So yesterday, my friend and I are having at lunch at a local Mexican buffet (I know… you’re thinking, Mexican buffet? That certainly doesn’t sound like a very triathlon lifestyle thing to do? Bear with me. :) ). I had finished getting my food and was heading back to my seat when I passed my friend who was standing in line with this stunned look on his face. He later comes back to tell me that while we were in line, a guy was attempting to put some salsa in this little dipping cup thing when he dropped the whole cup into the trough. No big deal, right? UNTIL HE REACHED HIS BARE HANDS, KNUCKLE DEEP, INTO THE SALSA TO TRY AND FISH THE CUP OUT??! What the…. gross!! I’m not sure if the staff even noticed, but I didn’t see them changing out their salsa after it had happened. Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll be eating there again.

In other news, I’m back in the arctic tundra that is Minnesota. Not really glad to be back, but back none the less. I’m way behind on your guys/gals blogs so, sorry for that. I’ll try and catch up soon.

Nothing really much noteworthy workout wise either. 6.5 mile run on Monday, an hour spin on the trainer yesterday, and this morning was 3,300 yards in the pool. I’m going to run again this afternoon. It’s “nice” out today - aka. it’s 34 degrees. *sigh* I need to move.

As much I’d like to gloat that I’m in California right now, I feel terrible for everyone still back in the Twin Cities.

I don’t remember a day since I’ve lived in Minnesota where the temperatures got that low! :( I almost feel guilty being here… like I’ve abandoned folks in their time of need or something.

Try and stay warm Minnesota folks! Looks like things should warm up by Sunday.

Ok, my “secret” announcement (it seems rather anti-climactic now after so many posts today). After a lot of thought and deliberation about what to do this year, I’ve finally pulled the trigger.

I now have an “A” race for the year. :) The weather can’t be bad four straight years in a row, can it?? I’m psyched! I know that Wil and Sara are in. Is there anyone else?

Madison, Wisconsin… here I come! :)

…that I love Diet A&W Root Beer.

(No, that’s not my announcement but that should [hopefully] be coming shortly. :) )

Blogger has been so annoying lately. Or maybe it’s just been when I’ve been trying to use it? In any case, I I’ve been trying to catch up (again) on my reading but Blogger is acting particularly slow this morning and it isn’t letting me comment. I’m getting everything from “Your connection has been reset” to “This server is currently experiencing a problem. An engineer has been notified and will investigate.” Bleh. And I still have 46 more posts to read and catch up on.

Oh well. I can still read them (I use one of those RSS reader thingies which downloads your posts for later reading), but my ability to comment is intermittent. So, if I happen to “miss” you this morning please don’t be offended. I’m with you in spirit even though I can’t be with you via electrons. BLAME BLOGGER!

Also, Happy Valentines Day for those that like that sort of thing. I hate Hallmark holidays myself so in honor of my hatred, I leave you with “Life As A Guy”. Enjoy! :)

I haven’t posted in a few days. It’s been go go go here the past few days and with work having me in front of the computer all day, I haven’t had much motivation to come home and sit in front of it some more. I suppose some updates are in order, though.

I ran almost 20 miles last week. I’ve been trying to run hard. I wouldn’t call my runs threshold runs, but they’re definitely harder than “steady”. A couple of weeks ago, I had a good run at just over 9 minute pace and I’ve been slowly but surely dropping my pace. Today, I managed my 6.5 mile route at 8:32 pace and 160 avg. HR which I’m happy with. The HR is still high, but I’m sure that’ll come with time (and when I start dropping weight). I should probably start throwing in some long, slow stuff in my routine pretty soon.

I went to my first official tri club event this past Sunday. It was a group spinning session and the infamous Trimama was there (neither of us had a camera though, so sorry… no pictures). To you folks doing Florida, you had better get your tails in gear or at least make sure you come up with something to tell Trimama as she passes by you on the bike. She’s in great form, especially considering it’s only February! If you can’t tell from her blog, she’s such a ball of positive energy.

The rest of my weekend was spent hanging out with friends and doing final registering for my upcoming wedding. The whole process of registering just reiterates the fact that I really hate shopping. Even more so when I’m shopping for stuff that I really don’t even care about. Cookware, linens, towels… I suppose they’re all necessities, but they just don’t do anything for me. Now if I could register for plasma TVs, bike gear, and other geeky toys… now that would be something.

