Just keep moving...

I had a really tough, short, run last night. It was only about 3.7 miles, but man, I was sluggish! I think it could have been that it was in the mid-80's, and I was overheating a bit. I still held my pace at just under 7:oo min/mile - and it felt okay holding that pace, my avg. heart rate was about 79%, a bit high for a recovery run, but not something I couldn't maintain for a while. I think part of my issue was, of course, nutrition. From about 3pm to 5pm seems to be my nutritional black hole - as I can't really figure out what to eat/drink that is calorie dense enough to fuel a workout, but light enough to keep me from cramping. I've found a drink called Driven that is an amino load - but only like 15 calories per serving. It promises everything just short of the moon, and while I haven't really noticed 'Optimized mental focus & clarity"' or too much 'explosive energy', I think it has helped a bit with some pick me up and maybe a bit on the endurance factor. Granted, I've only taken it like 3 times, so we'll have to see. But either way, I need to get some calories in before a freaking workout, and I'm still experimenting with what will work.

I lifted kind of quickly last night as well. Did a quick circuit doing upper body push, upper body pull, lower body push, and lower body pull - with some core work in there as well. I think I was in and out of the gym in about 40 minutes, but I feel like I got a good lift in - so I'm happy. Ellie and I had a little sunset happy hour on our porch, and made some chicken legs for me, and then some tofu spring rolls for dinner. Light and delicious. I'm going to try to get a good swim in tonight, and then probably rest tomorrow before our century on Sunday - work on the bike a bit.
I'm at the point in my training where I'm struggling to find the motivation to get out the door. Each workout, I have to tell myself, 'just one lap', or 'just an easy swim' - and then usually I can't stop until I get the workout finished. I don't really believe in the concept of over-training - I eat well, rest well, and sleep well, and I'm sure I don't do enough volume to overtrain, but it could be mental over-training. I'll enjoy this weekend, and then probably take Monday and Tuesday off to get my head right...if that's possible. We'll see....

E

Bolder Boulder 2K8

I love long weekends. They are awesome. Every weekend should be 3 days long. Saturday morning, I went out for a good little hammer fest on the bike. I rode to the 5430 Sprint Triathlon bike course, about 11 miles from home, then rode the course, and rode home. I freaking hammered the course. I had a little tailwind on the back straight-away, and was holding about 34 mph - faster than I've ever gone back there. The winds started swirling pretty good on my ride back - but I made it safe and sound. It was roughly 37 miles, took me about 1h 45 min. Good, hard ride.

Sunday, I did a recovery swim and ate like a fiend.

Monday, Bolder Boulder. I had a blast running this race. It was the first time I've run it, after living in and out of Boulder for about 6 years or so. There were a TON of people out there, I think the last count I saw was 54,040....yeah...a TON! I started in the 3rd wave (AB) at 7:01:50. The first mile was good, slightly downhill, and pretty fast - 6:28 split. Regardless of how downhill it was, I needed to reign it in a bit. My next 3 splits, 6:54, 7:09, and 6:59 were actually a little slower than I had shot for, but after looking at the course profile after the race, those were the miles where I gained elevation, so I'm okay with it. Miles 5 and 6 splits were 6:42 and 6:55 weren't great, but the last mile had another big incline, however, a buddy put it in my head that this was a big big hill, and it certainly looked like it on the profile, so I saved some energy for that climb. I got to the top, looked back, and went "Is that it? DAMN!". Next time, I hammer.

My final time was 42:36, averaging 6:52 a mile. Again, I wasn't really geared up for this race, but after looking at my times, I always question things a bit, "If only I had pushed a bit harder here, or Run that 4th mile faster," but it was a really fun race. I'd do it again in a heartbeat, but next year I think I'd like to get a group together and just run it for fun. We shall see.

I'm gunna get a massage today, and then a good swim tonight. Prepping for the Elephant Rock Century this weekend. Woohoo!

E

Easy like Sunday Mooooornin

Had a great, early morning fartlek session today. Started out with a warmup lap, then 2 1/2 laps of 30 second pickups, with about 1:30 recovery. Last 1/2 lap was just to cool down. T'was a good run, felt good on the recovery, and the pickups whipped me, as they should. Overall, 5 miles, 35:43. probably the last big run before the Bolder Boulder, I need my legs to recover. I'll swim and lift tomorrow, and then get a good ride Friday, and again probably on Saturday. Swim and lift Sunday, then 10K it up on Monday.

E

It's 5:45am, what are you doing?

