and so it begins... again

It's been a while since I've done a blog post and it's been a while since I've gone out for a run.  I hit a point where I started to feel like I was only running because I felt like I had to and not because I wanted to.  It happens every now and then and sometimes you just need to take a break from it all.  I enjoyed a couple weeks off from training where I didn't do much of anything, which was nice, but now I'm ready to get back into the swing of things.  Another reason it's taken me so long to start training again is really just laziness.  I've even had days where I sat there wanting to run but never really stood up to head out the door.  It's the worse excuse ever, but if I'm honest with myself it's the only reason.  I had a Talk with Trey the other day and he really helped to motivate me.  Even though he kept claiming that "he can't motivate me and only I can motivate myself," he really did help me to get out the door again.  There are only a few people out there that understand me well enough to know how to motivate me and he is definitely one of them, so heres to you bro!

I went for a run today that ended up being a fairly light workout.  I had intended on going for three miles but about 8 minutes in I decided to make it and easy 2 miles.  It wasn't that I was suffering or that I didn't enjoy the run, it was just that I felt like 2 miles was enough and there really wasn't a need to go any further.  The more I thought about it the more I realized it didn't matter how far or how long I ran, just that I went out and ran.  I've been out of it for long enough that I need to rebuild the habit of going out and running.  I was happy afterwards and I'm hoping that if I take this one day at a time I can get back into the habit without to much difficulty.  On another note I've found a couple motivational pictures/saying and I'm going to share them from time to time when I feel the idea of the saying really fits well with my blog post so for todays I have the following:

The Off-Season

Now that it’s the off-season I’m really having a difficult time staying focused.  My life has slowed down, I’m almost done with all my school requirements, and I really want to enjoy my free time.  This has made getting out the door that much more difficult.  I know, I know, how can to much free time make it harder to get out the door?  Well simply put, instead of feeling like 8am is the only time I have to go run I talk my self out of it saying, “it’d be nice to sleep in and you can just go run after lunch.”  Lunch time comes and the same thoughts pop into my head.  Without knowing it I’m laying in bed going to sleep wondering where my day has gone.

I’m taking a break from my EC coach and my best friend has taken over writing my workouts for the off-season.  I’m a firm believer in never writing your own workouts regardless of how much you know.  If you write your own workouts you will always write the workouts you want to do instead of the workouts you need to do.  It kind of runs along the same lines as self diagnosing, you will see what is most important to you and not necessarily what is most important.  After talking with Trey and hashing out the details we decided to give it a 12 week trial. Trey being Trey he set the goal of getting me marathon ready by March.  I like having goals and after this last week of training Trey really proved to me that I need to have a goal even to get through my day to day training.

My training started out great and then ended not so great.  Since my number one goal is consistency Trey set up the first few weeks to work on this almost exclusively.  In fact he wanted to work on this so much so that I had a couple 15 minute bike rides planned.  Now I’m not one to complain about short workouts but even I felt like this was a short one.  We talked about it and he had some valid points and if consistency is really what I want to work on I can’t be concerned with distance, right?  It’s like I tell so many patients; work on one area at a time.  If you try to completely change your life around you are going to become overwhelmed and have a much harder time reaching your goals.  So with this all in mind I set out with the goal of just completing all my workouts.  I ended up missing all of my 15 minute bike rides, go figure, and I didn’t do any of my workouts this weekend.  As always I started to think about what I did wrong and about half way into the list I realized that maybe I’m approaching this all wrong.  Maybe instead of looking at what I did wrong maybe I should look at what I do right when I do finish my workouts.  On mornings when I can get out of the door I make a conscious effort the night before.  I set out all my running gear, I pack my lunch, and I hide my alarm clock on the other side of the room.  So I think from now on instead of looking at what I did wrong I’m going to focus on what I have done right and how I can use that to help me stay focused.  It might not work every time, but I think it will really help me to understand how I can turn around my training.

Augusta Ironman 70.3

I finished! And I can tell you there were moments where I thought I wouldn't. As you all know I didn't do nearly the training I needed to do and the two weeks leading up to my race were empty of any type of training except maybe one long run. Taking all of this into account my goal was just to finish. I had a high hopes of breaking 5 hours this year and would have even liked to have beaten my time of 5:35:28 from last year, but I needed to be a realist and set an achievable goal so the idea of just trying to finish was a great one. This was still a feat to be proud of and something I could be excited about especially taking my training into account.