I’ll be in California this coming weekend. Finally, a chance to thaw if just for a couple of days and to, of course, have some In-N-Out Burger. Mmmmm!

Finally, I have an announcement to make, but since a few of you all have done this to me in the past, I’m going to follow suit and make you wait! Not too long… maybe tomorrow. ;)

You know, the longer I participate in this sport the less complex things seem to be. Not necessarily because I become more knowledgeable, but because I start to believe that to succeed in this sport, you don’t have to have world class genetics and a PhD in Kinesiology (although I’m sure neither hurts!).

I look at all this stuff we have around us: paddles, pull bouys, fins, Total Immersion videos, aerobars, deep rim wheels, disc wheels, ceramic bearings, clipless pedals, aero helmets, cadence meters, power tap hubs, fuel belts, iPods, more brands of running shoes than I can remember, heart rate monitors, exercise logs, food logs… the list is endless. Don’t get me wrong - I love technology and being all geeked out. Still, I can’t help but look back and think about how the pioneers of the sport did it back in the day without any of our modern tri toys.

Case in point, on the right we have a bike from 1987. It looks quite odd in today’s modern triathlon world - no race wheels, no bar end shifters, standard round tubing, a very unconventional cockpit. If you were to see that bike today at a local triathlon, perhaps you might chuckle to yourself and perhaps keep a close eye on it to see if you could also get a glimpse at the owner of it to see if he was sprouting a perm held back with a headband and some cotton Rocky sweats. You’d probably never guess that would be the bike of an Ironman World Champion. Dave Scott went on to win Hawaii in 1987 in 8:34 on that bike with a 4:53.48 bike split - that’s 23 MPH in the heat and winds of Hawaii, folks! Indeed, it’s not about the bike.

My first season, I planned all my weeks down to the finest detail. I wrote down exactly how many hours it’d be riding or running on any given week. I didn’t deviate from this schedule without a significant amount of stress and certainly not without adjusting things beforehand to ensure I could still fit everything in. My second year though, I took a much more simple approach. I made sure I got my long ride and long run of the week in, and then I did as much swimming, biking, and running between those workouts as I possibly could. Outside of all the theory of treshold and training zones and aero equipment, there’s one thing that remains true. Doing the work and pushing your body will cause it to progress, and those that do the most of it will likely progress the most.

This isn’t to say that modern man hasn’t improved the way we train to enable us to train better, or that technology hasn’t improved since ten or twenty years ago. But these things all come very much secondary to the one thing that should be on the forefront of all our minds - simply training. If you want to swim fast, swim a lot. If you want to bike fast, bike a lot. And if you want to run fast, you run a lot! It’s pretty much that simple. Long distance endurance events reward folks who are out there daily putting in the miles and the hours of work. And during that time, you’ll learn things along the way. You’ll learn that you swim faster when your hips aren’t sagging. You’ll learn that you’ll can’t bike for hours on end without eating and drinking properly. You’ll learn that the more you run, the easier it gets and the faster you’ll go. And that all these things are a little easier if you eat well and take care of yourself. Much of what we read in books today, I think, are just the lessons that these pros learned as they encountered obsticles in their own training.

There really aren’t any shortcuts. There isn’t an easy way to that finish line. The two great ones of the sport had this figured out a long time ago - before any of our modern toys existed. Train hard, train smart, recover and eat well. Rinse and repeat as necessary. :)

“Somewhere in the world someone is training when you are not. When you race him, he will win.”

Phew. What a weekend. My fiancee and I were in Chicago this past weekend doing some more wedding planning. Our pastor seems to still think that we can get by without killing each other and the food that we’ll be serving at the reception will be edible. Both good things, I suppose.

Outside of wedding planning, we hung out with some of her family and friends and her brother-in-law introduced me to “caps”. Basically, you throw a bottle cap across the room and try to get it to land in a glass filled with beer. If it goes in, the other person drinks what’s in his glass. Well, my fiancee is many great things, but a good caps player she is not. So I ended up drinking more than my fair share that game, and round two her brother in law and I decided to play 1 on 1 instead. Besides, the girls were getting tired of drinking and we were quickly running out of beer so it all worked out. :)

We came back early on Sunday with plenty of time to get a nap in before watching the Super Bowl. I honestly didn’t really care much about the game but Super Bowl parties always means good eats and for that, it was mission accomplished!

