Peak

My original thought on peaking was that I'd put in a ton of hours and ramp the body up hard to take on my A race and follow on long race - the Bradenton 101. Of course, things change, as they always seem to do, and my idea of what a "Peak" is has also evolved.

After doing a little reading on the subject, I think (and I'm no coach, disclaimer, disclaimer...) that the peak is really more about intensity than volume. Personally, I'm at a point in my almost 2 year triathlon career that if I put in more than 10 - 12 hrs of total training in a week, something breaks. This level, this 10 - 12 hr level, is where I need to stay for a while and get my body used to it. Last year I averaged about 5 hrs of total training per week, so this is a good jump for me.

So I've been concentrating on adding intensity to every workout, more on some, less on other's so that I don't go "hard" on every workout. When I swim, I'll go 250 yds easy than really push hard for 250, and mix that up over 2k. Early in the week I pushed 1000 yds, then did 1000 mixed hard and easy. On the bike, I've been doing intervals - 37 miles with a 40k TT in there, or like yesterday with a 6.5 easy, 6.5 interval keeping it over 22mph x 4 for 50 miles. My shoulders and legs are really sore this week - these intervals are very different from steady state swimming and riding.

I haven't run in a week, so I really can't say how my calf is doing. It doesn't hurt during any activity other than running, and even then it takes a few miles, so we'll see this Sunday at the Clermont race - I'm thinking it will be fine. I'm looking forward to racing with Jetpack and Luke and hearing those damn cowbells ringing for the first time around the transition area. By the time I get back, our IMAZ racers will be either done or getting done with their marathons - I'm anxious to see how well everyone does.

Season

Racing season is upon us! Yea! Another season is here now, in Florida, too - the rainy season. It came in with a flurry, and just now I heard a sound missing for a few months - thunder. Thunder sucks. Means that there was lightning out there first. duh...

Thunder makes swimming a challenge in Florida. The YMCA pools here close for a minimum of 30 minutes each and every time they here a thunder clap. There's almost no perfect time of the day to swim. Mornings - you have the evening's storms over the gulf, and the lightning lights up the sky - 30 minutes. After work - that's when the fun starts - and in the summer it showers nearly every day - 30 minutes. My best luck has been around noon. It's insanely hot then, but the clouds are in building stage and you can get in an hour of swimming as long as you time it right. Wait until 2pm, forget it - 30 minutes.

All this rain makes biking challenging as well. Luckily, nearly all rain cells are short lived and only rain down on a small area - so many times it's raining at work, and then 10 miles away, at Flatwoods, it's clear. It's a crapshoot. I was lucky to get in a bike this morning before the rain started coming down. Sure enough, as soon as I close the door to the truck after putting my bike in the back - drops on the windshield.

Racing Season. Finally. Clermont. Cowbells. Jetpack. New Distance to race this weekend - 2k swim, 37 mile bike and 9 mile run. An Olympic and a half. An Ollieplus. Instead of swimming, here I sit, watching the rain.

All this rain means the grass is growing again. And another new season for the Bigun. I'm going into the lawn business. I'm not quitting my day job...yet, but I'm needing to do something. Something my own. Something I can be proud of. Integrity Lawn Care. It's a start.

Ride with the Jet

I posted about the infamous Jetpack ride on Thursday - the one that started with "Take it easy on me, Bigun" - you know the one. Anywho, I thought I'd show the world, in my horrible graphic style, the speed results of our 83 miles together. All of you Power-heads couldn't give a hoot about MPH (or kph, for you Canooks), but I'm still training in the dark ages. The Jetmeister came in at 3m and left right at 80; here's the results: Except for the end there where I held up a bit while he got some water (the dude drinks some fluids, let me tell you!), we kept a really consistent pace. I did some hammering in the rollers, but all in all it was a great ride. Looking forward to doing it all over again on Tuesday, maybe. I say maybe because I've been working on a business idea that might keep me working all day Tuesday, and I may have to try and find 5 hrs in the late afternoon, early evening...ug.

People get sick of reading about other people's training, but I'm pretty pleased with myself, so read on if you feel like reading some Bigun bragging. I finally downloaded Thursday's 40k TT from my Garmin tonight, and for the first 12.4 miles I was at 34:50, or about 21.5mph - for the second 12.4 miles I went 32:45 for an average of 23 mph. I like that I could keep 23 average for 12.4m - the second 12.4m... next time I'll try and do a warm up lap first, but that won't be for a while probably.

