TJ's Endurance Adventures

Gulf Coast Triathlon 2009

2009-05-15T14:26:00.001-04:00

Gulf Coast this year was one of those races that serves as a giant lesson learned, and not much else. I went into this race feeling as good as I ever have, and came out the other end feeling as bad as I ever have, Ironman included.

As I stood on the beach watching the waves crash in, I knew the swim was going to be a challenge, and it was. Holy Crap it was. I came out of the water feeling like I’d gone 10 rounds with Iron Mike, and felt a bit sea sick. 38:54.
I made my way up to and through T1 in 4:46.
Heading out on the bike I started feeling a bit better and soon felt like a supa star as I looked down and saw 25+mph on my computer. All was good until I had to turn around into the wind that’d been pushing me along. The next 20 miles kicked my butt. Worst headwind I’ve ever raced in. As I got close to town, I knew the run was gonna suck.
I finished the bike with not much left in the tank 2:54:15 (19.0avg)
I hit T1 and made it through in 2:45. Once out on the run course, the heat and humidity felt like stepping into a sauna. By a ¼ mile in, I knew this was going to be a “just make it to the finish line” kind of run. I walked the aid stations, took in cola, Gatorade and water, and dumped ice everywhere I could get it - - under my hat, down my shirt, in my shorts.
I managed to keep moving and finally made it to the finish in 2:28:14 (11:19) for a total time of 6:11:53.

I was ruined at the finish. I honestly have never felt worse at the end of a race. It would have been easier to tolerate if I had set a new PR (which I thought I could going in), but I almost set a new slowest time (only missed it by 3 minutes). I went 5:45 in 2007, and felt great afterwards.

Looking back, objectively, it’s easy to see the mistakes.
I went into this race as unfit as I ever have. I suppose I thought I could somehow overcome the lack of fitness since I “felt” so good. Dooooh! Being sick early in the year caused me to miss 6+ weeks of crucial training. I failed to take that into account when setting my goals. I’d only done one 50+ mile ride and one 10+ mile run, all year.
My swim fitness was the one area that was on track. But, when faced with the rough seas, instead of backing off, I went hard to try to make up time. Not too smart.
When planning my race, I’d planned to go hard early on the bike and try to chip a little extra time off that PR. Even after the rough swim, I hammered early when I should have backed off (way off) and let my heart rate settle. Later when I faced the headwinds and should have backed off, I just hammered harder to try to make up for the slowing speed. Totally lost my good judgment “in the moment” and made one bad decision after another. By the time I made it to the run, my day was over. I had nothing left and was in survival mode. Not a good place to be with 13.1 miles left to go.

Lessons learned. Hopefully I’ll be able to make better decisions next time around.
I’ll get another shot in September at Augusta. Hope to catch up with some of you there.

Happy Training.
TJ

Water water everywhere....

2009-04-05T19:35:00.003-04:00

It's rained so much lately (it's raining now) that it seems like we're in Seattle instead of Albany (Ga). Lot's of indoor training during the last couple of weeks due to the rain.

So, what's been going on?.....
Not much blogging, obviously. Facebook and Twitter are just so much easier.
I've been working a ton of overtime lately. It's manageable right now, but as the year rolls on, training will require me to back off and work less. I'm thinking Memorial Day will be it for overtime -- at least on Saturdays.

Training is coming along pretty well. Working the Endurance Corner plan. It's a bit different than what I would have been doing on my own. More recovery and more bricks. Running off the bike is currently NOT a problem.

Gulf Coast is coming up in a few short weeks. I have NO idea what to expect. Honestly! I'm just coming back into decent fitness after being sick earlier in the year and haven't really tested myself. Just being able to line up at the start will be a success after the way my year started. I've got a little more time to cram a bit more fitness in the tank though.

KJ will be turning 11 this month and we're taking her down to Disney on her birthday. We haven't been for a few years and we're all looking forward to it. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is the drive.

Cruising Youtube today and came across this band. Wow! What a powerful voice from such a tiny little woman. Check them out. Not what I would expect from a band from Tennessee.

And that about raps it up.

Hope yall have a great week!
TJ

It's coming....

2009-03-14T21:47:00.003-04:00

Fitness that is.
Coach G said the fitness would quickly return, but it sure didn't feel like it the first couple of weeks back. I had a solid week of training this week and feel great. I'll finish up with about 11 hours total for the week after an easy run tomorrow. I also managed to fit in 60 hours of work between swim bike and run sessions.
Gulf Coast Triathlon is getting closer and I'm looking forward to seeing how my fitness develops between now and then. Should be fun.

Happy Training,
TJ

Quick Check In

2009-03-08T18:38:00.002-04:00

Not really much to report, but I thought I'd better give my vast readership an update...both of you can now breathe easy.

Daylight saving time has arrived and I'm looking forward to the extra time in the sun. The older I get, the less I enjoy winter, and we have fairly mild winters here. The temps are creeping up every day and the azalea blooms are starting to open. Spring will be at full tilt in no time.

Training is ticking along nicely -- not at pre-pneumonia levels -- but I hope to be there soon. It's amazing, and sad, how quickly fitness fades. Paces that used to have my heart rate at around 150 now drive it up in the 170s. But I'm recovering well and the heart rates are headed in the right direction -- just not getting there as quickly as I'd like.

Months ago, I opened a Twitter account but never posted an update. I'd kinda forgotten about it, until the other day. I'll be posting there if either of the two of you want to keep up with me there.
You can find me as: Todd Johnson or user id tj1406.

Happy Training,
TJ

Coming back to life

2009-02-09T15:11:00.004-05:00

When I initially sat down at the keyboard to write this post, I typed out a very...VERY... long drawn out detailed rehash of the downward spiral and eventual upturn of my health during the past month. When I finished typing, I sat back, read through it, and thought, ... That is WAY too long and WAY too depressing….nobody wants to read that crap!

So, I set about rewriting an account that might be a bit more digestible.
Here’s the revised, abbreviated version:

I got sick with a respiratory infection in early January. Felt terrible. Couldn’t train. Went to the doctor. Didn’t respond to the first round of meds. Still couldn't train. Didn’t respond to the second round of meds. Got pretty bummed with the whole situation. Went back to the doc. Chest x-ray performed. Diagnosed with pneumonia. Prescribed stronger meds. Wondered if I'd ever get well. Lost 8 pounds. Missed a good bit of work and a ton of training. Eventually started feeling better.
January was a mother of a month.
The end.
I just saved you at least 20 more minutes of reading. Really!

I started back with some very easy training today. I’ll keep it light for the remainder of this week, and probably most of next week before returning to “regular” training.
The half marathon in early March is out... no biggie. I intend to be back fit enough to do Gulf Coast Triathlon in May.

I've done a bunch of reading during the down time. One of the things I read was that Cam Brown takes an entire month off from training at the end of his season every year. So, I'm telling myself that this has been the month long break I never took at the end of the season. :-)

One thing I will take away from this whole month long ordeal is that I will not take my health for granted in the future. It's easy to get caught up in the daily grind of training and forget that just being able to be out there training is a blessing.

Needless to say, I'm glad to be on the road to returning to training.
Spring is not far away and I'm looking forward to soaking up the warm weather that's coming.

Happy Training,
TJ

Facebook Help

2009-01-15T08:08:00.006-05:00

Facebook experts, open the picture below and take a look. See the banner running across the middle of the page?
HOW DO I GET RID OF IT!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Nothing happening on the training front for me. I've got a really bad cold (KJ had it last week) and I haven't trained since Monday. I started feeling it coming on Saturday and it got a little worse every day -- congestion, sinus pressure, burning eyes, sore throat, coughing, fever, aches, the whole bit. I left work at 9am yesterday and went to the doc. I'm now on antibiotics and hope to be back at it soon. My fever finally broke last night and I feel a good bit better today. It's tough laying around knowing fitness is melting away. I just keep telling myself it's early in the year and I have plenty of time to make up for it.
One good thing about being home is I don't have to get out in this crazy cold weather.

Happy Training,
TJ

Strapple Pie

2009-01-08T13:02:00.015-05:00

I've been craving pie (mind out of the gutter) and thought I'd try my hand at baking one. I got the basics of what I thought I'd need from the grocery store a couple nights ago and figured I'd give it a shot this coming weekend.
KJ has been under the weather and we decided she needed a day at home today to rest and get well. So, after I'd done everything to make her as comfortable as possible this morning, I commenced to making pie. I will admit I jumped online before I started to get a few tips...I didn't go in completely blind.

Two of my favorite fruits are apples and strawberries, so I decided I'd combine them into one pie. Here's how it went:

Granny Smiths

Sliced Fresh Strawberries

Lemons (for juice)

Diced apples

Sugar

Strawberries mixed with Lemon Juice and Sugar

Apples mixed with Lemon Juice and Sugar

Crust

Layer of Apples

Then Strawberries

And more Apples

Some Butter and a bit of the Strawberry Juice

Then the top Crust (with vents sliced in -- web tip)

Foil to protect the crust edge (another tip from web)

About an hour later.

Tasty!
Time to burn off the calories....

Happy Training,

Time to pull out the Machete...

2008-12-31T08:39:00.007-05:00

....And do a bit of trimming on the race schedule.

I planned a few shorter run races early in the year as "build up" events leading into a half marathon in March. Coach Gordo says there's not much value in doing the shorter/harder races leading into the half, so, I'm cutting them out of the schedule. He also advised that I not race in June, which would mean axing the oly up at West Point Lake. I really like that race, so I'm leaving it on the schedule for now and will decide on whether to do it or not a bit closer to race day.

On a completely different subject, I finally got around to opening a Facebook account. I think I was the last kid on the block who wasn't on Facebook. I've found a few bloggers on there and some old friends from high school (some have really...REALLY... changed since HS days). I'm still trying to figure out all the features, but it's been fun so far. I find myself jumping on throughout the day to see what everyone is up to. Anyhooo, if you're on FB and need another "friend", send me a request: Todd Johnson -- Albany Georgia.

The new year is upon us and the J gang will be celebrating New Year's Eve as we usually do, right here at Rancho de Relaxo. After making the rounds at Christmas, we're usually ready to chill at home for New Year's...and that's the case again this year. I'll throw some chicken on the grill for dinner and will probably have a Heineken or two later. DJ will wake me up at midnight for a smooch and the new year will be here.
For those of you doing something a bit more exciting, drive safe and have a great time.

Hope you all have a great 2009.
TJ

Santa/Fedex, finally made it to town.

2008-12-28T12:10:00.007-05:00

After spending a week snowed in up in Madison Wisconsin, my new toys finally made it to Georgia.

PowerTap 2.4 wireless

Zipp 404 Wheelset

Happy Training,

Christmas Pictures

2008-12-26T21:34:00.007-05:00

Things are settling down a bit and I thought I'd post a few Christmas pictures.

KJ in her school's Christmas program

The first family gathering

KJ and Cousins

Christmas eve at DJ's parents.

Christmas morning.

Christmas afternoon at my folks.

Me, KJ, DJ, Nephew, Sis, Nephew, Brother-in-law

YouTubeAholic

2008-12-24T09:11:00.005-05:00

A few of my favorites.

Mark Gungor. Very funny.....and true.

Reagan. Gotta love the Gipper.

Andy McKee. Awesome guitarist.

Ironman

Lance

Eddie

Sometimes....

2008-12-21T22:13:00.007-05:00

...life gets in the way and all the training just doesn't get done.
This week it was work (overtime), a sick youngun with fever (now on antibiotics), and the first Christmas gathering (yesterday) that took precedence over training. I ended up with two zeros for the week. I don't like seeing blanks in the log, but sometimes zeros are necessary.

I'll have plenty of time to do some catching up over the next two weeks though. Saturday was my last day at work until January 5th. I am soooo looking forward to the break. D and K are both out for Christmas break as well.

I spent this morning watching old Ironman Hawaii tapes and drinking coffee while I waited for the rain to stop. Watching the Blazeman still chokes me up. The caffine eventually took over and my patience for a break in the weather ran out. I got on the trainer just after lunch, and of course, the sun came out 45 minutes later. :-)

Merry Christmas,
TJ

P.S. Remember those "toys" I mentioned I'd be getting a few posts back? Well, I'll get them as soon as the snow stops in Madison WI long enough for UPS to head south.

Coaching for 2009

2008-12-17T19:15:00.001-05:00

I read a lot of endurance training “stuff” on the web. Pro athlete websites, coaching sites, amateur athlete sites, blogs, physiology sites … you get the idea.
One of the guys that I started reading early on was Gordon Byrn. Gordo’s writings made sense to me and were always presented in a way that I could easily understand. I suppose that’s why I’ve continued to read his writings through the years. I’ve learned a lot reading the info on his website and blog and have implemented much of it into my training.

For those who may not be familiar with Gordo, he is the co-author of "Going Long". He is a pro triathlete who started triathlon later in life than most pros. He has finished 2nd or 3rd at IM Canada with a best IM finish of around 8:30 (w/2:46 marathon!). He knows what it takes to do well at IM.

Anyhow, Gordo is also a coach and usually only works with a small group of athletes…at a premium fee. One on one type coaching. Well, he has started a new web-based coaching platform and put out a request for 10 triathletes who’d be competing at the Ironman distance in 2009 to volunteer as “beta testers” for the new website. I threw my name into the hat figuring with only 10 slots I wouldn’t stand much chance of getting in.
Well…..I’m in.

Not only will I be getting to work with a great coach, but it’s FREE…for the whole year! The only thing he asks is that we follow the program through the website and give feedback on what we like/dislike. Our individual training plans will come in 2-3 week blocks and he’ll tailor our training as we go.
My program starts December 29.
Looks like my year of self-coaching will have to wait for another year. Shucks! :)

Happy Training,
TJ

Sunday Morning Ride Pictures

2008-12-07T12:14:00.006-05:00

2.5 chilly hours on the bike this morning.

Here are a few pictures from the ride.

Heading out of town.

One of the creeks I passed over.

Green amongst all the autumn colors.

It was REALLY cold in the shadows

An old farm house.

Open *(WINDY)* farmland.

Pecan grove.

Marsh

Sawgrass

Back to civilization.

Hope everyone has a great week of training. TJ

Overload

2008-11-28T17:08:00.003-05:00

The way forward in endurance sports, according to the experts, is to overload your training (i.e., do "more" in the current phase/period/cycle than was done in the previous) and then recover adequately. The experts say that, given the chance to recover, the body will super-compensate from the larger training load and will be "stronger/fitter/faster/whatever term you like" than before applying the larger training load.

I've put the overload concept into practice over the last four weeks with my swimming and dramatically increased the training load in my swim program during that time .
I looked back through my training log and found the largest swim week I'd ever done was 8700 yards. I've topped that number each week during the last four weeks.
Here's how each week totaled out:

Week 1: 8,800 yards

Week 2: 14,600 yards

Week 3: 15,400 yards

Week 4: 18,500 yards

This week, week 4, was a bit of a challenge with Thanksgiving mixed in. Both local pools were closed on Thursday, which meant I'd have to either swim on the weekend (which I rarely do) or double up and do two swims in one day…I chose to double up.
Here's how this week played out in the pool:

Mon: 3200 yards continuous, 1:00:37

Tues (A.M.): 3200 yards, masters swim, 1:07:13

Tues (P.M.): 3600 yards continuous, 1:07:05

Wed: 3500 yards continuous, 1:06:10

Fri: 5000 yards continuous, 1:34:11

I did the Tuesday evening swim at the Y. I'm usually in the pool between 5 and 5:30am and there are rarely more than 2 other swimmers there. Most mornings it's just me and the lifeguard. Well, let me tell ya, it's a different world at night at the YMCA pool.
The kids swim team was practicing (about 8 kids), 3 or 4 other adults were swimming, there were a couple of families with kids in the pool, ANNNND, two scuba divers. The divers scared the SHEOT out of me when I first saw them. They were just sitting on the bottom of the deep end blowing bubbles. Needless to say, it was a bit chaotic in there at times, but I made it through. I only ran into one person while swimming...

So, the training load has been applied, now onto the recovery. The big questions is, how much recovery? I'm thinking 3 medium distance (3k or less) swims per week for the next couple of weeks and then add a forth as part of my normal basic week and go from there. We'll see how it goes. I definitely don't want to throw away the work I've done over the last four weeks.
I've never really focused much on swimming as it's such a small part of the overall distance in triathlon. But, if I'm going to hit the goals I have for myself next year, I'm gonna have to focus on EVERYTHING.

Up next, running focus. Not just 4 weeks, 12, starting Monday.

That's all for now…..back to my leftover turkey sandwich.

Happy Training, TJ

Birds and Fishes

2008-11-26T19:18:00.000-05:00

We visited the Riverquarium Sunday afternoon to see the aviary that recently opened.
Here's a bit of what we saw.

I also got a little footage of the big fresh water fish swimming around. The video doesn't come close to representing how big these guys are. They're HUGE. The big one at the end is a sturgen and it is ginormous.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Deer and snot rockets

2008-11-23T10:34:00.003-05:00

Even though the calender may not show it yet, winter has arrived in Georgia!
2 hours on the bike this morning proved yet again that my blood is way too thin for anything much below 70 degrees. Actually, it wasn’t too terribly bad once I got going, but the first 15 minutes or so with temps in the low 30s had me ALMOST wishing I’d opted for the trainer.
One benifit of riding when it's cold is that it brings out deer. I saw deer everywhere this morning. Not even the constant launching of snot rockets seemed to scare them away.

Training this week has gone well. I finished week 3 of my swim focus and hit the pool 5 mornings in a row. I finished up the week with 15,400 yards.
Here’s a breakdown of the sessions:
Mon: Easy recovery. 1600yds. 30:44
Tues: Masters. Warm up, drills, toys, main set, etc. 3000yds. 1:00:19
Wed: Straight Steady. 3250yds. 1:00:39
Thurs: Straight Steady. 3250yds. 1:00:25
Fri: Straight Steady. 4300yds. 1:20:38

Biking is in maintenance mode until the new year:
Tues: Trainer. 30min easy/30min steady. (med resistance) 21.1 miles. 1:00:04
Sun: Easy/Steady with a few harder efforts. 37.62 miles. 2:05:26.

Got in a few runs too:
Mon: Easy/Steady. 6.17 miles. 57:00
Wed: Tempo. 4.13 miles. 31:29
Fri: Build (i.e. increase hr 10bpm every 10min). 5 miles. 40:17

Next week will finish up the swim focus. I can already feel the benefits and I know my swim fitness has increased. I’m hoping to continue to build on what I’ve started and maintain 4 swims per week instead of the typical 2-3 I’ve always done.
I’ll be starting a run focus on December 1st as a part of a buildup towards an early spring half marathon. I want to give this race a real go instead of it just being part of a buildup to something bigger. My half marathon times have been pretty unimpressive in the past and I’d like to have a decent PR. We’ll see…
Speaking of racing, I’ve been doing some race planning for next year.
This is what it’s looking like so far:

January 03: Kiwanis River Run (5k)
January 24: Run Around Town (5k)
January 31: Nun Run (5k)
February 14: Valentine Run (10k)
March 7: Snickers Energy Bar Half Marathon *registered
March 21: Tri at the Y (Sprint)
May 09: Gulf Coast Triathlon (Half IM) *registered
June 14: West Point Lake Triathlon (Olympic)
August 15: Georgia Veterans Triathlon (Sprint)
August 23: Tri States Century
September 13: Nut Roll Century
September 27: Augusta 70.3 *registered
November 07: Ironman Florida *registered

Happy Training,
TJ

Quick Check In

2008-11-16T06:33:00.002-05:00

Friday ended week #2 of a four week swim focus. I swam every morning Mon-Fri and ended up with about 15000 yards for the week. A couple of the sessions were pretty short. I’m hoping I'll have time for a bit more this week (60hr work week last week). I managed three runs for the week and am about to head out for ride #2. Luckily I get to do this ride outside. I’ll take temps in the 30s outside over a warm trainer ride any day.

