Tri to Beat Cancer Preview

A couple of months ago someone pointed out to me that there was a race in Athens, GA. I'd never heard of it, but was interested since that is where my brother and his family live. I haven't seen my nephew Drew in a few months and since he is only 15 months old he's changing a lot from month to month. I'm real excited to see the little guy, maybe be a bit of a bad influence like a good uncle should. The race itself is Sunday and I'm not sure what to expect. This is the first year they have held the race so I'm sure there will be some issues. What I do know is that its a short race. Swim is just 400 yards, bike is 17 miles, 5k run. I'm not expecting a very tough field but I guess I'll find out Sunday. If I can finish top 10% in my age group I will qualify for the USAT Age Group National Championships. Even if I qualify I doubt I'll do the race, but it would be nice to say that I could have done it. Two weeks ago at Mountain Lakes Triathlon the race went great. I missed the top 10% mark by just 5 seconds but still finished 5th in my age group and really had a race I could feel proud about. The new race strategy of just going out and racing worked out great. No watch, no goals, just racing till the finish line. I figure this weekend will be a good fun one no matter what so I really can't lose.

New Approach

Based on the fact that I have never followed an actual training schedule it would be a stretch to say I have ever taken races that seriously. One might think the natural progression would be to adopt an actual training plan and get a little more serious. Nope. I'm going to go the other way. From here on races are about fun. Sure, I have an Ironman this November and I want to do well, but if I don't, oh well. My first race in awhile is this weekend. A short sprint distance race. I am going to try and go fast, but really, who cares! I will never be a pro. This is supposed to be a hobby, why should I take it that seriously? So the motto now is go out, race hard, have fun, and show me the beer tent.

Building back is difficult

I was excited when I was cleared to start training again. Not only was it great to get back to work, but I had also managed to gain only minimal weight. Surely this meant that I would be back in form in no time. Not exactly. Turns out I had lost quite a bit of muscle and replaced it with some tasty fat. Now, I can't swim worth crap anyway, and when running I go through spurts where I can keep up with the crowd, but on the bike I'm always out front. The last few weeks I've watched a lot of people riding away from me. I've spent a lot of time bonking and midway through a ride, I even had to get off my bike and walk it up a hill at one point. Big time reality check.

This past weekend I did a nice 100 mile ride with my friend John. About halfway through things were looking bad. John was pulling away in spots and I was coming to terms that I still had about 50 miles to go and temps were in the mid 90's. Lucky for me I got a bit of a second wind about 70 miles in and finished a lot stronger than I anticipated. Am I back, not yet, but at least I am starting to gain some confidence.

In other news Blue the fat Cattle Dog (AKA Blujo) has lost a little weight. He's down about 10 pounds, and we have at least 10 more to go. The heat is killing him but at least he's figured where the AC vent in the car is located. Hopefully this fall he can get his mileage up when the temperature starts to drop.

Two upcoming races in August. Mountain Lakes Sprint Triathlon and a Sprint Tri in Athens, GA at the end of the month. No real expectations, I just want to have fun.

That is all the official news I have for now, but I sense there could be some interesting things in the works so I'll keep you posted.

Gotta Run!

Back and Looking Ahead

After an agonizing couple of weeks I have finally been cleared to get back in the pool and back on the bike. Still a few more weeks till I'm supposed to run. Injuries suck, especially ones that could have been prevented, but it does help to make you appreciate your health a little more. If it's possible to take a positive out of getting hurt I think I have. Now I'd like to have a couple of injury free years.

Since I haven't been doing much training I've had time to do some dreaming. If I could do any races what would they be? I've started a list, sort of a race bucket list. The list will probably change over time, but hopefully some will get crossed off. The painful realization of this list is that I need to win the lottery to make most of it happen. What are your dream races and is there something I need to add?

Challenge Wanaka
Norseman Extreme Triathlon
Escape From Alcatraz
Pinhoti 100
Wildflower Festival Triathlon
Triathlon EDF Alpe D'Huez
Boston Marathon
Swiss Alpine Marathon

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

I'm in a race to destroy my body right now. Just as my stress fracture is healed up what happens, I go wreck my bike. Riding too fast in a place where I should not have been, lets just say my judgment hasn't always been a strength. The crash was pretty, or so I've been told. It also left me with a fractured distal clavicle. My parting gift is a plate and some screws to hold my shoulder in place while I slowly work my way through a bottle of Hydrocodone. Surgery was Thursday, I feel like the recovery is going well. Five months till Ironman.

1 Year later...

I can't remember why, but a year ago I started this blog. It has been fun and a great way for me to hold myself accountable. Knowing that I put goals out there and that my friends and family expect race reports kind of keeps the focus on getting the job done. Seven triathlons, three marathons, one 50k, and a stress fracture later, what a year it has been. Thanks for taking an interest, or at least pretending. I will continue to update the blog regularly and hopeful become better and better at doing it.

A quick update on things. My leg is almost completely healed. I still feel some pain in it from time to time, but it isn't really stopping me from anything. I've started a training group with the church I belong to. We are training for the Mountain Lakes Sprint Triathlon in August. So far it has been interesting and I anticipate having a great time with it and hopefully making a difference in some aspiring triathletes lives.

Next race for me is Buster Britton Sprint Triathlon in my hometown of Pelham. It is short and hilly.

One other note, Blue, the dog some have called evil, is going to visit the local dog whisperer. We are hopeful that he can learn to like others. This may be the biggest challenge of the upcoming year and keep in mind I'm signed up for an Ironman!

Is it possible to be both happy and frustrated? I think I am. The Gulf Coast Triathlon was my second race of the year, another half ironman distance race. I had some expectations of improving on my performance a few weeks earlier in New Orleans. I was confident I would run better and I was hopeful I would swim better.

The Gulf was rough, but so was Lake Pontchartrain 3 weeks earlier. I was eager to get in the water and I felt like I swam well. The comfort level in the water was great the whole way. My navigation between buoys left a little to be desired. I think I probably swam about 1.5 miles which is good except that the actual swim course is only 1.2 miles. That being said my time was almost identical to the New Orleans swim so I was disappointed, but times don't mean everything and I swam a lot better. The time will get faster eventually.

I've been setting the bike leg bar pretty high. That is undoubtedly my strength and I was hoping to go faster than 23 mph. The course was windy so at times it was a struggle to keep the speed above 20 mph and at time I was doing an easy 26 mph. I did everything I wanted to and more in this part of the race, a time just a few seconds more than 2 hours and 24 minutes and a average speed of 23.3 mph.

Coming off a stress fracture my run training has been lacking. Simply put I haven't been able to put the mileage in necessary. I increased it a good amount in the two weeks leading up to this race but was nowhere near where I needed to be. That being said coming off the bike I felt good. My pace three weeks earlier was in the 9-10 minute range, this time I did 8 minute miles for my first two and only slowed slightly there after. It wasn't until about mile six where I began to struggle. During the run you are able to see a lot of the competition, this is a bit of a boost. I saw my friends John and Chad, both running far better races than me. I tried to pick it up but some things are just not meant to be. I still feel very optomistic about this run. It showed a lot of improvement in just a short time. Give it a couple of months and I might get real fast. Total race time was a few seconds more than 5 hours and 23 minutes, that is about 5 minutes short of my PR. Next time I do a half iron distance race I will set a new PR, I guarantee that.

The next race for me is Buster Britton right here in Pelham. It is a short sprint distance race but since its so close I couldn't pass it up. I'll be cutting my rides and runs a little shorter and doing more work on speed for the next two months. I have reason to believe that it could be a good rest of the year!