I even swam a full 3,050 yards today after work - 1 hr of swimming, 7 min of breaks on sets of 500 yds. Of course there was that girl there - you know the one - making me look like I was standing still there in the deep end. There's always someone in the pool that makes it look effortless. Until she showed up, compared to folks in the other lanes, that person was me for a while. Fame and glory sure is fleeting...

I can wish in one hand and crap in the other, and see which one fills up first - but I sure do wish this calf wasn't hurting me like it does. Not when I swim. Not when I bike. Only when my 240lbs of unsupported blubber runs on it. That Bradenton 101 race's 18.6 miles is going to be a long way without any long runs in the next 28 days.

The Kahuna has a call to arms for IMCdA'08 - a race already on my '08 tentative schedule, and my first ever M-dot Ironman attempt. I'm psyched - not only to race (well, really - to endure...), but hopefully to meet a bunch of you in the raceAthlete and Tri-Blogger Alliance Communities (plus anyone unaffiliated...) who may also be up for the event. We don't have that much time left to decide to commit for a race a year and 2 months away - this is a crazy sport! Iron Benny is going up there this year to race - good luck, sir! I hope his recent Ricky Bobby imitation doesn't effect his training.

Strong like Bull

I wish! I know I'm pushing it, and now my calf is screaming at me to stop. I'm putting in measly mileage, and still my body's rebelling. Guess you can only do what you can do. I'll probably have to cut out the running for a while and hope I've got some fitness to carry me through these next races - it's either that or stop running 4 miles into any race. Ok for sprints, but crappy for anything else.

Had a pretty good bike today - Got done with a lap at my favorite biking place, Flatwoods, and after 12.5 had an average of 21.4mph. It was overcast this morning so no harsh sun or any wind to speak of, so it was a great day for a time trial. That first lap was a psudo warmup - I saw the speed and thought that today was the day to go for the elusive 22. After my 83 mile ride on Tuesday, I really didn't think I had it in me.

Good 'ol Jetpack met me out at Suncoast Trail 2 days ago right on time to start up our long ride - and right away he tells me to "be easy on me". Now if I wasn't the nice guy that I am, that statement would be an invitation to thouroughly lay waste to the Jetliner, but I'm the kindler, gentler Bigun now. So, we rode at the pace of one of those old airliners with the prop engines - in all reality, it was the perfect base ride for the Bigun. The Jetster hung in there just fine for the whole ride - look out Wildflower, Mr. Jet just made a big deposit...

On the way home from the ride, my Cousin Ann from Ohio calls and gives me the details, already arranged with Mrs. B, for today's golf game in Orlando - about 70 miles from where we live. I had time to get home and shower, let the girls out and pack the clubs before Di got home and we made haste to the land of the Giant Rat. From 4 - 8 yesterday, the Big Guy played an impressive round of golf - my semi-annual round it seems these days - and shot a fantasticly fun 97. Not so much fun to start playing golf again...

Of course we have a few drinks and a very late-night steak (they are on vacation, so time is meaningless - we've got to work the next day) and don't get back home until 12:30am. I tried swimming at noon the next day (yesterday) and at 500 yards the tank was empty. I fought it for another 250 yards, but I just made it worse. I went to lunch with Bacon, another work/riding buddy, and he said my face was all pale and could see I needed food fast.

Is this boring? Seems pretty boring to me. Anyway...I didn't figure I had a chance of hitting 22mph today for a 40k TT, but I felt very strong heading out into that last lap. I had long stretches of 23 - 24mph, and it never got below 22 except for sharp turns. With about 2.5 miles to go, the Garmin flipped over to 22mph - and I hung on for last little bit to finish right there at 22. I guess the real significance to all this is that my St. Anthony's bike goal is 22.2mph (1:05), and this ride puts that goal in the doable range.

I cooled off with another 12.5m lap, really slow pace, and then did a 6 mile brick run that re-fried my calf. Now you are all caught up with the Bigun's training. I've been a little destracted with life and business lately, so the blog has suffered. Guess that happens...

Smack Recap

I had the privilege of meeting Jetpack today for a ride on Suncoast Trail here in Sunny Florida (I know how the fact that it was in the 60's when we STARTED our ride this morning really burns you Northerners up), and got to see, first hand how nice the BMC sponsored bikes are. WOW - awesome piece of work, all the right components, I mean, these guys are training with Zipp wheels, zipp crank, zipp aerobars, all DA drive train, wireless Power Tap...very cool! Jetpack only had an hour ride on his schedule, with a 1:45hr brick run afterward, so he was taking it easy, and we went part way together.

