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.

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.

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.

I updated my header to reflect last weeks training.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

yesterday was rainy rainy. I stayed in and did an hour on my trainer and that was it. Today i started my job and so far so good! I'm really tired right now, i think it's because i took a benedryl, i need some caffeine! doh. Going for a half hour run later.

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.

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.

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!

oh one more thing: I'm going to add stats to my page soon so you can see what i'm doing each week. I'll update it every week on Sunday. It'll have Run Bike and Swim [Miles Time] and % for the week of total exercise. As well as totals for the year.

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!

Today was a great 30 minute run (3.5 miles) and 55 minutes in the pool (3000m) and the swim was good! The first 2000m was done as 100m repeats witha nd without a pull bouey. The last 1000 was done straight, and my second half was faster then my first. I felt good in the water, my pacing seemed ok, i didn't feel any anxiety like i do in open water. Also my last 200 meters was good because i found out i can lengthen my stroke a bit more by twisting a bit. When i utilized this, i was able to get down to 13 strokes per lentgh for my last 200m after i had already swum 2700m. Thats a good thing. I really spaced out in the water today too which is good. i got into a rhythm after about 1800m and my arms went a bit numb like my legs do when i'm zoned. I was really comfortable.

Well instead of pussing out, i ran :30 minutes (3.2 miles) and after making some MAJOR adjustments to my bike, did a 1 hour tempo around the lake at 20 mph. I feel more powerfull in the position i'm in now, but it won't yeild much power for hills. But Panama is flat! so no biggie.

So i wasn't "BOB" today, i trained and i feel good about it.

My hamstrings are still very tight and sore, and i overall feel very lethargic today. I'm going to listen to my body (my lower back is bothering me to) and not do my hill ride today, instead i'm going to do a 4-5 mile ez run, and maybe a 20 mile ez bike. That should give me close to 2 hours. Apparently my 'hard week' last week was too hard, Jay seems to think after my breakthru run, then moving, was like doing a big race...and i need a few days to recover. So today is hopefully the last recovery day cause this is getting a bit depressing.

Today i decided to take the day off. My hams are still very tight and tomorrow is a hill ride (all hams) and a run. I ate like crap and didn't love it, so i must be over it. Back on track tomorrow!

My legs are totally thrashed. I could feel it yesterday as the tightness began to set in around 4 pm. Right after i helped move Michelle into her new place. This morning i tried to stretch my hams, but even lifting my leg straight was hard to do, so i did my best and geared up for a 4 hour bike. That bike ended up being 1.5 hours for a couple reasons. One: My legs are thrashed, and i wanna take it easy considering i broke through some heavy barriers yesterday running. Two: since biking is my strength, it's not a big deal that i take a few hours off this week. Overall i ended with 9 hours of training total.

I need to do more swim practice, thats my new worry: going out too fast in the swim and bombing. I don't want that to happen, so i need to find a swim partner and swim in the open water more. I'm fine in the pool, but once i hit thta open water, i always swim too fast, my heart races...i gotta overcome whatever anxiety i have in open bodies of water.

Awesome, AWESOME SUPER run! Oh my god, i'm so high right now.

Today i decided to throw caution to the wind and go back to my old running style since i ran without pain on Thursday. Not only did i do 7 miles today without pain (I had tightness in my hip wher ei previously had pain but tightness is better then pain!) but i cruised to my old running times! Check these splits out!

Mile 1: warm up: 10:58
Mile 2: 10:28
Mile 3: 10:06
Mile 4: 9:40
Mile 5: 9:21!
Mile 6: 9:01!
Mile 7: Cool Down : 10:32

I still have my old times! If my hip wasn't tightening up, i could have kept that 9:01 pace for a few more miles no problem, i was still in my upper aerobic. Not only that but i didn't feel fatigued at all throughout the whole run. Based on how i felt, i could definitely hold a 10 minute pace for 12-13 miles. This is such good news, i was really starting to get worried that my run would be my biggest limiter, but after this run i'm really really happy with the results and confident i'll be ok for the rest of my training. My patience and positive attitude has really paid off. I tried to 'fix' my running form and it didin't work, but most importantly i kept my fitness up to the point of being able to go back to my old times. This came as a suprise ...a really pleasant one!


By the way, my newest article was posted on triathlete.com!

I helped Michelle and her roomate move today, after the move i was still full of energy while josh and jeff sorta conked out on the couch. heheh. it pays to be in shape.

Day off today...thank god. I really don't feel that stiff. I think i felt worse yesterday morning then i did today. So i'm hoping for a full recovery of energy by tomorrow morning where i tackle a 7 mile run.

No pain! no pain! finally! I ran today in my old running style (after a very difficult 21 mile tempo ride around the lake..it was VERY windy today) right off the bike. The first mile was pain free at 12 minutes, then my legs 'emptied' of lactic acid and i burned up the pavement to record a 9 minute second mile, pain free! There was some tightness there, but no pain. Damnit, iw as getting really worried that i'd have to walk the half marathon at the end of Panama City but this is a good omen! I'll see how it goes on my saturday 7 miles. If i run pain free for 7 miles, i'll kiss the ground and take off my shorts!

Tomorrow; DAY FRIGGEN OFF. and boy are my legs glad.

i'm beat. My whole body is stiff. One more day though, get through today and i get my day off tomorrow. Gotta do my 1:30 tempo then a half hour run after. I'm gonna do tons of stretching right now before i go out...

Had a nice run out and back. 3.75 miles 46 minutes. Every 12 minutes, i'd walk 1 minute in an effort to postpone my hip pain. When the pain came on at mile one i was getting annoyed (not only that but my HR monitor is acting funny, there's no way i'm at 198 HR!) and somehow miraculously began running my old way. Running on the outsides of my feet. This put a lot more strain on my achilles (which i've had no problems with so far) but seemed to keep my hip from hurting (besides the residual pain from the first mile). I think all this 'the perfect gait' or best stride is just honkey bullshit if you think of what is comfortable for you. Once i develop more calf and achilles strength i think my hip pain will be a thing of the past. One thing i noticed is when i try to run 'normal' my ITB 'snaps' over my hip bone if i push my finger in my hip to feel it. Thats why the pain is not a fatigue pain but a pain pain. If you know waht i mean.

I got my wetsuit back from the altering fellow. He did a good job, besides the fact that the right arm was cut a bit deeper then the left, so my nipple sorta shows on that side heheh. But i took it out into the lake today and had no more strain on my shoulders on each stroke. I do need to do more open water swims too, they're much different then pool work. It's kinda scary out in that lake all by yourself, so i cut my swim short. I'd like to have 2-3 other people in the lake with me or else my imagination gets the best of me (Gators). Tomorrow is a 1:30-2 hour ride, not sure what yet, probably tempo around the lake.

Today was an awesome day of training. My schedule called for a 1:30 hill ride but since i've got all the time in the world i went quite a bit longer. After a nice warm up around the lake, i proceeded to beat myself to death up and down hospital hill a bunch of times, then moved on to Washington street, up and down Grassy Lake, then back up Hospital hill, and around the lake one more time. It was 2:20 of leg burning action. On my way back i stoppeda t the waterfront and decided to take a dip. Ahhhh how refreshing! The water was beautiful! it's march and i'm swimming in a lake without a wetsuit, florida rules.

Tomorrow is a run and swim. My legs are really wrecked from this workout, and i'm very happy for it.

Today i ran 3.4 miles in 36 minutes, biked half hour, and swam half hour. I'm starting to appreciate my situation more and more...the lack of responsibilities i have, the all day i have to train..etc. I'm going to take full advantage of it and get into some serious shape!


Here's an extended version of what went on this last weekend:

Friday night the boyz arrived, along with the three amigos! The three amigos are computer dudes who decided, "Lets do St Anthony's as our first ever race!" This coming from a guy who's using a road bike older then me, another using a hybrid that has a stop light that flickers and comes out of the bike when the kickstand is pushed down...hehe these guys are awesome! They just soaked in the environment and did a great ride on saturday. I'm getting ahead of myself though.

The first time i meet Matt, he's got a case of Corona in his hand. "I come bearing gifts." So when BD arrived with dirty, we were all downing brewskies and laughing hysterically at oen thing or another. I gave the three amigos some group ride etiquette lessons, then we all went to bed.

Juanjo's beutiful wife locked him out of his house, so he didn't get to the house until like midnight in his super DOPE M3 silver sex machine! He let me spin the tires a few times and coming back from Outback on saturday night, i pushed her to 115 on the road. MMMMMMM it was nice. I'm getting ahead of myself agian though.

