What Do You See Here?

I'm a little concerned about this logo. It's for a group in the UK that strives to ensure that disabled individuals are able to have access to fitness equipment. It's a noble cause through and through. No one's doubting that. I do take issue though with their logo. I took me a minute to figure out what it was actually supposed to be rather than what it appears to be. So my suggestion to the logo designer: add legs (plural). Proper form dictates that the individual have his or her feet shoulder width apart. That is unless the individual only has one leg, which in this cause is very possible.

As for training, yes training! I've been pounding the pavement this week in efforts to ramp up my mileage and speed. This weekend I'm doing 14 miles just a bit slower than race pace. We'll see how it goes.

After that Lauren and I are headed up to Lake Guntersville to go camping with my folks. Should be fun as the temps are getting into the 50's. Take care and thanks for reading.

And Let it Begin....Again

Well, the off season was fun. Now it's time to get back to work. I've targeted the Mercedes Marathon here in Birmingham on Feb. 10th to be my first attempt at the distance. It's hard to believe because February seems so far away, but it's only 16 weeks out. I've got my work cut out for me as I'm going to need to work on speed a bit. I know, I know it's a marathon, but I've got a goal. The pace I trained at for the 1/2 IM is a bit slower than what I want to push for the mary. So needless to say, it's back to the track for a little speed work.

Here's some good news to go along with that. I have a new "running" partner. I say "running" because I'm the only one running while she is riding this:

Last week, we bought Lauren a bike to cruise around the neighborhood on. It's a Trek 7100 and it's perfect. So far, we've only logged 11 miles together, but it's a great way to spend time with the wife while getting some exercise in. She looks totally cute wearing the bike helmet too, so that's a plus.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading.

Caesar's Big Day

This is Caesar Augustus. He's 8 years old, but believes he's still 2. After yesterday, I'm going to bet that he's feeling his age today. Caesar had quite the adventurous day. Yesterday for lunch, I decided to give the fat boy a little exercise. Typically, Caesar's exercise consists of walks after work, but today I decided to take him on a run instead. As is typical, upon hearing the jingling of the leash Caesar began his springing up and down routine in excitement. Oh, if he only knew. Once I wrestled with him enough to get the leash attached, we took off. Caesar was doing his best greyhound chasing the rabbit impersonation, while I pulled back on the reins like I was Wyatt Earp driving a stage coach. This lasted for the first mile which we did in about 7 minutes. Then old man hit a wall. He was cooked. Fat tongue and all, Caesar slowed to a walking pace. I tried to encourage him to keep going, but the run was looking more like a drag now. I tried to encourage him on, but he just kept shooting me side glances that said it all. We made it back to the house completing the two mile loop in 18 minutes. I patted him on the head, gave him some fresh water, and told him that we'd have to improve upon that preformance so rest up. He thankfully watched me put the leash up and head out to finish the run on my own.

That night, I came home to not one but two dogs in my back yard. A neighbor's 6 month old dog, Scout, had dug a hole under our fence and made his way over for a visit. Caesar, seemingly totally recovered from his 2 mile run, chased Scout around the yard, throwing the pine straw from my flower beds everywhere, and humping poor Scout when advantage could be won. It's a show of dominance, nothing more. If you'll recall this post, you'll know why.

Later than night Caesar received visit from another friend's dog. This dog was a bit bigger and not so easily won over. After a couple of hours together, I thought for sure Caesar was done for the night. Not so.

I woke up this morning to find my back gate open and no dog. It was 6:15 in the morning, and I was headed to the gym. This would have to wait. After a few whistles and no dog, I drove around the neighborhood. No luck. This is never a good feeling. I could see Caesar being hauled away by the dog catcher which only results in me having to bail him out for $50. This has happened before. To my surprise, after a few calls, Caesar came lumbering down the street. A big smile on his face like he'd been living it up. I'm sure he had. No doubt cats had been chased, dogs behind fences had been taunted, and yards had been violated. I did a quick search to see if any of my neighbors' trash had been Caesarized, but we were good. I escorted the escapee back behind the fence and double checked the gate. He looked thoroughly pleased with himself after a very eventful 24 hours. Maybe now he'll get some sleep.