Yesterday, I continued my train fast to run fast running program. Mostly, that means that the runs are a mix of chest pain, side stitches, and feeling like you’re going to hurl. Ok… maybe they’re not that bad, but I do miss the days of the slow and easy. I am pleased to announce that I had my first run of the season where I averaged sub 9 minute mile pace for my workout. Yep, 6.5 miles at 8:55 pace - Garmin confirmed. I still got a ways to go, but boy was I happy to see that my pace started with an eight. Hopefully, it’s a sign of good things yet to come.

I’m behind something like 23987609238745 of your guys’ cumulative posts that I have to read. You take just a little time off and the unread post count grows like mad! Ack! So, sorry if I haven’t been around as much these past couple of days. I hope to get around to you all in the next day or two. :)

I want to first say that I love No Limits and what it stands for. I’ve been loving your guys (and gals) posts of potential missed works only to be twarted by No Limits which forces you back on track and back to work. I really do. But with all the recent posts of folks that have been sick and who are unable to train, I wanted to make a post from the other side of the fence saying don’t feel guilty if you haven’t been able to join in the action. Also in the context of No Limits was paying careful attention to corrective action and strengthening ones body. I think it’s also equally important to know and understand your physical limits and knowing when the best course of action is nothing at all.

I’ll raise my hand and say that last night was such a time for me. After the longest runs of the season last week and early this week, I’ve aquired a dull ache in my Achilles. It’s nothing serious and I wouldn’t even say that I’m injured more than it’s just sore, but this is one of those times where I just know if I train through it it’ll grow from a minor annoyance to a major one. The proper course of No Limits for me yesterday was to take the evening off (despite having a run scheduled) and get some much needed rest. In thinking about it, I’ve been at it now for 4.5 weeks straight without any real time off. So last night, I treated myself with a little bit of R&R.

During that time, I did a little reading. Mostly on running and Achilles issues, but also refreshing myself on the importance of recovery.

“Many excellent athletes give a blank stare when asked about their recovery strategy. Your recovery strategy is the most important part of your plan. Recovery is the time when you will make all your fitness gains.”

“Recovery is the most neglected aspect of training by highly motivated athletes. Few fully appreciate the physiological benefits that accrue during rest, especially during sleep. While asleep, the body releases growth hormone to repair damage from the day’s training stresses and to shore up any physiological systems weakened by training. Without adequate sleep, fitness is lost regardless of how intense or long the workouts were.

A well-rested athlete looks forward to workouts, enjoys them, feels sharp and in control, and grows stronger after training. The quality of training with adequate recovery is far superior.”

Gordo Byrn

It doesn’t make as interesting reading as our bullheaded workout-or-die posts, but rest is just as important as those workouts folks. Be careful not to use rest as an excuse, but do recognize when doing little will serve you better than doing a lot. Train hard with no limits, but train smart knowing your limits.

Sieze the day!

Ugh is all I have to say at this morning’s swim workout. It was pretty much an all paddle workout only I still leave my paddles in my locker because I want to build up a little strength before putting extra pressure on my shoulders first. First set: 8×200@2:45 with about 50 yards of drills throw in that too. In shape with paddles, no problem. In shape without paddles, pretty challenging set. Out of shape without paddles = death. I made the first two and I pretty much was hating life for the rest of the workout. Lats on fire, muscle failure, feeling like you’re moving backwards in the pool - maybe some of you can relate? I don’t know what I was thinking not adjusting my distance or interval appropriately. All I know is that I’m already sore and that does not bode well for me tomorrow at all.

In more pleasant news, I bought a copy of Spinervals Aero Base Builder IV a few days ago. I did the workout for the first time last night and it did make the trainer ride better. Still not great, but better than just sitting there spinning away mindlessly, I guess. Or maybe the whole idea was just new and it’ll get old after a few more workouts? Whatever the case, it was a good workout. Only a 7.5 on the difficulty scale, but it was perfect for me where I’m at now. Coach Troy has you ride at 10 beats less than your LT and calls that an easy and/or a “recovery” workout? I certainly wouldn’t have called 10 beats below LT recovery by any means, but with all this “train fast to go fast” mantra I’ve been hearing lately, maybe I’ve been going too slow all this time? I guess I’ve had some success with primarily long, slow stuff, but maybe I’d have more success if I were to push myself that much harder. Of course, I could always injure myself or burnout. I’ll have to walk that tight rope when it comes time I suppose.

Lastly, work has been pretty crazy busy lately. I’ve desperate been trying to keep up with my blog reading, but forgive me if I get to you a day or two late.

Have a great hump day! :)