So Big daddy was lucky enough to get the bunk in my room, and i must say it wasn't as unpleasant as most make it out to be. He's not THAT loud. Though he DOES get up ever 39 seconds to piss.

Saturday morning Mark wanted to do his swim after our bike, so we all decided that was ok. We headed down to the park and both Juanjo AND BigD got lost. The park is 1 mile away from the house....

I met Ironsteve, and Ruben. Dirty (Steve S), mark, matt and others were already at the park all geared up. Big D finally arrived with the three amigos and we all started off on the ride. I knew my way through the route, though i'd done it backwards the first time, so this was a bit different. I just told Dirty, "Follow the arros on the road, they're still there from last year" Ok he says.

4 miles from the start he breaks off the front with Matt, Mark, and Juanjo...right passed the first turn off of Old 50. I yelled but they didn't hear me. Oh well, Ruben behind me i decided we'd do the route by ourselves. Ironsteve joined us a few minutes later and off we went.

Let me tell you, doing that 56 miler frontwards is WAY WAY harder then doing it backwards. You don't realize how many slight slopes there are until you're going UP them, leading to huge hills. I sat and managed every hill in my seat while Ironsteve drilled up em like a champ. Ruben was strong on the first few hills, but died shortly after...he's the first skinny guy i ever beat to the tops of hills!

After the hills we got to a lonely flat part for many miles, slight upslope, big head wind. I was struggling to keep a 15 mph pace. Another reason for this is my HORRIFIC underestimation of nutrition. By the time we were half way done with the ride, i was out of my 4 gels i brought and down one bottle of gatorade. The gatorade didn't bother me, it was the fact that i was hungry as hell and had nothing to eat.

Ironsteve saved the day when he came up and said he had to unload "Six pounds of piss". We stopped and i mentioned i was hungry. Ruben said he had a powerbar and gave one to me. Now, any other time i would have declined because i've had really bad experiences with bars (just not settling or tasting right). But this one was peanutbutter and i was starving and on the edge of bonking so i ate it...and it was good! It settled good, and i had no problems with it. I finally found a bar i can eat on the bike!!

So that down, i found some more energy and brought then to Sugar loaf. Sugar loaf is fun, it's probably 10-11 percent grade, about 1/2 mile long. I was managing the hill at 4.5 mph (+.5 mph from last week), Ironsteve danced on his pedals, and Ruben was out of his saddle huffing and puffing his way beside me.

"Sit down dude, yer gonna explode."
**Ruben sits down**
"Push with your hams and glutes (like Rich taught us). Manage the hill, you can't attack this hill yet."
**Ruben begins to breath semi normally at 4.5 mph, his eyes light up**
"Wow thanks man, this is much better! i thought i'd not make this hill, thanks a bunch."

This was my first feel good moment of the weekend.

As we ascended the hill, i noticed the three amigos and BD up at the top just watching us torture ourselves. When Ruben and I got to the top, Ironsteve wanted to do the hill again, so off he went. I took the much needed rest to eat the other half of the powerbar Ruben gave me. BD wanted to know where to go next, and i offered to lead him back to the waterfront but he wanted to go another way and so we split.

By this time my legs are thoroughly spent, and i know we've got a few huge hills to go. But i trudged on, through grassy lake, down to washington street, up Hospital hill and home free from there.

I was very burned by then, and the thought of doing the olympic course, or even doing ANY running just made me wanna pass out, so instead i went home with most everyone else, ate some pasta, and by 8 pm i was in bed, totally unconscious. Did i mention how fun everyone is when we're together? I think i can count about 4 serious moments the whole weekend.

Sunday I started out the group for the olympic route. Most people had a very vague idea of what the course entailed, and after getting to the top of Hospital hill i gave simple directions and the speedsters went at it. I didn't want to lose BD or the slower people on this ride (plus it was a good excuse to go ez) so i stayed behind and traveled back and forth. When i got to the half way point (corner store) i waited for BD, assured he knew where he needed to go, and took off. I caught up with Beverly a little after that on Grassy lake road where she was trying to help a man with a flat.

Now, here's my second feel good moment of the weekend. I saved the day, not only did i have a 650 tube, but i had Co2 and the know how to change it. The fellow didn't even know how to put his wheel back on, so i took care of the whole thing and within 15 minutes we were off (i have do redo the tire when i found a slight pinch in the tube) again. The rest of the ride was faster because i had gained quite a bit of energy from the down time with the flat tire dude.

Got back to the house and started to run, got about 7 minutes out and just fell apart. So i jogged, walked back and called it quits for the day. We all had some lunch, i replenished my flat tire supplies, and everyone left smiling. It was truly a great weekend and i can't wait for the many more we'll have!

Today was the olympic course riding, which i dilly dallied around. I made trips back and forth to wait for people, and what not. not a hard ride at all. At the top of Grassy Lake hill a fellow had a flat. His buddy had 700s and he had 650's. Being the nice guy i am, not only did i give him a tube, but i took off his wheel, put the tube in, pumped it up with my last CO2 cartridge, put the wheel back on and sent him on his way. My good deed of the day.

Afterwards i ran for 20 minutes, then ate, and headed into town to hang with jeff. We bowled a few strings, ate at Friday's then vegged for awhile. Right now i'm pretty tight and sore, my head hurts and i'm ready for bed. Tomorrow is an hour in the drink. 13 hours this week. A good return.

Holy crap, i'm beat! What a great ride! This morning we got up early, only to wait around for everyone to get ready. Some of us wanted to do the Olympic, and others wanted to do the Half Ironman (bike loops). I started with the Half IM group and at turn 3 the front of the group broke off and missed the turn, Iron Steve, Ruben, and I ended up going the same way. That course is HARD! Man, hill after hill after hill. It was the toughest 56 miles i've ever ridden. But i also pushed the pace a bit. I ended up 16.5 avg over the 16 avg i did on the 50 mile, less hillier course. I was dissapoitned with my nutrition strategy, i ended up running out of solid fuel about 2 hours into the bike and had to bum a bar off Ruben. He gave me a Peanutbutter Power bar, and i liked it! I FINALLY FOUND A BAR I LIKE! I woofed the bar, and started feeling better...later i had to get ANOTHER bar off from Iron Steve. So 2 bars and 4 cliffshots, and it was overcast and not hot...i need to put some serious thought into my nutrition strategy.

After the ride we put on our wetsuits and took a dip. I need to get the arms cut off my suit, they really restrict my movement. I'll ask a tailor about it soon. Also, my shoulder seems to be getting better now. i have more range of movement then i had before.

I'm so trashed, and tomorrow we're biking and running. These guys are the best though, i have so much fun with them, we're always laughing. This is what triathlon is all about. The comradare between athletes...it's great.

Today was a good day. I was supposed to do a 1:30 'whatever ride' and i ended up doing a 2 hour tempo ride. What fun! I went around the lake 4 times, and the wind was kicking something fierce! On one half of the lake i'd go 22-23 no problem, on the OTHER side, i'd be reduced to 12-13 mph into the wind, going slightly uphill. Tough day but i felt so strong. About an hour into it my legs got numb and i just cranked. Great ride, and looking forward to doing the tri syndicate rides this weekend too. My shoulder still hurts but not when i run, bike or swim, so i guess thats ok.

time for bed.

Getting up at 5 am to do the masters swim, my first one. We'll see how that goes!

Man am i sore from yesterdays swim! Thats a good thing, but the bad thing is, my shoulder is still messed up. I can actually push my finger into my shoulder and find the nerve, and push it and it shoots pain over my shoulder and into my bicep. This isn't good, but it's good that it doesn't effect my swimming. Not sure how the hell my nerve got messed up, but i'm very much hoping it fixes itself on it's own. Once in awhile i grab a bunch of shoulder muscle and shake it violently in an effort to free it up, but it's being stubborn.

Not sure what to do about it. I don't have insurance so doctors visit is out of the question.

Anyway today is a 1.5-2 hour 'whatever' ride. The route i plan to take is 25 miles with some good hills. I'll push it a bit today, rest tomorrow, and have a huge weekend. THe tri syndicate guys and girls are coming up, so the weekend will be back to back pain.

Jay seems to think i've got a pinched nerve in my shoulder. Either way, i went swimming at the NTC and didn't have any problems. I felt very powerful in the water today, my rolling has been coming along well. I did a 10x100 on 2:00 and came out of the water at 1:40 practically each time. Good to know. I swam for :45 minutes but didn't keep track of total meters, sorta winged it each time.