Happy Training,
TJ

Lap 2

2008-11-02T20:31:00.001-05:00

I made the trip down to Panama City Beach with AB this weekend to watch Ironman Florida and sign up for my 2nd lap around the Ironman Florida course. 2009 is gonna be a great year. I would have much rather been racing, but it was also a great day to be a spectator and watch the race unfold as Tom Evans shattered the course record.

A few highlights of the trip were getting to met IronSherpa DeeDee, seeing Wes half way through the marathon and seeing Lana as she headed out for lap number two on the marathon. I looked for all the other blogger peeps, and I'm sure you passed right in front of me, but I missed yall in the chaos . Congrats to all of you!

The registration process was a bit different this go 'round. In 2006 when I signed up for lap number 1, I got to the race site about 6:45am. There were hardly any others around and I was about 10th in line. This year, I got to the Boardwalk a little after 7am and there were 2 lines already. Each line was at least a couple hundred yards long. One line was for the volunteers and the other was for the rest of us. They started registering the volunteers around 7:15-7:30. They finished with them around 8:15 and our line started slowly moving soon afterwards. The actual registration only took maybe five minutes once I got in the tent. A volunteer took my vital info, credit card number, explained the process and sent me on my way. After registering, I headed straight over to the Boardwalk and made my reservations at the condos for next year. Now all I have to do is get my a$$ in gear and get fit for an Ironman again. I'm glad I have a whole year....

I took a ton of pictures. Here are a few of the leaders.

Tom Evans looking strong just out of T2.

Torbjorn Sindballe a few minutes behind

Bella coming in from the bike course headed for T2

Tom making the turn at mile 13.

Bella at mile 13 on her way to win number 5 in Florida.

Tom Evans a few 100 yards from the finish line and a record smashing time.

Happy Training,

Darkness Cometh...Trainer Season

2008-10-17T21:32:00.001-04:00

Remember the scene in Ghost when the shadows turned into demons and pulled Willy's soul down to hell? No matter how much he resisted, the darkness still got him. That's kinda how I'm feeling lately. Summer is long gone and the days are getting shorter. No matter how much I resist, the short days of winter are still going to get me and pull me down into trainer hell. In a few weeks, there'll only be maybe 30 or 45 minutes of daylight left after work….which translates into doing most of my rides on the f###ing trainer. By February I'll get nauseous at the thought of doing another trainer ride. But…….at least I'll have weekends for long rides. We rarely get winter weather here that keeps us off the roads, unlike some of my tri brethren to the North. I don't see how yall do it.

Training is still rocking along in maintenance mode, at least for another couple of weeks. I'm still ticking off 3 sessions in each sport per week in the 12 hr range. I'm going to start a run focus period beginning in November and work on getting my volume back up and building some durability into my run, AND... the run focus will help keep me off the d##n trainer. If all goes well, I may do an early season half or full marathon. We'll see.

I've got a couple of gear purchases coming up that I've been considering for a loooong time.
Santa may come a bit early this year. I'll save the details for another post when I have pictures to go along with it.

Also, for the geeks out there who are into the physiological side of things (or trying to learn like me), head over to Alan Couzens’ blog. He knows his stuff and has put up several very informative posts lately. Most of it goes right over my head, but I learn something new every time I go to his blog.

Ironman Florida is just around the corner and I am looking forward to cheering on my fellow bloggers:
Wes
Michele
Tricajun
Lana
Tim
Missy
Good luck to all of you…..I wish I were racing with you!

Happy Training,
TJ

Time For Change

2008-09-27T18:02:00.001-04:00

Tires that is.

I was about to head out for my ride today and just happened to notice a wee bit of wear on my rear tire. I'm all about getting all the miles I can out of a set of tires, but I think I may have stretched it a bit too long this time.
I'd put new tires on my road bike back during Spring and had only ridden it maybe 200 miles since putting the new tires on. Quick tire swap and the tri bike had fresh treads.
I headed out about 1:30 with no particular route or distance in mind. The weather was gorgeous again...except for a bit of wind. I kept the pace easy to steady, enjoyed the fall weather and ended up with 52 miles.
I ended up the week with 2 swims, 3 runs and 3 rides. I'll probably sneak in another ride tomorrow morning which will give me somewhere around 12 hours for the week.

Last year was the first year KJ's school had a girls U13 soccer team. It was definitely a "building" season. They played hard every game, learned a lot, but never scored a goal.....not one. She got tired of hearing me say, "just hang in there, it'll come".

Fall soccer season started here three weeks ago. First game, they played hard but lost 0-1. Game two, THEY SCORED for the first time EVER!!! Not one but TWO goals. But... they lost a close one with the final score being 2-3. This morning's game started out with the opposing team scoring a goal quickly, but we answered with a goal soon after. We scored another goal before half time to give us our first lead ever. Second half, the girls held the other team at 1 goal and scored two more for our first WIN, 4-1!!!! FINALLY!!!!!!!!
The girls were ecstatic. Actually, I think the parents were more excited than the girls.

Happy Traing!
TJ

Clearing the List

2008-09-21T14:38:00.000-04:00

The weather here has been absolutely perfect for training lately. 80s during the day with morning lows in the 60s. Unfortunately, I haven’t trained a lick all week, not until this morning anyway. But, I haven’t been sitting around doing nothing all week. There has been a growing list of things that need to be accomplished around the house, and, that list had not been getting much attention. So, I decided I’d take a break from training and get as many things crossed off the list as possible.

Pine straw cleaned off the roof, check. Hedges trimmed, check. Shrubs pruned, check. Tree limbs and pine cones picked up, check. Lawn cut, check. Wax stripped and reapplied on kitchen floor, check. KJ’s furniture moved back into her room, check. A tired sore TJ, check. I’m not sure which task was to blame, but one of them killed my hamstrings. I got up Thursday or Friday morning and my hammies were aching. They’re still sore, but getting better. So much for that whole being made of iron thing.

A few of us went out for a ride this morning and it was great. Despite having done no training all week, I felt great and rode strong. I ended up with just under 40 miles. The weather was great. Overcast and cool.

I made my reservation for IMFL this week also. I’ll be in town Saturday and Sunday. I doubt I’ll get there in time to see the swim start, but I’ll be there to cheer on the blogger crew as they come through transition. I hope to be there as they cross the finish line also.
I’ll be in the registration line Sunday morning and hope to catch up with some of the new Ironbloggers Sunday.

Happy Training,
TJ

Rolling Along

2008-09-08T21:03:00.002-04:00

The last week or so has been great.
I went over to Dothan last Saturday with a couple of friends for the TriStates100. Although the heat got pretty rough at the end of the ride, we still had a great time. Good route, good roads, great rest stops and great food afterwards. I highly recommend it and I’m sure I’ll be going back next year.

I finished up painting in KJ’s room last week also, although all of her stuff is STILL in our living room. Hopefully it’ll all be somewhat back in place by the end of this week. Then it’ll be time to move on to the next room. We’re still debating which will be next…

Training has been going great lately and I managed 12 hours last week. I capped off the week with a brick Saturday and a nice short ride with breakfast afterwards Sunday morning. The brick Saturday was what I call an A.D.D brick (aerobic descending distance, not the other A.D.D). The intensity is easy to steady throughout....aerobic. And with each sport the length drops down one race distance. For this session, I started out with a half IM swim, then an Olympic bike, finishing off with a sprint distance run. I’ll probably do the longer version (IM swim, Half IM bike, Oly run) in a few weeks. These sessions let me get in a nice long aerobic workout while greatly reducing the chance of injury, specifically ITBS.
I hope to keep things rolling this week as I start to focus more on lowering the intensity of some of my training and start building my base back up during the Fall and Winter.

Huge congrats to Rural Girl for ripping up the course at Ironman Wisconsin and breaking that magical 12 hour mark. It was great following along online and seeing it all come together at the finish line. And how about Chris McDonald? Wow! Second at IM Louisville last week and then taking the win at IM Wisconsin only a week later. That’s gotta be a first.

Hope everyone has a great week.
Happy training,
TJ

TriStates Postponed & Race Pics

2008-08-22T18:37:00.000-04:00

Fay's left turn across the panhandle of Florida caused organizers of the TriStates 100 to postpone the ride until next weekend. So, no long ride for me this weekend. I'm gonna use the rainy day tomorrow to do a bit of catching up at work.

Thanks to AB, I have a few pictures to post from last weekends race.

Happy Training,

First Race in 08

2008-08-17T17:03:00.002-04:00

I took this picture of Furly, our oldest cat, this morning....she lives a tough life. The picture pretty much represents how I felt yesterday after noon.

2008 has purposefully been a much more laid back year for me as far as training and racing goes. I've strung together a few decent training blocks, but I've mostly done whatever I felt like doing. I felt as underprepared as I ever have going into yesterday's race and had no expectations for anything other than having fun. The race is our local sprint race and was my first triathlon back in 2005. I've done it every year since.

The swim start was definitely full contact and clear water was hard to come by. I came out of the water in 6:52 and headed up the path toward transition. T1 time was 2:02 including the run up. I headed out on the bike course and tried to get my pace up pretty quickly. I passed several riders early on and got passed by only a couple of riders toward the end. I finished the bike leg in 35:41 with an average speed of 22.9mph. I exited T2 in 50 seconds and headed out on the run. I felt pretty good and finished the run in 23:26 with an average pace of 7:34.
I forgot to hit the stop button on my watch at the finish as I always do, so I didn't know my splits or finish time. My best finish at this race was last year with a time of 1:11:12. So, when the official results were posted, I was pretty surprised to see I'd better that time by almost two and a half minutes with a finish time of 1:08:50.

A couple of local roadies had ridden up to the race and a friend and I decided to bike the 45 miles back home with them. They're two of the strongest riders in our area and the pace was well beyond comfortable on the hilly trip back home. We finished with an average of almost 21mph and I was a bit tired afterwards to say the least. However, a Whopper meal from BK and a couple of beers later in the afternoon had me on the road to recovery. I feel great today, even though I stayed up to watch Michael Phelps take home number 8.

I'll be heading over to Dothan next weekend with a group of friends for the TriStates Century Ride. I did the ride a couple of years ago and am looking forward to going back...but I'm really looking forward to the post ride carbo-reload that will surely follow.

Happy Training,
TJ

Checking In

2008-07-27T09:28:00.001-04:00

Rain kept me off the bike until Thursday afternoon last week. I rode 40 miles Thursday afternoon and 75 yesterday. Only got in a couple of short runs this week, also because of the rain. I swam 3 times with the masters group, about an hour each session. All together I ended up with somewhere between 10 and 11 hours for the week. Hopefully the afternoon thunderstorms will subside this week and I'll be able to get in a few more sessions.

The new running shoes (Asics GT-2130) are great so far. I think they may be my favorite yet. They seem to give me a bit more forward tilt, which puts me slightly more on the front of my foot. A good thing for a heel striker. It's not a major tilt, just a enough to barely notice. I've only run in them a few times, but so far I couldn't be happier.

Hope everyone has a great week of training,
TJ

Just call me Flash

2008-07-11T20:14:00.002-04:00

Summer is in full force here in Georgia with temps in the high 90s to low 100s every day, with tropical high humidity. Afternoon thundershowers are a part of the weather forecast pretty much every day here during summer, and we’ve had our share. But, I’ve managed to get in a decent amount of training despite the conditions.

I’ve biked a good bit with the group on weekdays and have gotten in some longer rides on the weekends. My cycling is ok right now and I think the main thing I need to do is just stay consistent and keep it rolling.
My running has been hit and miss lately. No long runs to speak of. A few 7-8 milers, but that’s it. It’s mostly been short runs mixed in here and there when time allows. I have my first tri of the year coming up in a few weeks, so I need to get busy sharpening my running up a bit.
Swimming is going great. I started swimming with a local masters group a few weeks ago and I’m really enjoying it. I would have been swimming with them long before now, but I just found out about the program through a conversation with a fellow rider during a ride a few weeks back. My swimming program before starting masters consisted of…get in the pool…start swimming…swim for 30-60 minutes…stop swimming. Real complicated stuff. The masters program has plenty of structure and variety. Each session is about an hour long and the time flies by.

I also finally got around to ordering some new running shoes. I always…ALWAYS…wait too long to order shoes. You know you wait too long to order shoes when your current shoe is no longer being made, EVERY time you go to reorder. There’s no telling how many miles I had on the old ones (Asics GT-2120). The new ones are Asics GT-2130s. I’ll report back on how I like them compared to the old ones, which I love.

DJ is heading out of town today for a 5 day teacher’s workshop over on one of the barrier islands off the coast of Georgia. I think it’s just a ploy for them to get away for a long weekend. Training for me will be very limited while she’s gone. Me and KJ will have the house to ourselves for a few days. I’m really looking forward to spending some extra time with her. We’re actually planning to paint her room over the long weekend, so I definitely won’t be wasting away on the couch.

I’ll close with a funny (now), quite embarrassing, incident that happened at the pool this morning. I was first to finish the session and pulled myself up onto the deck to get out of the pool. Once out of the water, I lifted my right leg to put my foot on the deck to stand up. About halfway through the motion, I heard a faint ripping sound and suddenly felt a breeze in the gluteus maximus area of my body. OH SHIZNIT! was my first thought. WHAT THE *&^# AM I GONNA DO NOW, was my next thought. Not much I could do at that point but get on out of the pool. I put my pull buoy and kick board away right quick and scurried off to the locker room. All the while trying to holding the two rear halves of my suit together with one hand. I’m not sure if anyone noticed my wardrobe malfunction. I didn’t hang around to ask. I’m sure I’ll hear about it if they did.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Happy Training,
TJ

2008-07-02T07:27:00.001-04:00

Just dropping in to wish everyone a early Happy Forth of July.
No big plans for the J gang this year. Just chillin and taking it easy here at rancho de relaxo.
Hope you all have a great weekend.

Happy Independence,
TJ

PCB Pictures

2008-06-07T08:25:00.001-04:00

We got back in last night from a great week down at Panama City Beach.
I'll let the pictures do the talking.
By the way...I got in very little exercise and LOTS of rest.

KJ needed a pit stop on the trip down and I happened to notice this sign posted in the window at the store where we stopped. I hope she didn't stand while she was in there.

I reckon a "No Loitering" sign just wouldn't have been specific enough. LOL!

Nothin like sugar to wash away the boredom of a long car ride.

KJ (right) and cousin R (left).

The beach on the first morning.

K and R posing for the annual "wall" pictures.

RC and Mom came down for a couple of days.

Word!

The crew.

The J gang.

K and R outside Target.

K and R at the Treasure Ship.

Capt. Hook

Arrrrg!

The girls got thier faces painted by the old pirate himself.

Shell hunting at night.

There's just something beautiful about a sailboat.

Outside Pirate's Golf before the skunking begins. Notice the fear in R's face?

Pausing for a picture.

Extreme concentration....

Adding up the final score.

We're done!.....bring on the ice cream!

The girls had thier pictures made at Ripley's.

Bungee jumping/bouncing at the mall.

Checking out the boats at the harbor.

Chillin in the pool.

At Alvin's Island.

The final sunset.

Happy Training!
TJ

Raccoons and Alligators

2008-05-30T22:08:00.000-04:00

Hola Amigos! Seems forever since I've posted.
Life is busy these days.
Time to catch up a bit.

On the training front, I've just had about the most consistent, fun, fitness building 8 week block of training I think I've ever had. Since this is a "non-racing" kinda year for me, I've given myself a blank check when it comes to training. Each week I have an overall time goal to reach, 10, 12, 14 hours, etc....and that's it. Each week builds a little on the last. No heart rate limits, no strict structured workouts, just get out and train and put in enough time to meet the weekly time target. Training this way has let me rediscover my limits....how hard can I run and not get injured?...can I hang on with the fast group and recover for the next day?....can I go hard and long without blowing myself to bits?...etc...etc. Much different than last year's training. I'm enjoying all the freedom and flexibility, absorbing the training and recovering well (so far). I'm gonna keep it rolling until the wheels start to wobble.

The most memorable session during the last few weeks was a 55 miler a few Saturdays back. It was just me and a riding buddy and we were maybe 10 miles into the ride. I was up front and noticed something off to the right of the road coming towards me. I soon realized it was a raccoon. A big one. It got maybe two feet from the road, turned around, high tailed it to the nearest tree and quickly climbed up. Then a few miles down the road we were cruising along and passed over a small creek. I glanced over into the creek, and there, in the creek, was an alligator. A freakin ALLIGATOR. Maybe 6 feet long. I’ve never…NEVER…seen an alligator that close to a highway. Then, about a ¼ mile down the road….same thing. Another alligator in another creek. I was starting to wonder what the hell would be next. However, we finished the ride without any further critter encounters. Crazy!

KJ’s final day of school was last Friday and DJ finished up this week with her last teacher-work-day (aka…meeting-day) Wednesday. KJ has been spending every free minute playing her new Wii. We’d been trying to find one since Christmas and finally lucked out and found one a few weeks ago. It’s pretty darn fun. She’s gotten a few new games so far, but our favorite is still Wii Sports that came with the unit.

We had a great Memorial Day weekend and enjoyed some backyard BBQ and a few adult beverages. I grilled up some mean chicken and DJ made an awesome desert and all the other fixins. I burned off the extra calories with a ride and long run Monday.

We’re heading out for Panama City Beach tomorrow afternoon. We’ll be there for about a week. I’ve promised to leave my bike at home, but I plan to run every day. I haven’t had a “recovery” week in a couple of months, so it’ll probably do me good to leave the bike at home.
Otherwise I’ll be resting, drinking a few cervezas on the beach, working on my tan, enjoying some of the local seafood and spending lots of time with D and K. I’ll check in with some pictures when we get back.

Happy Training!
TJ

Stupid

2008-05-02T05:36:00.002-04:00

Other than good judgment, a helmet is a cyclists one guard against harm while on the road. We don't have seat belts, roll cages, air bags, or any of the many other safety features that normally protect us on the road.

Whenever I see a rider doing something dumb, like riding against traffic, I can usually give them somewhat of a break and assume they're just ignorant of the fact that traffic laws apply to them. Maybe they just don't know it's against the law to ride in the WRONG direction.

When I see a rider without a helmet, I find it a bit more difficult to give them a pass. I mean, even football players know to protect their gray matter. But.... on occasion, I can dig deep enough and give even the helmetless a break. Maybe by some chance their situation in life won't allow them the luxury of a helmet.

But, yesterday, I saw the most stupid thing I think I've ever seen when it comes to cycling. I actually saw a guy riding down the road, in heavy traffic, not wearing a helmet, with the helmet hanging from his handlebars.
STU.....PID
I freakin laughed out loud.

