Draft Legal IM?

Found this photo on xtri today. Footage is from IM Lake Placid. Seriously, people, I like drafting as much as the next guy on a group ride or when you're having a hard day, but a bit of self-respect might be warranted...

consistabred

Working toward consistency. The base is not built by huge days or weekends, but by the slow grind. Consistency of effort, diligence, and rest.

The focus currently is a normal schedule, and especially ramping up the volume of sleep. I've been lucky to get 6 a night for the past couple of weeks. This must change.

The tentative race schedule for right now is as follows:

Aug 11, Lexington, KY: Midsummer's Night Run (5K road race - just for fun)

Aug 18, Georgetown, KY : Lame Duck Tryathlon (Shorty sprint)

Aug 26, Springfield, OH: Buck Creek International Tri (On the drive home, we will be stopping for a bit at IM Louisville to catch a bit of the vibe-it's gonna be sweet)

Sep 16, Nashville, TN: Music City Tri (Oly distance)

Sep 23, Lexington, KY: Tri for Sight (Sprint. The local tri is important and looking forward to it)

Nov. 11, Miami, FL: The big daddy, Miami Man 1/2 Iron distance.

Some of the sprints listed might not happen, but I'd like to do all of these. The two international are B races to lead up to Miami and be prepped, leaving the last 6 weeks to build race-specific 1/2 iron fitness.

The late-season race has got my schedule off from most, who are peaking right now. It's going to take some discipline to keep my head down and just train base for a few more weeks.

Yes, this is what parts of KY look like as you ride past. A quilt on a barn might be a little cheesy, but it sure is nice to be able to get out of town and be quiet for a while: nothing but you, pastures, nature and a couple of wheels.

Weekly wrap-up: here we go...

Swim: 3000 yds (55:12)
Bike: 84.17 mi (4:33:00)
Run: 14.95 mi (1:55:48)

Total: 7 hrs, 23 min

Pretty easy week. I think I'm figuring out a little bit more how to train fully today but also keep the next day in mind. The focus right now is really on consistency. If I can continue to do moderate aerobic work, it should be possible to develop a solid aerobic engine. This in turn, theoretically, should enable speed work to be more effective and profitable relative to the current state.

I was motivated today as I was at about halfway through my 46 mile ride. The bluegrass cycling club
was out with a lot of beginners and they were lucky to be pushing 10-12 mph. They were circling and going back to pick up some people who were obviously struggling. More and more, I find myself appreciating people who get out and go for it even if they aren't going to look good doing it. Who cares, right? If somebody's got a problem with you being out there, or you feel like you're overweight, or don't know what you're doing....why not just get out there and ask somebody? Here's to you, people who overcome their fears to live their lives. Cheers

Raising the roof:

Looking forward to a bit longer bike ride tomorrow. 2.5 hours aerobic. Should be good. All about the bike. I love it.

accidental slow week (wrap-up) and miami

5:18 Total

Swim: 4000 yds (1:14)

Bike: 39.15 mi (2:28)

Run: 10.39 mi (1:24)

Lift: 0:35

Felt ok, but work and travel got in the way this last week. I'm stepping it back up this week, and hoping to get around 80-85 mi. on the bike. I need it.

I'm coming for you Miami. You better be ready. I know I will be.

Bluegrass 10K

That's yours truly in the background (green shirt). In the midst of passing these yahoos on my way to a 41:55 10000 meter road race, they yelled to people on an overpass, "Hey rich people, don't spit on us!" Hence my smile.

Avg. HR: 179

It's an odd thing when the only person to truly keep one accountable is oneself. I have few measures against myself currently. I think I could have run this race faster had I done some speedwork and focused on it leading up to the race. However, doing all the aerobic work has kept me from that. Speedy road races will be the focus next march as I'm prepping for St. Anthony's in April.

Needing more of this...