We arrived in Augusta Georgia around 1:00pm on Saturday and headed straight to registration. I love getting to drive through the downtown area and see all the triathletes walking around and all the bikes on their cars. There is an energy in the air that is just intoxicating and you can't help but get excited about what is about to happen. Registration was quicker than expected which was nice since we got into town later than we wanted to. The whole registration process was a great experience and it was almost impossible to get lost. After registration we went and dropped my bike off at transition which again was very smooth. I would have to say even though Ironman races are expensive, they are well worth the money. From the instant you show up to registration to the point you cross the finish line and well after that you receive 5 star treatment from all the staff and volunteers. It is incredibly well put together and so smooth that I would have to say everyone out there should do at least one ironman event just to experience it. With all of our triathlon obligations done we went to visits friends and a new family member that was born just the day before, what great timing!

My swim wave started at 7:48am so my goal was to get there around 5:48am so I would have more than enough time for transition set up and a warm up. As I was setting up my transition area I had a funny feeling come over me. A weird motion in the ocean if you will, a sense of "urgency" in my bowls. I shot straight up and knew something needed to be done. I shuffled to the porta-potties and as I dispensed that urgency I felt I also lost my contact... yes... in the porta-potty. "Great there is no way I'm even going to look for it in here much less put it back in my eye." Now that I'm half blind, squinting out of one eye trying to find my transition area I had left half set up I started to wonder if this was the start of a downhill roll for the rest of my day. I finished with my transition set up and I would have to say it looked great. All of my gear was perfectly laid out and I'm willing to bet a passerby would have taken a double take at the perfection that was my transition area. Alright maybe not, but still I was happy with it.

Now on to the swim start! I grabbed my empty bag, wetsuit, and goggles and headed out to the buses to catch a ride to the swim start. The line was so long and it was getting so close to my start time that I decided to just walk it at a brisk pace and get a light warm-up in, a two-for if you will. After a brisk 15 minute walk and throwing on my wetsuit it was about time to start this thing. There was a dock that went out into the water which was our starting point and as we walked across it swayed from side to side adding a level of difficulty that I didn't expect. I made it across safely, despite having to brace myself several times, and jumped into the water. It was way colder than I expected which was nice later on in the swim. Now we all know I am not a swimmer. I have been described as a "rock," a "retarded dolphin," and my favorite "safe only in the kiddie pool." All this taken into account I love this swim! It's downstream and the current is fairly fast so you can pretty much just float down the river. Now most people use the current to put out blazing fast times for a 1.2 mile swim, I on the other hand use the current to survive the swim. What can I say we all have our strengths and swimming is not one of mine. Once I was finished floating down the river I ranup to transition and plopped down in front of the "wetsuit strippers." Ha no no not that kind of stripper, but people who help you get your wetsuit off ASAP. Here's where I ran into a problem. I forgot to put on body glide and needless to say the strippers didn't pull as hard as they should have (that's what she said?). After several pulls they got my wetsuit off me and off to my bike I ran.

With the swim behind me and the run still ahead of me I wanted to take the bike fairly easy. I kept my overall pace above 19mph, but I made sure to spin up every hill and take them nice and easy. For the most part the bike course is fairly flat with maybe just a couple longer or steeper hills. Overall I felt great coming off the bike and was really starting to feel like I could finish this thing closer to my time from last year than I had expected, man was I wrong.

This is just out of transition

T2 went off without a hitch and I was off and running. The plan was to take the run in 4 stages. Each about 3 miles long and work on getting negative splits. Last year I went out way to fast and didn't have enough nutrition so I didn't want to repeat that mistake. I started with a nice 10 minute pace and wanted to use the first 3 miles to find my legs. I was feeling tired, but I knew this one wasn't going to be easy. This feeling was going to come eventually and I was surprised it took as long as it did to show up. As part of my motivation I want to count out the miles, one down, two down, and so on. The only problem with that was I also started thinking "12 more to go, 11 more to go, aww man this hurts!" As I reached the 3 mile mark I was still feeling like I hadn't found my legs yet so I decided to keep the 10 minute pace until I got to mile 6. Mile 6 came and I died. From mile 6 all the way to the finish it became a unbearably painful. My legs were screaming at me and my whole body was starting to ache. I started setting goals like; "reach mile marker 7 and you can walk for a bit," which then became; "run for 3 blocks and then you can walk one block," and ultimately became " just run to that tree over there!" It was rough and I can tell you if my parents, wife and mother-in-law weren't there cheering me on I would have disappeared around a corner and taken a nap. At the last aid station I took a shot of water, then powerbar perform, coke, and I just started to run. It wasn't fast but I was determined to at least run across the finish line. I rounded the corner entered the shoot and decided that since my time didn't matter I was going to get a great finish line photo. As I come up to the photographer 2 guys go sprinting by me and deflated any hope I had of taking a cool finishing pic. I could just see the pic now, three guys crossing the finish line in a sprint for glory and me in the background with my arms held out oblivious to what was going on around me.

