The Time Is Now...

Well, here we are…6 days out from IRONMAN Florida. This has been an awesome journey. I’ve learned a lot about the sport and about myself over the past year. This year has been KU-RAY-ZEE. Throwing a little munchkin into the mix has definitely made it more exciting. I can’t believe that the day is almost here. The day where I’m gonna push myself harder than I ever have. I’m very anxious right now. It seems like no matter what I do, I can’t stop thinking about being out on that race course. I’m excited and nervous as hell at the same time. Did I train enough…what if I get my goggles kicked off in the swim…what if I wreck on the bike…what if I get on the run and just can’t go? I’ve always been a big self doubter . I’ve gotten better over this past year though. In all my races, I’m good on the swim…pretty good on the bike…and the run is hit or miss. The past couple of races, I have had some good runs which is very reassuring for IMFL.

Mantras…My buddy Jeff and I had a discussion a couple of weeks ago about race “mantras.” Those sayings you repeat to yourself when things start getting rough out there on the course to help push you through to the finish. One fellow triathlete has a couple that he goes through…the first is “Pura Vida” which means “Pure Life”. He picked it up in Costa Rica. They say it as a way of saying, “Hey, I’m just feelin groovy and I hope you are too.” Seems to me it is one of those to try and calm you down. When he starts getting tired, he turns to another…”Form Forward.” Don’t focus on anything but your form. Don’t worry about pace, the guy/girl that just passed you. Focus on your form and you’ll get more comfortable and inevitably, your pace picks up on its own. If these two don’t work, he digresses into despair and starts using his third mantra which like “Form Forward” starts with “F.” :-)

Jeff told me of a couple of other ones…his favorite is Philippians 3:12-14…”Not that I have already obtained this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” If you memorize it, it takes about 40 secs to say to yourself which is a good distraction in bad situations. A shorter one that I have caught myself saying is a take paraphrase of Hebrews 12:1 “Let us strip off every weight that slows us down,…and let us run with endurance that race that God has set before us.” This biggest weight for me when I start saying this is doubt. Another one that I really like now (thanks Jeff) is just the phrase “I Can.” Short, simple, and powerful. It will zap me back into focus when the doubts start creeping in my head. “I Can” can easily be translated into “I will” out on that race course. I will finish this. I will push hard and cross that finish line. I will do this for myself…for my family since they have sacrificed so much time and money for me to make this journey…for all of my friends who have always been there for me and listened to me talk about this for God knows how long…and for my little man, Lucas, so he will learn from his dad that no matter what…You Can.

Tracking me during the race…I’ll have my laptop with me down there, but I doubt that I will be doing much blogging once we get on the coast. For everyone that is coming down…I can’t wait to see you on the course. Having cheerleaders is such motivation when you are out on that run. For those of you not making the trip, there are several ways you can track my progress.
Directly on the website. www.ironman.com There will be a link to an athlete tracker starting that morning around 7central. My bib number is 372. This will update only as I cross timing mats. So you will only be able to see my swim time, transition times, bike times, and run times.
You can follow me on twitter @onealec Heather will be tweeting my progress throughout the day as she sees me. I’ll be sure she includes my name in the tweets so you will be able to see them.
Probably the best way to track me, is thru a website that I will have to post later this week. I’ll be carrying a GPS tracker on me starting at the bike that will allow you to track me in real time on a website either from your computer or handheld. I’ll pretty much show up as a blue dot on google earth. It will list a bunch of info like dist completed and dist to go; average speed; etc. I haven’t ever used this thing before, but I have heard good things. I’ll post the info up here and/or send out an email once I get the info on Thursday.

Well, I guess I’ll stop rambling now. Thanks to everyone for making this possible…All my friends, thanks for listening to me go on an on about triathlons. I would have exploded if I wasn’t able to talk about racing every day.
John (James), You were there when I attempted my first laps in the pool. I could barely make it one length without having to stop. Thanks for helping me with my form and being there all those mornings at Masters.
Sophia & Carrie, thanks for helping me get my knee straightened out. It’s not 100%, but I don’t think it ever will be.
John (Hanna), what can I say man? I would have been lost this past year without you as my coach. I know I wasn’t as consistent with my workout as I needed to be, but you were always there to motivate me and keep me focused.
Jeff, you talked me into doing my first half mary, so you pretty much started me off on my endurance event journey. Work wouldn’t be the same without you. I wish that I could be there to pace you on your Pinhoti 100 run. Stay focused out there. 1 aid station at a time. I know you’ll do great.
Carroll, if you had a buck for every question I asked you about triathlons the past two years, you could probably take a couple months off work. Thanks for always being there with an answer. Lots of emails and lunch conversations were had and they no doubt helped me get to where I am.
Mom, Dad, Mo, Keith, Keyes, and rest of family thanks for being there to cheer me on these past couple of years. Having so many people believe in me has definitely been a motivator when times have gotten bad. Thanks for always being there to help Heather and help with Lucas. Y’alls love and support has been one of the best weapons I’ve had.
MH & Lucas, how do I even begin to say thanks. MH, you rock. You have always been my strength and shoulder to lean on when I got down about my training. You have made it to pretty much all my races and cheered me on thru each one. I love you more than you will ever know. Thank you for being you! Lucas, thanks for making my day with that smile you have. Whether I was picking you up from school or walking in that front door at home, seeing you smile and starting crawling towards me has made everything awesome. As I said earlier, you are one of the big reasons I’m doing this. I want you to always be able to look back and know that “you can!”