I'm off to run before the heat kicks up.
Happy Friday!
TJ

Pictures of the Week

2008-04-27T06:25:00.002-04:00

Checking in and Tunes

2008-04-19T20:02:00.005-04:00

Not much new to report here on the homefront. I’m enjoying the warm Spring weather we’re having and training is rolling along nicely. Today started out just as the last 3 or 4 Saturdays...WET. Luckily it stopped raining mid morning and I was able to get out and get in a good Saturday ride after lunch.

I've been riding with the local race team quite a bit lately and man can those guys go. I've gotten dropped a couple of times, but I'm enjoying riding with them anyway….at least as long as I can hang on. Even their slowest riders can really crank it. I'd never be able to push myself to go that hard while training alone. And, it's great to just have other folks to train with after doing so much solo training last year.

Riding with the team is one of the things I'm doing to try to improve my biking (my weakest sport). I'm shooting for 4 rides per week. One with the team as speedwork. One hillier session to build strength. One longer endurance session and one shorter recovery ride. Hopefully after a few months of hitting those sessions consistently, I'll be able to see some improvement. I'll still be swimming and running, but at a reduced level for a while.

I mentioned a few posts back that I might put up an original tune at some point in the future. After a few post ride Heinekens this afternoon, I decided to post not one…but three. Mainly because I can’t figure out how to configure the player to only show one and I didn’t want to delete the other two from the host site. The tunes are just little acoustic instrumentals. One is kinda light hearted, one is straight up bluegrass and one is a bit sad/melancholy/mellow. Nothing too fancy.
I’ve never had any formal music training, so just overlook the mistakes.
Let me know if the link for the player doesn’t work correctly.

Tunes

Happy Training/Listening,
TJ

No Words Needed

2008-04-12T06:16:00.000-04:00

Soggy Saturday

2008-04-05T22:23:00.001-04:00

Feeling much better today, but the weather conspired against me.
It started raining this morning and didn't stop until late in the afternoon.
The lightning was cracking most of the day as well.

I plan to get out early in the morning for a run...the first in a week.
The weather is predicted to be much better tomorrow.

But first I'm heading over to Ironman Live to catch some of the action at IM OZ before calling it a day.

The view from my patio today.....

Happy Training,
TJ

18,400 miles in 195 days

2008-04-05T07:42:00.002-04:00

This may be old news to some but it's new to me.
While perusing the May issue of Men's Journal, I came across an article about 25 year old Mark Beaumont and was blown away by his record setting jaunt around the world.....on a bike.
He set out from Paris last summer and rolled back into town 195 days later...almost three months....THREE...MONTHS...... faster than the previous record.

He took one rest day every two weeks. Lost 14 pounds. Grew a beard. Slept in police stations for protection in Pakistan. Got knocked from his bike by a scooter, a donkey, and old lady driving her car(in Louisiana). Says he couldn't find anything healthy to eat in the American South (gravy pours into water bottles...) and struggled there (here) because of it.

But the thing that amazes me, as an endurance athlete, is this. While carrying 200 lbs, (yep...200...pounds) of gear on his bike, he covered 100 miles DAILY. A freaking century every day....carrying 200 lbs. That is just crazy strong. CRAY.......Z.

The fact that much of the distance covered HAD to have been mountainous, makes this feat even more mind boggling.

Mark's journey is truly amazing and inspiring.

Dogwoods and Bugs

2008-04-01T18:30:00.001-04:00

The dogwoods are in full bloom.

Bugs doing what bugs do during Spring.

Grab Bag

2008-03-31T19:47:00.001-04:00

Cough! Cough!! Cough!!! Cough!!!!

(room clears)…………..Sneeze!!!!!!

Snort…..Hack

Blow

Breathe

Repeat

….is how I’ve spent my last few days.

Being sick sucks!

Yeah…I know….cue the violins Maestro!

Moving on….

I’ve started a “side” blog as a place where I can put any non-tri/endurance related stuff that doesn’t quite fit here. Pictures, videos, maybe an original tune every now and then, stuff like that ... or whatever else I come across. It’ll pretty much be a grab bag. I’ve put a link to it in the side bar under my profile. (*note: the side blog is on hold for now*)

Also, for those of you that may not know, Bolder has started an awesome effort to help raise cancer awareness. Write2Fight is the name of the site and it’s all about sharing stories related to how cancer has impacted your life. Head over and visit or contribute. There’s a link to it in the sidebar.

Happy Training…cough….hack

SST Postponed and Future Plans

2008-03-29T18:07:00.008-04:00

No Simply Stu Tri today.
KJ had a last minute invitation come up and asked to postpone the tri until tomorrow.
That and the fact that I woke up at 2:30am with a very sore throat. I probably would have been ok for the tri today, but I'm glad to have the day to take it easy. My energy is running a bit low. Hopefully the sore throat will not develop into a full blown (no pun intended) cold.

Training has been going good lately and I have been soaking up all the Spring sunshine and moderate temperatures I can manage. I know the temps will be close to 100 with high humidity way too soon.

I've also been thinking about my future triathlon goals. A Lot. Specifically Ironman.
Goals are nice safe little aspirations you can pull out and adjust anytime you want....that is...until you share them with someone. When made public, they go from being goals or aspirations to being expectations... and then carry a bit more weight and responsibility. At least that's the way it works with me. If I tell someone I intend to do something, then it's as if I'm locked in to do everything necessary to reach that goal.
So, here it is, out in the open, locked in.

Happy Training,
TJ

Going With The Grain

2008-03-23T06:32:00.003-04:00

The weather Saturday was predicted to be perfect for riding. Calm winds, moderate temperatures (45/75) and plenty of sunshine. I decided to ride with the local club. This would be the first club ride, or group ride for that matter, that I'd done in about a year. I did all of my riding solo last year during the build up for Florida. I was a bit nervous, to be honest, before the ride. Not only with riding in a group setting again, but not really knowing where my fitness would be compared to the rest of the group. Would I struggle to hang on with the group I used to ride with? Would I get dropped by the slow group? Would I blow up in the middle of the ride trying to stay with the fast group and have to limp home alone?

There were about 35 riders on hand and we rolled out just after 8am. My only plan was to go with the grain and not get too carried away. It was a bit cold once we got going but warmed up after a few miles. We all stayed together for the first 8 or 10 miles...longer than usual. The fast group started pulling away at about mile 10. I was feeling great and it was VERY tempting to hop on and go, but I stayed with the middle group.

There were a dozen or so riders in our group and we'd formed a good pace line by about mile 12. My turn up front rolled around and I stayed up for about 3 miles and was still feeling great. We continued on keeping a good pace and soon came up on the lead group. They'd stopped at a convenience store and were about to head back out. They were taking a longer route and our group decided to take a shorter route. We jumped on and stayed with them for a few miles until we got to our turn-off. We'd lost about half of our group by the time we got to the turn. I got out front to take the first pull. There were 5 riders behind me at this point. After a couple of miles I glanced back and there was one. He didn't seem to be itching to come up front, so I just kept going. We made it back to the bike shop and ended up with 40 miles. I was very pleased with how the ride went and I'm looking forward to getting out with the group more frequently. I may even jump on with the fast group next time.

The weather looks to be beautiful again today. Perfect for hunting eggs....

I hope everyone has a blessed and happy Easter!

2008-03-13T17:44:00.001-04:00

Thought I'd post up a few pictures for those of you still up to your elbows in snow.
I took these a couple days ago right after a rain storm.

I'm about to head out for a run in 75 degree sunny weather.....

Happy Training,

One Guess.....

2008-03-11T20:21:00.000-04:00

.....where we had dessert tonight.

Tagged and a new Toy

2008-03-10T22:49:00.001-04:00

Jade Lady tagged me a while back and I’m just now getting around to posting.
Here goes…. 7 random/weird things about me:

1. As a teenager in the 80s I was a huge rock fan…. still am… (Metallica, Whitesnake, Van Halen, GNR back then. These days it’s Foo Fighters, Velvet Revolver, etc…)
Anyway, the weird thing is I got into acoustic and bluegrass music later in life and oddly enough spent a couple years in a bg band.

2. I raced BMX bikes when I was a teenager. Only a couple dozen races and all local, but man…..THAT was freakin fun.

3. I love Mountain Dew. High fructose corn syrup and all.

4. I taught myself to ride my bike backwards when I was a kid. I haven’t tried it in about 25 years. I’m gonna have to try it now….

5. I grew up in a very small town…..population of about 800.

6. My personal favorite recovery drinks are margaritas (plural for a reason). Fruit, salt, carbs, sugar, water……what else do you need?

7. Despite number 6 and most of number 1, I am a Christian.

We got a new toy/camera tonight. Our old camera took a plunge into a cold glass of Ovaltine a few weeks back and never recovered. The details are a bit sketchy, but according to KJ, it just fell in.....really.
Anyhow, we ended up replacing the old Kodak with a new Cannon. It's a pretty cool little camera. I'm still figuring out the different features. Look forward to lots of Spring pictures coming soon.....

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese....or not.

2008-03-01T08:50:00.001-05:00

This week has been great. The best since Ironman Florida. My desire to train is finally completely back. Training because you know you should versus training because you want/desire to are two very different things. It’s been slowly building and has taken a while to get back, but it's back.
There’s a whole post waiting to be written on that subject, but I’ll save that for another time.

I’ve swam every morning this week. Swimming has never been my favorite of the three. Historically I’ve done the minimum required in the pool, but even my desire to swim has increased and I’m enjoying the extra pool time.
I’ve gotten in three runs and will finish off the week with three rides if I can get out tomorrow afternoon. The weather is supposed to be perfect.

KJ and I have also gotten in a couple of sessions together this week in preparation for the Simply Stu tri. And she's running in a 1 mile fun run this morning with friends. Her training is coming along nicely and she’ll be ready when race day rolls around.

Daylight saving time is only a week away!

Happy Training!
TJ

It's coming....

2008-02-17T15:56:00.002-05:00

SPRING!
It’s just around the corner and I can’t wait. The pollen has already started falling here. Everything outside is covered in yellow dust.
Spring is my favorite time of year. Everything starts coming back to life, the days get longer, the weather gets warmer, and it also means it’s time for the Simply Stu Worldwide Triathlon.

I’ll be doing the Simply Stu race again this year with my favorite training partner KJ.

We did the race last year and had a blast. We’re going a bit longer this year. 400 yard swim, 10 mile bike and 3 mile run. Last year we swam 200 yards, biked 6.5 miles and ran 1.8 miles. Training officially started today. We ran just over a mile, non-stop, and she did great. We’ll be heading to the pool tomorrow. We'll balance the tri training along with soccer practice, which begins this week as well.

Also, we’re doing something a little different along with our training for the Simply Stu tri this year. You’ll have to check in here on race day (March 29) to find out what it is.

Regular training for me is still humming along at a very “maintenance” level. I’m getting in at least 2 sessions per sport every week. That feels about right for now and I’m just gonna roll with it and add sessions as “life” allows.

Happy Training,

Rain Rain Go Away

2008-01-26T09:37:00.000-05:00

Sitting here reading about Epic Camp, finishing my second cup of java, while it’s raining and 40 deg outside on a Saturday morning, is not a good combination. I suppose I could jump on the trainer…but that might take a couple more cups of coffee to get me jazzed enough for that.
If you’re not familiar with Epic Camp, it’s a multiday training camp put on by Scott Molina, Gordo Byrn, and John Newsom (my coach for IMFL). They do a MASSIVE amount of volume with the “campers” over a span of 8 days…12 in previous years. It’s always fun to follow along through their blog posts and podcasts. The camp starts tomorrow and is taking place in New Zealand.

The bone I was thrown for another trip around the Ironman Florida course this year started to not look so good after a conversation with DJ this week. She isn’t really onboard for another year of being an Iron-widow. She’s cool with it next year, but she’s holding me to my promise to skip a year. I know her well enough to know she’d support me either way, but I’m going to set my ambition aside for now and shine up my cowbell. I’ll be there cheering and registering for 09. Who’s with me?

Happy Training,
TJ

Checking In

2008-01-20T11:35:00.000-05:00

2008 has gotten off to a bit of a busy start and I’m a little behind the ball at checking in.

Training is going well. I’ve strung together a few weeks of consistent training, getting in 2-4 sessions per sport per week. Nothing too crazy as far as duration or intensity. I’ve managed to get to the gym also and am just now starting to get over that initial soreness that comes after not lifting for a long time.
I’ve been working on getting my eating habits back out of the gutter too. I’ve cut way back on sodas, bread, sugar, and anything out of the vending machine at work. It’s working. I’ve dropped a couple of those holiday pounds and hope to be back at fighting weight in a month or so.

Other than training and 60 hour work weeks, things are pretty quite on the homefront. I’ve managed to find a little time for some reading…. something I didn’t have much spare time or energy to do most of last year. I’m re-reading A Salty Piece Of Land by Jimmy Buffet. It’s one of my favorite books…especially this time of year when the weather outside is far from tropical. I think Dean's Marathon Man will be next.

Still nothing in the registered column as far as races for 2008. I think I’m just gonna wing it this year and jump into races when I feel like racing. I did come across a site yesterday that got my total attention however. They’re offering training programs (including race registration) for a few 2008 Ironman races. Florida is one of the races. It sure was tempting to jump in and go for it. And don’t tell DJ….but I haven’t totally ruled it out.
Maybe fate will take care of it and they’ll sell all their spots before I pull the trigger. Otherwise, I may be heading back to Panama City in November as more than a spectator.

Happy Training,
TJ

The tour is over

2007-12-27T10:37:00.000-05:00

The weather here has been pretty nasty lately. It’s been cloudy with light rain or fog just about every day, with cool temps. The positive is it’s begun to rain again, something we haven’t had in a while.
Since it’s been nasty outside, I’ve done all of my training (if 30 minutes per day rates as training) indoors. I can handle the dreadmill and drainer in small bites, but that’s it. Much more than 30-45 minutes and I’m ready to go off the deep end. I don’t see how you cold climate folks do it.

I’ve also been spending way too much time on the internet since I’ve been off work (I wouldn’t dream of surfing at work). I was browsing YouTube the other day and came across the 89 Mark and Dave showdown. If you haven’t seen it and you’re an Ironjunkie, you really should check it out. The entire broadcast is on YouTube in 6 parts. Those guys were/are amazing.
I also found some great swimming tips on YouTube from Dave. I think there are 5 or 6 segments. Good stuff. I’m going give some of it a try tomorrow.

The Christmas tour came and went in a whirlwind of presents, gravy and cake. It was great, but now it’s on to the new year. Time to box everything up and get the house back in order. The tree comes down today.
Since we’re both home for a few days, DJ and I are also doing a whole house clean out. It’s amazing how much junk we hold onto. The garbage man is gonna love us.

Happy Training,
TJ

The tour begins

2007-12-22T08:21:00.000-05:00

We officially begin our family Christmas/Eating tour today. Much of our family lives within a 50-mile radius of us, which is great, but it means the next week or so will be filled with many family functions...6 or 7 I estimate. Presents will be exchanged, kids will get sugared up and go a bit wild, grown-ups will eat more than they should, and by the end of it all, I’ll probably get sick at the sight of another casserole. But it’ll be nice to catch up with some of the clan I haven’t seen in a while.

Things have been pretty light on the training front. Annnnnd I’ll leave it at that….

D and K finished up school Tuesday and were itching to get out of town. So we drove up to the Fernbank museum in Atlanta Wednesday. DJ is a bit of a frog freak. She loves the darn things. Fernbank had a frog exhibit going on and she’d been wanting to see it. There were over 100 live frogs in the exhibit. The dart frogs were cool. Their colors are amazing. My favorite part of the museum was the dinosaur exhibit. Seeing the scale of them up close is mind-boggling.

KJ with the big guys

The worst part of the trip was the traffic on I75. On the way up, we were delayed about 30 minutes due to a wreck. 30 minutes isn’t too bad. But, on the way back there was another wreck. This time the wait was almost 2 hours. Most of it sitting completely immobile. I don’t wait well…..
Hopefully all involved in the accident made it out ok.

As soon as I make this post, I’m off to go do my last minute shopping. Two more things and I’m done!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Happy Training/Resting,

TJ

2007-12-16T07:34:00.000-05:00

My legs burn just watching….

Lance - Alpe D’Huez

Offseason update

2007-12-12T21:49:00.000-05:00

Things are rocking along pretty well down here in the desert Southeast. The weather here is crazy for this time of year. Highs in the 80s most days…with no rain…and none in sight. I think Santa will be cruising down Santa Claus lane in shorts and a T-shirt this year.

I’m sticking to my one-short-easy-session-per-day plan fairly well. I’m planning to get to the gym next week and start back up with a strength program. And I’ll be trying to get back to some basic core work sometime this week.

The IT band is still sore. I’ll most likely end up at my ortho doc for another shot of cortisone. I had the exact same condition in my right IT band in 06 and the cortisone shot did the trick then. We’ll see…

I haven’t done so well with cutting back on my diet. Going from burning a bazillion calories per day to not burning many at all…without adjusting my diet…has resulted in an 8 lb weight gain in 6 weeks. This is the worst time of the year for me diet-wise. Seems someone is bringing in some awesome desert or finger food to work every day. As a matter of fact, today’s awesome item was this. It rocked! I’ve pretty much thrown in the towel on losing weight until after Christmas.

I’m still working on ironing out my race schedule for next year. I’m thinking of maybe doing the Rock N Rollman half iron up in Macon on May 31. I’ve never done this race and have always wanted to give it a go. I really wanted to go back and do Gulf Coast again, but DJ can’t get away that week, so it doesn’t look like it’s going to work out this year. It’s one of my favorite races, so maybe I can rope some of my buds into going with me. I haven’t totally ruled it out yet.

Happy Training,
TJ

Recycle Those Old Shoes

2007-12-06T20:02:00.000-05:00

Like Me!

Or you may want to give this place a look. Or check out many of the local running shoe recycling efforts around the U.S.

Checking In

2007-12-01T08:04:00.000-05:00

Well my friends, most of November was a big ole fat zero for TJ.
I managed 3 runs and 1 ride on the trainer. I ate like a pregnant woman and slept like a teenager. I’ve put on a little weight and lost a heap o fitness.

It’s time to get my act together and get things rolling again. I sat down and planned out the month of December. I’m gonna keep everything short and easy this month and just try to get back into the routine….which will be the hard part. Rolling out of bed first thing in the mornings to jump in the pool will take a while to feel normal again. If I can stick to the schedule, I should make it to January 1st ready to start the real training and begin laying down some solid basework.

In the 3+ years I’ve been training, I’ve never taken this much time off. It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes to feel fit again…

KJ and I were supposed to be running in a local 5k this morning. She started complaining with aches yesterday and woke up with a fever and sore throat this morning. She wanted to go anyway....101 degree fever and all.

Happy Training, TJ

Watch Me Finish

2007-11-26T20:09:00.000-05:00

Click HERE

Week in Review

2007-11-18T08:43:00.000-05:00

Another week of rest and relaxation is done. I’m getting pretty darn accustomed to this non-training stuff…..

KJ’s school choir sang Christmas carols at a local shopping market Thursday night. It’s just what I needed to get me in the holiday spirit. It seems like summer just ended….

Next on the agenda was KJ’s book parade Friday. They dress as their favorite book character and then parade through the school. It’s a pretty funny sight. K’s favorite character is Junie B. Jones. She has ALL of the Junie B. books.

