Training at the Beach

Lauren and I headed down to Perdido Key Friday after work. I snuck out an hour early to beat the traffic out of town. We were able to make it down to LuLu's, a restraunt in Gulf Shores owned by Jimmy Buffett's sister, Lucy. It's an open air seafood restaurant that always always always has a good band playing. Friday it would be a Cajun band from Lousinana that was on stage. They were incredible. After pigging out on shrimp about the size of my thumb, we made our way over to the condo.

Saturday morning, I brought the bike out for a little ride. The plan was to do a 30 mile ride at a quick pace. The flat roads and lack of traffic made it easy to scoot on down the road. I stayed in the aero position for the majority of the ride and keep my speed around 23-24 mph. It felt pretty good to keep that kind of pace. Believe me, it's not normal for me. At mile 15, I decided to turn around and head back. What hit me next was unexpected. A heavy wind had been at my back the whole time helping me keep that speed around 23-24, and I was about to ride right back into it. As soon as I faced it, it almost took my breath away. It felt like I was going backwards, and all of the sudden my legs felt very tired. My speed quickly dropped to 17-18 and I was struggling to keep it there. Oh, it was painful. I worked very hard for that 15 mile trip back home.
Today I had a long run scheduled. 11 miles. I'd never done 11 before so I was a little nervous. I took two Gu packets with me and a 16 oz Gatorade. To simulate the 1/2 marathon in a couple of weeks I had designated certain times to drink and certain times to hit the Gu. With my Ipod in tow, I took off. No problems until about mile 7 when I began to feel that familiar rub in my new Asics. I knew I'd be sporting two new blisters by the end of the run, but I kept going. 3 miles to go and my knees starting aching and telling me that they weren't enjoying this. 2 miles to go, I kicked it in. My feet were killing me and my knees were talking jibberish at this point. They could only manage a few slurred cuss words. 1 mile to go and end in sight. I knew I was going to hurting for a while, but I stuck it out. I was happy to be done, but humbled at how my body broke down. I felt great cardio-wise. My heart rate was fine, breathing was normal, but damn my body hurt! Overall time was 1 hour 26 minutes 32 seconds. Just about the pace I want for the 1/2.
Overall, a great weekend. Great food and family time always tops the list. It's a little bonus when you get some training in as well.

New Shoes and an update

Thanks for all of the helpful advice on the power gels and the energy drinks. I'm going to try them all soon and give you my thoughts with a grade for each one.

Tuesday I broke down and purchased some new shoes. I've been hearing a lot about the new Asics 2120s, so I decided to give them a try. I did my first run in them last night. A fast 5 miler that I finished in 35:20. Toward the end of the run, the shoes started to rub the inside of my foot. The "medial side" I assume. I'm going to chalk it up as my feet getting used to new shoes rather than a poor choice in shoe selection. We'll see tomorrow when my next run is scheduled.
I'm heading to the beach this weekend for a little relaxation. To all my Northern Friends, this is another perk of living in the South. Nice sandy and warm beaches in close proximity. Not to mention the BBQ, sweet tea, mild winters, College Football, and pot luck dinners at church. If all goes as planned I'll be able to train on flat beach roads for the first time in a while. Looking forward to that, but also the grouper, shrimp, and silly rum drinks at Tacky Jacks.

Hope everyone's training is going well. I'm ready for race season. Can't wait to see if all of this hardwork has been worth it. Take care.

Looking to tap some knowledge

I still consider myself a “newbie” when it comes to triathlons, training, and nutrition. After three years of competing in triathlons, I have only competed in 8 races and am just now getting serious about seeing how far I can push myself. I read anything and everything I can find about competing and training. A man that seems to have the nutrition thing down is Crash. Check out his site for some excellent insight on nutrition, lactate threshold, etc.
Now to my point, I’m always looking for the next best way to fuel and replenish my body during training and racing. While at Homewood Cycle, I picked up Gu’s GU2O sports drink. I usually just keep water or some kind of red Gatorade in the water bottle, but I thought I’d give this stuff a whirl.

With my new drink in tow, I headed off with some buds recently on a training ride. After a few miles, we stopped for a red light so I decide to hydrate. GYAACK!!! Oh, this GU2O tasted like POO! I made a face that brought a few laughs by my fellow riders. Oh man, it was bitter. I’d chosen the lemon lime flavor which isn’t something I particularly like anyway. Nevertheless, I continued to drink it throughout the ride. After all, it was all that I had. I had to learn to hide the grimaces. Despite it’s taste, overall I felt pretty good throughout the ride. Now, this is in 40 degree weather not the 90 plus with 100% humidity weather that I’ll see this summer, but nonetheless it worked. So I give it a D- in taste, but atleast a B+ in performance.
So here’s my question, have any of you found a sports drink that you have found both pleasing to the palate and to the body’s needs?

