Bike at Roy's

This morning I went to Roy's house to do the bike ride on his computrainer so he could replace my seatpost with a new, more forward seatpost and readjust my bike fit. The purpose of the new seatpost is so I can get better angle with my riding and be overtop my aerobars. Roy also adjusted by aerobars since they were too close together and it helped spread my shoulders apart a little. These were some major adjustments and I rode for 20 miles on the bike as he looked at how I was riding. It typically takes 4-6 weeks for the body to fully adapt to the adjustments which is about the timeframe until Florida. So, let's hope that these adjustments were right and I feel comfortable during the next two weeks of long rides. Roy is awesome to spend this time when I know he is busy with his own training! Thanks Roy!

Summary for this recovery week:

Swim: 5.3 M <--nice week!
Bike: 34 M
Run: 6.4M
Totals: 46 miles, 6:43 hours

Chesapeake Man Swim Fest

This was a fun event. Part of the Chesapeake Man ironman distance race, the director started just a 2.4 mile swim event and a swim/bike event. Today, Mark and I did the swim portion and it was a solid swim. For all my races this season, each time I get in the water, it just doesn't feel right, that is the open water swims. It seems like I get a little anxious when that has never happened to me. So today, my goal was to be smooth, steady and calm.

The race began at 7:00am in Cambridge at Great Marsh Park and there were about 350 participants. Most were doing the full ironman distance and others were doing the relay, just the swim or just the swim/bike. If we had time, we would have done the swim/bike (2.4m/112m) becuase it is great training preparation. The course was 2 loops, water temp was 72 degrees which was perfect, and for the most part I had a good swim. I still need to work on swimming on the line of the buoys and be more aggressive. The current was pretty strong on both return legs and there were white caps but I was able to cut through pretty good. Probably the most difficult part of the swim for me was it was tough to site the buoys going into the sun, waves and chop. My time was around 1:18 which is about 2 minutes slower the my IM swim 2 years ago. I was quite pleased with this time as it was just for me to continue and stay comfortable in the water.

Busy week!!!!

These weeks are just crazy. I have been slammed at work and it is next to impossible to get all my workouts in. I started the week out on a good start and had a solid 6.5 mile run Monday night. Tues am I had a good swim at 5:30am and then that night biked onthe trainer for about 50 minutes. Then Wed rolled around and I was suppose to run but I ended up mowing the lawn and the time Carol got home from work (8:15pm) I didn't run because I wanted to make the swim tne next morning. So Thur made the 5:30am swim and ended up working until 9:30 that night so missed my bike workout. Being up since 4:30am and not falling asleep until 10:30 or so that night - I was exhausted. But, when I got home, I packed my stuff so I could leave for Cambridge on Friday after work. Friday, ending up getting out of work a few minutes early and went to Cambridge for the Chesapeake Man Swim Fest on Sat. Just got to keep going!

Nice ride today

What beautiful weather today for a bike ride. Low 70's, cool air, sunny, it does not get any better then this. Today we did the Southern Maryland ride and rode 85 miles in about 5:30 hours. I felt pretty good for most of the ride and brother Mike and his girlfriend Marcy came out to do 30, so it was nice to see them. Only drama today was a bee sting to the neck! What are the odds? I saw this bee coming right at me and I tried to duck out of the way and the sucker landed right on my neck and went to town like a little vampire. The sucker got me good too!

In addition to the whole 3 workouts I did this weekend - I did get in 3 days of stomach exercises. AND spent 2 great days with Carol and the baby in St. Michaels, MD for her birthday. I tell you, it is definitely a balance to keep things on an even keel between training and family!

Totals for the week:
Swim: 1.1M
Bike: 95M
Run: BIG FAT ZERO!
Total: 106 miles, 7:45 hours

Goal for next week: run run run!!!! Need to get those runs in!

Losing steam....

I am losing steam!! This now is the hardest part of training where you just lack the motivation to get the workouts in. Actually for me, it is finding the time to get the workouts in which is killing my motivation when I do the workout. I feel worn out and know that I need to snap out of this and have a good weekend of training. I feel pretty good about my swimming and biking progress but am concerned on the run because I am not getting enough run workouts in. It's a tough balance keeping up with everything as I constantly feel behind on things. The next 4 weeks are going to be tough training weeks. I have complete support from my wife and family and friends. Basically, I need to stop whining and get it done. I will get it done!

Nation's Tri - Awesome!

Real quick before I get to Nation's, yesterday I ran 13 miles in Rock Creek, 9min run/1min walk and averaged 10 minute miles. The weather was perfect. My dad, who happens to be training for his first marathon, did 16 miles and did extremely well!

Okay - on to Nation's. What a great race. I was always so skeptical of doing this race because of swimming in the Potomac but this was a class A race. Over 5000 people did the race and it was extremely well organized! I have to thank Scott Talbot for pushing me to do this one!

