Cooked

What a weekend.

Saturday morning started early - I can't even say bright because we were up and moving before the sun. Party Pat and I met up with a riding buddy and completed the 47 (45.5, actually) mile route of the Red Poppy Ride.

I tried out Perpetuem for the first time during the ride. I expected the worst - but it actually worked out great. Really felt great through the whole ride. I think this stuff just made the nutrition plan for BSLT Half Ironman.

Saturday afternoon, Party Pat and I headed out to Sam to pick up a bunch of food. The whole neighborhood showed up at his place and we layed out an awesome BBQ. Good Stuff! It felt great to take a night off with friends and family.

Sunday it was back to training. I did a 3h:40m session and covered each sport. After the long ride on Saturday and the blazing Sunday afternoon sun, I was cooked mentally & physically. It was really good to get in a long session. My confidence for BSLT is growing.

Anyway - I'm off to get some much needed sleep.

See ya out there...

180

I've been sitting on this post for a couple of days... hope it all still makes sense.

Today I weighed in at 180 lbs.... for the 7th straight day. In my book that makes it official. I weigh 180 lbs. I started out back in May of last year at just over 240 lbs.

180 is a pretty significant number for me:

• The number of degrees I've turned my life.
• My "big picture" goal weight when I started my new active lifestyle.
• A weight I haven't seen since my freshman year of ... gulp, high school.

Check it out:

...and more recently:

Whew. Check this one off the list. Next?

See ya out there...

Outsiiiidddeee

My son's favorite word : Outside. He will stand at the back door with his hand on the door knob and repeat that word over and over until someone takes him outside. "Outsiiidddeee, Outsiiidddeee" It's kind of cute really. Every once in a while he'll realize he has someone's attention and he'll throw in a "Please?" -- or "Peaze?" -- complete with the pseudo-sign language he's picked up. That's really cute. He's an outdoor kid, which makes me pretty happy. He seems to be much more interested in exploring the backyard right now that anything else.

It occurred to me tonight on my ride (18 miles) that, through triathlon, I've become quite an outdoor person. I would much rather run outside in the rain or cold than on a treadmill -- ride at dusk on the darkened neighborhood streets than on the trainer. I've even began plotting ways to get back outside to swim my laps in the afternoons. During the day I find myself peeking out the windows at work. I can see the wonderful "sprummer" (spring-summer) weather. Occasionally, I'll catch a glimpse of a midday cyclist or runner and say "How lucky are they?"

Sometimes everyone kinda wishes they were "Outsiiidddeee".

See ya out there...

Where to start? Where to start?

I'm so behind in blogging so here's the abridged version of what's been going on...

• We had a great dinner with JoJo and D-man on Friday. It was fun to catch up.
• Killed off a 6.75mi run on Friday night after everybody left. Didn't get it in till nearly 10 PM!
• Got up early on Saturday and went riding with the gang. It was amazing weather. Found out that 2 more cyclists were hit on Parmer... while we were out! That makes 4 cyclists down in one week. Ug.
• Saturday was pizza at JoJo and D-man's.
• Back in the neighborhood pool on Sunday morning for a great 3550 yards. I had the whole pool to myself and I followed it up with a 10 mile ride and 2.25 mi run. Great stuff.
• We headed down to San Marcos on Sunday afternoon and grabbed lunch at Joe's Crab Shack with the in-laws.
• ... and back at work on Monday. Work is kicking my butt. I'm super busy right now.
• Tomorrow - swimming, running and presenting.

How boring. Sorry folks...

See ya out there...

Rough times

I'm having some tough times lately. The short vacation has given me a high spring fever. That means I'm having motivation problems all over.

I cut my swim short last evening because of a killer headache. I felt defeated afterward. That is the third swim workout I've cut short in two weeks.

I gotta get back on track. I have 90 minutes of running on the schedule tonight. With storms in the forecast I'm pretty sure I'll have to head over to the club and knock it out on the treadmill. Great. Doesn't that sound fun?

See ya out there...

....and we're back!

Howdy folks!

After a long posting break I am back.