There I am coming around the corner in the blue jersey

There are those two guys coming up behind me...

and there they go stealing my thunder.

Needless to say it was a difficult race and I really suffered, but I would do it again in a heart beat. It was a great experience and I learned that even though I can do a 70.3 without much trainer I never want to do one without training for it again! I came in just over 6 hours and comparing that time to last year I only really lost time on the run. I feel great about that and I know that next year I will rock it!

Anticipation

Here it is, my big race, the thing I've been waiting for all year and I feel completely unprepared! I chose to say "waiting" instead of "training" because well lets be honest I've done less training than I had hoped to, and now that I sit on the eve of my big race I would be lying if I didn't say I had some regret for missing so many workouts so close to my race day. Now that I sit here thinking back on my season and how it has strayed far from my plan I can't help but to wonder what, if anything went wrong.

This was a year full of high expectation. I purchased a new bike, hired a new coach, and really had the desire to change my priorities around. As I looked back on my season I have mixed feelings about it. My times were faster than last year, but always fell short of what I wanted to meet. I probably missed just as many workouts as I made and I don't feel like I've met any of my season goals. Are these really failures? Does this mean that I'm sub-par? Or does this mean my goals were to high and I expected to much out of myself? Honestly I think the answer is no. I heard a quote the other day and I think it very appropriate.

"The greatest danger for most of us in not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it's too low and we hit it." - Michelangelo

As I thought about it I realized that even though I sent high goals just because I missed them doesn't mean I didn't accomplish anything. I did beat my times from last year and I also found out the other day that I place 3rd in my age group for the series. Tri The Parks is a local triathlon series that goes from state park to state park in Georgia. For each race you get a certain number of points and at the end of the series they determine the placings for the whole series. So even though I didn't win a race or meet any of my personal goals I did make a great accomplishment that I can be proud of. This was something great that I wasn't even expecting and I should be proud of my achievements even if they weren't expected.

There has been a lot that has gone on in my life and my training has had to take a back seat. This is something I learned from a friend as I watched her sacrifice what some would say was to much for her workouts. I watched her struggle in school and I have learned that even though I love to do triathlons I can't lose sight that it's a hobby and should never be an obsession. Even though sometimes I use this as an excuse to get out of training when I really do have the time, I can say that this is an ideal I need to maintain. I do want to become more focused with my training, but never at a sacrifice to my livelihood or my family.

I had a conversation with my coach earlier today and it was really reassuring. Instead of saying you can do it, or don't worry about it he actually had a plan. This to me was way more reassuring than denying my weaknesses and actual gave me more confidence in my abilities. This doesn't mean I'm not nervous and have random feeling of "woe is me", but it does mean that I have something to reassure myself. A proverbial rock to keep me anchored in the sea of regret and doubt. So even though this year of training was not what I expected it was still a great journey and I can only hope to learn from it and use it to improve myself next year. Speaking of next year my best friend has been trying to get me into doing an ultra-marathon and I think he has finally worn down. So as my triathlon season ends my running season begins with a new goal on the horizon. I don't know where this journey will take me but it most certainly will be a fun one.

The best goals are ones that you can achieve

After finishing my race on Saturday I was determined to continue my forward progression. I wanted to turn over a new leaf and really put my triathlon training at the top of my priority list. I should have know that it would turn out like it has so many times before.

Sunday was an easy 45 minute recovery ride on the trainer. I put in a movie and enjoyed the nice recovery day. I felt slightly fatigued from my race which actually made me somewhat happy. It reaffirmed that I had pushed myself to my limits on the previous day and made me feel that much better about my results. Not a bad day of training and it was a great way to spend my first day back to training. And then Monday came...

