High on Tri

Token 2010 Post

2010-12-21T14:22:00.000-08:00

Well 2010 wasn't the best year for keeping up with the blog apparently...Had to put up one post to at least claim that I blogged in 2010.

It wasn't the best year as far as training and racing are concerned. Numbers were way down for the year. Mainly due to burnout from '09. Two 1/2 IM's spaced out like they were wasn't the brightest idea. New Orleans 1/2 was April '09 which meant I started training in February. Then Ironstar 1/2 was in November which meant I trained through the summer for shorter stuff then did focused training from September thru the end of October. It did result in my lowest weight since high school. I was down to 197 the weekend after Ironstar. Then it all went down hill.

Basically was off my bike from November '09 thru March of this year. Ended up putting on about 15 pounds back to 212. Pretty much stayed in the 208-214 range all of 2010. That plus the burnout from '09 contributed to a less than stellar year. Mileages for this year were as follows:

Swim - 39 miles (99 in '09)
Bike - 1,885 miles (2,625 in '09)
Run - 295 miles (570 in '09)

One thing I did learn this year is that having a good base to start from goes a long way. Race times from this year to last year didn't really go down too much even though there was considerably much less training going on. Where I used to have to work my butt off and train for weeks to run a 25 min 5k, this year on practically no training I could easily run a 25 min 5k. Not impressive to say the least, but a vast improvment over years past.

Only did a handful of races this year and actually stacked them all at the end of the year. Ended up doing Heatwave in June as my first race of the year. Then did Meat Pie at the end of September followed by UL Tri, the last race in the Forge Trail Series and then the Big Cajun Tri to end the season in October. Those last 4 races were done in 5 weeks. Additionally, I raced in the entire Forge Trail Race Series, which was a 4 race series (4 mile trail runs) on the local "mountain" bike trails. Not many big hills in Baton Rouge. Just as an indicator of my lack of training, my times in the series actually got worse in each race ff the year. Not one of my proudest accomplishments...I did win my age group at the UL Tri. Super sprint of 200 yd, 10 mile, 2 mile. "Pick a race small enough and you may be able to win" is my new motto.

So, where do we go from here?? Hopefully forward. Have been mountain biking weekly since the end of tri season and thinking of doing some mt bike racing this year in lieu of tri's. Will still do one or two, but nothing too long. Then maybe a 1/2 Im in 2012. We'll see...

2009 Reindeer Run

2009-12-07T09:42:00.001-08:00

Wasn't the most enjoyable Reindeer Run ever, but at least I went. Ran a 23:50 in the sleet, rain and 36 degree weather. A lot slower than last year (2:25 slower), but considering my lack of running this year and the weather, it wasn't all that bad. Detailed report and pictures once results are up.

Down Time

2009-11-30T14:27:00.000-08:00

It feels good to have some down time every once in a while, but I am starting to feel guilty about having no workout results. Looks like my goals for volume for the year will only be met in 1 of the 3 sports, but at this point who cares. Not too motivated to ride 100 miles a week for the next 4 weeks just so I can say I went 3,000 miles on the year. If it happens, then great, but I seriously doubt it. My birthday was Wednesday, Thanksgiving was Thursday and then I went fishing for 2 days with my daughter, dad and brother. So needless to say, I had zero miles of running and biking last week. One swim held down the training record for the entire week.

After thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, we went fishing at the camp in Venice. Emi, my dad, my brother and I headed down around 2:30 pm. Got to the landing around 5:15, met dad's buddy Tony in his boat and headed 16 miles down the Mississippi River to the camp just after dark around 6 pm. Got unloaded and ate some more turkey for dinner. Hit the hay around 9 pm.

Up early and down to the end of the Mississippi River at South Pass on a cool crisp morning. Got set up and the first 45 minutes produced 29 trout.

Emi and me with a nice trout to start the morning.

After the first 29, they just shut off. From 8:30 until about 12, we only put about 10 more in the boat. we then took a break and made some sandwiches for lunch. Emi had been eating all morning, but she put away her sandwich in a matter of minutes. We moved down the beach a little bit and proceeded to find the bite again. We put another 25 in the boat in about 30 minutes. Emi even caught 8-10 trout by herself. Paw paw would cast it way out there, she would set the hook, crank them in and paw paw would net them. It was awesome watching her have so much fun. She even got to reel in a redfish in the midst of all that.

Emi and her redfish.

Moved again and finished off our 3 man (2 men and a little girl) limit of 75 trout. Final count for the day was 75 speckled trout, 7 white trout and 2 redfish. My brother and Tony in his boat added 40 specs and 9 redfish. Total for the day was 133 fish. That translates to a ton of fun.

Our box.

Their box.

Got back to the camp and got cleaned up. Built Emi a fire in the yard and started dinner, which was ribeyes. After dinner, we ate some fresh baked chocolate chip cookies from the oven. Hit the sack early at around 8:30. Not a lot to do at the camp after dark. No TV or internet 16 miles down the river. Got up early again Saturday to do it again. Conditions were even better, but it wasn't meant to be. Managed around 30 speckled trout, 5 white trout and 5 redfish. All in all, a great fishing trip. Especially since Emi caught some fish. Can't wait to bring her back again next year. Hopefully, a few times with her and Austin.

Emi driving the boat on the way past the South Pass light tower.

Emi with the biggest trout of the day Saturday that she caught all by herself.

Emi and the birds. Paw Paw let her feed them bread.

Saturday's catch.

Did get in a good 5 mile run today at lunch at an 8:08 pace, which felt suprisingly easy. All may not be lost. Doing the Reindeer Run 5k on Friday. That run today gives me hope that I can at least put down a respectable time. Maybe even a sub 24. We'll see. Won't come anywhere near my PR from last year in this race (21:25).

Pool is Fixed

2009-11-13T18:28:00.001-08:00

Finally, the day has come. The Y got their act together and got the pool fixed for good, hopefully. Got up at 5ish and headed to the Y. Only soul there to swim. Air temp was around 45 and water temp was around 82-84. I can't stand it when I get in the pool in the winter and it feels hot. If you don't feel a little chill when you first get in, then it is definitely too warm. Couldn't shed any heat during the swim, so it got hot quick. Put in a medium effort for the 2,000 yards. Workout was the following:

300 warm-up
5x200 on 3:40
4x50 on :55
1x300 on 5:45
300 cool down

Finished somewhere around 38:30, can't remember exactly. Came home and got the kids ready for school after getting the wife a cinnamon dolce latte from FourBucks. If a coffee has three words in the name, then it ain't coffee. Then $3.72 for a "tall" (small in common sense descriptions of size) is freakin' ridiculous.

Had to go to a meeting in St. Francisville, so I got to go play golf at The Bluffs. A couple of weeks ago at a golf tournament up there, I won the grand prize drawing for a six month membership. Today was my first round and the start of the 6 months. It was great. Quiet and relaxing to play by yourself with hardly anyone around. Shot a 99, which isn't bad considering I have only played 3-4 times a year for the last 3 years. I only have time for one hobby and triathlon is it. Was glad to get out and hit the old sticks again though. It is nice to be away from the hustle and bustle for a while. Just me, my thoughts and screaming at myself for all of the bad shots. Hopefully, I can get some of my old stroke back from when I used to play at least once a month before the kids came along. Would like to get back into the high 80's/low 90's on a regular basis. Feels so good when you get in a groove, kind of like when you are swimming or biking and just get that feeling that everything is going right.

No Workout Again

2009-11-12T11:03:00.000-08:00

The freakin' YMCA is killing me. The pool that I normally swim in was shut down for like a month because the heaters were broken. So I had to swim at another Y that had an indoor pool, but it was 23.5 yd long. Made it fun calculating splits...Anyway my regular Y finally fixed the heaters last week. I was going to finally go train after my 3 days off from Ironstar. Just called them to make sure the pool was open. "Sorry sir, there was a gas leak and Entergy hasn't made it out to fix it yet. The pool is currently closed." Freakin' Y, that pool is closed more than it is open. I wish Baton Rouge had some public pools like other big cities. No I remember, we screwed that up way back with the whole segregation thing. Bunch of morons.

Day 4 of no training down in the books. 17 more days and this becomes a habit...

Ironstar Half Iron Race Report

2009-11-11T14:40:00.000-08:00

Nobody reads this anymore since I haven't posted since the beginning of time, but I am going to try to bring it back. No promises, but we will see.

Once again, I decided to do this late season 1/2 to keep my training going late into the year. It was a good plan if only it had worked. My bike and swim training stayed fairly consistent, but my run training has been down all year including in the run up to the race.
My wife decided to go this year, so that I would have someone to cheer for me this year. Last year I drove up by my lonesome, stayed with a friend, did the race and drove home. Made for a long two days. We stayed at the Ramada Inn in Conroe, which was 30 minutes from the race site. We drove to the race site and picked up my packet and then headed to the hotel to watch the LSU game. So after that disappointment, we headed to dinner at Pandera Bread. Wish we had one in Baton Rouge. Ate a good dinner, got everything ready and hit the pillow early.

Got up just before 5 am, loaded up and headed to the race site. Got there around 6 am, got set-up in transition, hit the port-o-let and it was time to walk to the beach for the start. Got in a little 200 m warm-up after getting the suit on. They had women 30-34 and athena as the first wave, which was kind of different. Men 30-39 and clydes were in the second wave. It was a running beach start. Didn't go too crazy on the run, dove in and started the swim. Got punched and swam into a couple of times at the start as the first part of the swim was in a little marina cove for the resort which was fairly tight for 75 to 80 swimmers. After getting out of the cove, it opened up into the main part of Lake Conroe. There was a light chop that was in our face for the first few hundred meters as we were headed out. Not that big of a deal, but altered my stroke just a little. The swim was point to point and the middle portion was with the chop so stroke got a little better. About midway through, I came upon a big pack (12-15) of ladies from the prior wave. Picked a poor line and it took me a while to get through them. After that, it was clear sailing to the swim exit. Swim took 37:41 which was a little slower than I anticipated, but decent enough and better than last year. Some have said it was long, but who ever knows when it is open water. The wetsuit strippers were very close to the exit, so it was a rush to get the top down and then jump on the ground to have them pull it off.

Transition was in a grass field, so it made the run over easy. However, they had just cut the grass so I got grass all over my feet. Had to wipe some of it off before getting my shoes on so that wasted 15 seconds. I may not swim, bike or run that fast, but I pride myself on transitions. Fairly quick T1 considering the grass.

The bike is fairly hilly. Just about like St. Francisville, but there aren't really any flat portions. It is all up and down, but nothing too big. Plan was to keep the HR in the low to mid 150's for the first 35-40 and then pick it up at the end. Had a tough time on the uphills keeping it that low, but for the most part it stayed low enough. Knew it wouldn't be fast, but wanted to pace myself for the run. Looking back, I should have just freakin' hammered it since I had no run fitness anyway. After mile 40 it was mostly downhill so I was able to let it fly and pick up some time. Dropped my chain about mile 35 at the bottom of a hill and had to grind up. The bike course for the most part is out in the country. The leaves were changing colors and it was a very nice ride. Rode into T2 just a few minutes past were I wanted to be. After a 0:48 T2, at least I'm fast at something, I was out on the run at 3:44. All I had to do was average 10 min miles and I had my sub-6.

Wasn't meant to be. The first 4 miles were fairly flat, with just a few rollers thrown in. It was uphill on the way out, but not that steep. Felt good for the first 5. There was a loop that had to be run twice starting at about mile 4.5. The loop had two fairly steep hills, at least for my flat course running self. The end of the second loop and the first portion of the way back to the finish was between mile 8 and 9. I had held about 10 min miles up until about mile 8 even with walking the aid stations. However, the hills between 8 and 9 killed me. After that, it turned into a death march. Run as much as possible (2-3 min) and then walk for a minute. Wasn't helping. Got to mile 10 and had 29 minutes left to the 6:00 mark. My mind was like, "Dude, you have run 22 minute 5k's, you've got this..." My body had different plans. Couldn't get it in gear. Ran the last 0.5 mile for pride and crossed in just under 6:09. Of course, Guillory and Primeaux had been finished for over an hour, so they were there to wave me in as was my lovely wife. Ended up second clyde, so I got my first and probably last hardware for a while. I don't plan to be over 200 for much longer and those AG guys are just too fast.

Brandon, Mark and the LSU guys all had great races. They all looked like they were flying the whole time and they were. Haven't been running more than 12-15 miles per week all year, and that killed my run. Going to make that a priority in the off season. This race is a great venue and is very low key. The race is at a resort which makes it nice for the spectators. Plenty of restaurants and nice grounds to hang out. My wife says it was the best spectating experience she has had. I don't like huge races, and with only around 300 racers this is perfect. May be back next year, we'll see.

Week in Review

2009-08-16T20:04:00.000-07:00

Monday: 2 mile recovery run at 6 am

Tuesday: 19.5 mile "speed" workout on bike at 5:30 am. After warm-up, did my 13.5 mile loop in 21 mph. Cool down on the way home.

Wednesday: 2750 yard swim which was a struggle. Ran 4 miles with a one mile tempo thrown in at the end at 7:50 pace.

Thursday: Half recovery, half moderate ride with riding partner at 5:30 am. Went 19.5 miles. Then rode that afternoon with my wife around the 13.5 mile loop. Ran a 2 mile brick run with her after the ride. I locked our keys in the truck and had to ride home to get them, so got in another 3 mile ride.

Friday: Cut the grass

Saturday: 47 mile ride at 6 am. Did the first 15 solo and then picked up with the BR Tri crew and rode peleton for the next 20 miles. Finished the final 12 solo. Did a 2 mile brick run to finish it off.

Sunday: 800m open water swim in a friends 40m pond. Half training/half fun with the kids. Got in 8.35 miles of running at my parents house. First 2 was with my wife and remainder solo. Went 10:30 pace with the wife and finished it off with 9:00 pace for the remainder of the run.

This week is an easier run week, so going to try to concentrate on swimming and biking. hope to get to 115 miles on the bike this week. Training is focused on getting in enough base for concentrated effort on Ironstar. About 13 weeks out from Ironstar, but getting ready in about 5 weeks to go all out for it. Meat pie tri is in there about 7 weeks out. Have a challenge from a fellow BR Tri buddy, so trying to do some short fast stuff to kinda be ready for the pain of a sprint. We'll see how that works out. Main goal is to get to sub 6 at Ironstar.

Where have the miles gone?

2009-07-16T18:39:00.000-07:00

Won't bore you with the details of the past however long it has been since I posted. My two readers are probably long gone by now. Just been steadily working my way through the grind. Slowly increasing my run mileage back up and so far, no heel problems. Did speed work yesterday for the first time in at least 4 months and had no ill effects this morning. Heading out to do a 6 miler in the morning. Will be my longest run since New Orleans Half Ironman. Of course, I don't know if I actually ran 6 that day either...

Have really been enjoying my swimming. Not getting faster mind you, but still enjoying it. I have been trying to get out of the pool and get some more open water in. Did an open water a few weeks back with BR Tri. It was more like a beginners clinic, but they opened it up to whoever in the club wanted to come swim at a nice lake in BR. It was in the neighborhood of one of the members. It was exactly 800 m long, so it made it nice. I biked from my house, swam around 2400 m and then biked home. Made for a great training day. Then one morning, I went over to a friend's house. He has a small pond in his front yard that is 40 m long. It's not very long, but it beats swimming in the pool everyday. Especially with how hot the pool is these days.

This past Sunday morning, I got up early and met a group in St. Francisville. We went 50 miles in the hills. Need to do some more of that before my showdown with my buddy Jeff at Meat Pie. This is his second year of tri and my third. I beat him consistently by a minute or two and he is getting kind of sick of it. It used to be that I would get him in transition time, but he has recently gotten better at the fourth tri discipline. So Meat Pie in September is going to be the showdown. Need to keep the pressure on. Got up this morning and biked from the house for 37 miles. Left the house at 4:40 am and it was pitch black. My headlight decided to go out (batteries) about 5 miles in. Was really fun after that until the sun came up. Had to get in a long bike before the weekend because I am going fishing off the coast for the weekend. Couldn't miss a long bike ride, so had to at least get close to 40 in even if it isn't my normal 50 to 60. Going to be swimming and running in the morning.

Hot Ride

2009-06-24T20:21:00.001-07:00

Can it freakin get any hotter? Rode yesterday afternoon at 6:15. Temp was 98 and heat index was 104, brutal! Got in 20 miles at around 19.5. Did some intervals in the middle with an average just over 20 for the middle 13.5. Swam and ran this morning. Water was in the upper 80's and the run was miserable. Tell me again why I do this crap in the middle of the summer. Hopefully, I can lose this 10 pounds I have gained since November. My weight is headed in the wrong direction. Going to go for a short 45 minute ride in the morning and then swim/run on Friday.

Heatwave Race Report

2009-06-13T20:49:00.000-07:00

Pre-Race:

Convinced my buddy Luke to give in and do the race, so we rode up together. He has friends who live about 20 minutes from the race, so we went to their place after packet pick-up. They cooked ribeyes, pasta, and grilled vegetables for dinner. Not sure that ribeye is the best pre-race meal, but it was delicious. Watched the end of the LSU baseball game and hit the hay around 10:30 pm. Sleep comes easy, so pre-race jitters aren't a problem for me. Was out in a few minutes and slept till my alarm went off at 5:10 am.

Got dressed and got our stuff loaded up. Had a bowl of runny oatmeal since I added too much milk and didn't have time to cook it off. Hit the door since we were running a little late. Race start was 7 am. Made it to the parking lot at 6:30. Hurried up and got set up, since we were literally the last people to arrive. Was in the first wave, so quickly got my chip and got in a quick warm-up in the water. Got around the middle of the pack and got ready for the start. Weather was awesome with a race time start temp of 60. About 10 degrees below normal for this time of year.

Swim (800 m):

Swim was supposed to be 800 m, but turned out to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 900 to 950. Last year's race was short, with the fastest swimmers out in about 9 min. This year's fastest time was around 12:30. Pretty uneventful swim except for getting swam over once and swimming over two guys myself. Also took a little detour between the two buoys that were out at the farthest point out on the swim. Swim was U shaped and for some reason, I went way wide on the part between the two legs of the U. Came out of the water at 18:59, which was 6th in Clydesdales.

I am in there somewhere...

T1:

Fairly smooth, but a little long for me. Time was 1:29, which could have been due to the fact that I was way at the end right up next to the fence due to the fact that we were late to set-up.

Bike(24.8 miles):

Bike was nice with it being on the Natchez Trace. No wind to speak of with rolling hills. Tried to keep my hear trate down, but it just wasn't meant to be. Couldn't get it below 160-162 the entire ride. It was up in the 170 range for a good portion. They had three large packs of 15-20 drafting peletons. Stayed out of them and made sure to ride a clean race. Tailed another BRTri member about 200yd back for the entire race. I would get closer on the uphills and he would lengthen his lead on the downhills. Finally took him with about 2 miles to go. He passed me in the first mile on the run though. Ended up biking 19.7 based on the official length of the race with my time. Bike computer had 19.5 since the course was a few tenths short. Hit T2 with a bike time of 1:15:31.

I'll let you decide if there was drafting or not...

T2:

Back down to my spot by the fence at the end of the row. Time of 1:18 which was disappointing. Anything over 1 min in T2 is unacceptable. Did put on socks though since I haven't been running and knew that my feet would not hold up on the 10k. Even with socks though, I can usually make it out in under 1 min.

Run(6.2 miles):

Settled in for a long run and was just hoping to come in under 1 hour. My run training since N.O. Half has totaled 24 miles. That is 8 weeks at a 3 mile average per week. Needless to say, I didn't expect much from my run. Run was nice, with only the first and last miles being in the sun. The middle 4 were on an asphalt running trail through the woods. Run was a little hilly. From around mile 2 to the turn-around was all uphill. Made it nice on the way down though. Got to see lots of BRTri folk and give some high fives. Beating another BRTri member, Jeff Crow, kept me going even though I didn't feel like it. With about 0.5 mile to go, Stephen Hollinger passed me and let me know that Jeff was gaining. Had just enough kick to keep him at bay and beat him by about 40 seconds. Run time was 58:27 for a 9:35 average. Not good, but not terrible for the lack of run training I have done. 2:35:42 which was good enough for 12th in Clydesdales out of 35. Missed my goal of top 50% though, but this race field is always fast.

View of my rear. I am the one in the middle with no shirt on.

My nemesis, Jeff (left), and Stephen.

It is something about the "Olympic" (swim wasn't Olympic distance) distance that brings out the fast people. Don't really know why. Always finish top 50% in sprints and both halfs I have done. However, haven't been close in the two Olympics I've done. Maybe it is too long for the beginner types, but not the allure of a big accomplishment to beginners as the Half distance. I know this, all you beginners need to put Olympic distance races on your calendars so I can finish top 50%...

Heatwave is a great race and one I will certainly do again. Also, Deanna Favre was out there racing and I missed it. Don't know if Brett was out in disguise on the course, but if so, then I missed it. Didn't realize until after the race that a Hall of Famer's wife, who is a cancer survivor, was out on the course. Bet she has the best bike and some nice gear though.

Century (Metric) Ride

2009-05-27T19:02:00.000-07:00

Did a Metric Century on Monday in the hills of St. Francisville. Wanted to do the full century, but with it being a holiday and all, I couldn't convince my significant other to watch the kids for 5.5 hours without me. The metric ended up being 65 miles due to some re-routes because of some construction.

The ride started out nasty as miles 5 - 15 were ridden in a steady downpour. Riding 6 inches from some one's tire in a paceline at 23-25 mph in the driving rain is not the most fun thing in the world. However, it does make you focus just a little bit more than normal. Stayed with the pack through the first 45 minutes and then about 6 of us broke off the front until we got to the first SAG stop. Re-fueled and then took off again with the 6 off the front. Got to the second SAG at mile 37 and we were down to 4, but we picked up 4 more who were bailing on the century. Well, 5 of them take off without too much notice and three of us are left to try to pick up with them. We three took turns pulling a mile at a time and finally caught the lead pack right at SAG stop number 3. Well, I pull in to get some food and I hear them say they are stopping and they are going to keep going. Great, they pull out and I am stuck trying to catch up. Takes about a mile, but I catch up to the 5 of them (we lost 2 somewhere along the way, can't quite remember how or when, maybe when the three of us were catching up). We set up in a paceline with everyone taking about 3 minutes. We are averaging 21-22 on the flats, 14-16 up the hills and 25-27 on the downhills. We make it to SAG 4 at mile 50 and I am about dead.