After he broke off at about the 12 mile mark, I continued on for the rest of my 83 miler (that's my speed above - lots of road crossings...) and listened to the Simply Stu raceAthlete interviews in their entirety (I got a nifty blue IPod Shuffle for my Birthday - thanks Ma!). Lots of Smack. I really, really like Smack, if you couldn't already tell. Can you see me salivating as I write this? Leading off, Rural Girl thinks her running is for crap, and since she hasn't run further than 18miles in a single week, it's no wonder. If you want to get better at running, you gotta run, right? "Cut her some slack, Bigun, it's all snow and ugly up there"...ok, WILCO. Stu's enamored and thinks shes the dark horse of the rA group - but Roman, we find out later, is gunning for her.

Roman, the Everyman, the Clydesdales of Clydesdales, will be relying on muscle memory to get him through an Ollie (learned a new one from Bold during the interview, but it's still spelled Oly), but we've seen the swimming results - so we know he's been in the pool ("shhhhh, c'mon Bigun, no one's paying attention"). He's on a crazy fast bike compared to last year, and we already know he's not giving up much on the run...With 5 training weeks left, I'm going with Roman by race number buckle...unless, of course, there's a completely unforeseen and tragic incident involving a large black snake and low sodium.

Stu and Bolder - now there's an interesting duo. They've got side bets and back bets worrying about each other's numbers and hair pants. Did you hear how Stu has future bike washing pictures being posted on "his or her" website? Who's the her? Bold - Stu's calling you a little girl. A little girl with long pony tails and freckles and a pink skirt. I wouldn't take that. Even if I was Canadian, I still wouldn't take that kind of abuse. Now that we have Bold fired up, I'm going with the Colorado boy by a bit more than a second. That's an American second, BTW and we all know how much faster those are...

Jetpack vs Brett - you've seen the movie, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, right? Well, I've looked at the numbers, and Jetpack better have one up his keester if he's got a shot at avoiding a bloody, limb-hacking, everything-is-bigger-in-Texas style beating by Mr. Texafornia. And I'm rooting for my homeboy! That's right, I want to see Jetpack pull off a screaming fast bike in the hills of Wildflower - oh, BTW - there's a good 3,650 ft of climbing on the Longcourse - so have fun with that! Brett seems to think that Jet is all about cupcakes and slow rides with the Mrs (to be) in the lap of luxury known as Tampa - Brett, you just go ahead and keep thinking that - the Bigun's on a mission, and that is to get my hommie ready...boys, we going into training mode! First ride together - that "easy" 42 mile trail (below) you were talking about - up and back, baby!

Now Iron Wil and Sweetiepie didn't have much smackin to do. This surprises me - Wil's been a running fool, and everyone knows that an Ollie (like that?) is won on the run. Set a good pace on the swim and bike, and she'll have Redneck Girl in her sights at mile 4. You watch. You read it here first.... Mr Sweet - he'll be all over this bad boy - he should be talking age group smack! The rA guys could always throw down the gauntlet and shoot for the fastest times through T1 and T2 - yea baby, kick some Sweet A**!!!

Oh, and give me a break! While talking to IronWil, Stu gets a call on his cell,

Stu: oh, I gotta take this, one minute Wil..

Wil: Sure...

Stu: oh hi, Jessi, yea, can I call you back in like 5 minutes? Great -

Wil: wow, you hung up with Jessi Strensland to talk with me?

Stu: aaaa, yea, Wil, of course, you're my teammate, right?

PAALEASE! Stu, that was your buddy Jessi Finklehoffer from Podunk, MI calling about scoring a bag of weed. You Wisconsonians are all the same! You can't pull one over on the Bigun! No way, brothah, No way.

Tripping

This blogger world is a weird place for me...I'm not making excuses, just sayin'. I got to get used to it. In the real world, you say something, you can see a reaction, you can gauge body language, you can tell when you are crossing a line or pushing too hard. In blogger world, all of a sudden, it's too late.

I'm from Jersey. Yea, I live in Florida now, but it's not always been suntans and alligators for the Bigun. I grew up with guys like Joey Greco and Billy Tedeschi and a whole group of Italians who just love to "bust chops" all day and see who can come up with the next zinger first. It wasn't much different in college. Anyway...I'd be lieing if I said that I don't enjoy throwing out a zinger or two myself - but without the body language, I really don't know when the line gets crossed.

This post is prompted by an e-mail I got today from a good guy that I'm pretty sure I touched a nerve with a comment I wrote to his blog - and while I meant to bust his chops, I did not mean to show any disrespect or cross a line that I couldn't retreat back over. I hope that hasn't happened, and in further analysis, I'll bet there are other comments and posts that I've written in which I've pushed too hard with people I hardly know.

