Time to run in the homeland

I slipped on my nike Pre ultrawick shirt at 6 am and put on my shorts and jacket and put the earbuds in and started the ultimate running album ( or I should say tape since the last time I owned this album it was a cassette tape that I played in my 1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1....ohhhh I wish I still had that car) the tape or playlist now is of course the one and only TO LIVE AND DIE IN LA soundtrack. It was a little chilly and rainy and the morning lights were reflecting off the streets. it was perfect. I ran over to Hayward field. The field of dreams. What energy!....I did a big lap around the field and then over the the bridge to Alton Baker Park and along the river completing a great 10k arriving back at the hotel just as the playlist ends........great place, great weather and great music.....perfect.

back in the saddle

after a mixed weekend of fun, failed race and Sunday of rest ( and minor tum tum ache) hit the training studio at kyles and had a nice 30 minute warmup run followed by a solid hour of non stop sports conditioning with super johnny! He kicked it up a notch and I worked super hard...I really enjoyed this workout. solid 90 minutes if hard core strength and aerobic threshold. I really lost track of what we were doing but a basic recall brings up some of the following:

lots and lots of box jumps

lots and lots of pushups, both with dirty pulls and claps

tons of cardio with sprints and jumps and squats

great functional moves that we did with minimal equipment.

Now that I am at the hotel in Eugene for the night i am resting and with clean shaved legs again ( always shave in the hotel bathtub) I am off to run on Hayward field in the morning...home of PRE and much history. I remember walking through hay ward filed on the way to class when I attended the U of O ( as one of my many colleges) and at that time I was not so athletic so although a Nice place it did not really mean much tome at the time except a shortcut to class. Now I am going to run some repeats where history is made and people qualify for the Olympics.

As part of my four day/ three night business trip I packed some healthy choices for snacks and food. I brought some prepackaged turkey chili and some chick and rice and some string cheese and some oatmeal packets along with protein powder. Now with these hotels having fridge and micro I have no need to eat out and keep on the program.

Fail

It all started with the famous phrase " I have not been drinking at all during training but tonight is a "free night" so I can have a few beers............." Oh that did not work well. I met with my great friend Sully and had a few beers with dinner and went to a fun bar and had a few martinis and.......and...... glenned! If you do not know Glen you do not want to meet him the nightBefore any races...but Glen was not even there and I got Glenned. Not to be confused with "randy" who will get you sick in foreign countries.

The morning of the race on Sat I get up at 5:30 and drive the 2 hours to the race with little sleep and some dehydration. Before i got into the town venue for the race i pulled over and spit up a little bit. wow this is not going to be a good race. I pull into the venue and it is howling wind. I mean wind like I have not seen in a while. ( my father later tells me there is a wind farm in the area) I debate whether to even race but Dan is there and I have my team colors so to the start line I go. This course starts with a mean climb and in this case into the wind. between the "dehydration" and the headwind I watched a few people pass me that should not have ever passed me. I think " oh well this was really just a training weekend that happened to be at a race so make the best of it. This course was a large square basically about 26 miles long and I would say we had a headwind on 80% of it. How that is possible I have no idea but the last three miles I think took 20 minutes............and it was flat, it was that string of a headwind. I mean i did not know whether to laugh or cry?

lets see go back for stage two on Sunday with cold headwinds but instead 45 miles???? uh no.


so at least I did stage one and the plan is a big block on MON-THURS as all travel days for work to Eugene and Klamath Falls and will have time to focus on training. I do seem to train well on the road. taking the bike and the running shoes.

time to hammer

great week of training after the big brick last weekend, a few KMA workouts this week and some swimming...rest today and the TT weekend in Maupin. 2 days...three races....I will get killed by all the TT specialists there but a good event that will let me review my times from 2 years ago and get another focused block of training. Lets see those wimpy TT guys go run after their race like i will....neenner neeener

1st tri of the season....short and sweet

Ohhhh the Mondays 100 miles and a 10k

What a great way to spend a Monday. I tok today off as a paid day off. Good way to spend a Monday for sure. The weather was superb and I started out the journey at 8 am with Utrek and we did a nice 50 mile loop on the rood bikes. Rob finally figured out why his chain would skip, ohhhh look your crank is falling off. After we stopped and fixed that back to the cruise. I even took a health nutrition coaching session that thy offer through work on the cell phone while i was riding. this is a four part coaching series to get business people in shape. After we established that I was on a century bike ride at the time and about 60 days out from my second ironman she said " how about we just call your coaching sessions done...I think you already got the message we are set up to give you for health and fitness......." done. health bonus in my next paycheck. Nice that they offer the service but a little too basic.

After 50 miles met up with Bruce for his lunch break and the three of us roade for about 10 more liles and then Rob headed off to a KMA session. brutal.

Bruce and I cranked out 35 miles and then i did the last 15 solo for the full 100 miles.

I must say I felt pretty good to crank out a century the day after a race, both Bruce and Rob had some team rides and races the day before as well so we were all on day two.