Growing Hair

That's about all I'm doing right now; in more ways than one. I promised Lauren that as soon as the season was over that I'd let the hair on my legs grow back out. Fine by me! I hated shaving them anyway. I'm not on the bike as much so no need to keep the legs nice and slick. Problem is, I'm two weeks in and you can barely tell a difference. I'm just not a hairy guy.

Which brings me to my second situation. Now this can only occur in an office of young guys who are just immature enough to want to do this. We've been talking about it for a month now. It is now just possible for us to pull it off. We're done for a while meeting with clients, and there are no speaking engagements on the horizon. So we have this window of opportunity. We're having a mustache growing competition. Now, go back up to the first paragraph and read, "I'm just not a hairy guy." Can you guess how my stache is progressing after four days? There are freshman in high school with more of a mustache than me right now. We have just over 2 weeks to grow the most ridiculous Magnum P.I. that we can come up with. Judging will be based on style, presentation, and showmanship. Thankfully, it's not on thickness. I'll be sure to post a pick once the competition is over. I have no doubt that I'll bring sexy back to the mustache!

Off Season Update

Hello all, I writing to you today from my home town of Birmingham, AL for the first time in a month. I'm also heavily entrenched in the post-season and loving it. I've been out of town twice since my 1/2 on Sept 30th so I'm looking forward to enjoying a bit of normalcy to my schedule and life. The good news about traveling so much, I've had killed a number of hours in the hotel room, at the airport, and on an airplane reading to my heart's content.

I've managed just a couple of runs in the last two weeks due to traveling, but during each run I've had to turn it down a notch due to some pain in my calf. Don't know what that's all about, but it must be some lingering effects from the half. I'm looking forward to getting into a consistent work out routine during the fall and winter though. No doubt my workouts will be less focused and intense, but they won't be without cause. Hopefully, if all goes well I'll complete my first Marathon sometime in January or February. I'm excited about the prospect and will be making an attempt to qualify for Boston if not in this race then later in the year. We'll see how long I can keep that dream alive before I realize it's futility. You can dream right? I'm going to give it a go though.

On another note, it was 49 degrees this morning! Wow, is it time for the arm warmers yet?

SC Half Ironman - The Long Version

Lauren and I left for Greenwood, SC on Saturday which was the day before the race. Greenwood, so I've learned is becoming quite a hotbed for Triathlons. It hosts no fewer than 5 events a year. That night we happened upon what I believe to be the only Italian joint in town, because as soon as I walked in, there were more shaved legs than you'd find at a Miss America pageant. Every table in the joint was dotted with racers wearing their favorite race tees and talking about gear and the Ironman. I'd come to the right place.

Race morning started at 4:15. I had oatmeal and a PB & J sandwich. It's been my breakfast of choice before my long bricks so I wasn't going to waver now. I stepped outside the hotel to find that the temp had dropped to 54 degrees during the night. What the heck? They expected me to swim in this? Lauren just about revolted at that point. Before we left, we picked up a stranded racer at the hotel for a helping of good race kharma. With that under my belt, I knew it'd be a good day.

During my transition area set-up, I had a weird calm about me. Usually before a race, I have this nervous anticipation. This time there was no sense of urgency, no fears of what if this happens. There was just calm. It did bother me a bit because I knew I would need adrenalin at some point to keep me going. But, I took it as a good sign that I would be able to pace myself and make good decisions.

The Swim: Luckily the water turned out to be warmer than the outside air. It was 76 degrees which meant wetsuits would be legal which meant nothing to me. I didn't have one. Everyone else seemingly had come prepared and took full advantage. I swore that if I ever do one of these again, I want one. It's a huge advantage, and I need all the help I can get. Why is that? Oh yeah, it's because I absolutely suck in open water swims. It's not that I get tired or off course. It's more that I get distracted and keep looking to see how far I have to go. Time after time, I put up decent times in the pool, only to come out and put up a 42 minute swim. And that's how I started. It didn't bother me though, because that was the hard part. All I had to do now was ride and run.