I was pulling into the gym parking lot. You know you are in a great triathlon community when you pull in that early, and there are 10 - 15 cars (lots of Subarus!), all with bike racks, beat up running shoes in the back seats, and various endurance sport bumper stickers. And, all the swim lanes are full. Waited just a sec, and got into a lane, boy the water is cold that early. Took me a lot longer in my warm up to get going - but I felt a bit off for most of my swim. It's still amazing to me how great I feel for the rest of the day after an early morning workout. The commute is better (although, I decided that my life will be infinitely better when the commute goes away), the work seems less stressful, and the weather always just seems to be better. So, as hard as it is to wiggle out of the warm sheets that early, it may have to happen a lot more, as it just feels so much better the rest of the day. I'm gunna ride for about an hour this evening, and life will be grand.

E

It feels like burning

We had a big boy bike ride on Saturday. Roughly 48 miles on the road, the first 10 were a pretty decent climb, long and slow. This ride used to chew me up, spit most of me out, and then get the rest with a really sharp, painful toothpick. So in my head, pulling up to the parking lot, I knew I was into it. We were riding with a big group, and there is an old house where a really sweet lady used to sit out on a Saturday with a cooler full of water, and sell it for $1 to the cyclists. We all loved her, and the plan was to meet at the lady, refresh, and keep charging up the hill. So I just put my head down, really actually enjoyed the 85 degree sweat-fest, and spun the crap out of my legs. They felt great! I was holding my cadence around 85-90 rpm, and trying to keep the speed above 10.5 mph. Before I knew it, I was passing an empty lot where there should be a water cooler. Sad. I don't know what happened to her. But my legs still felt sweet. My buddy Brandon beat me to her, and then our 2 other friends were right behind me. We pouted for a minute, and then charged on, this time Brandon and I really pushing it. This is where I got a bit frustrated, as I just didn't have a top gear in my legs. I jumped out of the saddle, and my legs would just peter out. So I had to make it work, adjust on the fly. Brandon still beat me, but I felt good on that climb. The rest of the ride was rolling, descending, and just a little bit more climbing, but I felt great. I should have brought my running shoes to get the first of the linguine legs out of the way, but I opted for lunch with the guys instead.

Sunday I took it easy and just spun my legs with Ellie. Today, I got out there for a beautiful run, 3.6 or so miles, 26-ish minutes. I really worked on finding an easy tempo the first 2 laps, and then a good, hard, close to vomit pace for my last loop, trying to get my legs to respond to being tired. I intended to go lift after the run, but I decided to grill some buffalo burgers and have a cold one instead. It's Monday. I have all week for 2 a days. I'll get up tomorrow, go lift and swim before work, and maybe get a short ride or 45 or so minute run in after work. Time to start stretching it out!

E

'Twas a very active, busy weekend. Friday night, Sawyer and I continued our slowly developing Friday Happy Hour bike ride. It has really been good for me to get out on the bike for a long ride rather than going to hammer back a few beers. This Friday, we took a pretty ambitious ride, from downtown Denver to the top of Lookout Mountain in Golden. Google Maps tells me that we did roughly 8,000 ft. of climbing, but that seems, oh, ridiculous? Subtracting roughly 5,000 feet of Denver elevation seems to get me to a better number...3,000 feet of climbing. It was a brutal climb, but it wasn't 8,000 feet. Either way, it was 36.5 or so miles, and took us about 2h 15m. It was a great ride.

Saturday morning I got up to run the Flat Out 5K - a Bolder BOULDER qualifier. I ran very well, considering the bike ride I had the night before. 20:40 - a 6:40/mile pace. I felt a bit tired at the end, definitely went out a bit quicker than I finished. I was hoping to get under 20 minutes, but not this day. It's amazing to me the people that come out and run these things though. There are so many people who are a) INCREDIBLY cocky, and b) just plain rude! This one guy was decked out in pure professional gear, nice racing flats, the new Skins tights, a racing bib with a wind breaker over the top. Just to the T pro runner. He was telling a very nice looking co-ed how he just had to finish the race in under 19:50 to qualify for the wave he needed to get in. Right as the gun goes off, he starts pushing his way through the crowd, getting frustrated with the 'slow start', and eventually finds a seem and is just gone. Oh, he made it a point to push through a mom running with her kids, both not older than 8. About 2.5 miles in, I see our pushy co-ed hunter, and just cruise right on by. He let out a very nice belly roar, obviously frustrated with the number of people that had passed him. I wanted to say something, but I'm not the type, and I don't understand why so many runners have to be such arrogant pricks. I can understand wanting a good race time, but get to the front, and let mom and her kids have their day. One of the kids was obviously upset from the near trampling, and probably has a bad view of running now since some prick was trying to get some ass. We're not out there making a living, so why is it so hard to be nice to fellow runners? That's why I love triathlon, it's the most accepting endurance sport out there. And I don't even want to get started on the pompous jerks that are 'pure cyclists'. There are exceptions to all of this, I've met some pretty cool runners and cyclists, but in general, they are too elitist for me.

