12 days

super taper in effect!!!!

Yesterday i rode my bike home from work....thats it. nothing else.

I had dinner last night with my friend Chuck who did Ironman Brazil and he gave nme a lot of good tips. I have done adventure races with him in the past and he is the guy who hooked me up with my first tri shorts ( that have since been ceremoniously burned). We talked alot about taper and what to do, he was big on short workouts of 15 to 20 minutes super easy but a few 60 second bursts of interval just to remind your body not to go into full recovery mode. made sense.

today I plan on an easy swim and my daily bike commute to work. The ride to work is 6 miles but super easy and mostly downhill going to work. I wil likely just take the cruiser today.

I spoke with raceday wheels and they are sending my Zipp 808 set out this week so I can get them on the bike and ride a bit as I tweek my bike this weekend. I need to think about the saddle on that bike and switching to another one. now no I am not chnging things at the last second it would be a saddle off another bike I ride all the time so not a new saddle to me. I am also not wearing a one piece in the Ironman but a a full team kit from my bike sponsor as it will be way more comfortable.

check out the cool poster of my buds Jetpack and Texafornia HERE

17 days

Final prep work, shaved up with the new Gillette 5 blade. Had my final KMA with Kyle and have final Big brick planned for Sat and then being a volunteer at a local half marathon Sunday. feeling good...no great.

first off the KMA was my last one and we went hard and nonstop without rests. usuualy I get to workout with Bruce or Steog or Tri Rob and this last time was just me. nowhere to hide, nowhere to deflect attention...all me.

15 min on the treadmill warmup

walking pushups back and forth across gym

punching bag on the heavy bag

bongo board balance pushups

kettlebell press while doing deep lunges

2 min hard on tread at 8% grade

30 pound kettlebell swings

jump rope

resisted lifts with straight bar with jump

single leg squats on machine ending in single leg jumps

side jumps on tow boxes of different heights

legs in tight resistance band going side to side ducking under rope

straight bar pulls with resistance ( aka pull trainer across room in jumps)

more jump rope

knees on bosu and roll out wheel for core

10 minutes of core abs ( 100 sit ups, 25 vups, 25 side, plank)

I think thats about it, but then again I was tired. After I rode to the library and then rode home and dropped my gear and kept riding about another 45 minutes. It was hot and that was good as I am conditioning for the heat as the race will be hot.

Got up this morning at 5:30 and rode to the pool and did about 1700 meters

500 warm up

1000 pull

200 cool down drills

I am feeling really good right now and will do a big brick on Sat and then taper taper taper

18

the river by the old mill where we swim

90 and 60, got in a 90 minute ride this morning on the mountain bike and a ride to work. Followed by a solid 60 minute run at lunch…feeling good, trying to keep the duration up but keep it ironman pace which is pretty mellow. I will be riding the moto home now that I have the battery charged. I have to say a dead battery on the moto and no car really forced me to get in the extra miles in the last 2 months which was good.

I think tonight I will be doing about 3000 meters of rowing while I watch some TV and then some core work. I hope to do some open water swim on Wed. either in a lake with Bruce or I will hit the Deschutes River and just swim slow upstream. As Bruce put it well, I should really swim mostly in the suit so it is race specific. Speaking of I guess I should get some long rides in my TT bike next week too. AAAARRRGGGG so much to fathom or not to fathom and only like 18 days left.

yeeeee ha 20 days left

Keeping it fun....last hard week of training but still having fun.....ready for the race thats for sure.

3 weeks left

trying to get back in the swing of things from being gone. My brother Scott is in town so busy visiting and also back to work has slowed me up. I have done a few minor workouts and then Thursday took Scott to a KMA session and it kicked his as well. This is what we did from my memory:

15 minute treadmill warmup

KB swings on Bosu

KB step ups on box

double pushups with hand clap

treadmill at 10 incline

jumprope

punching bag

lunge with barbell raise

rings with knee up

jump rope again


sit up with heavy ball throwback

ball squats

quick jumps sideways over mini hurdles

pull ups with leg lifts over head

all for about 2 minutes each station followed up by 10 minutes of abs....low on rest

going to try and get some cycling in today

WOW,CLUSTER!!!!

So I get to use so many aspects of my leadership training while trying to return to my home from the leadership workshop in Omaha. I got into Omaha from Wayne Nebraska way later than I thought and when I set up the hotel doing a search for a hotel online I ended up getting one about halfway across Omaha!!! How did that happen? I think after working from 8 in the morning ( after a run and workout at 6:30) and then not getting done with the workshop until literally 11:30 each night……I may have been sleep deprived when I sent that hotel request.

So I set both my phone alarm and hotel alarm to get me up at 6 so I can drive to the airport and drop off the rental so I can get to the desk about 90 minutes before my flight at 8:45. I get to the gate at 7and I am the only one there. Good, I am early. The desk agent asks where I am going and I explain I am off to Redmond via Salt lake and he says “oh that flight left at 6:20 AM…….WHAT??????

I pull out my itinerary from the travel agent and it says 8:45. So the great Customer service idea of the airline ( DELTA) is to put me on a phone as opposed to having actual people at the gate that can help me…..strike 1.

I literally and I am not exaggerating spend the next 90 minutes on the same phone call with an agent trying to figure out how to get me home. There are flights but they are full and all she has is me staying at the airport (remember I returned the rental) for the next 9 hours and then catch a later flight that would get me home about 11 PM. I use many different problem solving ideas with her about putting me on another airline and also being very patient with her as she had the power not me so I needed to show great frustration but also that I understood it was not her fault and I was solution oriented.