Oh yeah, and i mailed in my IM app!

My shoulder is still killing me, but i'm going to swim anyway to see if it matters. I ran 4 miles today, and had to stop and stretch my ITB a few times, but it's getting better. My foot placement is better so i'm sure i'm on the way to fix this thing.

Nothing much to report today so far...

Tomorrow I mail in my Ironman App! There are still just under 30 slots left so i'm pretty much guaranteed a slot. Thanks again Tri Angel and EVERYONE who donated to my cause!
Today i did 1:20 hills, all the hills are rated 8-10% grade...steep. Most of them are probably close to 1/2 mile long. It was a hard ride, i didn't even feel like doing anything today, my quads felt 'empty' and i was just down. I took a vitamin and that pretty much changed everything. Afte the first two hills i wanted to quit, but i got lucky and got lost! That added about another 30 minutes of hills, before i found my way and ended the ride with a tempo ride around the lake 7 miles.

I was supposed to swim today to make up for yesterday but the day just wore on for one, and for two i slept with my arm over my head...ALL NIGHT! my shoulder is KILILNG me! Everytime i lift my arm it shoots with pain. heheh, stupid me.

Tomorrow is Run and Swim. I'm debating whether or not to sign up at the NTC. it sure would be easier to get to the pool...

Good weekend, though it started off kinda rocky.

Friday night Michelle and I started driving up to Gainseville to hang with Carl and Beth, half way there we got a flat. It was pitch dark on the turnpike and we had no flashlight, so Michelle called AAA to get the tire all fixed. We drove back home so she could get a tire at Wal Mart the next day. Time on road: 4 hours. Distance traveled : 90 miles total. Distance from house: 0 miles.

Saturday morning we went to Wal Mart, got everythign taken care of and went up. When we got to Gainseville i ran 6 miles while Carl was at work. When he got home we had a lot to talk about now that i'm actually going to IMFL for sure! Beth made the best Chicken i've ever had, and was the greatest hostess i've ever encountered. She gave us salad, chicken, choice of pasta....Carl and I talked and talked and watched a movie until 3 am. At 10 the next morning he knocked on my bedroom door and we were off on our ride. We did 40 miles in 2 hours and Carl was beat. The ride was wet from the rain the night before, but otherwise uneventful. In my normal sprint on each ride i managed to get to 29 mph into the wind. After our ride we went and ate pasta at Hungry Howies and headed for the pool.

Once in the pool i swam a few hundred meters to warm up and then brought Carl through a progression of drills to increase his stroke rate. By the end of the 45 minutes we had, his stroke rate was improved significantly without losing stroke integrety. I think he'll be up there swimming well pretty soon.

Went home and went to bed after that.

Today i was supposed to run 3 miles, but took a wrong turn and ended up backtracking for more like 4 miles. I'm really starting to dial into this pain in my hip and i think i know how to fix it, it's just going to take time. After my run i didn't plan anything else, but a girl who's stayed here all weekend and until tomorrow; Hannah, wanted to go for a short ride, so i obliged to take her around the lake. It was a leisurley ride, but ended up being relatively fast (18 mph avg).

I was supposed to swim today, but i moved it to tomorrow so i could go into town and drop off some freelance at the same time. I got my check from the Tri Angel today and i'm mailing my app in tomorrow! The Race Directors of IMFL told me that there are 'less then 30" slots left. I have faith that in 10 days when my app gets in they won't be sold out!

Tomorrow is a 1.5 hour hill ride, then swim 1 hour. I've been craving pizza all day, so tomorrow for lunch i'm having Papa Johns!

Looking forward to getting my hours back up. 5.5 hours last week which is perfectly where i wanted to be. Now it's back to 10, 12, 14.

It's starting to sink in that i'm going to participate in Ironman Florida. No more bullsh!tting! I've eaten crappy for the past 3 days (i shouldn't worry about this, i've spent the last 3-4 weeks with fairly good diet and very good exercise) but i feel like crap. So this morning marked the beginning of my good eating habbits again. gonna do a little run and bike today...then i think i'll take friday off, and i'm going up to Gainseville to see Carl. Saturday i'm running 7 with him in the morning, then doing 20 on my bike. Sunday doing 40 on the bike and taking him to the pool to give him some swim lessons. Once my computer is hooked up in my room to the internet i'll update the site so everything is accurate. That SHOULD be today, but hte network guy has already cancelled twice.

Wonderful news! A tri-angel who wishes to remain anonymous has just donated the remaining money to get into IM Florida! I should be able to send the check next week! Just when i thought about giving up on raising the rest of the money, this person comes out of the blue and picks me up off the ground. Its a dream come true, IMFL is going to be teh greatest event of my life. There will be lots of old and new friends to partake the adventure with, and then there's the adventure itself! I'll get to meet Giancarlo, and other MN triathletes, i'll be hanging with some fort lauderdale, boca raton, and tampa athletes, and Carl above all. Our final race together.

Thank you Tri Angel! you de bomb! heheh.

Today i did a half hour in teh pool, just drills, and did half hour ride around the lake. Can't wait till this easy week is over. This weekend i'm going to gainseville to train with Carl and next weekend is going to train with some Tri Syndicate boyz (We're going to do an open water swim, bike teh olympic course we're racing in april, and the Half IM course of the GFT because it's challenging and soem of them are diong that race). It'll be fun. Then i think the weekend after i'm going to Panama City with Carl to ride teh bike course, or at least 80% of it.

Yesterday i did a short 20 minute run, today did another short 20 minute run and a 10 mile bike. This week is a rest week for me and i'm bringing up my running consistency slowly. I've found that i don't have ITB or anything, and i think i know a good reason why my running form is so screwed. My hamstrings are very tight, especially teh outsides...which causes my foot to natually want to be on it's side due to inflexibility. So i'lll be working the next couple weeks on stretching that muscle in particular to see if that works. As well as getting new sneaks.

I appologize for my recent inconsistency in posting, i still havn't gotten my computer hooked up to the internet in the new house so it's difficult to get online. Tuesday the networking guy is supposed to come here and hook room up.

As for the weekend on saturday i ran 7 miles....wait...no i ran 5 miles, then walked 2 because my hip hurt so bad. I'm probably going to go to the running store today and get some evaluation. Two things i think could be happening:

1) My shoes are worn out causing me to run on the outsides of my feet, causing my left hip to hurt
2) My running form is being compromised by poor biking form.

Either way i gotta figure it out soon because my hip problem is not going away and i can't run long distances with it hurting.

Yesterday I biked 50 miles in 3 hours in the hills. That was a good time, except that i got some sort of abrasive rash on my pelvis which later turned out to be bleeding. Not good. So now just under my bellybutton is a big red raw patch of skin that looks like i sanded it off with a belt sander. Oh well, minor detail right?

Today i've gotta swim, and i think i'll do a short 2 mile run. I'm going to gradually increase my running consistency to 4 days a week, then 5. bringing my runs down a mile or two, and adding a day. My achiles hasn't bothered me, plus after each run i've been icing and elevating it just to be sure. A friend seems to think that running more often but with teh same mileage will be better for getting a little faster and losing weight. I'm wiling to try it...slowly.

Next weekend is another big weekend with some trisyndicate guys coming up from fort Lauderdale to train. They wanna do back to back bike workouts, i have no problem with that!

I went to my old place last night to visit my roomates, watch Old School (very funny), get my mail, and generally see what was going on. When i got my mail, i found a piece of mail from unemployment and was happily suprised at the amount that they are granting me. I should start recieving checks next week. That's good because i was getting worried that i would run out of money soon, and plus with some income coming in, i can wait for a better job if i need to.

Thursday i did a 4 mile pose run...and today my calves are tellin me not to do that again anytime soon! Nothing serious, just some calf soreness. Friday i took off and today i'm going to do my long run.

Swam 3000m this morning, 58 minutes. The first 1000m were drills, second 2000 was an interwoven stair. Then i went home, carbed up a bit, and an hour later off on the bike, for a 1:45 hill ride. The ride was good, i'm still getting familiar with the area. I havn't heard from Kinko's and I went to Fred Sommer's today to see if he'd looked at my portfolio and he wasn't there. I gotta go see him tomorrow at noon. Time to relax.

