busy day

another fund day with Brett and Emily......( photos stolen from Bretts Twitter account)

average day in Bend

We started out with a swim at the Juniper pool out in the 50 meter pool. Brett would be an awesome swim coach, in a matter of 15 minutes had improved my swim 100%.

We then went on to hit Kyle and the KMA workout and both Brett and Emily did well although I think they will be sore today. Steph and Rob joined us in the workout and then also a mountain bike ride right after the workout. Brett and I borrowed some 29 inch wheel bikes from Web Cyclery. Unfortunately the Niner i was on had a fork that blew up and had to return. Rob and Brett headed out for another hour.

I then gave Brett a tour of three of the biggest bike shops in the area ( out of the 6-7 in town) as he also is curious how a small town has so many shops just like I do.

More to follow....I like vacation

Brett visit

So far we have done some mountain biking and some city biking and some podcasting and some swimming.............rest of today will be KMA, and more biking.

I had a great swim session this morning that helped a ton. Brett is a very god swim coach and was able to give me some tips that really stuck. It makes a difference when a coach explains a concept in a way that you understand and can show you. We did some video analysis that I will post later.

busy having fun

race report

oregon State tri team girl had a beaver tail on her uniform.....tooo funny



what a great race, evertything went well. I drove over at 6 am as my wave did not start until 9:40 so had lots of time. on the way there i realized I needed to use the loo and I pulled into a state park in the middle of nowhere in the mountains.....no paper! but alas I remembered that i had action wipes in the car. Off to the races. The only issue i really had with the race was the bike setup, there were like 6 waves and only bike racks for like 2. As I came in mid race I could not tell where to put the bikes because some were blank areas onb the rack because they were out riding.......cluster.

got in the water and swam fine, I admit there is only so much you can do in a 25 meter pool with 4 other people in your lane. uneventful and good swim.

fast t1 and this time I wore some cycling socks...yeah I know all the cool kids go sockless but the extra 2 seconds really make the difference which think helps in the speed later.

bike was insane!!!!!!! I used Cannondale reps bike and it ripped! I used less energy and went just as fast if not faster than usual. thought about saving some energy for the run.... worked. Also fun to chew up the fast swimmers on the bike......always fun.

t2 really fast and the run was flat as a pancake.....I had a great negative split ruining some people happy finish as i sped past them.

the finish results were a TOTAL CLUSTER. The results came out as having me like 24 out of 300 and 2 or 3rd in my cat. so podium.....but then they kept revising them and handing out trophies and then asking for them back since they were wrong. they then raffled off single powerbars and single gels...seriously......i left as I had to get back home as Brett was coming.......I am still waiting for the official results.

solid week

I spent the rest of the week mostly running and biking. I got out on the cannondale rep bike ( super sweet TT bike that weights 15 lbs.) and will race it tomorrow at the lebanon sprint tri. My buddy Canada Dave was coming but he did not register in time....bad Dave!!!!!

I did this little community fundraiser race a few years ago and it is a small one but using it as a training workout and good to get the transitions down and since i am using the cannondale for my ironman (in 37 days) figure I better get some real world time on it.


bagged a training session Wed. for a $15 massage that was 90 minutes. yeah the massage class at the local college has it set up for students to practice. pretty good massage and my legs were still tired from the weekend race so it was needed.

Big news is that long time podcaster of ZEN AND THE ART OF TRIATHLON is coming to hang with me over the next 4 days here in Bend. He and Emily will hit the friendly skies tomorrow from Texas. We will have a jam packed fun time with sights and sounds from Bend and cycling and running and swimming.....will be a blast.



looking forward to meeting Emily since she gives Brett as much shit as I get at my house....

selling my TT bike as this Sat is likely the last time it will be used. I am using a cannondale reps bike for ironman and then my next big tri will likely be 2011 so I will get a better bike by then. I am going to put the money towards a better cyclocross bike.

film

So I made a cyclocross film last year with a handheld camera during the race season and edited together on my new mac.........it came out sweet. They are going to use it as part of the 1st annual bike film festival in Bend. That is pretty sweet. so add filmmaker to my resume.

