Flatwoods Bike-Run #1

I enjoy getting people riled up.  It's what I do.  So before the big day, I threw out an e-mail to all the participants of our little schin-dig giving my prediction of thier performance.  Yes, very dickish.  It wasn't totally my idea - one of the guys in the adjacent cubicle (we call them offices, but really, they are glorified cubicles...) put odds on everyone racing, and I thought he was off a bit.

Anyway - the e-mail worked like a charm, and a couple of the guys, now, were much more emotionally involved than they were in the days and weeks prior.  We done had ourselves a race!

So the deal was, we all start off on our bikes, roll 24.65 miles, transition back at our cars, and head out to run 6 miles.  Not everyone was going to run.  Our CEO, John, is a great biker, but has back and knee issues and decided last minute that he'd give the bike part a go.  The rabbit had arrived.  Greg "Bacon" isn't a runner either, and was all in for a fast ride.  The rest of us would slug it out.  Sort-of.

Lee brought a buddy from his church with him, Sean, whom we had ridden with before.  He's a stud, and he came ready to throw it down.  We put John and Sean up front, the strongest bikers of the group, along with Christian - the young guy - who's also got wheels, and the rest of us took up stance behind them and waited for 7:30am to start'er up.  When we all looked ready, I said "go", rather ingloriously, and off we went.

We must have all eaten our Wheaties this morning, because at 4 miles we were averaging 21.5mph, which I knew was much faster than I had the heartbeats for!  I started to back it down, John, Sean and Christian drove away, and the rest of us settled into a decent game of "losing your concentration".  That's where you're cruising along at a certain speed, everyone's got the right 3 bike lengths to stay draft legal, and then the guy up front slows down.  No reason really, but now the second guy is forced to pass or slow, but you didn't lose your concentration, so you pass - waking the previous now second leader up, and the leap-frogging continues.  We were all guilty of this.

Greg and Tom hung in there with us, granted, with a little bit of drafting, but it was nice to see them with us for the whole ride.  Both of them are getting better and better, and to their well deserved credit, they both tried to find clean air and even got out front for parts of the day.  It took about 13 miles to drop the average to 21mph, and at the end, we all came in between 20.6 and 20.7mph. 

At one point, Markle was feeling his oats, and made an unanswered acceleration.  I tried to keep him in my sights, but just pulled away, and I lost him in the turning circle that is Flatwoods.  Until the last mile.  Smelling the barn, and seeing Markle free-wheeling it in was all Lee needed to rally up some finishing horsepower.  Plus I egged him on, "go get him, Lee!" I chided.  And he did - with a quarter mile to go, everyone (Lee, Greg, Tom) flew past me chasing Markle, while I continued at my pace, spinning in to transition.  Oh yea, guys, we still have this little run to go...

Alas, poor Lee - his final effort left him pulling up with a blown hammie.  But he did beat Markle in.  Sean and Chris were both out on the run already; we crossed paths with about 200yds to go into "transition".  I roared into the parking lot, threw down my tailgate, chucked my bike into the bed, and sat on the tailgate.  Now THAT's what transitions should all be like!  Bike shoes off, running shoes on, switch the Garmin over to "run" while walking back over the trail, and for a brief, tiny flash of a second, I was kicking it on the run, ahead of Lee, Markle and Tom!  I crushed that transition, and then sped off at my blistering 11:00min/mile pace.

I held Markle off for about half a mile as he screamed by me trying to chase down the leaders.  Markle's one of those natural athletic types (read young and skinny).  I had given him some guff before the race since he hasn't been training much, so he had to prove me wrong.  He did.

I kept looking for Lee.  Where's Lee?  I heard footsteps closing on me fast, and said over my shoulder, "there's Big Lee" - but it wasn't him.  When I hit the 3 mile turnaround and still no Lee, I knew something was wrong and Lee didn't start the run.  But there was Tom.  Tom had gained on me the whole way, and was, as I predicted, right on my ass.  I was sure he'd pass me, but I wasn't going to give it up without a fight.  After all, I'd just watched Kona, and was ready for some shoulder to shoulder - mono a mono run down action.  It never happened.