Update on fund raising:

Well i never recieved the check from Dunkin Donuts, many people at work did not donate after i was let go, and my financiall situation didnt' allow me to put in my own 300 like i wanted to...soooo that leaves me with 400 dollars to go. :( I'm not sure i'll make it, but if i don't, i'll do the great floridian ironman for sure! And it allows me to do my Ironman before Carl, even though we wanted to do one together, at least hte motivation is still there.

What a weekend....i'm pooped!

Last week starting on thursday i did a tempo run and a swim in the pool. everyone arrived Thursday night and i met Stephen (Big D), Mark, Briton, Jordana, Rich and Barbaree. Friday morning things started at 9 am at the NTC with discussions on self training and scheduling. Learned a lot about limiters. Find out what's limiting you from your goal and work on that. A lot of the time it's not mileage or time, it's something like weight or form.

After a lunch at Crispers we did some pool stuff. The pool at the NTC is great. Not over chlorinated and not over warm either. Mark and Jordana and I ended up in one lane, and Mark is a great swimmer. It was cool becasue we practiced drafting off each other to get a feel for it. Note to self: Always draft in the water, it's amazingly easy. Most of the drills i had done before, and after taping the only real thing i needed to work on was my stroke fluidity. No pausing. I did however learn to rotate more in teh water, creating a side profile that's more sleek and glides through the water better.

After that was a 5 mile run through the hills which i wasn't too pleased about. Jordana and I ran it together while the rest of the crew went ahead. We had good conversation and made it almost all the way back before having to stop at the second to last hill. When i say hills, i mean HILLS. my hip was killing me even after the run and i had to take advil to get to sleep.

Saturday started bright and early at 7 am for another run, but this one i walked most of the way with Big D. I was pretty sore from teh hills and used it just as a recovery. We all had breakfast at Perkins (yummy) and headed back to the pool for more drills. This is where i got a great new drill. Out of all the drills we were shown, this is hte one i felt the most improvement on. The fist swimming to normal swimming drill. You swim closed fist for a length, then half way back you open your hands. I really noticed how much more water i was pulling as i arched my elbow out a bit. I also felt more pull in my lats and pecs. Definitely going to be doing that drill a lot.

After the swim we discussed some more and then my favorite part...the bike.
We saddled up at about 1 after lunch and decided we'd all go the same route and let teh groups work themselves out on their own. I dashed to teh front (having a huge down hill at the beginning helped that) and ended up breaking from the group with Mark and Briton on my tail. We rode through the hills and got to a semi flat part, while Rich (the coach) was going back and forth between the groups. I made a wrong left turn and ended up doing grassy lake road all the way to North Grassy lake road. When i got there I looked at my map and realized i errored. I called Rich and told him the situation: The three of us wanted to do Sugar Loaf Mountain so we were turning around and going back to where we turned, then continueing on. he didn' thave any problems with that. So back through Grassy Lake (grassy lake road is a very hilly road) and back to where we were. Onward we went the correct direction and i looked at my average, 19mph. I was pulling the whole way and loving it.

We got to sugar loaf and wow...it is definitely a steep and long hill. Spray painted on the ground is the saying, "Good Luck! you'll need it". Rich managed to catch up to us and followed mark and briton up the hill. I always lagged on the uphills but always caught them on the down and straights. Half way up that hill, my quads, glutes and hams were blown. I couldn't even sit and spin my lowest gear, i would have fallen over. I wasn't about to get off my bike, so i made a decision: Stand up. I stood up and leaned forward only to get 3 pedal strokes out of my quads and i thought that was it. I still had 1/3 mile of hill to go....and somehow i found a spot directly above my pedals that i could just use my weight and extended leg to get me stroke after stroke. 3 mailboxes down.....2 mailboxes down...i was pulling up on my bars really hard and my shoulders were burning. My legs were resting but it was still very difficult.

I finally crested sugar loaf...i made it! The hardest, steepest, longest hill i've ever ridden up. I rode another 1/2 mile wondering if brit and mark had stopped for me and as i rounded a bend, totally wiped out, i saw them at a water station that a friendly person puts out for cyclists every day. I was so beat, i pulled up to the water station, unclipped right and promptly fell over left. My first fall on my bike! They were too tired to laugh at me and i didn't really damage myself all that much, just got some crank grease and metal in my right achilles tendon. The rest of the way from Sugar loaf i continued to pull, it wasn't that difficult. But 3 miles from the NTC we hit those same hills we went down right at the beginning of the ride. These ones i was able to sit back and push my way up at 4 mph, using my hams and glutes. My quads were still shot. We finally made it to the center, 40 miles at 17.6 avg. There was a brick run planned but no on edid it. the people that went the short route were already there, but we three were teh first one's back from the long group, even though we rode 7 extra miles. It was great, Mark and Briton were wholly impressed with my riding ability even though i'm a big guy, and i was impressed with them being able to hold onto my wheel since both of them are very new to cycling. Mark and Briton and I made good friends on that ride, and they're coming back next month to train. So far, thats teh exact reason i came to Clermont.

We all had dinner at Hungry Howies and went to bed.

Sunday started with a run clinic in which we learned the Pose method of running. I took to this form very quckly because without know ing it, i was already half way doing it. It's a method of jumping up and down and using forward body tilt to make yourself go forward. Hard to explain but very effective. After taping i found out two profound things. 1) I land on the outsides of my feet and roll in, i knew this but not as much as it looked on the tape, 2) I look gay when i run! My hands are totally loose and flail around. LOL Gotta take care of the hands real quick. heheh.

After the run clinic we ate at Perkins again, did lots of discussion on transitions and cycling and general stuff, then the day was over. I was thrashed and very happy i made tons of new training friends and contacts. It was just a great weekend.

Today i did a 25 mile tempo ride with Jay around the lake, oh and another good thing about the weekend ride. I now have ridden close to the 56 mile loop i may have to ride at teh Great Floridian. I have a good idea of the routes around here now...which definitely makes me more comfortable.

The tempo ride today hurt, and my heart rate was high, so i may skip my swim and my ez run tomorrow will be very easy for recovery.

Looking forward to thsi next amazing year.

Wouldn't you know it, a lady from toronto who reads my journal recognized me at the Training Center today! What an amazing thing...i was totally suprised and happy. We didn't get to talk for but a minute but it was just really cool to meet a reader. hehe.

Anyway i'm WASTED! I'll give a full report on the camp on Monday when i have the time. So far the camp has been 9-9 and 8-7. yeah.

Time to eat!!!!!!
then sleep like a rock.

oh yeah, tomorrow camp starts! I hope it's everything i want it to be.

Today in the pool i did a T-30 test: 1850 meters. Pathetic, but something i noticed is swimming constantly for 30 minutes is WAY different from doing 10x100 on 1:20 or something with short rests. I also just felt sluggish today, i did Intervals on the bike, Tempo ride on the bike, and i was pretty exhausted when i got to the pool. Not only that but i did a tempo run today too. I was pretty happy with the results, i kept my knees together and didn't have any hip PAIN, but slight discomfort towards the end. It's beautiful here, i ran down teh street, then made a left and there was the lake in all its' 4pm majesty. I'm so happy here, i just can't wait for this season to get into gear!

I had a very VERY favorable interview at Kinko's today. Considering my experience they are considering putting me as Key Op (i'm assuming htis is close to if not the floor supervisor) right after training. That'd rule!

Anyway, great day to train, great weather, great everything.

Yesterday's ride brought to my attention two things about my biking form. One: My left leg doesn't push nearly as much as my right. I frequently got a nice burn in my right leg but not my left. I had to focus on making my left leg work. Two: When i'm going fast, i tense my shoulders. Something i'll have to work on. I've gotten good at keeping everything loose during ez long rides, now i gotta pay attention to the shoulders and hands during the faster (racing) rides. Last thing i need is to have my lats seize up on me in Panama City.

Another note for today: While driving around i pulled upt o this minivan and looked inside. There were two babies in carseats in the back. One of the babies looked over at me and stared for a sec, then waved at me. I couldn't help but smile and wave back. Just a reminder of how innocent we truly are when we're young, and how many walls and preconceptions we build throughout the years based on our guidance (parents) and environment.

Went to Kinko's today too and talked up the manager into hiring me. He's going to give me a call pretty soon and i think i'd like working there. Depending on the money of course.

My first fast ride of the season: And it was 1:07 minutes of pain. First of all, the trail that i rode is mostly uphill (gradual incline) for teh first 15 miles. Second of all, a 10 mph constant wind in my face made it so my first 10 miles were 16.7. The point of this ride is to get the legs to strain but not go so fast or hard that you can't remove teh lactic acid. I may have gone a little too hard on the first leg, 16.7 is slow, pathetically slow for a tempo ride, but to prove how difficult it was today with the wind, my return trip ended at 18.4 avg. 2.3 mph faster, with the tail wind and the slight downgrade. My legs still burned and now 3 hours later they feel weak. It's grande!