I got home and transitioned into the running gear and off I went into the hottest part of the day for the 10k run but good training for June Ironman so was very happy that I felt good. I swear i saw a ton of people out on the trails and in the park and everyone i waved to or sai hi to as I passed were in a foul mood.....ITS SUNNY PEOPLE!!!! anyway.....wow that last mile hurt and I came home and had an ice bath and a beer.....good hurt. GOOD HURT! I think tomorrow i will..............rest.


bonus tip from my nutrition coach during our 5 minute call.....don't eat this:

Race day has come and gone for the season opener

So I start out the season with a short sprint race ( well sort of sprint but the swim was set for 750 meters not the standard 500) This is the opposite of what I have been training for which is long distance but I figured need to get a few races in before for some race excitement, working on transitions and having fun. This is the race that back in 2006 I showed up not actually having swum 750 meters nonstop before. Oh how far we have come.

I took the whole weekend and meandered over to Albany on Saturday morning, we had a free hotel night so that helped. jennelle got to do some treasure hunting via Geocache and we spent time swimming in the hotel pool ( a nice one not a super 8) and she is quite the swimmer. She gave me some tips as well.

Race day I went and set up transition at 7 am even though the race is at 9:30 for my wave so the family could sleep in and not be rushed through breakfast etc. all set up and race packet picked up along with my free t-shirt. Is it just me being jaded or are we sick of race shirts? I would almost rather get some bike lube or a few tubes or someting. This also was a shirt I would likely not wear....ok any way.

The pool is a 50 meter pool but they put in the bulk head so we are swimmining in a 25 meter pool. for 750 meters the amount of turns we have to make is mind numbing in a race along with croweded with 4 people in alane.....on top of that I was trying to keep track during the race but pretty sure as I passed two people and one of them twice that I ended up doing an extra meters as the lap counter seemed asleep and looked like he got wrangled to help, now thank god for volunteers but at least do the job you are asked to do. so I fugure this was a 800 meter swim. in the scheme of things not a big deal but yikes.

swim time in 2006: 22:15 (2.58) swim time yesterday: 16:13 (2:09) Dropped 6 minutes


T1 went smooth and I was off, I wore the mountain bike shoes as I want to run through the long parking lot they had set up before you could mount...worked well, I decided to use the dame bike detup to see how I had improved from 2006 even though Bruce graciously offered the cannodale reps bike to use. (the sweet bike I will use at Ironman in Idaho) so When i saw a few bikes in my age category with full carbon wheels i had to say to myself..." racing your past and the clock not that guy" off I went and the bike felt awesome. there were some slight headwinds the whole way it seemed. I think as the tip was ricing the air was moving and I felt like I was fighting it a bunch but it still went well. Once I got going I was "pacmanning" the swimmers like dots on the board and that always feels good. one guy passes me with a full disc rear wheel on a cervelo and I watch as the sound of the carbon goes by. He was about 50 years old though so no bog deal for may age category. I started using my count to 10 plan. I would put the bike in 1 gear harder than I thought I could spin and push it 10 times hard and then go back to my regular gear. this ended up being a great idea as I started realizing by doing that I was gaining time and even upped the gearing slightly where i could stay in the hard gear for a count of 20-30 at times. almost like a spin class. i could hear Jonathon saying " you can do anything for 30 seconds" as I hit the speed. At about halfway I see carbon wheel guy eating and drinking...he is hungry. I pass him and take off and never see him again. As Bruce says...got to have the engine as well as the machine.
bike ends well no issues and pretty happy with it.

2006 bike time: 36:18 (20.5mph) Bike yesterday 38:03 ( they did not count transitions so about the same as far as i could tell.......no change in bike to be expected.)

transition to run went well and off I was, ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh the legs. My brick work has not been as much this year and it took a good 3/4 of a mile to get the legs going well. I got passed twice one by a guy that looked like I was not moving as he zipped past me, later found out he was about 22 years old so no harm there and another by a female ( got chicked) that was a runner. ended stronger than i started which is always better than fading at the end, a decent run.

2006 run time: 26:02 ( 8:23) run time yesterday 27:10 so with no transitions counted about the same

In the end got 6th place in my age group and felt the race was decent. I have discovered over the years I am a slow twitch guy not a fast twitch guy but nice to see my swim time improve and no lost fitness in the bike and run over 3 years of age as well, When I break into the 40 cat. I will clean up.....


Now most racers will take the day off on Monday as they go back to work etc. ME?????? nope I am off to ride a century today and then run a 10k......

rest day.......Beth I hear you calling..........

Wed..hump day

Monday: hard functional fitness with "shuttle run" Jonathan. then I swam during Jennelle's swim team practice ( good tip to parents that want to train. get their kid on the swim team.

Tuesday: medium hard run for 1 hour as I was feeling a bit tired.