Tom had him a little cramping issue shortly thereafter, and stopped at the one water spot at mile 4.  I had no idea, and was still running scared, so I didn't stop, nor did I look back.  Never look back, right?  Even when you are running 11's, you still don't look back.  Since Tom and I were the last two back in, everyone was waiting for us and cheering us in.  It was pretty cool, and a great benchmark test of fitness for everyone who participated.

My average run came in at 10:59 - right where I was hoping it would be.  I've got 7 weeks until the Key West Olympic Tri, so I'll have a good chance to see how much better I can get my running before then.  I think we'll try and do another of these brick races in 4 weeks, just to gauge the progress.  It was a ton of fun, and I think everyone that participated had a blast and learned a bit about themselves.  Tom and Chris still have never done an Olympic, and now have the confidence, minus the swim of course, to enter one someday soon.  Markle's got the Tri-bug again.  And for me, I can see an average of 21mph again in my sights, and know with some weight loss (I'm still about 273lbs) and a bit of run focus in these next 5 training weeks, I can get my run down to the mid 10's at least.

Good times!

Stairs

Here's what 4 sets of stairs looks like on a Garmin:

I promise you I didn't run in the water!  That was my first time since High School Wrestling running stairs - I kinda like it!

Progress Report

So we know I'm having fun again.  I'm not sure if today's workout was fun, well, parts of it is.  I keep hearing young Ricky Bobby saying over and over, "I wanna go fast, I wanna go fast".

Today we went fast for 1 mile intervals.  It's fun to hit 24mph, even if only for 3/4 a mile.  2 hours worth of intervals.  Nice.

 But I gotta tell ya, this workout smoked me.  Something about all-out efforts times 10 - I used to do these, and I used to be pretty fast on the bike.  So hopefully this will bring about the old Bigun.

Heart Rate over 10 intervals

Of course, the old Bigun is still hiding inside the current Bigun.  I was 276lbs yesterday - 5 lbs over my target weight for this week.  I'm pretty sure that 5 lbs on me is well within acceptable survey error... +/- 2% on any pundit poll certainly never made or broke a candidate - so I shouldn't be too worried yet.  If I can keep the progress within 2%, I'm technically only 2 weeks or so away from my goal weight.  Look on the bright-side, right?  So I'm down 12.5 lbs since I started keeping the record 72 days ago.  All this fat was 2 years putting on, and it's got a firm hold on me now. Imagine how hard it will be to drop once I hit my old IMCdA weight of 2 years ago!

Probably not going to race at Longleaf this year.  I have the day off work, but I'll probably just do a private Olympic with some buddies over at Flatwoods that day (with or without the swim).  No matter how you slice it, $105 clams for a triathlon after a bad sales month fails to make much sense.  Especially when I'm saving my pennies for IMAZ11.

Having Fun Again

I'm really not doing anything special or different, but I am starting to feel better about training again.  Sure, I know I've got a long way to go just to get back to 2008 fitness levels, but there has been clear progress in these past couple of months, and that's encouraging.

Next on the board is another Olympic - the Longleaf Triathlon.  This looks to be an awesome race - perfectly flat bike and run, along with typically cooler weather, and a fairly uncrowded field should all prove to be awesome.  Plus, the swim doesn't really look to be, based on last year's times, a full 1500 meters.  Since I'm a horrible swimmer, that's a good thing.

I've broken out of a fairly strict "base" phase and have started putting in some intervals into my training.  It is pleasantly surprising to see the bike speed where it is now, and I'm sure the swim and run will start to come around too.  I've got this weekend and 2 more hard weeks of training to make some gains before Longleaf - even the weight has been coming off a little bit at a time (the good way).

We've got our reservations for a B&B down in the Keys for early December - and I've registered for the first ever Key West Triathlon.  Not only do we really need a vacation... this is my defacto A-race for 2010 (because it's the last one) and I think it's really gonna be cool.  It already has about 200 people signed up for it - it's shaping up nicely!

Florida Challenge Short Course

So here we are - RACING AGAIN! Yea, pretty exciting - it's been a while, and not being a stranger for overreaching, I scheduled an Olympic Distance Triathlon to announce my presence with authority!

