I've uploaded last weeks training. Pretty pathetic, but i ahve an excuse. IT was an off week so i'm not too worried about it. Interesting to note that i did 28 hours total in february, and 42 in march. Hoping to hit 60 or so this month...
Also, Fred said he can get me into a sprint tri this weekend that's sold out. I want to do it to do the open water swim, get some confidence for my Half. Right now my confidence is pretty low. That'll be fun to do...i have good vibes if i do tihs race this weekend.
Tuesday, April 8
I'm already geting nervous for my Half IM. it's 5 weeks out and i'm thinking "Will i have my nutrition dialed in?" "Will i be prepared for this race aerobically?" "Will i be in good enough shape to enjoy this race and push the pace?" "Should i drop my time goal and just go to finish?"
I know i can finish the thing.
Maybe i'm thinking this way because last week i didn't do much. My mental confidence is lacking. I went for a short run (2.2 in 20 minutes) as a warm up to my interval ride later today. i hope after the interval ride my confidence comes back. Not feeling dreaded, just unsure. I want to post a good time, i feel that i can push the pace and do well for myself, i can envision it...just not sure if that vision is accurate.
I know i can finish the thing.
Maybe i'm thinking this way because last week i didn't do much. My mental confidence is lacking. I went for a short run (2.2 in 20 minutes) as a warm up to my interval ride later today. i hope after the interval ride my confidence comes back. Not feeling dreaded, just unsure. I want to post a good time, i feel that i can push the pace and do well for myself, i can envision it...just not sure if that vision is accurate.
Monday, April 7
Thank the Volunteers and Staff: Here’s why
“Thanks for putting on a great race! Top notch!” – Unknown
“Great job Jed, first class event.” – Unknown
When two people completely unknown to me said the above sentences, all my pain went away for a few short seconds, my fatigue was forgotten and a warm feeling welled up inside me. Sounds cheesy doesn’t it? But when you’re behind the scenes at a triathlon, lots of things can go wrong, and if after all those things go wrong someone says to you, “Great job!”, then you know you did your job, because those people never saw what went wrong. As a triathlete, they always tell you to thank the volunteers and event staff, I always made it a point to do so, but never really knew what it meant to them until now.
I don’t consider myself great, or even exceptional at anything I do. I’d like to consider myself just above average. This past weekend I was involved in a triathlon as Director of Communications for CFT Sommer Sports (www.triflorida.com), it was the most amazing, and also hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Here’s a look at what it’s like behind the orange fencing, here’s why you should always thank the volunteers and staff, here’s my story:
• Friday, race day: T minus 40 hours.
In the days leading up to Friday I had been preparing media credentials, sending and confirming people to come to the race, collecting information and distributing it. Being my first triathlon behind the scenes, I was also brainstorming ideas to keep my part of the race under wraps. The first major concern was communication devices: NEXTEL phones. Questions I had were:
How do I track them?
How do I let people know how to use them quickly?
How do I do all of this, without actually meeting them?
How do I make sure they all get back to me when it’s all done?
If someone’s phone goes on the fritz, what’s the backup plan?
If something happens and I have to control and limit communication, how do I do so?
These were just some of the concerns on my plate, and I remedied most of them before race day. I set up a spreadsheet with everyone’s number, and name on it. I gave the responsibility of handing out and collecting phones from volunteers, to the run and bike coordinators respectively. I met with each coordinator and explained verbally how things would go down and they all understood. We didn’t have any extra phones so there was no back up plan. For controlling and limiting communication, I didn’t have enough time to make up a plan for that, so I just flew this by the seat of my pants. One of my goals was to make sure I had all the phones ready and waiting on Monday so that we didn’t have to pay another day of rental fees. This I was told was always a problem, it was my mission to fix it!
• 9 pm
I went to the office to start on another project: Memorabilia. Since this was the 20th anniversary of this event, Fred (Owner of CFT Sommer Sports) wanted to do something special so he had a VIP reception planned and also had me find out history of the race to start making an exhibit. Armed with limited resources and Photoshop, I went to town.
• 11 pm
I exhausted all of my talents and information and had to wait until Saturday when Fred said he’d bring in a bunch of stuff for me. I managed to get a bunch of signs printed and start on some stuff from 1984. I was happy with my progress and felt good going home. I also wanted to get some sleep for Saturday because my friend Jordana was coming up from Fort Lauderdale to ride with me at 5:30 am.
Saturday, race day: T minus 20 hours
• 5:30 am
I awoke to my alarm clock surprisingly refreshed. Jordana had arrived late Friday night and was sleeping in one of the other bedrooms of the house. I woke her up and we got under way. Beautiful riding weather, even more beautiful by the fact that the sun was just rising and shining through some really nice wooded areas we went through. The plan was to do the Olympic course so she could preview it for next year. That’s exactly what we did, took it nice and easy and finished in 2 hours. Got home, showered and ate, then hugged Jordana and left home for the last time until Sunday night.
• 8 am
I called Fred and he told me he left a bunch of stuff on my desk to go through and that he liked what I had going so far. I drove to the office and on my desk were 2 boxes full of press releases and news papers, along with 19 t-shirts, one for each year. I went about going through the newspapers and finding articles and results, photo copying them and getting them ready to be velcro’d to the display board. At noontime Fred showed up at the office and said, “It’s noon, gotta get stuff down there because registration is open!” I was under the impression that I had to have everything done by 6 pm. Doh. So I grabbed what I had, ran down to the race site and started setting up. I had a bunch of awards and mugs and other stuff, two tables and 6 boards to set up. The boards were a challenge because they kept blowing over, but I tied them down and things started coming together. I came back once for more information but had everything set up by about 3 pm.