FRIDAY - DRINK UP!

Oh it's Friday my friends. Grab your pals, family, neighbors and have a drink on me. Water is the healthiest choice of course.

My time in the water this morning went like this:

500 m all out - 8:14
300 m all out - 4:49
200 m all out - 3:08
100 m all out - 1:26

Training update - 1/18/07

Hello all. Well this week has been tremendously easier than last week. I really needed a break. Here are the stats from last week:

Swim - 3900 meters
Bike - 72 miles
Run - 20 miles

Monday was a designated swim day, but thankfully my gym was closed for MLK Day. So I took the day off (training anyway). Tuesday I was back at the gym for spin class. Wednesday was the toughest. 2200 meters in the pool (200 warm up, 5 x 100's, 10 x 50's, 5 x100's, 10 x 50's) During the second set of 100's I was dying. My form on the 2nd lap was sloppy. Dogs could have swam better than me at that point. I got my second wind on the 2nd set of 50's. I was able to keep my 100's in the 1:36 range and my 50's in the 41 second range. These absolutely wear me out. I ran 5 miles in the afternoon in 35:14. My best time yet.

Today, it'll be hill repeats on the bike. Woohoo! It's sloppy and rainy outside. Gotta love that.

Overall, I'm feeling strong. I'm a little weary about the 1/2 Marathon coming up in a few weeks. I know I can do the distance, but how long is it going to take me? I ran a bit of the course this weekend and it has some incredible hills in it. We'll see how I hold up.

Scars

Lauren and I were talking tonight about scars. Physical scars, not the emotional type. Scars are our body's way of telling a bit of our story. They are a constant reminder of our adventures, our trips and falls, or something stupid we did because we thought the girls might find it cool. Luckily I don't have too many deep scars to show off. I have remnants of strawberries from sliding into second base with shorts on or from wrecking my Haro "freestyle" bike. I have a scar on my finger from where I sliced it open while opening a can of dog food when I was 14. I can still make out the stitch marks. The ugliest scar that I have is on my forearm from scraping it on a hook attached to our back door. The hook was quickly removed while I yelled profanities. I have three tiny scars from when I had my appendix removed. A fraternity brother of mine had his appendix removed the same weekend, but went to a different hospital. This hospital left him with a 6 inch scar across his abdomen. I guess I chose the right hospital. My wife, Lauren, has a few scars from her battles cats. Nothing else scars her as she is tougher than most you'll run across.
Lance Armstrong has a small cavity in his chest to remind him of the catheter the stayed in him during his chemo-therapy. He is very proud of that scar. So if you haven't done so in a while, look back over your scars, physical or emotional, and think about your life and your adventures. Chances are you'll find yourself smiling and remembering good times. Just a reminder, God gave you this life and all that comes with it. Take time to give him the proper thanks too.

Saturday Rides and Flat Tires

Greetings and salamanders to all. It's freaking gorgeous outside right now. 68-70 degrees and sunny. It's January for crying out loud! I took advantage of this warm snap this morning and met up with some guys from Cahaba Cycles for a 38 mile ride. It's an easy paced ride, but fairly hilly. CMyers met up with us for his first ride in a month. And how did the road treat him after such a long lay off you might ask. Well, about mile five it greeted him with a flat back tire. POW! It sounded like someone had shot his tire out from under him. CMyers wasn't the best at changing flats so some pros took over. After replacing the tube, we found that he not only had a hole in his tube, but also his tire. The tube wouldn't hold any air. Why? I don't know. I'm not well versed in bicycle repair. Well the good guys from Cahaba Cycles called one of their techies to come pick him up. Luckily for CMyers they had a training class going on back at the shop to teach people how to change tires and such. I was told they would be serving coffee and donuts. I also put a hole in my tube so I could join him.
The rest of the ride was easy going. I can't say enough about the weather. I tried to stay in my high gears and spin at a higher cadence to save my legs. Tomorrow we're doing a brick. 20 mile ride and 7.5 mile run. Going to be a good husband now and plant flowers with my wife. Lateskees!

The week so far...