Mondays' workout was a short 1600m swim and since I have classes all day, the plan was to go with the wife to the YMCA after classes/work and get my workout in. We show up to the Y and as we pass the pool on the way to the locker rooms I noticed something different about the pool. It seemed like there was something missing, something that I'm pretty sure should have been there, it seemed somewhat empty. That's right there was no water in the pool. They had decided to clean the pool that week and needless to say thwarted my attempts to get my swim workout in. So I went to my back up plan and did a resistance workout in the gym, which wasn't a swim but at least it was something.

"Don't worry I'll make sure to do my workout tomorrow..."

Tuesday is where it all really started to go downhill. During the week I usually have to do my workouts in the evening since I have classes early in the morning and I really would prefer to not have to wake up at 3am to get a workout in. As always I struggled with getting my workout done after a long day of classes and patients, so unfortunately I ended up convincing myself that I really didn't need to get on the trainer this time. It was late and I had been at school for 12 hours straight so it seemed somewhat justified. Unfortunately this pattern continued for the next three days and the next thing I notice is that it's Friday evening and I haven't done any of my workout's all week. It's not that I wasn't overwhelmed with school and clinic stuff, and even though I had barely any free time on Friday, much less all week I was really starting to feel bad for missing an entire week of workouts. Even though I was going out of town for the weekend I packed up my bike and felt like I could still savage something out of this downward spiral of failed workouts.

Saturday morning came, my alarm went off, I get out of bed, only to find that my watch was dead. A minor thing and it shouldn't have mattered, but for some reason I felt like I would be able to get out the door later that evening. I put my watch on the charger and decided that I can just do my run in the evening right before dinner. As with the rest of my week the time to go out and run came and went and I missed yet another workout. As I laid in bed my determination to ride my bike was greater than ever. Especially since earlier that day my parents showed us the Natchez Trace Parkway in Nashville which is a great area to go ride and I was really excited to go explore.

5am comes and I hear a loud boom outside... really??? Then another boom! Yup it's raining, which means I can't go out and ride. What a horrible way to end a terrible week of training. Not only did I miss almost every single workout, but the one day I really wanted to make up for it mother nature decides that I can't ride. So needless to say this was my least productive week of training. I fell short of my goal to make my training a top priority in my life and I failed miserably at it.

This has made me think of how I make my goals and even though they are made with the truest of intents they tend to be way to lofty. I know when I make goals for patients we always start with short term goals and slowly build towards a larger goal, so why shouldn't I do the same thing in my personal life. Instead of making the bold goal of turning my life around and become a hard core triathlete I'm going to focus more on the little steps. It's an easy concept and I'm sure most people would say it's obvious that you have to set small goals first, but it's easier said than done. Sometimes we get so excited about our final goal that we forget to set those smaller goals to help us reach that final goal. So I've decided that my first short term goal is going to be a pretty straightforward one. I want to complete 3 out of my 6 workouts this week in the morning before I have to go to school or the clinic. I really like this goal since it not only gets me out of the heat but it also will help with preventing me from getting distracted from my training. If I plan on waking up early to do a workout the only thing competing with that workout is sleep. Not to say I don't love sleep but at least it's not school or clinic work. Normally I would set a goal of completing all my workouts in the morning, but the all or nothing method hasn't worked so far so I think it's time to try something a little more forgiving. So there it is. Hopefully I can slowly work at turning my training into a priority and with the right goals I should be able to reach new heights.

Richard B Russel Race Review

I love racing. Racing is why I train. Racing makes me happy. I have always been a racer and most of the time racing is my motivation to get out the door. I love the prep time you put into getting ready for a race. I love the excitement in the air on race days and it's one of the few times that I am happy to wake up early.... well sometimes. This race was 2.5 hours away and since it started at 7:30am I had to get up at 3:30am, which I would have to say is one of those hours in the day that I don't see too often.

The day before my race coach shanks and I went over my race strategy. As always, I set an impressive goal of cutting 17 minutes of my time from last year and shanks being the coach tried to reel me back into reality. I caught a pretty nasty head cold from my brother in-law the weekend before my race and consequently missed all my following workouts that weekend and all but 2 workouts leading up to my race on Saturday. Needless to say I wasn't in my peak performance condition. After talking it out with him he set the goal of cutting between 5 to 8 minutes, but more importantly to maintain a heart rate zone of zone 4. I have always struggled with the idea of subjective goals (goals that are based on what you perceive). These are almost to froo-froo for me. Things like push yourself for the entire race, and race in the red zone. I don't mind subjective goals for my training and I often use them, but to me races should be a measure of what you have accomplished and the only way to really convince me I have accomplished anything is to put an objective (a measurable outcome independent of any influencing perspective) finding in front of me. I like to see numbers and set goals with numbers, so knowing this my coach put forth the somewhat subjective goal of maintaining a zone 4 hear rate. Especially after my post from last week I know I need to work on just enjoying the race more and relishing the fact that I tried my hardest, so I was willing to meet my coach half way with this new goal.