• 4 pm
The exhibit was up and now it was time to set up the VIP area. The pavilion behind the exhibit was full of picnic tables and a mini-van which I had to get moved. At this point it was starting to become apparent that we were under staffed because everywhere I looked, stuff was ¼ or ½ done. Nothing seemed totally complete.
• 6 pm
The VIP reception started to get underway and I began meeting some people I had been emailing the previous week. The caterer had some good food, and the musicians never arrived so we set up a stereo system with some tunes. I met Andrew (www.myraceday.com owner and sponsor) and he’s a super guy. We talked for about an hour about all kinds of stuff while everyone ate and chatted. It was a nice relaxation period...and the last one I’d get until over 24 hours later.
• 8 pm
The reception over, it was time to get to work. I was under the impression that we’d be done with set up around midnight or so, get a few hours of sleep and come back to the race site at 5 am to do final touches. When we got our event crew together there were only 6 of us. Here’s a comparison:
Best Case Conditions: 15-20 people set up
75% participants volunteers
20-30 people breakdown crew
Our Conditions: 6 people set up
Less then 15% volunteers
6 (extremely tired) people breakdown
• Friday 8 pm to Saturday, 5 am
Without going into tons of detail, the 6 of us went about tackling each project that needed to get done in a furious order. Swim start, truck packing, transition set up, transition scaffolding, bike start and end, run start and end, finishing chute, registration tent…by the time I looked at my watch it was 4 am…and I had to move it ahead an hour because of daylight savings time. I would have to say that the best time was going to the warehouse and filling the trucks with everything we’d need for the race. The 4 of us had a great time tossing empty water containers around. At this point we were all tired, but tired enough to be silly. The grumpiness hadn’t settled in yet.
• 5 am, race T-minus 3 hours
At this point the major stuff had been taken care of and it was time for the details. Setting up lights for the pre-light racers, putting up pennants, sponsor banners, setting up the timing tent, dispersing 2000 pounds of liquids to various parts of the course… of all the things to do, only one thing on the list didn’t get done: Showers were never put up. At this point I was thinking that I could relax as communications director, but oh how wrong I was. Every time I had a second, I saw something that needed to get done and I did it. From emptying trash, to refilling water stations, to measuring the 5k run course and marking the road (15 minutes before the gun went off). We squeaked by on this one, and it was time to sit down and watch the fruits of our labor...NOT!
• 8:14 am, the gun goes off!
1200 racers enter the water in waves. I had seen and talked to briefly some friends that came up from Fort Lauderdale, but I was so busy I didn’t get to see them start or see any of them finish. Through out the race so many things happened and needed done that I can’t recall most of it. It was a blur of walking, talking, and driving. Some key points:
Communication was messed up because I forgot to give the bike station phones to the bike coordinator. As a result, one bike station ran out of ice, and another station had a biker ask to be picked up and it was a long time before I got the info and could pass it on. Also, since everyone had everyone else in their phones, often times the information ended up with the wrong person. Volunteers were so few that we had to move people from aid station to aid station because some of them were unmanned. A racer had a problem in the finishers chute and had to be hospitalized. Moving 500 racers out of the way of the ambulance was no easy task. We ran out of ice completely, and in desperation I drove my car to the nearest grocery store with a fellow event team member, and bought 60 bags of ice (two trips of 30). This was just some of the event problems, but they were all taken care of quickly and efficiently.
All I know is that none of the event team sat down once the whole day until breakdown. After the race ended, I sat (finally) in the blazing sun to give away awards. No one had the time to stick the metal stickers on the plaques the night before, so we had a line to get a plaque and a line to get your sticker. This was a nightmare to start, and I heard someone say, “They don’t know what the hell they’re doing.” At that point I wanted to just quit…the frustration, the burning heat, and the fact that the particular racer had no sympathy for how much it takes to run a triathlon…the fact that many of us had already been awake and working physically for over 30 hours at this point. But as if he heard what happened, a good friend of mine came over and said, “Jed, excellent job! The race was great!” I felt like a million bucks at that point. Finally, an appreciative racer!
It was so hot during awards that I had to ask a racer for sunscreen because I hadn’t put any on yet and was burning up. I also had to keep drinking Gatorade and water. Throughout the weekend most of us had to change clothes because we were so dirty and sweaty. After awards were given out it seemed like we could take a rest….NOT!
No breakdown team was scheduled, so the extremely tired 6 of us went to work breaking things down. My feet were KILLING me, and I ran out of coffee and no doze so my mental capacity was slowing down to equal my physical aches and pains. I felt like I had run a double marathon. My back was aching, my lats were extremely sore from all the lifting, my feet were totally destroyed and I was constantly thirsty despite having tons of water and Gatorade.
