Quote of the day:
Jerry: “Dude, you worked your anus off out there!”
Me: “My anus is the only part of my body that doesn’t hurt!”

Question of the day:
“How do you feel?”
Me: “I’ve been hit by a pick up truck before…feels just like that”

Let me just get this part over with. I’m so happy with this race, so utterly excited that everything came together just how I wanted it to (minus a snafu on the run…) that it really invigorated me to keep doing this tri thing. I was beginning to think that all triathlons were going to be a struggle…I was wrong.

Let’s now move on to my expectations going into the race. Two weeks out, I was starting to get too involved with numbers, breaking the race down to finitely. I posted on Coolrunning.com that I wanted to keep certain heart rate zones through certain parts of the race. I was getting a bit fanatical, and it took my good friend Sheldon to slap me around and talk about Perceived Effort. After that I decided I was going to go on total PE, not wear my heart rate monitor and toss my speedometer for the bike. I had a 6 hour expectation, but through it out a few days before the race and made it “under 7 hours” because I wanted to enjoy my very first Half Ironman, not suffer through it like I did my first Olympic.

Swim: My expectation here was wishy-washy to say the least. My swimming was strong in the pool, but my open water anxiety was really hampering me early in the season. I’d do a bunch of 1:40’s in the pool, then hit the lake and swim 2:20’s and be totally exhausted. So what was there to do? Hit the lake, hit the lake, and hit the lake. I absolutely HAD to get over my anxiety. I also did plenty of pool swimming, but with my eyes closed to simulate the darkness. One other thing I made sure of in the pool, that I kept my pacing and felt my body and muscles, my speed; all in an effort to keep a steady but strong pace when I didn’t have a lane line or wall to judge it.
4 weeks out, I went to a friends’ house in Boynton Beach to do an ocean swim, 40 mile bike and 7 mile run to simulate the race. This day would prove to be the biggest confidence booster, as it was my first ever ocean swim. The waves were probably 3 feet, and I had anxiety in the beginning, but it went away, and never came back.
2 weeks out from the race a guy named Christophe came to live with Dave and I in the Homestay. He was here to race at the ITU event, and we got to talk while he was here. We went to the pool one day and he gave me some tips on my form. He said my form was great, but my pull was wrong, and he helped me correct it. In just that week I gained :10 on my 100m repeats without exerting any more effort. My swim confidence was at an all time high.

Bike: My biking is my strongest point, I didn’t have any trouble with this section, I knew I could easily bike 56 miles, I have very good PE awareness with my legs, the only thing that concerned me is that my fit is still off a bit, which causes me to use my hamstrings more then my quads, which isn’t good for running off the bike. Overall I just tried to get my speed up by doing lots of tempo work.

Run: I had a good feeling about the run. I found my pace recently and was quite comfortable with it. I think I suffered from a case of under training though – I ran 3-4 times a week, but they were all short runs. My longest run before the event was 10 miles and it took me 1:52, which would put me on pace for about a 2:15 half marathon. I had gotten some racing flats a week before the race with plans on using them. They were very flexible and seemed to be working very well with my foot strike physiology, but after a week of running on them, my calf tweaked a bit, and the day before I headed up to Panama City, I decided to use my trainers. My trainers are broken down and sorely over due for replacement; I honestly think either way I was screwed.

THURSDAY:

Thursday night the ‘crew’ decided they wanted to go up. I had planned on seeing Christy’s concert that night, then go up Friday morning, but they wanted to go up that night, so at 7 pm we left – and arrived at about 11:30. While I was in the car, I had some tunes on my mp3 player and started to focus on the race. My strategy was to get as relaxed and as confident as possible, visualize the race from start to finish to convince myself it would be great. We checked into the rooms at the Board Walk hotel (100 feet from the start) and crashed.

FRIDAY:

Friday morning I took my Swedes and went to the water front - 5 foot high waves with equally sized swells. No better time to jump in then now…and so I did. I dove in and braved the surf until I was at the first buoy (200m out), then swam back in. Not to bad! You have to time your breaths a little differently and accept plenty of seawater in your mouth, but other then that, it felt good. I felt some anxiety but figured it was just nerves. As I exited the water I saw Marc, Big D, and Sheldon. We chatted for a bit and then I went back to my room and napped for a few hours.