Crash: Why are you shaking me off?
Nuke: I want to bring the heater. Announce my presence with authority.
Crash: To announce what?
Nuke: My presence with authority.
Crash: To announce your presence with authority?! This guy's a first ball fastball hitter, looking for the heat.
Nuke: So what? He ain't seen my heat.
Crash: All right, Meat. Give him your heat. [He walks back to his place behind the plate.]
Nuke: Why's he always calling me Meat? I'm the guy driving a Porsche.
Crash: [to the batter at the plate] Fastball.
[Nuke throws it and the batter hits a home run. The batter stands there, watching.]
Crash: What are you doing standing here? I gave you a gift. You stand here showing up my pitcher? Run, dummy

It didn't work out too good for Nuke, nor for the Bigun. I feel like I got hit with the fastball square in the noggin, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

This trip was predicated with a grand Bloggie Meet-up and reunion. Epic. A long time coming. Commodore first showed up on the Bigun's radar in April 2007 - a simple comment on a simple post. From simple beginnings, we've exchanged phone numbers and over the years have become good friends - still having never met face-to-face. Until this weekend. Creepy Internet Friend no more, neither us nor him wound up buried in a shallow grave or coaxed into a overseas investment scam. We had a great weekend!!!!

Tri-Sherpa Di also got to get into picture-taking mode, which she loves to do. Check out this great picture she took of by buddy Lee getting out of the the water... if you look close, you can actually see Lee...

We rented a cabin at Lake Louisa near Clermont, the site of the race, and shared it with Commodore and our long-lost racing companions (we do more than just race socially, btw...) GEL (Green-Eyed-Lady) and Excel Man (...well, Excel Man..). It was great to reminisce and talk of training and race schedules, while Tri-Sherpa Di and GEL drank some wine and laughed! Excel Man had a stress fracture in his foot, keeping him from running, so he "only" did the Half-Iron Distance Aqua-bike.

Because the RD's were adjusting the swim buoys for 1500m from 1.2M, we had to wait for everyone racing the long distance before we could go. We didn't start our wave until about 8:20 or so - with a water temp reportedly at 85 degrees, and an air temp of about 80 degrees, climbing fast now that the sun was over the horizon. Lee, a buddy from work, was also racing the Olympic with me, and we toed the line together and went out as the countdown from 5 reached zero!


Here's Curt aka Excel Man getting ready for T2 - look, he's got his feet out of his shoes getting ready for a quick change into his running shoes. In the Aqua-bike. Ya see, it was HOT, and none of us were thinking very clearly...

(oh, and what's with people and the National Anthem? Even if you are from another country, racing in the US, the right thing to do is stand while the anthem is being played, just in case you didn't know. Americans: stop talking. Take off your hat. Put your right hand over your heart. Face toward the flag, if there is one. C'mon folks...)

So... um... I was the last one out of the water (well, not LAST - there were 6 people slower than me), I mean, for the Clydesdales with a time of 49:28. I think there was something interesting on the bottom of the lake I was trying to see. At least my transition wasn't bad at 3:36 (nice little jog from the lake to T1).

The bike was hilly, and even though it seems like I didn't try hard, I was at an elevated effort level after the swim, so I was slow to get moving - all that combined to give me a 1:34:33 (15.7mph) bike time. Yippers!

3:37 later, I was out walking on the run course. That wasn't the plan, of course, but that was the reality. By then it was over 85 degrees, and the sun was beating me down. I was beginning to think that a sprint would have been a much better idea. I decided to walk the first 3 miles, and then run back in. I actually started to feel good enough at the 2 mile aid station to start run-walking, and then on the way back in, I passed a couple of guys I thought were Clydesdales, which motivated me to keep up the pace. Then my bro Commodore met up with me and we ran most of the last 1.5 miles back in, giving me a whopping 1:29:13 10k time and a 14:22 per mile pace.

Yes, it was gruesome. 4:00:34 is my official time, but it wasn't as gruesome as 3 other big guys that I passed on the bike and run. Lee finished at 3:38 - a great time under those conditions! Congrats Lee!

It's hard to believe my Olympic PR is 2:48. 30 lbs lighter. Cooler and flatter. A full minute per 100 yds faster (1:57 vs 3:01/100yds). 5.2mph faster (20.9 vs 15.7) and 4:30 per mile faster (14:22 vs 9:48). That was only 3.5 years ago! An hour and 12 min off my PR... now there's some room for improvement!