Again, I was so tired and so many things got done from 3 pm to 7pm that I can’t remember most of it. I also was extremely tired and sort of droned on. The object of the breakdown was to take all valuable and other stuff that could be ripped off and get it in a truck, locked up. I remember thinking at least a dozen times of going to Fred and telling him I couldn’t take anymore, I just had to go home. 2 things went through my mind each time I took a painful step forward 1) he’d probably let me go 2) the other 5 guys had been there just as long, and they weren’t quitting. I had lots of mental wars with myself, but had to keep trudging on. My legs were so fried and chaffed that I was walking bold legged, and at about 1/20th my usual walk pace. I willed myself to ‘kick it into high gear’ but my body simply wouldn’t respond. I had 2 speeds, slow and stop. I kept having to take sitting breaks when my legs just couldn’t take it anymore. Around this time a couple straggling racers told me what a great event we held, I looked at them with a smile and just wanted to cry. More racers appreciating the hell some of us were going through.
We may have only been out there breaking down for 3 hours, but it was the longest 3 hours of my life. We all saw in each other that we weren’t going to quit, we COULDN’T quit…it was over when it was over. Above and beyond all of the physical and mental pain we were going through, we all still managed to joke around. None of us ever snapped at the other or slacked, it was the most mature crew of people I’d ever worked with in my life. There wasn’t a time I saw any of them sitting if there was something to be done. We all went beyond our duty, and managed to get our main duties done. I’m proud to have worked with this team, and look forward to working with them on the road this year as CFT puts on its Tri America series (www.triamerica.com).
• 7 pm
It’d been a long 37 hours, not 37 hours of watching movies, not 37 hours of telling people what to do. 37 hours of decisions, lifting, pushing, driving, walking, running, pulling, throwing, talking, etc. There’s only one other time when I felt like this in my whole life, and that was when I was 13 and went on a canoeing trip with the YMCA. I stayed up for 72 hours without coffee, as it rained the whole trip and I kept the fires going at night and paddled during the day.
When I got home I showered 47 layers of dirt off my body, threw away my socks, went to get some Chinese food and dropped on the couch with a corona in my hand. On the very last sip of that beer, I passed completely out.
18 hours later I awoke and felt mildly ok. By the time I got up and started getting things in order I was feeling fine, got some coffee and headed into the office: at noontime.
Now consider what I did and the fact that I’m paid to do it. The next time you see a volunteer, remember my story, assume they’ve already done the same thing, and at the end of the day they don’t get a single dime, nothing, zip, zilch. No, not every volunteer goes through a 37 hour grueling workout, but just the fact that they are taking the time out of their day to point you to the right place for free says tons about their character.
At the end of a race, thank every event staff and volunteer you see, it could be me, and if they cry right there in front of you with a smile on their face and you’ve read this: You’ll know why.
PS. It’s Monday and every NEXTEL phone rented is sitting in a box waiting to be picked up – I accomplished my goal.
PSS. if it weren't for my endurance training, i'd have never made it past 24 hours i don't think. The only people that were left were endurance athletes for the last 6 or so hours.
“Thanks for putting on a great race! Top notch!” – Unknown
“Great job Jed, first class event.” – Unknown
When two people completely unknown to me said the above sentences, all my pain went away for a few short seconds, my fatigue was forgotten and a warm feeling welled up inside me. Sounds cheesy doesn’t it? But when you’re behind the scenes at a triathlon, lots of things can go wrong, and if after all those things go wrong someone says to you, “Great job!”, then you know you did your job, because those people never saw what went wrong. As a triathlete, they always tell you to thank the volunteers and event staff, I always made it a point to do so, but never really knew what it meant to them until now.
I don’t consider myself great, or even exceptional at anything I do. I’d like to consider myself just above average. This past weekend I was involved in a triathlon as Director of Communications for CFT Sommer Sports (www.triflorida.com), it was the most amazing, and also hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Here’s a look at what it’s like behind the orange fencing, here’s why you should always thank the volunteers and staff, here’s my story:
• Friday, race day: T minus 40 hours.
In the days leading up to Friday I had been preparing media credentials, sending and confirming people to come to the race, collecting information and distributing it. Being my first triathlon behind the scenes, I was also brainstorming ideas to keep my part of the race under wraps. The first major concern was communication devices: NEXTEL phones. Questions I had were:
How do I track them?
How do I let people know how to use them quickly?
How do I do all of this, without actually meeting them?
How do I make sure they all get back to me when it’s all done?
If someone’s phone goes on the fritz, what’s the backup plan?
If something happens and I have to control and limit communication, how do I do so?
These were just some of the concerns on my plate, and I remedied most of them before race day. I set up a spreadsheet with everyone’s number, and name on it. I gave the responsibility of handing out and collecting phones from volunteers, to the run and bike coordinators respectively. I met with each coordinator and explained verbally how things would go down and they all understood. We didn’t have any extra phones so there was no back up plan. For controlling and limiting communication, I didn’t have enough time to make up a plan for that, so I just flew this by the seat of my pants. One of my goals was to make sure I had all the phones ready and waiting on Monday so that we didn’t have to pay another day of rental fees. This I was told was always a problem, it was my mission to fix it!
• 9 pm
I went to the office to start on another project: Memorabilia. Since this was the 20th anniversary of this event, Fred (Owner of CFT Sommer Sports) wanted to do something special so he had a VIP reception planned and also had me find out history of the race to start making an exhibit. Armed with limited resources and Photoshop, I went to town.