Can't wait till intervals.

Today i went into town, exchanged the print cartridges that i bought yesterday for the right ones, went to kinkos to price posters and it looks like i can still print them for people soon again. Also did an easy swim workout 1200m, got some freelance from Dan...things are looking pretty good. I still hate not having a reliable job, but i'll be able to weather this until i get a decent steady job.

man, i'm really starting to think i moved into maine again. Clermont is hickville thats for sure. Plaid pull overs, beaver hats, all we're missing now is the rifle and orange vests. It's ok though, 20 minutes from here i'm back in the 'city' if i want to escape.

Just wanted to share that thought. Looking forward to calling Sheldon and talking with him about my schedule for next week. Also got the tri camp next weekend, that'll be fun. The coach is staying in this house, so i'll get soem extra attention i'm sure.

Great run this morning! 50 degrees and pouring. I love running in the rain. not sure why. Anyway Sheldon had told me to run 'embarrasingly slow' so i did just that. i think 14 minutes for my first mile is embarassingly slow. the good thing about running that slow is that i was able to fix my hip problem! I found that my left leg was running a little 'bold' legged. I think it's from riding so much without running, when i squeezed my legs together so my knees were nearly touching my hip problem went away. It was complaining a bit at the end of the run, but not hurting, just telling me that something was different. So i was able to speed up to 12 minutes per mile with no problems for the last 3 miles and day dream of finishing the Ironman.

The rest of the day is going to be fixing up my room, getting a network cable from the hub to my computer, and other odds and ends.

today i finally made it to some places to apply. Had a shitty swim. Moved some stuff to Clermont. Ate at Golden Corral, where me and this girl had an eye date. heheh. We just stared at each other and smiled for 20 minutes, then i left. I swear i saw dissapointment on her face. But what hte hell am i supposed to do? Say, "Hey baby, nice mac and cheese you got there, mind if i haev some? i'm jed" : shrug : Just when i thought i had things figured out, Suzy comes online after not talking with her for 3-4 months. The whole conversation is her telling me i'm an idiot for not having a girlfriend. HA! I dunno, just got me thinkin.

I'd like to tell you about any love interests i have, but unfortuantely i don't think it's appropriate this early in the game, but i can tell you that something may happen within the next couple months, or not. hahaha!

Well, last night was a great night. I got a box (not my Tv) over to the house, rode for 1:30, talked with James (a house mate) , went to dinner with Dave at Sonny's (had 1/4 white chicken) and while speaking with him i found out he's known Fred Sommer and worked for him as a volunteer for 15 years. Why is this important you ask? because Fred Sommer is the Race Director of Central Florida and hte new Tri America Series. Fred is looking for a graphic artist! So after dinner Dave drove me to Fred's office where i got to speak with ihm for about an hour, telling him of my talents in writing, design, photography, etc. I think it went great, and most of the day today was putting together my resume and samples. I'll drop that off tonight after i bring stuff to the place in Clermont. Still going to apply at Home Depot though, as an interim job.

Gotta do a 4 mile tempo run today, looking forward to it.

I'm sore! woohoo! my lifting yesterday was a success. I moved into phase 2 this week in terms of weight lifting and it was great.

Today's agenda:

Pack a box and my TV, somehow manage to fit box, TV, and bike in the car.
Go riding for 1:30 on the trail.
Go to Home Depot and apply for a position.
Go to Target and apply for a position.
Go to new place and drop off stuff, speak with Dave and current occupants of the house.
Get some socks (running socks)

Start playing with Flash and soem other programs i've been meaning to learn.

Oh yes, and i'm happy to announce that i weighed in at 228 this morning on my NORMAL scale i always weigh myself with. Very hapy with that. Dropped 1.5 pounds during a week i didn't do much exercise.

Today is the start of my heavy IM training. Got up this morning and lifted, i'll go to Target and see about a night job, and also Home Depot. I just need soemthing to hold me over till i finish Bartending School. Oh did i forget to mention that? I'm going to see the two schools this week and choose which one i want to attend. (I can't stop yawning. I think since i'm not going to be having coffee in the mornings anymore i'll be a little lethargic for some days. But thats good, i wanted to get off caffeine before the race so it will be more impactful on race day.)

I will take the 2 week course and both places have job placement and other such benefits. I think i'll be very successful in the bartending world. Plus its flexible and will give me something to do for the rest of this year till i go back to school for Exercise Physiology. Thats my plan, i want to become a coach and help people and Exercise Physiology is the way to go.

I move this weekend to Clermont, tonight i'm talking with Sheldon about my training schedule...things should be pretty good.

Saturday i didn't do anything, just slept and generally was unproductive. I drove to Carls place in Gainseville 110 miles NW of Orlando. The plan was to go up to ride with hima nd his new Specialized Allez road bike on Sunday. This morning we were up at 9am and on the bikes by 10:30. Nice french toast breakfast in our stomachs as we rode. It was 5 miels to the trail, 15 miles of trail one way, for a total of 40 miles, though we took a side route and ended up with 45 miles overall at 15.8 mph avg. Carl did extremely well for not biking at all in a long time, then cranking out a near 3 hour ride, plus we did a 3 mile run after. At the end i was pushing him good at 24 mph, and also did a 30 mph flat spritn where i finally broke free of him, but only for a few seconds before i had to slow down. I wanted 30.1 so bad, but just couldn't get it out of my legs today! It was a blast nonetheless. The run after was good, no foot numbness i think i'm out of the woods there, but my hip did start to twang a bit at mile 3. Carl seemed to notice my right foot 'duck' out just a little bit, something i should pay attention to.

Before the ride i weighed myself and came in at 228. When i got back my quads were cramping right after i got off the bike, so i went upstairs and was explaining to Carl that weighing in at the beginning then the end will tel you if you took in enough fluids. To my horror i weighed in at 224. I lost 3 pounds of water, and roughly 1 pound of fat. My quads were cramping up and seizing and i knew why, i didn't take in enough liquids at all. It was so gorgeous out though, just a beautiful day and i wasn't sweating all that much (or so it seemed). Another thing is i forgot my watch, and i had no 15 minute beep to tell me to drink. Lesson learned. The run after helped a bit, and after i ate soem pasta and pizza i was good as new! I can't wait to start training tomorrow! i start with a day off but i may do something. Also tomorrow is a trip to the USAT training center to look for a job.

It's 10:47. I'm mildly intoxicated. I just watched Jerry Maquire. I'm listening to Loreena McKennitt. On my way into my room i had to move the two boxes that i brought from work, full of my personal affects.

I was terminated today.

The charisma i carried to that place outshined all other personalities. No one got as much attention then i did, whether i liked it or not. A solid silence will now permeate the air where i once was. Some will miss it, others will be thankful.

I do truly believe that this seperation was for the benefit of all parties involved. I truly believe this is the best case scenario. That if i hadn't made michelle cry, which started the chain reaction where i believed i'd be terminated all week: I'd have had some random day in some random month, been called into a random office, and termintated, with no knowledge prior. THAT would be the worst case scenario.

I think it's bed time.

After my swim workout i was walking to my car when i noticed a woman sitting in her car, doing her makeup in her vanity mirror. How odd i thought, why didn't she do her makeup in the gym? Then an absurd thought came to mind...Was she putting her makeup on, to GO INTO the gym?

I turned around at that thought, and sure enough, she emerged from her car, with no less then a little bag that had wheels on it, in her 4 inch high heels, and walked towards the gym.

Should have shot her in the head till she was dead; put her out of her misery. GIVE ME A BREAK! Bally's is Club Med only worse, i can't stand it! GAAAAAH! I can't wait till i get my USAT Training center membership, then i can cancel my Bally's crap and never go again!

Last night i had a weak moment and had a piece of Josh's birthday cake. :S nothing overly bad, i ate 1/4 of the slice that was left, so it wasn't overly huge. I went back for more but Josh butted in and said, "You don't want that." heheh. So i put it back.

I have the first 24 weeks of my training plan almost complete....and holy crap! I've got some serious training to do but i'm going to rise to the challenge. I'll be posting my schedule and maybe figure out a weekly visual aid or something so you can all keep up with my day to day doings.

More to come later...i'm going to run 1/2 hour tonight.