While I was waiting another guy came up and he was trying to check in like I was….they did not tell him about the change either…..oops strike 2, well 2 for Delta but only 1 for me. I was able to get the best I could of the worst choices and it was routing me through Denver to Seattle to Redmond giving me a home time of 7:30 PM instead of the noon I had booked. She did give me a $100 travel voucher and free cup of coffee for my trouble thought I would have easily given it back and been home at noon as my preference.

Of course last minute changes in tickets alerts the TSA and I was run through the wringer but knew they were just doing their job so no big deal.

Half way to Denver I am sleeping and wake up to “Welcome to Chicago O’ Hare airport”…………WHAT??????? HOLY %^$##**()()+………………….after the stewardess talks for about another 2 minutes someone alerts her we are going into Denver and she corrects herself. Wow that one got me.

I find my flight gate in Denver to Seattle and I realize while walking to the back of the plane my seat is a center seat….crap I hate those. I do not have a window vs. aisle but center always sucks. So I get to the back of the plan and there is some one in my seat. What is it with people and the seat assignments that half the planes in my life there is someone in my seat…..PEOPLE!!!! WHAT PART OF 15B DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND??? I swear every aisle in every plane I have ever been on since the start of time has the seats labeled with a picture. So I tell the guy I think he is in my seat and he says “Oh I must have made a mistake, I guess I am in the row ahead” and I slowly turn my head to the row in front where there is what is left of an empty seat in the center book ended by two 300 pound guys that are latterly swallowing up the whole row. I am thinking this guy did not make a mistake he made a calculated move. I look at him and ask if he wants to get into his seat (while trying to picture if I think he may actually fit??) and he says that its no big deal to him I can grab his. I took a deep breath and realized that I was the better person and we were making the big dudes feel bad. One says he would scoot over to his buddy and give me the aisle and I just sit down and had no fight left in me. Strike 2. 90 minutes with a customer service agent at the crack of dawn will do that to you.

I made it to Seattle and sit here waiting for my final leg…….oh please no strike three.

In Middle America

So i have spent the past few days in Wayne Nebraska teaching a t a leadership conference and it has been a great experience although hard to workout with the long days. We are working from about 8 in the morning to midnight. I have been getting up at 6:30 and going to the school track or running around the county with Garmin 305, I have done a little plyometric work as well doing box jumps and pushups etc but man I would like to get on a bike. I may just not have time with this schedule. there is one set of precor bikes in the school gym and I tried them one morning and the really suck, it is old equipment and has flat pedals and a tractor seat ( not really a real tractor seat since you do see those around here but a large padded seat). I think I will do pseudo lifting tomorrow morning and take a day off from running.

The nutrition here is a challenge though I did buy some healthier snack for in between meals to help and I am drinking lots of water instead of the free pop. ( oh and coffee too but they do not take real coffee serious here so blows on the espresso end of things).

i am here until Sunday so will try and drop a few pics later in the week.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

building up frequent flyer miles as I travel across the country for work this week. a few days ago I was in LA for a meeting and found myself running in not the best air quality I would say. The traffic there was the worst. I sat in a 6 lane superhighway going 25 mph for miles and miles. no accidents or anything holding things up just traffic and cars making lane changes and getting on to other highways.....WOW.

Then on to Salt lake City for a few days with my bro Adam and his wife Melissa. Now Adam was the kid in breaking away growing up. I had Ford Muscle cars in the driveway and he failed to get his license on purpose and rode Italian rode bikes and wore lycra out and about way before that was trendy. But he got diverted to rock climbing for many years so not so much a biker anymore but still has the skills. We rode a few Utah mountain biking trails . We hit the Wasatch trail which goes from way up cottonwood canyon at 10,000 feet to the SLC, nice long one. pretty scenic. Then we hit the bobsled run after riding
from his house to his lab ( yeah picture smart dude in a white lab coat) to see what his bike commute to work is like and then we hit the trails over to bobsled. this is a trail system that is just above the city.

So Adam got me an old Santa Cruz HECKLER mountain bike to use. Worked decent but just glad to have a bike to use so no complaints from me. He used a fully rigid old school Gary Fisher and did pretty well on it. you have to check out his shoe setup!!!! he normally rides just his road bike but he swaps out his old school road pedals and actually mountain bikes with these!!!! I could not stop laughing but seemed to work. He can mountain bike as he had one of the first mountain bikes back in the eighties.


We then had some killer real italian pizza that was thin and fresh! Melissa being real italian can find these great places to eat......YUMMY!!!

Now I am off to Nebraska for a week to teach at a leadership workshop. I will be trying to hook up with a few other Triscoop Triathlon bids while I am there and get in some runs and rides!!!

exterra pics

Ben coming out of the water

Transition area

finishing in 1:55 middle of the pack

Ben and i talking post race ( talking smack that is)

the Boys from Bend...Matt 1st Clydesdale, Dave 1st over all, Bruce 1st age group, Me...slacker and Ben 1st age group

Vashon Island Exterra

Well you will have to wait a little for the pics but they are coming thanks to Steph. Roadtripped to Vashon Island near Seattle. On Saturday we took the ferry over and met with Ben and Dave Clonninger ( who later won the whole thing) and his brother Matt. Ironiclay I had worked with Matt at a ski resort almost 13 years ago....small world. we all pre rode the run course and the bike course. same course as last year for the run a a very small change on the bike course.

We went out and had pizza and beer to carbo load in Tacoma and then had a great nights sleep in a cheap motel ( but they had vs. so we could watch the tour replay at night and live in the morning).