It's been a tough week. As you can see from my post from earlier, my scheduled training is a little more intense than what I've been doing. Tuesday was the toughest. I had an hour long spin class then I bricked a 7 mile run. I was totally wiped out by the time I made it to work. I didn't fuel properly, and the run left me feeling wasted. I had an odd feeling after the run. I couldn't get warm. Now, it was cold out, but not so cold that it would effect me like this. This is an odd experience for me as usually I'm a hot natured person.
The swim yesterday was killer. 200m warm up, 5 x 100m, 10 X 50m, 5 x 100m, 10 x 50m. I was toast after the first set of 10 x 50m. Maybe I pushed it too hard. It felt like I was swimming through peanut butter. I had zero strength left in my arms and chest. It's days like yesterday that remind me that I've got a long way to go.
This morning I completed my 15 sec biking sprints on the hill. They were surprisingly easy, but I'm sure I'll feel it tomorrow.
Almost finished reading "It's Not About the Bike" by Lance Armstrong. Religiously, Lance is not someone who I'd ever suggest anyone mirroring their life after, but I can't say enough about the guy's ambition and drive. The man went through hell with cancer and fought back like a champion. His work ethic and love of cycling is intriguing and inspirational. I'm still amazed at how he's giving back to the community with his foundation. Very impressive Lance.

Shaving

I had an interesting conversation with my wife yesterday. We were discussing cyclists shaving their legs. I've never done it and have no real plans to do it in the future. I'm not a hairy guy anyway, so it's not like it'd be a big difference. There are tons of reasons why I should, namely road rash. The absence of hair is supposed to reduce the grip the asphalt has on your skin when you wreck. Also, it's a lot easier to dress and keep clean. In discussing it with my wife, I wasn't expecting her to have such an adverse reaction to the whole thing. It was funny watching her get fired up about it. "I love your legs the way they are. I don't won't your legs to be smooth! What happens when we go to the beach?"
Well, I'm not planning on shaving my legs. I may regret it if and when I have a wreck, but for now I'll stay the way I am. I may not look like an elite cyclist, but that's not who I am. I'm a husband. I'm a guy who enjoys being active. I'll just take my chances. Maybe I'll consider it when Team Discovery calls and asks me to lead the peloton.

Training this week:
Today: swim 1000 m all out: completed in 16:44
Tues: Spin Class and 7 mile run
Wed: swim drills over 2200 m and 5 mile run
Thurs: Bike - 6 sets of 15 sec sprints on hills
Friday: swim 1100 m drills and 5 mile run
Saturday: 2 hr ride
Sunday: Brick! 20 mile ride and 7.5 mile run

Good Week

A new year and a new week for training. I took Monday off to relax and get some things done around the house so no training to speak of. I wasn’t as sore as I thought I’d be after the brick on Sunday. Wednesday was the first day I was able to get in the pool since my ear infection sidelined me a couple of months ago. I’ve finally been given the green light by the Doc, so I hit water. Or should I say it hit me? What a humbling experience. After a short warm up, Coach told me he wanted me to swim 500m all out and time it. I did it in a paltry 8:32. Ouch. That’s 12 seconds slower than my 600m swim in my last race. Right then and there I decided that I wasn’t going to miss another pool session. This has to improve. Today I was able to try it again. I focused on form and felt a lot better. I did it in 8:10. Not good at all, but better. After hill repeats during the week, I was ready just to get out and run today. It was gorgeous at lunch so I took advantage of a lax afternoon and took an extended lunch. I ran 5.75 miles in 42:38. Not breakneck speed, but I was happy with it. While I was running, I was listening to my ipod and thinking about running music. I know there’s a lot with the opinion that real runners don’t listen to music while running, well this runner does. So, here’s a list of songs on my “running” play list.

“Eye of the Tiger” – Survivor (Could this be the best motivating song ever?)
“Lose Yourself” – Eminem (enough said - just go)
“Are You Going to Be My Girl” – Jet (I actually looked like a fool rocking out to this song today. It was so good I had to listen to it twice)
“Ms. Independent” Kelly Clarkson (go ahead and make fun of me now, I’m shameless)
“Home” – Marc Broussard (I decided today to take this song off of my list – too many things going on with the melody. It threw me off my rhythm.)
“Ring of Fire” – Johnny Cash (now this is more like it, simple beat, nothing to think about, just Johnny doing his thing)
“Juicy” Better Than Ezra (I love this band!)
“Thunder Struck” – AC/DC (gritty, helps me run when I’m mad)
“Free Bird” – Lynyrd Skynyrd (Given the right run, this song is great. It’s too slow of a start, but finishes strong – good for a 5K)

Any one have any additions?

That’s all for now. I’ve got a long ride tomorrow, then a day off for good behavior. Latski’s