XXXXXX BIKE PORN!!!!!!!!!!! XXXXXX

My site is going X rated for today and maybe for the next week. Here she is!

I picked up my new Trek Madone 5.2 Pro yesterday from Cahaba Cycles and believe it or not, it's freaking sweet! For the longest time I've wanted a regular road bike so I can try my hand at some road races so I've jumped in with both feet. I'm still keeping the Cervelo for Tri's so don't kick me out of the club just yet.

I put in my first ride on it this morning at the Vulcan Tri Club training race for the Powerman Du in a few weeks. Given that the course has some extended climbs I knew I wouldn't lose too much on not being aero. I was amazed at how well it handled. There's a big difference in turning on a tri bike and a roadie. Secondly, OMG it's freaking light. It weighs in at about 17lbs without water bottles and saddle bag. Given that, it climbs like a champ. Alberto Contador is a little less impressive to me now. Just kidding Albie. Here's the draw back though, since it's so light it doesn't descend that well. On my heavier Cervelo, I can usually push 44 on Cemetery Hill on the course. Today, it was all I could do to hit 39.5. It also felt like I needed one bigger gear for the down hill. My legs seemed to be on the verge of spinning out on the descent. Not so on the Cervelo. It always has plenty of pedal left. This doesn't concern me too much though as it'll more than make up for it on the climbs. I put in a much better bike time on the course this year than I did last which is surprising as my time on the bike has been limited so far this year. Overall, I really pleased with the bike. It's a gorgeous speed machine. I'm a lucky lucky boy.

Tail Winds.....

I'm So Freaking Slow!

I guess my focus the last few months has been more on getting the laps in rather than making sure that I kept up any resemblance of speed. My lap time in the pool right now is Pathetic. That's right, a capital "P." This morning I warmed up with a easy 500 then followed that with some breathing exercises. Then, I tried my hand at doing 50's on 1 minute. Last year, the goal was to keep my 50's under 35 seconds. This year, I'm struggling to keep them under 40. Oh, and they sucked too. I've gotta say though, I'm still loving the pool despite my slow times. This is totally different from my relationship with the pool last year. I've actually enjoyed it. Maybe it's because we're spending more time with each other now. Or maybe, it's because I haven't been working on speed like I should so it's been too easy. Probably a little of both.

Don't forget, big HUGE news coming in the next day or so. This blog is about to get X rated! Hint hint! (no, this doesn't mean I'm signing up for the Serbian Nude Sprint Triathlon)

Crewd Thoughts on a Tuesday

For the last couple of weeks the weather has been just absolutely gorgeous. Visually, it's still nice to look at, but for some reason the temps have dropped back down into the 50's with lows in the 30's. It's not what we'd call a typical Alabama March. I'm ready for some humidity already.
Training has been going quite well. The only problem is nutrition keeps getting in the way. I'll call that the Easter fat boy blues. Just like clock work, when family gets together, the over indulging begins. We spent the weekend in beautiful Mobile with LKD's family for Easter. I played a little golf and drank a lot of beer. Good beer mind you. The healthy kind right? God love it all. But the most disheartening thing of it all was the terrible urge to keep feeding my pie hole. Over and over all weekend. So this week my hopes are to return to a bit of normalcy with proper nutrition and limited beers.
Yesterday was a strength training session at the gym. I still notice a stark difference in strength in my left leg vs my right. Don't know if I've favored my right leg over the years, but it's considerably stronger. My hope over all is to continue with light weight and high weight sets to focus more on endurance strength rather than bulk strength.
This morning I made it to the pool to find that one of the heaters was out thus leaving the pool at a cool 78 degrees. I managed to throw down 3000 yards in a slow 53:36. Not race pace, but I just wanted to feel the distance and continue to build endurance.
This weekend is a training race for Powerman Alabama (8K run, 50K bike, 8K run). I'm looking forward to putting my training to the test a bit on a non-stressful event.
There's some big news coming down the pipeline in the next few days. More to come.