Today: Swam 2000 meters this morning with a 750 time trial in the pool to replicate the race this coming Sunday......worked during day an dthen just broke out the TT bike for day one of the year and did a brick....about 45 minute brick

upcoming race this week: Albany triathlon

check out this great video about our proposed law being discussed ( I roll em slowly)

happy Easter

Well today will be a modified workout due to Easter...oh I might squeeze in swim or ride later today....Yesterday got in about 6 hours of training. started with the 1 hour functional fitness training at the training studio that was a mix of core and weights and cardio and then went up to Mt. Bachelor and skied for about 3 hours. We had a mix of sun and overcast weather with relatively decent snow. I telemarked while Mark snowboarded. I came home fueled up and then went for a 2 hour mountain bike ride. I rode up COD to Stormking and found a bunch of large down trees that will have to get cut up and moved or the trail re-routed. This will likely be a COTA project that I do trailwork for here and there and support as a member. I coss over on storm king and rode towards the river but found a few more down trees and some snow that was a bit much to cross so I headed back via the highway and ducked back into the river trail at Lava island. fitness felt great all day and I kept most of the day at an upper pace and feel solid today.

being 70 days out felling good, project for this week is harder early in the week and then a super mini taper for the race next weekend ( Albany Sprint triathlon), work on going over my ironman taper that I did in 2007 since it was so successful. I am also dabbling with looking at the zone diet but not sure i want to try something new this close to the race.

happy happy weekend

I ran my hour trail loop yesterday in 44 minutes...I was kind of stoked. I was planning on a speed workout thinking I could not keep up the pace and when I slowed down I would just jog back...but the speed kept up! very happy. so happy that for my Friday night cheat night I had ice cream.

Now off to a functional fitness class and then 3 hours of skiing and then 2 hours of biking....its going to be a good day!

Solid Wed. and rest Thursday

So Wed I was still a bit sore from the rest of the week but decided to end solid and ran for about 90 minutes before the KMA with Kyle and then put in a full effort. I was wiped at days end in a very good way. The nice thing is running for 7-9 miles now feels like a warmup as opposed to a medium distance run so that is encouraging. I also swam in my new trisuit from WebCyclery.com while it was very snug it swam well and will be good for the sprint triathlons coming up. For Ironman I will wear the full regular kit for comfort.

Yesterday I took a breather and took the full day off. I focused on some nutrition research and hit the sauna for about 40 minutes at the pool while Jennelle swam with the swim team. I will say it was refreshng in a zen kind of way but my only complaint is the picture here does not represent the people that tend to be in the sauna when I am there....they tend to be old retired men. What is up with that?

Sunny in Central Oregon

decided I like getting my butt kicked so signed up for the event above. Guess we will see if the KMA workouts are helping. likely my last big effort before the ironman taper in June. I did an extra 40 pullups after swimming today

huge weekend

ok so I actually had to do some man work this weekend in between my workouts moving trees and cutting firewood ( picture burly man outside a log cabin) Friday did a a functional fitness class that was only about 1 hour and then rested and ate crap Friday night for my cheat night. I find that by doing a cheat night now I cannot even eat that stuff anymore. I had about 10 girl scout cookies and was full. ( I used to eat a few boxes in one sitting).

Saturday got up and ran a 10k on mountain trails, sunny but cold, really good weather and felt awesome! then did 4 hours of tree limbs yee haw and hit then single speed mountain bike for about 1 hour doing intervals.

Sunday was going to bike and got the call from super Chuck to hit the back country skiing at 6 am instead so with a last minute change that I was not sure about since Spring conditions....hit the backside of Todd lake into a not so secret but epic stash and skied some sweeeeeet!!!!! SNOW . I actually hit a tree and thought that my left knee was torked but when I got home I returned a truck I borrowed across town and rode the bike home through town and the knee felt good so I was lucky..........this time.


77 days until IRONMAN!!!

Best New Product! ACTION WIPES!

This new product action wipes has solved some of my biggest problems, as you know from being a long time bike commuter( yes riding to work today as well, photos manana) is how to clean up at work. I used baby wipes but they did a C- job and now with Action Wipes its super easyto clean uo and be fresh when I get to work or after a mid day run or bike at the office over lunch. They are HUGE towels and clean you up with amazing tenacity. Also I like that they are so huge but pack down so small. They leave you fresh due to some magic herb ( ok I thinks its Eucalyptus) . I have a small pack in my desk at work and a bigger pack at home that I am planning on using for camping and cyclocross. Also they can be thrown in the washer and used again and again. I am still on the same first towel having used it at work and then after repeeted washings and uses still going strong so pretty green product. A+ product.

relax

so got to the pool to swim and realized the blue swim shorts i put in my bag at 6 am were running shorts....ok someone is telling me something...no swim. So I took the visits and hit the sauna and steam room instead. I felt like a mob guy with all the old men in there with me. rode the big fat cruiser home from the office for some active recovery bike time. I will take in the fixed gear in the morning.

active recovery is good.

going for a triple

today I will have Kyle yell at me for the third day in a row...well he does not yell, he actually whispers in my ear to do 10 more with a heavier weight or to raise the tempo in the run. three days at the training studio either breaks me down or builds me up. This week seems to be building me up and I feel really good. I will do a 1 hour run before the session today. yesterday i did a swim after the session and Monday I about passed out in the parking lot. I think i caught a whiff of the 24 hour flu and was a bit weak and Steph and i kicked ass on Monday and I felt worked for sure. T minus 19 days until the first triathlon of the season for me....ALBANY PAYBACK!!!!!