I had a GREAT race!! I PR'd my oly time by several minutes and finished in 2:43. This course was flat and it sure was fast! I was 13 minutes faster than Columbia in May(a hilly course) and 23 minutes faster than Luray in August (also a very hilly course). Putting the hilly oly's in the past aside - it was a solid race. It was the first time and quite sometime where I was not passed by the world on the bike, avg 19.4, and kept a solid pace on the run, avg 8:18 with a 7:50 the last mile. On the bike, I kept thinking there was a head wind when actually it was just me moving : ). Here is my write up in my journal:

"Very pleased with the race. Felt strong the entire time. Swim - goggles fogged up and I almost cut out a buoy - a total rookie mistake that cost me at least 2 minutes on the swim. had awesome bike as my heartrate was mid zone 4 the whole time. Run was very strong and steady. Kept positive attitude during whole race especially on the run! Really enjoyed this one! Feel like I am getting my legs back as well."

Also, my nutrition was RIGHT ON using Infinite bike mix for the 1st hour on the bike, then switch to my run mix for the last 16 minutes on the bike and then used the run mix on the run. Worked out well!

Totals for the week:
Swim: 4M
Bike: 58M
Run: 24M
Total: 86M, 9:09 hours

This week's events...

Monday - stomach exercises, and made all travel arrangements for IMF. Broke up the 5 gallon water jug change jar to cash it out to pay for the trip.
Tuesday - 5:30am swim - 1-hour, 9:00pm run - 40 minutes treadmill
Wed - Bike 40 minutes on trainer
Thur - Swim, 5:30am - 1 hour, Bike in pm 1-hour!

Busy busy busy. Woke up in the middle of the night last night in a pool of sweat. I have been roasting lately getting hot flashes. I feel like I'm going through menopause! Although I am in denial, one symptom of overtraining is sweating at night and I should cut back. However, there is not time to cut back since I already feel like I am not getting the workouts in that I need.

My swims this week have been pretty solid. I was getting some coaching tips from the pool deck coach that I hope will help me getting a little more efficient to see if I can make a move up a lane in about 2-3 weeks.

by the way - already cashed out $ 500 from change jar and only half way through!

Weekend events

To continue on with my recovery week routine, on Saturday I did a brick work out. Spent 23 miles on the bike and then went to a 6 mile run. During the bike I was not feeling that motivated to do the run but forced myself and ending up having a nice solid run. Total workout time was about 2.5 hours.

Totals for the week:
Swim: 0 (big fat zero)
Bike: 48 miles
Run: 12 miles
Total: 60 miles, 5:38 hours

Back to the massage table!

As I continue on this nice recovery week - bike Wed night, bike Thur morn and run last night, we capped off the week training with a nice sports massage to loosen me up for the next 2 weeks of training. This definitely helps me and my performance in workouts, no doubt. Tomorrow I have a brick workout and then things ramp up again next week.

Just a quick note on recovery week. Not only does it give your body time to recover, it also gives you some time to do the other things you have neglected the past 2 weeks of your life. Such as spending time with your wife and 3 month old son, run errands, pay bills, make travel arrangements, etc... It's tough to get everything in as you need more sleep from the training and your window of getting anything done becomes smaller and smaller.

Stomach - what's that??

Man - do I hate doing stomach exercises but it's time to solid up this muscle in preparation for IM. So I dedicated my recovery week to start doing stomach exercises. One of my exercises is the plank which I used to be pretty good at and now just a minute was tough tonight. I was with Thomas and I laid him on the ground next to me. As I began, both Thomas and I were smiling at each other. As the minute progressed, my facial expression started to strain more and more and as I continued to watch Thomas, I must have scared him because he was down right crying when I finished my minute of plank. Carol said I scared him, I like to believe that he was helping me to not strain so he could continue to smile. We'll have to keep practicing.

Rehoboth Beach - FLAT - ride

Well, Hurricane Danny turned out to be a no show. So under cloudy skies, some heat and of course, humidity, it turned out to be a nice day. It was a brutal drive down to the hotel Friday night as traffic was horrible trying to get over the bridge, but after that it wasn't too bad. Got to the hotel around 11:00pm and I was asleep at 11:30 and got a SOLID 6-7 hours sleep. Needless to say I was WELL rested for this ride. Up at 7 and on the bike around 8:30am.

Overall, it was a solid ride to complete a solid 2 weeks of training. After feeling pretty exhausted throughout this past week, I felt it did not affect me on this ride. The ride was 3 loops, 49M, 33M and 22M for a total of 104 miles! Yeeahhhh. Finally broke the century mark and the first time at this distance since IM CDA. We averaged 17.6, 16.9 and 17.6, respectively, for an overall average of 17.4 or total time of just under 6 hours. Heck - I'll take it. In fact, if I can average just over 16 for Ironman Florida I will be quite pleased!