I got a bunch of orders from the Syndicate folks for posters, i'm under $100 now! next week i hope to send it all in and secure my place in the race. I did 1000m in the pool tonight thena te some sushi and a boca CHICKEN pattie. Chicken pattie was ok, the burgers are better! MmMMMMMMM!

This mornign i got up and had some extra energy so i decided to spin on my bike for half hour. I didn't even break a sweat, just sorta spun, and in doing so i found that my left foot 'snaps' forward at the bottom of each stroke, almost how your foot snaps when you're running just as your lifting your foot to propel yourself forward. I tried to correct it because my right foot does no such thing, but it was too natural. Not sure if this is effecting my pedal efficiency or not, i'll have to look into it. Also i'm almost positive now that my creaking on my bike is coming from my seatpost. heheh i'll oil it later this week.

Going to swim about 2000m today at varied difficulties, but nothing overly hard. Probably do a bunch of 100's and 50's instead of the longer sets. My IM schedule is starting to come together nicely now, i'm excited to start this weekend. I'm also convinced that in my current state i cannot do a marathon running the wholetime without big risk of injury. So at the request of some people i'm going to train a 1 minute walk at every mile, as if it were a water stop, and then run from there, treating each mile like an interval. That training will start this sunday with a 10 mile run. This may or may not help my hip.

Just got back from the gym, i ran 3 miles around the block, then lifted and now i'm home. Was a decent run, but right at 3 miles my hip started hurting, even when i increased my pace in an effort to change my stride and spend less time on each leg, it still hurt a bit. I'm just going to make it out to be a comfortability issue until it starts hindering me.

The meeting today went very well...i do believe that this will all end with a happy ending , it's now up to the president of the company. If he believes me and what i've said, and allows me to correct a few things, then everything will be well.

I can only hope now.

After much delibertation with friends and with myself, and after a nearly sleepless night, today i've decided to go to the HR and tell my side of the story. Not to cause any ruckus, but to put my side on paper, so i have a foot to stand on if push comes to shove. I'm going to type a statement and also verbalize my concerns this morning.

I don't expect i'll be working here very much longer and thats a very very sad prospect for me. I've put a lot of myself into this department, more then any other job i've ever had. I've developed relationships, all unique with 35 different employees. I've drank beside some of them, i've laughed beside most of them...leaving here or getting terminated will be a very sad day indeed.

Amongst all of this, i can't let my training endeavors waiver.This morning i didn't go lift, but then again, i got very little sleep. Instead i chose to sleep but will go lift tonight. Since this is an off week i'll swim tomorrow: No doubles this week. Then next week back in full force. I'm also watching my calorie intake, yesterday i took in about 1000 calories, i know it's low but i couldn't eat after the incident with Dick. I'm going to try and keep it around 1600 all week.

Wish me luck today.

I've deleted this post in anticipation of the end of the incident, adn out of respect of fellow employees.

I just got back from riding stationary at Bikeworks to raise money. I ended up with $50! It was great, as it got closer to superbowl time, the traffic slowed down quite a bit, but in the beginning i had some very good luck. Most people donated $1 and one guy donated $5 while another donated $20. Everytime someone stuck a dollar in my tupperware container i just wanted tor ide harder. I rode 15 minutes, then stood for 1 just to keep the circulation going in certain spots. I rode for two and a half hours, then Bikeworks closed and i brought my stuff home. It was a good time.

I talked with Dave yesterday and i'm moving into his house on the 8th, then doing the Tri Clinic from the 14th to the 16th. That'll be a great time! I also get to meet the 'stephens' from trisyndicate.com. They're running the clinic.

Time to make sushi, drink water adn watch the Superbowl!

I went and met Dave yesterday afternoon before my run. Dave is a fellow witha big house who offered to rent a room to me on a more permanant basis. He's a very nice fellow with indeed a big house...made even moreso by the fact that he's made the back sorta like a dorm bunkbed cluster. We worked out a deal where i'll pay a monthly flat fee and get the front bedroom to myself. If the house is full, i may have to share it with one other person for a few days. Then i went and did a 6 mile run.

The run was good until about mile 3. Mile 3 my hip started bothering me (this is getting really REALLY old. If it's not one thing its the next. I beat achilles tendonitis, stress fractures, some foot problem, now it's my friggin hip) i didn't let it slow me down though, and kept up a relatively slow 11:40 per mile. At mile 4 i did stop and try and stretch the muscles around the hip but it didnt' help much. After my run i spent a good amoutn of time stretching and what not.

This morinng just walking hurts but i'm just going to assume its from those muscles not being used very much like in the beginning of my running. This coming week is an EZ week for me so i'll bear through it and if it still hurts by next weekend i suppose i'll go see a sports doc.

At 1 today i go to Bikeworks and start riding on my trainer for donations. I'll ride 1 hour at a time with a 10 minute break in between. 3 hours on a trainer straight would probably make me steril! heheh.

My swim went fantastic tonight. I'm getting more and more use out of my back with a good hard twist of my hips which is propelling me faster with smaller energy use. I swam 2000 meters in 22 minutes. It was a fast workout, doing lots of short 100m repeats and 50m repeats. What i'm happy with is i can swim longer before my form starts to breakdown from exhaustion.

My lifting went ok, it was sporadic because i HATE lifting at Bally's, and lots of people were using weights and machines i needed. Oh well.

Tomorrow instead of biking i'm going to do my long run, then do my 'long bike' in front of bikeworks. 3 hours on the trainer. Yeouch! But it's for charity right?! I hope i can collect and send in the checks by the 8th. I should still be ok by then.

It's interesting to note that people i thought cared nothing for my triathlon endeavors, gave the most money, and people i thought cared, didn't give anything. Just goes to show, what you think you know is probably wrong! heheh.

After collecting from work i've made another dent as can be seen by what i need left. After Sunday's "Ride for Donations" in front of BikeWorks that i'm planning, i may just have enough to send in! All i'll have to do is collect and send in the application.

I'm not looknig forward to lifting after i swim tonight, but it's something i gotta do.

On the scale this morning: 231.5. not bad.

Last night i hit the bed at 8 pm, but tossed and turned till almost midnight. Needless to say i didn't get much sleep. I planned on getting up at 4:30, lifting for an hour, then going to work really early so i could take care of some work and get it out of the way, but at 4:30, in my total sleeping stupor i hit the wrong button on my alarm which turned it off. But i did wake up on my own at 6:15 so i immediately got up, skipped lifting and came into work with the intention of lifting and swimming this afternoon.

By the way, ITS FRIGGIN COLD HERE IN FLORIDA!!!! I can tell you what, BOB or no BOB, if i had to bike today i simply wouldn't, not outdoors. Last weekend it was cold, like 30 degrees, right now its 18, feels like 8 because of humidity (according to weather.com) and not only that, there is ice on my car!

Yesterday it got pretty cold, and i ran for 30 minutes with arm warmers but nothing on my legs. I got nice and numb and just cruised. I cant tell you how happy i am that i'm not having any problems running. I'm actually very quickly getting back into my old groove where i feel lik ei can run forever.Another good thing: I weighed myself this morning and came in at 231.5, 1.5 less then last week. Thats the way i like to see it, slow and easy. I'll be where i want in about 12 weeks if i keep at it.

I have some good news for the fund raising, Bikeworks not only will let me bike in front of their store on Sunday, but they donated two full tune ups! They retail for $50 a piece, and in order to entice people (besides the fact that the money goes to charity), i'm selling them for $40. I gave the roadies the first chance by posting it on teh boards, but if they don't take them off my hands by Sunday, i'll bring them with me and try to sell them to customers. Thank you Bikeworks! (namely Buddy and Travis).

Thank you to Dave at work here who just donated!

I added a countdown clock to the left, i'm going to try and make it a bit smaller with the help of BigDaddy over at Syndicate3. it's pretty cool though!

Thank you to Rob Carter who emailed me out of teh blue and pledged a donation to me! Rob, good luck with your first triathlon, a HALF IRONMAN! And i thought *I* was being audacious! It's the Gulf Coast too, so i hope we can meet.

I recently met Stephen (BigDaddy) over at Syndicate through Dave (the fellow i'm going to move in with in Clermont) and he's a very nice guy! He's helped me get my fund up and running over on his site and even bought a poster to add to the fund, thanks BigDaddy! Things seem to be working out quite well, once i move in with Dave, i'll be right where i want to be: In the middle of a bunch of athletes who share my interests and goals. It's a small world and i'm excited to go out and explore it!