• 11 pm
I exhausted all of my talents and information and had to wait until Saturday when Fred said he’d bring in a bunch of stuff for me. I managed to get a bunch of signs printed and start on some stuff from 1984. I was happy with my progress and felt good going home. I also wanted to get some sleep for Saturday because my friend Jordana was coming up from Fort Lauderdale to ride with me at 5:30 am.
Saturday, race day: T minus 20 hours
• 5:30 am
I awoke to my alarm clock surprisingly refreshed. Jordana had arrived late Friday night and was sleeping in one of the other bedrooms of the house. I woke her up and we got under way. Beautiful riding weather, even more beautiful by the fact that the sun was just rising and shining through some really nice wooded areas we went through. The plan was to do the Olympic course so she could preview it for next year. That’s exactly what we did, took it nice and easy and finished in 2 hours. Got home, showered and ate, then hugged Jordana and left home for the last time until Sunday night.
• 8 am
I called Fred and he told me he left a bunch of stuff on my desk to go through and that he liked what I had going so far. I drove to the office and on my desk were 2 boxes full of press releases and news papers, along with 19 t-shirts, one for each year. I went about going through the newspapers and finding articles and results, photo copying them and getting them ready to be velcro’d to the display board. At noontime Fred showed up at the office and said, “It’s noon, gotta get stuff down there because registration is open!” I was under the impression that I had to have everything done by 6 pm. Doh. So I grabbed what I had, ran down to the race site and started setting up. I had a bunch of awards and mugs and other stuff, two tables and 6 boards to set up. The boards were a challenge because they kept blowing over, but I tied them down and things started coming together. I came back once for more information but had everything set up by about 3 pm.
• 4 pm
The exhibit was up and now it was time to set up the VIP area. The pavilion behind the exhibit was full of picnic tables and a mini-van which I had to get moved. At this point it was starting to become apparent that we were under staffed because everywhere I looked, stuff was ¼ or ½ done. Nothing seemed totally complete.
• 6 pm
The VIP reception started to get underway and I began meeting some people I had been emailing the previous week. The caterer had some good food, and the musicians never arrived so we set up a stereo system with some tunes. I met Andrew (www.myraceday.com owner and sponsor) and he’s a super guy. We talked for about an hour about all kinds of stuff while everyone ate and chatted. It was a nice relaxation period...and the last one I’d get until over 24 hours later.
• 8 pm
The reception over, it was time to get to work. I was under the impression that we’d be done with set up around midnight or so, get a few hours of sleep and come back to the race site at 5 am to do final touches. When we got our event crew together there were only 6 of us. Here’s a comparison:
Best Case Conditions: 15-20 people set up
75% participants volunteers
20-30 people breakdown crew
Our Conditions: 6 people set up
Less then 15% volunteers
6 (extremely tired) people breakdown
• Friday 8 pm to Saturday, 5 am
Without going into tons of detail, the 6 of us went about tackling each project that needed to get done in a furious order. Swim start, truck packing, transition set up, transition scaffolding, bike start and end, run start and end, finishing chute, registration tent…by the time I looked at my watch it was 4 am…and I had to move it ahead an hour because of daylight savings time. I would have to say that the best time was going to the warehouse and filling the trucks with everything we’d need for the race. The 4 of us had a great time tossing empty water containers around. At this point we were all tired, but tired enough to be silly. The grumpiness hadn’t settled in yet.
• 5 am, race T-minus 3 hours
At this point the major stuff had been taken care of and it was time for the details. Setting up lights for the pre-light racers, putting up pennants, sponsor banners, setting up the timing tent, dispersing 2000 pounds of liquids to various parts of the course… of all the things to do, only one thing on the list didn’t get done: Showers were never put up. At this point I was thinking that I could relax as communications director, but oh how wrong I was. Every time I had a second, I saw something that needed to get done and I did it. From emptying trash, to refilling water stations, to measuring the 5k run course and marking the road (15 minutes before the gun went off). We squeaked by on this one, and it was time to sit down and watch the fruits of our labor...NOT!
• 8:14 am, the gun goes off!
1200 racers enter the water in waves. I had seen and talked to briefly some friends that came up from Fort Lauderdale, but I was so busy I didn’t get to see them start or see any of them finish. Through out the race so many things happened and needed done that I can’t recall most of it. It was a blur of walking, talking, and driving. Some key points:
Communication was messed up because I forgot to give the bike station phones to the bike coordinator. As a result, one bike station ran out of ice, and another station had a biker ask to be picked up and it was a long time before I got the info and could pass it on. Also, since everyone had everyone else in their phones, often times the information ended up with the wrong person. Volunteers were so few that we had to move people from aid station to aid station because some of them were unmanned. A racer had a problem in the finishers chute and had to be hospitalized. Moving 500 racers out of the way of the ambulance was no easy task. We ran out of ice completely, and in desperation I drove my car to the nearest grocery store with a fellow event team member, and bought 60 bags of ice (two trips of 30). This was just some of the event problems, but they were all taken care of quickly and efficiently.
All I know is that none of the event team sat down once the whole day until breakdown. After the race ended, I sat (finally) in the blazing sun to give away awards. No one had the time to stick the metal stickers on the plaques the night before, so we had a line to get a plaque and a line to get your sticker. This was a nightmare to start, and I heard someone say, “They don’t know what the hell they’re doing.” At that point I wanted to just quit…the frustration, the burning heat, and the fact that the particular racer had no sympathy for how much it takes to run a triathlon…the fact that many of us had already been awake and working physically for over 30 hours at this point. But as if he heard what happened, a good friend of mine came over and said, “Jed, excellent job! The race was great!” I felt like a million bucks at that point. Finally, an appreciative racer!