So it's time for the Bigun to take a couple of steps back. If I seem a bit more careful in my writing in the future, it's on purpose, and it's out of respect for the folks that read this dribble and have so far been supportive of me. I feel like I let you down. And for that, I'm truly sorry.

Strawberry Century

The Tampa Bay Freewheelers put on an interesting ride through the Plant City area countryside. There were at least 500 folks pre-registered for the ride, and another 200 showed up on top of that to do one of the 20-, 38-, 62- or full 100-m rides. It was a crowded start to say the least. I met up with a couple of guys from work who were planning on doing the 62m ride, and they weren't interested in riding with the front pack, and neither was I, so we let just about everyone ride by us before we joined in on the ride.

Riding behind all those folks at 17mph took me about 18 seconds to get over. So began my test of my bike handling skills as I picked and choose my opportunities to pass individuals and groups riding all over the road. There are no "ride on the right" and "no blocking" penalties given out in a fun ride - so I rode hard to break out of this pretty large group of casual riders. After a few miles I checked to make sure the guys from work were still on my wheel - I saw John, but we lost Mark back there somewhere. John was a trooper and hung with me for about 60 miles - his longest ride before then was 50.

We stopped at 19 miles for a potty break, and carried on all the way to 62. The course was marked - note to self, make sure you read the printed materials and know which arrows are which BEFORE you start the ride. We broke out to where we were chasing down small packs of riders in drafting lines - and we blew off looking at the road for the painted arrows signifying turns. So did some of the riding packs. Twice we had to turn around because we got off course. I was working hard to get my average speed up over 20mph after that slow start, and got there just before we took the potty break around 19 miles in. From the Garmin chart (which I know is hard to read, and I even tried to clean it up with Photoshop) I kept it over 20mph for the first half of the ride - you can see there at 51 or 52 miles where we turned up into the wind, and it was bullocks from there on out. Those last 10 miles really beat up the Bigun.

The course was kind of "wack". I counted - we crossed over railroad tracks 10 times - after a couple hours in the saddle, RR tracks aren't any fun. We crossed over RT 60 - a 55mph highway a couple times - that was interesting...waiting on stop lights for one of the crossings, and just waiting on an opening in the traffic for the other. I've learned to appreciate the "groove" you get in a closed road triathlon instead of doing these rides where you have to obey traffic signals and watch out for traffic. I also appreciate my main training ground, Flatwoods - that 12.5 mile loop gets boring, but there are no cars or RR tracks!

I wanted to make my "stopped" time as short as possible - I only stopped twice for a total of 8:11, and my total riding time was 5:33 for a moving speed of 18.25mph over 101.32 miles. The course played a dirty trick on me - the 62m SAG stop was also the start and finish - I was tempted to call it right then and there. I drank 120 oz of Gatorade for about 780 calories, plus 1 gel, 5 cookies and 2 bananas. That's 21oz of fluid an hour, which according to this article my fluid intake was nearly perfect - without even trying! My calorie replacement was a bit off though, since Training Peaks says I burned up 7,400 calories. I'll need to practice that a bit more - I definitely felt lacking in the last half of the ride. I seem to say this each time I do a longer workout, yet I never practice taking in calories on long workouts.

The hills were very gradual - and not much of consequence with only 2,247 feet of elevation. The winds were the big limiter of the day averaging 10mph over the course of the ride; early there was nearly no wind, and as we got later in the day, it really picked up. I wasn't too excited about making the last 38 mile loop, but I met Chet who was putting in his last big ride before IMAZ, so I tagged along and used some of his energy for about 10 minutes - then I watched him ride off and tortured myself trying to keep him in my sights.

The prize was in finishing, of course. They don't call it the Strawberry Century for nothin'! I made sure I ate some chicken and mashed potatoes for the protein and carbs, but then REALLY got a glycogen load with a big heaping pile of strawberry shortcake. mmmmmm, strawberry shortcake... They gave us a nifty (ugly) biker hat type item, and a long-sleeved T, and the bummer was that the $5,000 worth of raffle items were already done being raffled by the time I got in there. I don't think I finished that slowly compared to much of the Century crowd but I felt I really missed the boat! At least I got a big, heaping sweet luscious bowl of strawberry shortcake. It's funny how a little whipped cream can make all the bad things melt away...like sunburn (duh, this is Florida, use sunscreen, Bigun, ya big dummy). Oh, and yes, I did ride in my raceAthlete jersey, and while I noticed a bunch of "looks", no one asked what it was all about - hopefully some folks will check out the website...by the end I was too tired to do much talking anyway!