We also talked about nutrition. Since this was an Olympic triathlon ( 1500m swim, 22 mile bike, and 6.25 mile run) we knew nutrition would play a larger role and we decided to try 300 calories on the bike and a bottle with nuun on the run. On the bike I've been using EFS which not only has a lot of calories, but also has a good amount of potassium and sodium. Since it's so hot (and humid) here in Ga and I sweat a lot, so I need all of those electrolytes. I've never used an electrolyte drink on the run so we decided to see how it would go since the half ironman I'm doing in October means those electrolytes will be needed on the run. With all the details hashed out I was feeling great about my race the next day, except the one last instruction he gave me... no beer that night... *sigh* bummer.

3:30am

3:30am

3:30am

Man do I hate mornings. The alarm went off and I would have to say if I hadn't spent $80 to do this race I would have gone back to sleep. The drive wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and I was at the park before I realized it. I find my spot in transition, set up all my gear, got harassed by shanks for not being a morning person, and then head down to the swim start to do a warm up.



The swim was two 750m laps and since I did this race last year I knew to watch out for the start of the second lap. The first lap ends on shore and you have to run about 10-15 yards to the start of the second lap, which wouldn't seem like a big deal but man does it spike your heart rate. As we started the second lap a racer near me sprint the 10-15 yards as fast as possible and then dove in hoping to gain a few seconds on the rest of us. As I took the start of the second lap a little slower I noticed that the boisterous racer had lost his momentum and slowly fell back as he tried to recover from his earlier efforts. As we ended the swim I was feeling pretty well about the race so far and I was excited about my bike leg. I had a great transition and didn't lose either of my shoes while getting on the bike, which recently seems to be a great achievement for me. The bike leg went great! I felt like I was making up time that I lost in the swim and I was following my nutrition plan to the letter. I felt so great that I didn't even pay attention to my heart rate (which was zone 5 the whole time) and I payed for it on the run. I suffered on the run. I felt like I was in purgatory the whole time. There weren't any other racers near me so I started to lose my luster and started to feel less like I was racing and more like I was training. I also had forgotten my socks and despite the excessive amounts of body glide I put in my shoes I was getting some really nasty blisters on my feet. I followed my nutrition plan on the run and while it didn't have a negative effect I didn't feel like it had any benefits. Though I guess the fact that there weren't any negative effects is a benefit.

I crossed the finish line at 2:45:47 and was actually happy with my results. I had cut 3 minutes off my time from last year and even though this wasn't the 17 minutes I wanted or even the more achievable 8 minutes shanks predicted it was still an improvement. After being sick for 5 days, having some pretty nasty blisters, and losing some motivation during the run I had a pretty good race. My average heart rate was zone 4 and if I had done better on the run I would have made huge improvements. I cut 2 minutes off my swim, 3 minutes off my bike, but my run took 2 minutes longer. One of the great things I learned from this race was that I need to work on saving just a little more for the run. I may have put to much into the bike and I paid for it during the run. I also learned that even though I didn't reach my objective goals I was able to have fun and could be proud of what I was able to do.

Oh but wait I did learn one more thing after this race... Coach shanks is a hypocrite!

That's right photographic evidence of Coach Shanks drinking a beer. Oh facebook, why do I love you so? Because you gave me proof that I can have a pre-race beer again!

Lactate testing... Man that burns!

So I get an email from Coach Shanks "What would your thoughts be on doing a Blood Lactate Test?" My thoughts? Why not! It's a great way to really see how the body is reacting to the stresses you are putting it through, plus it just sounds cool. So we hash out the details and decide to meet nice and early at Dynamo Multisports where he teaches some killer athlete specific indoor cycling classes.

I show up at 6am (which is way to early for me) and we get everything all set up. It's a pretty simple test to preform, but that doesn't mean its easy on the athlete. He sets you up on a computrainer which is a really cool indoor trainer that can measure and vary you wattage output. You then do 4 minute stages where he watches your heart rate and cadence, maintains your resistance on the trainer, and takes a blood sample at 3 minutes with a matching RPE value. Each stage consists of an increase in power by 20 watts, and you basically go until you can't go anymore... sounds fun right?