Let me fill you in: We have just returned from a trip to Colorado to surprise my Mom for her birthday. She's an occasional reader (Hi Mom!) so, I couldn't give any hints. Just a few days of silence while we carried out our little adventure.

Check it out:

Colorado was amazing. Amazing! It was so beautiful here. I saw a TON of people running and cycling all over town. I could never move to Colorado because my wife and kid would never see me again. I would train, eat and sleep. And, maybe work.

I went for a run on Saturday afternoon in Colorado Springs. It was amazing. I decided to take a really hilly course up through my folks' neighborhood and out onto some of the streets close by. It was crazy windy out. Between the hills, altitude and wind I was pretty worn out after about an hour. How great is that?! I headed due east for the first half of the journey with the wind at my back climbing hills the whole way. About 20 minutes in I turned around and was greeted by a face full of wind and this:

It was amazing.

We headed back to Austin and were promptly greeted by 100* temps. Yes, that's right 100* in April. Did everyone enjoy spring? Good. Now it's summer. Shut up and enjoy. I gave the early heat wave the 'ol finger by heading out shortly after we got home for a quick 45 minute ride down Parmer. Hot and Steamy. Just the way I like it.

I did lots of thinking during the ride. I have a lot of work to do in my last month leading up to the race. I need to get on top of the nutrition plan soon. Real soon. Party Pat came by last night and we signed up to do the Red Poppy Ride on April 29th. It should be a good test bed for a potential bike nutrition strategy.

My schedule has been wild again. Last week training pretty much fell down hard as I ran around to get everything ready for our big trip. This week is a recovery week (even though I probably don't need it after last weeks' time) and I've already missed out on a run because of a late afternoon thunderstorm. Arg. Back to it hard core tomorrow.

And Finally...

I pretty much always listen to the Jeff Ward show on the way home from work. It's somewhat entertaining and pretty informative. Anyway, today he and the mayor we're talking about the recent rolling blackouts in town. At the end of the interview, Jeff mentioned that he had heard the mayor was training for his first Triathlon...the Capital of Texas Triathlon! Then he mentioned that he was training for it too! How great is this? Drive time radio coverage of the biggest triathlon in Austin!

It was pretty cool to listen to them talk about their first time experiences, water fears, and the wonder of their first sprint tri. Very Cool!

See ya out there...

Pain in the back

How I could go from a screamin' week like last week and fall flat into this week is beyond me!?! Sunday night it started. A slight twinge in my back, just to the right of my spine. It's a deep muscle twinge that causes your whole body to tense up when it starts. Any deep breathing or quick moves remind you that it's there. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. It has awakened me every night since Sunday for a couple of hours. I even *gasp* took some Motrin to relieve some of the pain. I don't take pain meds. Ever.

I had this thought that I could exercise it away with a good solid swim last night. As I swam the planned distance turned from 3500M into 2000M. Then 2000M to 1500M. I finally quit at 1150M. Swimming wasn't helping the muscles and my form was terrible which would only cause more trouble down the road. I also had a run on the schedule. An hour (and 2 more Motrin) later I would have none of it. Skipped the run and hit the sack early.

Ug.

Today I'm supposed to have a 1:30 Bike / 1:05 Run Brick. We'll see. Stupid back.

In other tri-news, I signed up for the CapTexTri today. Hooray! I'm pretty excited. This is supposed to be a great event. Guess I'll have to cancel on volunteering for this race. Sorry guys. So, the Cactus Challenge was all about the swim : Wetsuit / Transition etc. The CapTextTri will be all about nutrition. I will have my nutrition plan for BSLT in place by then and I'll be putting it (partly) in motion.

Looking at the training plan, I have some serious work to do to get there. Check these weeks out:

This week: 10h:25m
Next Week: 8h:15m (recover)
Next : 11h:30m
Next : 10h:20m
Next : 10h:55m
Next : 11h:00m
Next : 8h:35m (recover)
RACE

Considering most of my training to this point has been in the 4-8 hour-per-week range this marks a significant upage of the bar. After the race, I taper pretty much all the way into BSLT. I just have to keep my head down and press through these next few weeks. But first, I gotta get this silly back thing worked out...

See ya out there...