I decided it was time to do some sort of actual training. An easy 3 miler Friday afternoon seemed like a good way to get things rolling again. For the first 10 minutes it was awesome. Then my ITB woke up and started rebelling. It hurt pretty badly during the remaining 22 minutes of the run. I think I’ll stick to swimming and biking for next week.

The Indians came to town Saturday…literally. Albany hosts an Indian festival each year and we went out to watch some of the festivities.

Saturday night we grilled hot dogs (the dietary debauchery continues) and then fired up the chimenea out on the patio to make smores.

I’d almost gone to sleep when the flash woke me up….

I plan to get in a couple of short swims and bikes next week. Otherwise, I’ll be grazing on a Thanksgiving feast…or two....

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving,
TJ

River Ride

2007-11-12T15:28:00.000-05:00

We had a perfect day of weather here in South Georgia yesterday. Plenty of sunshine with highs in the 70s. KJ was itching to get outside and do something….and so was I. We loaded up the bikes Sunday afternoon and headed down to the river trail. We ended up with a little over an hour of riding time. We spent almost as much time stopping to enjoy the views of the river.

Heading out.

The first of many stops along the way.

KJ heading down a narrow portion of the trail.

Blazing through a downhill section.

KJ checking out the river.

KJ takes a turn with the camera.

Another view of the river.

KJ decided she needed to do a transition run after the ride.

And we finished off the ride with Gelato..

I’ve done absolutely nothing since IM Flordia. It felt great to get out and get moving a bit yesterday. John wants me to wait another week before doing any real exercise. I’ll be itching to get going by then.

My week of dietary debauchery has come to a bitter end as well. No more fried chicken or tacos followed by Krispy Kreme or Bruster’s ice cream...every day. It’s been awesome eating whatever and as much as I wanted for a week. My blood is probably the consistency of motor oil by now, so it’s back to healthy eating today.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.
Happy training,TJ

Ironman Florida: Post Race Report

2007-11-10T09:01:00.000-05:00

The sun came up Sunday morning after the race and the gulf water was still like glass. I’ve never seen the water down there stay that calm for so many days. People were out swimming as they had been all week. I wished them well and kept my spot on the couch.

We stayed down at PCB through Tuesday. We swam in the pool, hung out at the beach, shopped, played miniature golf, ate out…a lot, toured the marinas, and just generally enjoyed the area. My IT band remained very sore, which made getting around a slow endeavor. Everywhere we went though, there were other folks limping around just as slowly as I was. One particular place we went to eat had most of the seating up a long flight of stairs. It took me a couple of minutes to make it up. We were seated so that we could see the entire stairway. It got to be pretty funny watching the other Ironman finishers climb up.

At one of the marinas

It’s been a week since race day and I’ve had some time to decompress a bit and think about the race. I really don’t know of anything major I would have done differently. My nutrition worked great. I followed exactly what I’d done in training. On the bike, I took in 1 bottle of Gatorade per hour and 2-3 Carbboom gels per hour with water (about half to ¾ of a bottle). That comes to 350-450 calories per hour on the bike. On the run, for the first 15 or so miles, I took in 2 gels per hour with water and drank Gatorade at each aid station, about 300 cals. I also started drinking coke at mile 10. After about mile 15, I took in whatever sounded good…mostly coke and Gatorade. I gave up on the gels after mile 15 or 16. I know I was well hydrated. I peed during the bike 4 times, once in each transition, and probably 4 or 5 times on the run. I never cramped. I felt the tightness that comes before a cramp a couple of times, but I never had a full-fledged cramp. I never felt like I was about to bonk either.

Pace/effort-wise, I stuck to my plan fairly well. My effort on the swim was at or under what I’d planned. The only time I went harder than I needed to all day was toward the end of the bike when the headwind was getting stronger. I kinda wish I’d gone a little harder in the early part of the bike, but, I may have paid for it later. I never had to worry about going too hard during the run. My IT band kept me from going too hard.

What do I need to work on? THE BIKE. Hands down biking is by far my weakest sport. I’m happy with my swim. My run fitness couldn’t really come through due to the IT band, but I’m happy with where my running is. My biking however, is not where I’d like it to be. It is where my focus will be in the offseason.

What’s next for me in 2008? Not an Ironman. I promised my family I’d skip a year and not do another Ironman in 2008. Otherwise, I’d have signed up again Sunday morning with the rest of the crew. It’s gonna be great following Wes, Michele, Lana, Jenny, Trimama and Tac as they prepare for Ironman Florida 2008. I’m shining up my cowbell.
My year will most likely consist of short course racing and working on improving my biking. I may…..MAY….do a half Ironman, but nothing is in concrete. And I’m considering doing our local marathon in March. I’ve also got one other huge endurance adventure I’m considering taking on in 2008, but I’m not letting that cat out of the bag until I’ve totally committed to going through with it.
Otherwise, I’ll be catching up on some things I missed out on this past year… spending more time with D and K, some golf, camping, TV beyond 9 o’clock, etc.

Happy Training,

Ironman Florida Race Report: The Race

2007-11-07T17:44:00.000-05:00

The Swim

Me and KJ before the start

Me and DJ before the start.

BOOM!

The mass of bodies moved quickly into the water and began the 140.6 mile journey to the finish line. The very beginning of the swim was crazy...nuts...chaotic....the whole washing machine churning madness that everyone talks about. But, I expected it to be rough. What I didn’t expect was how quickly it would go from craziness to not so bad and eventually to awesome. It took about an eighth of a mile for the worst of the carnage to end. Then things started opening up a bit. Then for the next few hundred yards, we’d bunch up and slow down, then spread out and get going again like an accordion. I saw a few jellyfish going out but never got stung. Things got tight around the first turn buoy and I got nailed with a kick to the face....a glancing blow however, not a direct hit. After this point, the swim was great. I was definitely enjoying it. I made the turn at the second turn buoy and started back in. I was amazed at how good I felt. I was only breathing every third or fourth stroke. I was keeping my head down, holding good form and sighting every 20 or so strokes. I figured since I felt so good that my time would be really slow. And I was ok with that. I was willing to give up some time to come out of the water feeling good. I didn’t want my day to start out with my energy levels running low right out of the gate. I was totally prepared to go 1.5 hours in the swim and be ok with it. As I stood up and began walking toward the shore after the first loop, I heard Mike Reily say that we were at 36 minutes. Wow. I couldn’t believe I’d done that time and felt this good. I was stoked. I grabbed a cup of water at the turn around and took a quick sip to rinse the salt water taste away before heading back into the water. We re-entered the water and swam across to a big floating Ford logo. There were other athletes around me, but it was like I was swimming alone. Noone crowding in. It was great. I swam fairly straight and stayed on course near the buoys. No zig zagging like in past races. I exited the water and heard Mike Reily call out my name and hometown. Very cool! I unzipped and removed the top of my wetsuit and found a stripper who made quick work of the rest. Total swim time, 1:17:35, a great swim for me. I made the journey from the beach up to T1 and was surprised to hear, “Good swim TJ”, by the person handing me my T1bag. I looked up and recognized the person as my fellow Georgian tri bro Wes. Thanks for taking care of me man! It was very cool getting to meet you.

Now, I’ve never been in a medical tent in a war zone, but the madness that was the T1 tent at this race had to be about as close as I’ll ever come. The first thing that hit me was the change in temperature. It was like a steamy sauna in there. Then the craziness hit. It was complete freakin chaos. Wall to wall people. Folks running around like mad, some laid out on the ground, some in chairs, some standing. I didn’t try to find a chair. I just dumped my bag out in the first open spot on the floor I came to and started getting everything on. It wasn’t too cold outside, so I just put on arm warmers and some cotton gloves. I’d packed extra clothes in case it turned cooler than predicted, but luckily I didn’t need more than the arm warmers and gloves. I finally got everything on, stuffed my wetsuit in the bag, handed it off to a volunteer and headed out of the tent. I was glad to be out of there. I made a quick stop by the porta potty and headed to my bike. A volunteer had my bike waiting on me (the volunteers rocked) and I made my way out of T1 in a total of 10:48 .
1 down, 2 to go....

The Bike

The bike is definitely my weakest sport and the portion of the race I knew would be the biggest challenge. I knew how my training had gone and I didn’t expect race day to be any different. I just needed to ride within myself and not get too carried away.
My plan was to go really easy during the first 10k of the bike, get my heart rate down and settle into a good rhythm, and that’s exactly what I did. There was a constant stream of riders going by during this section. But I stuck to my plan and letem go. Once we made the turn onto hwy 79, I picked my pace up a bit and felt good. The wind wasn’t blowing at this point and all was going well. I made it to the bridge, dropped down into my easiest gear and spun up and over. A few miles after crossing over the bridge, I saw a female athlete who’d crashed her bike. She had road rash on her chin, cheek and forearm....and other places too I’m sure....but that’s all I saw. Someone was there with her, so about all I could do was say a prayer for her and keep going. Her bike looked ok, so hopefully she was able to continue.
There are a few rollers heading out hwy 79 to Ebro, but nothing too bad. We made the turn onto hwy 20 at Ebro and I was still feeling good and holding a decent pace. I was right on track with my nutrition....but needed to dehydrate. The line at the porta potty at the first aid station was at least 10 people deep, probably more like 15. I wasn’t about to give up that much time waiting in line. One of the things that they’d stressed in the prerace meeting was that there had been a problem with athletes relieving themselves in public during the race. They told us the sheriff’s office had informed race officials that anyone seen doing so would be arrested and taken to jail...which would make it kinda hard to finish the race. No going on the side of the road as in training. So, once I got to the point that I HAD to go, I found a road sign near a heavily wooded area and stopped. I leaned my bike against the sign and headed into the woods...well out of the sight of da man. I was quickly in and out...2 minutes tops....and back on my way. I’d repeat the process another three times before finishing the ride.
There were a few steeper hills on highway 20, but I was still feeling good. I made it to the special needs area but didn’t need anything I’d put in the bag. I turned onto hwy 231 and felt the wind pick up immediately....headwind that is. The going got a little rough on 231, but I was still ok when I turned off onto Camp Flowers road. The headwind continued until the next turn. I made it to the turn around point at mile 73 and was starting to get a little tired, but still ok. Once I made the turn around, the headwind kicked up with full force and would continue until I made it back into town. The section of the course on 388 was pretty tough going. On top of the headwind, this road is in pretty bad shape..rough pavement. Compound it all and it made for some tough going. At times I was going 14-15 mph into the wind and working harder than I needed to. Finally I made it back to hwy 79 and turned left to cross the bridge and go back into town. I definitely wasn’t alone in my struggles at this point. Everyone around was having a tough go and I thought one guy up in front of me was going to fall over from going too slow up the bridge. I made it over and made my way back into town and turned left on front beach road. We had a nice tailwind for the last 8 or so miles and it gave me a chance to regroup a bit and get ready for the run. I rolled into T2 and was VERY glad to get off my bike. However, once I got off the bike, I felt an old but familiar pain in my left knee. My IT band had decided to protest. I hadn’t felt it during the bike, but I could definitely feel it now. I got my T2 bag and headed into the change tent. The atmosphere was very different this time around. I took my time, got changed and stretched a bit. I exited the tent and made another pit stop.....I definitely knew I was taking in enough hydration. As I was about to exit transition I remembered I hadn’t turned my race number around to the front. I reached around back to pull it around and RRRRRRIIIPPPP. It tore right off the belt. Both holes tore. Luckily, there was a lady at the exit writing down bib numbers. I borrowed her pen and poked two new holes in the bib. Let me tell ya, it aint easy to thread the little strings on the belt through the holes in the bib when you’re tired. It took me at least two minutes to get those darn strings in. Finally I got it and headed out on the run.
Total bike time: 6:40:36
T2: 6:01

2 down, 1 to go.

The Run

My plan for the run was to hold a pace that would allow me to run the run. I’m really pretty lazy and if I ever started allowing myself to walk...I might not start back running. I didn’t want to walk other than at the aid stations when taking in nutrition. However, starting the run with the feeling of a knife stabbing in the side of my left knee, I knew that my minimal walk plan might be in jeopardy. After a couple hundred yards, the pain eased up enough to be tolerable. I made it to the first aid station and walked through taking in Gatorade and water. The pain in my knee intensified a bit when walking and came back strong for about 75 yards after starting back running. Then, after getting back running, it eased up and I could tolerate it again. I hit the first mile marker in 8:58. A bit faster than I’d planned....the adrenaline at work I suppose. I continued walking the aid stations and suffering through intense pain for the first 50-75 yards after starting back running. The pain continued to ease off gradually as I ran until I walked to take in hydration at the next aid station. I slowed over miles 2, 3 and 4 (9:54, 10:49, 11:12) and found the pace I’d keep for most of the race. I’d planned on running somewhere around 11-12 minute miles including the walk breaks at aid stations.
Each time I stopped at an aid station, it took a little longer for the pain to go away once I started to run again. I started considering not walking.....but I had to take in nutrition.....so the cycle continued.
I finished the first half of the marathon getting pretty tired, starting to get mentally tired from dealing with the pain, and really not wanting to make the turn to head back out. Mile 12 was the lowest point of the race for me. Hurting, tired and knowing I had 14.2 more miles to go made me have to dig a little deeper than I ever have to keep going. Once I made the turn at the halfway point, things started getting better for some reason. The pain hadn’t gotten any better, but mentally something changed. I continued to walk the aid stations through about mile 17 or 18 and finally thought, screw it, I’ll stop one or two more times and hope that’ll be enough nutrition to get me to the end. I briefly walked at the aid station at around mile 20 and then again at about mile 23 taking in only coke. Other than that, I ran the last 8 or so miles without walking.

At mile 24 it started sinking in. I’m really going to do this thing. I’m gonna be an Ironman. I picked up my pace and the finish line started drawing me in. I could hear Mike Reily and the crowds as I got closer. I made the final turn onto Thomas Drive and felt like I’d been given a shot of cure-all. The pain was gone, the tiredness was gone and the finish line was in sight. The crowds were going nuts and the energy was off the charts as I ran down the finish chute. I heard KJ scream my name and I motioned for her to come with me. She charged out...and actually passed me. Crap, she’s gonna make me earn it. I did the final mile in 8:46. KJ said she heard Mike Reily call my name, but I don't remember hearing it. We crossed the line hand in hand. A prettty amazing moment.

Run: 4:59:09

Total finish time: 13:14:09

Man was I glad to be done. Glad to stop. Glad to rest. Glad to be an Ironman. There weren’t any tears. The heavens didn’t open up and shine beams of ironlight down on me. Angels didn’t sing and I didn’t suddenly transform into anything other than a tired happy Ironman. I had, however, entered into one of the most exclusive clubs around, and I knew that I would never be the same. And I had an extreme sense of thankfulness come over me, and still do. Thankful to have a family willing to support me through the entire year of training and thankful to be blessed with a healthy body and be able to train for and complete the race.

After we crossed the line, a volunteer was right there with me, asking if I was ok, asking if I needed anything. Once she realized I was coherent, she guided me through getting my finisher’s medal, T-shirt, and hat. Then to a guy to remove my chip and then she handed me off to the photographer who snapped a shot of a very happy and tired TJ and KJ. We soon found DJ and celebrated. A couple of Ironvets from our home town were there to congratulate me and we talked with them for a few minutes. Then we headed into the Boardwalk to SIT DOWN. I didn’t want to eat, I didn’t want a massage, I didn’t want an IV, I just wanted to SIT. And sit I did. For about 15 minutes, then I stood up. OUCH!
We slowly made our way to transition and I went in and picked up my bike and gear bags. It was a pretty funny sight actually. All these lean, fit athletes hobbling around at a snails pace. It truly is a fraternity of pain.

We made it back to the car and loaded everything up. KJ was starving, so we stopped at the most convenient place.....McDonald’s. Oh yeah, I had to have me a Big Mac meal. We made it back to the room and dug in. The salty fries tasted amazingly good after nothing but sweet food all day, but I was only able to eat about half of them and the burger. After eating I was ready for a shower...and found every blister and chaffed spot on my body. We got in bed about 11 or so, but I didn’t go to sleep until about 1am. I woke up about 2:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. I got on up about 3:30am. I just couldn’t sleep. I was starving and pigged out on left over spaghetti. After gorging on the spaghetti, I plopped down on the couch in front of the TV.

Life is good.....

Ironman Florida Race Report: Prerace

2007-11-06T17:02:00.000-05:00

Ironman Florida: Prerace

Wednesday: The drive down to Panama City Beach was uneventful. No turn-arounds to go back for some crucial forgotten piece of gear, no unexpected delays to slow us down, just lots of farmland and open road the whole way.
We made it into town about 7pm local time and made a quick stop by Publix to get the basic groceries for the week. It’s amazing how quickly the basics can turn into a full cart....especially when you have a nine year old helping. We unloaded the car, put everything away, had supper and got into bed around midnight. I never sleep well the first night away from home and this night would be no different. I tossed and turned most of the night and got maybe 3 or 4 hours of sleep.

Thursday: I was up early Thursday morning. Once the sun came up I was glad to see how calm the ocean was. It was like glass. Hardly any waves at all. The weather predictions through Saturday were pretty much the same for each day. I hoped the water conditions would remain as calm as this morning. I woke DJ and KJ up about 8:30 and we headed to registration around 9:30.
There were people EVERYWHERE at the Boardwalk. It was nuts. The line for registration was at least 200 yards long. We made it to the end of the line and slowly made our way towards the registration tent.

Me and KJ waiting in line at registration.

An hour later I entered the tent. Once inside, I had to complete the form, sign the waiver, get weighed, get my race packet, verify my chip and get my backpack. In and out in about 10 minutes. After leaving the tent I tracked down D and K and we walked around the expo. We bought some stuff from the Ironman store and then toured the rest of the vendors. As we were walking through the expo, I looked over and happened to notice Heather Fuhr sitting over on the side of the throughway. Then I noticed Paula Newby-Frasier standing not far from her. How freakin cool is that!

PNF (standing), Heather Fuhr (sitting)

Then we happened up on a press conference with Bella Comeford, Nina Craft, Joe Bonness, and others. Mike Reily was out in the audiance. Man, how many other sports can you get up that close to the pros and rock stars of the sport? Not too many.

Pro press conference

Mike Reily (blue shirt)

We toured around the expo for a little longer and then headed back to the condo. We chilled around the pool and beach for a while and then rested a bit before heading out for dinner. Before heading out for the meeting, I started going through the packet trying to figure out what goes where and what to include.

Digging through the packet

We decided to skip the official pasta dinner and went to Pineapple Wiley’s instead. They have a cool pier there and we decided to eat out on the pier. The sunset was awesome that afternoon and KJ snapped a great shot as the sun was sinking into the gulf (she’s quite the budding photographer).

We made it to the Boardwalk early for the athlete’s meeting. The dinner and meeting was held in a large banquet room and it was already full by the time we got there. I had to grab a couple of chairs for us from out in the lobby. There were a couple hundred folks behind us that had to stand during the meeting. The meeting was not that different than other pre-race meetings I’ve been to, just on a much larger scale and with Mike Reily as the host. The meeting rapped up around 9pm and we headed back and made it to bed around 10:30. I slept like a rock.