Clermont is going to be good for me, very good.

Tonight i'm going to do a small 30 minute run. Tomorrow it's supposd to snow...in FLORIDA! But i'm not going to be outside, just lift in the morning and swim at night.

Thank you to Bigdaddy for his help and donation, i will be writing for his site now too. :)

Alright! i gotta write this down so i don't forget:

Ideas to use for fundraising:
Bike outside of a bikeshop on my trainer with signs for donations
Ask bikeshop to give me 5 free tuneups which i'll sell for $30 a piece (30 less then normal)

Now as for training today i ran for 45 minutes and it was great. no pain except my hip slightly, but more importantly no foot pain or achilles tightness. Then i went home and spun for 45 minutes while watching the Carmichel Hill tape. Thats a good tape, i think i like it better then Spinervals because they use you're HR as a guide for your intensity.

I think this friday i'll leave work at 3 pm, set up my bike in front of bikeworks from 4-7 (if they let me) and we'll see what i can come up with.

Donation Update!
Thank you to the following Donators as of 4:21 pm today:

Riff Raff Running Forum Members:
AlaninTX
Erstwhile Lurker
Cherylpf

Co-Workers
Rex
Steve
Ryan

That's almost 300 bucks in 3 days...30 slots left, i hope i can do this!

Thank you very much to all of you. It's hard to focus on work because all i can think of is fundraisers for money!

Wow. Thats all i have to say when i woke up this morning and my shoulders are messed up! Totally sore to the core. feels good...
One thing i forgot about in terms of my times, and why i'm feeling slow in teh water. I've been swimming with a speedo for like 5 months now. Recently i switched to swim with my baggy running shorts....more drag, more hurtin in the water. So i don't feel so bad now, the times i had listed were times i had when i was swimmming in a speedo.

I bought some vitamins last night finally, i'll be taking them twice a day.

I'm supposed to meet Dave (the guy with the huge house in Clermont) this weekend and finalize moving plans. I can't wait to get out of my apartment either, Kelly is on a rampage and it's really pissing me off. This chick who's had no job for 8 months, told ME that *I* never clean! LOL. and when i looked at her dumbfoundedly because i wash every dish i use, she pointed to a stack of cups that i use for water. Yeah, go back to you're hole. Oh well, i'm training more now so i'm not there as much.

Oh yeah, last night i had a major brain fart and TOTALLY forgot i had to spin this morning! I was like, "Oh, i only have to run tomorrow, i can sleep in to 7 am!"

Then i woke up this morning and thought, "Man, i seem to remember doing a double today for the last couple weeks...." then i saw my bike. Doh. So tonight i'll run for half hour after work, then spin for 45 minutes to an hour. No biggie.

My swim was less then stellar tonight. I think it had something to do with adding 10 pounds to two of my shoulder exercises. I'm stupid i know.

But tonight as soon as i hit the water i felt slow, like i was swimming in mud. And my 3x400 swim challenge proved it.
Here's how the set went.
1st 400 6:37 going for 5:45
2nd 400 6:17 going for 5:15
3rd 400 6:27 going for 4:55

: sigh :

and after that my 200m repeats were going horribly, my form was breaking down big time and i finally decided to call it quits. I swam 1800m out of 2400 planned. Oh well, just a bad day in the pool, i'll get em next time.

On the way home i got some different kinds of Boca Burgers, and cooked up a vegetable one. MMMM good!
Also had some sushi.

I have a bunch of stuff floating in my head about training and i gotta write it down to somehow make sense of it.

I'm going to try and get 800 hours in by November 8th.

Lets see...there's 40 weeks till November 8th (starting Feb 1st.

800/40=20 hours a week.

10 of those weeks will be ez weeks with about half volume, half time.

That doesn't include taper for my Gulf Coast Half IM, and recovery...it doesn't look like i'll be able to get to 800, but perhaps i can hit 700.

This saturday i'm supposed to get with Diane finally and get a serious looking program together for this Ironman. I'm going to go at it over the next few days if i have time too and flesh some stuff out.

Just got $46 in pledges from co-workers and AlaninTX from the Riff Raff Forum. Thanks everyone! A lot of people promised to pledge or give to the fund on Friday. I'm so excited, i think i can really do this!

I took josh to Charlies Steakhouse last night for his b-day. Spent a crap load of money :( but had some great steak and potatoes.

This morning i got up and lifted for 50 minutes, weighed myself and i havn't dropped a pound in 2 weeks, but thats ok, i'm sure theres a good reason for it. Whether i'm gaining and losing cause i'm lifting consistently or whatever, i'm not going to fret over it. Not yet anyway.

With the help of a friend (thanks Rich) I was able to come up with an info page and make my header (above) a link to it.

So far World Gym said they won't donate, but they'll let me promote the donation in the gym. Also they'll let me sell 1 day passes for 1 dollar a piece, a $15 value. : shrug :
Dunkin Donuts (Mike) asked me to bring in paperwork and he'll work with me.

As soon as i get a chance to talk to the prez of my company i'll do a collection here at work.

Don't forget to sign the guestbook i added to the left!

One good thing is the weights i'm lifting now are getting easier, i want to up the weight but i'm not going to deviate from the program. I have 1.5 more weeks with this weight and rep count before i move into Phase 2 of the program. My shoulders are geting bigger and more defined, even moreso then usual i think because i've been swimming and lifting. It's nice, and a good motivator when i'm doing tri's and my shoulders bulge out a bit. :)

I really think i can do this ironman, and furthermore i think i can do it in under 15 hours. I'm commited to it, and i'm going to do it. The beginning of February i switch from Half IM training to full IM training, and that gives me 40 weeks, and i'm going to use the trinewbies 36 week ironman training program as reference along with my coach.

I just got off the phone with my mother: She's gonna give me $100! thats much more then i thought she would. She's also going to try and get some cash from my family. Tomorrow i think i'll talk to the prez about getting money from the company i work for. He was too busy today so i missed him. I'm hoping the company itself will give 2-300 bucks, then i'll get individual donations from our 33 office workers. If i get like 10-15 bucks each from them i'll be well on my way!

So far i've been able to generate some interest at work, lots of people seem willing to give me a few bucks, so next week after i get all the paperwork (I called IMFLorida Community fund to get more info. I need to find out where people make the checks out to, whether its to a fund directly or to IMFL), i'll take an official collection next week. I'm also working on a new web page as an offshoot to my journal with complete details, so please be patient for that.

I'm hoping World's Gym will donate some money (i freelance ads for them), and possibly sponsor my this year (why didn't i think of that before??). I'm really getting into this, and i hope i can choose a charity because that'll help me motivate to race. All the charities are kids sports funds, and i'm all about active kids and supporting them.

Today's a day off planned, and thats good becuase it's josh's birthday and i'm taking him to dinner with his wife and my buddy Jeff.

I plan to start IM training in two weeks. This week i'll finish out with my planned 10 hours, then next week is my 4thweek ez week, in which i'll take time to make my IM training plan, starting my IM training on February 3rd.

I've decided to do it...it's 10:44 pm on Sunday. I'm going to raise the $1,000 to enter IM florida with Carl! I've made a donation button to the left, and a new page with info on it will be coming in a few days. You can either donate freely, or if you want something out of it, purchase a poster and all money from the poster sales will go towards my fund. Now it's not MY fund, the $1000 goes towards charities, but gets me into the race.

I've been browsing some IM training plans and the volume is just plain STAGGERING. I'm probably not ready for this, but i'm going to go for it, and do it without injury. My bike and swim i'm fine with, it's the run im concerned about.

Thanks in advance to anyone that donates or buys a poster!

Jed

PS you can go to IM florida's website to see all the details before i make a new page here.

I don't know how many slots are left but i will call tomorrow to find out. I'm pretty excited about this now, i hope i can go!

Carl called today, he says he wants to do Ironman Florida. He wants me to do it with him.

The first thing that popped into my head was that i'm not ready, i COULDN'T be ready for an Ironman in November. But that very thought repulsed me and got me to thinking about it seriously.

Then I started thinking about what Bob would do. That mere thought alone made me put my sneakers on and run my planned 5 miles when i planned ons witching it. Body beat up or not. today i planned a long run, today i did it (if you can call 5 miles a long run)

The run felt good, my foot gave me a little bit of a problem but it was a passing thing, and my left hip is hurting a bit but i think some stretching and i'll be fine. 61 minutes for 5 miles, slow but at a very easy pace. It got really cold and i have tor emember to bring my arm warmers.

IM Florida.....