Ferry back to the island and there were about 110 racers. we all walked out to the end of the dock and the swim was an open water start in the pacific ocean but a pretty sheltered bay so water was very calm. Who knows how far the swim was since they kind of wing it. Race director says " ok swim out around that red sailboat and then go over to that buoy out there and then come into the dock" and then before we can get clarification he says" 30 seconds...."

off we go and I love it because you can see jelly fish in the water below you. I thought I was swimming well, I was with a pack around the boat and the buoy and then grabbed some feet for the long haul in and he must have been going slow because i came in towards the back but fresh.

out of the water and into the T1 fast change and i am right with Ben.....up the hills and feeling good.1st lap lots of technical passing and caught Matt and he pulled over for me. Off I went gangbusters on the technical. lap two of the bike went better as not congested. Ben and i back together again and off to T2 where we started the run and he is a strong runner so he took off. The first part of the run is brutal up. I am smart so I took it easy going up and then once on the flat trail run I kicked in and felt awesome.

ran hard and finished in 1 hour and 55 minutes exactly middle of the pack. Middle of the over all and middle for my age group. very fine as just a fun race before Ironman.


I rowed 3500 meters this morning watching the tour as they climbed a big pass, makes the rowing easy if you see them suffering up a big pass. off to swim at lunch and then I am off to LA for a few days. will post photos as I get them.

HOT

I think the heat either has me baked on the inside or i have been a little dehydrated. I really feel tired this week. I took for the most part Monday and Tuesday off although did about 10 minutes of rowing each day while watching the last 10 minutes of the Tour stage races. Yesterday I rode from work ( oh yeah by doing nothing i do mean I am still riding at least 15 miles a day to work and back but that does not count) I wen to Juniper to swim. well I am not used to going at 5pm and WOW there was a crowd and the lanes were full with lappers and a swim team....so bag that. I went in to see about grabbing a spin class but the next one was over an hour later sop i hit the gym and surprisingly there was not really anybody inside ( likely since they were all in my pool!!!)

So i went in and did a min circuit.

5 min treadmill at 5% grade

1 leg squats with med ball

pushups

back to the tread for repeat

Chest flys

1 leg squats with med ball

pullups

back to the tread for repeat

pushups

mini jumps on bosu ball

pullups


and then I realize this one girl in there looks really familiar and looks really fit and I mean Uber fit.....ahh that is Kami Semick who is a hardcore trail runner and wow does it show. Sh was doing on leg raises on a machine and her legs looked ripped!!!!! smaller girl than I thought from pics but I was very impressed.


Today trying to hydrate before my last KMA for awhile. rest on Friday, preride the course for exterra on Vashon Island on Sat and race on Sunday.

777 number of the ass kickers

Well thanks for the positive feedback on "bag-gate" what a joke.... I must have told about 10 people by now and more will read the blog....vote with your dollar. I will keep all posted on my dealings with corporate. By the way the movie I was going to see was "LIVE FREE-DIE HARD", and I almost said "yippee k........." when I left.

Today was another sweet long day followed by a killer ice bath. 77 mile ride followed by a 7 mile run thats right 7-7-7......and yesterday was 7-7-2007.......freaky huh???

left the house at 6:30 am while it was still cool out and Bruce and i rode to Redmond and did the twin bridges ride backwards. we dia few small variations but here is a basic map


we rode most of the way chatting so it was good as we averaged about 18 mph and I did not really draft at all except for two highway sections so it was more realistic of a tri as opposed to going out with a big group and riding the draft all day.

came home and did a quick transistion to the run and it was really hot ( about 88 degrees) and I used this tip from runners world magazine to freeze a baseball cap in water frozen and wear it on the run to keep cool. the hat was frozen and kept me cool for about 5 mionutes and then all the water had evapoarted in the heat and the hat was dry as a bone....weak tip.

Bag gate

Rest day on Sat. I actually rowed about 2000 meters and did some bicep curls but nothing really, saving it up for Sunday morning 70 mile ride followed by a 10k run.

I decided to go into town and see an early movie while it was really hot in the middle of the day. I threw some things in my smaller messenger bag to go to the movie and run some errends. My moto battery died last week so I have been 100% bicycle this last week and no problem since the weather is warm and I got bikes. I have rode my fixed gear, my mountain bike with the BOB trailer, my cruiser, the road bike......really been getting all of the horses out of the stables. however when I got to the movie I ended up getting kicked out. Yes kicked out.....here was the email I sent their corporate office when I got back home:

It was an unfortunate morning as I decided to spend a casual Sat. riding my bicycle to town to see a movie and visit the library and go by my office to do some work. I came to the 10 am showing of a film and purchased a ticket with my credit card and went in. Now allow me to paint a picture of myself. 36 year old white male with short hair and very clean cut conservative attire carrying a bike helmet and a small messenger bag for my bicycle trip. after being allowed into the theater and presenting my ticket I was chased down the hall by a young lady in a sport jacket ( I assume a manager type??) asking me to return to the front to leave my bag in the front ticket office. I explained that I would not like to do that as I had valuables in my bag ranging from cash to an ipod to my dayplanner (for my mid level corporate job that spends a lot of time working on customer service issues) but she was welcome to search through it as much as she wanted before I entered the theater to make sure. I can only assume she was looking for hidden popcorn or a secret box of sour patch kids I had subversively smuggled in???? However she declined to even look in my small bag ( about the size of a womens purse although dayglo orange for bike safety) and said it was "for the safety of the patrons". Safety? first off it was 10 am and appeared I was one of about 4 people in the entire theater, second What was I going to do? Throw my cash and ipod at someone for kicking my chair? I again explained I was not comfortable leaving my personal items in care of the young staff ( hey I was a curious teenager 20 years ago myself.....lets see whats in the bag) and I am sure if anything was missing that they would direct me to the all too regular "not responsible for lost or stolen articles" sign. As I had no vehicle to stash my bag in I requested a refund which they gave me and I left. No money for you. No film for me and one unhappy customer that shall tell this silly tale to others. Sorry but wishing this could have been handled differently by your staff.