After SAG 4, where they finally let us stop for more than two minutes, I don't take any more pulls. Me and a lady from New Orleans just ride the back and let the other 4 pull. Without the group, I surely would have died somewhere in between miles 50 and 65. Just didn't have the legs for it. However, in the paceline it wasn't so bad. Almost lost them a couple of times, but each time I pulled out just enough to hang on up the hills. All in all a good ride. I think we averaged around 19 for the 65, which in the hills of St. Franny is respectable, at least for me anyway. Especially after putting in 50 miles two days before on Saturday.

Doing a brick in the morning to kind of see where I stand for Heatwave. It ain't going to be pretty that is for sure. With my run mileage hanging around 5-6 miles per week, the race next weekend is going to be brutal. Maybe I can pull a rabbit out of my hat...See you at the race Tri-James.

Don't Call it a Comeback

2009-05-17T19:11:00.000-07:00

After 4 weeks of taking it easy after New Orleans Half IM, I finally hit a "decent" week of training. I have still been staying off the feet by not running, except for the one 5k two weeks ago and the 3 mile run I did this week. I actually got in a consistent week.

Monday and Tuesday I slouched and skipped my swim and bike. However, I got back in the groove on Wednesday. Got in 1750 in the pool and then went for a three mile run. Heel didn't hurt too bad the next day, so I may try to run some more this week. Thinking of getting the "boot" to wear at night to try and beat the plantar fasciitis. Thursday was supposed to be bike, but some BR Tri buddies wanted to ride on Friday. So, I got back in the pool on Thursday and wimped out after 2100. Friday am was a 31 mile bike ride with 4 other peeps. Good ride, couple of pick-ups, but it was very humid and miserable. Saturday was a "rest" day. Took the kids to see Mike the Tiger, to play at the Louisiana Arts and Science Museum in downtown BR and then to the BR Zoo for the Keypoint Credit Union member party. Came home around 2 and we all crashed for a 2 hour nap. Went out early this morning since it was supposed to rain and put in an hour of riding before I met some of the BR Tri crew for some paceline stuff. Ended up riding 56 miles for the morning.

Hopefully, I can continue the training the next couple of weeks. Signed up for the Heatwave Classic, which is almost an Olympic distance taking place on June 6. Bike and run is Olympic, but the swim is only 0.5 mile instead of 0.9 miles. Looking forward to it, if I can get some run miles in. Going to be a miserable run if not.

Race Report Continued (Finally)

2009-05-09T06:29:00.000-07:00

Race Day:

Got up around 5 so we could head over around 5:30 to transition. My ride was late and we end up not getting to transition until 6:15. My wave is the third wave, so this is going to be a rush job. Organize my stuff real quick and start heading over to the swim start. Had to walk the mile to the start because the line for the bus was way too long and I knew I would never make it on time. Ended up jogging the last 1/4 mile. Got in the port-o-potty line at 6:45 and my start was at 7:12. Did my business and heard them sending off the second pro wave (women). The physically challenged athletes were next, then my wave. Got my chip and started to put on my wetsuit. Got to the start line just as they are sending my wave into the water, not how I wanted to start my day. Then I can't get my wetsuit zipped because of the tri top that I had to wear because of the nipple rule. Had to ask a volunteer near the start to zip it up. Get my goggles on and get wet and then they send us off.

Swim:

Ran what seemed like the first 150 m until it finally got too deep. Let the fast swimmers get out ahead and then settled into a groove. Swam near this one guy for what seemed like the whole race. Drafted off him a few times, but he wasn't quite fast enough to stay ahead off me when I was in his draft. I would pull beside him, but could never leave him behind. Got out of the water and my watch gad around 37 minutes. Let them strip off my wetsuit and got to transition. Official swim time was 38:40, which includes the trek up to transition.

T1:

My bike was on the opposite end of transition from the swim. Had to run what seemed like a 5k across the parking lot that was transition. My feet were getting hammered by little rocks. Finally got to my bike, got ready and headed out. T1 was 3:09, but that was due to the long run across the lot with no shoes.

Bike:

Nothing eventful except for slight quartering tailwind on the way out and large headwind on the way back in. I checked the wind report the day after and confirmed. We had a 7-8 mph quartering tailwind for about the first 1/3 of the race and then the last 1/3 had a 16-18 mph headwind. The middle third was a combination of the 16-18 mph as tailwind and headwind. Needless to say, the last 1/3 sucked. Going into a 16-18 mph wind on the last 16 miles was not fun at all. Tried to keep my heart rate down in the 150 range, but couldn't manage it on the headwind portion. Finished the bike in 2:58:34. 18.8 mph average which is right below the 19 I was hoping for. Think I could have done it without the headwind. Hit T1 with a heel that was already hurting from the bike. Got off the bike and immediately knew my heel was not going to hold up.

T2:

Now I had to run the 5k back across the parking lot to get to the run exit. At least this time I had shoes on. Still took me 3:12 though. The wife was waiting on me at the exit and I told her it was going to be a long run with my heel.

Run:

Made it to about mile 1.5 before I had to stop because of the heel pain. That was the story of the run. My heel combined with my fatigue made it a fight. Did a combination of walk run the entire time. Not much to say except that people passed me by the hundreds. After that first 1.5 I only ran one other section from aid station to aid station and that was mile 6-7.5. After that I was screwed. Resorted to running 10 minutes and walking 2 minutes. That got me about a mile each time. Was never so happy to see a finish line. The number of people was amazing and the finish was electric. Wish I just would have felt happy coming down the chute about my race. Ended up with a 2:34:26, which blows. 11:47 average sucks for the training that I did. Even though I only ran like 10 miles a week the last 4 weeks due to my heel, I should have been able to run sub 10 min miles. Race total was 6:18. No goals met except for my "C" goal of finishing. Had so much promise to start. Came out of T2 in 3:43 total for the day to that point. With a 2:02 half mary I had my "A" goal. With a 2:17 I had my "B" goal. Sucks the feeling right out of you as you realize you will not make it.

All in all, despite my heel and run issues, it was a great first race for New Orleans. At this point, I don't think I am going to do it next year, as the price is a little steep. May just volunteer and go do lonestar in Galveston. About $50 cheaper and way less people. We'll see.

N.O. Half Iron Race Report

2009-04-13T18:46:00.000-07:00

I better write this before I forget everything. Not that there is much to remember except for my sucky run, more on that later. Total finish time was 6:18, same time as my first half iron. That first half iron, I had a flat and wasted 16 minutes on two stops to change it. So needless to say my time was worse.

Pre-Race:

Went down Friday to do packet pick-up to avoid the crowd on Saturday. Took the kids to the New Orleans Zoo where we are members. The kids had a fun time, even if it was rushed so I could make it on time to the 5 pm race briefing.

After the zoo, we went down to the convention center and parked. Mel took the kids down to the aquarium, while I did a race warm-up by running to the Marriott. The website said if you were 2 minutes late to the briefing, then you would have to go to the next one.

Got there at 5 pm on the dot and the briefing was packed. Sat with a friend, Mulkey Way, who happened to miss the 4 pm session and was at the 5. She was 4 minutes late to the 4 pm! Typical pre-race stuff except for two things. First, he asked how many people in the room that this was there first triathlon ever. About 6-8 people stood up! Half Iron as your first race, braver than me. The second curve ball was the fact that WTC has a torso rule. In other words, you must were some type of top that covers your torso. Basically, it is a nipple rule. I hate wearing freakin' shirts in races. Only have done it twice and both times it was because the temp was in the 40's and I wore one for the bike only. I was not a happy camper. Got my stamp and then went and picked up the packet. Packet was sparse and just had the essentials. Found the wife and the kids, who had went to I-Max since the aquarium closed at 5 pm. Headed home to try to get a good dinner and a good nights rest. Neither happened. Got to bed late and woke up the next morning at 5:30 and couldn't go back to sleep.

Hung out with the kids for the morning on Saturday and then dropped them off at my parents around lunch. Headed over to my buddy Jeremy's in-laws house to catch my ride to N.O. Mel was working, so she was coming down later.

Was going to try and do this report all at once, but life keeps getting in the way. Will finish later, but the later it gets the less I remember. May be a good thing for all you readers out there, both of you...

Race Week

2009-03-30T20:00:00.000-07:00

The week has finally come, N.O. 70.3 is upon us. I feel so ill prepared. My running has not come along with the heel issue and it has gotten only slightly better. Still hurts pretty bad after a long run or any kind of reasonably fast speed work. We'll see if it can hold up for 13.1 miles.

Last Wednesday we took a trip to New Orleans to swim the course. Forecast had thunderstorms and 25 mph winds, but we went anyway. The only saving grace was that the wind was out of the south. Got down there and it was perfect. The wind was blowing about 20, but since it was from the south the water just had a slight ripple. We ended up swimming 0.5 mile to the start and then swimming the 1.2 mile course. The water was actually too warm and my full sleeved wetsuit had me extremely warm. Every 5 minutes I would pull the neck down to let water in to cool me off. I could feel it coming out by my feet very warm. Ended up swimming around 38 minutes, which would be great come race day. Will be a little more crowded though, so I will be happy with 40 although not excited. Bad news is that some peeps from BR Tri went down Saturday and the wind was out of the north at about 20 mph and the waves were crashing to the top of the sea wall (3'-4'). A north wind or east wind will not be fun. The forecast for now has SW wind, which will be perfect for the swim.

Friday, I did my last longer brick before the race. Rode 40 miles in north Baton Rouge and then ran 5 miles. Went 19.2 on the bike and managed 8:50 pace on the run. That is not going to cut it for my goal. I need to hit around 19 on the bike and 9:00 pace on the run to have a chance at 5:45. The run is going to be the tough part...

Sunday, we loaded up Boggs' truck and 6 of us headed to Lake Charles for a quick "warm-up" race. It was a super short sprint of 500 meters/10 miles/2 miles. My buddy Jeremy was doing his first tri, which is the only reason I committed. The air temp was 40 at race time and the water temp was 66 due to the recent rain showers. Left my wetsuit at home so I wouldn't be tempted to swim in it. The swim was miserable and I only managed to go 9:11, which is only 1:50/100 m. Couldn't get my legs going on the bike and missed the 20 mph standard. Went 19.7. The one shining moment was my T2, 37 seconds. Second fastest T2 in the race. Executed the flying dismount perfectly, hustled in and racked my bike flawlessly, slipped on my shoes with my Yanks laces and hit the run course. Was happy with my run, especially considering my lack of speed work over the last 2 months. Managed 7:42's. Best of all, a fellow age grouper, Br Tri friend and caravan member got beat by my excellent transitions. We had the same swim time and run time, but he beat me on the bike by a full minute. However, my transitions were 2 minutes faster total. He passed me on the bike at mile 6, but I caught and passed him in T2 and never looked back. I knew he was lurking on the run, but I saved a little for the last 1/4 mile and kept him at bay. Got 5th in age group and 37 overall out of 119.

Doing low volume, speed work for this week. Swam 1,000 yds this afternoon and going to do a short 5k tomorrow at 8:00 pace. Going to swim another 1,000 yds on Wednesday with a short run and then bike about 15 miles on Thursday. Short run on Friday and then rest Saturday. Race day early on Sunday. Good luck to others doing the race and to my buddy from Houston doing the Lonestar 1/2 this weekend in Galveston. Wish they weren't the same weekend because I enjoyed Lonestar and was looking to do it again. Maybe next year.

Bricks 'R Us

2009-03-13T06:03:00.000-07:00

Finally got a freakin' run in. After not having run for another week straight, I finally got my feet on the pavement yesterday. Went for my normal Thursday morning bike ride, but decided to start a little earlier so I could do a run after. With the time change, it was dark for the entire workout.

Started out with a 15 mile ride on my normal route. It was pretty windy, so I only averaged around 19.5 for the ride. I hate freakin' cross winds. Give me a headwind and tailwind any day over a cross wind. Felt like I was fighting the wind the whole ride. At least with a headwind, there is a point where you know you'll get a tailwind. Got off the bike and transitioned right into the run. I try to keep it under 3 minutes so that it is truly race conditions (No, I don't take 3 minutes for transitions in a race, matter of fact, my T2 times are normally under a minute so shut up).

Wanted to run for 30 minutes. Went out fairly easy to make sure the heel was feeling good. Picked it up on the way back in. Negative split the run by 5 seconds, woohoo...Guess I wasn't taking it as easy on the way out as I thought. Ended up going 3.6 miles for a 8:30 pace. Pretty decent for me for an easy run after a bike. Probably could have been in the 7:45 range if it was actually a race. However, the heel is still not good. Had some light pain in it the rest of the day and it felt sore after sitting at my desk all day not moving it.

Going to try and run 8 to 9 miles today and see how it holds up. Don't want to go into the half iron only having run a 10 miler 2 months before the race. If it doesn't do well, then I am going to just have to run a bunch of short runs for the next 3 weeks leading up to the race. That will make my race goal be very tough to meet. I need to be able to go sub 9 minute pace on the half marathon to have a shot at my "A" goal.

Jinxed

2009-03-10T13:20:00.000-07:00

Of course as soon as I say something about making all my workouts last week, I miss the rest of them. Ended up skipping my run Friday, never had a chance to make it up on Saturday and Sunday was shot.

Saturday afternoon, we took the kids to see the LSU women's gymnastics meet. Emilie loved it, Austin loved it for the 30 seconds he sat still. After that it was a fight with him until I finally took him outside to see Mike the Tiger. Mike was swimming in his pond and running around the cage, so that occupied Austin until we left for St. Francisville. We went to spend the night at my grandparents house on Lake Rosemound and spend the next day up there. I was volunteering for a road (term used loosely) race called Rouge Roubaix on Sunday.

It is a 100 mile road race across some of the worst roads in St. Francisville and up into Mississippi. About 25-27 miles of it is on gravel roads up huge hills (huge for this area of the world). 35 mph descents on gravel ain't no joke. I rode wingman in the lead vehicle for the "B" race which was cat 4 and masters riders. It is a race modeled after the 160 mile race from Paris to Roubaix over in France. There was a reporter and photographer from the NY Times and there story can be found at Roubaix story. A short video of the race can be found here. I'm glad I was in the truck and not on my bike. I would consider doing it one year, but not now. I'll stick to the leisurely bike club century rides on paved roads.

After the race, I headed back up to the lake to enjoy the afternoon. Played with the kids until their nap time. Got them down for a nap and went on a short bike ride with my wife. Her first time back on the bike since last year. We went 10 miles at 13 mph through some decent hills. After she went back to the house, I did an up and down twice on a large 0.75 mile hill right by the lake. It is only about a 5% grade, but it stretched the quads. Spent the remainder of the afternoon fishing with the kids and then I took a swim in my new wetsuit.

The wetsuit was great. A little restrictive feeling on the breathing, but I figured that would be the case the first time I wore it. It won't be a big deal once I swim in it a few more times. Kept it short since the lake has all these rules about staying 25 yards from your pier. So I made my mom and kids follow me in the boat for a 150 yds out and back for a total of 300 yds. It kept me warm and semi dry. Neck is a little big, so I got some water in it, but not enough to worry about. Figured out a big secret though, make sure to pee before you put it on. As soon as I was ready to get in the water, I had to pee. The wetsuit is not conducive to peeing, so I had to hold it until I got out. Made a mental note to pee 10 times before I put it on for the Half Ironman. Just what I need, a pee filled wetsuit for 1.2 miles...Swam at the Y and lifted weights on Monday. Swam a 1800 yd straight swim with 200 warm-up and cool-down. Went easy because I was sharing a lane due to the obscene number of people in the pool. Every lane was full with at lest 3 or 4 lanes with doubles. Popular day for swimming I guess.

Training Pics

2009-03-05T13:25:00.001-08:00

Here are a few pics from training over the last month:

Looking excited on my 60 mile ride one Sunday morning. Rode from Pride to Clinton.

View of the road in Clinton.

Another road in Clinton.

My riding partner, Jeremy, on a ride in Gonzales.

Jeremy looking like he actually likes training...

Got on the bike this morning for around 45 minutes before work. Got in 15 miles before I had to get back and get ready for work. I have hit all of my workouts so far this week. It is going to be tough to make them all this weekend, but we'll see if I can finally have one week that goes as scheduled. The running is the most important right now.

My wetsuit came in today. Going to give it a try in my friend's pond at his house either tomorrow or Saturday. Hope it fits...Might be going to Lake Rosemound on Sunday, so I'll give it a try there too. Going to be volunteering for Rouge Roubaix on Sunday. Supposed to be riding in the lead vehicle with a friend from BRTri. Rouge Roubaix is the local mother of all bike races. It is nearly 105 miles long in St. Franciville. It runs up some "big" Louisiana hills, over some nasty gravel roads, nasty chip seal asphalt roads and even a few timber road sections. I've heard it is brutal and not for the faint of heart. Especially Sunday since it will be a cool 81 degrees in freakin' March. Louisiana weather, gotta love it.

The Daily Grind

2009-03-04T19:20:00.000-08:00

Back again after a long layoff from the Blog Nation. Have been too busy with other things, i.e. facebook, to come over here and post. There is at least a couple of people who read this occasionally to know how much or little I have been training. One of them reminded me that I actually have this thing here and that I needed to update it. I've taken some pictures while training, but they are all at work and I am at home at the moment. Maybe I'll post them tomorrow for two posts in a row, but I wouldn't hold my breath...

My training has been going okay. My swimming has been fine. I have been averaging around 4600-5800 yds per week spaced over 2 workouts. Monday and Wednesday are swim days. Monday is shorter in total volume (1800-2200), but I do a warm-up, then a long straight swim (1400-1800) followed by a cool down. Wednesday is longer (2800-3600) consisting of some shorter distance intervals to work on some speed. Still only averaging 1:40's on 100's, but that is good enough for me. I would be happy swimming 1:45 average for the 1.2 mile swim at the Half Iron.

Biking has been good, except for being cold. Hard to get motivated to ride my bike in the mornings when it is 35 degrees out, but I haven't missed a weekend ride yet. Been going 45-55 miles on my Sunday rides and doing a Thursday morning "speed" workout for around 15-20 miles. Sunday this past week was brutal. At 9 am the temp was 38, but there was a 20 mph wind. The wind chill was 29 and it was freakin' cold on the bike. On the way out, there was a section directly into the wind. I was doing 13 mph with a heart rate of 162 (almost 90% of MHR). Then I finally got to a section with the wind at my back and I was doing 27-28 mph with a heart rate of 150 (around 80% MHR). My bike is coming along and I have ridden the half iron course twice. Thinking I may be able to go around 19-19.5 mph for the race if the wind is light. The course could be tough though with any wind since it is pretty wide open through the marshes along the lake.

My run has been my weakest link. My weekly mileages have been 15, 12, 11, 11, 20, 5.5 and then looking at around 14 for this week. My run has been sufferin'. I finally got motivated and got up to the 20 mile mark, however that was a big mistake. That big increase in mileage killed my heel. I believe I have the beginning of Plantar Fasciitis, which is a very painful condition. My heel hurt a little after my 10 mile long run on the 20 mile week, but nothing I felt concerned about. Then last week I went on Tuesday to do my 5.5 miles of speedwork and that did my heel in. That night, I got up to use the restroom and had to literally crawl to the bathroom. My heel could not have any weight on it. I iced it and stretched it for the next two days and it finally starting feeling better Thursday afternoon. Decided to stay off of it until this Tuesday. Did 3 miles yesterday and then iced it. Did 3 miles this morning, but skipped the ice. It hurts a little bit this evening, but not too bad. Going to take it easy for the rest of this week (4 miler on Friday and 5 miler on Sunday) and see how it feels. May throw my long run back in next week and maybe some speedwork the next week.

My upcoming plans are pretty much focused on the New Orleans Half Ironman. I am doing a local race in Lake Charles the weekend before since it will be one of my best friends' first triathlon. It is 400 m, 10 miles and 2 miles, so it should be around an hour. Should be a good final tune-up the Sunday before the half iron. Plus I can work out any kinks with my new wetsuit in a race prior to the big race. Want to do the Fast Boy 5k the day before the sprint tri, but I am undecided. It will probably depend on how my heel is feeling.

I finally bit the bullet and bought a wetsuit since Lake Pontchartrain will be in the upper 60's for the race. That is a bit chilly even for me. Lonestar last year was around 70 and Ironstar was around 72 and I did them without one. This will be around 65-68, which could be a little problematic. I ended up getting an Xterra Vector Pro X2.

Also bought new tires, a chain, flybag for under the seat, new riding shirt, tail light and tubes for my bike. Bought a helmet for the wife so she can look "cute" while riding her bike.

New Orleans Half Ironman Course Ride

2009-01-25T20:16:00.000-08:00

Made the trip down to New Orleans this morning to ride the New Orleans Half IM course with a bunch of peeps (about 15 of us) from Baton Rouge Tri. This was my second time to ride the course, so I already knew what to expect. Of course since it is south Louisiana, the only elevation changes are overpasses or bridges. There are three of those on the course. The Senator Ted Hinckley Bridge is the biggest. At the apex of the bridge there is some metal grating that gets very slippery when wet. It was wet this morning, so we had to walk it to avoid the chance of slipping out. On the way back in, the group of three I was with decided to ride it, and I tried to track as true as possible but could still feel my rear wheel getting squirrely. They are supposed to carpet it for the race so we don't have that problem. Two of the overpasses/bridges are within the first couple miles, which means they are also in the last couple of miles. There is one other small low bridge at mile 22/34 that shouldn't be an issue.