It was so hot during awards that I had to ask a racer for sunscreen because I hadn’t put any on yet and was burning up. I also had to keep drinking Gatorade and water. Throughout the weekend most of us had to change clothes because we were so dirty and sweaty. After awards were given out it seemed like we could take a rest….NOT!
No breakdown team was scheduled, so the extremely tired 6 of us went to work breaking things down. My feet were KILLING me, and I ran out of coffee and no doze so my mental capacity was slowing down to equal my physical aches and pains. I felt like I had run a double marathon. My back was aching, my lats were extremely sore from all the lifting, my feet were totally destroyed and I was constantly thirsty despite having tons of water and Gatorade.
Again, I was so tired and so many things got done from 3 pm to 7pm that I can’t remember most of it. I also was extremely tired and sort of droned on. The object of the breakdown was to take all valuable and other stuff that could be ripped off and get it in a truck, locked up. I remember thinking at least a dozen times of going to Fred and telling him I couldn’t take anymore, I just had to go home. 2 things went through my mind each time I took a painful step forward 1) he’d probably let me go 2) the other 5 guys had been there just as long, and they weren’t quitting. I had lots of mental wars with myself, but had to keep trudging on. My legs were so fried and chaffed that I was walking bold legged, and at about 1/20th my usual walk pace. I willed myself to ‘kick it into high gear’ but my body simply wouldn’t respond. I had 2 speeds, slow and stop. I kept having to take sitting breaks when my legs just couldn’t take it anymore. Around this time a couple straggling racers told me what a great event we held, I looked at them with a smile and just wanted to cry. More racers appreciating the hell some of us were going through.
We may have only been out there breaking down for 3 hours, but it was the longest 3 hours of my life. We all saw in each other that we weren’t going to quit, we COULDN’T quit…it was over when it was over. Above and beyond all of the physical and mental pain we were going through, we all still managed to joke around. None of us ever snapped at the other or slacked, it was the most mature crew of people I’d ever worked with in my life. There wasn’t a time I saw any of them sitting if there was something to be done. We all went beyond our duty, and managed to get our main duties done. I’m proud to have worked with this team, and look forward to working with them on the road this year as CFT puts on its Tri America series (www.triamerica.com).
• 7 pm
It’d been a long 37 hours, not 37 hours of watching movies, not 37 hours of telling people what to do. 37 hours of decisions, lifting, pushing, driving, walking, running, pulling, throwing, talking, etc. There’s only one other time when I felt like this in my whole life, and that was when I was 13 and went on a canoeing trip with the YMCA. I stayed up for 72 hours without coffee, as it rained the whole trip and I kept the fires going at night and paddled during the day.
When I got home I showered 47 layers of dirt off my body, threw away my socks, went to get some Chinese food and dropped on the couch with a corona in my hand. On the very last sip of that beer, I passed completely out.
18 hours later I awoke and felt mildly ok. By the time I got up and started getting things in order I was feeling fine, got some coffee and headed into the office: at noontime.
Now consider what I did and the fact that I’m paid to do it. The next time you see a volunteer, remember my story, assume they’ve already done the same thing, and at the end of the day they don’t get a single dime, nothing, zip, zilch. No, not every volunteer goes through a 37 hour grueling workout, but just the fact that they are taking the time out of their day to point you to the right place for free says tons about their character.
At the end of a race, thank every event staff and volunteer you see, it could be me, and if they cry right there in front of you with a smile on their face and you’ve read this: You’ll know why.
PS. It’s Monday and every NEXTEL phone rented is sitting in a box waiting to be picked up – I accomplished my goal.
PSS. if it weren't for my endurance training, i'd have never made it past 24 hours i don't think. The only people that were left were endurance athletes for the last 6 or so hours.
Thursday, April 3
Having a new job is like getting a girlfriend, gotta put a lot of time into it in the first few weeks till things level off. So my training is suffering, but no better week to let it suffer then an 'off' week. Yesterday i ran 40 minutes in the morning and biked 30 minutes in the afternoon. Today i hoped to run an hour, but didn't get out of work till 8, then had to go into town to deposit money (which i somehow forgot to do).
Tomorrow is my last semi non busy day until saturday:
If i don't write in my blog a few days this is why:
Friday night: Some tri syndicate guys arrive in anticipation of the race
Saturday morning 6 am, Riding with Jordana for 2-2.5 hours then at 9 am going to the race site to work till probabkly 9-10 pm
Sunday morning 4 am race site: Work it, then tear it down: Probably working till 9-10 pm.
I'm so ready to race. I can't wait till may! I have good feelings and vibes...just gotta get over my pacing issues in the water.
Tomorrow is my last semi non busy day until saturday:
If i don't write in my blog a few days this is why:
Friday night: Some tri syndicate guys arrive in anticipation of the race
Saturday morning 6 am, Riding with Jordana for 2-2.5 hours then at 9 am going to the race site to work till probabkly 9-10 pm
Sunday morning 4 am race site: Work it, then tear it down: Probably working till 9-10 pm.
I'm so ready to race. I can't wait till may! I have good feelings and vibes...just gotta get over my pacing issues in the water.