Tailwinds....

That First 10 Minutes

This morning I took off from the gym to run through the Tiny Kingdom just before 6 am. The plan was to do a slow(ish) run just to shake out the legs and log some miles. The gym sits midway up a small hill, so the first quarter mile is down hill. At the base of the hill you run along side the city Zoo for a bit before getting into the village and a residential area. Running in the dark allows your mind to create monsters in the shadows and every weird sound is an escaped baboon or spider monkey coming out to jump on you.
But it also allows you to focus more on how you're feeling and what your body is telling you. It's odd how the first 10 minutes of any exercise is usually the toughest for me. My body is waking up and sending out protests and propaganda to my brain trying to get me to stop. It's during this time that I am constantly fighting off thoughts of "you don't really want to do this, you don't need to do this, why don't you just turn around now, this is gonna suck!" I've found that if I can just get past these first 10 minutes my body will settle into a rhythm and my mind will start telling me how good this feels and how this is going to be a good day. Endorphins maybe?
True to form, around mile 2 this morning I found myself cruising along and enjoying the morning. Seeing the sun slowing rise through the trees is absolutely amazing. I finished the run wanting more, but needing to stop because of time. Everyone has to face work eventually.

Tailwinds....

Mid Week Update

Just a few numbers to throw at you. Monday was a recovery day of sorts after Sunday's long brick. Just a little time on elliptical machine and some weights. Tuesday was spent in the pool with a new PR for the mile in ~30 minutes. I'm slowing but surely trying to ramp up the distance and speed. I can still feel fatigue setting in during the last part of that swim. Wednesday started out just awful. I had a limited amount of time in the gym before work so I decided to get on the elliptical and keep the HR around 140 bpm. After 20 minutes I still couldn't get into my zone. My HR was still too low. I tried ramping up the speed and resistance, but at that point it was worthless. Still pissed off about the morning's workout, I took off after work for a 5 mile run and hit my second PR of the week with a 33:48. Maybe I am getting my speed back after all.
This morning I met Daniel at the Y at 5 am for a swim analysis. We video tapped our swim strokes so hopefully we can analyze it and see where we need to make the changes. We did a quick 1000 meters in 17:57 followed by 5 sets of 50 sprints and 3,5,7,5,3 breathing sets on 50's. It's short in yardage but a great workout.
I'm loving this time change by the way. It's now light until around 7! Bring on Spring!

Snow! In Birmingham?

Just for a quick second everyone, let's go back to my post from this past weekend. You know the one where I was at the beach, laying out at the pool, catching some rays, yada yada yada. It was awesome. Temps were in the 70's and you really couldn't have asked for a prettier day.
Well fast forward to this weekend back in Birmingham. The weekend was supposed to have started off with little local 5K that I do every year in hopes of setting a PR and defending my age group for the 3rd straight year (gotta love small races!). But instead, I woke to find that apparently all the planets aligned over night to allow for it to actually snow over night. Snow! In Birmingham! Now, please, let's take a step back and have a reality check. What we consider snow in Birmingham is not really what everyone may consider getting snow. There was enough to cover the ground mostly, but not really enough to build a snow man unless you recruited the snow from neighboring yards. The best part of getting any type of snow in Birmingham is that everything is closed and canceled and everyone goes a little crazy. The newscasters reportedly stayed up all night to report the storm's progress through the state. They had cameras on several interstates showing wrecks and slowed traffic due to the "terrible winter conditions." It's all pretty laughable. But this worst part is that my little local 5K was canceled by the police to avoid any injuries. Oh well. I crawled back into bed a talked Lauren into walking into downtown Homewood for breakfast. A much easier way to start the day.
I did get a good 7.5 mile run in later that day and followed it up with 20 minutes of swimming. The sun did poke it's head out so it actually turn out to be a beautiful day, but it was still a little frigid.
Today my training buddy, Daniel, and I met up for a ride and run. The wind gusts were fierce, but undeterred we put in a pretty descent ride of 30+ miles included some long steep climbs which really taxed out my quads. We followed that up with a 5 mile run through some fairly rolling neighborhoods which really put the hurt on my quads. We did our best to sprint the hills as we're both trying to regain that lost leg strength. A great workout and a great time. I know I'm going to feel it tomorrow.
Tailwinds...

