Busy, Busy, Busy...

I won’t go into too much detail since I have to cover almost an entire week…

Saturday 6/20
Planned on riding today, but bike is in the shop. We did however get Lucas’ room painted! The whole boat, nautical, wave theme is going to rock (I know I’m a little biased). Here are a couple of pics…



Sunday 6/21
I went for a run out at Spain Park this morning. It was a little on the hot & muggy side…at 630 in the morning. I was soaked by the end of the run. I got in about 5 miles. I tried to focus on keeping my HR down.
Avg HR 145/Min 93/Max 172/Time 1:05

Monday 6/22
Recovery Day

Tuesday 6/23
I got my bike back a little later than I had hoped so I wasn’t able to get a ride in today.

Wednesday 6/24
Master Swim
This was my first day there with one of the new coaches. Sharon was there today. We did some different drills and routines. It was really intense. She is really good about coaching us as a group at the beginning of each drill/set and then talking to us 1 on 1 after the drill to tell us what we did right or what we need to work on. When I started swimming backing January, I would breathe every other stoke. So, every time my right arm went out, my head would go to the left and I would inhale. It worked well for pool swimming, but for open water swimming, it’s best to be able to breathe every three strokes so you are alternating which side you inhale. When you do this, siting where you are is a good bit easier and you are less likely to swim a zig-zag pattern or way off course. In other words, you conserve energy and save time.
After swimming, I had to get on back home because we did our 4D Ultrasound today. The 4th D is for motion. A few years ago, all they could do was snap still shots in 3D, but now they can record motion. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. We invited our parents there to see it too. It was awesome being able to share it with them. I didn’t think that having a baby could get any more surreal, but it did. Here are a few pics (isn’t he handsome?)



Thursday 6/25
I headed up to Oak Mt. after work to get in a brick workout. I’m starting to get a bit nervous about Chatty again. I did a quick little warm up and headed along the bike course from Buster Britton. About 10 minutes in, the chain started jumping again. Needless to say, I was a little on the P.O.’d side. I popped a “U-ey” and loaded up my bike to head back to Cahaba Cycles. They worked on it for about 30-45 minutes tightening cables replacing stoppers, etc. We will see if it helped any.

Friday 6/26 Weigh In Day
Master Swim
Another day of fun intense drills. It was hot and humid this morning. I left a little early today so I could get some work done. I managed to get in about 1800m.
After some thought, I decided to move my weigh in days to Friday. Today the scale flashed at 244…20lbs since the first part of April! I’m about a 1/3 of the way to my goal.


Erics Quote of the Day: “Poppa, you want me to do it?” ~My 3 yr old nephew when my dad was having a little trouble getting Little Rascals to play in the DVD player.

Post Race Training

Monday 6/15 – Recovery Day

Tuesday 6/16
PM Bike
I couldn’t find my legs this afternoon. I planned on biking up at Oak Mt. for 65mins and then doing some 20sec 5k pace sprints. I ended up just biking for about 35 minutes. I got 9.5 miles in with an average speed of 16.28 (no, I didn’t go all the way up the mountain today) on the bike and no running.

Wednesday 6/17
AM Swim
Masters was pretty good this morning. I only stayed for about ½ so I can get off work early to work on getting Lucas’ room ready for painting.
WU: 300
Drills: 200
Kicks: 8x50 (free down; fly back) on 1:30
Main Set: 4x175 free on 4:30
CD: 100
Total: 1700m

PM Run
I went for a run up at Spain Park today. I’ve decided to try and not run on the treadmill anymore. I need to work more at varying terrain and temperatures. Today, hot just doesn’t describe the weather. It was awful. All I did was a 45 minute workout and I was soaked to the bone. I tried to jogged most of it, but had to walk some to get my HR back down into my target zone.
Time 45mins/Avg HR 144/Max HR 165/Min 94