Man, I'm tired. So glad today is a rest day. The body needs to be doing better than the 6 hr/night I averaged over the last 8 days (all training days). I move that we insert a new 26 hr day. Or maybe just work 40-hr weeks (there's an idea).

Weekly Wrap-Up

I'm going to try to start doing this partially to keep track, and partially to serve as accountability.

Lift: 2 sessions (~1:10)

Swim: 6500 yds (~2:00)

Bike: 78 mi. (~4:00)

Run: ~19 mi (2:50)

Total Training Time: 10 hours

The nice part is, I don't really feel all that shelled. I rather expected I would. However, I do need to get more sleep. Looks as if caffeine might have to take a back seat once again.

I'm noticing more and more how difficult it is to keep things in balance. This really has to be my free time when I'm not with friends/family if I'm going to do it. Oh well, I didn't miss the College World Series that much. It is funny how the importance of some things you used to care about fades away as you do things more important.

Time to wrap this up. I'd like to do a segment on the bike fit I got two weeks ago (forward seatpost, new angle, etc) and how I feel coming out of it, so look for that.

To close, I'll leave you a quote from Frank Shorter to get you fired up:

"You don't run 26 miles at 5 minutes a mile on good looks and a secret recipe."

Bugs and Money

These little schmucks are forcing me to get rid of hard-earned cash. It's impossible to get a good training ride around here without riding around horse/cattle/tobacco farms. The aesthetic quality of the rides is wonderful. Eating bugs with my eyes is not. Every morning ride I do, it's as if there's some gravitational pull toward the middle of my eye. There's no good way to remove said bug from eye until reaching destination, finding a mirror, pulling back the skin around my eye, and digging out the now eye-juice saturated black lump of organic mass. Disgusting and painful. It usually takes half an hour to stop looking like an Eastern Kentucky Oxycontin dealer with my prolific red eyes.

The solution: of course, another pair of glasses to shield the eyes. But when it's barely light outside, it's difficult to use the shaded glasses. Aaahh, the savings dwindles by another $30-$40.

I wonder if I need to buy a bug-screen for my mouth to keep them out of there? Nah, I'll just eat 'em (involuntarily) or spit them out

Ummm, ya....I'm gonna need you to come in on Sunday, ya

Callout issued: Callout answered. I'll see you Nov. 11th....MOONPIE! Man, how am I gonna get my bike down there?

Staff Response to Moonpie...(if middle fingers offend you, please don't read this)

moonpie said...
Sounds like a great training day! I think if you haven't fallen over while clipped in then you simply haven't ridden enough :PAnd YES, you do MiamiMan this year. Oh, you also need to do the Little Smokies half-iron race THIS Sunday with Erik and I! Yes, I'm calling you out punk! Bring it!!http://www.hfpracing.com/races/smokies/index.php

Alright, first: Oh I've fallen over clipped in a couple times my friend. Last summer, on a work commute home, I stopped at a light, clipped out, and then leaned toward my still clipped in foot. I reached the tipping point and went right over (at a crowded intersection mind you). This description does not include the multiple times I dorfed it into the street learning how to clip in and out last summer.

And dude I told you, I'm gonna be in NY this weekend. Otherwise, I would be there rocking it. I'm disappointed I can't make it. I'm really jonesing to race, and I couldn't find one in Crapchester, NY this weekend either. Such is life.

Bill, thanks for the comments and I'm glad you enjoyed the taylorsville lake race. Pretty much anywhere in the general area around here, if you're not in town, your working hard on a bike (or run for that matter).

Ahh, getting toasted and eating humble pie...

This in some ways relates to the previous post regarding time. Some would support the idea of moderate workouts most of the time supplemented with some big weekends/time off. This weekend was far from epic, but as a build, it was pretty successful. Little hard run (8.5 miles) on saturday led me to a slightly difficult sunday.