New Week - New Goals

OK. Onward and Upward.

10 and a half hours on the schedule this week. Pretty aggressive - but doable.

I did my first real trainer workout last night for a hour. Wow. Sweat was pouring off me like a waterfall. That is some h-a-r-d work! Good stuff. My back continues to give me problems. Sleeping has been suffering. I decided to push back my workouts until this afternoon to give it some time to relax. I think it is just stressed muscles from the race this weekend.

Work has slowed to a race pace. Finally. I am digging out of a few weeks of absolute craziness. BSLT is squarly on my mind now. Something like 75 days out. I've got to get another race on the schedule before then to get me more closely focused. Looks like I'm going to re-add the CapTexTri to my schedule this week. I know a ton of folks planning for it. Should be a good time.

Not much else to update on.

See ya out there...

Cactus Challenge 2006

My first Olympic distace triathlon. It was fantastic!!

The short version : Everything went very smoothly for me during the race, I was extremely happy with my time... 2:47:44. A great time for me!

Special congrats to Party Pat - completing the event just 2 weeks after his first child was born - on just a couple hours of sleep. Way to go man!

Pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ttutri/tags/cactuschallenge/

The long version (spare yourself the pain...this is long):

It all started for me on Monday. I had stomach issues all week and I struggled to get my nutrition in order. By Wednesday I was feeling much better. I cut back all my workouts and rested up. By Saturday I was feeling very strong.

Friday afternoon I stopped in to ATC and picked up my packet and do a little shopping. I got a cycling jersey in my race packet! My first one - it will be put to good use. They opened the transition area on Saturday for bike check in - I skipped it. Something just didn't sit well with leaving any of my gear out all night. In hindsight I'm glad I did. Much less worry for my obsessive personality. I packed and repacked my Tri-bag - all. day. long.

Sunday morning: Race Day.

6:00 - Party Pat and I met up in the driveway at 6:00 AM to load bikes and gear.
6:15 - A quick stop by Starbucks to load up on caffine.
7:00 - We pulled into the parking area shortly after 7 AM and started unloading. We were early and had full run of the transition area, chip check-in and to walk the Swim-to-T1 run area. I took my time setting up. It really helped to calm the nerves. By the time we lined up for the start I was feeling great.
8:00 - I took a quick 250M warm up swim. The water was great. Nice and cool. The wetsuit fit great.
9:00 - Around 9AM the race director came on and let us know that they had dropped the ball and the bike course would not be completely closed off. At this point you kind of got the impression that things were starting to spiral on them. There was definitely a sense of urgency in his voice.

9:30ish - I don't remember what time the swim actually started. The swim felt fast. I remember checking my watch in T1 and being really excited because I was almost 7 minutes faster than my planned pace!

I transitioned fairly smoothly and hopped on the bike. No problems. The bike felt fast and fluid. Good stuff. Lots of strange things to keep up with on each loop (4 loops total). Loop 1 - I noticed spray paint all over one intersection of the road. Turns out there was a fatal collision on that road a few days beforehand. Yipes! There was still glass on the road. I looked long and hard at the markup of the wreck on each loop. Loop 2 - I caught a passing glimpse of a bike and helmet down in a ditch. I have no idea what the story was here. I saw it again on Loop 3 & 4! By loop 4 lots of drivers were starting to get aggressive. I was glad to be done.

I didn't do a good job of hydrating or eating on the bike. This worried me a bit going into the run.

T2 - feeling good. I ran hard for the first mile or so to get the legs under me. The course was a bit uneven in places and really through off my stride. Luckily it only lasted for a mile or so. There was a killer hill on the back side of the run. It got me both times. I ended up walking a quarter of it both times.

M, T, and Amers cheered Party Pat and I on the whole day. It was really great to see them so much. By the time I was on the second loop of the run, I was actively looking at the spectators expecting to see them. Cool feeling have some great folks to cheer you on. Amers took all the pictures. Thanks Amers!

Lessons Learned:

• I still don't have a good feeling for nutrition. I especially need to work on bike nutrition.
• I was on empty at the end of the race. Makes me wonder about being able to "race" BSLT. I'm thinking that BSLT will be about finishing - not racing.
• I need to train on hills - lots of them. Hard ones. I did not run on hills well at all during this race.