Thursday 6/18 (aka worst training day ever)
I left work around 415 to head up to Oak Mountain for a brick workout. The plan was to ride an hour and then run for 25 mins. I parked at the boat pavilion and started airing up my tires. Rear tire, check; front tire, che….what the crap is that bubble in the wall of my tire? I let the air out and made sure that the tube wasn’t slipping outside of the tire. I had no clue what to do so I loaded the 4Runner back up and headed to Cahaba Cycles there on 119. The dude that helped me wasn’t too sure what was going on either. We would pump it up; let the air out; try to work the tire in a little more; pump it up & repeat. The bubble would go down just bit every time we inflated it. Apparently, I would have to do this every time I put air in my tire….thanks, but no thanks. I opted to upgrade the rubber on my bike. Twenty-five minutes later, my bike is ready and I’m loading it on the rack to go back to Oak Mt b/c I was determined to get my training in (Chatty in just over 3 weeks). So, I rolled back into the park and stopped at the pro shop to unload. I don all my equipment, get the bike off and start pedaling. About 20 secs later the chain pops off! Since everyone knows just how patient and calm I can be, I coasted back around to the car to do a “quick fix” and keep on riding. Well, 20 minutes later I finally get the chain seated back on the teeth. My hands are COVERED with grease. I hop back on and start riding. A few minutes later, my chain starts slipping. I decided that it just wasn’t in the cards for me to ride today. I headed back to the car and started my journey home. I got to Oak Mountain at 430, the clock now showed 630. Two hours and all I have to show for it are greasy hands, a lighter checkbook, and a sweat soaked shirt. Not a great day, but it could have been worse. I’m going to run my bike by Cahaba on Friday and drop it off so they can give it a quick tune-up and check out the chain/gears (keep your fingers crossed it’s nothing big).

Friday 6/19
AM Masters Swim
Today was our Coach’s last day, so it was a little laid back which was nice. I left about midway through so I can take care of my bike troubles and get home to start painting.
WU: 300 swim
Drills: 200 (over rotate, single arm L&R, fist)
Pulls: 200
Kicks: 6x50 on 1:20
Pulls: 4x75 on ???
Main Set 6x150
Swim 100 rest 20 secs
Swim 50 rest 50 secs
I headed out after 1 set
Total 1450m

I took my bike into Cahaba this morning. I’m not going to be able to get it back until Tuesday (booo). I’m just going to focus on running this weekend.

Eric's Quote of the Day: "Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway." ~ John Wayne

Buster Britton

Well, my first “A” priority race is in the books. Overall, it was a great experience. I finished 12/14 in my division (hell yeah not last!) with a time of 1:44:08. Not exactly my goal time of 90 minutes, but I’m not too disappointed. Here is how it all played out…

Friday night, Heather and I went up to the park so I could go ahead and get my registration packet. I checked my race number, 138, and thought it was a little weird that I was up towards the front of a field of 500 people. What the crap did I put down for my swim time!?! No way am I going to swim faster than half the flippin group! I’m going to get run over out there. I finally settled down a little and decided just to go out there and do my thing and not worry about everyone else. I can’t control what they do; I only have control over myself
Saturday (Race Day)
5:40 Me and my buddy Jeff rolled into the park to help with body marking before the start of the race. It was a lot of fun getting to chat it up with a bunch of fellow racers before the start. You could tell those who had been racing for years and those who were racing for the first time.

7:00 Headed over to our transition spots to make a few last minute preps before the swim start. I downed a GU and some electrolyte tablets before heading down to the swim start area. The clouds were looking a bit ominous. I saw Heather, mom, and Mo before we started getting lined up for the start. It’s always nice to laugh a little before the start to break the tension. We went and got lined up only to wait for a bit to see what the weather was going to be doing. The lightning in the distance made everyone a little nervous. Then, the rain started to fall. Everyone on the beach scattered like ants. Even people in swimsuits and swim caps ran which I thought to be kind of funny. The rain let up and we saw Jeff’s wife Leslie, their son Max, and Leslie’s mom. It finally looked like we were going to start the race. One of the buoys marking the course came loose and started floating away. So we shortened the swim a little bit (prob more like 300-350 yds). Around 7:45, the first person entered the water and took off. In no time at all, the first 100 people were swimming, then the 120’s, then the 130’s, then it was my turn. I ran into the water and dove to start swimming. I got into a groove fairly easily. I had to lift my head straight up every 10 strokes or so to make sure I hadn’t swam too far off course. Swimming in open water is a big change from the pool. You can feel others swimming around you, but you can’t see them through the murkiness of the water. I rounded the first buoy and headed towards the second still feeling pretty good in the water. By the time I rounded the final buoy, I started to lose focus a little and could feel it in my breathing. I started taking in a little water with each breath. I got a little flustered but before I knew it, the water shallowed up and you could plant your feet and take off towards the swim exit. I exited the water in 7:04; good enough for 11/14 in my division. I would have struggled to hit my 8 minute mark had the swim been a full 400 yds but heck, I’m happy with my swim time.