After the ride we rested for a little bit then headed to Dewey for dinner and fun! Who knows what time I went to sleep last night after a "few" beers, but I was up at 7am and on the road 15 minutes later to get home to Carol and Thomas. I missed the little guy - and of course the wife too.

Here are the totals for the week:
Swim: 3 miles
Bike: 129 miles
Run: 6.6 miles
Total: 139 miles, 10:32 hours.

Didn't get the runs in this week that I wanted to. Need to keep working on that. This week coming up is recovery week - thank goodness! Time to catch up on life.

Moving on up!!

This mornings swim was good and solid. Although sleepy at the start, I was able to move up a lane, yeeeeeahhhhhh!!!!!!!! and am back to the lane I was swimming in over 2 years ago when I was training for CDA IM. For those of you who don't do master's swim - the lanes are in order from slowest to fastest and I am now 2 lanes away from the fastest swimmers in the team. I think there are a total of 10 lanes but can't remember. Anyways, it was good swim and we ended the workout with 8 x 100m at Zone 4 (hard effort) pace. That was tough!

Tonight's run was just painful - at least just to get started. I was so tired that I came home from work and took a nap, woke up and forced myself out the door. And interesting enough, I had one of the best mid-week runs in quite a while. It was a solid run where I just flowed. It's amazing on the day's I'm most tired and it is the hardest to get started - they turn out to be the better workouts!

This weekend we are headed to the beach for a nice 100 mile flat ride. We just need to dodge some Hurricane Danny coming up the East coast. should be fun!

Not feeling the love in these workouts!

Yesterday morning's swim I just wasn't feeling the love. Nothing like slugging through the water at 5:30 in the morning. The workout ended up being a pretty good one as I was swimming with some faster swimmers and able to keep up. In total, we did 2600yds (~1.5miles) in the hour. In a few weeks the 5am swims will begin - can't wait for those.

I rode home from work last night and my legs felt like lead, must be the left over feeling from the weekend workout. I had a pretty good pace but felt slow, even though I was keeping pace with previous workouts. I stayed in the big ring the entire time which was good on the hills. Worked out roughly 50 minutes.

This morning I rode to work and took a nice easy pace. Rode for about 40 minutes (shorter route) and did stomach exercises in the gym in the building. Skipping run tonight so I have some energy to get up tomorrow and do the swim - but will definitely need to run tomorrow night.

These mid week workouts get harder and harder as you try and recover from the weekend and try not to overdue it so you will be ready for the following weekend. It's a balancing act - but a lot of fun!

Reston 3/4 Century Ride ?!?!?!?!?

So we skipped the nice, FLAT, Easton ride for the hilly Reston Century Ride. The plan for Mark and I was to do the Century today, all 100 miles, but after Taylortown hill - and it was one very long STEEP hill, we decided to make it the Reston 3/4 Century ride. It was an interesting day with me and bugs as I ate one while riding - flew right into my mouth, got nailed in the cheek but a very large bug and then later on got a bee sting on the lip while riding. Quite the drama! The ride was very organized and glad we did it. Definitely will be on my list for next year. The ride took just over 5 hours and I averaged 15 on the bike.

I tell you what though - my legs are really tired - 16 mile run today and 76 mile hilly bike today. Tonight will be a Tylenol PM night so I can sleep. The last couple of nights I have gotten much sleep. Another tough week of training this week then recovery.

Summary of the week:

Swim: 1.4 miles
Bike: 108.4 miles
Run: 25.1 miles
Total: 135 miles, 12:38 hours

I was able to get my runs in and got an extra bike in this week, missed one swim but that's okay.

Run is done!

After a tough night last night with Baby Thomas - I was up every couple of hours with him, I finally got start this morning around 8:15 and ran in Rock Creek. The weather was very humid and it was pretty warm. I ran 16 miles and averaged about 10:35's doing my run/walk approach. It took 2:50 hours and I ran 9' and walked 1'. My pace was consistent the entire time and I used my new mix from Infinitsystems and used no gu's or electrolytes! This stuff is awesome!! No cramping and no fatigue and did not have to worry about pills, gu's, etc. Just a simple cocktail drink of this stuff. After my run I took a nice cool bath and iced my lower back to get ready for tomorrow's ride!!

Busy weekend ahead!!

Right to the point - biked home last night from work and the bike felt fast and the legs did what they could to keep up. It was hot! Got up this morning at 3:30am to feed Thomas, back to sleep at 4:30 and up at 6:30am and biked to work. I took it easy though because big weekend ahead. Tomorrow I have a 16 mile run and Sunday 90 mile bike! I'm pretty tired now so I hope to get to bed early tonight so I am a little rested for tomorrow's run!