OK - every great adventure needs a scandal. This adventure delivers. I was reading a couple of the message boards on the race today. Turns out there are some unconfirmed reports that the first Age Group wave turned about 250M early. I was in the first wave! It's a little tough to tell from my splits if I turned early. It was a very fast pace for me but I was really swimming well and had the added benefit of the wetsuit.

I can say that I was very aware of the first turn. I know there we no more buoys in sight when I started my turn. The only thing I can figure was that a boat or lifeguard may have been blocking the view?? I guess we'll never know for sure. But, it would explain why I was so surprised by my pace. We'll see if anything comes of it.

I really like this distance. There's just more time to enjoy every sport.

The course was fantastic. I loved every part. This was a good race - a little disorganized but nothing that couldn't be handled. It would also be nice to get this race USAT certified.

See ya out there...

What a Day!

Hey there everyone! Well, my first Oly is in the books. It was outstanding. I couldn't have asked for a better experience. I'm working on a detailed post, but I'm still waiting on the results to post. And, yes, I've got some great pictures Thanks to Amers!!

More to come...

See ya out there...

Shout outs

Just a quick shout to Benny #1373 and Gina #1095 as they take down Ironman Arizona this weekend. Good luck!!

I was poking around on the IMAZ website and got to looking at the participant list. A few observations:

1) Way to go Austin!! I just eyeballed it, but it looks like we have more participants listed than any other Texas city!!

2) Have a look at the "Occupation" column of the participant list from your area. Turns out we have some pretty talented folks running IMAZ... (I'm not making this stuff up)

• Garden Gnome - Joni Moore #1697
• Professional Goofball - Michelle Andreas #1561
• Stripper - Brent Drake #253
• Cat Herder - Sam Smith #1315

And my Favorite...

• I'm Batman - Kevin Hall #515

3) Just eyeballing the whole list I noticed a bunch of Police, Firefighters, and ... get this ... Attorneys.

Pretty interesting stuff, eh?

See ya out there...

Bulldozing

Attention -- Attention

2 posts in one day! That means I have successfully caught up on ALL my crazy work projects, training and some of my home projects.

Today I turned in my taxes. Yes folks, despite 3 concurrent work projects, 10 hours of training last week and the dreaded IRS - I am completely caught up. Ah.

OK. I turned in 22 miles on the bike tonight. Gotta love DST. I'm feeling pretty strong again. It felt great to get my legs moving.

Alright, one last thing to catch up on... sleep!

See ya out there...

Rebuild, Repair, Remember?

This week has been a bit of rebuild for me. The stress from last week (both work and training related) has taken its' toll. I think it has a lot to do with the poor eating over the weekend but I can tell I've lost a step or two. Yesterday was pretty rough. I decided to cut back on the volume this week to taper for the race. I was pretty winded after just 2100M in the pool and only 30 minutes of running.

This must be fixed by Sunday! I did a little research and it sounds like this fatigue is related to depleted glycogen stores and dehydration. Both fixable. I guess jelly beans aren't a good recovery food. So, last night we had a nice whole wheat pasta supper. Very nice. I feel much better this morning. I'm going to keep on the good eating this week and the light workouts.

I'm ready for the race.

I've already started obsessing over race day details. I had forgotten how much planning it takes to do race day right. I'm sure some folks can just roll out of bed grab their bike and show up. I'm not one of those people. Looks like I'm going to do a little shopping at ATC during packet pick up. I need a new singlet, some bike chain cleaner, goggles, and a few other little things. Did I ever tell you I have the greatest sponsor?? Thanks, M! I also need to check my seat. It felt a little loose after my ride on Sunday.

That reminds me. I found a "new" site the other morning while I was trolling the net for tri-stuff. Turns out ATC has a "not-so-secret" website with lots of great stuff : http://www.atcunderground.com. Check it out.

I received an e-mail from the race director for the Cactus Challenge earlier this week. They want us to rack our bikes on Saturday afternoon. Outside, Overnight!! Oh man. This is going to take a leap of faith. I posted on the BT Boards and everyone seemed fine with it. So, I guess we'll see.