Missing Scenes from Baywatch


I walked/trotted to the transition area where the rain had soaked everything. I buckled my helmet, put on my gloves, shoes, downed another GU and ran to the transition exit. My T1 time was 4:17 (not too good). I mounted my bike and took off. The roads were soaked and covered with debris from the storms that came through the night before. I worked through my gears and found a comfy cadence to start out at. Everyone quickly noticed the effect of a shortened swim. The bike course started to get crowded. Every 10 seconds you would either say or hear “on the left” meaning that someone was about to pass you or you were about to pass someone. I battled my way up the hill just like the weekend before. I actually lost track of where I was on the climb. I thought I had one more bad climb to make and then the next thing I know we are riding down a hill to the first turn around point. Take that nemesis! The return trip was easy. It wasn’t nearly as crowded so you could get busy on the downhill sections. I made it to the bottom of the hill to on of the only flat sections and hammered on to the final turnaround. I made it back to the transition area in 51:00 which put me at 8/14 in my division. My average speed was around 15.3 (according to the most recent results). I was off my target time by almost 7 minutes.

Quick shot of me biking into transition


I had an awful T2. I took way to long to rack my bike and slip on my water logged running shoes. I slapped on my visor and started to trot onto the race course. I have to say that running is by far my biggest weakness. The three mile run took almost 40 minutes. It was a lot of uphill running. My knee started throbbing pretty good on the way out. I need to start doing more strength training to try and remedy this knee pain crap. The run back in was fun. I just kept telling myself that I only had 1.5 miles left to go. When you run out of the woods and pass the water stop, you only have ½ a mile to go. I started kicking like crazy. The cheers started getting louder, the announcer got louder, and then before you knew it, the final turn to the finish chute was in sight. I could see my family and friends cheering me on in their neon ponchos. I turned and sprinted on to the finish line ending the run in 39:08 which put me 13/14 in my division.

I know, the "theme" of this video is a little off, but it made me laugh...



Overall it was a fun day. The rain was more welcomed than hated because there is no telling how hot it could have gotten. Thanks again to everyone for coming out. I’ve got to give mad props to my buddy Jeff for doing awesome at his first triathlon. He smoked by me at about mile 1 of the run. Awesome race dude!

I know what I need to focus on now…running, strength training, & biking up hills. After wavering a bit, I've decided to stick with my initial race schedule and do Chattanooga in July. The distances are 1500m/40k/10k. I know they are doable. I just need to dig and get myself into a strong training zone. I've got three weeks or so to get in some mad training before I need to rest for the race. Have a great week. I'll update my training later this week.

Eric’s Quote of the Day: “My humility is probably my best quality” ~MH

Day before Race!

Well, my first “A” priority race is here. I feel pretty good about as long as I don’t dwell on the “what if’s.” The open water swim should be interesting. I hope I haven’t become too dependent on following a black line in the bottom of the pool. My goal is 8 minutes for the swim. I think it is easily doable as long as I don’t swim off course any.

Swim Course


The bike should be fun. It is 13 miles of pretty hilly terrain. As long as I remember to save some gears for the hills, I’ll be fine. My goal is to avg 17.5 mph which would give me a bike time of 44.5 minutes. I’m confident that I can make up time from biking up the hills when I fly down the other side (gravity is a big man’s friend when biking downhill).

Bike Course


The run course will be interesting. It is flat for the first ½ mile then uphill for the next mile to the turnaround. Good part is that it is downhill and flat for the return trip. I’m hoping to keep a modest 11 minute/mile pace (33 minute run segment). So far this year, I haven’t been great at the running. I figure I can take the first 3-5 minutes to shake the bricks off my legs and then focus on the run.