My buddy Tim just graduated from Seminary, and his brother-in-law came to town to hang out as well as to put me through the paces on a 45-mile moderately fast-paced ride in the "rolling" hill of central KY. Rolling! What a bunch of crap. Anyhow we crushed the first 1.5 hrs at an average pace of 21.5 mph, and took a quick stop to refill water and get a little bit of food in our bodies. I decided on the way back that 45 was preferable to 60 miles, so I took a "shortcut." While Quentin was definitely the fitter of us, even he was dog-cussing those ridiculously long and steep hills on KY state route 1981. Wow, I was in pain. I actually had to get out of my big ring to be able to survive. I don't normally do that either. I live in Lexington. Tim lives in Nicholasville (a slightly redneck town, but a peaceful burg nonetheless). I never thought coming into the outskirts of Nich-vegas would look so good to me. It was beautiful.

Now for the humble pie: I have yet to actually wreck on my bike. I will maintain that assertion even after yesterday. So as one is prone to do on the bike, we run a lot of stop signs, and expect people in cars (if we arrive at said 4-way stop at the same time) to let us go first. This worked great until the second to last stop sign. Quentin was leading and I was pretty close on his wheel. Dude in white truck pulls up, barely beats us to the intersection, and I think we're going for it. Quentin said afterwards that he (quentin) did not give dude the confident look, and that it was his fault. So dude goes right in front of us, and quentin locks up his brakes. I lock up mine, but my back wheel starts sliding out to the side, and I just nudge the back of quentin's wheel. I fall over, clipped in. Beautiful. So I'm on the ground and can't unclip my right foot. Picture a ladybug holding up a scaled down bicycle, writing around. I'm trying to get it undone and that bastard quentin says "are you ok?" "Ya" I say. "Are you embarrassed?" Hell yes, I'm embarrassed. Best kind of accident though, nobody's hurt, just a little bit of getting laughed at by people sitting in their cars. Oh well. Good weekend. Not really even all that sore. Guess I need to train harder.

Next: do I do the Miami Man 70.3? I just don't know. Time is tight these days.

The silent monster

The perpetual passing of time really does make it difficult to accomplish many of one's goals. How to work the currently desired 45 hours/week (not including driving time and lunch, etc), fulfill personal and spiritual obligations, maintain friendships, and also reach the level of fitness aspired to is the question.

No one here is sure, but suggestions are welcome. The idea of a 10-hr cap per week is being examined. There's apparently a method to that type of madness.

Seriously, how do you keep it all straight?

The fire returneth

So one of the all time great feelings is when one has not been in the pool for a while, swims hardish, and feels pretty good. (I was able to get an employee to take a picture of me, which you can see)

I also ran into a dude who did Escape from Alcatraz last year and chatted with him about it at Gold's last night. That was encouraging and got me fired up to get some races in. In other news, due to their general dumbassness, Gold's will henceforth be referred to as GloboGym.

If a gym chooses to put tv screens and speakers all around the place, I'm ok with that. I'm even ok with them playing music, albeit far too loudly on said speakers. But if these boundaries are crossed, some bastions of decency must remain. Lil bow wow and jojo are not to be played under any circumstances. It's just wrong. And what's with all this teeny-bopper garbage? It's a gym people. Get in. Work hard. Enjoy yourself. Get out. Pretty simple concept. It would be really nice if they could put something decent on these tv's, like Lance crushing some people or some old Iron War footage. All these things, and the commercials have to stop.

The confluence of this nonsense has me extremely excited about the prospect of a new YMCA to be built in east Lex Angeles. Oh it will be sweet.

Apparently, I lack bike fitness...

The weather had been crappy here for about two weeks and I hadn't gotten time to ride the bike much lately. Thus, sunday was the time to take care of such things. And it was a great ride. I'm still not fit in that my HR is a lot higher (I think) on the bike relative to my run numbers. But a large portion of that is likely attributable to the lack of sport-specific training (again, relative to my running).