The next race is in 4 weeks - the Longleaf Olympic Tri. Much flatter. Hopefully much cooler. Potentially 8 - 10 lbs lighter. This is going to be a long road back, no doubt.

Training Log

One of the benifits of having a anal-retentive training log is that when you have the worst coach in the world, ie, yourself, you can look back and try to see what you did good and what you did poorly to help with writing your own training calendar. Of course, a professional coach would be able to see in a second the "rights" and the "wrongs" of anything silly the M-Dot Bigun is up to, but with the economy and what-not, who can afford a coach these days?

I find myself, this morning, absolutely whacked out bushed - slept waaaay in, and had no desire to hit my scheduled 2-hr bike ride. So I got to thinking (yea, Tri-Sherpa Di had to ask what that burning smell was...) - what did I do last year differently? So I looked!

Lo and behold, I more often than not trained at a 2 week "on", 1 week "recover" cycle. I just automatically dove into a 3 on - 1 off cycle this time around, and it's no wonder, after 2 cycles, why I'm dragging ass! Now don't get me wrong, I can see the merits of 3-1, the main one being that over time, there's a whole lot more training and a bit less recovery. Which begs the question, is there enough recovery? Well for a guy like me - and perhaps the average MOP age grouper, there might need to be some middle ground.

So I think going forward I'll try and adjust the schedule to go 3-1 and then 2-1. I'm the kind of person that would really like to try for the harder schedule and only go to 2-1 if I need to, but it becomes really hard to schedule races and optimum recovery before races if you just play it by ear. Or, I could keep it the way I have it, and not feel bad if I miss a workout or two in that last week of the second 3-week block... oh the humanity!

DC Giveaway!

He's doing it again. Another Forerunner. Yummy. DCRainmaker, you go!

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/09/september-garmin-forerunner-310xt.html

Dark Tunnel

If there's light at the end of that tunnel, I still can't see it. For those of you who are in shape right now, and getting tired or burned out of all the running, swimming and biking and are thinking of just taking a little time off...

Forgetaboutit!

Going from "Iron-fit" to "not at all fit" takes about a millisecond, just in case you were wondering. The real depressing part is that me, being the anal-retentive record keeper that I am, happened upon Buckeye Outdoors where I had kept all of my pre-Ironman CdA08 training logs... and even though those records are over 2 years old now, lucky me - they are all still in there!

It's not bad having a point of reference, really. I can look back and see what I did, and the results that I got from all that effort. I can use that to gauge my next buildup to IMAZ11, and although I'm 2 years older, I can see what I need to do to reasonably hit my goal for that race.

It's just the darn evidence is there! I used to be fit! Now look at me; fat, slow, and did I mention slow? Muscle memory my ass! That's a myth. Probably started by perpetually skinny people who never would have dreamed of taking 2 years off.

My first Tri of the season, of my return to fitness, is in less than 2 weeks. A nice Olympic up in Clermont Fl, called the Florida Challenge. In the past this was typically only a Half Iron distance race, but I guess to up the attendance, they included an Oly this year. Good for me! Of course I can only look forward to racing and finishing - this is a "one foot in front of the other" day, make no mistake. It's gonna be awesome to be out racing again, though, you know?

The last time I was out here was in '08, right before IMCdA. Didn't PR then, my best Oly coming in '07 at St Anthony's. 32:08 on the swim - a 1:57 per 100 yard effort. Since swimming again, I've been at 2:10 or so per 100 yard, so I'm hoping I can push out about a 36 min swim.

My SA bike PR was 20.9mph average, and in Clermont, I averaged 19mph in the hills. I've got my base rides up in the 18.5mph range, so with the hills, pushing it, lets shoot for 18mph, putting me at 1:23.

Oh, the run. The run will be ugly for sure! My PR is 1:00:51 for a 9:51 pace. Of course, that was at 245lbs, and I'll be running at least at 275 on race day. I'm gonna be very real, here, folks - averaging 11:00 per mile after the swim and bike will be all out. 1:07 or so is the probable outcome, with an extra what, 7 min in transitions? Total time for my first Oly of 2010 - 3:14

The really cool thing is that I've got two more Oly's for '10; Longleaf and Key West - with plenty of time to improve and progress. That's actually gonna be neat to see!