The course overall is very flat. When you leave the start, the first couple of miles is along the lake shore, then over the bridge and overpass. Then you have a few miles through some neighbor"hoods" along the levee.

Neighborhood on the course

The levee near the neighborhoods.

More levee and course.

You then get on Hwy 510 for about a mile and then on the service road for about a mile. The service road on the West side is pretty rough, but the one on the East side is great. Hopefully, they are using the one on the East side. After the service road is Chef Mentuer Highway. There is commercial business and gas stations until you get to mile 13ish. After that, it is all desolate except for some fishing camps along the marsh. The course if very low traffic and should be great for the race. However, if it is windy it is going to be miserable. Since it is out in the marsh, there is not a lot of trees or structure to break up the wind.

The first time I rode it, we had a 8 to 10 mph wind out of the west which meant tailwind on the way out and headwind on the way back in. We averaged 21.5 on the way out and 15 on the way back in. That sucks. Today, there was a light wind (4-5 mph) out of the NE so it was a little bit slower on the way out, but not that much of a difference. I went there intending to ride 80% heart rate for the entire ride, and I accomplished my goal. My average heart rate for the entire ride was 144 which is right at 80%. Every thirty minutes I did a 2 minute pick-up and the last 6-7 miles we rode at about 21 mph. I ended up averaging 17.8 for the 56 mile route. I want to get that to where I am close to 19 mph at 80% for the route, so we'll see how that goes. Would like to be able to keep it at 80% on the bike for the race so I can have some gas left in the tank for the run. When I finished today, I did a short 2 mile run at 9:20 pace just to start to get the feel of running off the bike. By the end of my training, I will increase that to 45 min to an hour of running after riding . The race is only 10 weeks away, so it is getting time to start getting serious.

Me trying to figure out what I am taking a picture of. What a dork!

Dork picture #2. The crooked helmet just frames the whole thing...

Year in Review

2009-01-09T08:29:00.000-08:00

Wow, it has been almost a month since I have been here. That is just ridiculous. Of course, going on the family Christmas Tour does kind of kill any time that I have available during the month of December. I had 9 separate "events", parties and gatherings, during the 2 weeks leading up to Christmas. It was crazy. It went down like this:

Friday, December 13 - Office Christmas Party, held on the River Terrace at the Shaw Center overlooking the Mississippi River. Nice party and pretty low-key. Only about half the office showed with their spouses/significant others, so we had like 50 people.

The wife and I, looking spectacular.

Friday, December 19 - Christmas party for my dad's side of the family

Saturday, December 20 - Christmas Party for my wife's extended family

Sunday, December 21 - Wife's office party at Portobello's, had a great rib eye at this one

Monday, December 22 - Christmas Party for my mom's dad and his family, 6-8, then on to a birthday party for a married couple of ours who both have birthdays in late December, 9-11

Tuesday, December 23 - Christmas Eve Eve shopping with a bunch of guy friends, annual tradition to get out of the house 2 nights before Christmas and get any last minute gifts that we need

Wednesday, December 24 - Christmas Party for my mom's mom, same people basically from the party on Monday except for the grandparents, 3-6, presents with my parents at their house since they got my kids a trampoline to stay at their house for when the kids come over, 6-8

Thursday, December 25 - My parents and my mom's mom and step-dad over on Christmas day to see what my kids got for Christmas

That my friends is what is referred to as the "Christmas Tour". Exhausting and over rated. Next year, I think we are going to set one day up the weekend before Christmas and invite all family over to our house for different times of the day so it can all happen at once. I spend more in gas for those two weeks than I do in any other entire month.

So needless to say, training has taken a backseat at the end of 2008. I still tried and did the best I could, but I still managed to gain 8 pounds since the Half IM in November. I know how hard it was to lose those 8 pounds, and I am not looking forward to the next couple of weeks. Need to get on top of it though because New Orleans Half IM is just around the corner. Only 12 weeks to go. I have some lofty goals for that race (5:35) and for 2009, so I need to get started. Did only my second long run since November this morning, 9 miles. Did not feel good at all. Only went 9:15 pace, which is not going to cut it.

Being an engineer, I keep track of every single workout in a spreadsheet. So it is pretty easy to get my totals for the year. In 2008, I had the following stats:

Running - 852 miles (16.4 per week, 2.3 per day)

Biking - 2,509 miles (48.3 per week, includes 18 miles per each one hour spin class)

Swimming - 82.3 miles (1.6 per week which is 2800 yds per week)

Workout Days - did some type of exercise 242 days this year for an average of 4.7 days per week

I set PR's in all distances that I raced. Set a new 5k PR, 10k PR, sprint tri and half IM. Had a pretty successful year. Finally got below 200 pounds and stayed there until after my last race of the year. When I raced the half, I was 35 pounds lighter than I had been in May of 2007. 35 pounds in a year and a half is a great accomplishment considering I did not change my eating habits that much. I still eat a bunch. If I could just get disciplined on the food part, then I think I could drop another 10 to maybe around 185. Need to get back to 195 though before we start moving lower. Hard to do in South Louisiana though. Every meal has the potential to kill all the calories you burned training that day.

My goal for this year is to run 1,000 miles (19 miles per week), bike 3,000 miles (58 miles per week) and swim 100 miles (2 miles per week, 3500 yds). It is a lofty goal, but I think I can get there. Started off good so far. As of Sunday, I will have biked 110, ran 30 miles and swam 2.2 miles in the first 11 days of the year. Well on my way. Only 50 more weeks to go.

Last Weekend's Races

2008-12-12T20:10:00.000-08:00

Quick recap of last weekend. I ran the Reindeer Run 5k on Friday night in downtown BR. Set a PR of 21:25. Knocked almost 3 minutes off my time from this same race last year. Then Saturday morning, Melissa ran the BR Beach Half Marathon. Her goal was 2:45, and she came in at a blistering 2:27. The sad part was that the kids and I missed it since Emilie had testing for her new school that she will be attending in the fall. Melissa was very sad, but understanding. Sorry we missed it honey!

Tomorrow morning, I am doing a mountain bike race here in Baton Rouge. I gues we should actually just call it an off-road bike race since we all know that there are no mountains anywhere near here. We'll see how it goes, might be kind off slippery and mucky from all the snow and rain.

Let it Snow!

2008-12-12T19:43:00.000-08:00

In a rare event for south Louisiana, we had almost 4" of snow at our house on Thursday. It had been 20 years since we had this much snow in Baton Rouge. It was the first time that either of the kids have seen real snow fall from the sky. They saw some fake stuff the other night in Downtown Baton Rouge at the light festival, but that doesn't count. They loved it.

I woke up at 5:30 a.m. to get on the trainer for an hour of biking indoors, woo hoo...When I got up, we had snow flurries, but no accumulation. I woke up Melissa and we decided to wake up just Emilie so she could see it just in case flurries was all we got. I took her outside and she tried to catch some flakes in her mouth and got all excited.

Emmi and I in the flurries

They went back to bed and then I went in the garage and got on the trainer. 45 minutes was all I could take on the trainer, so at 6:30 I headed inside. When I walked in and looked at the backyard, all I could see was white. It was really snowing!! I got Melissa up, we got both the kids up and went outside to play.

The kids and I getting ready for the fun

Emmi's Snow Angel

Our snowman with M&M smile!

Melissa and the kids in the backyard

We made snow angels, snow castles with our sand castle toys, a snowman with an M&M smile and took pictures. After about an hour of that in the front yard, it was time to heat up and eat some breakfast. We cooked pancakes with M&M's cooked in, and made some hot chocolate. The kids loved there marshmallows in their hot chocolate.

We then went in the backyard for some fun. It was 4" of untouched powder. It was great. We rolled in it, hit each other with countless snowballs, made more snow angels and had an all around good time. After I finally went to work at lunch, the kids played for another hour or so in the afternoon. Most of the snow was gone by nightfall, but our snowman held on until this afternoon. He was still half there when I got home today, but some teenagers took care of the rest of him. Hopefully, it won't be another 20 years. I love the snow. Wish I would have had some skis. I could have skied down the 6' hill in our backyard...

Racing Weekend

2008-12-04T12:17:00.000-08:00

The wife and I both have races on tap for the weekend. Of course, mine is just a 5k, which is the Reindeer Run. It is Friday night in downtown Baton Rouge. Then Melissa is racing the BR Beach Half Marathon on Saturday morning. It is a single loop course around LSU, the LSU Lakes and some neighborhoods near the lakes. She is going to be running it with two of her friends. She is hoping to go around 2:45, so we'll see.

It will be her first half marathon, actually it will be the first half marathon in the family. I did one as part of the Half Ironman, but that doesn't count apparently. This will be the first straight up half marathon that either of us have ran. I'll be there to cheer her on. Hopefully I can get under 22:00 on Friday night. Not looking good, but we'll see how that goes...

Went down to New Orleans on Sunday with a couple of BRTri guys to ride the bike course that will be used for the New Orleans Half Ironman. The way out was nice, since we had a 12 mph tailwind. Averaged 21.5 mph for the first 25, then we turned around. The now 12 mph headwind sucked. Averaged 15.5 mph on the way back in, for a 18.5 mph overall average. The course is fairly nice. A couple of overpasses right at the start, which results in overpasses right at the end. The roads are surprisingly in great shape for New Orleans. There is a short stretch, 3-5 miles through a rougher neighborhood, but once you get on Chef Mentuer Highway it is nice. Nothing but marsh and open land from miles 12-28. We only went to mile 25, but the last 3 are just as open.

Not to bash on all roadies, but would it kill you guys to be a little friendly to the Tri crowd. Passed 5 or 6 packs of Giro ride roadies. Gave them all waves or the two finger "what's up" salute and got nothing in return. Pass the one tri group that was riding, and at least half of them waved back. Not that my life is over now, but why do roadies have to be so elitist. Just because we have aero bars on our bikes doesn't make us inferior.

Turkey Trot

2008-11-27T10:35:00.001-08:00

Did the Turkey Trot this morning with my wife, a friend of hers and some peeps from BRTri. Wasn't feeling it and I went out a little too fast. Ran a 6:35 on the first mile, which didn't feel good. Died at around 1.5 mile mark and limped in. Finished in 22:58, which isn't even a PR. That is only a 7:25 pace, terrible.

The wife however, cut about tree minutes off her 5k time. The last race she ran was a 3 miler where she went 32:15 for a 10:45 pace. This morning she went 3.1 in 30:11, which is a 9:44 pace. She knocked one minute per mile off in just over two months of training. I am so proud of her.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Taking It Easy

2008-11-23T18:49:00.000-08:00

I haven't been on my road bike since Iron Star. That makes two weeks, is that bad? No desire yet to get back on it. Maybe after Thanksgiving. I have been on my mountain bike though and really enjoyed that. Have still been swimming and running with no pressure of course. Have been running with my wife and some friends who are doing the Baton Rouge Beach Marathon in a couple of weeks. Been taking it easy with them and just enjoying running.

I am so proud of my wife, she ran 11.5 on Friday. Her last long run before the Half Marathon. She ran with two of her friends for the first half and then I met her with the kids and I pushed the kids along while running to keep her company for the last 5 miles. It was fun. Of course, she has taken over the Garmin and is addicted. I may have to find her one for Christmas. Don't know if we can keep sharing the one we've got.

Going to do the Turkey Trot 5k on Thursday and then the Reindeer Run 5k the night before Melissa does the half mary. Trying to get a good shave time for the Shave Your 5k Challenge.Would like to go 21:42 for a 7:00 average, but don't think I am going to make it. Just haven't been motivated to do enough speedwork since the race. Definitely didn't have the speed after all the long and 80% heart rate runs I was doing for the Half Iron. See if I can throw down a 6:30 for the first mile and then hold on after that. Didn't work last time...

Think I might do a mountain bike race in a couple of weeks if I can get my bike fixed. Got a loose crank arm that I need to get replaced. We'll see.

Iron Star Race Report

2008-11-11T18:32:00.000-08:00

The morning started off with a chilly temp of 40 at race time. They had the race at the resort even though it was still under construction. Was in the first wave so I got to hit the water early. The water temp was 73-74, so it actually wasn't that bad for the handful of us without wetsuits. The first leg was straight into the sun. We spread out pretty good, so there wasn't much jostling for position. The long stretch parallel to the beach was nice except for the widely spaced small markers. Made it hard to sight, although somehow I managed to stay within 10 yards of them the whole way. Turn into the finish had the sun on your right which made it tough, but the shaded goggles (got a tip on the sun from a fellow BRTri guy who had done the race) made it bearable. Finished in around 39-40 min, which is just about right for me.

The first 20 miles on the bike through town and the national forest were nice. Hilly, but nice. The 5 mile chip seal portion just before the turnaround was bearable on the way out due to a slight tailwind. However, that made it terrible on the way back since it was now a moderate headwind which would continue for the remainder of the bike. Started to slow considerably around miles 32-35, which I thought was due to the hills, fatigue and the wind. However, I had been hydrating well and taking in enough fuel so I was kind of ticked. At about mile 40, I realized what the real problem was, a slow leaking rear tire that had finally made it to where I could feel the stem hitting the rim. I stopped and made the bad decision of just filling it up hoping it would hold for the last 16. 3 miles later I was stopped again changing the rear tube. Lost around 16 minutes to the 2 stops. Finished the bike around 3:20 I think, which had me really disappointed since I had been going so good until the flat.

The run starts off on the main road to the resort, but after mile 1 turns into a private neighborhood for the next 7 miles. It snaked through there with aid stations at every mile with some small rolling hills. Felt good for the first 8, until the run gets back on the highway for two miles. Those two miles had two nice sizable hills that just took it out of me. Ran the first 9 miles, but had to start the run/walk combo after that. Mile 12-12.5 was one last major hill. The final stretch into town (run was point to point) was flat, so I made myself run it in to finish on a high note. Finished the run in around 2:15. Went 6:18 overall. Would have loved to be sub 6 for my first half and felt like I could have easily made it without the rear tire issues. Let it get to me mentally some on the run once I realized there was no way I could make 6 with my pace.

The race was well run, lots of helpful volunteers, not too many people and a nice course. A little hillier then I would have liked for my first go at the distance, but it was a good experience. Can't wait for New Orleans. I know how hilly that will be...

Ironstar Half Iron

2008-11-09T18:46:00.000-08:00

Finished, not nearly as fast as I wanted, 6:18, but I made it. Should have been under 6, but had a slow leaking rear tire that I had to stop twice to fix. Wasted 16 minutes simply in filling the tire up at the first stop and then actually changing it 3 miles later. Don't know how much time I wasted in riding on a low tire. Pretty sure it was more than 2 minutes though...Race report to come later this week.

Getting Closer

2008-11-03T20:07:00.000-08:00

T minus 6 days and counting to the Ironstar Half Iron. After I go vote tomorrow morning, it is going to be a rest day from the taper. Five straight days of training have me ready for a day off. Swam and ran last Thursday, ran on Friday, and ran 10k on Saturday morning before Melissa went to work. Then I did a bike/run brick on Sunday consisting of a 31 mile bike and 30 minute run at half marathon pace -:45/mile (8:15). Then I swam 2100 yds this morning (in a sauna, I'll explain) and then ran 3 miles. Going to hit the trainer on Wednesday morning and do some short but fast runs this week. Taking Friday off from work so I can get prepared to leave on Saturday.

The sauna, otherwise known as the lap pool at my local Y. The new Aquatics director at the Y has some asinine reasoning that the pool should stay at 87 degrees during the winter. Something about the afternoon youth swim team complaining about the temperature of the water. Hello, what about the freakin' adults who pay their hard earned money to come to the pool at 5:00 am only to have to cut their swim short because they can no longer breath and swim since it is so freakin' hot in the pool. A pool should be kept at 80-82 degrees if you are going to be swimming laps in it, which is kind of the point of having a lap pool at the Y. If the kids can't handle it for 30 minutes in the afternoon, then they don't need to be swimming. I personally would like the pool to be 75 degrees, but understand that some people like it warm and will compromise at 82 degrees, but not 87. Forgot to fill out a complaint form, but rest assured I'll let them know about it this week. National swim organization says 79-82 is the optimum water temperature for competition swimming and the Chinese argued that it is actually 80.6 degrees which is what they kept the water temperature in the cube at the Olympics to promote world record times. Seems like they should know what they are talking about, but apparently they don't compared to the Aquatics director...

Looking forward to getting to Houston, watching LSU beat 'Bama, and then heading to the race on Sunday. Friends are taking me to lunch on Wednesday to wish me luck. Hoping my buddy who just completed Ironman Florida will come to offer some helpful tips from his experience this weekend.

Taper Time

2008-10-26T18:22:00.000-07:00

Got my last long brick in today. Put in 3 hours on the bike followed by a 45 minute run. Ended up going somewhere around 55-56 miles and 5 miles. Rode the first hour on the trainer since time hasn't changed and it doesn't get riding light until 6:45. Needed to be finished by 9:45 so I got on the trainer around 5:45. Got off the trainer and got the bike outside and it was freakin' cold. Due to the fact that I had been riding the trainer indoors, I was sweaty and that made the first 20 minutes of the ride outside miserable. Couldn't get warm even with my cycling jacket on. Sun finally came out enough to knock the fog down and it got less miserable.

Finished the 3 hours and took off on the run. Two mistakes, 1. Didn't have enough fluids for the run and 2. Garmin ran out of battery at 3 mile mark. Ran the first 3 at about a 8:30 pace and finished up somewhere just over 5 miles for the 45 minutes. Felt pretty good and hope I can hold 9:00 pace for the entire 13.1 miles in 2 weeks.

Yesterday morning was my long run. It was supposed to be 12-13 miles, but I got derailed. Got up late, had bathroom issues before I left and had bathroom issues on the run. Found a port-o-potty to hit, so no front yard squats this time. Only got in 9.5 due to the fact that I had to be back at 6:55 so the wife could go to work.

Going to go ahead and put some goals for the Half Ironman in writing. 'A' Goal - 5:45, 'B' Goal - 6:00, 'C' Goal - Finish. I am pretty sure I can make 'B', but with my swim, 'A' is going to be tough. I think I can go right at 3:00 for the bike and around 2:05 on the run, which gives me 55 for the swim and transitions. That is definitely doable, but this will be my first half, so I don't want to get over confident. We'll see...

Garmin Forerunner 101

2008-10-22T18:55:00.000-07:00

I am now the proud owner of a Garmin. I know, it is not the fanciest of the bunch, but it does what I need it to do. It allows me to run without mapping out a route every time and it gives me pace as I run, what else do you need. Have used in twice already and it was a great purchase. Got it barely used for $40 from a guy in our local BRTri group. Someone gave him a 301 so he no longer needed this one.

Starting to get nervous about the Half IM. Only 2.5 weeks to go for my first "long" triathlon. I know, it's not a full, but 6 hours of racing is long in my book. Doing one more long ride this weekend and then going to start tapering next week. Only problem that I have at the moment is a slight injury.

A couple of weeks ago I ran in the hills of Syracuse, NY and got a strange pain in my heel a few days later. I just blew it off as fatigue. Well, it has gotten worse. It started hurting worse after mountain biking last week and now it pretty much hurts 24/7. Especially in the morning and after I run. It has the classic symptoms of Plantar Fasciitis, but I hope not. It started hurting after running in hills, it hurts worst in the morning and it in my heel. Based on everything I have read, that progression fits the bill. I am praying that I just bruised it and all will be better with some icing. Did 7 miles today with 3 - 1 mile repeats at 7:00 pace. It is bearable during the run, but painful as soon as I get home and get back on my feet from the car. It's too close to the race to stay off of it for a couple of weeks, so I am just going to have to tough it out until after the race. If I had any readers, I could ask your advice...

Camping and Mountain Biking

2008-10-19T18:57:00.000-07:00

Don't feel too much like posting (ran 12 this morning and bike 35 this afternoon, then ran sprints in the backyard with my 3 year old), but if I don't I'll miss the chance. Went camping and mountain biking at Lake Kincaid in Alexandria this past Wednesday thru Friday. Weather kind of sucked for camping, warm and rainy, but we had fun anyway. Got in about 30 miles on the mountain bike on Thursday and did a 1 mile open water swim while the wife read a book. Put in 10 miles Friday morning and headed home after lunch. Here are some pics:

View of the lake from one of the trails.

My bike taking a break on a bridge over part of the lake.

Contemplating the significance of Mountain Biking...

My riding partner, i.e. my wife, crossing another bridge.

Me and the chipmunk look (10-12 grapes shoved in my mouth).

Only three weeks left until my first half ironman. Training has not been going as planned due to interruptions like working out of town and camping, but hopefully this week will be better.

Century Ride

2008-10-12T18:53:00.001-07:00

Completed my first Century ride today in the hills of St. Francisville. Actually went 101 by my computer, but most of that extra mile was due to backtracking occasionally to make sure my riding partner was okay. Reeb had bike issues for most of the morning, so we didn't get to go as fast as we would have liked. Ended up at 16.2, but felt we could have stayed with the pack and went 18ish if not for the bike issues. It was a great time anyway. Learned to wear cycling shorts if I ever do one again. The mini-pad on the tri-shorts did not help at all. After the SAG at mile 84, I thought I wasn't going to be able to sit on my bike again. Reeb said I stood up for like the last 5 miles. Sure felt better than sitting on my butt on that seat.

Hills Suck

2008-10-09T17:46:00.000-07:00

Whenever a New Yorker describes a run on Map My Run as " Rolling Hills, Rolling To Flat", don't believe them. Ran this route this afternoon http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/ny/syracuse/687065738. Maybe to a New Yorker it is rolling to flat, but to someone from Louisiana, it is freakin' steep. I lengthened it to about 5.2 and ran the thing at a blisterin' 10 min pace. That is 1:15/mile slower than my recent easy runs. Hills blow. Oh yeah, I'm in Syracuse, New York taking a training seminar on Pumping Systems Design, how exciting...Of course, it is better than being behind my desk and it is something that I will be using soon in my work.