Oh yeah and the room use to be a kitchen. I don't know why but I kind of found that interesting. Anyways the first couple stages are actually pretty easy. It's nothing to intense and Shanks and I actually spent most of the time talked about his music selection, which was pretty sweet. Unfortunately this wasn't the case for the whole test...



Lets put it this way; Shanks caption for this photo when he sent it to me was " your in the pain cave here!" The test became difficult and it only went up from there. The whole time all you are thinking about is that you can't quit, but man do you want to! It's a good kind of pain and you know you're getting great data out of it so you keep pushing hoping that Shanks tells you he's got all the info he needs, instead he keeps encouraging you to keep going. At every 3 minute mark he has to take you blood so that mean you have to get pricked. It's not painful and if he can use the same prick every time he will, just watch out he squeezes your finger like he's trying to pop a pimple. Once you finish he analyzes all the data and is able to come up with new training zones based off of your lactate levels. It was a great experience and was a fairly simple way to get definitive workout zones. Now is the time to put those new zones to use and keep pursuing that never ending goal of inspiration.

Stronger, Faster... retarded dolphin?

Wow does time fly! I've started classes again at school and man am I busy! It has been an interesting few weeks but I have been dedicated to my training. I had a race after my last post that was a great learning experience for me. I was really hoping to do well during this race and I was determined to push my limits.

Only days before this race I met with Coach Shanks and found out how horrible of a swimmer I really was. We worked on my form and after a couple painful hours I walked away with a ton of useful tips to improve my swim. With this new found knowledge I entered the water at my race feeling more like a shark and less like... well less like a retarded dolphin. I ran through all the tips in me head and as the proverbial gun went off I dove in with new hopes of swimming out in front. Well needless to say I was less like a shark than I was hoping. The whole time I was trying to swim correctly but my body wouldn't listen to what my mind was saying... in fact a retarded dolphin probably looked more like a swimmer than I did at this point. Once I finally made it to the shore I knew I had time to make up so I went into the bike with the intentions of making up for my lost time. I flew on that bike, Lance Armstrong himself would have been humbled by the amount of speed I was propelling myself forward with. With only the run left I was feeling great and thought I had a great chance at setting a new PR for myself. The run was brutal but I kept reminding myself of my goals and I never gave up. I have never been so proud of myself crossing that finish line than I did on that day... until my wife told me my time.
I had made no improvements over my time from last year and was still in the exact same ranking in my age group and overall. I was crushed. I had given it my all and made absolutely no time improvements, how could that be? How could I not even improve in my overall placement? I posed this question to my coach and he came back with some very valid points and event sent a very reassuring article to me. Both he and the article were right. Sometimes it's not about your time or your place overall, but simple that you were happy with how hard you pushed yourself. I feel like this is something I have always felt, but sometimes we get caught up in setting objective (measurable) goals instead of subjective (how you felt) goals. Those subjective goals can be even more satisfying than the objective ones and in the end that's really what matters. I have another race this weekend and even though we have set some objective goals ( cut 8 minutes off my time from last year) I also plan on racing my hardest and being happy with the fact that I got to race, because in the end that's what really matters.

Passion v.s. Addiction

This week was not a great week for my training. I only did 3 of my planned workouts and I really struggled with getting out the door. I've started classes again so I'm in class 31 hours a week, and this combined with still having to take care of patients and finishing homework has made my life very busy. These aren't excuses but new obstacles that I need to learn to deal with. I love going out and training and one of the best things to do after a long day of classes is to go out for a run and just not think. The problem I run into is that at the end of the day I don't feel like doing anything. I want to relax, kick up my feet and stare at the wall. The idea of going out into the Ga heat and putting my body through a workout seems to be the last thing I want to do. The workouts I did do were forced and painful, partly due to the heat and partly due to the fact I couldn't turn my brain off. This only made me want to skip later workouts that much more. The worst was a short mid week run at the end of a 10 hour day at school. It was suppose to be a fairly easy 45 minute run with a couple 45 second bursts. It wasn't a hilly course and should have been an easy run, but man did I suffer.


