering #3 soon

My legs felt pretty good, though I would have to say overall, I am probably about 80% recovered from the Oly . I hope this weekend to be at 100% for Saturday's long run. I haven't decided where I will do this week's long run, but I am leaning towards Stone Mountain so I can get some long hill work in.

So tomorrow, I am up at 4:15. I need to be on the bike by 4:30 so I can get in a full 90 minutes.

In gear news, I got in my Garmin Quick Release and so far I like it. I actually like the armband better then the plastic watch band. Now I just need to figure out mounting the holder on the bike.

I also picked up Workouts - In a Binder for Indoor Cycling (Workouts in a Binder) and Workouts in a Binder: Swim Workouts for Triathletes . I was mainly looking for the cycling book, but I was able to get both for 40$ when they normally retail for 30 each. I have taken a quick look, and I think it will give me some good workouts specifically designed for riding the trainer. I know I really need to focus on my cycling if I want to make some real improvement overall.

#%@*&$ Garmin

2008-07-22T15:44:00.000-07:00

I nearly had it out with my garmin this morning. Yeah it was mostly my fault, but dang it if it didnt tick me off. I was up this morning at 4:15. I jumped into my running clothes, including my new running shoes with the replacement inserts. And got out the door to run in the hood.

The plan today was 10 minutes warmup, 20 X (30 sec sprint/30 sec easy), followed by 10 minute cooldown. So I set my Garmin up for my intervals, including the warmup and cool down and I was off. So I got through my 10 minute warmup and was feeling great. The ice bath plus using the foam roller, and the stick, had really helped. My legs didnt hurt at all and felt really loose. This is where the garmin headaches began. I hit the button to go from warmup to intervals and started sprinting. A minute later, I am like OK, why hasnt it beeped yet? I realize, instead of hitting the lap button, I hit the Stop button. DOH!! Then to top it off, I notice that it was still set to cycling from Sunday's ride. So I figured Id switch it over to running, right?? Well guess what? If you change over the sport mid-way (if not using multisport), it resets itself. UGH!! Well, at least it saved the data as a separate workout. So I decided to run easy for a minute and then started my sprints.

Overall, my legs felt good. I didnt feel any pain, and my legs felt lose. Because my legs were still a little tired, my times werent as fast as other speedwork sessions. Though this is my first speedwork session in a month and this set had many more intervals (20 vs 12) and the rest was shorter (30 sec vs 2 min) My only problem was I swear my Garmin was out to get me!! It really seemed that the recoveries were much shorter then the sprints(in hindsight, this may be due to the shortened rest), and I swear it seemed my sprints seemed to hit every stinking hill in da hood. Oh well, I guess it will only make me stronger.

My totals
4.4 Miles 41:25
Avg Sprint Pace 7:19
Avg Recovery Pace 10:54

So as I mentioned last time, Big Peach was able to take back my Nikes and I ended up back in New Balances(1061). They seemed to feel great this morning, and I like the little extra bit of room I get in the 4E vs the 2E. The only downside to the shoes is that they are a fugly shade of Tennessee orange!! Yuck!

I also picked up a pair of Sorbothane Ultrasoles. I was a little concerned when I first put my feet in them that they may make my shoes tight, but it wasnt at all. I definitely could tell the difference as this was the first time I had ever put inserts in my shoes. So far they feel great. They really support my heel, which is important for me as I have been an off and on sufferer of plantar fasciitis. I will continue to update you as I break them in.

Digging deep and freezing my bum off

2008-07-20T16:17:00.000-07:00

So after a tough weekend of training and not being totally recovered from Chattanooga, I took my first Ice Bath tonight.

I think I didnt get it cold enough because my I barely shivered, my legs werent numb, and I didnt really have goose bumps. Next time, I think I will use 4 bags of ice instead of 2. I got in started filling the tub with (not really that) cold water. Once my legs were covered, I added the first bag of ice and continued to fill the tub. By the time the tub was filled, the first bag had already melted. I added the second bag. It was cold, but I wouldnt say it was torture like I was expecting. I am feeling somewhat better, but my glutes are still a little sore. I guess I will need to use the roller tonight too.

So on Saturday, my aggressive plan called for 14, and my not so aggressive called for 10. I knew it would be slower then previous long runs, but I was surprised how slow it actually was. While I was able to keep my turnover rate about what it normally was, and my form was fine, I just couldnt seem to get the push off to pick up any speed. I even thought about turning around, but I kept going. My plan was to do the first early 5 miler then do the 10 miler that is actually more like 9.5 and could easily be shortened to 9.My first mile came in at 8:45 and actually felt good, after that, it all went downhill. Each of the next four miles was 30 seconds slower then the next. When we headed back out, I was still hopefull I could pull off the full 14. I knew by mile 7 that was not going to happen. I chose to do the 6 miler, which was actually around 5.5 miles. I struggled through it, behind the pack I am usually a couple of minutes in front of and stopped when I hit the 10 mile mark. I did 10 miles in an hour and 45 minutes for an average pace of 10:33, 45 seconds to a minute slower than my usual long run pace. I completely attribute this to not being fully recovered and not stretching/rolling this week. For nutrition, I took a fuel belt bottle (8oz) of strong gatorade I mixed that morning every 2 miles. At the regroup after 5 miles, I ate 6 shot blocks, refilled the 2 bottles I used in the first 5 and put on my camel back. In addition to my bottle every 2 miles, I went through about 1 liter of water from the camel back. This was probably slightly more then I needed, I think my gatorade may have been a little strong.