Last Saturday night, my wife, a friend of hers and I all ran the Oktoberfest 3 miler at Mockler Beverage in Baton Rouge. I ran a 21:45 (7:15 pace) after having run 9 miles (8:50 pace) that morning. Felt like I could have been around 21 if I hadn't run that morning. Mel ran a 32:45 in the longest run she has ever done to date. I was proud of her. Her friend ran a 41 in her first race ever. Signed up last week for the Iron Star Half Ironman on November 9. I had intended for the New Orleans 1/2 Ironman to be my first half, but I just couldn't see throwing away all the training I had done for Holy Toledo, so I groveled to the wife and she was okay with me doing the half. It is going to be a "suicide" trip. Going to leave on Saturday, head to Houston, pick up my packet, crash at a friends place, do the race Sunday morning and then drive home that afternoon. All solo. We'll see, hopefully I don't regret the solo part.

Doing the Baton Rouge Bike Club Century ride this weekend with Reeb. We are doing the full Century. Longest ride I've ever done has been 70 miles, so we'll see. Longest Reeb has done is 65, so at least we'll be in the same boat. There are 5 SAG stops, so we should be good and we have 7 hours to do it. Don't see a problem since that is only a 14 mph average. Even with stops that should be doable.

Pics from the 3 Miler:

Austin kicking it in the kids 1/2 mile race.

Emilie doing her thing in the kids 1/2 mile race.

Melissa starting the race with a smile.

My wife Melissa's friend.

Me talkin' to a fellow BRTri member and looking like I'm on drugs...

Meat Pie Race Report

2008-09-28T18:34:00.000-07:00

Meat Pie unfortunately became my last triathlon of the year due to the unfortunate canceling of my "A" race for the year, Holy Toledo. It was once again the State Club Championship for Louisiana and BRTri was focused on winning the state trophy back after missing out last year because nobody showed. BRTri won it the first three years and Lake Charles Triathletes won it last year. I think we ended up having 42 BRTri members show up.

My crew, Ed, Reeb and Double M were going to be coming up late on Saturday so I hitched a ride with some other BRTri folk. Got to the hotel around 3 and checked in to one of our free BRTri rooms. One of our members traded in some travel points for 10 rooms and donated them to the club as incentive for everyone to come up and do the race. Hung out in the lobby for a while and watched Florida put a butt whippin' on Tennessee even though they then go get themselves upset this week by Ole Miss of all teams. I mean, freakin' Ole Piss with Houston Nutt as their coach. Really, you got beat by them, I digress. Left the hotel around 5 to head down and pick up our race packets. Got the packets, hung out for a few minutes and then walked over to Mama's Oyster House to eat and watch the LSU vs. Auburn game. Got a nice bowl of Gumbo and a plate of blackened chicken past and settled in to watch the game. First half went by quickly as I downed about 8 waters and had to pee at least 40 times. The crew showed up around 6:30 and we all hung out until half-time. Left the restaurant to head back to the hotel.

Got back to the room and watched the end of the game. Nice way to start off the race weekend with an LSU win in Auburn's house in the last 1:00 of the game. Went to bed happy for the moment at least. Before we turned out the lights, the girls and Ed were complaining about how cold it was, so I turned the air down. Big mistake for me. Woke up about 1:30 sweating like crazy. Had to get up and turn the air on cooler or I was going to die. Did not have the best nights rest. I am used to sleeping with the air on around 73, the fan on high above my bed, no clothes, i.e. in the buff and just a sheet. Needless to say I was hot all night and had to get up to pee 3 0r 4 times due to the excessive amounts of water I had drank at dinner. Luckily, the amount of sleep you get the night before a race doesn't matter or so they say.

Alarm went off at 5:30 am and we got our stuff together and headed out the door. Race site was only 10 minutes away, so we didn't have to rush and we got there about 15 minutes before transition closed. Got my chip, got bodymarked (race number 69) and set up my transition. I am a minimalist when it comes to transition, so this process does not take long. The most tedious part was putting on bodyglide on my feet since I wasn't going to be wearing socks. Have been training with socks since I was going to be doing a longer race, but didn't want to waste the time in transition for a sprint race. Got down to the water for a little pre-race swim and pee in the largest bathroom around. Unless you need to take a crap, it is beyond me why people wait in the long lines at the port-o-potty before a race. Just go in the freakin' lake.

SWIM:
Swim length was supposed to be 800 m, but it ended up a little long, say 850 to 900. The start was a time trial start at the end of a pier. Being race number 69, I was in the thick of things fairly quickly...Got into the water and got off to a good start. It all went downhill from there. I had brought my tinted goggles and with all the fog at 7 am, I could hardly see 50 m ahead of me. What I did see were the 10 guys in front of me doing breast stroke about 100 m in? What the freak? Maybe they couldn't see either or just were having a tough time already. Took forever to get to the turnaround and made it back unscathed. That is one thing nice about a time trial start. Not much kicking and hitting since you are fairly spaced out. Only got passed by a couple of people, and I passed my fair share. Swim time sucked at 19:32. That is slow, even though it was a little long. Fastest times were in the 13 minute range and they have historically been in the 12 minute range, which is why I keep saying the swim was long. Puts me at about 2:10/100's, which is very disappointing.

T1:
Uneventful. Got my cycling shoes on and took off up the hill right out of transition. Was in my big chainring, which I had warned the others not to do with the hill starting right after the mount line. However, I mashed it up without falling over, just barely.

BIKE:
I knew it was going to be hilly and luckily I had been training in the hills because Holy Toledo is also hilly. It was cloudy and overcast still, so the bike was nice and cool. Got passed by a few people, but I passed more people than I got passed by. Since the time trial start for the swim was based on age group, got passed by a couple of the fast guys in the age group just behind me. Roads are nice and smooth except for a couple of short sections. Only hit 38 on the big downhill this year, which was disappointing since I hit 42 last year. I think it was because I was riding faster on the way out hammering up the big hill and just didn't have the legs to push it down this year. My chip screwed up, so I did not have a T1 and bike time, just a T1/bike time. It was 1:02 for T1 and the 20 miles. Also forgot to reset my bike computer until I was 5 miles into the course, so I have no "official" bike time or speed. So my bike was somewhere around 19.8 to 20. Felt like I was in and out in T1 so it was probably more around the 19.8 range. An improvement from last year, but still not over 20 like I wanted to be.

T2:
Hit the flying dismount on the way in from the bike and got in and out of T2 fairly quickly. Took too much time putting on my visor when I should have just carried it like I did my race belt to put on at the run start. Probably could have shaved 5 seconds off of T2. Of course, losing 5 pounds may have made me faster on the bike and got that same 5 seconds. Anyway, was out in under a minute.

Run:
Felt great on the run. Wanted to run a negative split, but missed it by about 30 seconds. Shouted out to everyone from BRTri that I passed and most were looking great. Hoofed in the down the hill and ran sub 8's, which was one of my goals. Feet did great with the bodyglide with no socks. Shoes did feel a little squirrely with the bodyglide. Just felt like they weren't as secure as with socks. Didn't affect my running though. Knocked of almost a full 5 minutes from last year on the run alone.

Overall:
Didn't meet my goal of 1:45, but came close. A little more oomph! on the bike and a better swim that was the correct length and I could have gotten it. Can't be too upset though with a 9 minute improvement over last year. Hope I can make the same improvement next year!! Splits below. Picked up about 50 places in the standings this year and finished in the top 1/3. I think that justifies FOP status, at least for this race. A lot of slow first timers, but racers are racers no matter how slow or fast.

2007:
142 Chad Stevens 28 I M 20:55 1:28 1:03:49 18.8 1:07 29:05 9:23 1:56:23
2008:
96 Chad Stevens 29 I M 19:38 1:02:03 19.8? 0:53 24:27 7:54 1:46:59

No pics since the event photographer has decided that in order to stop people from using the images on their blogs and websites that he'll make the proofs so dark that you can barely tell it's you and unavailable copy the image from the website. Don't have any of that photo stealing software, which I am sure is easy to get, but I am not that techie. Since my swim and run photos did not get put with my number, since the number isn't visible in the photos, I can't even find any run photos. Don't have time to go through 4400 pics 40 at a time. No family or friend support for the race, so besides the results, there is no proof that I did the race except for the event photographers lame excuse for picture posting. Big Shot Event Photo Bib #69, if you care.

Holy Toledo CANCELLED

2008-09-16T17:54:00.000-07:00

Freakin' Hurricanes, the latest one has now gone and gotten my 'A' race for the year cancelled. Now what do I do. I've trained all this time and now nothing. One little sprint Tri to end the year is not going to do it for me. I'm currently in a serious mood of depression, looking kind of like this

Tried to scramble and find a half-iron to do the same weekend or maybe the one after, but there are only two. They are both more than 8 hours from the house and at least double the cost of Holy Toledo. One is in Austin, TX and the other one is in Tennessee. Tried to get another BRTri member to do the one in TN, but he couldn't commit. Now what do I do? I am about to go crazy. Our Tri season down here ends way too soon. Just when it starts to cool off, no more races. What is up with that? This weekend will be the last race in Louisiana for the year. What a bummer?

I think I'll go run over my bike now, put it out of its misery...

Hurricane Gustav

2008-09-07T19:34:00.000-07:00

Names to never name your child: Gustav or Ike. Been dealing with the aftermath of Gustav until today. Finally got power back today, 6 days after it went off. Spent some long days and nights with my entire extended family at my parents house. It was quite a test just for some A/C. Spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday cleaning up my grandparents in St. Francisville. They had three trees fall, one of them on the carport, breezeway and on a small portion of the house. We were able to get everything waterproofed on Friday and ready for electric hook-up once the power company gets there. They may have another 7 to 10 days of no electricity because of all the trees and power lines down in their area.

Finally got to train some yesterday when I was in Morgan City to visit my wife and kids. They have been staying at my wife's parent's house since they have electricity. Got in 7 miles yesterday afternoon while the kids napped. Slept at the office last night and worked until this afternoon. Got in a 40 mile ride and a one hour run. Only 2 weeks to go until Meat Pie and Holy Toledo the week after that. Hopefully, Ike stays away so that we don't have any more damage and so the races can be held.

Weekend of Firsts

2008-08-25T19:00:00.000-07:00

Don't you just love firsts? Your first crush, your first kiss, your first car, your first house, your first flat tire on a bike ride, your first case of burnt feet on hot asphalt, your first runner's bathroom stop on the side of the road in the bushes...Bring back great memories.

Experienced the last three all in this past weekend. Friday I skipped my early morning ride that I had moved from Wednesday. So when the opportunity to ride in the afternoon presented itself, I of course said yes. WE were supposed to meet at 2:30 pm, but of course Big Poppa and Reeb were running late. Reeb had a flat front tire that they had to change. So finally around 2:50 we take off. The ride went downhill from there. Big Poppa's chain kept coming off if he would try to switch to his big ring in the front. So 3 or 4 times in the first 10 miles he had to stop to get his chain on. Then at mile 12, Reeb has a flat on her front tire. Word is the only smart one so we use his tube and co2 to fix the flat. 5 minutes later we are off again. Mile 14 and I get a flat, my first one in 2 years of riding. No more tubes so we call a friend of Mickey's who is on his way from BR to our side of town with their kids. We decide on a meeting point and I take off my shoes and start to walk.

If you have ever heard the analogy about putting a frog in hot water and he jumps out vs. putting him in cold water and heating it up and he'll boil, then you can relate to my burnt feet. Since I took my shoes off, but left my socks on, the asphalt didn't seem all that hot. Then about half a mile down the road, I feel blisters forming on the bottom of my feet. Oh yeah, my feet were burnt. They hurt for about two days and made me skip my long run on Saturday. Lesson learned. After my ride finally got there, we take off and I get a call about 2 minutes into the car ride. Reeb's front tire has flatted for what is now the third time in one day. No more tubes of course, so we had to go pick her up. Not the best bike riding day, should have stayed home...

So then Sunday evening rolls around and since I skipped my long run on Saturday, I had to do my 6 miler on Sunday. My feet still hurt of course and it was raining due to this little Tropical Storm called Fay, but I had to tough it out. Actually the rain and wind were kind of nice. Besides the wet shoes and no MP3 player, it started off as the perfect run. Then about 2.5 miles from home, it hit me. You know the feeling. The feeling of, if I don't find a place to do this it is going to be a long and nasty walk home. Other times in the past I had been blessed by near by port-o-potties due to home construction. Not so lucky this time. Ducked in behind a local neighborhood sign that had me hidden from the road on three sides. Only one direction could produce a car that could ruin my already miserable experience. Just thankful that it didn't have to end up being some one's front yard. Did my business and was actually helped by the rain. Didn't even have to sacrifice a sock. Had all the oak leaves I needed right at my disposal. Finished off the 6 miles at 9:15 pace.

Monday I swam 1400 yds (recovery week) and did core workout, Tuesday I ran 6 miles at lunch and today I bricked 15 miles and 1.5 miles before work. Needed to get in another 4.5 miles running tonight, but alas I didn't feel like it. If the hurricane holds out, then we are heading down to Morgan City for the weekend. Going to be tagging along with TriCajun for a 60 mile ride in south Louisiana. He was nice enough to offer some company for my long ride which I am having to do near his normal riding territory. Just hope I don't bonk and embarrass myself...

Longest Ride Ever

2008-08-20T19:04:00.000-07:00

I guess these things will keep happening as I get further along in my multisport "life". Got in 65 miles on the bike on Saturday morning. Had two birthday parties this weekend, my mom's surprise 50th and my son's 3rd. That made my Sunday morning ride impractical so since the in-laws were in town Saturday was an option. Word and I toughed it out with me doing some wheel sucking for the last 25. Last week for the 60, I felt great, but this week it just wasn't there. Maybe it was the 11 miles I ran before work on Friday. Don't know, but I had a tough time on Saturday morning. Averaged just 18 mph, was hoping for around 19, but I'll take whatever I can get I guess for my longest ride to date.

Mom, Dad and the kids at the Surprise Party, Just before my mom gets her Convertible PT Cruiser in Red

Austin getting excited for his Thomas the Train Birthday Party

Last Thursday was a farthest day also. Swam 3400 m in 1:06. I know it's not fast, but at least it is below 2 min/100. That is a long way to swim. It wasn't a straight 3400, it was a ladder starting at 50, but the time includes rest and swimming. Doing my 100's in about 1:35-1:45. Hopefully, I can hold 1:45 pace for my one mile swim at Holy Toledo.

Got a comment (it's like a party when someone actually reads this boring crap that I write occasionally) last week from Lisa Parsiola. Lisa, if you have come back to read again, I got your email. However unfortunately, since you posted and do not have a google account, it did not leave me your email address or anyway to get in touch with you. I emailed your friend Steve in a Speedo, but he did not respond (probably busy with his other thousand readers, since he is actually funny and witty). So, if you would like me to recommend some biking routes here in BR, I definitely can if you could just send me your email address. Lisa, by the way, my wife grew up in Morgan City and her parents still live in Stephensville on Doiron's Canal. We are actually coming down there for Labor Day to go to the illustrious Shrimp and Petroleum Festival. I was actually going to see if there was anywhere down there where I could get in 70 miles on that Saturday morning. Please get in touch with me.

Last weekend we spent some time at the balloon festival. Here are some parting pics of the balloon glow that they have each evening.

We've Got the Sickness

2008-08-07T19:02:00.000-07:00

The whole house is sick. I don't normally get it. I usually just carry the germs and give them back to get them sick again later. No this time, I have the summertime cold. It isn't coming on strong for me as it has for the wife and kids, but it is draggin' me down just a little. Hopefully nobody noticed the huge snot slick that had formed in my lane this morning while I hashed out my 3K yards. I actually felt a ton better after swimming and running 2 miles, but that didn't last for long. The wife left me a voicemail telling me to get home instead of going to work.

Got home and she went back to bed. Hung out with the kids on the couch until it was time to take them to kid gymnastics at the Little Gym. After gym, there mother took them home so I could go to work. Did not feel like being there, but I made it through. Once again, let's put it in perspective. It is just a freakin' cold. There are plenty of people who wish that it was just a cold and not the something worse that they have.

With that being said, I do not feel like running my 10 miles in the morning. I am going to give it the ole' college try anyway. May be some walking and may be a trail of snot, but I'm going to make it. I can rest Saturday while I watch the kids. Wish me luck and I pray that you are having a great day!

Daily Grind

2008-08-05T19:02:00.000-07:00

Training is wearing me down. Do I really have to do all of this stuff and do it 6 days a week? Can't I just train each sport once a week, maybe all on the same day, and that be enough? I'm getting pretty tired of the 6 hour nights of sleep, brick workouts twice a week and the freakin' speedwork. I mean, isn't there an easier way to get fast without having to actually work at it. I guess I could do like some in the Tour De France and just drug my way to being speedy. What am I thinking? I can barely buy myself a new helmet, much less spend thousands on drugs. Can't wait for my races to get here so I can have something to look forward to besides the training regimen. Getting tired of it. Then again, I thank the Lord everyday that he has kept me safe, gave me two arms and legs, my eyesight and my other senses intact. My plight in life is a piece of cake compared to others. Just sometimes wish I didn't have to work as hard to get some results. "No pain, No gain" I guess, I hate that cliche...

Did a 55 mile bike on Sunday at 19 mph. One of the better rides I've had in a while. The sun stayed behind the clouds all morning and the temp stayed in the lower 80's. That is a dream ride in August in Louisiana. Skipped my 4 mile post ride run and then swam at lunch on Monday. Ran 4 miles last night and then had speedwork scheduled for breakfast. Met two H.O.T. peeps at the LSU lakes and stayed with them instead of doing the speedwork. Got in 4.5 before calling it a day.

Hopefully I can survive the next 6.5 weeks until Meat Pie. I think I might go insane...

Spillway Trail Race

2008-07-29T16:59:00.001-07:00

Here are some pics from the trail race that I did Sunday, a week and a half ago.

Post Race Shower in the two fire hoses. Ladies should rethink the white bra tops for this race...

The start of the second largest trail run in the nation. Some race in Iowa is the "largest", but their race is run in some cornfields, not a real trail. This race is run through the swamp and some mountain bike trails in the woods, not some cornfield "trail". We all know who's the biggest...1,400 racers this year.

Bonking isn't fun

2008-07-18T18:52:00.000-07:00

Had my first ever Bonk this past weekend. The wife was working on Saturday and I needed to get in a 50 mile ride for the weekend. So, I figured I'd drop her off at work and then ride to my parents house with the kids. That way I could get a ride in on a Saturday instead of trying to do the long ride and run on the same day. Got to my parents around 8:45 and instead of immediately hitting the road, I hung out for a bit, first big mistake!

Got on the bike around 9:30 and headed off to the north. The route out was all "uphill", 300' over about 25 miles. So I planned on heading out for an 1:20 and then cutting 10 minutes off on the way back for a 2:30 ride. I had 2 24oz water bottles. A little on the light side, but I thought I could stop at the church at the main intersection I was passing on the way back in and fill up again, second big mistake.

The ride out was eventful. Got about 16 miles out and hit LA Hwy 63. For the next 8-9 miles, a state trooper and I played leapfrog. I would pass him while he had someone pulled over and then he would pass me back when he was finished writing their ticket. That happened about 6 times during that 8-9 mile section on the way out and on the way back. Then after I passed him the first time, I saw two dogs up ahead in the road. At this point, I knew my water was getting precious, so I took my empty bottle out and got ready to whack one in the nose if they got too close. I passed them and one started to give chase. I was so focused on the dog that I ran off the freakin' road. Somehow, thank you Lord, I saved it and got back on the road without falling or going in the ditch. Got to the turnaround and ate a bar and got ready for the "downhill" back with only 12 oz of fluid left at this point and the heat index somewhere around 102 at 10:50 am.

Got to the church at the turn off of Hwy 63 and pulled over, since I now had no water. Found the faucets and wouldn't you freakin' know it...They have the handles taken off so that you have to have a wrench to open them. I was now ticked off and quickly realizing that it was going to be a long trip home. There were no stores until about mile 44 and I was at mile 32. Not good when it feels like 103 by this point. Got back on my bike and headed on in. It only got worse from there. I could feel myself dehydrating and I had slowed to a crawl, bonk. After what felt like an eternity, I finally made it to another church at mile 43 that had faucets that worked. Water never tasted so good. Filled both bottles up and limped in. 1:40 for the way back in, not as I had planned. My 2:30 ride had become a 2:50 ride and I was on fire. Jumped in the kids plastic pool and let them run cold water from the hose over me for like 5 minutes. They got a kick out of it. Got some food in me and started to feel somewhat better. Remind me please never to leave home without enough water...

After being out of water for 10 miles, I wasn't too happy.

My shady route had turned downright scorching at high noon.

After I recovered from that experience, I went for a 9 mile run on Sunday morning. Ended up only going 8.1 @ 9:36 pace, but it was too hot even at 6:00 am in the morning after still feeling the effects from the day before.

Monday I swam at lunch, Tuesday I ran at lunch, Wednesday I biked in the morning for 18 miles before work, Thursday I swam 2750 and this morning I put in 8.7 miles @ 9:32 before work. The new rearranged schedule to separate my long bike and run seems like it is going to work better. Only have hit it for one week, but once I work the kinks out, I think it will be fine.

The wife has been at a church conference for yesterday afternoon, all day today and has to work tomorrow, so I have been playing Mr. Mom. Dropping the kids off at my parents tomorrow afternoon to get some fishing in and so the wife and I can do the Spillway Classic Trail Race on Sunday morning. I love to play in the mud. I'll post a race report after the race.

Back to Running

2008-07-11T20:04:00.000-07:00

Only hit 4 miles last week after skipping Tuesday's, Friday's and Sunday's run. This week has been different. Hit 3 on Tuesday, the full 5 on Thursday and planning on 3 or 4 tomorrow after I ride 50 miles. Then hope to get in a 9 miler on Sunday a.m. Swam twice this week for a total of 4300 yds, but have not done any biking. Thinking of buying some lights so I can ride some mornings before work.

Nothing exciting this week (like there ever is), just a typical week. Work, home and some training.