Ok, now I’ll stop rambling. Y’all have an awesome week. I’ll try and touch base one last time before Saturday. Everyone stay safe and War Damn Eagle!

Eric’s Quote of the Day: “I Can”

See ya September

So, this month flew by. Life’s been busy this past month. Lucas turned 1, lots of training, busy at work, a bit more training, Auburn football (WDE)…not much time to just sit and relax let alone get an update put up on the blog. Where to begin?

Lucas rocks. It’s the easiest way to put it. I never thought that something could bring a smile to my face like he does. Everyday, I can’t wait to get home and see him and MH. He is starting at a new school on Monday. Say a prayer for the teachers…he’s been with grandparents for the past three weeks, and they did what great grandparent do…spoiled him rotten.

Here’s my little dude chillin in the cool car buggy at publix

Work has been going great. Getting to work on some cool and different projects from what I’m used to. I’m hoping that this is putting me on course to be a direct employee with Southern Company and not a leased worker soon. MH is still loving Alacare…who wouldn’t when you get to pimp around town in a sweet A PT cruiser.

Training has been pretty good this month. Running is starting to catch up a little bit with biking and swimming. I haven’t been able to get as much volume in on the bike or run as I have wanted/needed to, but some things are more important…see above. We have reached the 5 week mark for IMFL. It’s easy for me to get nervous. I’ve started trying to gather the items that I still need to make it through this race. A new wetsuit is still on the agenda. I reserved a set of race wheels for that entire week (Zipp 808’s). They pretty much rock. I got a new saddle too. It's lighter than the one that came with my bike and a little firmer. What better way to break it in than a sold 100 miler yesterday. This weekend helped a ton. I got in a solid century ride and worked on my nutrition on the bike. No GI issues on the bike or on a short run off the bike. I was a little sore towards the end of the ride, but that is to be expected (or at least that is what I’m telling myself). Just a couple more weeks of intense training and then I’ll dial it back a notch for my taper. For those of you planning on coming down for the race…thank you! It’s going to be seeing ya’ll on the course that keeps me focused and keeps the “icants” at bay. For those of you that aren’t/can’t make it down, I’ll have a like up here to the IM athlete tracker. I’ll also send out an email with my phone if you want MH to text you updates or you can follow her on twitter. I’m sure I’ll talk more about the race as these next few weeks go by…thanks for listening.

Eric’s Quote of the Day: “A river cuts through rock not because of its power but because of its persistence” ~James Watkins

Callaway Gardens Race Report

Let me start off by saying that this entire weekend was crazy! Headed to Auburn Friday afternoon to mark off the tailgate spot and hit up the bookstores to get Lucas and me some new gameday garb. Then we headed over to Columbus where we all stayed with Keith & Mo for the weekend. Saturday morning I got to AU around 745 and got everything setup at the tailgate. Then tried to take it easy throughout the day. We watched the first half of the ball game (WDE!) and then headed back to Columbus so I could try and get a good night’s sleep before the race. Ending up not really happening. I didn’t get in bed until about 11:30 that night and head my alarm set for 4:30. I finished up the race and then headed to Atlanta Motor Speedway to watch the race Sunday night from the pit box (thanks Farley!). It was a very busy and tiring weekend. Everything was awesome…now onto the race report.