So next time you go to a part of the Regal cinemas chain, do not ride your bike with a messenger bag unless you want to leave it with Billy or Jenny or whatever other kid with a summer job is hanging out. I on the other hand will just not go and spend my entertainment dollars elsewhere and tell this tell to my friends .

KMA with tri Rob

recovery trio after Wed super brick: ice, martini and fitness mag

So I come off a huge day and am thinking the KMA is going to hurt but I do it anyway and actually felt pretty good. I guess my recovery is doing well.

Here was the KMA as best I can remember:

10 minute treadmill warmup

we alternated betwen two exercises back in forth for 1.5 minutes then 1 minute them 30 seconds:

first set: chest presses with back on balance ball and holding pushup position feet on half ball and hands on balance board.

next set: kettlebell hops on bosu ball and box jumps holding med ball

next set: scissor hops lunging while pushing med ball over head and backwards ab roll on large ball

then on to the treadmill skipping at 9% then running

25 pushups

2 minutes hard jump rope

2 minutes on bike standing entire time

abs:

50 regular, 25 reverse, 30 biccycle, 20 bicycle in v up position, side v ups, then plank.


I think that was it. does not seem like that many things but we did each exercise three times.

Then we went back to work, had awesome sushi later and met up the next morning for swimming at Juniper. The water was great and I did about 1600 meters and Tri-Rob did a bunch more...GREAT workout block.

For Sat and Sunday......I will kill myself and rest on Monday.....just wait and see

Huge block of days

So on the fourth I got up and headed up over the pass at Mt. Bachelor with a few guys ( who I trailed behind about 100 meters) and we went up and over Mt. Bachelor to Green lakes trail head qhich is about a 25 mile road ride. I parked the bike and locked it to a tree and put on the running shoes and ran up to green lakes and back on a super killer trail run. This is one of the most scenic trails around and in the summer can get a lot of hiking traffic but i really did not see that many people. It is 8 miles roundtrip and has 1100 foot elevation gain. Ohhhhhhh the calves were hurting and the few times i stopped to stretch them a bit the mosquitoes came out. They were not a problem as long as you kept moving so that was motivating. going up the Fall Creek drainage is so scenic it is sick! coming back down was just as hard on a new set of muscles and technical so you had to pay attention. I have to say I was hurting. got some ice cold water out of the creek and splashed myself which helped but the climb back up to Mt. Bachelor from Sparks lake was brutal. I had no gears left and was barely keeping the bike upright. I was almost at a bonk for sure. I had food, i had water but was just really tired.

5 1/2 hours later came home, took an ice bath and had a martini then took a 2 hour nap.


HMMMM??? what should I do the next day? Rest?..................nope off to a KMA session and bringing Tri-Rob along for the ride.

Tuesday

So i came home for lunch yesterday ( the rest day) and i could not find my keys to my motorcycle when i was headed back. after looking around I relaized i had left them o
in the ignition of my moto and the battery was now DEAD. I tried to push start it but no luck ( I later found out I was doing it wrong so now I know how). SO I changed clothes and jumped on the bike back to work. then I rode over to give blood and they say no strenous excercise before of after you give blood but I had ridden over. I explained to them it was a rest day so i only road10 miles and it was an easy 10. The nurses said "10 miles??? how do ride that easy???" I am always astonsihed by the fact that medical people know about health but fail to act on it???

So I donated blood which has to be the easiest volunteer gig in the world, they give you magazines, you just sit there and the after they give you free cookies. I think everyone should donate blood. I admit I did not do it until later in life but nagging at me was the subconscious signals from my parents who have been lifelong blood donors and never suggested it to me but I saw the pins and the 5 gallon donor coffee mugs. It was not until after 9/11 that i started. too bad it took something like that.

so I ended up riding about 20 miles ( easy pace) on my rest day which felt good, more like active recovery.

This morning I got up and rode 15 miles on the mountain bike on single track trails ( see pic above from this morning) and then came back and rowed 2000 meters on the erg. I love that thing, I can watch the news in my gym while getting some upper body workout. Well actually it is more like a whole body workout.

Now I am off to bike commute to work on the cruiser and then later tonight a run or a swim, have not decided......

Solid Sunday

I felt a little tired on Sunday morning but with the family gone I really had nothing better to do so MURPH it was. I headed out for the 1 mile run at 11 am with music cranking in the garage with some old school eighties tapes running through the system. White Snake, Billy Idol, Over the top soundtrack.....I mean old school gym music.

I did the one mile run and came back to do the pullups and pushups and squats and started doing them in bunches of 10 pullups, 20 pushuops and 25 ball squats.

Wow those add up fast. I got to the half way point and was SPENT!!!!!!

I ended up doing 50 pullups, 100 pushups and 150 squats ( half of a murph)

I then went and ran the last mile for a total of 46 minutes. I guess this is a good group challenge to keep you going as I was tired but should have kept going. The pullups were the hardest part in my opinion so I will work on those.


However a few hours of rest and then Ben and I went down to the Deschutes and swam the Deschutes dash swim course of 1500 meters on the Deschutes river. Water was clod but with wetsuit pretty decent as it was 78 degrees outside. The cool thing is at the end you can turn around and swim upstream like an endless pool. We ended up doing about 2000 meters I figure.