Diet

I'm not talking about "Atkins" or "Paleo" or any one of a hundred specialized diets - I'm talking about eating better. Having a better diet. This time around (I'm talking about specific Ironman training) I want to be leaner and lighter come race day, and I know I'm not going to get there simply by training hard. I've got to start eating better.

I was reading Slowtwitch (I know, right?) and was intrigued by a pro athlete talking about eating gluten free. Additionally he was championing probiotics in the form of specialized yogurts and supplements. Now I'm not one to just jump on a particular diet, so I'm researching this stuff.

Gluten Free is a diet generally brought on by folks who are allergic to gluten. Gluten is, essentially, paste - food glue - made by bleaching wheat, and is also made by barley and rye (nooooo, not barley!). Generally, folks diagnosed with Celiac disease go Gluten free. Since Celiac Desease is reported to effect only 1% of the population, even if 75% are undiagnosed, chances are I'm ok. So why go gluten free?

Well, Gluten foods are processed foods, plain and simple. Now I'm getting back to the Paleo diet principles; no processed foods. I'm sure more research needs to be done, but in the one article I read (yea, lazy, just one...) the test group used (200) had 25% of them showed adverse effects of gluten proteins in the intestines. Some studies have shown that 100% of test groups show anti-body response to gluten proteins in the digestive track - meaning what? Wheat Gluten probably causes damage at some level to our digestive track. Means what to me - I'll digest more nutrients and cause less damage by eating non-processed foods (wheat). Sounds kinda like a no brainer. A quick Google search of "positive effects of Gluten" found only article after article of the reasons to eliminate it from the diet. So I'll work on that, for sure!

I was gonna list out some foods that had Gluten, ones to avoid... but at this website, I see that a simple list is way too long! Very dissapointed to see that beer is on list. Fortunately, there are some Gluten Free beers - made from grains like sorghum, millet, rice or buckwheat - all "safe" grains. I don't know on this one - the whole point is to move from processed foods - and I'm not (at least I don't know it yet) Celiac diagnosed, so I guess I could drink a "normal" beer, right?

The other point to this new diet for me is the probiotics piece. Holy moly! A quick wiki search of probiotics shows me that the different types of these buggers is staggering! Looks like there are many benefits to having them in you, and unless I'm dying, no real detriment. The benefits, of course are specific to individual "brands" (strains) of microorganism, so what's a unhealthy eater like me to do? I've only seen ONE non-paid-for recommendation of a "general pro-biotic" supplement - Floragen 3 - so now really, I don't know. I get that the supplimet needs to be coated to make it to the intestines, past the stomach. I also get that probiotics are pretty specific in form and benefit. I just want it to be simple. I don't think, based on this reasoning, that yogurts or other non-coated supplements have much of a chance of making it to where it will do much good. But I could be wrong, no, I'm probably wrong!

So my next project will be to start looking at what I eat and getting rid of the processed foods. That's relatively easy to identify, not very easy to execute. This probiotic piece is gonna take some more looking into. Any of you have any ideas, recommendations, experiences? Thanks!

Garmin Giveaway!

Hope this is for real - Garmin 310XT giveaway contest at this blog - go and check it out!

Fitness Measure

I don't like to re-invent the wheel. There's so much research out there, and while fitness studies can often contradict and the terminology can often change or warp, some things seem to stay pretty constant.

One constant seems to be the concept of "Base Training". Now I'm not a coach, and I don't play one on TV or on podcasts, but to me, Base Training is the active pursuit of increased aerobic fitness. Aerobic fitness / aerobic training is when you MOVE in such a way as not to push your heart rate and corresponding metabolic engines into oxygen depletion. I'm guessing (since I've probably read it and forgotten) that the point in which your movement becomes anaerobic corresponds not only to the build up of lactic acids but also to the thresholds of metabolizing glycogen (carbs) in the majority rather than fat.

You can get this measured for yourself at a place that actually measures your blood lactic acid levels and a few other things to come up with your own, personal hear rate zones, or you can use any one of a dozen or so formulas to derive not-as-accurate, but useful HR zones.