Run Course


Adding up the times and shooting for smooth transitions, my goal is to finish in 90 minutes. That might be too lofty of a goal for a beginner, but I know I have it in me. I just need to keep the “can’ts” at bay when I’m on the course. For those of you coming out to cheer, thanks for your support. For those of you racing, good luck. For those of you at home, drink a cold one for me!

Eric’s Quote of the Day: “Pain is temporary; quitting lasts forever” ~Lance Armstrong

Weekend & Weigh In (Nemesis 1 – Me 1)

Practice Run
The weekend went well. I didn’t go swim Friday morning so I could rest just a little for our practice tri on Saturday. We rolled up to Oak Mt. about 7:15 Saturday morning. I was a little surprised to see so many other people there to swim, run, and/or ride. It was a gorgeous day. We walked on down to the “beach” and decided to swim down and back the length of the beach. It is probably somewhere between 100-150 yds to the other end. We both did fine on the swim. I have got to be better at swimming without a line painted on the ground below me. I ended up being a bit off course when we got to the end despite Jeff’s best efforts to holler at me when he saw me swimming towards the dam.
We finished up our swim and headed back to the car to mount our bikes and hammer out the 13 mile course. I was a little nervous. My nemesis was coming up in front of me. I just kept my head down and kept digging until we came down a hill and found ourselves at the turnaround point…I was pretty pumped about making it there. It definitely boosted my confidence more for the race next weekend. We took a quick breather and headed back down the mountain. About a mile from where we parked, I got a flat. Hopefully I can go ahead and get it out of the way so it doesn’t happen during the race. It would definitely kill my bike time. It took a bit longer to replace the tube than I thought it would. It was pretty cool to see that just about every biker that rode by would slow down and ask if we needed any help or if we had everything we needed.
We cut the bikes back up to the parking lot and got ready for the run portion (my least favorite). We trotted off down the road up towards Pevine Falls. Notice the word up…it seemed like the first half of the 3mile course is all up hill. Not too much fun to do when your legs are all tight from biking. Jeff took on off ahead of me. I slowed down a good bit, walking at times, but jogging for most of them. I’m not sure how far I got, I’m pretty sure Jeff got close to the race distance if not more. Overall it was a very good day. Now it is time to do a little training here and there this week to rest up for the race.

Monday 6/8 (Weigh In day)
I spent Sunday and the first part of Monday resting. I was going to do a little bit of cardio during lunch to keep my legs loose. I rode on the stationary bike for about 25 minutes. Nothing too strenuous or hilly, just tried to keep a nice steady cadence.

Well, Monday is my weigh in day. I stepped on the scale to see 245. I was pretty happy with that since my last weigh in saw me had me back up to 250. Now, I’m right back on track.

Eric’s Quote of the Day: “Do or do not; there is no try” ~Yoda

TUES thru THURS (Nemesis1, Me 0)

Tuesday 6-2
I had a ride and run scheduled for the evening, but called it off when we got the offer to go eat at Bonefish with MH’s family. It was a great evening and wouldn’t have missed it. Rain was threatening anyways so, it was probably a good call to miss it.

Wednesday 6-3
AM Swim
Our coach is “retiring” from coaching. His last day is 6/19. I’m not sure what’s going to happen to the Masters group. Maybe we will get a new coach, maybe we can carry on ourselves, or maybe it just won’t be anymore. Regardless, John has been awesome the past 6 months. I feel like I have made a huge improvement from my first day when I couldn’t even swim the length of the pool without swallowing a cup of water and having to stop. Thanks John!
Swimming was awesome this morning. Some days you feel ok, others bad, but today I felt great during the swim and afterwards. I usually have to skip the breathing exercise and the cool down so I can get to work by 7. I’ll aiming to start staying for the entire workout and working 730/800-430/500 since it stays light outside so late now. But I digress, onto the training…

WU: 300m
Drills: 200m (fingertip, over rotate, single arm (L/R), fist)
Kicks: 8x50 on 1:20 (4 free; 2 stroke)
Pulls: 3x150 on 3:15
Main Set: 8x100 (I think these were the times)
1-3 2:35
4-6 2:25
7-8 2:15
Total: 2150m (60minutes)

Lunchtime “Mini Brick”
Jeff & I decided to have a Lunch Brick today. We rode on the stationary bikes for 20mins and ran on the treadmills for 10. I didn’t pay attention to any of the particulars (avg speeds, dist, etc.) but I did try to keep my cadence on the bike down in the 90’s. If everything goes as planned, we are going to go through the race routes this weekend.

