Not the best but not the worst

This week's training wasn't too bad. The weather played a major role in the sessions that I missed.

Monday 5/24

WO#1 Masters Swim

90mins; 3500m

Felt good to be in the pool for the entire time

Tuesday 5/25

WO#1 Easy Bike

Put the bike on the trainer to get my time in. No distance since my bike cpu stopped working. I did get to watch three episodes of Arrested Development. This is by far one of my favorite shows.

60mins

Wednesday 5/26

WO#1 Masters Swim

Had to cut this one short since I have PT in the afternoon. Lots of drills and technique work

45mins; 1850m

WO#2 Physical Therapy

60mins; Strength & stretching

WO#3 Easy Run (5x10min walk w/ :45 recovery)

63mins; 5.1miles

Thursday 5/27

WO#1 Moderate Brick

I cut the run short tonight, but at least I did make it out for the run

1.5hr bike on the trainer w/ 22 minute run (2.2miles)

Friday 5/28

WO#1 Masters Swim

90minutes; 3800m

Good day in the pool. Short distance w/ high intensity.

WO#2 Physical Therapy

60 mins; Strength & Stretching

WO#3 Run; rained out

Saturday 5/29

Had a good 3 hr bike planned for today. The route was out to Pell City and back. Would have been new territory. Thanks to the rain I didn't get to go.

We did have a big cookout over at John's (my coach) house. It was an awesome time. It was fun to spend time with everyone when we aren't wearing spandex. We took little dude with us. he was perfect. He started to get tired around 2 so we had to duck on out. Wished we could have stayed longer.

Sunday 5/30

Tried to get my long run in today. I woke up with a sore throat and head/chest congestion. I drug myself out on the street and started running. The warm-up went well, but when tried to pick up the pace, I'd start coughing something fierce. I decided I would just try and take it easy today and drink a lot of fluids. I only got about 2.5 miles in today. Spending the early PM getting all my gear ready for the LJCC race tomorrow. It should be a good time. I'm number 53. There are 6 of us in the Clydesdales 0-39 division. I'll get up a race report tomorrow afternoon.

Eric's Clip of the Week: For those that don't know why people spend money on bikes...I've got one word...performance

Love at first sight?

So I walked into Bike Link yesterday evening to get my new bike cpu and took my obligatory stroll through all the bikes. There she was...just hanging out in the middle of the store…my dream tri-bike. Sure, I’ve seen pics on the internet, but seeing her up close was inspiring with her carbon frame, Dura-Ace shifters, & Ultegra crankset, all coming in at 19.62 lbs . I’m so going to go take it for a test ride this weekend. Here’s a pic off the Felt website.




Guess I’d better start saving my quarters!

Not Even...

Not even gonna post last week’s workouts. I was the biggest slacker Thursday thru Sunday. I did go swim for half the time Friday but that is it. You remember in school when you skipped class for the first time? You tried to convince yourself that it wouldn’t happen again, but after you missed that first class, it became easier and easier to skip again. Then you end up being so far behind in homework, reading, or studying that you end up sucking on the test. Well, missing training is pretty much the same. The only difference is that you can’t really cram your training in the night before a race. We are down to 166 days until IM Florida and there are a chunk of races before then that I need/want to tear through and dare I say place in the top 5 of my division. Sunday I had a little “come to Jesus” talk with myself. No more excuses…no more sleepin in…it’s time to get back on track and focus on my season’s goals. I’ve been so easily distracted these past few weeks. Everything has seemed like a good enough reason to skip a training session. Well, it’s not fair to anyone really. Time to change the way things are going. The LJCC race is on Memorial Day. It’s going to be a fun little super sprint. Nothing real daunting on the training schedule this week. It should be the perfect week to hit all my training goals for the week and then finish strong at a race where I feel confident I could finish near the top of my division (only 5 people including me as of today I think). I haven’t registered yet. There’s a chance of a free entry being available on Tuesday. Hopefully I’ll win it. So if you’re bored on Memorial Day, feel free to come out to the LJCC. There is going to be a pool party afterwards with pizza and beer. Keep safe out there.

Eric’s Quote of the Day: “Quit? You know, once I was thinking of quitting when I was diagnosed with brain, lung and testicular cancer all at the same time. But with the love and support of my friends and family, I got back on the bike and won the Tour de France five times in a row. But I'm sure you have a good reason to quit. So what are you dying of that's keeping you from the finals?"~Lance Armstrong to Peter LaFleur in Dodgeball

Not too consistent...

I wish that I could say the rest of the week's training went as well as the first part but I can’t. I got a few solid hours of training in, but nothing like I had hoped or planned. My brick workout (2.5hr bike then 1hr run) on Thursday turned into just a 2 hr bike. I had to be at work early on Friday so swimming was scrapped. I had PT that afternoon that ate into my riding time. I did manage to get a good ride in on Saturday morning. It wasn’t the 4 hrs I had planned. About 9 of us (including my coach and several other “teammates” met out at Mt. Laurel for a 40 mile ride. The ride was nice. It’s always good finding new routes and new challenges when you are riding. We rotated the lead around so everyone got a chance to pull the group. There were lots of rollers on this route. We went down and around on hwy 41 & 43 and back up through Vandiver. And when I say up, I mean up. There was about a 1.5 mile climb up one side of Double Oak Mt when we had about 13 miles to go. This was rough. Biking 220lbs (yeah that’s right 220…woohoo) up a big A hill gets a little tiring. I’m pretty quick to build up self-doubt in certain circumstances and this was one. At one point I didn’t think I was going to be able to do it; I let the thought of stopping creep in to my mind, but one thing that I have gotten good at over the past 16 months of “triathloning” is talking myself up and getting motivated. I know I can handle anything out there; it might not be pretty or fast, but dangit I’ll finish it (i.e. NOLA 70.3). Overall it was a good ride.
It’s fun to look back and see where you’ve been to help you stay focused on where you are going. This time last year, I was riding maybe 15 miles for my training. Running was primarily done on my lunch break on the treadmill so I was lucky to get in three miles. I had only been going to master’s swim for 5 months and the thought of swimming 600m straight freaked me out and seemed unattainable. Fastforward 12 months, I’m biking 35-60 miles a time for training rides, running 5-9 miles (fine, so I run/walk, running is till a struggle due to injuries/gimpiness), and consistently swimming 3000-4000m three days a week. Just reminding myself of where I’ve come from helps me make it through some of these rough patches in training, work, and life (cue after-school special music).