It started out at an easy pace and ended at a walking pace. I was about 20 minutes into it when I really started to suffer. I started to get stomach cramps, there was no breeze, and the heat index was close to 117 degrees. I was absolutely drenched in sweat and felt like crawling back home. I made it home after refusing to walk until I was at the front of my neighborhood and I felt like collapsing. This was not what I enjoyed about running, this is not why I train, this is not the sport I love.
This is an issue I have really struggled with. It's a simple concept; if you love to do something it should be easy to do. I love triathlons. I love the complexity of the sport, the attention to detail, the need to not only win a race but to outrace yourself, the desire to become something greater and faster than you ever were before. This really is a passion in my life and yet I still have trouble getting out the door. Why is that? For me when I dwell on this idea, this concept that it should be easy if you love it the only conclusion that I can come to is that there is a difference between an addiction and a passion. I struggle with getting out the door not because I don't love this sport but because I'm not addicted to it. I don't have a need to go out and get my training in. Sure that would make it easier to do my training, but I would dare to say that I would rather have a passion for something than an addiction to something. I might struggle with the day to day of completing my training but when I finish a workout, when I look at my week totals I can say I did that because I wanted to do it, not because I needed to do it. We enjoy things we want to do exponentially more than things we need to do. So while I'm jealous of an athlete who is addicted to his sport for their ability to do their training day in and day out, I would much rather struggle with the day in and day out so that each day can be a victory for me. It's this struggle that lets us feel like true champions of our sport and allows us to inspire people to a whole different level.

Louis Garneau Race Day Revo Transition Bag Review

So now that I've started to collect more and more gear (it's a curse that weights heavily on all triathletes) I decided to look into getting a new bag to carry it all. The $10 bag I picked up from Wal-Mart a year ago has fallen apart and actually kind of smells funny too. As with all my new interests I started with a search on the internet for transition bag reviews and suggestions. Unfortunately I couldn't find too much out there. I found several forums where people talked about how much they loved whatever pack they owned but none of them really went over the features of their bags. I decided to take a different approach and went to my local tri shop (All 3 Sports) and looked through what they had in stock. After spending some time with the sales rep I was between two bags, the TYR Alliance Team Backpack II and the Louis Garneau Race Day Revo. On first impressions I really liked the Louis Garneau. It look nice and clean with a certain amount of class that the TYR was missing. Regardless of the fact that it was "pretty" I really needed something with function and the sales rep swore by the TYR. He was right I could hide a small child in the TYR, but I wasn't convinced I need that much room. Needless to say I went with the Louis Garneau since, well lets be honest if you're not wining the race you might as well look like a pro while you're setting up transition.
The first thing that really catches your eye about this pack is the external helmet holder. This is part of the functionality that I love. It frees up a ton of room inside your bag that would other wise be waisted if you helmet was in there. It also keeps it secure against the bag so you don't have a helmet dangling off the side of your pack hitting you in the legs as you try to juggle your bike, all your numbers, and your pack.


After that you come to the wetsuit pocket. It's huge!!! And it's mesh so your suit dries off pretty easily. It's actually big enough that on race days I throw all my wet clothes in there with my suit so they don't get the inside of the bag all smelly.




There are two fairly large side pockets that I use for all my nutrition and then I put all my race day items like numbers, maps, and such in the other pocket for easy access.





There is also a pocket on top which I use for keys and other small things. Needless to say this thing has pockets all over it which really helps to increase its' storage area.


Now on to the main compartment which I must say is actually pretty impressive. It expands to hold a lot of stuff and has more pockets on the inside to keep your running and cycling shoes separate from the rest of your gear. On race days I'll have both pairs of shoes, two towels, a full change of clothes, and all those extra items you need like deodorant and body glide shoved into this big compartment. There is also a spot for your sunglasses but since I'm always wearing mine I've yet to use it.



I'm sure by now you've seen some red tags on the bag with a white picture on them. These are basically suggestions on what to put in each pocket. It's a nice add on in case you want some help organizing yourself, but some of them are kind of ridiculous... the water bottle tag makes me laugh every time I see it.



I only have two complaints with the bag. The first is that there is only one water bottle holder on the outside of the bag. I know that on longer races I can have 3 or 4 bottles so it would be nice to at least have one more on the outside of the bag. The other is the sternum strap, it broke.


After it came off and I inspected it a little further I saw that it actually isn't sewn on but it's "clamped" on. I'm sure I could have gotten it back on after it came off, but of course this happened at a race and I lost it.


Something just of note is that the material feels really thin and that it might rip easily. I haven't had it rip yet so it's not a complaint, just a concern. Overall I'm very happy with the bag and I would suggest it to anyone looking for an inexpensive way to free up their hands on race day. It's a great pack and I hope that it will give me many more seasons of use.