So the ride was great. It was 36 miles in sub 2 hours. Just working on slowly building time in the saddle. Great day, enjoyed being outside in the nice spring air. The only problem is that roughly an hour after I got done, I was cramping and my legs were totally sapped. I went to stand up and a pain the likes of which I hope to never experience shot down the inside of my left leg. Apparently my hip adductor was cramping (Thank you Amber for saving me from prolonged pain in knowing how to stretch that thing). In case you're curious, the picture above represents the approximate level of pain I experienced in that 5 minutes. And yes, that is the other guy's foot in that tender area.

So the issue I believe is partially bike fitness, but also related to the strength difference between my two legs. I've been trying to strengthen the one that has had the 4 surgeries, but it feels like I'm running into a wall. This shifts priorities a bit to really working on ironing this out. I don't want to be fighting injuries while training. It also really hinders performance. When the left leg is good, i run faster and bike faster ( I think I swim straighter too.). Regardless, Sam needs some help.

Finally

Ah yes. It's about time. Can anybody say bike rides for months? It's gonna be a good summer.

There's a Noreaster moving in...

Sometimes people travel to see friends and still want to get in a little workout. Sometimes they get to said place and the weather has changed. Not wanting to let circumstances dictate behavior, these same people decide to carry on as planned. And oftentimes, these same people have a great time running 7 miles in sleet and wind. The dude in the pictures is Nate, a buddy of mine from college. Nate's getting back into running and is racing a 5-miler in a month or so. This was his longest run in years. Life is good.

Bringing Crazy back

So running a marathon brings a tremendous sense of accomplishment. For me it also brought a tremendous amount of lazy along with it. Putting on 10-15 lbs over the winter didn't help out too much, but crazy sam is on his way back. He's eating better, cutting out dessert all over again and generally stepping it back up to previous levels. I now just wish I had another couple hours in the day to work out more and sleep as much as necessary.

Why I love/hate Triathlons

A few thoughts on the moment.

The excitement surrounding it (before, during, and after)/The pain in the middle of training and racing that allows that enjoyment to come.

I began looking at some training races leading up to St. Anthony's yesterday. They're all pool swims with short bikes, but such is life pre-May in the mid-south. However, as I did it I felt myself getting all pumped up and feeling anxiety that I needed to get out and train. Previously, I had been dreading the races I wanted to do. Now I'm only looking forward to them with a sly smile. It's gonna be a good year. First on the docket. Triple Crown of Running in Louisville. Run myself back into shape and mix in some bike and swim work. Now we just need some sunshine to make the bricks easier.

Sick & Flow

Well, I'm hoping this will be the beginning of some more writing. I went to the gym and did a quick leg workout on saturday; and ever since have been quite sick. I'm coming around, although I didn't sleep at all last night. Not a good start on my new year's resolution to sleep more. Oh well, that's what tomorrow is for. Always believe it.

A friend just finished up a masters degree in Psychology and shared a very interesting paper with me on the subject of "Flow." This could be described to most people as being in the zone. The research noted that flow is most likely to occur at a point where someone is challenging themselves at a high level, has a clear understanding of their goal(s), and is confident they can achieve with their given (or sometimes only perceived) skills.

Looking at this research explains to me some of the phenomena of how a slower, chubbier kid (like me) with a ridiculously huge ego relative to actual physical talent was able to be successful in sports against much more athletic kids. Very few people seem willing to tell themselves that they can and should win because they may fail. The few who continue to tell themselves they're winners in spite of early failures are the truly successful. I believe this principle of perseverance applies to myriad areas of life.

Another interesting thought that flow brings about is how do we achieve an "in-the-zone" like state in our life? I'm not saying we should shut off our brains, but if one believes that they are truly designed for a purpose, but yet do not have clear goals, this state is nearly impossible to achieve. (e.g. "those who fail to plan plan to fail."). What do we do to truly harness all of our potential to truly live with purpose and passion?