IM FLORIDA....

There is another thing about IM Florida, it's full, but you can get in by raising $1000. : sigh :

What to do....what to DO???

I planned on doing 2 half's this year and an IM next year. But Carls wife will have graduated her MBA by next year and they don't plan on staying in florida, so IM florida could be the last race i get to see him in.


Ironman training would definitely kick my ass into gear, but i'm just not sure. I need some reassurance from people that i can actually get into Ironman shape in 8 months.

What to do.... what to do....

I'm feeling pretty beat up today, so instead of doing my 5 mile run today, then takign tomorrow off, i'm going to switch it. Off today, 5 mile run tomorrow.

Oh yeah, did i forget to mention that i was RUN off the road? For the second time in 6 months, in teh same place. There is a precarious part of road that goes under a highway and turns at the same time. There is no breakdown lane or anything. People need to just have patience for 100 feet until i get to a wider part of the road, but some a$$f%^k white pick up truck ran me off the road anyway.

It's a good thing i saw the shadow of the truck a split second before his mirror grazed my shoulder, putting me into the grass because it gave me time to lock my back brake and unclip. I didn't flip or sustain any damage but.....FU$^%ING MOTHER FU$%INGA$$HOLEC$%KSUCKINGB@STARD!

I vow right now to never ride that stretch again unless i'm in a pack. Last year i had the same problem where some unpatient a$$hole ran me off the road. only THAT time i did take a digger in the dirt/grass. I wanted to give him the finger so badly, but i was wearing mits, so it would have just looked like i was holding my whole hand up. : grumble :

Anyway i feel better now. Highly annoying.

at 6 am my alarm went off. I looked out my window and it was still dark, so i reset it to 7. At 7 i got up, put on all my layers, got my bike ready, ate some toast and peanutbutter and went to the spot i was riding from. It was very cold this morning, and worse there was a stiff cold wind. But i had to ride, thats what seperates me from Bob. So 40 minutes into the ride, with 2:20 to go, my big toes were painfully numb. THe one spot i forgot to cover. Growing up in maine, i'm aware of what numb toes for 3 hours can do so i turned around dissapointed with my now 1:20ish ride. Everything else on me was fine, just my toes were going.

I got to the car with an 1:17 17 miles. I packed the car and started home. The whole time i was in the car i kept thinking, "What would Bob do?"

Bob would go home, shower and go to his friends house.

So went home, hooked my bike up to my trainer and rode for another hour for a total of 2:17. Now i feel better! Plus, the only time MTV is worth watching is while on a trainer so i was entertained at least, and warm. But i can only take so much stationary biking, i'm just happy i had the tenacity to keep going after my failed outdoor ride.

Now i'm off to my buddies, and because i was `1:45 short of my total ride time planned, i'll not drink or eat pizza, my diet will be good today and tomorrow to make up for the loss of training.

I want to welcome Danielle to the blogspot triathlon circle here, and invite you to read about her in the link to the left.

As for my swim tonight, i was an ANIMAL! Holy crap! i was definitely "ON" today. I swam 2200m in 35 minutes, which is 10 minutes faster then tuesdays 2200m. Insane. And i didnt' feel wiped after, iw as powerful through the entire workout. I really hit the spot today and i'm stoked!

Tomorrow morning it's supposed to be 30 degrees or cooler, and with the humidity it'll feel like i just got out of the pool. So i bought a fleece pullover, something for my ears and gloves because i have to ride at 7 am. It's funny cause i read the roadie boards and they're all too chicken to ride at 7, they're riding at 11. Then i'm off to Rex's house for beer and computer games! I may skip the beer, or may not. I plan 4 hours tomorrow riding so i may deserve a few.

My newest article is now live on triathlete.com!

I had pizza for lunch today. :S better then a burger then fries but not as good as white meat chicken.

Carl redid his blog and started updating it so i put his link back on the left.

[We interrupt this program for an important announcement]

I wanted to explain the new "Pay Now" button on the left. By clicking on it you go to paypal with all the info already in for you, if you wanted to buy series 1 #1 of the posters i created over last summer. They are printed on Photo Gloss paper, 24x36 inches, and laminated on one side (the image side). I'm only asking for $14.99 plus shipping but a poster like this at say, kinkos, would be over $50. I'm going to be releasing 2 more in the Tri Triumph Triathlon series, then two more series after that over the course of the year. And i'll be using any money i get from these triathlon posters to pay for race fees and generally upkeep my triathlon habbit.

[We now return you to your regularly scheduled program]

This morning i got up at 6 and went to lift. I jumped on the scale and had to hold back some dissapointment for according to the scale i've not lost a single pound. But weight cannot be my goal, only a secondary benefit of training, there's no telling what my body is going through so i won't fret over it. I figured after two weeks of the same weights, reps and sets i'd be getting stronger, but only in some areas.

My bench seems a slight bit stronger
Incline seems a bit stronger
Shoulders seem the same
Quads and Hams seem the same
My lats are much stronger, i'm going to up the weight next week
Triceps are much stronger
Calves are stronger, but i'm hesitant to up the weight. Last time i overdid my calves i couldn't walk for 3 days.
Lowerback seems the same

Now that i think about it, i've got 5 more workouts before i'm done with the acclimation phase. I'm not going to up the weights, i'm going to keep them where they are until i'm done with this phase. Plus, as the weights seem lighter, my swimming is getting stronger. When iw as doing my triceps today, my shoulders were bulging out and i was loving it. I'd like to have nice rounded shoulders, and if i keep swimming 3-4 miles a week, i'll definitely get them.

Speaking of which tonight i'm going to swim probably 2300 meters again. In two weeks i get a rest week, and at teh same time when i get back from that rest week i go into the next phase of my lifting. It all should work out pretty good.

I'm looking forward to riding tomorrow morning at 7 am, but not looking forward to the 25 degrees its supposed to be here in orlando. But i have to do it, because i'll be at a friends house for the rest of the day and not be able to. Going out in teh freezing cold and riding for 4 hours is what seperates me from Bob.
Abs seem a bit stronger

I ended up running for 35 minutes. I made a different loop around the block, and ended back at the car at exactly 35 minutes. IT was good iw as back early because my left hip was complaining a bit and my foot problem came back, but about 10% of the pain and discomfort. I think i may be able to just 'run' it out. We'll see.

This post edited out of respect for fellow coworkers

I'm not going to bother writing in my food journal for the day. I took my boss out for lunch for his birthday and he wanted to go to sonny's. A whole chicken, 2 small sides of beans and 4 pieces of garlic bread later, one piece of cake and a small scoup of icecream and i'm done. I'm going to run for 45 minutes tonight then get to bed early. Got lifting in the morning and swimming in the afternoon. Then saturday monring i'm riding at 7 am for 4 hours.

Since my plan calls for a run tomorrow, i decided to do 1 hour on the trainer instead. Ate a boca burger with some instant potatoes and feel good.

Last night i swam 2300m in a step pattern, 100, 200, 400, 200, 400, 200, etc. It was tireing, but good for me. It's interesting to note how effortlessly i do those first 2-300 meters because i'm fresh, then towards the end i'm very concentrated and deliberate about keeping my form from breaking down. After i got out of the pool i went home for some amazing Boca Burgers and salad. Then i did laundry...and more laundry, and..well i practically had NOTHING to wear so i did 5 loads. Now i had to go to our in-complex laundro-mat, and most of the machines were already being used. So 1 hour washing/drying became a task as i had to switch and reswitch loads to get them done. When i got home, put my clothes away and laid on my bed it was 11:30. Getting up at 5 to spin wasn't in the picture anymore because i want to get 8 hours sleep as much as possible. I'm not going to justify my high intensity bike workout skipping, i'm just going to say this, "I skipped it and i don't feel the least bit guilty about it". Tonight i'll run for half hour and be done with it. The bike is my strongest discipline, no big deal. Rest is more important.

I jumped on the BALLY'S scale last night (as opposed to the World's Gym scale) and according to that one i dropped 10 pounds yesterday! heheh. just goes to show that you need to use the same scale at the same time of day. Right now i weigh myself twice a week, just before i lift on Tuesdays and Fridays.

I've got about 5 ideas for an article this week, but i'm not sure which one i'll go with. Lots of stuff that happens during the week sparks creative thought. I need to write down the ideas so i don't forget them.

The Buy It Now button now works, if you'd like a poster click on it! You may also click on the INFO link to see the details. Anything i make off this line of posters (which are created by me) will go directly into supporting my triathlon addiction!