Why is this important? Well, popular research puts your glycogen stores at about 2 hrs (at anaerobic efforts) for well trained athletes, right? When the carbs run out, we bonk, plain and simple. We fight to replenish these stores on long efforts, and that fight is hit and miss, mostly miss, for many of us. We get a few gels in us, some Gatorade or what-not, cookies or bananas - and what happens? We get sick or our stomach shuts down and we push that 2 hrs to 3 or 4, maybe if we are lucky; so unless you're an animal and can finish a half Ironman under 4 hrs, or insanely good with your nutrition plan - flawless might be a better word - we need to condition our fat-burning anaerobic metabolism and fitness.

So what's the problem? WE ARE! We got these huge egos that make us want to ride or run or swim as hard as we can all the time and push, push push! How friggin' boring is it to ride in your aerobic zones for hours and hours? How sucky is it to stop and walk when the HR alarm goes off? Who really swims "within themselves"? The first time those riders zoom by on their fancy-schmancy bikes and you know they ain't really moving that fast, but you also know they are thinking about what a loser slow fat ass you are! Can't we just wear a sign that says, "BASE TRAINING TODAY"?

The payoff is huge, but the path is long. Big guys like me might have even more at stake with quality BASE workouts. Staying in the lower Heart Rate "fat-burning" zone (and yes, I know that in any HR zone, the body still metabolizes carbs for energy, but the thought is that the majority of energy comes from fat up to a certain threshold...) drops the pounds even faster. Keeping the workouts at lower intensities also, theoretically, lowers the chance of injury. Because I want to concentrate on my running in the months to come, but also know that at 280lbs, my running workouts are a roll of the dice as to which body part will fall apart first, I really need to concentrate on weight loss!

So, what we measure we can manage and what we manage we can improve, right? I like to look at my base training as a measure of heart beats per miles per hour. If you train with a power meter, you can get even more accurate (beats per watt) and it won't matter what terrain you train on or the wind conditions... but I've only got a HR monitor and a flat course to base train on. I stay in a base HR zone, these days for an hour, later it will be longer, and I then divide my average heart rate by my average speed - that give me my heart beats per mile an hour.

Six weeks ago, when I started training again, my base HB/MPH was 8.76 - today it was down to 8.16 - nice - I can see the fitness gain. I'll feel more like the "old" Bigun when I get that down to more like 7.6, and can do that for a 2hr ride instead of just one. But I'll shoot for one hr first. I don't want you to get the wrong impression - speed work is important even in this Base Phase! I get my speed work in after the hour of strict base work with a few Fartliks or intervals, but I know my priority right now is getting my metabolism better and more efficient at burning fat!

Lost 8 lbs in 4 weeks as well. 2 lbs a week - right according to plan! Oh, yea!

Eye on the Prize

I'm back in the saddle again. It's great to be back, actually. It's funny how much you forget when you've been gone from training so long. All the laundry, for one... running shorts and shirts, socks, biking pants - the hamper fills up fast these days!

Getting the bike back up to speed is also fun. Everyone loves bike part shopping, and I'm no exception. Tires, tubes, brake cables, chain lube, chamois butter, sunglasses, etc, etc, it seems the list hardly ends. But that's part of it.

Also part of it is figuring out the training/racing schedule. Not over-doing it. Preventing injury. Goal setting. All good stuff. I guess after doing it since '05, when I ran my first triathlon, it all comes back pretty quickly. Not the fitness, mind you - the process. Yea, coaching yourself is probably not the best idea - and we all know I've got some different ideas when it comes to training for Ironman - but I got my 255lb ass to the finish line in 14:36 last time - I might just know enough to be dangerous.

So now there's an Ironman in Houston. Who'd a thunk it? Quite possibly the hottest, most humid place on earth - more power to you Texans for selling out the race so quickly - May '11 could quite possibly bring the hardest IM on the planet for those of you toeing the line.

There's oil in the water for IM Florida swimmers this year, and possibly for years to come. Ocean swimming is bad enough without the oil slick. I remember the Chicago Triathlon, and the taste of diesel fuel in my mouth for the rest of the day after that short swim - I wonder if there ever is enough Gatorade after an oily Panama City swim?