hard day.....good day

I was fresh and well rested for the chainbreaker MTB race on Sunday. I rode out to the race with the Utreks and Rob had set up the Bontrager Ti single speed for me. What a sweet single speed. that thing roade well and it was so light. I must say these weresme of the best race conditions out there. Weather was mild, the trails were moist and not dusty. There were some 300 people out there racing and still one of the premeir race course in the area. The one thing I like about the course is it loops back to the crowds a few times so they get to see you and you get that cowbell ringing energy. I did a nice 4 mile warmup on the starter loop a few times and then rode right up to the start to get going . As the gun went off I was with the single speed group and the bad part is this is a pretty hardcore group of riders. most of the top SS riders I know and I do not really even try and compete with them. I took off staring staying with the pack but by about mile 4 I was off the back a bit. The first 12 mile loop I went out a bit hard and had to bring the old heart rate down...so once I got into my groove the 2nd lap felt awesome. I finished hard and felt pretty good coming in 14th place.......................then i put on my running shoes and ran the 10.5 miles home. That felt good as I needed the big brick for the day. My only issue was forgot to bring any food or water. I grabbed a 6 ounce powerade bottle at the race from an aid station and took off. It was warm but not too hot and by the top I got to Utreks house I broke into their garage ( god thing I knew the code) and stole a soda. then ran the rest of the way home. I got home about 2 pm so with the warm up and race and then the run ended up being a solid 5 hour day.

Proud brother

My youngest bro is an all around good guy so The Governor gave him an award.....well maybe not for being an all around good guy.....

3 KMA

I did 3 KMA in a row MONDAY,TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY. had an awesome upper body workout Monday with "shuttle run Johnny". Rob and Steph and I worked hard.......and we liked it! Tuesday I had a crack of dawn Kyle KMA and then followed up with a mile swim and a sauna with actual girls this time instead of the usual old men I hang with. Today I hit the rollers in the morning for an hour before work and then tonight had the usual Kyle workout that was icing on the cake. so the game plan now is 2 days of pure rest.....its hard to do nothing for 2 days but i am going to force myself to and then Saturday I will do a mini workout and rest up for the race on Sunday with the boys at the chain breaker. I am going to race it single speed and then run home after the race. I think it is about 8-10 miles home.

Epic fun day...lions and tigers and bears oh my!

Not a fast running pace but it was hour 5.....

The plan was to do a group road ride of about 80 miles with the WebCyclery.com crew and we all realized the day before that the slight rain. We somewhat thought that plan B would be a mountain bike ride maybe.....fast forward to this morning and SNOW.....YES SNOW!!! what the %&#@@$.....Its May people what happened to global warming? Well I was going and to be honest I like the epic weather. So the group decided they would go out about 11 am for a shorter ride so I took off at 9:15 and hot the trails solo for few hours with the Ipod before I grouped up with them. I must say there was about an hour of zen like riding with some great tunes from an old podcast that Brett did back awhile ago for base training. I met the group at Phils trailhead and we headed up into the eye of the storm on to the helipad. I must say the up part was nice as we all kept warm but once we headed down it got colder and wetter and colder......did I say colder? Now I admit two things put me a notch above the group for comfort...my warm BBB gloves that Canada Dave gave me and my BUFF ( yes the survivor kind) that kept my face warm for the descent . As everyone got colder and wetter they bailed from the main trail and took the escape pod like RdD2 and his sidekick. I headed back home changed into warm dry clothes and headed to the trails by the river to complete my super brick with a 10k.


Lets see...........4 and a half hours of mountain biking in the snow and rain followed by a trail run 10k, You just feel good sitting on the couch watching TV with a cold beer and sharp cheddar cheese knowing you earned it!

ride the rails...rails to trails that is

Early morning run and plyometric box jumps, the boxes were a good find and just the right size. rest of thee was some cycling and swimming. did a great strength workout at kyles studio and the plan for Sunday is big ride followed by a 10k so about another 6 plus hour workout.

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......