I WILL.... (The Nutritional Version)

1. Swear off french fries, potato chips, other foods that come in a bag or from a restraunt with a mascot.

2. Eat protein and a healthy carb 30 minutes after my morning workout.

3. Drink 32 ounces of water before noon.

4. Swear off cokes and sweet tea except on the weekends (understand that in Southern lingo, "coke" means soda or pop, and also that giving up sweet tea is down right sacrilegious)

5. Stop eating when I've had enough rather than when I'm stuffed.

6. Start eating more salads for lunch.

7. Substitute more chicken and pork for beef.

8. Swear off all white bread.

9. Drink more during long rides and runs.

10. Continue to find ways to eat smarter.

A Quick Trip To The Beach

Well, this post is coming from the sunny beaches of Perdido Key, Florida. I'm lucky enough to have in-laws with a condo that sits just west of the IM Florida locale. Lauren and I took Friday off to make it down here in time to enjoy a longer weekend. The condo is just 4 hours south, but every second counts when you're losing valuable beach time.
Before we left town though, I wanted to make the most of my day off so I took the opportunity to get a small ride and a swim in. Coming home on the bike it was so nice to pass all of the bleary eyed coffee infused people heading in to the office. Man, work sooo gets in the way of good times out on the road. I cleaned up and headed over to a big moving sale the best little bike shop in the world was having. They had a lot of 07 stuff and winter gear marked 30-60% off so I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Boy did it pay off. I picked up an Ultegra rear cassette and a new odometer for 1/2 off, but the biggest deal of the day was a set of Dura Ace pedals for 60% off. I was stoked. Can't wait to bust them out.
We quickly left town there after and made it down to Perdido Key. Lunch was this awful trip to Arby's. I felt like crap the rest of the day which is just a reminder why I don't eat fast food. After ditching our digs, we headed down to the pool to enjoy a little sun and a view of Old River. Lauren and I have often pondered just how long we could live off of our savings and equity in our house if we were to move down here and become beach bums. It'd be fun giving it a shot.
This morning was absolutely gorgeous out. We were by the pool by 9:30, and I indulged in the sun by ditching my shirt for a little tanning. One hour later, I'm peering into the mirror and realizing that my once pasty white skin was now a distasteful pink. It's all a work in progress.
As always, I brought my running shoes so I did a quick 8 miler along beach road. It's so nice running of flat terrain! I will throw out a quick plug for some of our more popular bloggers out there who have started podcasting. I've started taking their podcasts with me on runs or while I'm at the gym. It's so much better than music for me right now. They do a great job, and best of all it's free. So check them out and give them a shot.
We spent lunch at our favorite little dive, Tacky Jacks, eating crawfish and grouper sandwiches. This little place is on the water so it gets a fierce wind blowing in which made it quite chilly since we were sitting in the shade. No worries, I'd rather be here than behind my desk.
After lunch we borrowed some bikes from a family friend and took off for a spin. My bike had to be a Walmart special. It was a Raleigh M-30 mountain bike with a seat that was as wide as my butt. It had shimano components, but none I'd never heard of. It had to have weighed 50 lbs. Nonetheless, it was great to ride along beside Lauren and enjoy the day. We took an excursion over to the exclusive Ono Island to see how the other half lives. On the way back, we stopped and took a stroll along the beach for a while. If we'd had some chairs I so could've taken a nap. The temps have stayed in the high 60's and low 70's so far. Spring is so close and I can't wait to enjoy more times like these.
We head home tomorrow. Back to life. Back to reality, or so the song goes. But not yet, not now. I'm going to relax here for a little while longer before heading down to watch the sunset.