Thursday 6-4
PM Bike/Hill Work
Well, I finally was able to go out to Oak Mountain today. It was really rather nice out. Rain was all around the area which I think scared off a bunch of riders. So, I set out to ride the Buster Britton course. I felt good and my legs felt decent. I took off out of the parking lot down to the main park road cutting to the right at the stop sign and on my way to do battle with the climb (or as Jeff put it, my Nemesis). I get up to a pretty good clip and then try to switch (front) gears and hear that oh so dreadful pop. I look down to find my chain off the ring and kinked up like an old pipe cleaner…drat. So, I get to a stop, get the chain back on the rings and start riding again. I didn’t clear the entire climb, but I did get more than halfway up. If I would have been paying attention, I would have noticed the descent just around the corner before I tapped out. But anyways, I felt pretty good about it. I’ll see how our practice tri goes tomorrow. I continued to ride all around the park for a total of 60 minutes. I’m a big believer that time in the saddle does more for you than distance in the saddle.

I’ll be back on Monday to update on training, the practice tri, & weigh-in. Have a great weekend!


Eric’s Quote of the Day: “Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

Shades, Weekend, & Weigh In

First off, let me say just how awesome my dog, Tucker, is. Friday after work, I decided to cut the yard. I let him inside which is standard operating procedure when cutting the grass. MH wasn’t feeling to hot, so she went upstairs to lie down. Over the next hour, I got the yard edged, weed-eated, mowed, blown, and went on poop patrol. At the same time, Tucker went surfing on the kitchen table and stumbled across Heather’s Costa Del Mar sunglasses. All that remains are two 1 inch pieces of each ear piece. So far, he is ok. We called the emergency vet place and they didn’t seem too concerned. We gave him some peroxide to try and make him throw up but turns out our pup has an iron stomach. Why would some hydrogen peroxide make him get sick if (80) 20mg pills of Lisinopril didn’t faze him? We were mad but at the same time felt bad for him b/c it probably won’t feel too good when he has to go twosies.

Saturday 5/30
I wanted to focus on hills this morning. There is a decent hill in our neighborhood that goes on for about 0.3 miles at a fairly steep grade. I would try and hammer up that hill and then coast around the hood for a bit before I gave it another shot. I rode for around 45 minutes. I had to go to work to try and wrap up a few things for Monday.

Sunday 5/31
I had a long run scheduled for today. I loaded up Tucker and went down to Spain Park. He did great on the trail running through the woods, and then we got out into the open where he could see wide open spaces, lots of people, and lots of other dogs. Long story short, we left after about 30 minutes. I’ll have to start him off running at home I guess and then as he “matures” we can go out to parks and what not.

Monday 6/1 (Weigh In Day)
Monday’s are scheduled recovery days, but I still need to do some to stay loose. I’m all too quick to fall back on that when my alarm goes off at 4:25am to go to my swim group. I really need to get better about Monday mornings.

Lunchtime Elliptical
20mins/2.26mi/419 cals burned. I’m going see if I can get my ID card upgraded so I can have access to the path around the lake for my lunchtime runs.

This morning was my designated weigh in time. I stepped up on the scale and 250 flashed. It’s a little disappointing, but I can only blame myself. I didn’t eat too well at all on Sunday and there were a couple of other times of weakness throughout the week. Now, I’m not one of those that think every single meal has to be healthy for you. I’m fine with a couple meals a week being the “bad” ones (it gives you something to look forward to). So, up 4 from my last weigh in…just means I need to bust my rear this week getting ready for Buster Britton (getting a little nervous about this one, but more on that later).