Friday: I was up early again and the water was just as calm Friday morning as Thursday morning. The only thing on the agenda for Friday was to pack my T1 and T2 bags, do a short bike and run, check in my bike, drop off the bags and then rest as much as possible.
There was no line at all for bike check-in. I cruised right in and racked my bike.....at the back corner of transition. I dropped off my gear bags and we headed back to the room to rest.
I was oddly calm. I figured I’d be a wreck the day before the race, but I wasn’t. I actually took a nap when we got back to the condo. DJ made some of her awesome spaghetti and we had an early dinner. I got in bed around 7 pm...yep....7pm and was asleep by 8 or 8:30. I slept like a baby. I woke up once to use the bathroom and went right back to sleep.

Saturday: The alarm sounded at 3:30am and I got right up. No snoozing today...
My pre-race breakfast consisted of 2 scrambled eggs, two pieces of toast with a bit of butter, grits with a little butter (no self respecting Georgian would start such a big day without grits), and a Mountain Dew. Pretty much your average American breakfast. Nothing too fancy.
I was still calm and went about my routine of getting ready. 4:30am came and we headed out for the race. We decided to park at Spinnaker instead of taking the shuttle bus from Wal-Mart. We made it to transition shortly after 5am. Instead of doing bodymarking outside of transition, they had bodymarkers spread throughout transition. This is a great change. I walked right into transition and was able to get right to my bike without any delay.
When I got to my bike to start setting up, the reality of what I was about to do really started to sink in. I’m not an overly emotional kinda guy, but I found myself having to fight back the emotions as I started taking the gear out of my bag. I totally hadn’t expected to feel this way. Throughout the year of training, anytime I’d think about the race, I imagined the point that I might get emotional would be at the finish line, not alone in the predawn before the race. But as the acoustic version of Collective Soul’s Shine played over the PA system and I thought about the year and what it took to get me to this point, the weight of the moment became quite heavy. I thought about my older brother who lost his life at the age of 20 in a car accident and how proud he would be of me. I thought about my father who lost his battle with alcoholism a decade ago and how proud he would be...even though he’d have thought I was nuts. And I thought about the year of sacrifice that D and K had endured and how this day was as much theirs as mine. A tear or two managed to slip by, but I finally gave myself a Chuck Norris mental slap back to reality and pulled it together. Whew.....
After getting everything set up and double checking... five or six times....I found a nice lady to ink me up. I looked around for Lana and Michele to do the deed but didn’t see them. I made the first of several porta potty stops and then met back up with D and K. I got into my wetsuit and we headed down to the beach about 6:30. There were people everywhere. We saw one of the local Ironman guys from back home and talked to him for a few minutes. About 6:45 I gave D and K a final hug and kiss and headed into the holding area. The pros headed out at 6:50. The pro field was huge. Well over 100. Mike Reily started calling out the time remaining. Three minutes to go! The energy level was through the roof. Then Black Sabbath’s Ironman started rocking through the PA. 1 minute to GO! One of the last thoughts that ran through my mind right before the start was, somewhere out in cyberspace my countdown clock is about to hit zero.

No turning back now....

Ironman Florida

2007-11-05T10:34:00.000-05:00

What an amazing day.
Tough, hard, long, but amazing.
Finish Time: 13:14:09
I'm tapping this out on my pda, so it'll be short and sweet.
The swim was awesome, the bike was windy on the second half, and the run was a test of pain tolerance and mental strength.
The finish was crazy.

I'm still hobbling around down in Panama City. We'll be heading back tomorrow.

Full report will follow.

It' Show Time

2007-10-29T20:41:00.000-04:00

The training is done, the lists have been made, the gear has been packed, the coach has given final instructions, the race plan has been studied, the lists have been checked and double and triple checked. All that’s left to do is pack the car, drop the dog off at the kennel and head down to PCB Wednesday afternoon.

What a year it’s been. It’s hard to believe race week is finally here. I could go on and on (and probably will in the future) about some of the challenges and breakthroughs I’ve had this year, but I’ll save those for future posts.

It’s been great having the tri blog community to share this journey with. I look forward to catching up with some of you that will be there during the event. If you happen to see me, flag me down and say hi. I’ll be the short skinny bald guy with the kid-in-a-candy-store look on my face.

Finish time predictions. I’ve thought this one through about a million times. The conclusion that I’ve finally come to is anything under 17 hours equals Iron, and that's what I'm shooting for. Everyone hits the start line wanting to have their best possible day, but we all know that doesn’t always happen. Anything can happen on race day. And I’ve never gone the distance, so I don’t really know how I’ll handle it. As long as I have a finisher’s medal hanging around my neck at the end of the day, I’ll be happy. Let’s just say I’ll be very surprised if the hours portion of my finish time doesn’t end with “teen”.

By the way, my race number is 820.

See yall on the other side,
TJ

Weather

2007-10-27T14:38:00.000-04:00

It’s a beautiful day here in Georgia. The sun is out and the temperatures are cool. The low was in the 50s and the highs are predicted to be high 70s. Perfect training weather. I started out my day with a 30 minute swim, then an hour on the bike followed by a 40 minute run. I couldn’t help but think the entire time that I’ll be doing the real thing next week. It’s getting close….

The weather predictions for Panama City Beach are looking fairly good for next Saturday. The temperatures are 79/60, which is just about perfect. The winds however are predicted to be at 12mph from the NE. That would be a direct headwind early on the bike heading out highway 79 towards Ebro. Hopefully the wind won’t kick up until midday or afternoon. If all goes well, I should be heading back in by then and the wind SHOULD be at my back.…..
The predictions can change a lot in a week. Either way I’m ready to go whatever conditions unfold on race day.

Happy Training,
TJ

Taper Tantrums

2007-10-23T16:41:00.001-04:00

I think the taper is getting to me.
I had another whacked out tri dream last night.
For some reason I'm always on a mountain bike in these dreams.
I was doing my first xterra race. I got to a point during the bike portion and discovered I was lost. The trail just ended, and there weren't any other racers around. I backtracked and started over and ended up in the same place...lost. I decided to drop out of the race. Next thing I remember is DJ and I were heading back to town (which town isn't clear) to our hotel. Thing is, we weren't in the car, we were on the mountain bike...she was on the handle bars. We got lost and ended up at the wrong hotel, but went in anyway. The lobby of the hotel was packed with people dressed in formal attire. I was still in my race kit and they were looking at us like we were from another planet. I woke up at about this point.
Man. Crazy stuff must be going down in my subconscious.

Happy Training,
TJ

2 Weeks To Go

2007-10-21T07:40:00.000-04:00

I got things rolling again with training last week after being down for the count for a few days with a nasty head/chest cold. I finished out the week with a swim/bike/run brick (30min/1.5hrs/1hr) Friday and a 5 hour ride (85.5 miles) yesterday. The brick went well…but I can’t say the same for the ride. It was windy. A headwind in every freakin direction. No relief to be found. I averaged 17 and had to work hard for that. I was pretty tired when I got back home. Not the most confidence building session…but I got it done.
The schedule for this week is fairly moderate with nothing over a couple of hours.

I’m starting to get my stuff organized for the race. I’ve got several piles going. Each one has a label… “swim” or “run special needs” or “bike” etc. The hard part is deciding what to put in the special needs bags. I think the main thing will be some warm clothes and dry socks in each, maybe an extra C02 and tube for the bike, and a Mountain Dew for the run. And whatever else I come up with.

Friday I bought new batteries for everything (Watch/HR monitor, chest strap, bike computer, bike computer transmitter, camera). 55 bucks worth. It’ll be worth it though to have it all work on race day. I think I’ve talked myself into new tires for the bike also. They’ve got a couple thousand miles on them and the rear tire is looking a bit worn. I’m going to go by the bike shop in the morning and get the wrench’s opinion. I trust his judgment.

The nerves are starting to kick in a bit also. The race has been this far off thing that I’ve been working towards for so long….and now it’s less than two weeks away! Every now and then reality hits and I think “O Shiznit, I’m going to do an Ironman in a few days”.
Hopefully that pre-race calm I’ve heard everybody talk about will kick in any day now.

RC’s pathology report came back and the news was good. The cancer had not gone into the lining of his bladder. He’ll go in for another surgery on November 17th to have the remaining tumors removed and then receive treatments for a while after the surgery.
Thanks for all your prayers!

Happy Training!!!
TJ

What goes up…must come down

2007-10-13T10:15:00.000-04:00

Last week ended on a pretty high note. I had a great 5k race and got my first ever age group win. I was feeling good about my fitness and all things endurance. I had a good day off Sunday (although I was a bit more tired than I should have been) and was looking forward to my long run on Monday. Monday came and I was still very tired. Last week was a recovery week and I couldn’t figure out why I was feeling so drained. I left work Monday afternoon and was still dragging. I headed out for my long run and felt ok for the first 20 minutes, but after that, it was downhill to the end. I ended up with 14 miles at a pace of about 10:30, which was actually better than I expected. I was crazy thirsty afterwards and drank a ton of water and Gatorade. I had dinner soon after getting home and went right off to bed. I woke up about 3:30am Tuesday morning and it felt like my throat was on fire. *&^%!!!!! DJ, and a couple of people at work have had colds lately. I’d been washing my hands like crazy, but apparently it wasn’t enough to keep the germs away.

I made it through my 5 mile run Tuesday afternoon, but felt like crap afterwards…. and haven’t trained since. The sore throat is gone, but congestion has picked up where it left off. My energy has returned a little, so hopefully I’ll be able to get things going again by Monday.

Race day is three weeks away, but I’m actually not panicking. I’ve done the work. I don’t think I could add much more fitness in the next three weeks. And even if I miss an entire week of training to this cold, it may end up doing me some good in the end by letting me rest a bit more. At least that’s what I keep telling myself....

One good thing about not being out training today is I’ll get to watch the Norman/Macca smackdown at Ironman Hawaii later today.

Happy Training,
TJ

Update and Hardware

2007-10-06T13:05:00.000-04:00

Recovery week couldn’t have come at a better time for me. This week has been crazy busy. Work has been nuts, and RC’s surgery was this week as well.

The surgery went well. Not exactly as we’d have liked, but better than it could have been. My sister and I made the drive down to Gainesville after I finished my swim Wednesday morning. We made it to the hospital about noon. They’d done all the preliminary stuff earlier in the day and he and Mom were waiting for them to call him back. They called for him about an hour after we got there. The surgery was 2 hours late getting started after they called for him. Finally around 5:30 in the afternoon, the surgeon came to talk to us. They removed 10-12 small tumors, but weren’t able to get them all. They put some chemo in to slow the growth of what was left behind. He made it through the recovery period fine and was able to come home Thursday. The prognosis: the pathology report will tell the tale as far as where they’ll go from here with his treatment. If the report shows the cancer has started to leach through the lining of the bladder, they’ll remove the bladder. If not, they’ll perform another surgery to remove the remaining tumors and then treat him with chemo. The pathology report will be ready sometime next week. Please continue to keep RC in your thoughts and prayers.

Other than the long run Monday, this week has been fairly moderate on the training front.
An hour and a half on the trainer Tuesday, 45 minute swim Wednesday and a 50 minute run Thursday. I had a swim/bike brick on the schedule for Friday (3k/4hour). The forecast called for rain, so I changed things around a bit. I decided I’d go with 1.5 hours of swimming, 2 hours indoors on the trainer, and a 45 minute run. The swim went well and I ended up with just under 4500 yards. My dislike of the trainer has not changed, but I made it through 2 hours of stationery boredom. The skies cleared and I was able to get outside for my 45 minute run. I took it easy the remainder of the day and tried to rest up for the 5k.

My only goal for the 5k this morning was to go as hard as I could without injuring anything. Actually, I did have a time goal way in the back of my mind. I thought maybe if the planets lined up just right, I might be able to break 20 minutes. But, the main goal was to bust out a hard 5k and not blow out my IT band or anything else.

I made it to the race about 30 minutes before the start. I got my race number and warmed up a bit. I finished my warm up, stopped by the bathroom and made it to the start line with about 3 minutes to spare. They seeded everyone this year and I lined up in the 22 minute group. The gun sounded and we were off. I passed a few folks in the beginning, but things cleared out pretty quickly…must have been the seeding. It’s usually pretty crowded at the beginning of this race. I hit mile 1 in 6:26. I did a quick calculation and figured if I could hold that pace or go a little quicker, I’d be able to break 20. I picked up my pace and hit mile 2 in 5:57. It’s a bit hilly from mile 2 to the finish line and I knew I'd be slowing during that section. At about mile 2.5, I passed a guy in my age group who always finishes ahead of me. Then I noticed a guy up in front of me that usually finishes in the 19 minute range. He was about 75 yards or so in front of me, but I couldn’t close the gap. The finish line started coming in to view and I went as hard as I could go. I saw the clock display 20 minutes, but I still had about 50 yards to go. I crossed the line and forgot to hit stop on my watch….as usual. I think my time was about 20:15. I’ll know for sure when the official results come out. They didn’t use timing chips this year and we had to fill out an index card at the end of the race. The card I was given had a 12 on it, so I’m guessing that meant I finished 12th overall. Each age group had a basket and the completed cards go in the appropriate basket. It’s a challenge to fill out a card just after giving a 20 minute max effort. I found the male 35-39 basket and was surprised when no other cards were in the basket. They didn’t post the results, so we had to hang around until the awards to find how we placed. DJ, KJ and one of KJ’s friends had made it to the race and we chilled while we waited for the awards. The overall winner finished in a smokin 15:11! Smokin! 2nd and 3rd weren’t far behind. I can't remember the exact time of the women’s winner, but I do remember that 2nd place finished one second behind….ONE SECOND. They finally made it to my age group and I was very happy when I found out I’d won my age group. I’ve gotten second and third in the past, but have never won. I didn't hit my time goal, but I'll definitely take the AG win. And.....I set a new PR of about 40 seconds.

I’ve got an hour trainer ride on the schedule for this afternoon and then it’s rest day tomorrow.

T minus 27 days…..

Happy Training,
TJ

It's all down hill from here

2007-10-02T21:37:00.000-04:00

The long sessions are done….in the bank….in the barn….finished.
Time to start tapering things down and resting up for the big day.
There’s still work to be done, but it’s all down hill from here.

Last Monday I started the week out with a 16 mile run. The heat had returned and the temps were in the low 90s, which made the going a little tougher. I’d taken along Gatorade and gels in my fuel belt and made a quick stop by the truck to reload at mile 8.
I finished up with an average pace of 9:52 at an average heart rate of 157.
I was on the bike for a couple of hours Tuesday afternoon and ended up with around 37 miles. Wednesday morning I was in the pool for an hour and finished up with 3k total yards. Later Wednesday afternoon I ran 6.5 miles. Thursday was a fairly easy day with a 1.5 hour ride in the afternoon. I swam 45 minutes Friday morning and ran for an hour in the afternoon.

A 100 mile ride was on the schedule for Saturday morning. I jumped online Friday night for a quick check of the forecast for Saturday. Low of around 60…great, no problem….highs in the mid 80s….perfect, bring it on….winds 10-20mph gusting to 25mph….oh shiznit…not good….very bad….very…very…bad.
I proceeded to get every thing ready to go for the windfest the next day.
The alarm went off Saturday morning at 5am and I headed into the kitchen for breakfast. After fueling up and taking care of bidness, I dug out my arm warmers since the temps were a little cooler. I figured I’d take them off an hour or so down the road when it warmed up…they stayed on the entire ride.
I headed out about 6:30…in the dark. The first 30 miles went by fairly uneventfully without the wind being too much of a factor. From mile 30 to mile 50, it started picking up a bit and made the going a bit tougher. Then from mile 50 through til the end, it reared its ugly head and blew with full force. Not only were the headwinds brutal, but the sidewinds were tough as well. I’m not the biggest fellow, 140lbs soakin wet. The side winds were blowing me around like crazy. I was praying that a gust wouldn’t hit from the side while a car was passing from behind. Luckily none did and I made it through to the end in one piece. 100.08 miles, 5:46:45, 17.3 mph average speed at an average heart rate of 155. I was very pleased with my ride given the conditions. Most of all I was glad to finish the last 100 miler of this training block.

Sunday was my day off from training and I got in plenty of rest.
A 3 hour run was on the schedule for yesterday. The weather was great for this run, and other than a little foot pain in the beginning, it went well. I finished up with 18 miles at an average heart rate of 154.

September was a big month of training….for me anyway….especially on the bike (642 miles). It’s been a slow building process throughout the year. I never thought I’d be able to train this much and remain consistent, but it happened. I’ve heard folks say, “In Ironman training, you train to be able to train”. I understand what they meant now.

The rest of this week is relatively light and I’m looking forward to it. I’ve only got one longish workout/brick on the schedule, a 3k swim followed by a 4 hour ride Friday morning. Then I’ve got my first 5k of the year coming up Saturday morning. I have absolutely no idea how I’ll do in this race. I’ve definitely not done any speedwork to prepare for it. I’m just gonna go as hard as I can and try not to break anything. Should be fun.

Happy Training,
TJ

Another Week Done

2007-09-23T09:14:00.000-04:00

Another big week is in the bank.
Monday started out with a 15.2 mile run. I’d expected my legs to be a bit tired from the 100 miler Saturday, but I felt great the entire run. This run was actually the best long run I’ve had in weeks. 2:30:11 at an average heart rate of 152.
Tuesday was a fairly easy day with only one workout, an hour on the trainer.
Wednesday I was in the pool for 3k in the morning and on the bike for 2 hours in the afternoon.
Thursday was a fairly easy day with only a 5.6 mile run.
Friday was another swim-bike-run brick. I started out about 6am with a 3k swim. It was misting rain when I got to the Y to swim. The forecast had called for rain, but I’d hoped the skies would clear long enough for me to get my bike and run finished. When I walked out of the Y after my swim, the mist had turned into a downpour. I headed home and got on the trainer for 2 boring hours. The rain was still coming down when I got off the trainer, so I jumped on the treadmill for my 45 minute run. I finished up the run, had some breakfast and took it easy the remainder of the day.
Saturday’s forecast only looked slightly better than Friday’s. As I headed out Saturday morning for the planned 6 hours, I was almost certain I’d get drenched at some point of the ride. About 10 minutes into the ride the sun came up and I could see deep clear blue in most of the sky. Then about 45 minutes later the sun was gone and the clear blue was replaced with dark gray threatening clouds. This continued for the next 6 hours…but with no rain! However…..the wind blew quite a bit….somehow always in my face…which made the going a bit tough at times. But I was glad to not get soaked. Friday night I’d taken my truck (loaded with gels, Gatorade and water) and parked it at a convenience store out on the route I’d planned to ride. My ride ended perfectly right back at the store. 103.62 miles, 6:00:20, 17.2mph avg, 150 avg heart rate. I loaded up my bike and made the 15 minute drive back home. I opted for the treadmill for my 20 minute run.

Today is my rest day and I'm going to take full advantage of it.
I closed out the week with just under 18 hours of training…my biggest ever.
6 weeks til race day…….

On a personal note, my Step-Dad found out a couple weeks ago that he has bladder cancer. It’s a direct result of exposure to Agent Orange during his service time in Vietnam. All tests show the cancer is contained in the bladder and hasn’t spread to any other parts of his body. The doctors say it is very treatable and may not require anything beyond surgery. The surgery is to take place October 3.
Please keep RC in your thoughts and prayers.