Over-rested

What a great week to be on an easy cycle-break. I got hit, mid-week, with a nasty little stomach something or other, and am finally feeling better today. No swimming, no biking and just one little 3m run; I can say with authority that I'm rested. The final push starts Sunday with a Buck, and I'm itching to get at it again.

That's one of the benefits of taking a week off, I think - re-stoking the fire. Yes, your body needs the rest, and by all accounts taking the week off TOTALLY probably isn't the best thing for your fitness. You're supposed to cut back, not lie around eating girl scout cookies - like I did. The real benefit for me is mental. I went from being less than enthusiastic about "yet another 6m run" to "I can't wait to hit the road again" - lemme attem! all in the course of a week.

I spent most of the week concentrating on work instead of trying to squeeze in another swim. Because it was scheduled, I haven't stressed about NOT working out enough. I'm recharged and ready to go, and I'm going to need that mental edge leading into race season. Only 4 more training weeks left - that's it! 4 more training weeks. It doesn't seem like enough, but then again, I know I'm entering this race season in so much better condition, at a lower weight, and with more experience than last year - I can't wait to see what I can do.

An additional aspect of this season will be that instead of racing in a relative vacuum, with just me and Mrs. B and a couple of racing buddies close to home here to share all this with, I've got a community of fellow triathletes who's training and race experiences have as much meaning to me as mine do to them. Just when I thought this sport called Triathlon couldn't get any cooler, I find an awesome group of folks who think tri's are cool too - quite unlike the guys at work who think I'm freaking nuts! Here's to a great season (I'm raising a Hobgoblin to ya'll)!

Weekend Update

Welcome back for another bit of fake news, with your host, Bigun. Today we have the honor and privilege of having a lovely co-host on the show, please give a warm, Big-Bike welcome for Trimama!

Trimama - Thanks Bigun, it's great to be on the show.

Bigun - Nice to have you here, Trimama, and congratulations on your new Tri-workout program, I hear it was just published this week.

Trimama - That's right, we expect it to hit the infomercials within the month.

Bigun - Good thing I've got Tevo - on the phone today we have Mister Marine himself, none other than Gunny Highway who's called in from Camp Lejeune to comment on some recent developments - Gunny are you there?

Highway - If I were half as ugly as you, Bigun, I'd be a poster boy for a prophylactic!

Bigun - and a hardy welcome to the show to you too, Highway - how does it feel to have a tri-bike named in your honor?

Highway - What choice did people have? Cervesa O'Toole just doesn't make sence - and just because Tri-Dummy's named his bike after me doesn't mean we're going to be taking warm showers together until wee hours of the morning...

Bigun - aaa, thanks Gunny...Trimama, tell us about your new workout program!

Trimama - Sure thing, Bigun - it's called "3 Weeks to Ironman". You know how everyone wants instant gratification these days...

Bigun - Sure do...

Trimama - well, my tried and tested program can get your average couch potato from the Playstation to the Ironman finish line in just 3 Weeks. Following my 30-minutes a day workout plan, we'll burn the calories and build the fitness necessary to have any one of you hear those most hallowed words, "you are an Ironman".

Bigun - Trimama you ignorant slut! There's absolutely no way your program's going to work! I haven't heard something that ridiculous since I heard someone was going to publish a book about thier blogs! Like anyone would pay good money for a book like that...Lets move on and report on a troubling story brewing amongst the raceAthlete team members.

Trimama - It seems we have a group smackdown - a circle smack, as it were, amongst most of the members of Team raceAthlete. It started rather innocently as a friendly wager between Bolder and Stu and has grown out of control. Roman has laid down the gauntlet and claims he will squash our fair country maiden, Rural Girl. Poor Rural Girl. Those Po-locks must raise kids differently over there - here in America we don't pick on poor, helpless little country girls. As these things usually do, the Circle-Smack is already escalating - not only does the winner of the Bold-Stu Smack-Down have to wash the other's bike, he must also post pictures of said washing...recently the ante was raised even further - the loser has to break out the sheers and "de-pant" the winner..."de-pant"? Did I read that right?

Bigun - De-pant, un-pant, amongst these sick-o's, it's all the same, Trimama, it's all the same.

And that's all the fake news for today, but tune in next time for the continuing saga of the raceAthlete Circle-Smack! This is Bigun and Trimama - thanks and train hard everyone.