Tuesday, April 1
Today was a really busy day at work, adn i didn't get any workout done. Felt pretty good today and the weather was beautiful, tomorrow morining i'll be doing my run in the morining then getting out of work early for a ride i hope. This is my off week afterall, so i'm not too worried about it. Just gotta keep my diet in order...tonight after work i had chinese and icecream...doh.
Monday, March 31
What an adventure:
Saturday afternoon i drove up 1.5 hours to Gainseville with all my gear to go for a long ride in Panama City. Everyone thought i was crazy for driving all the way up there just to ride 56 miles and run. BUT i wanted to ride the course (not drive it, RIDE it) to witness first hand what i'd be getting into. So i arrived in Gainseville (my buddy Carl decided to go with me and his house is on the way) and crashed for an early morning start on Sunday.
5 am we both got up, packed the car and got on the road about 6. On the way up to Panama City Carl was driving and ended up getting a 140 dollar ticket :S. We made good time up till that point, then we had to drive the speed limit! Bah.
Took about 5 hours to get up there, on teh way there ti started pouring, and the temp dropped significantly. So much so that we stopped at Wally World to get sweat shirts. Once we got to Panama City though, the rain had stopped but the temp and winds were rough. Unpacked our stuff, kept the sweatshirts on and headed out. the first part of the ride was very difficult. Carl had just gotten his aerobars and wasnt' too stable, especially with 35 mph gusts hitting us from the sides and a pretty constant head wind. He was cranking the pace at 18 mph and i knew after probably an hour we'd both blow up, so i took the lead and slowed it down to a comfortable pace. I mean, we hadn't even gone 7 miles and my legs were burning. With hte head wind, and being the stronger rider of us two, i kept a pretty solid 15 mph pace. The wind was ceaseless, but it's just like riding a long hill.
We made a turn onto a very busy highway with a breakdown lane that we rode in, then turned right onto another highway...with NO breakdown lane. This was pretty scary, not only were people flying by at 60 miles an hour, but most of them were buzzing us because they had no where to go...couple that with cross winds that threatened to put us into their path with every gust..and it was a tense day. Once we got onto 388, the traffic was a bit more sparse, and the winds died down a little bit. At the half way mark, i believe we had a 15.5 mph avg. Turning around though, i realized something...not only did we have a nasty head wind, but the roads were mostly inclines..slight, but noticeable on teh way back. The way back was much faster then the way up, i was able to keep my speed over 18 for most of the way back. Once in awhile father wind would humble me by hitting me head on with such force that i'd be reduced to 8-9 mph for a few seconds. Once we turned on the second to last street we flew, it was down hill with a tail wind, i was cruising at 22-24 mph without really pushing the pedals.
One of the things i wanted to accomplish and dial into was my nutrition on the bike. I went through 1 powerbar, adn 4 gels in the 2:52 we were out there. Plus 1.5 bottles of gatorade and 1/2 bottle of water. So i planned on 400 calories per hour, which would be 1200 calories, and ended up with about 800 total. It was cold, and i wasn't sweating, so i had to force gatorade and water down when i ate a gel or something, and my stomach cramped just a bit early on. The bar was good and easier to eat on teh bike then i thought it would be, and gels went down ez.
We got to the street where we crossed to get to Wally world where the car was, and as we crossed i moved to my right, which put me in carls way and we both fell over going 2 mph. Right in the middle of a huge busy intersection! Nothing wrong or broken, just really embarrasing. I just picked up my bike and jogged it across the street. We got to the car and changed for our run, took a short stretch break and headed out for an hour run. I started out fast...i felt good. I'd say we were going 10:15 per mile or so, until about mile 1. The new position on the bike (agressive aero for flat races) put some extra strain on my lower back..and falling made me tighten it up. So about 1 mile into the run my lower back started really hurting. At mile 2.5 i stopped adn stretched it and it felt a bit better. After that i started to slowdown, my breathing was labored, and even though my legs felt pretty good, my back was tightening up and each foot fall hurt my lower back.
Then at around the 4th mile, i hit my groove. My endorphines kicked in, my pace slowed just a bit more, i'd say 10:45, and suddenly i felt like i could run forever. It was great, unfortunately Wallyworld was just ahead and our run ended up being probably 4.5 miles. Still, i was pretty beat afterwards, then the 5.5 hour drive back to gainseville was very painful, and the 1.5 hour drive freom gainseville to clermont was just as bad. Overall the day started at 5 am and i got to bed at midnight.
Things i learned:
Overall we avg'd 17.7 mph and that was not knowing the course. In the race i'll push a little bit harder in the first half, knowing that i can 'rest' some speed on the way back as it is mostly declines. One thing that sucks is most of the roads are old tar, and tons of vibration really screw with your leg fatigue. Not much i can do about it except maybe get a carbon seatpost. I hope to avg 18-18.5 in the race.
Coming out of T2 i need to keep it slower. I tend to blow out of transition and blow up on mile one, then spend a few miles recovering. During the race i need to take it easy miles 1-8, then if i feel good, pick it up for the last 5 miles.
This 4 hour brick really gave me some confidence for doing this race. I need to do another brick in two weeks, Carl seems to think a 1 hour ride, and 2 hour run would be more beneficial. Not sure what i'll do.
The new aggressive aero position i'm in really helps me keep my power up on the bike, and after this brick, realized that it makes my back tight, but doesn't sacrifice my running muscles. I just need to get more comfortable in this new position.