IM Arizona '10 now has it's challenges - like the swim venue springing a leak. Everything I read tells me that it's doubtful that Tempe Town Lake will be fixed by November. I'm sure the show will go on - be it somewhere else to swim (is there?) or an Iron-duathlon of some sort.

Hey, every other business entity and industry is having their share of troubles, it's time the WTC has a challenge or two to overcome. Good for them. I'll tell ya, I really enjoyed the absence of PNF on IronmanLive's broadcast of IMUSA last week. Lisa Bently was fresh, interesting, and enthusiastic, and actually had some inflection in her voice throughout the program. I hope to see more of her co-hosting at other races.

I'm gonna bet that Tempe Town Lake is fixed by November 2011. I've started my Ironman Bank Account - not the "fitness bank" that we make deposits into after a century ride, but an actual savings account just for IMAZ11. The darn thing is about 68 weeks away, which means we have to sign up in 16 weeks. Probably will need about $600 to register when it's all said and done - and that isn't as painful if you throw money in an account weekly as it is if you just pay it - well, it's the same, sure, but somehow it's easier for me. The $33 a week I'm saving now is the money I'm not spending on Cokes and Sweet Teas and vending machine snacks. All that stuff is done, and I think I'm easily saving that much.

IMAZ'11. Eye on the prize. Not just "finishing" this time. Been there, done that. Need to up the stakes a little bit...

Athletic Tourettes

So here we are. Again.

Yes, we've been down this road before. Starts and Stops. Athletic Tourettes. I finally had the courage to step on a scale a week ago. 286. About 35 lbs gained from IMCDA08. Resting heart rate that morning? An alarming 72 bpm. Something needs to be done. ASAP.

When it comes to training, I'm one of those people that need a goal. Something tangible to look forward to. Tangible, as in, an event or an accomplishment. Something to hang on the wall. It makes sense really. I read once that there are, in general, two kinds of salespeople - those that can can sell "things" and those that sell "ideas". Stocks, insurance - those are examples of "ideas", where cars, RVs, houses, boats - those are "things". I read that rarely does someone do well at selling both, and once you find out which "type" you are, you should stick with that. Having tried both, I can assure you that I'm a "thing" guy.

Being healthy and having fitness would be "ideas". Something you get as a result of something else. Finishing an Ironman or other race is a thing. An accomplishment. Perhaps I'm splitting hairs, but I've also tried to exercise, and I don't do that well. I do, however, train well. I'd argue that you exercise for general fitness but you train for a specific event. I'm a trainer (whatever gets you out the door, right?).

So short term, my goal is a nice Olympic in 8 weeks over in Clermont Florida, the Florida Challenge. They do a half IM as well that day, but starting, essentially, from scratch like I am, even an Olympic is a hearty goal to say the least. It's a "just finish" race, but the venue is great, and it will be a nice re-entry to the sport. We have a cabin lined up nearby, TriSherpaDi will be kayaking on a lake that day with her pal Linda; the whole affair will be pretty low key.

No PR's, no worry of a PW. Just getter-done. What's down the road? Some more "things"....

Echo, echo, echo

Sorry gang - been doing too much Facebook (is that really possible?) and not enough blogging - but isn't that the going trend?

I've been getting slammed with Anonymous spam to my comments, so I'm going to take away the ability for Anon folks to comment, and require the word box. Sorry, I've fought that for a while, but it's getting noticeable in my comment sections.

I've been getting about 5hrs a week in training - which really kinda sucks. I know it's the time of year, and this is technically the "off" season, but 5 hrs isn't enough for me to lose any weight. I've been plagued by a deep right hip pain that shows up when running - so I took a couple weeks off from it and have so far, this week, been pain free - so we'll see.

The only highlight to my training as of late has been swimming. Nothing great, mind you, but I've seen progress and am up to 2k at lunch instead of a drowning, splashing, punishing failure of 1k ugliness.

I don't know. The Gator Half is screaming up at me - early March - and I fear it's gonna be uglier than it should be. Meah... I'll take my time and try and have fun, right?

Ok, enough of the ramble. Enjoy the break, and I'll look forward to reading of your '10 season success soon enough!