First Pack Ride

2008-07-06T18:40:00.000-07:00

Still wondering where you people find the time to post everyday or even every other day or even every third day! Not going to go back through the weeks, don't have time. Let's just say I have been training consistently getting ready to start my 12 week plan starting tomorrow for my "A" race for the year, HOLY Toledo.

Baton Rouge Tri group had a group ride scheduled for today, so Word, Reba and I all rode up together. Got to the starhill fire station in St. Francisville at 7:00 am, and there were about 35-40 bikers, roadies and tri peeps, getting ready to roll. It was supposed to be about a 3-3.5 hour ride. Never having ridden with more than 3 people, I was a bit nervous, but ready to hit it hard. We got ready quickly since everyone was ready to roll.

Started out slow (17-18) for about the first 20 minutes. Then they got down to business. With that many people, there were two "pacelines" and some stragglers moving around. Ended up dropping around 8-10 people after about the first 15 minutes of picking it up (20-22). Reba wasn't feeling the group thing, so Ed hung back with her, while I went ahead with the front group. I hung with them until about the 1 hour point at which time we hit the first big hill of the day. They had been taking it "easy" by staying around 20-24 on the flats, coasting the downhills and only climbing at around 17-18. Well, we got to the first big hill and they decide to hammer it up the sucker at around 19-20. I couldn't hang and dropped off the back. Was feeling kind of lethargic, so I hit a gel. Should have done that earlier. Rode the next 30 minutes by myself.

It was an out and back, so I caught up to the pack at the turnaround. Had a short 5 minute break and it was off again. By this time, I had taken a second gel and was feeling pretty good. The first 5 mile section after the turnaround was pretty much all downhill with some slight rollers thrown in. It was a blast. We stayed in the groove and rode 25-27 through most of that five mile section. Ended up hangign with them for about the next 40 minutes until we got to the Bluffs on Thompson Creek. I was fourth or fifth back in a group of about 15-20 at this point. The three lead guys just take off on this slightly downhill piece of the road. I decide to see if I can hang. We are going about 30-32 on a slight downhill and I hung for about 1.5 minutes. Having basically blown it out, I can't hang on and fall off the back. Two of the tri guys slow down to take a side paved trail off of the road. They talk me into it, actually it was either that or ride alone, and it was awesome. It was this little 5k asphalt paved trail with these huge steep drops. It was about 8-10 feet wide through the woods with these quick little turns and drops. The first mile was climbing and then you got to the fun part. Was only hitting 22-24 on the downhills, but since it was so closed in, it felt like 30.

After that, it was only about 3-4 miles back to the car. Ended up right at 50 miles in 2:30. 20 mph pace is not too shabby in all of those hills for 50 miles. Even though most of it was pack riding, it still felt good. I really enjoyed the pack ride. I have a road bike with aero bars so that is maybe why I felt so comfortable, but I was never worried once the ride started. I also formerly raced motocross, so riding in close proximity to other people isn't that new to me. Matter of fact, it made the ride go by that much faster being so focused on what everyone was doing around you. Definitely going to do it again as soon as I get a chance.

Swimming and weights for tomorrow. Skipping my long run tonight.

Back in the Saddle

2008-06-24T19:04:00.000-07:00

Been back for a week and a half, but have had no time to write. Vacation was a blast except for the last two days. The wife and I both got sick eating some bad buffet food. Trip was awesome anyway. Did a ton of snorkeling, hanging out with the wife and relaxing. Definitely a well deserved trip that came at just the right time. Below is a couple of pics. The day before we left, there was this water spout that came within like 200 yds of the condo pool and ended up coming onto the beach right next door. I have seen water spouts before, but never that close.

Me at the entrance to the Tulum ruins.

My wife and I at Tulum.

The ginormous pool at the resort. About the size of 3 football fields. This is just one level. It had two swim up bars, three "islands" with palm trees, two volleyball nets and a bunch of concrete lily pads to be able to cross without going all the way around. Top notch!

The water spout.

My wife and her new friend.

Got back on a Saturday and haven't stopped since. Sunday after we got back was Father's day. Spent that out at my parent's house in Central. I barbecued since none of the girls wanted to do it. I cook for them on Mother's day, but then they decide to barbecue on Father's Day and I have to do the cooking. Such a scam! The kids have been taking swimming lessons in the afternoons since we got back and are doing great.

As planned, I have been hitting the training full speed ahead since we got back. Here is a run down of the last week and a half:

Monday: Swim 1600 yds and lift weights, Tuesday: Run 4.5 miles @ 9:15 pace and 1 hour spin class, Wednesday: Rest, Thursday: Swim 1500 yds and run 5 with 3 mile tempo @ 7:55, Friday: Run 3.7 @ 9:06 pace, Saturday: Bike 25 miles @ 18.3 in the hills of St. Franny, Sunday: Run 5.8 miles @ 9:44 pace, Monday: Swim 1700 yds and lift weights, Today: Ran 3 miles @ 9:13 pace then 1 hour spin class and run 1 mile @ 7:55 pace

That's 8 workouts in 9 days. It only gets tougher from here. This next week is just kind of the warm-up for my 12 week training schedule for HOLY Toledo. It is going to be brutal. It is in some ways worse than a half. The swim is just a little shorter, the bike is 16 miles shorter but up hills that are monstrous for this part of the world and the run is 10 miles of agony. The run is hilly, off-road for a while and has sections know as the pit of despair. People who have done it say the run is equivalent to 15 to 20 miles on paved flat ground. The winners are running 7:30-8:00 pace, which are guys that normally run 6's and 6:30's in normal races.

On to the only real excitement I have had besides my family and all of their shenanigans of day to day life. After reading every one's blog, it seems like everyone has some annoying swimmer at the pool that they frequent. Well I met that guy on Sunday at our local Y. The teen pool was closed for the day due to a "filtration" problem, whatever that means. So that meant that everyone who brought their kids to swim on Sunday had to use the 25 yard lap pool. The lap pool normally has 2 lanes available for lap swim and the other 4 lanes open for play swim on Sundays. But with the other pool closed, there were a ton of people in the lap pool. Four people were sharing the 2 lanes to get in their lap swimming. I show up with my two kids around 4 and got in the pool. We were there about 30 minutes when this guy in one of the lap lanes start to make a scene. Some kids start playing with the covers on the skimmer basket openings and this dude starts whining to the lifeguard. He starts yelling from the center lane across the pool to the lifeguard in the loudest voice possible, "Hey lifeguard, don't you see those kids pulling the cover off the skimmer basket opening, they're not supposed to be doing that. Someone could fall in and get hurt if they leave those covers off. You need to stop them from pulling of the covers." First of all, no kidding and second, you sound like my 4 year old telling on her brother. Then some kid rested on the lane divider for about 10 seconds. "Hey lifeguard, they are not supposed to be holding on to the lane marker, you need to make them stop. They aren't supposed to be doing that." Once again, no kidding and again you sound like a 4 year old. Then the one that ticked me off. About 30 kids had kick boards and were swimming/playing with them in the pool. One of the kids got on the side of the pool, tossed his kick board in and proceeded to jump on it like a surfboard. The kid fell back and came about a foot from hitting his head on the side of the pool. So the pool police decided that no kid was allowed to have a kick board. He got out of his lane went to the first lifeguard and pleaded his case once again in the loudest voice possible for everyone to hear, "Hey lifeguard, kick boards are only for lap swimming not recreational swimming. All these kids should not be allowed to have kick boards." She either didn't care or thought he was just being a bully (as I did) and basically did nothing about it. The second lifeguard basically had the same attitude. He finally got some action out of the fourth lifeguard. She decided that the only way to get this guy off of their backs was to take all of the kick boards away from kids. He jumped back into his lane and commented to the guy sharing a lane with him, "Its about time one of them listened."

Now the Y may have some policy that kids aren't supposed to have kick boards, I can't see why if they do, but at that point it wasn't about policy or safety (I have kids and they can make flat ground unsafe). It was about him bullying the lifeguards till he got what he wanted. Me being the non-confrontational, accommodating person that I am(couldn't be farther from the truth), I scream out "Just swim and quit killing all the fun for the rest of the people in the pool." That got him hot. He turns to the guy in his lane and says "Who said that?" The guy tells him someone from my area and he turns and I am looking dead at him (while trying to catch my kids jumping off the side of the pool). He swims over and gets about a foot from my nose and proceeds to explain to me the dangers of kids having kick boards and swimming safety in general with steam coming out of his ears. I proceed to politely (if you believe that, you'll believe anything) tell him that it is not his job or the lifeguards job to make sure that kids don't act like brats and the whole pool shouldn't be punished for one kids lack of forethought, since kids are always worried about what is safest. And that additionally, if the lifeguards thought kids having kick boards was unsafe than they would have not allowed the kids to have them in the first place and that the kids parents were around and they should handle it not him. I smiled, turned to the side and continued to catch my kids jumping off the side. He rambled on about safety and the lifeguards duty and some other stuff until he finally realized that I didn't care. He got in his lane, grabbed his kick board like a badge of honor and swam about 100 yds more. Flustered with the whole situation, he finally got out of the pool and left. Two people that had been waiting for 30 minutes finally got a chance to swim in the lane after they had waited on this guy who had actually only swam about 5 minutes during that 30 minute period because he had been worried about everyone else but himself.

Could my attitude have been better, was I being just as big a jerk as him and was what I did right? Yes, Yes and no. Sometimes though you just have to be a bully to deal with a bully. Was the kid doing something that was unsafe? Some would say yes, but if we stopped kids from doing anything that was a little unsafe, than they might as well stay inside and play video games their whole life. Hey wait, that is what a lot of them do anyway! Would I do it again? Yes. Soapbox moment over.

Looking forward to finishing out the week and spending some time with the family this weekend at a juvenile arthritis camp for my daughter. She is looking forward to it every day.

Vacation Time

2008-06-05T18:43:00.001-07:00

Off to Playa Del Carmen in the morning. No regular training, but there will be some training. At least some runs and definitely swims. Glad to have a week off to recooperate. Especially since I have gained 5 pounds over the last week and a half. This will be one more week of bad habits and then hitting it hard when I get back. Want to lose 15 pounds (was 10 before I gained 5) before my race in September. Adios!

Weekend Summary

2008-06-02T18:36:00.000-07:00

It did not include any training, so it will be short. Friday, I had kid duty in the afternoon since the wife was working, my mother-in-law had to do some shopping and my wife had a bridal shower to get ready for after work. The kids and I napped and played.

Saturday morning was more kid duty since the wife and m-i-l had to leave at 8:30 to go set up for the shower and then attend the shower. The kids and I went to the spray park to kill some time. Then it was time for lunch and an early nap. My daughter had her end of the year dance recital that we had invited the whole family to, about 11 of us. After the recital was back to the house for barbecue and cake. Everybody left around 8 so we could get the kids down and then we bummed around until bed time.

Sunday was church in the morning and then more kid duty for me. It was my wife's birthday and she wanted to spend it shopping. Her and her mother went shopping from 11 to 1:45. They came home so I could go to a memorial for a client who died. Got back from the memorial at 3:30 and they were off again to shop. More kids and daddy time. We played in the pool until the women got back. Got dressed and took the wife out with a couple of friends for her birthday dinner. Finally had some down time without the kids and some intelligent conversation with other adults. Had a good time.

Woke up this morning to a sick wife. Asked her if she wanted me to stay home from the Y, but since the m-i-l was still here, I got to go get my swim in. Swam around 1800 yds and then lifted weights. Had to come home at lunch since the wife was still feeling bad. Let her nap while I got the kids down for their naps. Have work training all this week until we leave for Playa Del Carmen, Mexico on Friday. I can't freakin' wait. So ready to get away.

Doing run and spin in the morning. Oh yeah, I gained like 5 pounds this weekend. Stepped on the scale at the office and the bad boy said 205! Holy crap. I was expecting maybe 201 or 202, but 205??? Need to hit it hard after the vacation. Would love to be around 190 for my 2 races at the end of September. Need to get the eating in check. Check out the wife's birthday present, her first bike of her own.
It's a Giant OCR3, already has aero bars and a computer. Now I just need to pick her up some aero wheels and some shoes.

Sign Me Up!

2008-05-30T20:34:00.000-07:00

Just signed up for my first Half IM. The New Orleans 70.3 is now on the schedule for next year. It is in April which means an early start to the training year, woohoo!! Wish I could race it tomorrow.

Week in review:
Tuesday: Run 2 and 1 hour spin class
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday:Run 2.5 @ 7:30 pace and 1 hour spin class
Friday: Swim 2200 yds and skip a 4 mile run

Lots going on this weekend. My daughter is having her ballet recital and we are having a party after. The wife has a bridal shower for her good friend before the recital and then Sunday is her 30th birthday. At least I get to relish in her turning 30 before I get there.

First Place in A Race!

2008-05-27T19:32:00.000-07:00

Man it feels good to win something. Even if it was the smallest organized 3 mile race ever to have been run. Took the family up to my grandparents house on Lake Rosemound in St. Francisville for a holiday weekend of some R and R. Went up Saturday night and spent Sunday and Monday hangin' out. My brother and his wife were there on Saturday night and Sunday. The brother and I spent some time fishing. Took the kids to the beach at the lake on Sunday morning and had a blast. I forgot my swimming trunks, so I had to wear my Tri shorts to the beach. The wife was lovin' that let me tell you. She can't believe I wear them with no shirt on at a triathlon where the 150 other people have on the same attire. Wearing them at a lake just hanging out, is just not cool. The wife and I took turns doing some open water swimming while the other watched the kids. I put in about 1000 yds over the course of a couple of hours. Nothing like working training into family time. We brought the bikes, but never found time to ride them. Ran into a couple people I knew including Rocketboy who is one fast swimmer, a fast triathlete and one great race director.

On to the race. On the way in Saturday night, the banner for the memorial day celebration said "Fun Run" on it in addition to the other announcements. The wife said "We ought to do that on Monday morning". Sure why not? Got up Monday and the wife sent me down to the beach/pavilion area to see if they were going to have the run. Sure enough, they were setting up and passing out numbers (sheets of white lined paper with permanent marker, very low cost I must say). Got back and everyone got changed real quick and we headed down for the race. The wife signed up for the one miler and me for the 3 miler. 9 am rolls around and it is time for the one-miler to start. I give her an atta girl and off she goes. My 2.5 year old son and I run a mini one-miler, about 0.2 miles over the bridge and back. He loves to say he races. The large crowd of 10 cheered him down the chute on the way back in, he loved every second of it. When he finished, he put his hands on his hips and in a serious voice said "Where's the water?" It was hilarious. Got him some water while me, his sister and my mom waited for Melissa to finish. She ended up getting 4th out of about 25 people in a time of 8:25. As soon as she was finishing, they lined us up for the 3 miler.

We were all at the front, since it was only about 15 of us. There were two other triathletes in the race. We had all struck up a conversation due to me wearing my Lonestar race shirt. Anyway, didn't know how fierce the competition would be. They sounded the horn (screamed Go!) and off we went. I was in the lead with 2 teenage girls about 13 years old. I ran an easy pace to start and we all ran side by side. One of them stopped at about the 0.5 mile marker, I tried to convince her to keep going, but she said she couldn't go any further. The other girl made it to about the 1.1 mile point and had to stop. I felt bad because I was going to let them win if they could have run the whole thing, but they just didn't have the endurance. Tried to slow down for them, but they couldn't run at all after they stopped. Ran a 8:00 first mile, about a 9:00 second mile (trying to wait on the girls) and about a 8:20 on the third mile for a 25:18. Not impressive I know, but good enough to win by 6 minutes. 2nd and 3rd place were within 5 seconds of each other and would have made an awesome finish if they had been running for first place. Bummer...Third place was a woman who has only done two triathlons, but is going to do the New Orleans half next year. Talked to her and her husband a bunch later in the day at the memorial day celebration. Got my first place ribbon and went to the house to get changed for another morning at the beach. Took these pics back at the house.

3/4 of the family with the first place ribbon.

Austin with "his" ribbon. Since he was the first down the chute, he won the race!!

Spent the rest of the day having fun. Back to reality today. Got up at 5 am and headed to the Y. Most people were still draggin' from the weekend, so the parking lot was expectantly light. Put in 2 miles and spin class. Ready to finish out the next two weeks before vacation and then hit the training hard after our trip to Mexico. Only the wife and I, no kids!!!

Race Report

2008-05-18T06:43:00.000-07:00

Everything went off without a hitch. Got to BP's at 4:10, loaded up the bikes and headed out. Got to the race site at around 7 ish, got signed in, set-up and ready to go. Did a short 200 yd swim warm-up and then it was time to start. Now that I am in the 30-34 age group (turning 30 at the end of the year), I am always in the first wave. That's because all the fast guys are in the 30-40 year old range so they stick them (I am not fast by any means) first.

The start was on a boat ramp, so it should be pretty uneventful, right? Of course not. I am about midpack at the start and some fruitcake decides he is going to dive instead of just starting to swim like the rest of us. Well, he dives right on top of my head and knocks the suction off my right goggle lens. It fills halfway up with water. Being the stubborn person that I am, ain't no way I am stopping, so I swam the loop with water in my right eye the entire time. It sucked. After that, got to the first turn and some guy had gotten of course. He was swimming at a 90 degree angle to the rest of us, and t-boned me in the side. Do you people know what you are freakin' doing??? Sheesh! Finished the swim in 9:48, under 2 min/100 m. That is the first time I have swam open water in under 2 min/100 so I felt pretty good about that. T1 was slow for some reason. Felt like I was in there forever. Don't know my exact time since transitions were just included with your bike time, but I think it was around 2:45, ridiculous.

Got on the bike and started rolling. About 0.5 mile in was a bridge over the Red River which wasn't very nice. Then on the downhill you start to pick up some good speed and then immediately have to make a turn killing all the speed you gained. Then you get to an overpass at mile 1.5 and the same thing. Turn right at the bottom of the hill, how terrible is that. The bike course was well marked, they had shut down one lane of traffic down on each side of the four lane highway and had cops about every 0.5 mile. Couldn't have been better manned. The road was concrete and on the way back in, it was kind of uneven, but besides that it was pretty smooth for the majority of the ride. Bike computer said 54:30 for a 19.8 average over the 18 miles. Not what I was expecting. Wanted to be in the 20.5-21 range, but I was trying to keep the heart rate around 85%. In Galveston, I think I went out too hard on the bike which hurt me on the run. With transitions, the bike time was 58:30 for a 18.6 average. So I had 4 minutes in transitions. Normally, I am around 2:45 or 3, so I don't know what I was doing in transition, but I obviously wasn't hurrying.

It was getting warm by the time we got on the run. Got passed by about 3 people, but had a good run. Ran a 25:12 5k (8:11 pace), which is the fastest 5k I have run in a triathlon to date. Felt good on the run and I think it was because I kept the HR lower on the bike.

Ended up at 1:33 just short of my goal of 1:30. What was I rewarded with for a 1:33? Nothing. Missed my goal of being top 50% in all my races this year. Was 48th out of 89. My 8:11 run was 55 of 89. Normally that kind of race would have easily got me top 50%. There were a ton of fast guys out today for some reason. Wish they would have all stayed home. Where were the fat slow guys to even out the field? Oh wait, that was me. Should have entered Clydesdale, there was only one entry. I could have at least taken home some hardware.

These are all of the Baton Rouge people who made the trek. As you can see, they are all thin and fast. They are the reason I missed the top 50%. Fast suckers. Maybe I'll be there one day...

Race Day

2008-05-16T18:32:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is race day. Mini-sprint distance, 500 m, 18 miles, 5 k, but at least it is a race and not training. Waking up before the butt-crack of dawn at the unthinkable time of 3:45 am. Getting to Big Poppa's house for a 4:15 departure. Race is 2.5 hours away and transition closes at 7:15, hope no one has to go to the bathroom on the way because they will be out of luck. Six of us going up, three of us racing individually and the other three doing a relay (slackers). Temps in the upper 60's and sunny skies. Should be a great race. Race report will follow when I get back.

Week recap:
Tuesday - 1.5 miles at 9:03 pace, 1 hour spin class, 1.5 miles @ 7:35 pace
Wednesday - 1400 yds, 200 warm, 5 - (2x50's + 1x100), 200 cool
Thursday - 0.4 miles at 9:15 pace. 2.5 miles @ 8:30 pace, straight to the bathroom before I crap in my run shorts, skipped the cooldown after the deposit
Today - pack stuff, clean bike, replace rim on my son's bike that my wife backed over and crushed

Injuries Suck

2008-05-12T18:35:00.000-07:00

Especially when you don't know why!!

My mother in law was in town for mothers day this weekend, so I was able to do my ride on Saturday morning. Hit the road early at around 6:40. Since I am racing this Saturday, I decided to go short and hard and then do a short faster run. Went 25 miles at 19.8 mph (fastest training loop ever, not very impressive I know) which is encouraging since I normally race about 0.5-1 mph faster than my training. Some mental block I have where I can't train as fast as I race. At Galveston, I rode 28 miles almost 1 mph faster than I had ever done a 25 mile training ride. Anyway, got back to the house and put on the running shoes immediately for a real brick. Headed out feeling good at about 8:30 pace. Got about 1 mile in and the rumblin' started. Pace got considerably slower from there. Got to the turn around at 1.25 and had to stop or I would have had an accident. Walked it off and then started again. Did the start/stop thing about 3 times before I finally made it to a port-o-potty at the corner about a 0.5 mile from the house where they are doing some construction. Felt much better after making a deposit, but the pace was already shot. Finished up the 2.5 miles with a 9:03 pace. Not what I am looking for next weekend. Hoping to run in the 8:15 range, we'll see.

Took a nap with the kids Saturday afternoon and woke up with a sharp pain in my right leg. This has happened the last three weekends after my "long" ride. My buddies tell me it is my IT band or hip flexor, but neither of them really fit the symptoms. Hurts the worst when I try to roll out of bed. For whatever reason, that motion puts the most torque on it and causes the most pain. It actually hurts on the right side of my right leg from the hip all the way down to my knee. I thought the hip flexor was more on top of your quad and that IT band injuries were normally isolated to just around the knee. I could be wrong on one of these since there was this one other time where I got something wrong, but I doubt it...Skipped my long run Sunday in hopes of it getting better, but it has been slow.