Today: rest and donate blood this afternoon. ( I am A negative in case you want to know)

Legs tired

Got up and left at 9 am with Rob ( Pharmacy-Rob) and Time trial Dan. We went up and over Mt Bachelor to Sparks lake and then back up and over for about 50 miles and then I went for a run that was 6 miles. ( from my house to REI and back along the river). Ohhhh the legs feel that 4.5 hours of training this morning. I must say a pretty big week for post half ironman and feeling good so that makes me feel like with a proper taper I should get through this ironman thing...ya know I all I can do is try.

The weather today is awesome, current temp is

75°F
Clear
Wind: NW at 8 mph
Humidity: 29%

This is the ride i will be doing on Tuesday ( pretty close to my usual loop from the office)


On Sunday will be doing an open water swim with Ben and Bruce in a lake and I think Rob is bringing a boat to tag along so he may get some pics. I may have to hold off on the MURPH until Tuesday or WED.

good snacks

So I came across a fellow Triathlete Bree who I was impressed by her get up and go attitude then i realized she was from Kodiak Alaska. I lived there back in the early eighties and my brothers and I have very fond memories of living on that island. dancing with hot girls at the community center ( well were both only 13 years old but the memories live), camping where we could run into real bears. Fishing down the street in rivers for salmon and the ocean for other fish. The complete;y unregulated fireworks rules in Alaska and of course that oil kicker check we got to buy super sweet BMX bikes ( I bought a nice redline BMX) There was also this kid in my class that told me about this up and coming sport called "mountain biking" and he had some weird BMX hybrid with knobby tires and rode through trails near his house..................what a whack job I thought, If only I would have seen where that was going years later.



So Bree's talking about this salmon jerky that her husband makes and I ask if it is healthy and a good snack for triathlon and she sends me a few samples.................YUMMMMMMY. The teriyaki is sweet. I plan on throwing a few of these in my jersey pocket on my next long ride. I used it as my snack after my KMA yesterday and it hit the spot.

You can get it online here but I wish I could buy it at the store local. Someday.

Thanks Bree


Here is my challenge to myself and others this weekend:

"Murph"

For time:
1 mile Run
100 Pull-ups
200 Push-ups
300 Squats
1 mile Run

Partition the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats as needed. Start and finish with a mile run.

Let me know how you did.

check in with coach and KMA not so much

last night rowed 2000 meters then went on a 18 mile bike ride followed by a 3 mile run....good workout. easy to get in off hour longer workouts as I am a bachelor fo the next two weeks and loving it.

Had a great workout with Kyle today, talked about how to wind up training leading up to Ironman. He is tailoring the rest of the workouts for endurance and strength endurance. Also we are working on a 3 week taper reducing each week the last 3 weeks at 30% less each week.

Today did a workout with Steph again and likely will worout with her bit more, good partner...still looking for pharmaxy Rob to step up before cyclocross season .

I came in early and warmed up with a 20 minute run ( I also rode my bike down to the studio) then we did a 12 minute pyrimad treadmill , same pace but each minute ramped up the incline 1 degree starting at 5%......I got to 11 and then backed down the ladder.

Then we did 1 minute intervals with varoous excercises with set amounts of reps and any time left we held a position.

15 pushups and then hold

20 squats and then hold

jump rope

quick feet over the red box

1 leg squat with med ball 1 leg

jump rope

back on treadmill minus 3 degree decline

other leg 1 leg squat

both legs holding kettlebells

barbell curls

side to side red box

rubber band around ankle side to side

resistance cord rows

plank on med ball mountain climbers

jumping jacks with rubber band around ankles


Stomach:

50 reg. situpos, 25 reverse, 50 bicycle, 25 each side oblique, 10 slow full situps, 15 side plank each side, 25 superman................ahhhhhh all done.

back in the saddle

Well amazing as it is to hear myself say it the half ironman was just a training race for the big one so after a day off I got back on the bike and rode last night with Bruce for a few hours and we did about 50 miles of easy spinning and then went up pilot butte on a night that was gorgeous. You could see forever and the temperature was perfect.

Got up this morning and rowed 2000 meters while watching some of the "escape from Alcatraz" triathlon...that looks like a must do race.

off to work and will get in a 30 minute run and then tonight hitting the pool with Rob and Ben.. good day so far for a Tuesday I must say

Day after half ironman training tip

half ironman number two under the belt

Jim and I pre race setting up T2 ( pic stolen)


The end of the swim and the big scary lake ( pic also stolen)
All done and all went well.

Wow what a difference number two was. I was calm and ready both physically and mentally.

So i had a rested week both by choice and by a work trip top Portland.

On Friday I took my bike to the drop off with Tri-Rob and dropped my bike. the water was a bit choppy as the wind was up but knowing the area I knew likely it would be calm in the morning so no worries. The funniest thing was looking at the redbull inflatable swim buoys. Last year I remember them being 20 feet tall and this year with a little more relaxation I noted they were about 6 feet tall.

Sat morning up at 5 am ( as usual) and had some cream of wheat and made a peanut butter and honey sandwich to t ake up with more for an hour before the swim start. went to Sunriver and met with Tri- Rob and his buddy Jim from Bend. We got dropped off up at the swim lake in the mountains as this is one of the few races I do that the T1 and T2 are 56 miles apart as opposes to two loops coming together at the same point.

SO we hang out in the sun to warm up in the morning at th start with everyone. Met Scott from triscoop and he was doing his first so wished him good luck, ran into my old friend Woody who was taking pics for the event as well as Eric and long time friend form almost 12 years ago who used to wrench at Hutchs Bicycles and had not seem him in awhile and he was like" wow! you got in shape!" and that always makes ya feel good.