Party Pat is still planning to race this weekend. Even with a 2 week old baby! That dude is made of steel. I think were going to go pick up packets and drop off bikes, etc. this weekend. Very cool.

So. I have a 1h:15m ride this afternoon and another swim/run day tomorrow. Then, I shut down for a couple days to completely recharge. Can you feel the race day energy building?

See ya out there...

Mouth

I stopped in for my dental checkup today. My dentist is the coolest. So get this. I sit down in the waiting room to decide between Highlights Magazine and a two month old copy of People. When, out of the corner of my eye, I saw it. Those large type letters we all love to see in the mailbox every month. No, not Playboy -- T-R-I-A-T-H-L-E-T-E. My dentist had last month's copy of Triathlete magazine just sitting out in the bin waitng for a tired weekend warrior to come by. I had made it through about 1 article when they called me back.

The first, thing Mary says: "Wow! You look terrific! What have you been doing?" Mary has worked with me for years - she only sees my twice a year and having lost 50 lbs really threw her. She's finished the Danskin and is a marathon'er. She pulled up my pictures to show the doctor. Oh yeah, the doctor is training for the Danskin with the IronChicks! And, another doctor has finished 2 Ironman races. The coolest dentists I tell ya!!

I, once again, came away with a clean mouth - no cavities. Ever. The doctor even asked if I had already had my cleaning when she looked at the 'ol choppers. I hadn't. Afterward, they even invited me to go around and kiss everyone in the office. Ok, not really.

I asked the doctor about the effect of Gatorade, Powerade, Gu, etc. on teeth. Turns out it's bad. But, not as bad as chlorine. She said she saw an olympic swimmer one time with almost no enamel left on their teeth. The chlorine had worn it away. She recommended 2 things: 1) Never drink sports drinks unless it is for a specific purpose like training or recovery. The sugar will kill your teeth. 2) Brush your teeth with floride rich toothpaste in the evenings after swimming or taking in a large amount of Gatorade. There is a good floride-rich toothpaste you can ask for at the pharmacy - or you can get your dentist to give you tube during a checkup.

Coolest I tell ya!

See ya out there...

Heavy Lifting

Lots to catch up on - let's get started

Training Recap

Oh my gosh. Fri/Sat/Sun was crazy. Here's the breakdown:

Fri - Brick Day : 45m Bike / 30m Run
Sat - 2h 30m Bike
Sun - Tri Day : 49m Swim / 45m Bike / 30m Run

I did a really horrible job in fueling my body for this kind of load and ended up pretty tired and sore by last night. Lesson Learned. I'm going to take an unplanned rest day today to recover and get things back on track. Race day in T-7 days.

Sunday was a really fun day. First off, let me say how much I L-O-V-E Daylight Saving Time. My clock just works better an hour ahead. Sunday - I popped out of bed ready to roll. I packed up the fam and brought them along to Zilker Park while I swam in Barton Springs Pool -- in the new wetsuit. What a great time! I can't believe I've lived in Austin for 7 years and never taken a dip in Barton Springs Pool. I'm thinking that I may need to make that workout at least a monthly thing. It was great to swim in the open water and practice sighting on more thean the end of a lane. After the swim we headed back home and I finished out the bike and run. It got up to about 90* during the run. Whew! We spent the rest of the day hanging out. Sunday = Funday!

I also broke down and ordered a trainer this weekend. I decided to order the Minoura 500D. (Thanks for the help Flatman!) Ageebike.com had a great deal. In about a week I'll have no more excuses for missing a bike workout.

Also this weekend, I found out Nytro had decided on my stolen borrowed team name I dropped in her comments a few weeks back. "Hoof Hearted". I wish I could be there to hear that team name announced as they cross the finish line. Classic.

My first race of the season is this coming Sunday - the Cactus Challenge. I'm really pumped. Everything kicks off in the Thursday/Friday timeframe with packet pickup. Then, bike drop off on Saturday and the race on Sunday. Can't Wait. Taper starts today.

See ya out there...