Happy Training,
TJ

Week Recap

2007-09-18T20:58:00.000-04:00

The weather here has been absolutely perfect lately for training. Highs in the upper 80s, lows in the lower 60s. It’s been a very welcome departure from the triple digit high humidity slogfest we had during July and August.

I finished up the week with a bit over 14 hours of training with a long swim of 3k, a long bike of 105 miles and a long run of 11.5 miles. I kept my pace down on the swim and finished feeling fresh…which is what I’m hoping to do on race day. The long ride was an organized century ride with my local bike club. I’ve always done this ride in a group with my roadie friends, but I decided to go solo (zero drafting) this year. I went out a bit too hard during the first 20 or so miles, but came to my senses and got things back in check pretty quickly. The winds kicked up at about mile 30 and continued for the next 30 miles. This happened to be the hilliest portion of the course also. The last 45 miles went pretty well and I finished strong. I’d brought as much hydration and nutrition with me as I could carry and only had to stop once to refuel and once for a porta-potty break. My total non-riding time was less than four minutes. I finished in 6:00:56 with an average pace of 17.4mph. The long run for the week happened to fall on the one hot day of the week, but I managed a pace of 10:43 and finished feeling pretty good.

The long workouts continue this week with another 3k+ swim, another 100 mile ride and a 15 mile run. I’ve also got a swim bike run brick Friday. I’m feeling great (better than I have all summer) and am looking forward to the remainder of the build up.

Happy Training!
TJ

Back to it

2007-09-08T16:23:00.000-04:00

The J gang had a great time up in the Smoky Mountains last weekend…..once we got there. The traffic going up was terrible. A trip that should’ve taken 6.5 to 7 hours took almost 9. Traffic STOPPED about 20 times on I75 and 285 going to and around Atlanta. Stopped!…for no good reason. No wreck, no roadwork, no bad weather. Just too many people and not enough road I suppose.
Once we made it out of Georgia, traffic thinned out and we had smooth sailing all the way up to Smoky Mountains National Park. Just as we entered the park, I noticed a police car on the side of the road with its parking lights on. I didn’t think much about it since I had my cruise control set right on the speed limit. Being on unfamiliar roads in the middle of the night in the smoky/foggy mountains just didn’t seem like a good place to try to make up time. As I passed the policeman, his lights came on and he fell right in behind me. He followed me for at least three miles and then turned on his blue lights. After the usual pleasantries, he explained to me that I was speeding when I passed him. I KNEW he was BSing me, but I didn’t feel it’d be in my best interest to debate the facts at that particular time. He informed me that I wouldn’t be getting a ticket, but would run my “data” and then we’d be on our way. After what seemed like an eternity, he returned my license and registration and wished us a good night.
Finally we made our way through the park to Pigeon Forge just after midnight. We made it to the cabin and went right to bed. The remainder of our stay in Pigeon Forge was spent relaxing, shopping, relaxing, doing a little training, relaxing, being tourists, and relaxing. I managed to get in an hour run Saturday and 1.5 hours on the bike Sunday. Being a flatlander, the hills were quite a challenge, but fun. Not only do you have to have legs of steal to ride in the mountains, you have to have nerves of steel. 10 mph up, 35+ mph down the other side. Yeeehaawww!

Home for the weekend

Where I spent much of my time

The river in front of the cabin

KJ really didn't want to have her picture taken

Foggy mountains

We made it back home Monday afternoon and it was time to get back to reality and back to the training schedule. 3k in the pool Tuesday, 1.5 hour run Wednesday, 45 minute swim and 1 hour on the trainer Thursday. Friday was my day off work and I had a run bike swim brick on tap. 3k swim, 50 mile bike and 1 hour run. I started the swim about 5:15am. I finished in an hour and felt great. I started the bike about 6:35am. I’m not too keen on riding in the dark, but I had to be finished in time to get Caesar to the groomer. I had my safety flasher on and didn’t have any problems with cars coming close before the sun came up. There was actually a good bit of cloud cover Friday morning, which meant the heat never was a factor. I took it fairly easy on the bike and finished in just under 3 hours. I started the run feeling good and finished the same way. I ended up with 6.1 miles in an hour for the run.
Four hours on the bike was on the schedule for today. I started out in the dark again about 6:45. I could feel the fatigue in my legs from the brick Friday. Other than a bit of wind and almost getting broad sided by a deer, the ride was pretty uneventful. I ended up with just under 70 miles for the ride and did a short transition run off the bike. I was glad to be finished and celebrated with a nice nap. Tomorrow is a rest day and I’m looking forward to it.
I’ll be hitting the peak of my volume over the next few weeks. I have 100+ mile rides for the next three Saturdays. There’s a couple of 2.5 hour runs and a 3 hour run in there also. I’ll be ready for the taper to begin when I finish this block of training!

Good luck to everyone racing in Wisconsin tomorrow!!!!!

Happy Training,TJ

Checking In

2007-08-31T11:36:00.000-04:00

I’m barely making it in under the cutoff for my two posts per month minimum. Whew!
Let’s see, since the last post…. I had a great week of training, a sprint race, a week off of training due to another nasty head/chest cold, and this week easing back into training.

The week of training leading up to my first sprint race of the year had gone really well. I’d done a couple of harder efforts on the bike and run just to remind my body what it’s like to go fast…….there ain’t a lot of fast going in Ironman training. The race was Saturday morning and I took Friday off from training to rest up a bit.

I woke up around 5:00am on race morning and had breakfast. I loaded up the truck and headed out around 5:45. I arrived at the race site about 6:30 with plenty of time before the start at 8:00am. I got my race packet, timing chip and T-shirt and headed to transition to get set up. I omit some piece of gear from my sprint transitions every year….this year it was my running hat. I’ve whittled it down to: my bike, helmet, bike shoes, glasses, running shoes and race number belt. As a result, setting up my transition area took all of about 5 minutes, which left me plenty of time to mull around and chat with a few friends. I did a short warm up run about 30 minutes before the race start and then did a swim warm up about 15 minutes before the start.

After a short delay, the horn sounded and we were off. The swim was very short, 400 yards. There were three waves in the race and mine was the largest and first to go. The swim was very crowded in the beginning and it took a couple minutes to find any clear water. We reached the first buoy and things bunched up again, but it was fairly smooth going afterwards. I had a pretty decent swim for me and came out to the water feeling good. There was a 200+ yard uphill run to T1. I crossed the timing mat going into T1 in 8:31. I exited T1 in 49 seconds and headed out on the bike. The first part of the bike course was very technical with several sharp turns. After clearing all of the turns, I went fairly hard and finished up the bike in 37:30 at an average of 20.8. Quick change and I headed out of T2 in 50 seconds. I found my legs pretty quickly on the run and went as hard as I could go. I completed the 5k in 23:35 and finished up with an overall time of 1:11:12. I bettered my best time for this race by 1:40.

I took the remainder of the day off from training after the race and did 1.5 hours on the trainer the following day. I felt great after the race and all day Sunday. When I got out of bed Monday morning, my throat was a little sore. CRAP! Not again!!!!...was all I could think. KJ had been sick with a cold and I was the next lucky recipient. I struggled through my long run Monday afternoon and felt like crap afterwards. It didn’t get any better Tuesday or Wednesday and I ended up home from work Thursday and Friday. My energy started returning Saturday and Sunday and I resumed training Monday. I’ve been easing back into it this week and I think I’ll be good to go by next week…..if I can get rid of this lingering congestion.

We are heading up to Tennessee this weekend to say adios to summer. I’m planning to take my bike along and get in some riding in the Smokies. Anybody know any good routes in the Pigeon Forge area?

Happy Training!
TJ

Tagged

2007-08-15T21:19:00.000-04:00

Jobs I've Held:
High School Summer Jobs
Farm Work
Construction
College
Retail Clerk
After College
Calibration Technician
Calibration Laboratory Team Leader

Movies I Can Watch Over and Over:
The Right Stuff
Star Wars
National Treasure
ET

My Guilty Pleasures:
Beer
Margaritas
Naps

Places I Have Lived:
I’ve lived in South GA all my life

Shows I Enjoy:
Miami Ink
Dr. G
The New Detectives
Modern Marvels

Vacation Spots:
North Georgia Mountains
Dayton Beach Florida
Panama City Beach Florida
Gatlinburg Tennessee
Denver Colorado
Fairbanks Alaska

Favorite Foods:
Chocolate
Cake
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Strawberry Ice Cream
Tacos
Pizza
Fried Chicken

Websites I Visit Daily:
Everything in the sidebar on my blog

Body Parts I Have Injured:
Knee (water skiing)
IT Band (running)
Elbow (bicycle crash)
Arm (motorcycle crash)
Arm (Baseball)

Awards I've Won:
5th Grade three leg race co-champion (a proud moment)
Softball League Champs
A few age groups awards

Nicknames I've Been Called:
Cheetah….Not cause I’m fast….long story
Work Horse (by my roadie homies cause I don't mind pulling)

I'm Tagging:
Wes
Trimama
Taconite Boy
TriJack
Rural Girl

Heatfest

2007-08-12T12:08:00.000-04:00

Things are going pretty well down here in the tropical sauna also known as Georgia.
It’s been crazy hot. CRAY…Z! We’ve had 6 or 8 days in a row of record breaking heat.
The mercury topped out at 106 one day this past week. Factor in the humidity and it felt like 115+. Not the most ideal training conditions…. especially if you’re doing a half IM brick.
I’ll get to that later……

I ended the week with about 13 hours of training and around 14 last week. It’s been great to get in some good solid training after being sick a few weeks ago. John just sent my schedule for the next few weeks and things are definitely not going to slow down. I have a slightly easier week this week since I have a sprint race coming up Saturday. But the volume continues to increase after this week. I’ll do my first 100 mile ride of the year in a couple of weeks. My longest this year has been 85 (last week). I’m looking forward to the 100 miler. Hopefully we’ll get a break in the heat that day.

DJ and KJ started back to school this week also. The transition went pretty smoothly. I think they were both ready to get back to it. They’ll be missing their lazy summer days before long though. KJ is starting 4th grade this year, which is a huge deal to her because she gets to change classes. We didn’t start that until 8th grade back in the day. Times they be a changin.

Alrighty…..the half ironman brick/simulation…death march.
Since I haven’t been doing much racing this summer, John wanted me to do a half IM sim yesterday. No problem, right? I’ll get in a nice long training day. The pace will be easy to steady. No big deal, right? Right….other than the record breaking heat. The plan called for a 3k swim, 56 mile bike and at least 12 miles of running.
My pool doesn’t open until 8:30am on Saturdays, which meant the day would be starting later than I’d like. I got up around 6 and finished my breakfast by 6:30. I headed to the pool about 8:00am. The lifeguard was there a little early and I was able to start at 8:15. I took the swim really easy and finished in 1 hour and 1 second. I felt great after the swim and was looking forward to getting going on the bike. I headed out to the parking lot of the Y and got my bike ready and bottles loaded. I was covered in sweat by the time I was ready to go…not a good sign.
I took the first 30 minutes very easy and was feeling good. I increased my pace a little over the next half hour and still felt good. At about this time the heat really started kicking up. At around the 2 hour mark I started to really feel the affects from the heat. The air felt like someone had a giant hair dryer blowing in my face. My heart rate was at least 10 beats higher than it normally would be for the effort I was putting out. I drank more water and Gatorade and slowed a bit to try to settle my heart rate down. It helped some, but not much. I finished the remainder of the ride just trying to stay hydrated and save some energy for what I knew would be a rough run. I got off the bike after 57.12 miles not feeling the best, but glad to be done. I checked the thermometerwhen I got home…..99 degrees, and the sensor is in the shade.
I took my longest T2 ever, about 30 minutes, before heading to the local college to do my run. I’d measured a one mile loop there that passes by a cold water fountain. I parked at the tennis complex and headed out. The first loop went pretty well (9:32). I started to think maybe the run wouldn’t be so bad after all. The next loop
slowed to about 10:00, but I still felt ok. Mile 3 took 11:11 and the heat started working its magic again. I was stopping by the truck each loop to drink Gatorade and pour water over my head. I had to walk some on mile four and it took me 12:31. I was feeling pretty rough. I made it to mile 6 and really thought about calling it a day.
I took a break of about 2 minutes and got out of the sun under the shelter at the tennis complex. I drenched myself in cold water and felt much better. I decided I’d continue on and headed out for mile 7. It didn’t take long for the heat to zap my energy again. I took another break after mile 8. I think my brain was totally cooked at that point and I decided I was going to finish no matter how long it took. The girls soccer team was on the field doing drills. I think they were starting to take bets on how long I’d go before I passed out. I trudged through the next 4 miles and finished up in exactly 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Of any workout, race, brick, whatever, that I’ve EVER done, this was by far the hardest. I know it wasn’t lack of fitness, or poor nutrition, or anything else that made it tough. It was the heat. Truth be told, it was pretty dumb of me to keep going on the run. The heat was at dangerous levels for any outdoor activity, much less running....with zero shade. The smart thing would have been to head home after about mile 3 and finish it out on the treadmill.
I suppose the one positive thing I learned is that I can push through feeling pretty bad and continue on to finish. I’m sure that’ll come in handy on the ironman run.

Hope everyone has a great week of training.
Stay Cool!
TJ

2007-08-11T06:48:00.000-04:00

Weird Dream

2007-07-27T08:47:00.001-04:00

I’ve heard others describe their wild Ironman dreams, but I’ve never really had one…..until last night.
The swim in my dream was replaced with a mountain bike race. I finished up the mountain bike portion and headed into transition. I got to the spot where I’d set up my gear for T1 and suddenly realized I’d set up in the wrong place…..next to a tree in a parking lot. Then I realized I wouldn’t be able to continue because I hadn’t checked my bike into the correct transition area. Next thing I remember I was running through the parking lot, pushing my tri bike, looking for Paula Newby-Frasier and Greg Welch to try to talk them into letting me continue in the race.
I woke up before I found them.
Crazy stuff……

Happy Training!
TJ

100 days

2007-07-25T13:35:00.000-04:00

It’s hard to believe only 100 days remain before the big day, Ironman Florida.
However….there’s still a lot of training left to do. Actually, I’m just now getting into the “meat” of my training.
I finished up my cycling block a couple weeks back and am bringing the swim and run back up. Towards the end of the bike block, I started to get a bit burned out. I spent a LOT of time on the bike. I got pretty tired and ended up getting sick. Got a nasty sinus infection……. complete with fever, a nagging cough and no energy…… and missed most of a week of training. But, with the help of antibiotics and lots of rest, I got myself well and back on track.
While I was on the couch recuperating, I had a lot of time to think about what I might’ve done wrong to open myself up to getting sick. I think there are a couple of main things. The first being doing a bit too much in training. John gives me a range of time to shoot for with each session. For example, a long ride may call for 4.5-5 hours at X heart rate zone. Before getting sick, I’d do something like 5:10-5:15, or more, instead of what was prescribed. I was doing the maximum+ on every session, all week, every week. As strange as it may sound, I didn’t really realize how tired I was getting until I was nuked. It was a slow build up of fatigue. That was mistake number 1. The next thing was that I started to let my nutrition go a bit. I’m normally pretty good with eating healthy, but I started to let down my guard a bit and started eating more junk. After all, what better way to celebrate a 5 hour ride than a big ole cheeseburger, fries and a ginormous coke….and maybe an apple turnover to boot. Which isn’t a problem every now and then after a long session on the weekend, but I’d started slipping and eating junk during the week also. So, I think the combination of fatigue and poor nutrition was the one two punch that knocked my immune system down.
I’m now doing the MINIMUM time scheduled for each session and eating much better. Hopefully I’ll be able to listen to my body a little more closely over the next 100 days and not make the same mistakes again. I guess we all have to blow ourselves to bits a time or two to realize moderation and consistency are what really matter for improvement. Or maybe I’m just really hard headed and have to learn everything the hard way….

I’ve got a sprint race coming up in a few weeks and I’m really looking forward to it. My race schedule has been pretty slim this year. My speed isn’t as sharp as I’d like it to be for a short race, but it’ll be fun to lay down the hammer and see what happens.

I’m also going to try to be a bit more frequent in updating the blog. I always thought that as my training increased, my blogging would follow……obviously not the case.

100 and counting…..here we go….

Happy Training,
TJ

A Bit Off

2007-06-30T20:11:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had one of those days when you just weren’t “into” the workout ahead? I had one today. I just wasn’t looking forward to the long ride ahead. On top of being a bit off my game mentally, I woke up late. I’d set my alarm for 5:00 am….only thing is, I set it for PM. Dooooh! Luckily I woke up 5:17. No problem…my breakfast would just have a little less time to sink in. 6:15am rolled around and it was time to get suited up to go. I pulled on my shorts and immediately something didn’t feel right. I looked down and the shorts were inside out. Dude…where’s your head? Get it together! Quick turn around and I was good to go.

I headed out at 6:30am. 10 minutes from home, I looked down at my heart rate monitor and saw two dots where my heart rate should appear….the dots that mean no signal from the chest strap...which means dead battery. You’ve got to be kidding me! I made a quick turn-around in the parking lot of the Moose Lodge and headed back home to change the battery.

At this point, I considered calling it a day….thinking maybe there was a reason I wasn’t jazzed about this ride. But I changed the battery and headed back out…. wondering what would be next. However, the next four hours went by without any further delays….other than a few nature breaks. I ended up with 70 miles at an average heart rate of 152. I did a short, VERY hot, 20 minute run off the bike and was glad to be finished. The rest of the afternoon was spent mowing the lawn…which has been neglected the last few weeks.

Overall, training is going good. I’m a bit tired, but I suppose that’s to be expected. I’m ready for a rest week, but won’t get one for a couple more weeks.
I have two more weeks to go in the bike block and then I get an easy week.
Tomorrow is my day off and I’m looking forward to it.

Totals for the last two weeks:
Swim: 4.8 miles
Bike: 319 miles
Run: 27 miles
Core: 45 minutes

Hope everyone has a great 4th!

Happy Training.
TJ

Checking In

2007-06-18T09:50:00.000-04:00

Not much new to report here on the home front. Still grinding out the miles in this humid Georgia heat. My long ride this week was a 70 miler Saturday morning followed by a 5k run. The heat during the run was brutal, but I survived. The nice cool treadmill is looking better every day….

Had a bit of an injury last Wednesday. I started experiencing some pain in my left shoulder at about the half way point of my swim session. It was sore for a couple of days afterwards but feels great now. John told me to take the rest of the week off from swimming. I’ll try it out again Wednesday. I’ve never had any issues with my shoulders, hopefully this was a one time occurrence.

Hope everyone has a great week of training and racing.
Good luck to TriJack, Iron Jenny and Iron Girl Nyhus at IM Switzerland, and Wes at Callaway Gardens.

Happy Training!
TJ

Back From Vacation

2007-06-08T08:50:00.000-04:00

Just rolled back into town last night about 8:00pm. We had a great week down in Florida. I caught up on my rest in a major way, ate lots of good food, and best of all, got to hang out with my two favorite girls.
Our camera decided it needed a vacation as well. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not, so the picture selection was a bit slim on this trip. Here are a few that survived:

On the training front.....
I got TONS of rest. A little too much I think. I did absolutely no training the first four days. For the week...I managed two runs....TWO....that's it. No biking. No swimming. The undertow in the ocean was very bad. Red flags every day and double red flags one day. So...no swimming in the ocean. The pool was big enough for laps, but it was always filled with kids. So, no swimming. I finally got my lazy arse out the door Wednesday and did a thirty minute run. I don't know if it was the four zeros, the humidity or what, but this run sucked, as did the one the following day. Maybe being back on home turf will turn things around. I've got a run to do later today, so I'll find out soon enough.
It was great to get away and throw the schedule out the window for a few days, but I'm kinda looking forward to getting back on track.