The water temp was good ( about 62) and got in and swam about 100 yards to get used to the water on the face ( a Bruce tip that is invaluable) . BOOM the race started. and the swim started...wow I actually feel comfortable. the open water swim the week before with Bruce really helped since I had worked on my sighting and it really helped out this race. Last year I was lost and this year I knew where each buoy was and actually swam in a straight line, I felt great during the whole swim and finished in a group instead of the back of the pack so that felt good.

out of the water to the bike. I decided to wear socks this year which was a first, took a few seconds but I figure if its not a sprint race whats a few seconds? off we went and started passing those silly swim masters people from the get go.......but then:

stomach cramps...damn where did that come from? my side really hurt for about 10 miles. no reason and did not want to eat or drink for 10 miles but thankfully it passed so i was able to eat and sped up.

i tell you though I got chicked a few times. there were some strong women there ( that looked good too) and I could bnot keep up with them. at least they were good looking and fast...what else could a guy want???

Bike went well, passed a lot of people and the people that passed me had super sweet fast bikes with disc wheels so not harm there.

Transition two to the run another first I ran with new shoes with laces instead of quicklaces. only had to stop and retie one time. run run run run....caught Jim and we ran together for about 1/2 a mile and then he needs a porta potty and I chastised him for it.....go in your shorts i kept yelling,,,,,but then I needed one too so we traded porta potty stops and I lost him. the run went ok, not as strong as I wanted but decent. So i come up to this guy in a Beavers tri suit from my alma mater and start up a conversation with him about the Oregon State Beavers going to the Baseball world series and then I mention I know the older sister ( my swim coach Vanessa) of one of their members Alex Polvi....the guy turns to me and says "I am Alex Polvi!" hilarious. so at that point i have someone to beat as i chastise him for going the same speed as a dude that has like 15 years on him and I take off........I beat my swim coaches little brother.....I guess thats worth something?????

finished in an unofficial 5 hours and 39 minutes. Tri - rob rocked the house in 5 hours and Jim was about 4 minutes in front of me.

ok official times are in:

overall 5 hours and 37 minutes

swim was 47 minutes

T1 3 min.

Bike 2 hours 34 minutes

T2 1:53

Run 2 hours and 10 minutes

overall 220 out of 442 ( so middle of pack just like my MOP nickname)




Next day I feel pretty good but it will be a rest day for sure.

looks like I cut almost an hour from my time last year....a freaking hour!!!! so I will get official results and post with pics later

Full size brick

Sat started at 7 with Katy, Frank and Frank number 2, Vanessa, Gil, Audrey and had a pleasant 61 mile ride out past Sisters Oregon. I had the only flat of the group but was prpared so semi quick change. Even stopped in Sisters for a coffee and bagel ( never see that happening with my usual hammerfest group).

so at the leisurly pace we were going we did the 61 miles in a little over 4 hours. So wehn I started the run I felt FRESH!!!!!

about a 5 minute transition while folks grabbed clothes and water etc and off we went. Up the ruver trail to the end near Mt. Bachelor village when we lost Vanessa to a sore knee ( oh yeah that is farther than Frank1 and Audrey got as they bailed after the bike.

So we were down to four. Katy, Gil, Frank and myself. everyone in the group had run a half marathon before but only Frank and I had done the distance after riding that far so we knew the two of us were solid. Katy is a natural machine so not worried about her and for Gil this was her event to see if she could....and she did with flying colors. we ended up running 13.35 miles in a little over 2 hours and thanks to my garmin 305 we all checked it the whole way to see where we were at.........................." how far?........10.2..........................how far?......................11.1..........."

you get the idea.

great BBQ after and a great training day and a great day out with friends. anytime someone invites you to a ride/run with a killer BBQ at the end with a keg.......duh!!!


oh yeah

Last KMA session before half ironman

Steph: our guest workout partner today


Did a great session with Kyle with the Bruce along and this week Steph came and joined us. good group who works hard but has fun with it.

I must say Steph really did a great job. by scaling most of the weights she did everything we did and then when we did group pushups she started doing real push ups and I was impressed! It helps to have freinds next to you to keep you accountable. I have seen kettle bells mentioned a lot in Crossfit and we had used them some but i asked Kyle to work in kettle bells for a bunch of workouts and show us their versatility as well as proper form so we worked on that today

so here was the workout ( did I mention I rode an hour inj the morning before this?)





KMA:

We did three stations and rotated every 2 minutes

bicycle high cadence

bosu ball squats with kettlebell overhead

jump rope

back to bike

bosu ball with two kettle bells doing mini jumps

Burpees with 20lb dynamax ball

Bosu ball quick feet

treadmill at 4 incline fast

Kettleball one arm pushups while balancing on large ball

kettle ball swings while standing on bosu ball

kettle ball 1 arm lift standing on bosu ball

pushups using kettele bells for stands and then a row after each pushup

more jumprope

pushup as a group, we all three got shoulder to shoulder and got in the pushup position and i started by doing 5 pushups, then held the pushup position while Steph did 5 then Bruce did 5 then back to me. we did 4 rounds and waiting in that pushup position was hard.

Abs:

1 min rounds:

regular crunches

bosu with med ball side to side

big ball rollups ( dont ask, it looked bad,......no coordination)

then 50 each side up and 25 reverse............................DONE!!!!


Then Bruce and I went for a mountain bike spin after that which always feels good.


So after I got home I did some more work for a few hours on my laptop for work and then:

well...

Well I had some more video done today thanks to the great Swim coach Vanessa Polvi. I have to say she was great and I would reccomend her to anyone. Our interview is up at Zen and the art of triathlon HERE so check it out.

