A little bit of training...

Thursday 7/2
No training today. I just wasn’t up for it.

Friday 7/3
I felt “guilty” for not doing anything Thursday, so I head up to Oak Mt. for a swim and ride. I swam for about 10-20 minutes just back and forth at the “beach” area. I tried to focus on my form and using my body to swim not just my arms (which I have a tendency to do). Then I jumped on my bike and road up the Mountain and back out to the main entrance and back to my car. It took about right at an hour to do. I felt pretty good after the ride…that is until I get a phone call form Hoover Toyota. Turns out I not only need a new AC clutch but also a new compressor (compressor = $$). I talked with the guy for a bit and let him know my “disappointment” that this couldn’t have been discovered last week when I took my car into their shop. I thought about it a bit and talked it over with Heather. We decided just to get rid of the 4Runner and go ahead and get something else. We were planning on getting something new towards the end of the year anyways. So the rest of Friday was spent cleaning up the 4Runner; going to CarMax and Driversway; and finding a great deal on a 2008 GMC Acadia. It is more of a crossover than an SUV. Not as small as a crossover but not as big as a Yukon…here is a pic



Saturday 7/4
No real training today unless you call loading up on pork products training (I like to think of it that way)

Sunday 7/5
I finally made it out for a training ride with Vulcan Triathletes. There were 6 of us heading out that morning. I was pretty nervous. We were going to go about 36-40 miles; my longest ride to date was 20 miles out at the industrial park. We left from the Brownell Travel building on Lakeshore and headed through Mt. Brook neighborhoods to Eastwood Mall area. Then we jumped onto Hwy 78 and rode out to the Bass Pro Shops (that’s right, Bass Pro Shops). Then we cut back on Rex Lake Road which changes into Sicard Hollow road all the way to Cahaba Heights. We then cut over and rode up Overton Road (b!tch of a hill). At the top of Overton, we cut back to the right and maneuvered our way over to Brookwood Road; turned between the golf courses; and road down Mt. Brook Parkway back to Brownell Travel. The overall trip was about 37 miles and took 2hrs27minutes. I was pumped after the ride. Chatty doesn’t look so scary anymore….ok, maybe it still does.

Monday 7/6
Recovery Day

Eric’s Quote of the Day: (an exert from Napoleon Dynamite)
Unlce Rico: “Back in ‘82, I use to be able to throw a pigskin a quarter mile”
Kip: “Are you serious?”

Uncle Rico: “I’m dead serious.”

New Race added to list!

Well, the weekend was OK. No ride on Saturday b/c I needed to take my bike to the shop. The chain was still jumping around on the rear gears. I did swim up at Oak Mt. with Jeff for a little while Saturday morning.

Sunday 6/28
I got in a pretty good run before church. I went 4.67 miles in right at an hour. I really don’t have the speed on the run that I would like to have. I need to be better about getting my runs in and quit finding excuses not to run. I should be running further distances by now.

Monday 6/29
Recovery Day

Tuesday 6/30
PM Bike
There is a stretch at Oak Mt. that is uphill and about a mile long. I rode up and then back down several times. Then I did the 20sec sprints (at 5k pace). Hills will wear a brother out!
Overall: avg HR 157; Peak HR 181; Min HR 98
Bike: Time 35mins; Dist 10.2 (forgot to look at avg and max speeds)
Sprints: 5 total
Wednesday 7/1
AM Swim
WU: 300m
Pulls: 300 on 6mins
250 on 4.5mins
125 on 3.5mins
75 on 2mins
Main Set: (4)50 easy/medium
(4)50 medium/fast

Total 1450m
I left to take the 4Runner to the shop so my AC can get fixed. One of these days, I swear I’ll be able to stay for the entire workout!

So, I decided to add another race to my calendar. The Wet Dog Triathlon is up in Decatur on July 18th. I’ve heard it is a very fun sprint distance (400m/15k/5k) tri. My buddy Kevin from the GJCC race might be doing it too. It is the weekend after Chattanooga. This way, I won’t be able to put off saddling back up after a race like I normally do. It should be a fun little day trip up there. After that, I’ll just have a couple of weeks until my first tri season’s culmination at Mt. Lakes.

Eric’s Quote of the Day: “You know what’s so bad about real life, Sssteven…there’s no danger music. Dududu DEDEDEDeDEde..” Chip Douglas (Jim Carrey) in The Cable Guy

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.