Happy Training.
TJ

R & R

2007-05-31T13:30:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow we’ll be heading down to the Florida coast for a week of R & R.
I need it. 11.5 hours on the bike during the last week…. plus swim, run and strength equals one tired TJ.

I’m leaving my bike at home, but I plan to do a little recon on the bike course while I’m there. I’ll get up early one morning while D and K are still snoozing and drive the entire course. Just to see what’s in store for me in November.

Coach John wants me to take 3 days totally off while we are away and only do very light running and swimming on the other days. I don’t think I’ll have any trouble sticking to that plan.

Other than a little swimming and running, I plan to spend as much time with D and K as possible, eat lots of fresh seafood…I love seafood, sleep late, lay on the beach and soak up some rays, maybe drink a few margaritas, catch up on some reading, and generally take it easy for a week. I’m looking forward to it.

Happy Training!
TJ

A Smokin Start.

2007-05-27T10:05:00.000-04:00

A 3.5 hour ride with a 20 minute run off the bike was on the schedule for Saturday. I wanted to get started early so I wouldn’t be away from D and K the entire day. My plan was to wake at 5am, have breakfast and be on the road no later than 7am.

The alarm went off at 5 and I pulled myself out of bed and into the kitchen to cook breakfast. I noticed a strange smell when I walked into the kitchen…not always out of the ordinary around here. It smelled like something had been burned….again, not so out of the ordinary. Then I caught a glance of the streetlight out the window and knew where the smell was coming from. I turned on the lights in the back yard and it looked like a thick wave of fog had rolled in during the night. Only this fog smelled of wildfire. The winds had blown smoke over from the eastern part of Georgia.

I didn't want to head out into traffic with driver visibility compromised by the smoke. I started formulating plan B. I could go out to the base (military base) were there’s no traffic and ride the 12.5 mile loop there….where I do most all of my weekday training. But I’d have to pack up everything and make the 25-minute drive. I thought for a split second about doing the ride on the trainer, but I’d go completely nuts on there for 3.5 hours. I decided I’d have breakfast, wait for the sun to rise and see if the smoke cleared.

The sun began to rise and thankfully the smoke began to clear. By 6:45, the smoke had cleared enough that it’d be safe to ride. I headed out about 7am.

The plan called for easy to steady effort for the entire ride. I kept my pace very easy for the first hour and felt good. I increased the effort a bit during the second hour and still felt pretty good. I passed through a small town at about the 2-hour mark and turned east. The wind picked up significantly after making the turn and my nice ride got ugly. The remaining hour and 43 minutes were spent fighting a strong headwind. I made it back home and finished with 63.5 miles and a 17mph average. I made a quick costume change and headed out for the short easy run. 21 minutes at about 9:30 pace.
Overall it was a good session. The headwinds sucked, but I was happy to have gotten in the ride with the smoky start.

Coach John has me focusing on improving my biking during the next several weeks, which equals lots of bike time. My run and swim will taper off a bit during the 6 or so weeks that we work on getting me stronger on the bike. John assured me my swim and run would come back quickly.

This week will be a full week of training through Friday morning. After finishing my bike session Friday, we are heading back down to Panama City Beach for a week of rest and relaxation. We didn’t really get to enjoy the beach while we were there for GCT and I promised KJ we’d go back when school got out. She’s holding me to my word…
John wants me to take three days totally off while I’m on vacation and only do light running and swimming. I’m a bit afraid of what he has in store for me when I get back…..

Happy Training!
TJ

Recovering

2007-05-19T20:16:00.000-04:00

It’s been a week since GCT and I’ve taken it pretty easy all week. 1 swim, 4 rides, and 1 run. All easy. All relatively short.

I forgot to mention my jellyfish encounter when I wrote up my report. Michele mentioned seeing jellyfish during the swim in her report, which reminded me that I’d gotten tagged by one. I actually thought they were schooling fish when I initially saw them. I didn’t think much about it until I felt the sensation of a hot wire being pulled across my chin....I then knew exactly what they were. Luckily the pain subsided quickly and I didn’t have any adverse reactions from it.

It’d been so long since I’d actually toed the line in a race that I’d forgotten how much fun it is to get out there and go at it. I’m going to try to fit another race in soon. Hopefully I can get up to Calloway Gardens in June and do the sprint tri up there with my tri bro Wes. We'll see....

Today's ride was a 32 miler with the club. Coach John told me to keep things easy this weekend and continue to let my body fully recover, so I let the fast gang go and hung in the back where things are much more social. It was a fun ride and I got to catch up with a couple of folks I haven't seen in a while.

Later in the afternoon I fired up the grill and prepared my favorite recovery meal....grilled chicken.

A couple of these........

A couple of these......

And a few pieces of this with the fixins......

And I'm feeling pretty recoverd.

Happy Training!

Gulf Coast Triathlon Race Report

2007-05-14T10:50:00.000-04:00

Back home from a great weekend down at Panama City Beach.
I spent the first half of Friday running around getting everything taken care of before heading out of town. The last thing on the list was to drop Caesar off at the kennel and then head over to pick up DJ and KJ from school. We got on the road about 3:30 and made it to PCB around 7:00pm (6:00pm local time).
We went straight to the host hotel. I registered and picked up my race packet. I put my bike together, put on the race number decals and racked it in transition. We then hurried over to the athlete’s meeting and caught the last 10 minutes.
We made it to the condo about 8:00pm and checked in. After cooking supper, eating, getting everything organized and packed up for the next morning, it was 10:00pm. I got into bed about 10:30 and fell asleep about 11:00. I slept until about 3:00am...I never sleep well the first night away from home. I got out of bed about 3:30 and cracked open a frosty bottle of Gatorade. Nothin like Gatorade first thing in the morning. I got D and K up, had breakfast and we left for the race about 5am.

We parked at Spinnaker and walked to the race site...maybe half a mile. The line for bodymarking was very long. It took about 20 minutes to get marked. There wasn’t much time left after getting inked before transition closed and I had to hurry to get set up...not really something I like to hurry through.

Getting Marked

Me and KJ before the start

I got my wetsuit on and we made it down to the beach about 6:15...my wave was to go off at 6:55, so I had some time to chill before starting. Even though I hadn’t gotten much sleep and the morning had been a bit rushed, I was totally relaxed. It was kind of strange actually. I usually get nervous before a big race. But I was calm and ready to go.
They soon called for my wave to get ready to start.

The crowd on the beach was huge before the swim start

The cannon sounded and we were off. My plan for the swim was to take it easy and not burn up too much energy. I started at the back of the pack to avoid the carnage. The water was fairly calm and I soon settled into a rhythm. Other than a leaky right goggle socket and some zig zagging, the swim was fairly uneventful. I hit the beach in just over 38 minutes. Definitely not a smokin swim, but I felt great and hadn’t gone too hard. I made the long jog up to T1 and stripped off my wetsuit. I took about 5 minutes in T1 and headed out on the bike.

I'm in there somewhere...

Getting the wetsuit off in T1

My goal for the bike was to take in 1 bottle of Gatorade Endurance/2 gels per hour (350 cals), average 18mph and save something for the run. I started off easy and let my heart rate settle down. I’d settled into a good rhythm by the time I turned onto hwy 79 to head out of town. I was soon going up the bridge over the coastal waterway. Right after the bridge, the course turns right onto highway 388. I was feeling good, so I increased my speed a bit once I made the turn onto 388. I didn't notice as many "packs" this year as last year, but about 10 miles after turning onto 388, I was overtaken by a pack of about 10 riders. One guy actually passed me on the right. I guess he didn't want to lose his spot in the group. Luckily I held my line and avoided what could have been a day ending crash. I hit the turnaround with an average speed of 18.3mph. I was getting in my nutrition and still feeling good. I kept my speed going and made it back to hwy 79. I crossed back over the bridge and felt the headwinds kick up a bit, but it wasn’t as bad as the previous year. I made it back into town and made the turn onto Front Beach Rd. I was still rolling pretty good and still felt great. I finished up the bike in 2:56:35 with an average speed of 19 mph and an average heart rate of 170bpm. I was stoked with my bike time, but hoped I hadn’t overdone it. I made it through T2 in about 3 minutes and headed out on the run.

Heading out of T1

Not long after starting the run, I heard DJ and KJ yelling for me. They held up a sign they'd made for me and cheered me on. I was really happy to see them and it was just the boost I needed. I started out at what I though was an easy pace, but hit the first mile marker in 7:18. Whoa! Gotta back off. I slowed down and hit the 2 mile mark in 10:33. Mile 3 - 8:51, Mile 4 - 7:51, Mile 5 - 9:10, Mile 6 - 9:15. It was getting very hot by now, but I was still feeling good and started to wonder when the implosion would take place. I was doing way better than I’d expected. I was close to the halfway point of the run and still had an hour and a half left to reach my goal time of 6 hours. I did mile 7 in 8:57, mile 8 in 10:22. Mile 8 was where I had started cramping last year. This year, I was walking every aid station and taking in at least one cup of Gatorade at each station to help avoid the cramps. I was also taking in a gel every 30 minutes with water. My pace for mile 9 was 9:05 and 10:21 for mile 10. I was beginning to get tired, but was starting to think I’d be able to hold on and reach my goal. Mile 11 pace was 7:13...not sure what happened there. Mile 12 - 10:34. I had my first cramp (hamstring) just after mile 12 and walked for about 50 yards to work it out. I finished up the last 1.1 miles in 13:43 and finished the run in 2 hours and 2 minutes. My pace for the run was 9:22/mile with an average heart rate of 173. I crossed the finish line with an official finish time of 5:45:42.

Starting the run

Nearing the finish line

Gettin some lovin from KJ

Me and KJ with the sign she made for me

After the race, I headed straight back in the ocean to cool down my legs. I also had a recovery drink right after the race. I gathered up my gear from transition after cooling down and headed back to the room for a much needed shower. We hung out in the room for a good while and then headed out for PIZZA. Three huge slices of Salvatore’s later and all was right with the world.

Heading back into the water to cool off

I was...and still am...blown away with how well the race went. I set a new PR for this race by nearly half an hour. There are a few reasons I can think of for the improvement. I skipped the early season running races this year, which allowed me to build the base miles I needed. I was able to keep my training consistent and stayed healthy and injury free. I was in much better swim shape this year. My swim time was only a minute faster than last year, but I came out of the water feeling much better this year. I was also on a new, much lighter, bike this year. My nutrition plan was also much better. When Coach John and I spoke, he urged me to increase the amount of calories I took in through the race and it made a huge difference. I didn’t start running out of energy until late in the run.

The end of a great day

It was an awesome weekend and I couldn’t be happier with how the race went.
I’ll be taking it easy this week, but then the real training begins......

Happy Training
TJ

GCT RESULTS

2007-05-12T17:14:00.000-04:00

5:45:42
report coming soon

It's Getting Hot!

2007-05-01T11:45:00.001-04:00

It got into the 90s here yesterday and the forecast says we’ll have more of the same for the remainder of the week.
Goodbye pleasant spring temps…hello summer heat!

Last week was another busy week for me. Lots of stuff going on away from training.
Our workload has steadily grown over the past few years at work. As a result, the workforce has also increased…to the point that it’s become an issue for my supervisor to manage the people in my area, as well as his other areas. The decision was made to establish a team leader position within our office to alleviate some of those supervisory demands. I was offered that position last week and accepted it. It’ll mean a few more clams in the basket, but also more work. Hopefully I can continue to keep everything balanced.

As noted in a previous post, I’ve been debating buying a power meter and hiring a coach. After much deliberation, I’ve come to a decision on both items. I’ve emailed and spoken with several coaches during the last few weeks. In the end, it was an easy decision to go with John Newsom as my coach. I’m very familiar with John’s style of coaching, having listened to many of his podcasts at Ironman Talk. John is one of the very best at what he does and knows his stuff…and he’s a great athlete himself. I know he’ll get more out of me than I ever would have on my own.
As for the power meter, I’ve decided to hold off on getting one…at least in the near future. Maybe later in the summer. But for now it’s on the back burner.

I missed a couple of sessions in the middle of last week due to just plain out being busy. But overall it was a good week of training.
The hot temperatures made my 8.5 mile run a bit tougher than normal yesterday. I ended up with about a 9:00/mile pace for the run. I’m hoping to maintain at least 9:45/mile pace at GCT.
I didn’t work Friday to be with KJ at her school field day, which put me a bit behind at work. I went in Saturday morning to catch up on a few things and did my ride in the afternoon. I ended up with 40 windy miles at an average of 19mph. Hopefully my bike fitness will be good enough for an 18 average at GCT.

I threw some chicken on the grill when I got home from the ride Saturday afternoon and kicked back with a few cold beers. A fitting end to a busy week.

My posting will probably be scarce between now and after the race.
My only goal for Gulf Coast is to break 6 hours. Anything under six and I’ll be happy.
I feel much more prepared this year as opposed to last year.
Time will tell….

Happy Training
TJ

Crazed Squirrel Encounter

2007-04-23T12:56:00.000-04:00

Taper week one is done. Three to go.
I kept the intensity up and dropped the volume back a bit.
My energy has bounced back and I’m ready to go.
Gotta keep the taper rolling though.

The training highlight of the week was my encounter with a crazed squirrel.
I decided to ride with the club Saturday…it was breakfast ride day…free food…I’m all about free food. Anyway, we were on the post breakfast portion of the ride. I was up front and had unknowingly pulled away from the pack. I tend to not look back very often. I was cruising along in my own world and suddenly noticed something move on the left side of the road. Before I knew it, a squirrel decided it needed to occupy the same portion of pavement as my front wheel.

It’s amazing how fast the mind works in critical situations. I suddenly had visions of slamming on brakes…being run over by the paceline…bikes scattering all over the road…and murdering a squirrel in the process. Somehow these visions made their way through my brain quickly enough to shunt the reflex action of squeezing the brakes. Instead, I made a quick maneuver and missed the crazed rodent by mere millimeters.
I took a quick look back after averting the murderous mayhem only to see the nearest rider was a couple hundred yards back.
Close one…..

On a more personal note, I’ve got to pull out my “Proud Dad Card” and boast a bit.
My KJ decided she wanted to participate in the Little Miss pageant at her school. Actually it’s not a pageant in the traditional sense. No formal gowns and makeup and whatnot. The theme was western…as you’ll see in the pictures. It’s meant to give the girls a chance to get up in front of a crowd, have fun and build some confidence in the process.

KJ’s school is a Christian academy. The girls had to pick their favorite bible verse and then tell why it was their favorite. KJ had practiced over and over what she was going to say. She was the first participant in her group and was a bit nervous. She came out on stage with a big smile and nailed her speech. They also had to draw a random question out of a basket. She did a great job answering the question and left the stage smiling.

After all the groups finished and a 30ish minute wait, all the girls gathered/packed back on stage and the winners were announced. With each runner up, my heart beat a little faster. Finally came the announcement and KJ was crowned Little Miss. She was so excited. It was a great moment for her. I can’t wait to get home today and hear how her first day at school as Little Miss went.

At home before leaving.

Outside of the auditorium before going in.

A very happy KJ

Gulf Coast Triathlon Water Temp

2007-04-18T10:44:00.000-04:00

I've begun my water temp watch for Gulf Coast.

Currently 65.5 °F.

Go here for more info.

Coaching/Power...Advice Needed

2007-04-17T07:15:00.000-04:00

Alright my Bloglandic friends, I’m in need of some advice on a couple of things I’ve been considering on my journey to Ironman.
Hiring a coach and buying a power meter.

I’ve been tri training for about three years. I’m a relative newbie and therefore don’t have a ton of experience to draw from. Over the past few years, I’ve done a good bit of reading on training, physiology, nutrition, etc. I know enough to get myself through a half Ironman and I “think” I know enough to get myself through the full deal. But here’s the conundrum, what if I think I’ve done enough for the big day and end up having a rough day as a result of actually not having done enough…what if I could have a much better experience if I hired a coach who does have the experience and has the ability to put all the pieces together at the right time?
When I first started thinking of hiring a coach, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to totally hand over my plan to someone else. But, the more I consider it, the more I like the idea. It takes the pressure of trying to figure out the when/what/how of it all off of me and allows me to just train.
I would REALLY like to hear from those of you who’ve worked with a coach. The positives and negatives.

On to the next item. I’ve read all the data on the positives of training with power. I’m sold on the benefits of knowing how much output is being produced. But here’s what I want to know, for those of you who train with power, has it benefited you enough to justify the cost? After having used it for a few months, after the newness of having a new toy has worn off, would you still make the purchase?
Also, which meter do you use? Based solely on what I’ve read, I am leaning toward the Ergomo. Mainly because of the weatherproof characteristics and the fact that I’ll be able to use different wheel sets.

So let’s hear it from those of you who are/have been coached or are training with power….or you just have an opinion.

Thanks,
TJ

I Feel Like Such A Chick

2007-04-16T09:18:00.000-04:00

Not because I watched The Devil Wears Prada with DJ this weekend…and actually kinda enjoyed it, or because I watched the 06 Ironman champs again this weekend while I rode the trainer…and choked-up again when they showed the Blazeman, but because I finally took the plunge and did it. I shaved my legs! I’ve been “trimming” the last few weeks with the lowest setting on the trimmer…I couldn’t quite jump hurdle from hair-pants to silky smooth all at once.

DJ and I both had stressful weeks, so we decided to stay home for a change Friday night. It was trim time again, and since I had a little free time, I headed off to the bathroom to do the deed after dinner. I made quick work of the job. Then, out of nowhere, the thought popped into my mind to go all the way and shave. O what the hell. I’ll give it a go. How hard can it be? All the roadie dudes do it.

Well let me tell ya, it was way harder than I ever thought. It started out easy enough with the front part of the lower legs going pretty quickly. The sides were a little more of a challenge, but not too bad. Then, however, I had to get to my calves. How the heck do you do that? My contortion skills aren’t very good, but I somehow managed to get it done. I took a short break after completing the lower portion, took a sip of water, and thought maybe I’d taken on more than I could handle. Too late to back out now though. I dove back in, determined to complete what I’d started. The front of my knees and thighs went pretty easy and I started to think maybe I’d make it. I did get a few nicks in the knee area, but nothing too severe. The sides went fairly well also. Then it was time for the back of the knees and hamstring area. Holy cow! I almost fell down a couple of times trying to get back there. I felt like a dog chasing his tail. FINALLY. TWO HOURS after starting, it was finished. O…M…G!!!!! That was EPIC!!!!!!

As I stood there catching my breath, admiring my silky smooth legs, I thought, “this has GOT to get easier”. I’m hoping it’ll be like most other things in triathlon and I’ll make improvements with continued dedication.