The plan for the rest of the week is firming up as i approach the half ironman next week. so manana is likely one of my last KMA workouts with kyle. I should do an interview with him and get his thoughts on training for endurance.

Then Friday doing an open water swim with Bruce to get the wet suit out again. Sat doing a psuedo half ironman with some girls that want to do it for personal growth as oppsed to paying for the half ironman....they also want to do a duathlon not a tri so we will bike and run. Not fast so i will hang with them and get a nice long day in for my last big workout before the mini taper for the half ironman.

here is the route they set up:



http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/or/bend/452361690

http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/or/bend/447731591

back in black

back in black like in the dark, rested now and headed out in the dark today on the mountain bike about 5 am and listened to podcasts while climbing...up all on single track up to where the trail "orange crush" comes in on upper cod. came back down listening to podrunner

great trails coming back, great temp. the picture is a shot of my Turner sitting against a picnic table that is next to some single track in the middle of nowhere and you can see the sun coming up through the trees. good workout.

Got my Fathers day gift ( that I picked out and paid for by selling some bike stuff) which is a concept 2 rower but since it is for fathers day I have to wait until this weekend and Jennele is going to decorate the box it came in. will be a good cross training device.

Well we are now about 10 days out from the half ironman and this year, not so nervous. have a long open water swim out of the way, been training a ton more than last year and feel pretty solid. They changed he course this year and took out the big hill so the times will be faster overall. this year I am going to wear a hat and use mucho sunscreen as I really do not want the sunburn issue again.

Later today doing a final video session with Vanessa and will let you know how it goes.

wasted and then raced

Looking white and pasty!!with the low drag haircut!


I forgot my ankle band for my chip DOHH!!!!

well a hard week ending with poor race performance but the goal was to race tired and i did. I sent audio race report to Jetpack so look for it there or subscribe in Itunes.

Thursday had a hard workout with Kyle and Bruce

warm up on bike 4 min., to treadmill 4 min at 6% grade lunge across room pushup deal ( lunge across room holding barbells and then at each end do pushups in the series, 2 then 4 then 6 then 8 etc up to 20) back to treadmill Sit down, pull bungie chord thing rows Bike/treadmill, again jump rope/100 ea leg (single leg) Burpy ball squat, touch ground and explode up (12lbs) Lots o core 100 of this and 100 of that


Tri- Rob went to the race and did really well, he is a strong racer. I did less than my usual Middle of pack showing.....no excuses ( ok I was tired)

results look in the 35-39 year old males



I will post some better stories etc in the next few weeks heading up the the half ironman at Pacific crest

Back into the workouts after rest day

SO ifigure I will go hard today and Wed and then have a KMA on Thursday and will rest Friday and Sat before the Olympic distance race in Portland.

This morning did:

400 m run
6 pullups
10 burpees with 20# ball
10 pushups offset with one hand on small med ball ( 5 each side)

times three rounds

then plan for today is a 2000 meter swim ( only swam 1000 though)

when I got home from work i added a 2 mile hard effort run before dinner because I had been sitting at my desk at work for the last 4 hours and needed something before dinner.


I am feeling pretty good after rest day yesterday. The weekend really took it out of me thats for sure. Traveling to Portland on Thursday afternoon and may do a short run Friday morning before heading into work meetings there but likely a short one, I will have to take the garmin to see how long the route is I always run by the hotel I stay at.

Day two andthree

Ok so day two starts out with Pickets charge mountain bike race. A C race in my book but a race nonetheless. Went single speed on the $13.50 again and it performed flawlessly any excuses on that bike are weak...it is the engine driving it. We got up to the starting line and there were about 20 single speeds in the category. The starter says "ok so two laps for the single speeds....." amd there was a group....WOOOHAAA!!! We thought 1 lap at 18 miles, we did nt want to do 2 laps on single speeds that day...It was hot too. the starter says ok vote...all of us but 1 guy says "1lap!!!" so they changed it to one lap.....thank god!

off we go into the dustiest start...WOW moondust and hard to see and breathe it was like the paris-roubaix. i found my secret nemesis and stayed on his tail then he faded.....ok good one down.

picture here


another pic here

then i needed another nemesis...what to do??? hey here is a guy with a single spped with the same color as my PB TT bike.....steal my color? ok he is my new nemisis!!! i chase him up a hill and through some techniacl rocky sections and BOOM!!! he is done, blown up!!! two down.....but where is the rest of the SS crew? who knows as I am in the back somewhere for sure.....uggh climbing climbing climbing...I am getting spent. Two Gu's and still hurting. I catch up to the womens pro group and tail a girl for about 5 miles. I have been "chicked" in races but using one to help pull me??? well so what I am tired. once I finally make the turn to the trail back which is mostly downhill and flat I get a second wind and haul back making up some time. Trailing some sport guys through the single track and just killed that section.....so fun times.....here are the results:

1   944 Timothy Jones      Bend               1:20:27
    2   970 John Rollert       Bend               1:21:55
    3   887 Nelson Snyder      Portland           1:22:20
    4   915 Brian Merritt      Bend               1:27:43
    5   864 Kurt Haas          Salem              1:28:22
    6   809 Pat Kudszus        Salem              1:28:43
    7   954 Jeff Kleihaurer    Bend               1:29:42
    8   950 Tim Hittner        Bend               1:30:02
    9   942 Walter Sorenson    Cottage Grove      1:30:36
   10   967 Eugene Cathcart    Oak Ridge          1:31:09
   11   968 Ty Skordahl        Oak Ridge          1:34:30
   12  9967 E Cathcart                            1:36:27
   13   969 Ben Gadomski       Bend               1:37:38
   14   906 Drew Holmes        Bend               1:38:22 
   15   820 Steven Basden      Portland           1:43:00
   16   951 Steve Williams     Bend               1:43:44
   17   963 Dan Gilmour        Bend               1:53:57
   18   901 Eddie Kiloh        Oregon City        2:19:11 

So all in all a solid effort against a strong field after no taper and workout yesterday but that was not even the start of the day.

later that day had race number 2. adventure race put on by BARK here in Bend.