After the run, we headed to Big Peach, who took back my Nike's. Instead, I went with a new pair of the New Balance's I had been running with, except now in a EEEE instead of EE. The more I thought about itm my last few long runs, the peachtree 10K, and the Chattanooga Oly were all done in the New Balances. The other thing is this time based on other blogger's experiences, I purchased replacement insoles which in testing in the store felt much better. Once I run in them, I will post a review.

So up sunday, a four hour ride on the silver comet with Wes. My longest (non trainer) ride was on the comet and was 48 miles. My longest trainer ride was 56 miles in 2:30. Obviously there is a big difference between the trainer and riding outside. We headed out at 6:30. His plan was 60 minutes in Zone 1 as a warmup, 2* 30 minutes in Zone 2 with 15 minutes recovery between and finish up in around zone 2. The first half went pretty good. I made it through the first interval, though definitely slower then Wes, but I was able to keep my HR down. I cant even say for certain on the second one. We hit 35 miles in just under 2 hours. We stopped to stretch and eat something solid, and then headed back. The third hour wasnt bad, but definitely slower. After 3 hours, I was drained. This was the first time I really had to dig deep and push myself forward. Wes was great to wait several times for me to catch up, and I think we may have stopped about 3 times, twice to stretch, and one for me to refill my bottles. While I wont likely do more then 3 to 3:30 for any of my long rides, I needed this. This was the first time I ever had to dig deep inside and find the confidence to complete the task at hand. A few times, I thought to myself: the 70.3 is going to be this tough. I am going to have to dig deep to complete it. I was glad I was able to push through with my tired, tight, achy legs. Total ride was 70 miles in 4 hours 22 min. Average speed 16.3. First half was in 1:59(17.7 mph), second in 2:23(15 mph)

For nutrition on the ride, I filled my first two bottles with a nuun/weak gatorade mix. I think this may be a winner. It has enough calories and electrolytes to get the job done. At the halfway point, I took a cliff bar. On the way back, I had 2 bottles of water/nuun. The only thing about nuun, even though they claim it doesnt, it made me burp alot. Along with the water/nuun, I took 3 shot blocks every 30 minutes. I am finding that I like the shot blocks better then gels. My plan was one bottle per houur. This worked for the first half, but as it heated up, I was done with my 3rd and 4th bottles by like 3:15. I refilled 2 bottles, drank one down almost immediately and finished the last (#6) about 30 minutes before the finish. It was getting really hot. When we stopped so I could refill, there was a woman who apparently was riding alone who passed out due to the heat. Apparently when they found her she was a little disoriented and had fallen over. Hopefully she is ok. Next long ride, I may try the gatorade/nuun mix in all four bottles. That mix is not enough calories, so I will have to see how shot blocks mix with the gatorade. I dont think they will be as bad as mixing gels with gatorade.

I am not sure how this week will go. I will just take it as it comes. I know it takes about 2 weeks to recover from an Olympic. I am seriously reconsidering my plan to do the Marathon in November. I will first see how next weekends 12 miler goes. I have already backed down to a less agressive plan that will probably get me one 20 miler before the 70.3 and another after. If next week goes bad, then I will stay in like the 10-15 mile range through the 70.3 and then see if I can build up to a 20 miler after SC. If not, then I will see if I can find a close race around December. Otherwise, I will wait for an early 2009 marathon. Right now my focus needs to be on the 70.3 and especially on the bike. I seriously need hill work or high gear low cadence hill simulation. I also need to work on my core. I am going to try to find an easy to do at home 30 minute or less core workout. Also, once I am sure my shoulder is OK, I will actually start to do the pushup challenge. I have not been doing it because of my shoulder.

Photos:Chattanooga Waterfront Tri

2008-07-17T17:37:00.000-07:00


T1:Not too bad other then my pouch hanging out. My last few races I felt pretty strong coming out of the water. Of course as usual the photographer finds me hitting the watch

Bike:The one on the right is going out, the one on the left coming back in. As you can see it was quite wet

Run:Feeling pretty good here. Almost to the finish.

Finish: Why is it I cant ever seem to get a decent finish pic?? I guess I need to hold my arms up longer and not worry so much about stopping the clock. I didnt realize I put my arms down too soon till it was too late.Ugh!!