The source of my stress last week was all work related. We’ve just gone through an audit of our lab at work. For those of you with any experience in the calibration field, you realize the gravity of going through such an audit. It pretty much consists of a team of 8 federal auditors coming in to review EVERYTHING you do to ensure you’re doing EVERYTHING to standards. As a comparison, if you’ve been through an ISO audit…that’s a piece of cake. Long story short…the auditors wrapped up their review Thursday afternoon and conducted their out-brief with us Friday morning. We passed the review…as we always do…but there’s a ton of stress that goes along with the process. I’m glad it’s over.

On the training front, last week was a continued build up of my training for Gulf Coast. Monday started out with a 13.5 mile run. The run went great. I had no…repeat....NO pain in my IT band/knee. A 12-miler did a number on it a few weeks back. I was very glad to get in a decent long run without suffering afterwards. I followed the long run with a 10k tempo run Wednesday afternoon, which also went well. I ran another 10k Friday afternoon at an easy pace. I did a mile swim Monday morning and a 1.3 mile swim Wednesday morning. I’d hoped to get in a 4k swim Friday morning, but I needed to go in to work earlier than normal and only had time for 1.7 miles. It rained here Tuesday afternoon, so my ride turned into a trainer session. It was warm (80s) and clear Thursday afternoon and I was looking forward to getting in a good ride with the roadie gang. We headed out around 6pm with about 35 riders. About 7 tenths of a mile after leaving the bike shop, I had a flat….a rear flat…at a very busy intersection. FUUUUUUDGE!!!!! I told the crew to forge on. I might’ve asked them to wait if it’d been a front flat, but I’m no speedster at changing rear flats. I got it changed and decided I didn’t want to risk riding solo and headed back home. The weekday afternoon traffic here is not conducive to solo riding. I ended up back on the drainer. Saturday morning rolled around and it was cloudy, cold, and very windy with 25+ mph gusts. I couldn’t muster up the motivation to head out into such weather and ended up back on the trainer for my long ride.

I’ll start tapering down for Gulf Coast this week and get some much needed rest. I’ve added in a good bit of intensity over the last few weeks while increasing volume. I’m handling it pretty well, but I’m a little tired. My motivation to train has suffered a bit as a result. Nothing that a couple of recovery days won’t fix. I feel that my training is pretty close to being right on track for this point in the year. I’m happy with my run and swim. I still have some work to do with my cycling, but I’m sure a summer full of riding will take care of it.

Happy Training,
TJ

Catching Up and A Word From KJ

2007-04-07T09:42:00.000-04:00

Not much new to report here on the homefront. Just catching up.
It's been a fairly big week of training for me, about 14 hours.
The highlight of the week was probably the Tuesday afternoon group ride with the local roadie team. Man those guys can go. We averaged over 20mph for the 36-miler...just a typical ride for them...not for me. The ride usually splits into a few groups. I chose to go with the fast group for a change. It was pretty intense riding the whole way. That type of riding isn't really inline with the training I "need" to be doing...but it sure was fun.

I left work early Thursday afternoon and got in a longer ride of 52 miles.
My long run this week was about 12 miles and my long swim was about 1.5 miles. There was a good bit of harder effort in the sessions in between the long workouts and I can feel it. I'm a bit tired.

Which is why I'm sitting here on a Saturday morning, typing this post, working on my second ginormous cup of coffee, not training. That and the fact that the weather has turned cold and windy...my two least favorite riding conditions...is why I'm inside on a Saturday morning doing nothing. I'll climb on the trainer sometime today for a couple hours of easy riding and call it a week.

I'll continue my buildup for Gulf Coast over the next couple of weeks and then start tapering things down. I'm looking forward to the race. I'll be going in much more prepared than last year. The real training starts after Gulf Coast. I will be getting some help with my training for IMFL. I'll save that for another post.

Also, at the urging of Bolder, I've turned off the word verification in the comments section. Actually, I didn’t' know I could turn it off. So feel free to comment in this new hassle free environment.

As some of you might remember, KJ and I did the Simply Stu Worldwide Triathlon a couple weeks ago. We had a great time. KJ has written a race report and asked me to post it here on my blog. Here it is, verbatim:

The coolest way to spend my day

The triathlon was finally here! It all started when I woke up Saturday morning March 24th. I went into my Dad's office and he was on his computer. I plopped down in the chair next to him. Before I knew it, I was in my bathing suit and heading out the door. When we were at the YMCA pool, I was finally ready to start! Me and my Dad started at 4 feet and soon we were off. My Dad was swimming right by me. And whenever I got tired, I just flipped over on my back and floated until I was ready to start again. Soon we were finished with the 4 laps and we got into my Dads car. I was feeling a little discouraged, because I thought I didn't do good on the swim and didn't think I would do better on the bike and run, but then on the ride home Dad said, "How many other eight year olds are doing a triathlon today?" That made me feel a lot better! Then came the transition time!!!! When we were ready to start on our bikes, Mom had to take some pictures of course, but after that, we were off again!!!! In the middle of the ride, we went down a dirt road. Suddenly, a huge crane flew over our heads!!! She was beautiful!!!!!! But after a while, I got really tired, so we turned to go home. When we got home, me and my Dad were calculating how many miles we rode. We only had planned to go 4 miles, but we actually did 6!!!! Then finally came the run. It was my favorite one!!!! So we ran off!!!! We ran, and ran, and ran some more! Soon we were back at home and .......DONE!!!! I was so happy, happy, happy! Then we crashed on the couch for a while, but after that, the best part happened! We went to Chick-fil-a for lunch.

And that was the coolest way to spend my day!!!!
The End

Happy Easter Everyone!
TJ

Week Recap & A Few Spring Pictures

2007-04-01T08:19:00.000-04:00

I had a great full week of training this week. I'll be enjoying my REST day today. I won't go into all the details, mainly because all my workout data is at work and I'm typing this from home. The highlights were the 1000 yard swim time trial Wednesday and the 58 mile ride/5k t-run yesterday. The weather was absolutely perfect yesterday. It was a bit overcast with temps in the 60s when I started the ride. By the time I finished the run, it was sunny and 85.

As I walked around the yard after running yesterday, I couldn't help but notice ALL the blooms. Spring has definitely sprung here in Georgia. I went back inside, grabbed my camera and snapped a few shots.
Here are a few samples for those of you who may be still waiting for Spring.

Azalea Blooms

This lady kept getting in the picture.

Dogwood Blooms

K gathering blooms to take inside.

See the bee?

Jasmine Bloom

Happy Training

1000 yard TT

2007-03-28T07:18:00.000-04:00

Seems everybody out in blogland is doing swimming time trials these days.
I had no clue what my 100…500…or 1000 yard TT time was….cause….um….I’ve never done one. But, figuring there must be some value in it, I gave it a shot this morning. Of course I picked the 1000. I warmed up with 5 very easy laps. Then it was on. After about 3 laps, I began to wonder if I’d started out too fast as my lungs began to burn and my arms became heavy. I kept the pace up however. I made it to ten laps and thought, “Oh $hi#, I’m only half way”. I’m normally a 3 stroke bilateral breather, but by this time, I was taking in air whenever I could. I held on for the next ten laps and ended up with a time of 17:32. Don’t know if this is good or bad, but it was about all I had. At least it’s a starting point to monitor my progress.
I must admit, my swimming program is about as complicated as 1st grade math…and that might be pushing things a bit.
Let’s see. My program consists of, Monday…get in the pool and swim a mile at an easy to moderate effort. Wednesday….get in the pool and swim a mile at an easy to moderate effort. Friday…get in the pool and swim 1.2-2.4 miles at an easy pace. That’s it, no drills, no intervals, no kicking, no breaststroke, no nothing, just straight swimming.
I suppose if I want to get that 17:32 down to a lower number, maybe I should try a little structure…eh?

Happy Training,
TJ

Simply Stu Worldwide Triathlon Race Report - And New Lactate Results

2007-03-26T10:45:00.000-04:00

KJ has been wanting to complete a triathlon for a while and the 2nd Annual Simply Stu Worldwide Triathlon was the perfect opportunity for her to get her triathlon feet wet. For those that may not know Stu, he is the most wickedly cool tri geek around. His podcasts serve to motivate, inspire, and educate the tri community. If you've never listened to his podcasts, you're missing out.

Our day started out at about 8:00am with a proper breakfast to provide us with ample fuel for the day’s events. After topping off our tanks, we headed to the YMCA to begin. KJ completed the first lap of the swim without any problem and was glad to get going. At the end of lap 2, she started getting a little tired and we took a little break. Lap three was completed at a slower rate, and other than having to avoid a few of the swim class kids, she didn’t have any problems. We took another break after lap three. Lap four was a bit harder, but she finished with a smile on her face. Swim leg finished! 200 yards. 17:10.

K.J. getting ready to go in T1

Ready to go.

Here we go!

We made the short drive home from the Y and made the transition to the bike. We set out with the intention of completing six miles. Normally, K.J. would have no problem with that distance, but the addition of the swim beforehand had her energy running a bit low. As we started, she made the statement that she wasn’t sure if she could do all 6 miles. I told her we’d do the best we could and go from there. At mile 1, she was feeling good, no problems. At mile 2, she said “let’s just do four miles”. Again, I told her we’d do the best we could and go from there. From that point on, every time she’d ask how far along we were, my bike computer would be on a different setting and I couldn’t tell her how far we’d gone (darn! wink wink). 3 miles came, then 4, 5, 6, and at mile 6.2, she said “We’ve gotta be getting close to 4 miles”. She almost jumped off the bike when I told her we’d traveled over 6 miles. (great lesson for her to learn about exceeding her self imposed limitations). We finished up with 6.58 miles. 56:24.

Heading into T2

K.J. in T2

After a few gulps of water and a quick transition, we were off on the run. 1.5 miles was our goal. K.J.’s energy was running high after her stellar bike. I had to hold her back at the beginning of the run. After about a quarter mile, we took the first walk break. From that point on, we would run about 500 yards and then walk about the same distance. The temperature had started to rise on the run also, 85 degrees. K.J.’s energy was running low towards the end of the run, but she hung tough and we finished up with 1.8 miles! We were so busy celebrating at the end that I forgot to hit the stop watch, but the run took us about 30 minutes.

Heading out on the Run

YEEEEESSSS!!!!!!!!!!!

I was so proud of K.J. This was her first EVER triathlon. She never wanted to quit. We had to slow considerably a few times, but she never said she needed or wanted to stop. She was exhausted at the end, but was ready to play basketball after a short rest.
When it was getting hot and she was feeling the most tired on the run, I asked her if she wanted to do another triathlon. She answered yes without hesitation. I think I’ve got a future training partner.

Total time including transitions: about 2 hours and 10 minutes. But who cares…she finished!!!!!!! Not bad for an 8 year old. It was an awesome day.

I also did my lactate test again due to a couple of suspect stages. We were much more careful this time and got better results (no spikes in the lactate profile). I'm including the results of both tests.

______________________

Happy Training!

A Different Way To Lace Up

2007-03-23T09:22:00.001-04:00

They say there's nothing new under the sun. But as I laced up a new pair of running shoes, I realized my way may be a little different than what most folks are doing. I had a terrible time keeping my shoes tied when I first started running. I didn't know about Yankz or any of the other gizmos out there designed to solve this problem. So I came up with a solution of my own. It may not be pretty, but it works great. And, I only have to tie my shoes once. There may be a couple of re-ties for adjusting to get the fit just right, but after that, no more tieing, and no more coming untied. It also makes for faster T2 times.

So here it is:

First, lace up as you normally would and tie a double knot.

Next, thread the "loops" of the double knot under a row of laces with about a quarter inch of the loops coming through.

Then, thread the tips of the laces through the loops.

Then insert the tip into an eyelet. Choose an eylet high enough which will keep the laces tight enough.

Pull the tip through just enough that it can be bent towards the top of the shoe. Pull the tongue up and you're all set.

CAN WE GO PLAY NOW!!!!!

Calling all Physiologists, Coaches and Learned Athletes. Analyze My Lactate Results.

2007-03-20T07:57:00.000-04:00

If you’ve been following along, you know I recently purchased a Lactate Pro blood lactate analyzer. I conducted my first test last night.
Since this was my first attempt at perfoming the test, I wasn’t quite sure where to start pace-wise. I started very slowly and increased speed in ½ mph increments. I’ll start at a faster pace next time and save a few test strips.
Also, this is NOT a one person job. I could not have completed the test without my lovely assistant D.J.

I was a bit surprised with the test results. I expected the lactate to begin rising at a lower heart rate. As you can see, the first increase in lactate doesn’t occur until 177bpm, which is well above where I do the majority of my training. Most of my training is in the 140s.

The test was performed on a treadmill set to a gradient of 1.5.
Each stage is four minutes long.
Heart rate given is the average heart rate of the final minute of the stage.
Speed is given as miles per hour/minutes per mile.
RPE is given on a scale of 1-5.
Lactate is given in mmol/Liter.
I’m not sure what happened on stage 4 to give a low reading.
Here are the results:

Analyze away!

Comments welcomed.

New Training Goodies

2007-03-16T08:23:00.000-04:00

I’m the world’s biggest procrastinator when it comes to buying new running shoes. I mean, it’s a really tough thing to go to the computer, navigate to Road Runner Sports, find my favorite shoes, and place the order. It probably takes at least 3-5 minutes. You can see why I would put off such a time consuming effort…..
However, during my injury induced “down” time last week, I had much free time and ordered not one…but two pairs of Asics GT-2120 running shoes. Now I can procrastinate twice as long.

I’d also been shopping for a saddle mounted bottle holder. I settled on the XLab Saddlewing and placed the order last week from Trisports.com, as Tri-Dummy suggested. I haven’t mounted it yet, but plan to this weekend. I also included some Carb-Boom gels in the order. I ran out of those recently and they are a must-have item on long runs and rides.

For months I’ve been contemplating buying a blood lactate tester. I know “about” what my training zones are. I’ve read….and re-read….lots of material on estimating and calculating training zones. But the thing with estimating training zones is that it is an estimate. The resulting numbers from whichever formula is used are still estimates.
My opinion, based on the studies I’ve read and the practices of many other endurance athletes and coaches, is that blood lactate step testing is the best method for setting training zones. So, I set out to find a local facility which performs lactate testing. The nearest facility is over two hours away and the price of the test starts at $125. Here in town, there is a facility that does V02 Max testing, but that isn’t really what I wanted, and their price was $350, which included an initial test and another test 8-12 weeks later.
So, I began to research other options and found that the equipment used to perform blood lactate testing is available to the general public and is about as simple to use as a blood sugar analyzer. The overwhelming winner of top reviews among available testers is the Lactate Pro. The price of the unit, along with a lancet device, lancets, and test strips was $425, with free shipping. This was the best price available when I placed my order. I ordered from HDO Sports up in Cambridge Mass.
After the initial cost, it’ll cost me, at most, $30 to perform each test. That includes the price of test strips and lancets. The other bonus is I can perform the test whenever and wherever I want.
I plan to perform the first test Monday. It’ll been a running test on the treadmill at home. I’ll be detailing the results here for the whole world to see. I suspect it’ll be an exercise in humility. Stay tuned for results….

On the training front, things are going great. I’ve had ZERO pain in my knee this week. I rode with the roadie gang Tuesday evening for a short and fast 25miler. I ran 6.5 easy miles Wednesday afternoon and did a fairly hard hour on the trainer last night. I’ll run 4 or 5 miles after work today. Swimming is going great as well. It’s breakfast ride day with the bike club tomorrow. It’ll probably be about 15 miles, breakfast, then 10 or 15 more miles. I’ll probably tack on 20 or so additional miles afterwards and then do a short transition run.

Spring is definitely in the air around here. The Bradford pear trees are covered in bright white blooms, the jasmine on my fence is covered in yellow blooms, and EVERYTHING is covered in yellow pine pollen. The lawn will soon be green and I’ll get to begin my weekly power push mowing sessions.

Happy Training!
TJ

NO PAIN!

2007-03-13T07:20:00.000-04:00

After the ITBS flare up last Monday, I decided to take the week off from running. Looks like that was the cure for what ailed me. I did lots of swimming and did some easy biking through the week on the trainer just to keep things moving. I iced and rolled and did all the things suggested. Thanks! I’m going to slowly ramp my running volume back up and drop things off at the slightest hint of pain.

The forecast Saturday was absolutely perfect. 80 degrees and sunny. My knee was feeling great and I just couldn’t pass up the offer from a couple of friends to ride Saturday afternoon. We ended up with 60 miles. Other than one brief stop, it was steady riding the whole way. My knee did great. I decided to test the knee with some running yesterday and did an easy 4-miler. No pain!

With the time change comes the resumption of weekday rides with the roadie dudes. I’m sure it will be fast and furious. Today will be the first of those rides and hopefully things won’t get too far out of hand. But to be honest, I’m looking forward to some hard riding. I’ll drop off if my IT band isn’t quite as ready as I am.

The one upside to being injured is free time. I spent a good portion of my non-running free time last week shopping for stuff I’ve been "needing". I’ll share the details later in the week.

TJ

DAMN!

2007-03-07T07:10:00.000-05:00

I decided I’d up the effort of my long run Monday…just a bit…nothing crazy. Just a 5-10 beat increase in my heart rate per minute. Everything was going fine until mile 11 of the 12 mile run. My left knee begin to hurt. I finished the run and the pain went away. Got up yesterday morning and…..DAMN. That old familiar pain was back. My ITBand is revolting again. I called it quits after 30 minutes on the trainer last night due to the pain in my knee. I’ll probably skip today’s run and try the trainer again tomorrow.

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Looks like I’ll be doing lots of swimming for a while.

The Volunteer Experience

2007-03-05T08:39:00.000-05:00

I did one of the hardest things I’ve ever done Saturday. For seven hours, I stood by and watched runner after runner go by…. unable to give chase.
Standing still can be one of the hardest things to DO at times.

I volunteered in the first EVER local marathon here in our fair city. I was posted between mile 25 and the finish line. My job was to direct vehicle traffic away from the runners. I repeated the following phrase a few hundred times during the day, “A marathon is currently underway, please slow your speed and remain in the left lane after turning”.

I saw them all. From the gazelle-like speedster Kenyan who first floated by and went on to win the overall title, to the elderly gentleman who labored by during the final minutes before the cut-off…..and everyone in between. Walkers, physically challenged athletes, wacky characters in funky costumes, old, young, fat, skinny, tanned, pale, short, tall, fit, not-so-fit, first timers, veterans…I saw them all. It was quite an experience. One I won’t soon forget. I walked away with a new appreciation for volunteers and their importance in me being able to do what I love. It truly couldn’t be done without them. I’ll find it hard to ever pass another volunteer without saying thank you.

Why did I not participate in this race? The short answer…it just didn’t fit into my overall journey to Ironman. This year is all about doing the right things to get to IMFL in the best condition possible. It was really…REALLY…hard to pass on this race. But I know it was the right decision.
Next year however, will be a different story….

TJ

Saddle Mounted Hydration - Need Recomendations

2007-03-01T08:16:00.000-05:00

I need the ability to carry more hydration on the bike as my rides get longer. I have two cages mounted on the frame and a aerodrink bottle mounted on my aerobars. That leaves one option, behind the seat.

I've got it narrowed down to the Xlab Saddlewing system. Before ordering however, I'd like to hear from anyone out there using this system, pros and cons. Or if you are using another option that you think would work better, I'd like to hear about that as well.

Thanks!