Georgia Heat

This week of training was tougher than I thought it would be. Last week I went on a beach vacation and had no trouble what-so-ever getting out the door to run. I mean who would when you get a chance to run on the beach every morning and watch the sunrise. This week however I was back in the Georgia heat I did NOT want to train. I don’t know why but for some reason this year the heat is really getting to me. I’ve never had an issue with the heat before, but for some reason (maybe since my best friend gets to train in the amazing Seattle weather) I have skipped way to many workouts because of the heat. I know what your saying, “just wake up early and beat the heat!” I agree and if only it were that easy! I love morning training sessions, but man is it hard to get up in the morning. So my goal this week was to train in the heat and get over it!!!

Overall this week was a light week, most of my workouts were 45 minutes or less but my main concern was getting out the door. I was actually excited to see a week full of short workouts after being on vacation. It let me get back into the rhythm of training for all three sports instead of just running. I didn’t have any problems getting my workouts done until Wednesday. I decided to smoke a brisket for dinner and you have to drink beer while smoking any sort of meat so needless to say I was way to preoccupied with beer and brisket to go and do any training. It’s so easy to skip a workout, but man do I feel horrible at the end of the day. It was only a thirty minute run so it’s not like I couldn’t have done it. I was determined the next day to not only do my workout for Thursday but make up my Wednesday workout. This is what it’s all about. This is when you prove not only to others but to yourself that you are serious and this isn’t just a fad. I’ve had several friends and trainers tell me that you can’t make up workouts and I agree, but that wasn’t what this was about. This was about proving to myself that I was serious and regardless of how I felt about a work out I was going to finish my training for the week. It felt good to finished my missed workout and my scheduled workout for the day, but I still had the weekend ahead of me.

I always struggle on weekend workouts. No one has work or school for the next two days which means hanging out with friends is yet another distraction from my training. I also have an amazing wife who always has fun plans for the weekend which makes me want to hang out with her instead of training. Now you see the struggle I have every weekend. Needless to say she wanted to go blueberry picking in the early morning on Saturday and who was I to stop her so that meant yet another ride in the middle of the day. The only problem was that this was a 2 hour ride and I was really concerned with how the heat would affect me. Picking blueberry was so much fun and since it took up the entire morning I didn’t get to go on my ride until 4pm. Luckily for me the Tour De France started today and after watching the first stage I was so pumped about my ride that I wasn’t able to think about anything but my ride for the day. I had an amazing ride that afternoon and felt so good that I completed all my workouts (kinda - Wednesday) for the week.

I learned this week that our obstacles to our training are not only created by us alone, but are sometime amplified to a level they don’t deserve. The temperature outside is just that... a temperature. You should account for it with water and nutrition, but in no way should it stop you from training. Sometimes we use these obstacles to hide behind, which can cause us to lose sight of our final goals. Don’t let this happen. Remind yourself why you started training and why you continue to train. We don’t chose our goals to be stopped by simple obstacle so don’t let them stop you. You and I are stronger that these thing and all we have to do is remind ourselves of this and continue to inspire ourselves to greatness.

Update!

Wow 2008... 2008! That feels like it was so long ago. Now that it's 2011 a lot has changed in my life, especially with my training. I've picked up doing triathlons and love them! The crowds and athletes at triathlons are a completely different breed of people. There is always a calmness in the air with a hint of anticipationon race days, like a morning fog in the early morning waiting to reveal the day. All the spectators cheer for every athlete and there is a sense of comaradarie that I haven't felt with any other sport. It's almost as if this is truely a race against yourself and the other athletes are there to cheer you on. I'm in the middle of my third season of triathlons and have already completed a 70.3 in Augusta, Ga which was amazing! The swim was fast, the bike was gorgeous, and the run was flat.

I've also picked up a coach! I've said in an earlier post that I need that accountability of a training partner and a coach fit that roll perfectly. I'm a huge advocate of getting a coach regardless of what you know. A coach will always write the workouts you never want to write and they will give you a hard time for missing workouts, which we all need. I've seen huge improvements in just the couple months of training with him and I have high hopes of success that I know can be reached if I just follow his advice.
I haven't lost that inspiration I had three years ago and it has driven me to meet some amazing goals. As with all things we hit highs and lows; I haven't kept this blog up to date but I have kept my training up. I have now decided to put my focus not only into my training , but to also keep this blog alive so that others out there who struggle with the same things I do can find some strength in the idea that you are not alone.