Overall a great day, minus all the driving.
Saturday afternoon i drove up 1.5 hours to Gainseville with all my gear to go for a long ride in Panama City. Everyone thought i was crazy for driving all the way up there just to ride 56 miles and run. BUT i wanted to ride the course (not drive it, RIDE it) to witness first hand what i'd be getting into. So i arrived in Gainseville (my buddy Carl decided to go with me and his house is on the way) and crashed for an early morning start on Sunday.
5 am we both got up, packed the car and got on the road about 6. On the way up to Panama City Carl was driving and ended up getting a 140 dollar ticket :S. We made good time up till that point, then we had to drive the speed limit! Bah.
Took about 5 hours to get up there, on teh way there ti started pouring, and the temp dropped significantly. So much so that we stopped at Wally World to get sweat shirts. Once we got to Panama City though, the rain had stopped but the temp and winds were rough. Unpacked our stuff, kept the sweatshirts on and headed out. the first part of the ride was very difficult. Carl had just gotten his aerobars and wasnt' too stable, especially with 35 mph gusts hitting us from the sides and a pretty constant head wind. He was cranking the pace at 18 mph and i knew after probably an hour we'd both blow up, so i took the lead and slowed it down to a comfortable pace. I mean, we hadn't even gone 7 miles and my legs were burning. With hte head wind, and being the stronger rider of us two, i kept a pretty solid 15 mph pace. The wind was ceaseless, but it's just like riding a long hill.
We made a turn onto a very busy highway with a breakdown lane that we rode in, then turned right onto another highway...with NO breakdown lane. This was pretty scary, not only were people flying by at 60 miles an hour, but most of them were buzzing us because they had no where to go...couple that with cross winds that threatened to put us into their path with every gust..and it was a tense day. Once we got onto 388, the traffic was a bit more sparse, and the winds died down a little bit. At the half way mark, i believe we had a 15.5 mph avg. Turning around though, i realized something...not only did we have a nasty head wind, but the roads were mostly inclines..slight, but noticeable on teh way back. The way back was much faster then the way up, i was able to keep my speed over 18 for most of the way back. Once in awhile father wind would humble me by hitting me head on with such force that i'd be reduced to 8-9 mph for a few seconds. Once we turned on the second to last street we flew, it was down hill with a tail wind, i was cruising at 22-24 mph without really pushing the pedals.
One of the things i wanted to accomplish and dial into was my nutrition on the bike. I went through 1 powerbar, adn 4 gels in the 2:52 we were out there. Plus 1.5 bottles of gatorade and 1/2 bottle of water. So i planned on 400 calories per hour, which would be 1200 calories, and ended up with about 800 total. It was cold, and i wasn't sweating, so i had to force gatorade and water down when i ate a gel or something, and my stomach cramped just a bit early on. The bar was good and easier to eat on teh bike then i thought it would be, and gels went down ez.
We got to the street where we crossed to get to Wally world where the car was, and as we crossed i moved to my right, which put me in carls way and we both fell over going 2 mph. Right in the middle of a huge busy intersection! Nothing wrong or broken, just really embarrasing. I just picked up my bike and jogged it across the street. We got to the car and changed for our run, took a short stretch break and headed out for an hour run. I started out fast...i felt good. I'd say we were going 10:15 per mile or so, until about mile 1. The new position on the bike (agressive aero for flat races) put some extra strain on my lower back..and falling made me tighten it up. So about 1 mile into the run my lower back started really hurting. At mile 2.5 i stopped adn stretched it and it felt a bit better. After that i started to slowdown, my breathing was labored, and even though my legs felt pretty good, my back was tightening up and each foot fall hurt my lower back.
Then at around the 4th mile, i hit my groove. My endorphines kicked in, my pace slowed just a bit more, i'd say 10:45, and suddenly i felt like i could run forever. It was great, unfortunately Wallyworld was just ahead and our run ended up being probably 4.5 miles. Still, i was pretty beat afterwards, then the 5.5 hour drive back to gainseville was very painful, and the 1.5 hour drive freom gainseville to clermont was just as bad. Overall the day started at 5 am and i got to bed at midnight.
Things i learned:
Overall we avg'd 17.7 mph and that was not knowing the course. In the race i'll push a little bit harder in the first half, knowing that i can 'rest' some speed on the way back as it is mostly declines. One thing that sucks is most of the roads are old tar, and tons of vibration really screw with your leg fatigue. Not much i can do about it except maybe get a carbon seatpost. I hope to avg 18-18.5 in the race.
Coming out of T2 i need to keep it slower. I tend to blow out of transition and blow up on mile one, then spend a few miles recovering. During the race i need to take it easy miles 1-8, then if i feel good, pick it up for the last 5 miles.
This 4 hour brick really gave me some confidence for doing this race. I need to do another brick in two weeks, Carl seems to think a 1 hour ride, and 2 hour run would be more beneficial. Not sure what i'll do.
The new aggressive aero position i'm in really helps me keep my power up on the bike, and after this brick, realized that it makes my back tight, but doesn't sacrifice my running muscles. I just need to get more comfortable in this new position.
Overall a great day, minus all the driving.