Swam today at lunch since I didn't feel like getting out the bed with the sore leg. Mornings are worse for me since my arthritis already has me sore in the mornings. Although, it has gotten way better since I have dropped 30 pounds. Lunch swim went great. I love swimming in the sun. Stayed short, 1400 yds, since I only had 30 minutes. Tomorrow is run and spin class. Hopefully the leg will feel better.

Fast Short Run

2008-05-08T19:22:00.000-07:00

In trying to make sure I keep my speed up in order to win the Shave Your 5K Challenge, Thursdays are speedwork days. Normally the work is done in a neighborhood across from the YMCA at 5 am. Didn't feel like getting up to my alarm this morning, so I turned it off and went back to sleep. Best decision that I've made this week. I was due for a 9 hour night of sleep and it felt good. Since I missed my run and swim, I decided to do the swimming at lunch and the running tonight after the kids went to bed.

The swimming went great. Knocked out my 1500 yds in a nice sunny lunch time dip. The water was awesome, and I had new goggles.They worked great, except for the fact that I didn't take the time to properly tighten them and anytime I would push of the wall too hard, they would lose suction for a second and let some water in. Will make sure to tighten them before next time.

Got home tonight and played with the kids, bathed them and got them to bed. Set out for 5 miles total with 4 - 800 meter repeats in the middle. Realized about 1/2 mile into my warm-up that I forgot my visor. That sucks. Luckily I was in my hood and doing my speedwork right by the house, so I just got it after my first interval. Numbers are as follows:

1 - 8:44, 0.5 - 3:16, 0.25 - 2:20, 0.5 - 3:35, 0.25 - 2:25, 0.5 - 3:28, 0.25 - 2:26, 0.5 - 3:34, 0.25 - 2:30, 1.05 - 8:50

Total: 5.05 in 43:03 (8:31 pace), Intervals: 6:56 pace average

If I could only run a 5k with that type of pace, then I would have something!!

Finally, A "Long" Run

2008-05-07T18:20:00.000-07:00

After what seemed like a gazillion weeks of skipping my long run, I finally got it in on Sunday night. Never mind that it was only 4.1 miles, hardly long by running standards, but I think anything longer than a 5k can count as a long run. Especially after biking 42.5 miles in the mid afternoon sun. It all started Sunday morning when I got the kids up to take them to see their mother race in the Rocketchix Triathlon. We stopped for doughnuts at Mary Lee donuts, and got 1/2 dozen chocolate covered and almost 2 dozen doughnut holes. Each of the kids had a chocolate covered and I had 3. They each had about a half dozen doughnut holes. Payed for it later in the day when they became uncontrollable on their sugar crash. Anyway, back to the race. It was a ladies only race, like the name doesn't give that away, held at LSU. It was a 350m swim, 12 mile bike and 2 mile run. She did great. Came in 10th in her age group out of like 25 ladies and knocked over 3 minutes off her time from last year. She really improved her bike going around 1.5 mph faster than last year. She really had a great time.

Can't beat that kind of smile post race.

That afternoon, I got the kids down for a nap and took off on my ride about 1:45 pm. Knocked out 42.5 at about a 18.3 pace. Not that great, since I felt like crap and it was windy. It is getting to the point in the year where you either finish your ride before 11 am or you start after 5 pm. It was only in the mid 80's, but the humidity was ridiculous. Got home and was going to do a brick run, but the fam wanted to go to Sonic and get ice cream. So we did that instead. Ended up running after they went to bed. Did 4.1 miles @ 9:15 pace.

Monday, I swam 2400 yds with a long set of 1500 yds. Tuesday was running 3.6 miles before spin, one hour spin class and then 1 mile after spin. Today was a rest day and tomorrow is speedwork and swimming. Next week is a slight taper week since I am racing next Saturday. Not that I am training for anything particular, but I at least want to be a little fresh when I race. Then I have to pick a plan for the rest of the year to keep things interesting. Racing in south Louisiana in June - August is no fun at all. May do one race in August before the two big races in September.

Just the Basics

2008-05-01T19:35:00.000-07:00

Yet another training week of going through the motions. Sunday was supposed to be a 45-50 mile ride, but I just didn't feel it. Ended up cutting it off at 31 miles. Spent the rest of the day hanging out with the family, I think. For the life of me, I can't remember what I did Sunday afternoon. Got home early from riding and did some kid toy purging. After that, I cannot remember! Now I am going to have to look like an idiot and ask my wife to remind me what we did Sunday, hope it wasn't important...Oh yeah, almost forgot, skipped my long run yet again. This is like 6 weeks strong without a long run.

Monday was swimming and I made it for the second week straight. Hammered out around 2650 yds with a long set of 1250 in the middle. Lifted some weights with Big Poppa and the Hornet afterwards. It was apparently too cold out (58 degrees) for them to get in the water (80 degrees). They are looking for any excuse not to swim. Man, I am going to feel bad for them when I beat them by like 10 minutes in a sprint...

Tuesday was brick day with a 4 mile run preceding spin class. We actually got to use the seat in spin class, for at least a couple of minutes. Was going to run 1 more mile afterwards, but just didn't feel like it. Wednesday was a rest day again. Seems like I have permanently moved Wednesday lunch swim to Thursday morning. This morning was run speedwork and swimming. Nobody showed and I was having stomach issues so I ran on the dreadmill inside just in case. Good thing to because after my typical 5:15 am "deposit at the bank", I had to hit it after my first one mile repeat. Ended up going 4.5 total, 1 mile warm, 2 - 7:08 pace mile intervals with 0.5 mile recoveries and then 0.5 mile cool down. The Hornet said she was going to swim, but I knew that was just wishful thinking. Got in the pool around 6:15 next to another triathlete acquaintance, Don. He is about 10 seconds per hundred faster than me, so it was good to swim next to him. Kept me motivated. Most times, I'm next to some guy swimming like 1:10 100's and it is pretty demoralizing. Don is in the 1:35-1:40 range, so I could kind of keep up. Swam 1500 yds.

Going to run 4 sometime tomorrow, hopefully. Got a lot going on and the wife is riding in the afternoon one last time before her first tri of the season on Sunday. She is trying to shave about 6-7 minutes off her time from last year at this same distance. Mostly on the swim and bike. She rode Tuesday with Big Poppa's wife and average 17.6 mph over a 25.2 mile ride. She is hoping to go about that fast on Sunday on a 12 mile course. Should be doable even after a 350m swim. Sunday will be hard to fit in a ride, but going to try to get in 40-50 and a 5k run. Need to get that bike run brick in a couple of times before twin cities tri in a few weeks.

Bloggin' Ain't Easy

2008-04-25T19:40:00.000-07:00

Blogging is tough work. I never can find the time, never have cool enough material like all the other blogs I read, and just have a generally tough time putting 2 sentences together at 10 pm. However, I am not a quitter so I guess we'll keep plugging along. So what has been up since Sunday?? A bunch of whining.

My kids seemed to have reverted back to babies. All that me and my wife have been hearing from the kids is whine, whine, whine. It is enough to make a sane person do irrational things like bribery with candy or chocolate. All I am asking for is 15 minutes of peace, but that would be impossible. God knows I love 'em to death, but a man can only handle so much whining. They look like little angels, but don't turn your back for longer than 30 seconds or it's over...

On to the training. Finally made it to the pool on a Monday morning since my race in Galveston. Some of the regulars actually noticed that I had been missing. It feels good to know that people take notice when you are not around. Got in around 2200 yards. Big Poppa finally showed up at the pool for the first time I think since last September. He and his wife are doing the Twin Cities Tri in mid May also. He figured he better get in the water at least a few times before the race. After swimming, we lifted weights. Basically the "beach" muscles (chest, bi's and tri's) and some core.

Tuesday was brick day. The Hornet actually showed up early, 5 am, to do some running. Got in 4.65 at a 9 min pace for some good easy running. We met Big Poppa at spin and did intervals for an hour. It was actually more like an hour of standing hill training...

Wednesday was a rest day. Thursday was another brick day since I skipped the Wednesday lunch swim. Got to the Y at 5 am and waited a few minutes to see if any of my training "partners" would show. Nobody came, so I was off for speedwork on my own. Goal was 1 mile warm, 3 mile tempo at 7:34 and 1 mile cool. Did the tempo at 7:31 pace and made it the full 5 miles. Speedwork by yourself sucks. Can't complain though, just sorry that my training "partners" haven't been putting in the same effort. It was more fun when we all trained together. At least they are still there most days to keep me motivated even if we aren't training together anymore.

Was supposed to run 4 today, but decided just to eat all afternoon instead. So far since noon, I have had 2 hamburgers, barbequed sausage and pork, rice with stewed tomatoes, two bowls of chocolate chex mix, a cup of ice cream with milk and I think I am about to get another cup of ice cream to top it off.

Long Run

2008-04-20T18:42:00.001-07:00

This is me skipping my "long" run. Just can't seem to get motivated to go run 8 miles. Not a good thing. 10 miles a week is not cutting it. Can't get faster if you don't put in the time. At least I got in the 4 miler that was scheduled for Friday. Did it on Saturday morning instead, but at least I did it. Saturday afternoon was spent eating come Crawfish with the kids at my company picnic.

Man, that looks tasty. Went by my parents after that for some more crawfish, but they weren't ready in time. We had to leave to get to church on time.

Got up this morning to put in 50. Started out around 6:45. The Parish just paved the remainder of the road that we ride on, so now I can simply leave straight from the house instead of driving to miss the 0.5 mile gravel section. Made it really easy since I didn't have to pack everything in the truck. Also saved some gas...Ended up putting in 46 at 18.7mph. Not blazing, but I felt sore from the 4 miler on Saturday. I try to use Saturday as a rest so I'm not sore for my Sunday am ride, but it didn't work out that way. Of course if I was running 20 miles a week, 4 milers wouldn't make me sore. The ride was pretty uneventful as I was by myself. Big Poppa and his wife sold out since they partied too hard last night at a co-workers wedding.

Had to get home on time since the in-laws were watching my kids. The wife was taking part in a riding clinic at 9 am. She had a great time learning to ride in a paceline and was part of the "A" group which also made her excited. They rode 11 miles at around a 19 mph pace. She is racing in the Rocketchix Triathlon in a couple of weeks and is getting ready.

Swimming on tap for the morning is if I can get my butt out of bed. Haven't made a Monday workout in the past three weeks. I think I need a big race to get me motivated again. These 5k's and sprints just aren't doing the trick...

Racing Lull

2008-04-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

After racing for 4 weekends straight, this weekend is time off. Matter of fact, no more races until May 17. That is good for the wallet, but not so good for the training. Seems like my motivation has started to fall a little. Only been hitting the Y twice a week and have only been swimming once a week. Skipped my long runs the last two weekends after racing on Saturday. Time to get my butt in gear on the long runs. I think they helped tremendously for the CCC 10k and a little bit on the Quarter Iron. Helped me to hold the pace at the end of the race (didn't mean for that to be a corny rhyme). Need to get back to doing them, although it is hard to push when I am only doing one sprint tri, Twin Cities, over the next 3 months.

Training recap for the week, pretty unimpressive if I must say so myself. Monday - rested (slacked would be a better description), Tuesday - swam 1400 yds and then did spin class for an hour, Wednesday - slacker again, Thursday - 4 miles total consisting of one mile warmup, 3 1/2 mile repeats at 6:44 pace with 1/4 mile recoveries and then 0.75 mile cooldown. I am supposed to run 4 @ 8:55 pace tonight, but we'll see. I'm sure I'll find some excuse. Have a company picnic on Saturday and then a long bike planned for Sunday. Have a good weekend.

5k Again

2008-04-13T19:34:00.000-07:00

Another weekend, another race. Had another 5k this weekend, The Baton Rouge Corporate Cup. Ran it with 19 other people from the office. Around 1300 runners total, which for Baton Rouge, is a big event. Ended up running a 22:50, which was slower than last week by 3 seconds. Was not very happy about it. Ran a 6:30 first mile, stupid. That took it out of me and I never recovered. Splits went 6:30, 7:50, 7:43, 0:47 for a 7:22 average. Definitely need to get back into doing my long runs. I had been making great strides until racing started getting in the way. Missing my long runs on the weekends has been detrimental to increasing the speed. Didn't lose my bet though. I had bet the whole company that for each person who beat me, I would give them $5 each. Paul was the closest at around 23:40. The only other guy who had even talked any smack ended up going around 27. He was a runner in college and could put in some sub 20 5k's. Hasn't run seriously in a while and thought he could just come blow it out and beat me. Doesn't quite work that way...

Rode around 44 miles this morning. Rode the first 12.5 solo at about a 20mph pace. Of course, I only know that because I used my watch and knew the distance. My bike computer battery has gone out, but I didn't realize it until I took it off the rack last night. Not enough time to get a new battery. Was supposed to meet the Hornet, Heater, and possibly DebE at the the 12.5 mile mark. Only the Hornet showed up. Rode about 22 miles at around 18mph with the Hornet and then about 9.5 solo again somewhere around 20 mph. Averaged around 19 for the whole ride, but that is an approximation since I had no bike computer.

Bad Week

2008-04-10T20:06:00.000-07:00

Things at home have not been the greatest this week. My son has been sick and has been up at all hours of the night, literally. I think I got up at least half a dozen times last night, and put him in the bed with us for about a 2 hour stretch somewhere in there. We never do that. In his 2.5 years on this planet, he may have slept in our bed at most 3 times. It is something we did from day one with both our kids, no sleeping in Mommy and Daddy's bed. That is why they have rooms and beds of their own. To this day, neither of them get out of their bed until we come and get them. It is one of the few great triumphs I can claim as a parent. They may destroy the house, scream at the top of their lungs, and beat each other up, but they do not sleep in my bed...

In addition, the wife has been sick also, although she has done one bang up job on the house this week. It is awesome to come home to a clean pad and dinner on the table. She has dinner most nights, but when two kids attack the house, it is hard to keep it picked up. With one kid down due to sickness, she has seized her opportunity.

Training on 4 hours sleep is not much fun. I took Monday off after mountain biking 30 miles this weekend. Skipped swimming again which has been the norm since my race two weeks ago. Tuesday I got up late after battling the sick kid all night, so I barely made it to spin on time at 5:45. Tried to put in my scheduled 3 miles after spin, but after one mile I had to hit the bank for a deposit, if you know what I mean. Wednesday ended up being another rest day as I was too busy at work to hit my scheduled lunch swim.

This morning's schedule was for speedwork. After the 4 long hours of sleep I got last night, none of it continuous, the last thing I wanted to do was go workout. I pulled my butt out of bed anyway and got to the Y for 5:15. Hit the treadmill for my "speed" workout. 1.5 mile warm-up at 8:57 pace followed by 3 -1/2 mile repeats at 6:39 pace with 1/4 mile recoveries. Made it through all 3 without having to lower the pace, so I felt good. Finished it off with 1.25 miles at 9 min pace for 5 miles total. Then I got in the pool. It sucked. Now I know why they do the swimming first. If I had to swim after running, I wouldn't do a triathlon. Somehow managed to get in 1400 yds. Tried 100yd repeats, but could barely get any rest trying to do them on 2:05. That normally gives me 20-25 seconds rest, but not this morning. I think the second to last one, I only got like 7 seconds rest. Definitely not my best effort.

Taking it easy tomorrow in preparation for the 5k on Saturday. Only really have to worry about one other fellow employee who has a slim chance to beat me. Years ago, he could run sub 20 5k's, but that was before he quit running for 5 years and has gotten into his mid 40's. I think he is just bluffing me with the smack talk, but we will see come Saturday. The goal is to run sub 22:30 which would be a PR. The 22:47 that I ran last week at Fat Boy is my current PR, but I hope that is short lived. The course there was hilly and the course Saturday will be flat as can be. Hopefully that will push me under the 7:15 pace I have been training for.

Weekend

2008-04-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

Ran the fat boy 5k on Saturday morning. Ran a PR of 22:47 in the "hills". For Baton Rouge, that is one hilly course. The Fleet Feet Fatties (myself, Will and Big Poppa) entered the team competition. You had to have three runners with a combined weight of 650 or more. We made it barely. Our combined time was around 71 minutes which was good for 3rd place in the team division. We got a huge Chocolate Bunny for our 3rd place finish, this is the Fat Boy 5k, so what else would you expect for a prize but chocolate.

Went to Lake Kincaid after the race for some R&R, camping and mountain biking. Rode 11.2 miles Saturday afternoon with Big Poppa and then put in 11.2 more with the whole crew this morning. My wife, Big Poppa, Alison and Seth.

After lunch, I left the wife at the camp to nap and I went and put it another 7 miles. With about 2 miles left, my rear derailleur broke off. Had to push the bike up the hills and ride down the backside of the hills. Not a very good ending to an otherwise good trip. It was short, but it was fun none the less. Right around 30 miles for the trip. Skipping the long run this weekend and skipping swimming tomorrow.

Report Continued

2008-04-03T20:26:00.001-07:00

Got onto the bike course and got passed the two speed bumps and the no passing zone with no problems. The course was along the Galveston seawall for a couple of miles and then turns and is shielded from the coast by homes, condos and the like. The wind actually was pretty much straight out of the south, so 90% of the wind was a cross-wind. The bike leg was about what I expected. There were a lot of people flatting though. Don't really know why either. Road wasn't rough, wasn't wet and there wasn't any debris or anything in the road. Saw no less than half a dozen flats including my buddy Kevin at about mile 16. He ended up sitting there for 32 minutes since he had no tube or pump. He had to wait for the support crew. Nothing special to report. Just put my head down and hammered (for me anyway). Got back to T2 in 1:25 for a 19.8 mph average for the 28 miles. Fastest average in a race by me so far by a full 1 mph. Jumped off the bike and made my way to my spot. Got my run gear stuff on and out of transition in just over a minute. Then came the run...

Felt good coming out of T2 and looked down at my watch to see around 1:51. My goal coming in was 2:55ish, but after seeing the 1:51, I thought somewhere around 2:45 was attainable. Wrong!!! I have been doing a ton of run training since we did the 10k last week and to get my run faster in Tri's. Thought to myself that I could run 8:30's. The 10k last week was at 7:52's so I didn't think 8:30 would be too hard. Never could get going. Started out at 9's to get my HR down a little since I believe I had gone too hard on the bike. Couldn't get it below 92%. Kept trying, but I just couldn't recover. Started to see the 2:45 slipping away, quick. After about 3 miles of running 9 minute pace, I was quickly realizing that was all I had in the tank for the day. So, instead of getting down and ticked off, I started high-fiving everyone.

First saw my kids around the 3.5 mile mark and gave each of them a big wave and two huge high-fives. That is my son in front and my daughters hand in the back.

High fived countless people after that. High-fived one race volunteer and she said "Finally, my first high five of the day!". There was a row of about 6 ladies sitting on the curb at one point and I high-fived all of them in a row. Gave shout outs to kids along the course and to the pirates at the turnarounds. My only complaint about the race was the run course. It is too cut up, has too many turns and turnarounds. You never had just long straightaways where you could get in a good rhythm. Aid stations were well stocked with Gatorade, water, defizzed cola, gels, cliff shots, cliff bars and other stuff that I always passed up. Had one shot of Gatorade and a cup of water on the head at every aid station. Between aid station after about mike 4, they had sponge handouts. They were glorious. It was getting warm around that time and the sponges felt great. Never got below 9 minute miles and ended up running 9:09 pace for the 6.5 mile run. Wasn't happy with it, but at least I didn't walk at all and I finished at 2:50:50, which was 4 minutes ahead of my goal. Ended up 307 out of 730, which met my goal that I made at the start of the year to be in the top 50% at every race. I believe in making attainable goals.

Definitely a race I would recommend and will do again. Maybe next time it will be the half. Most likely will have to skip it next year since I plan on doing the New Orleans half IM which will be right around the same time as Lonestar next year.

Did speedwork this morning, 1 mile @ 9:00, 2.65 @ 7:24, 0.35 @ 7:41, and 0.5 mile at 10:00. Lifted weights after that since Big Poppa was in spin class, the Hornet was a sellout after a late night on the town, and my new training partner Dr. Roy couldn't make it. Taking tomorrow off before the Fatboy 5k on Saturday and then off to Alexandria for camping/mountain biking for Saturday and Sunday.

Race Report

2008-04-01T18:45:00.000-07:00

Got to bed around 11:00 on Saturday night. Slept pretty good until around 4:15 am. Woke up to go to the bathroom and could not go to sleep after that. Tossed and turned until my alarm went off at 5:30. Got up and got dressed. Sneaked out the back door since my son was sleeping in the room with us. The wife would have been super ticked if I would have woken him up at 5:40 in the morning. Jammed on the way to the race. Even caught some "Crank Dat"(Soulja Boy) in honor of my boy Kevin. Of course, I didn't get to rock it in the parking lot of the race like him and his sister...

Got to the race around 6:15 and unloaded my stuff. Got the tires pumped up and headed over to transition. On the way, I spot Kevin at the Mavic bike trailer. He had a flat rear tire, luckily before the race. He ended up having another flat during the race also. That sucked. Found my spot in transition and set up my gear. Talked to a couple guys around me. The guy directly next to me was doing his first race. Three other buddies of his were supposed to be doing it, but they bailed. He was the only one to stick it out. He asked for a few pointers. I told him all I knew and not to put too much faith in any of it since this was only my 4th race and my longest one so far. Was one row over from Chris Boggs (Slim 210), who is a member of BRTri. We had never formally met since I am not actually a member of BRTri, just hang out on the forum. Chris is a super nice guy and is making great strides in his weight loss goals. He is doing an awesome job and has an awesome attitude. One of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet. Dude rode a 21.5 mph average in the Quarter, that kicks butt! Talked with Chris for a minute or two and then put my stuff away in my truck. Made my way down to the half IM start to catch some BRTri peeps before they hit the water. Wished Sean, Luke and Cullen good luck before it was time for them to get ready. Stood around an watched the half starts with Kevin and family. Realized I was only one of a handful of people without a wetsuit.