T1: Nothing fancy, but a long run from the beach and trouble with my bike shirt put me getting out of T1 in just over 2 minutes. Not great.

The Bike: As usual, here's where I make up my time. I spent the first two miles making myself hoarse from yelling "on your left!" All of the racers who could swim faster than me struggled to find their land legs and peddle their bikes. Don't know how many I passed, but it just rang home the truth about how slow I swim.
I had decided early on that I wasn't going to kill it on the bike this time. During my last 1/2, I burned way too many matches on the bike. This time, I planned on keeping a 20.5 mph average. I had some early alarms go off during miles 5-12 when I was barely keeping my pace above 19 mph. It was then that I remembered looking at an elevation chart of the course and knew that this was a tough stretch. I also recalled that the road flattens out a bit and that better roads lay ahead. By mile 15 I'd pushed my speed up to where I wanted it. Also at mile fifteen, I'd decided I would take in a energy bar. I'd chosen a Hammer Bar because the package was easy to tear open. Note to self, taste the bar before using it in a race. The taste wasn't so bad, it was the consistency that made me want to hurl. I felt like I was 7 years old again and my mom was feeding me corn beef hash. I managed to get one bite down, but that was all I could do. I couldn't take another bite. I knew this would put me in calorie deficiency so I relied on the powergels I had with me.
Throughout the rest of the ride, I continued to pass a lot and get passed by a few. My legs felt nice and strong until about mile 45 when all I wanted was to get off the bike. Because it was at that point that we made one last turn that put us riding into a stiff wind all the way up to the park's entrance. I felt like I was going backwards. It totally zapped whatever momentum I was feeling as I ended my bike. Final time was 2:45.

T2: Left my shoes on the bike. Helmet off, visor and running shoes on and I'm gone. 1:09.

The Run: I looked at my watch. It read a total time of 3:31. My goal was to finish in 5:30 so I knew all I had to do was to put up a two hour half. I was going to try and get under that if at all possible. I felt like I had the energy to do it too. The run consisted of a two loop course. It made it difficult to tell who was in which portion of the race. I decided not to worry about it and just run my race. The first few miles were perfect. I averaged an 8:30 pace up until mile four. I made sure to take in plenty of fluids and a gel when I could. I could feel the legs were starting to tire. I made my first lap at 4:27. I had 6.6 miles to go and I had an hour to do it. My first urge to walk hit just after mile 7. I gave in for a second, but found that a slow jog felt just as good and was twice as fast. At mile 8 I decided to see what I could do, but I found that it wasn't much. I put up a 9 minute mile and realized that I was going down hill quickly. The body was wearing down the legs were exhausted.
I made it to mile 12 and knew I was close (1. to finishing and 2. to collapsing). After what seemed like an eternity, a volunteer said, "good job! only .6 left to go!" I just about quit. I'd run the entire last mile and after 7 minutes she was telling me .6 miles still lay ahead of me??? There were people of ahead of me on either side of the course so I kept going out of pride. I followed the markers another 300 feet or so when I looked to my left and up this steep incline was the finish line, 30 feet away. .6 miles my ass!!! What was she thinking? I stumbled my way up the hill and crossed the line feeling like I'd cheated the course. I felt like at any moment someone was going to tell me I had another loop to do. But alas, I was done and I finished under 5:30 by 30 seconds. Whew!

Three days later, I still a little sore. Sunday night and Monday were rough, but already I feeling the desire to strap on the running shoes and head out for a while. The season is over, and it's been a good one. I've come a long way since last October when I decided to start actually training for Triathlons. Through the help of Transitions Multi Sport, I had a great season and set a PR at every distance for each race I entered. I've met some incredible people in person and on-line. My wife said it best this weekend, when she said commented that the people at races are so nice. She said we all have this common bond we enjoy and want to share this happiness with each other.

I'm not done with training for the year, though you will find me spending more Saturday mornings with my wife and eating chocolate cake and ice cream a little more often. Thanks for reading.