Friday, March 28
Yesterday it poured like water was going out of style, so my afternoon run never happened. I don't mind running in the rain but the temp dropped about 30 degrees so it was cold. Instead i went out to a birthday party and got hammered! heheh, had a slight hangover today, but i'm good now. I think i'l go for my tempo ride today and then take tomorrow off in lieu of my 5 hour Brick planned in Panama City on Sunday.
Thursday, March 27
Well well well, I'm burnt like a piece of toast! I snoozed my alarm this morning for an hour because my legs would not respnod to my commands. They're just totally wrecked, BUT i HAVE to do my tempo ride today! will just take me longer to get warmed up. Why on earth am i doing a tempo ride today? Because Sunday i'm doing a 5 hour brick, and taknig friday and saturday off in lieu of that. I probably won't run today though.
So Carl put on his blog that he wants to do the full 13.1 after the 56 mile ride (the course in panama city which i'm racing in may). Well I'm calling him out! No pussin out now you son of a motherless triathlete, it's on! We're now locked into a 5+ hour brick, not including 5 hours driving up there and 5 hours back! We're going to bike his pace, and run my pace. I think it would be wise to set up some temporary aid stations on the run somehow. We'll have to figure out the logistics that weekend.
So Carl put on his blog that he wants to do the full 13.1 after the 56 mile ride (the course in panama city which i'm racing in may). Well I'm calling him out! No pussin out now you son of a motherless triathlete, it's on! We're now locked into a 5+ hour brick, not including 5 hours driving up there and 5 hours back! We're going to bike his pace, and run my pace. I think it would be wise to set up some temporary aid stations on the run somehow. We'll have to figure out the logistics that weekend.
Wednesday, March 26
it's a bit late so i'll keep this one short: Had a productive day at work, ran 3.75 miles during lunch, then biked 1 hour ez around the lake before dinner. I can't get any swimming in this or next week, well maybe, but it'll be sporadic. I just cant' get into orlando to swim anymore, i'm waiting to get a membership at the NTC so it'll be just down the road. I'll do that when i get my first paycheck from CFT. I'll be a duathlete for the next couple weeks, filling my swim time with bikes and runs.
Tuesday, March 25
Today was awesome! I rolled into work at 10 am, went running at noon, left at 4 to get in my hill ride, and came back at 7:30 to finish up my work. This is the PERFECT work environment i've always been looking for! Everything is going so good.
I updated the header so it reflects all of last week. My long ride was cancelled because it was pouring so my hours don't reflect it, but oh well, theres always this week.
I updated the header so it reflects all of last week. My long ride was cancelled because it was pouring so my hours don't reflect it, but oh well, theres always this week.
Monday, March 24
Today was my first day at CFT and it was a good day, got a press release done and sorted through contacts, set things up...etc. It was productive. As for training, i got really tired around 1 pm and didn't recover from it, i'm still tired. so i'm taking today off and doing a run tomorrow to compliment my hill ride.
Saturday, March 22
Just got done a 7.6 mile run (1:20) around the lake. What a great run. There are some places where the road is chamfered real bad and it irritated my ITB, but after about 6 miles my lower body was numb. ANother reason it was a great run is because i ran with Julia, a very cute triathlete staying here for a week to do a clinic at the NTC. We'll be doing a bunch of training togehter, she's young (18) and so full of life it's great. She's not stuck up or moody like some triathletes i know. hehe.
After that she wanted to do a tempo ride. Ugh. Ok. 45 minutes around the lake at tempo pace, then 15 cooldown. Now i'm starving like a hostage and going to Perkins!. then getting a new chain, and a chain whip to take my cassette off and give it a thorough cleaning.
After that she wanted to do a tempo ride. Ugh. Ok. 45 minutes around the lake at tempo pace, then 15 cooldown. Now i'm starving like a hostage and going to Perkins!. then getting a new chain, and a chain whip to take my cassette off and give it a thorough cleaning.
Friday, March 21
I got the job at CFT Sommer Sports! I'm the race promoter and writer/graphic artist guy. IT's going to be awesome! i go in this weekend to work out the details, but i officially start on Monday. This is the best case scenario i had in my mind when i moved here! Now i can save up some money and get a place of my own in a few months. This should all workout just fine...and also an update on my weight. I've dropped 10 pounds in the last 4 weeks, so thats good. I don't see it...well, maybe i do in my legs adn arms, but i definitely feel it.
Thursday, March 20
I'm testing out my new header which will give you more info on my training. I wasj ust thinking that you really don't know what in hell i'm doing each week. So here's a breakdown that i will update every Sunday night! If i'm feeling extra zealous i'll even take a screenshot of my super detailed Tri Geek Spreadsheet stats page. It's like 2 pages of nothing but anal stuff, for some of you, you may want to see how long i train in each zone, or how my sleeping habbits and training coincide. Or maybe not. We'll see if i feel like uploading that every week. for now the header will have to do!
Phew! It's 94 degrees and not a cloud in teh sky. Lets go run and ride! Did 1/2 hour run, then 1 hour hill ride. THe hill ride was supposed to be 1.5 hours but the heat was getting to me and i didn't have any water, just gatorade. The gatorade started going down hard and i knew my stomach wasn't absorbing well because of how hot it was so i decided to go home. I started drooling a bit and knew i'd be in trouble if i dind't get home soon, so i slowed it down and made it home...downed half gallon of water over a half hour and feeling much better. Now it's time for spaghettie and boca chicken!