Eric’s Quote of the Day: ”’Someday’ is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you” ~Tim Ferriss

Good week thus far

So far so good this week. Masters swim has been productive. I’ve been finding it easier to get into my rhythm in the water. Nutrition is going good. Back on the whole “resetting my metabolic efficiency” kick. It’s really pretty interesting. The unwritten law for endurance athletes is to fuel with carbs. These leads to using bars, gels, energy drinks during races and it is these glucose rich things that lead to GI problems. You can check out the website if you want http://www.fuel4mance.com . These first couple of weeks are very Atkins/South Beach like. No whole grains, pasta, or “carby” things. I can have all the lean meats, fruits, and veggies that I can stand. The bad thing is that when you try to change the way your body fuels itself, there is an adjustment period. I find myself being very sluggish on my evening training routines. Last time it took almost two weeks to get over the change. Hopefully this time around I can adjust in about a week.

Monday 5/9
WO#1 Masters Swim
90mins; 4000m
Only 3 people in the lane today. The bubble came down a couple of weeks ago so the crowd gets a little thin on colder mornings
WO#2 Physical Therapy
75mins
Started added ankle weights to my exercises
WO#3 Bike (Build intervals)
90mins; No dist due to bike cpu problems
I hooked the bike on the trainer to get this in while I watched “How I Met Your Mother” & “24”. FYI, Jack is going a little off the deep end these days.

Tuesday 5/10
WO#1 Bike (hill concentration)
105mins; about 32 miles on mapmyride.com
Legs were feeling it today. It was hard to get up a good speed for about the middle 1/3 of the workout. I did get “buzzed” by an old couple cruising down Old Leeds Road. Their side view mirror was waaayy to close to my arm. With that in mind, I’ll go ahead and mention to the couple of people who read this to give riders at least 3 feet.

Wednesday 5/11
WO#1 Masters Swim
75mins; 3000m
Pool was crazy crowded today. I think each lane had 6-7 people in it. We did a lot of drill work today. Sherry, our coach on Wednesdays, loves some drills.
WO#2 Aerobic Run
60mins; 5.5 miles
While I’m rehabbing my knee, most of my runs are going to be run/walks. Tonight I ran 10mins and walked 45 secs. Focused on keeping my HR low at a rate of perceived exertion (RPE) of 3. Once I found a comfy pace, the workout was good. Something was going on in the neighborhood last night. There were a ton of cop cars patrolling with their lights flashing and spotlights shining. Of course I’m sure that I looked suspicious out there running the streets at 845 in the PM. Side note: getting new kicks on Friday!

Well, Thursday’s here and my legs are beat. I’ve got a bike/run tonight that ought to be “fun.” Have a great rest of the week and stay safe out there.

Eric’s Quote of the Day: “Son, if you really want something in this life, you have to work for it. Now quiet! They’re about to announce the lottery numbers. ~Homer Simpson

Soooo

I haven't exactly been the "ideal" triathlete the past few weeks. The week immediately following NOLA was a weird one. I wasn't expecting to be so down/blue. I had worked pretty hard to get ready for that race. I tried to go into it as just a learning experience since I knew my ankle was more than likely going to limit me. I tried not to be disappointed when I saw my time of 7:40 but I was. It was a bit a of a let down. As the next couple of weeks started to go by, I tried to turn everything around. Not much training to report. I had some good bike rides but not much swimming or running. can I say...life got in the way. Work got a little crazy. There was a big rush on a project to be done by the 30th. Lots of site visits led to no training/excuses.

Then in the middle of that, Lucas got sick. He had a throat virus and then a couple of ear infections. Getting up in the middle of the night tends to keep you from getting back up at 430 to make it to the pool. Having to take off from work to check him out of daycare, take him to the doctor, spend a day at home with him tends to distract you from training. I'm not complaining by any means. I love little dude more than anything and would do anything for him. Family definitely comes before training! Now things are better. Lucas got tubes put in this past week and he has been extremely happy. Made it through the past couple of nights without waking up...hooray! The project at work is done and apparently working smoothly. Not it is time to get back on track.

Last week, I went to my sports doc to follow up about my ankle and see about my knee. I have been cleared on my ankle. I'm starting PT for my knee. Sophia seems to think that I can get through the knee problem without surgery. After November, that might be a different story, but we will tackle that when the time comes.

Next race is coming up in a couple of weeks on Memorial Day. Should be a fun race. There aren't a lot of people signed up for it. It's pretty short: 200yd swim, 8 mile bike, 2 mi run. I going to shoot for a 50 min race. It's going to be one of those where your heart rate jumps up and stays up.

This week IS going to be different. Lucas is feeling great; work is good; weather looks good; and I've got the "itch" to get back into some hard training. I'll try to be better about posting updates.

Stay safe out there!

Eric's Quote of the Day: "Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you."~Ralph Waldo Emerson