The Quarter start was around 8:30 and since I was in the first wave, I made my way down to the water to get a little practice swim in and get over the shock of the 70 degree water. Wasn't really that bad. I also had to try out some new goggles since my goggles did some serious fogging during the practice swim on Friday. The goggles worked out perfectly, so all was well. Coming out of the water from the practice swim, I spotted my Dad. They had made it in time, but ended up it was just him. My wife, kids and mom were at the swim finish and couldn't make it over in time before I had to head to the dock for the start. They sang the national anthem and it was time to go.

Got in the water and floated out to the start line. Treaded water for about a minute, not too bad, and they counted us down. The swim was pretty uneventful. Didn't get kicked, swam over, punched or swam under and I stayed pretty much on course. Ended up swimming the 1000 meters in 22:30 which was a little better than I was hoping (25 min). One advantage of no wetsuit was not having to take it off, although they had wetsuit strippers which made the process way quicker. Dropped my goggles up the ramp and had to stop and pick them up. The family was waiting right at the end of the ramp, so I high-fived my wife and the kids. Got in and out of T1 okay. A little slower than normal since I decided to wear socks this time. I normally don't but since I hadn't been training sockless, I didn't want to risk the blisters. That added about 45 seconds to a minute since I had to semi-dry my feet and legs. Got out of transition in just over 2 minutes and jumped on my bike.

I'll post the rest tomorrow. Need to knock out 5 miles at 8:55 pace. No rest for the weary. Doing two 5k races the next two weekends and then an off road Tri on May 3.

Race Tomorrow

2008-03-29T15:20:00.000-07:00

Been too occupied with race week to post. Currently sitting on the porch of a camp on a bay near Galveston getting ready to boil some shrimp and crabs. Too bad I can't eat them because of the race in the morning. It is still nice and enjoyable just hanging out watching the kids play.

Wednesday was a rest day and I got to enjoy it a little. We had to pack Wednesday night since we were leaving as soon as I got home from work on Thursday night. Thursday morning was speedwork workout consisting of 5 miles total with 4x800 repeats @ 3:25 pace making up the workout with one mile warmup and recovery.

Got home Thursday afternoon and loaded the car with our junk and the kids. Left home around 6 for Galveston. Stopped in Lafayette at Waffle House for our traditional traveling meal of waffles and chocolate milk. Made it to the camp in Galveston around 11 Thursday night and hit the hay.

Got up Friday morning and ate some of my Dad's famous butter-laced pancakes. He cooks them in a skillet with about a stick of butter for every half-dozen pancakes. The butter mixes with the batter on the edges and makes a nice butter crust around the pancake. They are awesome. Spent the day at the Kemah Boardwalk with the kids. Went to the race site around 3:30 to meet a friend from Houston to do a practice swim. I was one of about 4 people out of 60-70 doing the practice swim at the time who did not have a websuit. The water was a nice and warm 70 degrees. Only took my breath away for a second. Actually wasn't that bad. Swam 700-800m. Wind was with us on the way out, but in our face on the way back in. Not too bad, but a slight chop was making breathing a salt water drinking proposition. Only drank a few swallows, when I was sighting. Went to the expo and picked up our tickets for the attractions at Moody Gardens. Barbequed ribeyes was the meal for Friday night and they were great. Got to bed early to make sure I got my 8 hours two nights before the race. The wife let me sleep late.

Saturday morning's breakfast was sausage and egg burritos. We spent the day today at Moody Gardens. Went to the race meeting around lunch and picked up my packet. Saw a few BRTri folks, DebE, Rocketboy, Luke and Cullen at packet pick-up. Got backto the camp around 3 and the ladies went shopping. Laid in the bed while the kids napped. The water is boiling now and getting ready to put the crabs in. Going to get to bed early after getting my stuff together for the morning. Have to get there early even though my start isn't until 8:30 am. Transition closes at 7:00 due to the half racers starting at 7:30. My age group is first with the Pro/Elites in the quarter. Sucks being in the 30-34 age group now. I'm now with the fastest guys out there and get put with the elites. Nothing like bringing up the rear. Hopefully the wind will be as forecast and only in the 8-10mph range. Of course, it will be in our face on the way back in. Woohoo!!

Race Report

2008-03-25T21:08:00.001-07:00

The weekend went great. Started off Friday afternoon with departure time of 4PM. Of course I was riding with 2 women, my wife and one of my training partners, The Hornet. Always going to be late when ladies getting dressed for the town is involved. So we left around 4:15, not too bad. Traffic was light since it was Good Friday, so we made good time. Got to the race expo in downtown N.O. around 5:30ish and met Big Poppa, Reba and Word. Parked and went up to pick up our packet.

Picked up our packet and found out that we were not getting a free timing chip. Ticked me off. We had run the Crescent City qualifier in November in order to get a runners spot and a chip. They failed to mention in the race description that only classes A to C get a free chip and a seeded runner's position. Class D gets jack squat. We had the same color bib as the people who did nothing but register and put in a time of less than 1 hour whether or not they could actually run that fast. Needless to say, Iwas not happy. Had to pay $5 for a chip and hope and pray that we could sneak to the front of the race so we would not be behind all the walkers who come up to the middle of the pack pre-race. Dangerous trying to run through a wall of walkers 4 and 5 abreast in the street. We left the expo and went to eat at Adolfo's. Great pre-race meal, the food is always excellent and very reasonably priced. No matter what the reviews say, the service is never any worse than at any other New Orleans restaurant. Stopped by Cafe Du Monde after dinner and picked up Bengiets to go. The wife had to pick up her brother from a friend's place and head back to BR since she had to work. Got to sleep about 11ish after some laughing. No matter how old you are, when someone cuts a juicy fart in bed, it is funny, regardless of whether they made the sound with their mouth or not.

For some ungodly reason, Big Poppa had set the alarm for 6:00 am and the race was at 8:30. We were within 0.5 mile from the race start. Got up and cleared the stomach issues. Laid around until about 7:30, got up and got dressed. We jogged over to the starting area and tried to get at the front with our buddy Word who had a seeded position. Marine guys were having none of it, so we got in line where we were supposed to and then snuck up to the front. Ended up about 75-100' behind the start line. The gun went off and we ended up getting to the start line around 20 seconds behind the gun. Turned out to be right were we needed to be.

The Hornet and I got caught up in the initial wave and ran a 7:25 first mile. A little quick, but it didn't feel that quick. In such tight quarters for the first mile, it feels like you are going slower than you are. Slowed the pace a little during mile 2. The Hornet told me to go on around mile 2 since she wasn't feeling the pace during the race. I slowly pulled away and stayed around a minute under my goal of 50 minutes up to mile 5. Passed 2 bands, the beer handouts, donut handouts and the hot dog handouts. Tried to get the lady with the hose to spray me about mile 3.5, but she missed me. Had a near collision at mile 4 when a guy decided to come to a dead stop in front of me at the water station. Not cool, dodged him and came out unscathed.

At mile 5, I was about a minute below the goal, so I pushed it on mile 6 to see if I could make up enough time to hit the 48 minute goal. Wasn't feeling it until another runner from Baton Rouge, who rane a 47 minute, came past me. I knew she was faster than me, so I stayed with her for the last kick. She ended up slowing for the last 0.2, as did I. Ended up at 48:45, which was great. Didn't meet the fast goal, but I'll take the 13 minute improvement from last year. Post race party was fun. Got back to BR around 4ish.

Biked 25 miles at 19.2 mph on Sunday. Swam 1800 yds on Monday. Ran 2 miles, did spin class and then ran 1.5 miles at 8:00 pace this morning. Tomorrow is a rest day, speedwork on Thursday and leaving for Galveston Thursday night for the Lonestar Quarter.

Finished

2008-03-22T14:48:00.000-07:00

Hit the main goal of 50 minutes, but missed the fast goal of 48. Ran a 48:45 10k, which is 13:14 faster than I ran the same race last year. Not too shabby I guess.

Splits:
Mile 1 - 7:25
Mile 2 - 7:58 (15:23)
Mile 3 - 7:47 (23:10)
Mile 4 - 8:01 (31:11)
Mile 5 - 7:59 (39:10)
Mile 6 - 7:55 (47:05)
Mile 6.2 - 1:40 (48:45)
Average: 7:52 pace

Race report tomorrow or Monday.

10K

2008-03-20T19:08:00.001-07:00

The training is officially over as of this morning. Time to go do some running.

Tuesday was the typical run and spin morning. Got to the Y, hammered out 2 miles at 9:00 pace and went to spin. Spin instructor was late which always puts her in a funky mood. So we did lots of out of the seat riding and the last 10 minutes was brutal. 30 seconds of out of your seat climbing followed by 30 seconds of light resistance seated push at a cadence of about 110. Then we swapped it around for a few minutes and did low resistance standing climbs and then high resistance seated climbs. It sucked. Couldn't keep my heart rate below 85% on the pushes. Did one mile after spin at 7:30 pace.

We moved our speedwork from Thursday to Wednesday so we could get in a slow day after the speedwork and still have one rest day before the race. Wednesday is my morning to sleep in, but I had plans to get up at home and run. Didn't happen since it stormed about 2am and the power went out, which disrupted my sleep since it got so hot. So I was going to run after I put the kids to bed last night. Well, one of our friend's children fell out of a shopping basket at a store while my wife just happened to be there. They had to call 911 and make a hospital visit. The child was okay, but my wife wanted to make them a treat after their ordeal. So she made them a desert and brought it over as soon as I got home. I fed the kids and got them to bed. She then called and said she was heading over to another friends house to help make some cookies and hang out. She gets home around 9:40 so I get to start my run at 9:45 pm. Normally doesn't bother me unless I am scheduled to get up early to train the next morning, which I was. Ended up cutting the warm-up and cool-down to 1/2 mile instead of one mile. The speedwork was supposed to be 3 miles @ 8:00 pace.

Nature was out to get me. First, there was a 15-20 mph wind that was blowing directly down my route. It gave me a headwind for about 1/2 the run. Second, a dog chased me. One of those that acts friendly until you pass them and then tries to bite you on the heals. Freakin' sissy dogs is what I call them. If you're man enough, attack from the front. Don't sneak up behind me like a sissy. So I had to turn and face him down to stop him from making chopped liver of my calf. Last thing was that my freakin' Nike comes untied with 0.5 mile to go. Ain't no way I'm stopping now, I'll trip and faceplant before I stop and tie my shoe. Made it in 23:13 for a 7:50 pace. Not spectacular, but with all that happened felt I could have went faster. The second mile is where I lost it. Ran 7:20 pace for the first 1.2 and then 8:40 pace on the next 0.8 which is where most of the headwind was at.

This morning I got in the pool for my shorter swim day. The air temp was 44 with the pool around 81 on the heater end and around 77-78 on the opposite end. Warmed-up and then realized I forgot to put on my watch. Got out of the pool, freezing cold, and got my watch from the locker room. The water might as well have been the tropics when I got back in. Made 78 degree water feel awesome. Did some 100's on 2:00 intervals which gave me about 20 second rests between each since I was swimming 1:40's. Then hit some 50's on 1:05. Went 1800 total and then inside for the last run of the training. The Hornet was just finishing up her 3 miles. Chatted for a minute and then I ended up just going 1 mile at 9:20. Felt like crap after having just done speedwork like 9 hours before. Shut her down and did some core work.

Going down to New Orleans to go to the Crescent City Classic Expo tomorrow afternoon and then going out to eat at Adolfo's. A little italian-creole place down past the French Market. Staying at a hotel downtown within walking distance of the race. 48 minute 10k here I come. Last year was a 1:01:59, so anything will be an improvement. The real goal is 50 minutes, but the feeling good, made it through the crowd on the first mile goal is 48. We'll see...

Race Week

2008-03-17T18:34:00.000-07:00

Finally, it has arrived. After 15 weeks, we are down to a few days. It couldn't come soon enough. Especially after running 13.1 weekend before this last one. I never thought it would hit me like it did. A few days before I ran the 13.1, I read an article online about recovering mentally from a marathon and to a smaller degree a half-marathon. About how it could take a newer runner weeks to recover mentally from running those longer distances. Quietly thought to myself, how could one event so damage your psyche that you would not want to run for weeks. Experienced it after the half and riding 44 miles the next day. Monday thru Wednesday of last week, I wanted nothing to do with running. Didn't feel right until Thursday of last week.

The schedule for the weekend was 4 slow miles on Friday, rest Saturday and 12 on Sunday. We had decided last week that we were going to cut the Sunday run in half to have a good taper for the 10k this weekend. Friday night I did an all out 5k just to see what I could do since I have some 5k races coming up. Ran a 23:13 and was sorely disappointed. That is only 7:29 pace. Thought I was faster than that. Like any good runner, not that I am one, there is a list of disclaimers:

1. I had done speedwork Thursday morning so my mindset was on a slow run and I was sore from the speedwork.
2. There is a 20-25' valley on my 3.1 mile loop around mile 1.4 and again on 1.8. Lost at least 15-20 seconds on that.
3. It was about 80 degrees with 95% humidity so I couldn't breathe.
4. I was wearing a cotton shirt, and everyone knows you can no longer run fast in a cotton shirt with all that dry-fit stuff out there.

Those things being what they are, I am shooting for 22:30 in my upcoming 5k's. That is 7:15 pace, which is blazin' fast for a 5'9" 200 lb slowpoke.

Saturday I had the kids, so it was definitely a rest day. Dropped them off at my parents for the night though and my better half and I enjoyed the first boiled crawfish of the year. They were a little bit on the small side, but they were great. Thanks Big Poppa! Sunday we had an Easter egg hunt at some friends where we met back up with the kids. Then the kids, the wife and my mother went to the Elmo musical, while I went training.

I wanted to go mountain bike riding instead of road riding just to mix it up a little bit. Was a little wary about screwing something up this close to the races, but figured I was good. Ended up going around 15 miles with only one mishap. I was going up the largest and hardest hill out there, maybe 20' tall, when I hit a root the wrong way. The hill is not as easy as one would think being only 20' tall. You are going down the trail and you actually make about a 120 degree turn while going up this hill that has no less than a dozen roots that you have to pick your way through. I would say 75% of the people do not make it up most of the time. This was one of the first times in a while that I didn't make it and I was not happy about it. Luckily I was close enough to the top and somehow came unclipped with my uphill foot and planted it right on top of the hill so that I at least didn't go tumbling back down. In that move I somehow smashed my right inner thigh against my handle bars. Ended up with a nice 4-6" bruise on my inner thigh. Left the trails and went to the LSU lakes to get my run in. Went 6.4 in 58:55 for a 9:12 average. Was saltier than normal after the run due to the crawfish from the day before. Once again thank goodness for construction sites. Felt the stomach getting ready to blow around mile 2.5. Made it to the port-a-potty at about mile 3. Got to the door and it was locked with a master lock. Oh no, this could be trouble. Went around the corner and found another one that was fortunately not locked.

This morning I got up and the thigh wasn't that bad since I had iced it Sunday night. Finally talked myself into going to the Y for my Monday swim. The pool was just right, upper 70's. Warmed up and then did 1500 yards straight. That is 60 pool lengths for you that are mathematically challenged. Felt like I could have gone 40 more if I would have had the time. Put in 2800 yds total. Still slow, barely breaking 2:00 100's on the long set, but at least I feel like I'll be fresh when I come out of the water at Lonestar.

Tomorrow is 3 mile slow and spin. It will tell me all I need to know about my thigh. If I can make it through tomorrow, then I have nothing to worry about come Saturday.

Tough Week

2008-03-13T19:58:00.000-07:00

Haven't really felt like posting or training this week. 16 weeks of training is taking its toll.

The long run for the weekend was supposed to be 12 miles. Well, weeks ago I had decided that if I was going to go 12, I might as well do an extra 1.1 and go 13.1 for my first half marathon. Mapped out a run on Map My Run, which is a great tool by the way. The route was around the house.

Prairieville 3
Find more Runs in Prairieville, Louisiana

It takes a lot of street to make up 13.1, let me tell you. Decided to look at my watch as little as possible and just run by feel. Was supposed to be running 9:30 pace. Only looked at the watch 3 times during the whole run. Ended up running a 1:56:48, which for you math buffs is a 8:53 pace. My heart rate stayed in the 80-82%range the entire time, except maybe the last 1/2 mile where I was pushing to go under 1:57. Felt great and I am happy to be able to say that I have run a half-marathon.

Sunday was cold to start the day, especially since time had changed. Met Word at his place to pick him up to head to St. Franny to put in 50 miles in the hills. This was my last long ride on my schedule before Lonestar later this month. Ended up going 44 miles somewhere around a 17.5 mph pace. We were around 18 mph for the first 30 and then slowed on the last 14 since Word hasn't ridden but maybe 3 times since he broke his leg. Not too shabby for your 3rd ride back from a broken leg. There were a couple of hills that were no joke.

Monday, I begrudginly got out of the bed to swim. Got there at 5:20 and cut it short at 2100 yds. Training partners were no shows at first and then the Hornet showed up for weights around 6:15.

Tuesday was run and spin. Schedule had 5 miles, I only went 2 since I felt like crap. Probably should have skipped spin but went anyway with Big Poppa and the Hornet.

Wednesday was 4 miles and swim, but after 10 days straight of training I decided to skip. Left work early to take the wife and kids to the members only party at the Aquarium in New Orleans. Spent the afternoon and evening in N.O.

Got up this morning, headed to the Y. The schedule had a tempo run, 6 miles at 8:14. Ended up cutting it to 4 miles @ 8:01 since the race is only 9 days away. Wanted a little bit more of a taper than the schedule called for. Running 8 this weekend and doing a 25 mile mountain bike ride instead of road riding this weekend. Need to get some mountain bike miles in before our camping/riding trip in April and the Xterra in May.

13.1

2008-03-09T19:08:00.000-07:00

Ran 13.1 on Saturday morning in 1:56:48. Not too shabby for a fat slow runner. Biked 45 this morning. No time, I'll post up tomorrow with the details.

Short Shorts

2008-03-06T18:15:00.000-08:00

Who wears short shorts? Apparently me, at least in my wife's opinion. Got my new TYR tri shorts in on Wednesday from Sports Basement.

She calls me at work. "Honey, your tri shorts came in." Me: "Good, are they nice?" Her: "Yeah, they are nice. They are really short though. You do realize that half your extended family is coming to this race right??" Me: "Yes, I remeber. Well, I guess they'll all just get to see me up close and personal." Then she busts out in the Nair theme song "Who Wears Short Shorts".

When I got home and tried them on, they weren't really that bad. The 6" shorts I had were a little more modest, but who cares right?? Glad I didn't get the 4"!! I've lost 30 lbs. in the last year so at least they look better than last year. My tri pictures from last year are pretty bad. Especially since I am not a modest person at all and refuse to wear a shirt during a race. So my kids, my parents, my grandparents, my brother, my brother's wife, my cousin and his fiance are all going to get to see me in 5" spandex with nothing else but shoes on. I'm sure they'll love it.

Wednesday was swim day at lunch. Swimming at lunch twice in a week is not at all fun. Put in a short 1700 yds and got out of there. Only had two old men sitting on the benches in nothing but their birthday suits...Needless to say I made sure I stayed away from those spots. Is it too much to ask to put some underwear on before you get your man parts all over the bench, I mean really?? This morning was speedwork. 1/2 mile repeats with 1/4 mile recoveries. Averaged 3:30 on the 1/2 mile legs, 6 of them. Ran the first and last in the 3:20 range. Put in 7 miles total. Getting excited about the race finally getting here. Only 2 weeks until the 10K. It can't get here soon enough.

That will be the start of a long string of busy weekends. Doing the 10k on the 22nd, Lonestar on the 30th, a camping trip to Lake Kincaid for mountain biking on April 5th, Corporate Cup 5k on the 12th, then our company picnic on the 19th and then just a couple weeks off until the Xterra on May 3. My wife is racing Rocketchix the day after Xterra, so that weekend will be extra busy. Will definitely be ready for vacation after that schedule...

Training Sucks

2008-03-04T18:11:00.000-08:00

Only on my second training "schedule" ever and it sucks. 16 weeks is way to long to train for a 10k and a quarter iron. Even if they are back to back. I'm ready to get to the freakin' races already. By "schedule" I mean the fact that I just took our Runner's World online schedule for 10k training and threw in two bike and swim sessions a week. A friend from Houston asked me about it today. Definitely has been run heavy. We are running 5 days a week now. With my 3 morning a week agreement with my wife, the kids hate when I'm not here in the a.m., it is tough to get it all in.

Therefore, my run and swim have been suffering. At least my run will be strong, for me at least.
My run has gone from about a 9:20/m 5k pace to somewhere around a 7:15-7:30/m 5k pace. Which is good since I have a 10k, quarter tri which is just over a 10k run and then a 5k that I have challenged my company on. After those, definitely going to cut down on the running and replace it with some more swimming and biking.

Got home Sunday night from the most recent 4 year olds birthday party and went to finish off my long run for the day. Made it about 2.5 miles before the icing hit rock bottom in my gut. Luckily, I was only about 0.7 from the house. Ran/walked to get back to take care of business. Decided I was not going back after that. Couldn't take it after the 45 mile ride and 2.5 mile run earlier in the day. Definitely a little mini overtraining moment. Decided to skip the Y the next morning also.

Went to the Y for a swim at lunch on Monday. Struggled through 2000 yds with my long set at 1200 yds. It was the swimsuit I know. My swimming/biking shorts have seen better days.

That is the front of my shorts, which you can clearly see through. Have worn them at the Y a couple of times in that shape. Have always made sure to hold my water bottle in front of me to and from the pool at 5:15 in the morning. Most people are too groggy to even pay attention that early, at least I hope. So Monday, I decided I could no longer wear them. Especially at lunch at the indoor pool. The entire Y would have seen the package at that point. Figured it wasn't the best idea. However, regular swim trunks feel like you are wearing a weight belt. My new Tri shorts will be in tomorrow though, so should be good to go for a couple of months.