Pre-Race
Woke up around 430 and had a two waffles with PB & honey. After a quick shower, I got dressed and hit the road. Callaway Gardens was only about 30-45 mins up the road from Keith and Mo’s house. I went to where the info card said packet pick-up was. Turns out it was wrong. So after driving around for 10-15 minutes, I finally got to the registration tent. I stepped out of the car and whew! It was freakin cold out. The temp in the car said mid 50’s. I forgot what this was like. Need to be sure and have a long sleeve shirt for mornings like this. I headed over to transition which was a bit of a cluster. It is done by first come first served for spots. I got a spot on a rack as close to the bike out as I could so that I wouldn’t have to run far in my bike shoes. I got all set up and went back to the car to sit and warm up a little. Around 715 I headed down to the water to get a little warm-up swim in. Just got in a short 10 minute swim and headed over to the mandatory meeting on the beach. It was a little chilly out of the water. It was going to be even colder on the bike. The race was going to start in 5 waves 3 mins apart. The clydes were in the last wave with orange caps. We all hung in the water as other waves started. As the 4th group went we all made our way to the start buoy and waited. The director counted us down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…go

The Swim-1500m (Pretty sure that this swim course wasn’t 1500m seeing as though my swim time at the same distance at Chatty was 27:15. Probably closer to 1000m)
I started out a little fast. It took me the first 3-5 minutes to get my breathing under control and find a rhythm. Once I had my breathing down, I was able to focus on sighting and picking people off. This was probably the straightest that I have ever swam in open water. With each breath, I could see the orange swim caps falling back. Then I see some blue ones fall back followed by some grey ones. I felt really good in the water. After the last turn, I started to dig harder. I had to pull up a couple of times to find a way around people doing the back stroke and treading water. I got about 10yds from the shore and stood up and run my way to transition…(Swim Rank 12/23; Swim Time 16:17)

T1
Quick run to transition. I got to wave at MH and Jackson my nephew on the way up. Transition area was fairly large and unorganized. I got to my rack and got on my bike gear; took a swig of water; and headed out on the bike course… (I was pleased with my T1 time of 2:01)

The Bike-30k
I jumped on my bike and started hammering away. My bike cpu wasn’t working today so it was going to be different having to go on “feel” the entire ride. It was pretty cold with the wind hitting you. I figured the quickest way to warm up would be to start pushing hard. I passed a bunch of people before we got into the woods. The course was a double loop through Callaway Gardens. There weren’t any marshalls out on the course so it was up to each triathlete to police themselves. Seemed a bunch of folks didn’t know to stay right and pass on the left. You ended up just having to weave your way through the groups. The bike course was fun. The only bad part was that it wasn’t closed to traffic so cars would be creeping along and you’d have to pass them too. One guy got hit by a car closer to transition. I’m assuming he is OK. We never heard one way or the other. I finished up the first loop at just over 30mins. My goal was to negative slit this ride. I kicked it another gear and started the second loop. About 5 mins in I ate half of a clif bar and washed it down with some water. I kept on pedaling along and played leap frog with one dude for just about the entire second loop. About a quarter mile out, I slid my feet out of my shoes and spun to the dismount “area” and ran on into transition…(Bike Rank 8/23, Bike Time 59:20)

T2
The bike in area was at the opposite end from where my rack was. There were a couple of rock medians I had to cross so rather than roll my bike I just lifted it up and carried it as I ran to my spot. Once I found a spot for my bike, I dropped my helmet and reached for my socks and shoes. I got 1 sock and shoe on and reached for my other sock to find that it wasn’t there. I looked for a couple of secs and said screw it and slid on my shoe, grabbed my hat and headed out of transition to the run…(Happy with this time too T2 time 2:02 but it could have been better if I hadn’t looked for that sock)

The run-8k
Legs didn’t feel to bad off the bike. I started out slow. I walked for a little just to try and get my HR under control. Around mile 1 I was still feeling good. I hit the first water stop and took some Gatorade that was mixed waaaaaayyy too strong. All I wanted to do was make it to the next water stop to rinse my mouth out. The run was mostly flat. The first 2 miles went uphill, but it was down the rest of the way. A few folds passed me at first. Then on the way back down the hill, I told myself that I was going to run it all the way back in. I didn’t even stop at the water stops. I’d grab a cup of water and take in a little, splash my face with some and then toss the cup. I was determined to have a decent run. The last couple of miles seemed to take forever. I paced myself with another guy in front of me until we hit the final half mile. I started kicking a little harder. We break out of the woods and down a hill to the finish line. I push a little harder and cross the finish line. I check my watch and see my run time of 47:32 (Rank 14/23 Pace 9:31). I was pretty pumped about my run and the race overall.

Overall Results: Total Time 2:07:13 10/23 in Division and 200/440 overall.

Post Race: I hit up the post race food and went to meet up with the fam. It was a gorgeous day. Overall the race was pretty good. It wasn’t a Team Magic caliber race, but it was good. Now just one more race, a Half Iron AquaBike in Myrtle Beach, until IMFL (60days!!)

Eric’s Clip of the Week: This is video of one of Carl Edwards pit stops Sunday night. I was in the pits up in the pit box watching the race with the crew chief and Carl’s mom among other people. It’s totally the way to watch a race.