And one more bit of ranting. There is a really cool new sport shop at Flatirons called At Altitude. They were open very early Saturday to accommodate the running crowd, and they were giving a 25% discount to the runners. Ellie and I went in, she picked up a jacket that was on sale, and I got a Fat Tire Bike Bell (AWESOME!). We go to check out, and this rep from Adidas is at the counter just giving it to the store owner - telling him how the At Altitude tent set up in the courtyard was taking up valuable beer garden space. The store owner politely told the corporate schmuck that he had gone through all of the right channels, and had everything cleared with the Director of Marketing for the event, and that he had no plans on moving his tent. Schmucky then said, "Fine, I'll just move it myself". The store owner, again, politely explained that he had every right to be there, and if Adidas moved the tent, then security would be called. Adidas boy stomped out of the store (he gave a much better tantrum than my 7 year old bro and sis EVER have). I don't know how it ended up, but I don't plan on ever buying another piece of Adidas gear after the way that whiny prick represented his company. What a joke.

/rant.

E

Stick to the muffin...

So no matter what anyone tells you, don't believe them if they tell you that Kombucha and a Vegan Blueberry muffin 45 minutes before a run is a good idea. The muffin, maybe, but carbonated kombucha, no. So I set out for an easy 3.8 mile run. This usually takes me, oh, maybe 29 minutes. Not today. I set out on my first lap, high tempo, probably 6:20 - 6:30/mile, nothing I can't handle. Feeling good, breathing a little labored, but again, easily harnessed. I start lap 2, and if feels like all the tiny little bubbles have formed one HUGE bubble in my stomach, and that my stomach is trying to actually jump out of my body. I tried numerous 'methods' to get said bubble out, but no dice. So what does one do? Crystal Meth....od (the music, not the drug). I completely tranced out on lap 3, and probably held a good 7:00/mile pace, which was much better than my probably close to 8:00/mile + pace on lap 2. So overall, I had a 32 minute +- about 30/45 seconds run. Not bad, but I learned an invaluable nutritional lesson today. Stick to the muffin.

E

Recovery Swim

Went for a quick, 1000 yd recovery swim last night, took me about 18 or so minutes. Swimming is by far my best of the 3 disciplines, but after a while, it becomes my least favorite. I LOVE open water swims, and would do those for every workout if it was reasonably possible, but alas, I have to do 90% of my workouts in a pool. With little Kirby doing cannonballs 4 feet from my face. And 13 people trying to share 2 lanes....

I usually hit a point in my swim training where I tire very quickly, like 200 yds into a workout, but if I push through, I hit another point where I could probably swim for a few hours straight. It's an odd feeling, but when it hits, I love it. That happened last night. About 250 yds in, my tris and shoulders got tired really quickly, then all of a sudden, everything felt fine and I just cruised through my last 750. It was awesome. I just hope it carries over to race day!!!

E

I'm back eh.

I'm back. It's been a bit since I've posted about my training here, but I enjoyed doing it, so here we go.

First things first. The plan I'm using is from www.beginnertriathlete.com - here is the link to my training log: BT Training Log

The plan is the closest I can find to what I need, but is still too much for me. You'll notice that a few weeks in, it called for either a 2 or 2 1/2 hour run........um, excuse me? You want me to run 15-20 miles in mid-April for an August Half Ironman? No no. Thanks for trying though. I value my knees and don't really feel like burning out too quick. Plus, one of my favorite things about summer is watching some baseball and grilling, so I'm just working to find a good balance.

So I'm editing the plan a bit to tailor my needs. Working 8-9 hours a day, with about 1 1/2 hours of total commuting, and having a desire to spend some time with my wife, I've had to change things up a bit. I'm not trying to win gold in Beijing, just finish my HIM in just over 5 hours.

So, all that said, I got a good swim workout in last night:

Warm Up - 400yds easy
Main Set - 8x100 as follows
1. 75 easy, 25 hard
2. 50 easy, 50 hard
3. 25 easy, 75 hard
4. 100 hard
(repeat twice to reach 800)
100 loosen
3x100 pull
Cool Down: 150 easy
1750 total

I love these speed workouts, and really find them the most beneficial. It feels freaking awesome after working that speed, to swim that '100 loosen' or '150 cool down' , and really feel like you are moving through the water more smoothly and much faster.

Had some Vegan Chicken Fajitas for dinner, used some of the Morningstar Farms Chicken Tenders - they are actually pretty good. 3 beers. I like beer.

E