Just buy some new shorts you say...Anyone who knows me, knows that I am so tight that I squeak when I walk. One pair of tri shorts is plenty and I am going to get all the life out of them. My last pair did the same thing except in the rear where I couldn't see it. One night I had them on at home and my wife says "You do know that I can see the hair on your butt cheeks through those shorts, don't you??" Well honey, actually I don't, but thanks for telling me now that I just finished a 5 mile run outside for the whole world to see. Hope nobody went blind...

Tuesday was 3 mile run at 9:15 pace, one hour interval/hill climb spin class, and then 1 mile at 8:00 pace. Training partners sold out, Big Poppa had sick kid issues in the middle of the night and The Hornet had final exams so she was a no show. Could workout in the morning since I missed Monday morning, but I believe I'll just swim at lunch. Won't be wearing my "see through" shorts, putting on the swim trunks one last time before the Tri shorts arrive.

Slackin'

2008-03-02T11:04:00.000-08:00

Only been bloggin' for a few weeks and I am already slacking. Wednesday was supposed to be 4 mile easy run and swim. Went at lunch and ran my 4 and skipped the swim. Got home that afternoon and the wife wanted to run. So we loaded up the kids in the stroller and put in 2 miles with me pushing.

Thursday was scheduled speedwork, but we moved it to Friday since it was going to be in the low 30's Thursday morning. Ended up using Thursday as a rest day since I had other things to do and I had to go out of town for the afternoon with some work stuff. Got to bed late and still have a sleep debt from this past weekend and early week.

Got up Friday to the perfect run weather. 54 degrees and breezy, couldn't ask for any better. Met the Hornet for our speedwork, which was a 1 mile warm-up, 6 mile tempo at 8:14 and a one mile cool down. We ended up going 1.2 on the warm-up and then on to the speedwork. Started out fast and then had a slower mile 3 because of a "big" hill (big hills in LA do not exist). We were on pace though since we got out quick. Got to mile 4 right on pace and the Hornet started trying to push me to leave her behind. I use to be the slow back-of-packer of the group, and they never left me, so I make sure to never leave my training partners behind even if I'm feeling like I can push it. Finally convinced me with about 1.5 miles to go, so I picked it up. Ended up running 7:25 pace over the last 1.5 miles which was smokin' for me. Finished at 7:59 pace for the 6 mile tempo, and the Hornet at 8:14 pace right on target for the run. I think I'm getting a little overconfident. Thinking I can maybe push for a 48 minute 10k later this month, if I'm feeling good that day. We'll see. Worried about pushing it too much and hurting myself. Met some co-workers, BP and Ali, at the Lakes on Friday afternoon, along with my wife and kids. Me and the kids played soccer while the wife pounded out some miles with the group.

Yesterday I had the kids and no babysitter, so riding was not an option. Ended up taking the kids to the park for some playground time and soccer ball time. They love seeing how high I can kick the ball and then seeing if they can catch it on the 2nd or 3rd bounce. Only hit them on the head once or twice with 20' high kicks!! Spent the afternoon napping with the kids and then on to church for the evening.

Got up early this morning at 6:15 to get in 50 miles. Loaded up my nutrition, which today consisted of 2 gatorade bottles, a powerbar, nutri-grain bar and some M&M brownies that my wife made last night. Nothing like comfort food on a semi-long ride. The two 25 oz. gatorade bottles are not enough. Only went 45 miles at 17.8 and was out of liquid with about 8 miles to go and it wasn't even that hot at around 60 degrees. Guess I need to get me a behind the seat bottle holder. It was tough riding today. I was definitely feeling the soreness from the tempo run on Friday. Normally we do it on Thursday and my recovery run on Friday takes out the soreness for the weekend. Had a tough time getting above 18 mph for about the first 20 miles. Got home and with some arm-pulling and threatening I convinced my wife to put in some running miles with me. Loaded up the kids and put in 2.5 miles with me pushing the stroller.

The run schedule for the day has 11 miles @9:30 pace on it, so I have 8.5 more to put in tonight. Getting ready to go to a birthday party and then over to my parents house for the evening. Guess it will be another 9 pm run tonight, WooHoo, my favorite time to run!! Seems like all our friends had kids at the same time since we have had three parties in the last 2 weeks with more to come in the next month. At least they are young and the presents don't cost so much. Hate to see when all these girls are teenagers and they all want some high-dollar purse or clothes. We'll be going to less parties...

Port-O-Potty

2008-02-26T19:00:00.000-08:00

Up until Sunday night, I have always been lucky with not having stomach issues on my long runs and bikes. Only one other time have I had to stop a run to visit the restroom. That time I was only a tenth of a mile from the house, so it was no big deal. Well, Sunday was my night. I started around 9 pm on my 6 mile run. Made it almost as far away from the house as I could be around 3.5 miles into the run and it hit me like a ton of bricks. At that point I was about 1.5 miles from the house, I wasn't going to make it. So then I started running through my options, ditch, someone's front yard, my pants, and none of them sounded appealing. Then I remembered that they were doing construction on a house at the end of a street just off the road I run on and it was only about 1/4 mile away. Construction means a port-o-potty.

Never has a port-o-can looked so inviting. Barely made it, but it was better than the alternative. Hope nobody saw me...Finished my 6 miles at 9:20 pace.

Got to the Y Monday morning for swimming and lifting. Knocked out 2600 in the pool and then met up with The Hornet for some weights. Big Poppa sold out and ended up running at lunch.

This morning was running and spinning. Met BP there at 5, The Hornet was the sell out this morning, for 3 quick miles @ 9:00 pace before spin class. Did the interval spin class for an hour and then back to the dreadmill for 1 mile @ 8:00 pace. Glad that tomorrow is a "rest" day. Have only been getting 6 hours sleep for the past 4 nights and I am beat. Don't tell BP put I think I nodded off at my desk around 3 today. Glad nobody came into my office!! It will be nice to get 8 hours tonight and only have to run 4 miles and swim at lunch.

Power Bars

2008-02-23T20:17:00.001-08:00

Got up early to help set up for a garage sale with three other families. It was at someone elses house, so I just had to help set-up on my way to do my brick. Ended up hanging out for a while and not getting to the ride spot until about 7:45. Ended up cutting down on my time slot for riding. Was supposed to be finished by 10ish to start getting ready for my daughter's birthday party.

So, I only did the 33 mile loop. Ended up at around 18.7 mph for the loop with a headwind for about 10 of the 33 miles. That is the only thing I dislike about the local training spot. There is always freakin' wind no matter what time of the day or what direction you go. It is in a point in the river, so you are always guaranteed to be going against the wind at some point. But you get a tailwind at some point you would think, but think again. It seems like the levee creates a bowl effect and the wind is always swirling if it is not directly in your face. A crosswind is much better than a headwind, but just once I would like to ride out there and not have the wind!! Guess I'll have to ride at night.

Got back to the truck to find my windshield wipers standing at attention on my windshield and my side mirrors "adjusted" slightly. Luke, a friend of mine who was at the garage sale spot this morning, decided it would be funny to mess with my stuff before he and his training buddies started their ride. Loaded up the bike and put on my shoes and visor to get in a 3 mile run to get that bike-run feel. Knocked out 3 miles at 8:23 pace. On the way back in, passed two other training friends, Neil and DebE. They were doing a 3 hour ride. They are doing the Lonestar Half along with about 12 other people from BRTRri. On the last mile, I was thinking of what to do to get Luke back. Decided on making use of my Powerbar that I had ended up not eating on the ride.

Last week on our long ride my Powerbar had gotten soft being in my pouch on my shirt. Being the gross individual that I am, I took the chocolate mass and fashioned what closely resembled a dog dropping out of my powerbar. The Hornet and Big Poppa's wife, Reba, were less than thrilled with my creation. So, that was my inspiration for today. I put about a third of the powerbar in my mouth for about 30 seconds and chewed it up to get it nice and soft. Rolled it into the shape of a doggy turd and plopped it on his windshield under his wiper blade. I was going to put it under his door handle for a nice surprise when he opened his door, but his door handles were the old push button style since he was in his 1985 work truck. Needless to say, I got a phone call shortly after he got back to his truck later in the day. His move next, that's the thing with pranks, the bar keeps getting raised. Hopefully he keeps it clean...

Basics

2008-02-22T12:34:00.000-08:00

Not a lot of time to burn so here are the basics. Thursday morning, 5 am, 3 miles on the dreadmill since it was raining @ 9:00 pace, spin for an hour, intervals, standing climb, a little more sitting this time and then run 1 mile at 8:30 pace to get that brick feel.

Nothing today in the way of training, only eating. Count so far, 1 - 3 egg omelet with turkey and cheese, 2 chocolate mary lee donuts, 2 glasses chocolate milk, shrimp fettucini and bluebell ice cream. Add that to last night's banquet dinner of gumbo, 12 oz ribeye, green beans, mashed potatoes, 2 strawberry shortcakes (someone was dieting), and then ice cream when I got home, and it has been like a 4000 calorie 24 hour period.

Doing a brick tomorrow morning at 7 am. 33-40 mile ride and a 2-3 mile run. Trying to get some of the training crew to come along, but only one taker so far. Got to go to start getting ready for my 4 year old's pink poodle birthday party that is Sunday. The house has got to be "Party Clean" which is a notch above just regular old clean as I have been informed by my lovely wife...

Early Start

2008-02-20T18:54:00.000-08:00

Since I missed my long bike on Sunday, I needed to spin as much as I could this week to keep the bike legs in shape. Tuesday's spin class starts at 5:45 am and my run schedule for the day was 6 miles @ 9:36 (run recovery week). So I decided I needed to be at the Y for 4:45 a.m. That is just sick that I would even contemplate such an early start to a freakin' day that I wasn't going fishing for some speckled trout.

Due to some difficulties getting out of the door since my son was hackin' up a lung when I woke up, didn't make it there until 4:55. Hurried and got my stuff on a spin bike and dashed outside to get in as much as I could. No training partners this early, so it was just me and the trusty MP3 player. Put in 4 before I had to get back to take care of some business before getting on the spin bike.

Met Big Poppa in the spin class, he had come earlier to run, but all the dreadmills were taken, so he just drank coffee till spin. Spin instructor was late, which must have ticked her off, because for the next 50 minutes I think we sat on the spin bike for a total of 5. She had us doing "standing climbs", isolations and intervals for the majority of the class. Not the most fun after having just run 4 miles. Made it through spin and jumped on the dreadmill for one last mile to get the brick feel.

I am officially off the deep end. Swore to the training crew last year that I would never be at the Y for 5 am to train. Wasn't going to happen. That is the problem with that little word, it always comes back to bite you. Not only am I regularly there for 5, but now even before 5. Need my head examined definitely. I have taken the Training Nazi title away from the original "crack" addict, The Hornet. I'm the one making sure everyone else is there, knows what we are supposed to be doing and tells them how fast they did it. I guess that is the function of the new guy. Keeps it exciting once the "veterans" get to become slackers!!

Got to the Y this morning and no one else from the crew showed up. They all had lame excuses of course. Swam 1600 yds and lifted weights. I sold out on Monday and they had the morning receptionist bust my chops, so they better watch out tomorrow. She is going to get em!!

Sleep

2008-02-18T18:06:00.000-08:00

Rough start to the week. Woke up at 6:20 am, which was about 1:40 later than I had my alarm set. Guess my body was ready for more sleep since I know I had the alarm on and ready to go. I have been known to hold lenghty conversations in the wee hours of the morning and never remember a single thing, so turning off the alarm and having no recollection of that event is not surprising.

So the fall back for Monday is to swim at lunch. Not a very attractive option. Last thing I want to be doing at lunch is swimming. Lunch is for eating and we all know how much fun that is. Called the Y that is close to the office to reserve a lane for lunch. They only have 3 lanes and I have gone when they were all full at lunch, so I don't make that mistake anymore. Two other issues with swimming at the Y by the office at lunch. The place is just dirty. I know it's old, and everyone who frequents the place seems to be older than the Y, but it just feels dirty. Feel like I need to bring some lysol to disinfect myself before I leave. Definitely don't sit on the benches since the elder men seem to like to sit on them with no...nevermind, you get the picture. Strike 3 is the fact that the pool is only like 2.5' deep and only 23.5 yards long since it is inside. I know, that is only 1.5 yds shorter than most, but as an engineer it is just annoying. I mean seriously, they couldn't have found 4.5' somewhere in the layout. So now I have to do 42.5 pool lengths to make up 1000 yds and it seems like you are always turning. Put in my 2000 and showered.

Of course, showering there does no good since as soon as you get out you feel dirty again once you get dressed in that nasty locker room. Won't even describe to you what is all over the floor and on the walls of the shower, ahhhhhhhh!!

Grinded it Out

2008-02-17T13:09:00.000-08:00

Pretty pedestrian run today. Waited for the rain to finally finish and went 11 miles at 9:10 pace, no frills, just grinded it out. Met the Hornet, Deb E and Tim, a co-worker of the Hornet around 9 am at the BR Beach. Tim is just getting back into running and made it to the 2 mile mark before he had to turn around as we were running around 8:30's to start the run. It turned out to be a nice morning for a run as the sun came out about half-way through and the temp was a nice 65 degrees. Deb E slowed her pace down for the first half so we could keep up with her, but motored on with about 4 miles to go. That lady can run! Had to lose the shirt around mile 9 because of the raw nipple rub. Guess I need to start wearing some body glide or whatever that stuff is called.

After the run, got back to the house and put the kids down for a nap with the intentions of going riding this afternoon. The oldest didn't want to cooperate, so no riding for me. Guess I'll have to spin 3 days this week instead. Hate missing my long ride, don't mind missing the shorter workouts, but the long ones are too valuable to miss.

Redneck Word of the Week:

Fitness v. and n., to be able to wear a snug garment. "And you didn't think I could fitness bathin' suit after three kids!"

Cold

2008-02-14T18:56:00.000-08:00

Woke up this morning to head to the Y, and got blasted by the cold. On the way, checked the weather on my blackberry (of course only while I was stopped at red lights, my wife teaches driving school and always uses me in examples of how not to drive) to find that it was a sweltering 32 degrees. The schedule had us doing 7 miles with a 5 mile tempo run at 8:14 pace in the middle. Stopped in and talked to Big Poppa on the treadmill for a moment and then off to run in the cold outside.

We went out fairly fast on the first mile of the tempo with a 7:45 pace. Ended up at 39:57 on the tempo run, which for you math buffs, is just under 8:00 pace, 7:59 to be exact. May not be fast to some, but was blazing for me. Didn't hurt too bad and actually felt like I could have pushed a little harder the last mile if I had needed to. Felt like I could have kept up with SS, another local triathlete who is training for the Boston Marathon and runs the same route except at a much faster pace. No use in burning it out on a training run though. When we got back to the Y, I looked down at my long sleeves and the sweat had turned to ice!! Not something you see too often in Louisiana is ice on your sleeve.

Tempo run made me feel better about the goal of running the Crescent City in 50 minutes. That's 8 minute pace and until today, it didn't seem reachable. Don't think it will be all that hard now. Maybe the goal should be 48...

Skipped my swim and run on Wednesday. Good thing about training 6 days a week is that there is really no time to fall in the trap of making up workouts. That is another hard thing to do. Convince yourself that missing a workout here or there is not going to affect you. I hate putting a red line through a day that I missed, but I think it is better than trying to kill yourself by doubling up and just getting injured or tired. I will make up the swim since I am only swimming twice a week, which is not much at all. Already running close to 30 miles a week, so missing the run is no big deal. Did the double on Tuesday, run and spin class, so missing Wednesday actually helped this morning I think.

Two Big Ones

2008-02-11T18:25:00.000-08:00

Finally, the day has come!! After a year of busting my butt, when I got on the scale for my Monday morning weigh-in, the scale said 198, below 200, WooHoo!! That is 31 lbs. lost since May of last year, for a total so far of 13.5%. Now if I just wouldn't have eaten those 6 cupcakes yesterday between the end of my ride and bedtime, it may have been 197...

BEFORE

You can barely see the Grand Canyon behind me.

I'm blocking the view.

AFTER

This was a camping trip/mountain biking trip from a month ago,

actually down 7 lbs since then.

If I could just get the eating right part down, who knows how low I could go, 185?, 180??? I'm just happy to be were I'm at. Wouldn't have made it this far without an understanding spouse either. Lots of early mornings and long Sundays, thanks babe.

Numbers

2008-02-10T18:42:00.000-08:00

What a great weekend for training. The weather was wonderful this weekend. Sunny, breezy and in the mid 70's. Everyone was outdoors enjoying the sun and having some good times.
Normally the weekends are tough to train because of the better half teaching on Saturdays. Rules out Saturday for training unless I can find a free babysitter, which normally doesn't happen. That means my long ride and run have both been happening on Sundays. It's tough riding 50 miles during the day and then running 8-10 at night. My mom called on Friday and offered to keep the kids. We settled on Saturday afternoon through Sunday afternoon.

Big Poppa, co-worker and training partner, has been taking part in a little get in shape challenge put on by one of the local running stores. Part of the challenge was on Saturday to run 6 miles in the morning and 6 in the afternoon. He emailed to see if the rest of us wanted to meet him for the afternoon run to give him moral support/ make sure his butt finished! Since I had secured someone to watch the kids, I was in. CCC 10k schedule had us running 10 miles @ 9:36 pace. So some of the rest of the training crew, The Hornet and her roommate, met me 30 minutes earlier to get in 4 miles before the 6 with BP. Couldn't have been a better day to run the loop around the LSU lakes. The three of us pounded out the first 4 in around 35 minutes. The roommate was done and we met up with BP for the last 6. We all ran together except for the last 2. Ended up at 10.1 @ 9:16 pace. BP finished and that all that counts, great job!

That is the one thing that I am very meticulous about in my training, knowing the numbers. I would rather skip training than train and not know how far, how fast, and at what heart rate. My training log is a spreadsheet with planned and executed workouts. Every time I train I have to record the numbers or it's like it doesn't even count. I never leave home without a training watch, I have 2 now just to make sure.

After the run, hurried home to get dressed to go to church and out with my wife since we had a night of freedom. After church we went and had some cheescake and coffee and then saw the movie 27 Dresses. Good chick flick. Got to bed late after loading up for a ride in St. Francisville.

Got to Big Poppa's house around 7:15 am Sunday morning and transferred the bike and gear. After making the drive to the ride spot, put in 45 miles (17 mph) in the hills on the bike with BP's better half and the Hornet. It was good to get back to the hills and ride with a group, albeit a small one. Most of my recent longer rides have been loners since I am normally pressed for time and ride on such short notice. Another great day for training. Of course any ride day where you don't get chased by a dog is a good day. Is it just here that every dog out in the countryside is unchained and like to eat bikes or is that everywhere?? Tried to run after, but got a major pain in my side after about half a mile. Don't know what it was, but I was doubled over in pain, thought I was going to pass out. May have been lack of fluids.

It is so hard on such nice days to make sure you are drinking enough. You feel good the whole time, forget to drink enough and then pay for it later. Do they make training watches with an alarm that I can set every 15 minutes to remind me to drink? There are way too many things to think about that can go wrong. As long as I finish though and I can record some numbers, than mission accomplished. Who cares if I passed out doing it??

Smack

2008-02-08T11:07:00.000-08:00

It's fun to talk smack. It makes racing more than just about yourself and adds some tension to it. Sure, you can be competitive, self-determined and all that jazz internally, but when you put it out in the open and actually challenge other people, that is when the fun begins. Take today for example.

Our company announced that we would be participating in the local Corporate Cup and asked that we let them know if we would be participating. Of course, my reply to the whole company is "I'm in and $5 says nobody beats me. Let's go". I know what you are thinking, well he's either arrogant or fast. Neither...it's just fun to stir the pot. Are there people in our 60 employee company who can beat me? Most likely, I have only been running for a year and have posted 2 blazing 5k times of 24:40 and 24:12. Not the times that make people tremble in their Nikes or whatever brand they run in.

So why did I do it? For the 20 responses that flew back and forth already today. The fun has already started. And when I show up to the starting line come April 12, hopefully there are a dozen other of my fellow employees who have put in the time and effort to be the fastest out of our group. It will be fun to see how hard I can push myself to make sure that I can back up the smack...And hopefully start taking off some time for the Shave your 5k Challenge.

In the Beginning

2008-02-07T18:42:00.000-08:00

Every blog needs a start, so here it goes. Of course there is a backstory, maybe we'll get to it one day, but for now we'll start with the present. I have been lurking on numerous multi-sport blogs over the past 2 months after getting a link somehow to the famous Steve in a Speedo?! Gross , which is hilarious, check it out. Finally decided that I should join the fray and post up my own tidbits of wisdom (yeah right!) that I have gathered in my short multi-sport career (1 year and counting).

I am currently training for a 10k, Crescent City Classic, and a Quarter Tri, Lonestar Tri, both at the end of March. Got up this morning to meet the training partners at the Y for our Thursday morning run. Had a time limit since my better half was working today and I had to handle daddy daycare. New to the whole training for speed thing, since I was never a runner to start with, come to think of it, not a biker or swimmer either, so we have been following a simple plan off runner's world. Today's schedule called for 6 miles total, with 5 - 1/2 mile repeats @ 3:37 pace thrown in the middle. The workout was pretty uneventful, except for the fact that 3:33 1/2 mile pace is just sick, I hate you fast people, and that it was 36 degrees out. For you up in the frozen north I feel sorry for you this time of year. But down here, anything under 45 and a good majority of the people are on the dreadmill. Too hot to run inside though, the Y thinks it is fun to keep the cardio room at 80 degrees!!

Anyway, back to the house with a stop at the local donut shop to pick up a treat for the kids. They love the rare occasion when I actually come home after I train, since they know they are going to get something good. What else are Dads for but to spoil 'em when you can.