I was going to rest after the race in the morning but that never happened.

The adventure started at 7 PM and we had a solid team of Anthony, Ben ( who beat me by 1 minute at the first race of the day and also gets credit for doing a double day) Rob, and Myslef.

The race started out downtown Bend with a running section with about 9 checkpoints all over the city and we ended up running a few miles there ( with packs weighing about 12 pounds).

Back to the base and we transitioned back to bicycles and as the only team that went all cyclocross bikes that made us pretty fast to get out to the checkpoints that were miles away. ( oh yeah we were also the first team back)

So we are hauling up century drive to get out to the trail system to look for checkpoints and Rob realized he has the wrong pedals on his cyclocross.....ok Rob you jet home and swap pedals as we head out. he was able to pull ahead, swap pedals and get back with us where we lost maybe 1 minute....sweet.

Now we wasted the next 2 hours looking for checkpoints and could not find any of them. and it was full on pitch black now and we were all riding with lights though the forest. the funniest thing was when Rob yells "Car up!" and I am thinking what? we are ina forest and next thing I know here comes a beater car around the corner...guess he was going camping. we were feeling dejected by not finding some checkpoints ( checkpoints being worth points and the most points wins at midnight)

We headed down to plan B which was to hit the 2 mandatory stops. The first one was a sweet zip line over the deschutes river ( again in the dark) . that was very fun. but took more time that we thought sow e jetted to the second point and it was a traverse under a bridge across the Deschutes river near downtown on a 6 inch ledge....no ropes just the chance that if you fell....SPLASH. so we watched a few people start and it looked ok, just have to shimmy across under the bridge. The race official says ok if you go "full Monty" you get double points. A team in front has a gu that strips down and he is off.....bend And I are like "DOUBLE POINTS???!!! YOU BET!!!!" and strip down. next thing you know like a surreal painting there are three naked dudes shimmying across this 6 inch ledge and it is harder than it seems. There is a little tine crack to put you fingers in and then an few spots where you have to palm the roof ( also 6 inches wide)









*** can you tell the 6 inches also slopes downward???? oh yeah


OHHHHHH I am getting tired and a true pump in my arms pulling myself across....in the water? the first guy stops half way and takes a break.....this hurts more...." keep moving dude!" geez this hurts, ok almost there....success, the whole team gets across and we are in double point city!!! We also come to find that most teams also could not find the checkpoints we missed or are too scared to do the bridge crossing and we are back in the race!!!!! we take off and go for one final city checkpoint but it is 11:45 and at 12 you turn back into a pumpkin and are DQ if not back at the bar we started at so we make a weak effort and then we head to the bar and get there at 11:55 with the other team that also got double pints but earlier in the night they went for a super weak city pint so edge us out....turns out we come in second place out of 11 teams.......ROCK AND ROLL!!!! I am baked and have a few beers and declare I will not make the 65 mile ride as i am wiped. get home about 1:30 in the morning and sleep in until 9:30, This is the guy that wakes up at 5 am every morning...I was tired.



Day three: easy tandem ride of about 15 miles at a leisurely pace........today REST DAY

Day 1 of super three done

So ihave a jam packed three days of workouts this weekend and Friday was day one. I met with Tri-Rob in the morning at we rode an easy 25 miles on the roadbikes at conversation pace nice way to start out the day. i then did a fast bike to work transition and changed into my work clothes and rode to work for a meeting ( by rode I mean on the moto).

I then finally took Bruce's advice and sowed up for my first masters swim class at noon. I have to tell you he has been nagging me for months and so has Katy and Lisa .....Ok ok...i never doubted the need for the class but I was scared that i would be so slow that it would be foolish looking. Which for those that know me are asking..."looking foolish????.....when did that stop you before?" so I went for it and the instructor who helped me back at the very start of my swim career Rob Higley rann awesome class. I swam in a lane with Bruce and kept up for the most part and have to say the ime went by much faster with a group and we swam about 2100 yards. It was very enjouyable and one thing I liked was Rob scaled some parts for how you swam. like the main set he said to do 4 sets of 500 or 400 or 300 based on what you want...so that was good and Bruce and I did 400 sets and the last a 300. some new drills with fins were a bit off but fun nonetheless.

Then right after the masters session I had my coaching lesson with Vanessa. no video but we will do that next week as she is going to do a bonus lesson before she heads to Alaska for the summer. We worked on my bilateral breathing and i actually think i did pretty well as she did too. after working on that we decided to spend some time doing flip turns. I never really spent any time on these as i am planning open water swims ( hence no walls) and oh my how funny was that...we spent more time laughing than anything as I looked like a goof trying it, then on one turn i smacked my head really hard on the bottom og the pool and the sound reverberated so much people were stopping and looking to make sure i was ok, later a guy in the locker room told me he though someone dropped a dumbbell in the bottom of the pool.....well i was the dumbbell.


plan for today is single speed mountain bike race at 10 am, come home and take a nap and then adventure race tonight at 7 pm that will go until midnight......double race reports coming up!


* no thats not me in the pic but a sneak peak at upcoming interview with Vanessa on underwater swim analysis......