Metabolism is in Overdrive!!

We will get to my metabolism in a second. First, a quick update - got in the 40 minute ride workout Tuesday night, got my first speed workout on the run since February last nigth and smacked the swim this morning!! I am starting to focus more on increasing my weekly milage since I believe I have figured out my little injury or some would say pain in the ass - literally! We'll see how it goes as this injury has been hampering me for over a year now and trying to figure out what causes the pain and how to get relief. So far I have determined that getting a massage of the high hamstring, lower back area is key to relief! I was not able to get a massage last week but will do so shortly.

Now, onto more interesting stuff - my metabolism. When I'm training, my body goes through 3 periods. At the start of training season, I'm burning some calories and my weight stays about the same or slighly increases, somewhere in the middle, I start burning more calories and I start trimming down - NOW, it has just started, where I can not eat enough food and need some serious calories. The is the best part because you just keep eating eating and eating, and I still can't get enough food. Problem is the more fit I get, I stay away from all the good greasy foods because it affects my workouts. So I'm eating more and more healthy foods instead of the nice greasy food like Five Guys - I really like Five Guys which I have about once a year. Chipolte is good for you - right? And chocolate - I just can't get enough of it!

Sleep or Swim??

Got a nice run in last night for about 50 minutes and then made Carol and I a nice salmon dinner with asparagus on the grill - YUM!!!

I have been extremely tired lately and have not been sleeping that well. Last week was recovery week and I felt I did not get the sleep I needed. Since Luray, I have been tossing and turning each night and this morning it finally caught up to me. I was up around 3:30am with Thomas for a little bit and went back to sleep. The alarm went off at 4:30am and I knew it just wasn't going to happen. It's a challenge sometimes and I know I need the swim practice but I felt sleep was more important. Now I await Peapod for the grocery delivery so I can go workout on the bike.

Catching up

Well last week came and went. Being that it was recovery week, I took it easy and seemed overly tired. I got a morning swim on Tuesday and a morning bike in on Wednesday. Couldn't seem to get a run though as the week just flew by.

Saturday was Luray Oly and I did okay. I took off early from work on Friday and went down to Luray, VA with Mark. We did all the things we would not normally do with our women. We ate dinner at the Luray firehouse where they had a great spaghetti dinner for the triathlete. Then afterward we went to see District 9 - some scifi movie I knew nothing about but turned out to be one of the better movies I have seen in a long time - note that Carol continues to rent chick flicks and the latest being I'm a Shopoholic - so District 9 brought me back to reality.

The race on Saturday was at this park in Luray. Water temp was 80 degress so I swam no wetsuit and had a slower swim time then usual. This was due to no wet suit and me still struggling on my stroke technique. The bike course was hilly and it was hot but bike split was a little faster then columbia at around 16.7mph. The run course was again hilly and it was roasting and I averaged about 9:13's but it seemed slower then that. I had good transition times and my overall time was 3:05, about 7 minutes slower then Columbia in May.

I need to start getting move of my runs in and continued to work on my stroke technique. My biking is coming along but there is always room for improvement.

Totals for last week were:

Swim: 2.2 miles
Bike: 33.6 miles
Run: 6.2 miles
Total: 42 miles, 4:42 hours

Next two weeks are going to be tough!

I think this ride left a scar...

Man, it was hot and humid today on the bike! We did the Apple Blossum ride, same one we did back on May 6, 2007. Just read my posting from then and it looked like I had one of the best rides at the time before CDA. However, at that time, we did 112 miles and the temp was between 40 and 50. Certainly not the case today. 95 degrees hot, sunny and humid! I was doing well, had a good pace but felt groggy the whole time. I started to push the pace around mile 70ish, thinking we only had 8 miles to go and wouldn't you know - we missed a turn because of a slight error in the cue sheet. At mile 79 we came to the realization - where the hell are we and how far do we have to go? I was spent, Mark was wiped, and Brian was definitely shot, but we were lost. So after riding in circles for a little bit, we found a few others from the team and they lead us back to the school and we ended up doing 83 miles. Yeah yeah, I hear ya, how bad could it have been to go 4-5 extra miles - Let me tell you - IT WAS TOUGH AND LEFT A SCAR!

However, overall my pace was better then two years ago, granted the distance was less, but the weather was worse. I am quite pleased with today's ride, no euphoric feeling like in May 2007, but it was solid. Also, used new nutrition for the ride - www.infinitnutrition.com where you mix your own formula and you don't need gu's or any other food. I think it worked well today and I avoided cramping however, I think need some solid food. I'll call them this week and find out what they recommend.

Totals for the week:
Swim: 2.7 miles
Bike: 118 miles
Run: 8.4 miles
Total: 129 miles, 11:24 hours

This week coming up - RECOVERY WEEK and Luray Oly on Saturday!