When I got up, I went to registration, did all that hunky dory stuff, browsed the expo and just kept visualizing and focusing. While I was there, there were plenty of sunglass vendors and I started thinking: “The improved swimming technique has me using my lats more, and I know my lats are always sore off the bike because my head is up to high, thus putting my body more upright, thus putting more pressure on my lats. Why does my head go high? Because the top of my sunglasses gets in my line of vision and I pick my head up to compensate” While I was there I found a pair of sunglasses that didn’t have a thick cross piece, it was all sunglass. It was time to go take a spin anyway, so I got all geared up, bought the sunglasses and took a 15 minute ride. The glasses worked like a dream, and my bike was shifting and sounding quite stealthy. I did plenty of cleaning and tune-up work on it the previous Monday.

The pre-race announcements were nothing real special. I sat with the Tri Syndicate fellas, ate my burnt broccoli lasagna…note to race director: Don’t serve broccoli, ever. I stunk up my room all night, and farted so much out on the course that people were beginning to think I was out there for entertainment only. If I had cut a hole in the butt of my trisuit, I could have been a$$man. The pre race buffet wasn’t that great, but then again, I didn’t expect it to be. After I had some food I went out with the crew and had some more chow, some fried foods. Yum! I hit the bed around 10 pm.

SATURDAY:

1:23 am. Carl arrived. He came up from Gainesville to see me race and to take pictures. Bless his heart he drove right from work, 5+ hours just to see me race. He knocked on the hotel room door, showed him to his bed and went back to sleep. 3:30 am I got the wake up call to eat breakfast. I started thinking that 3:30 breakfast would be a bad idea, that’s 4 hours before race time, so I set my alarm to go off at 4:30. Alarm went off, I put water in my pre mixed oatmeal and micro waved it. I then realized I didn’t have a spoon. After a few minutes of cloudy thought, I came up with an idea…break a bagel in half and use it as a spoon! That’s what I did, and ate the bagel and a banana too. That done, I jumped in the shower and proceeded to shave my whole body (minus my head). After my shower I got my quadruple espresso from the fridge and downed half of it. Ick! 2 day old coffee is bad! But it did it’s job, I was wired in about 10 minutes. 5:30 rolled around and the transition closed at 6, so I started to move on out, with Carl and Troy in toe. Note to self: Bring you own marker. The line to get body marked (which is required to get into transition) was huge, and there were only 4 body markers.

I managed to get into transition with 7 minutes left, but that was plenty of time to get done what needed to get done. I walked down to the beach with 1:30 left to go, and saw the ocean. 5 foot waves with 6-7 foot swells behind them. I had to take a crap so I decided to go back to my hotel and chill for an hour. While in my room Carl and I idly talked, I listened to some music and I closed my eyes, envisioning a strong swim. With 30 minutes to go before my wave went off I walked back down to the beach and jumped into the water, doing some swimming past the breakers and back to shore, the water was really rough, but it was doable.

My wave was called to the start line and I was very calm. I focused on the white caps, the waves, and this saying: Slow is smooth, smooth gets you across the finish line with a smile. The hard part about swimming in rough water with 55 other people, is whatever training you did up to then that sank into your subconscious is the only thing you can do. With all that tumult, you can’t think about your stroke, you can only think of 100 other things, so you swim however you ‘naturally’ swim. I was a touch worried that the effort I put into Christophe’s help would just go to waste because I hadn’t swam long enough with the changes to really burn them into my brain.

I was right.

The cannon blasted off and the wave ran into the water. I ran till I was knee deep, then just dove under waves and waded out until I was chest deep, then started swimming. Slow is smooth, smooth gets you over the finish line with a smile. The current was very strong and those of us that knew it, started WAY left of the first buoy, so that by the time we reached the turn, we’d be right at it. We were swimming clockwise, and the current was going north, which was toward the swim exit. It was VERY strong though, I started about 300 feet away from the buoy and by the time I got to the turn, I swam under it practically. The swim out was pretty uneventful. The one great thing is that I was very calm, very focused, very relaxed. I didn’t get to thrashed so I kept thinking of my swim stroke and keeping it even and actually thought about Christophe’s tips.

When I got to the turn buoy, it got crowded as everyone converged onto it at the same time. This made me feel better because I thought I was so far behind that there was no one around me, when in reality I was just so really to the left of the buoy. Once we made that turn, the current was going with us and it made for a fast 600 meters. Also, the swells were easier to manage when you’re not swimming into them. I got to the last turn buoy in what seemed like record time, I was feeling great, I just started to feel like I could push the pace. When I got to the buoy I was alone again, I looked behind me and saw lots of people so I must have passed a bunch on that stretch. When I turned I just started swimming without sighting much. It was actually very hard to sight because the swells were big and they blocked your view of the buoy’s and horizon line. I just kept swimming.

Then the oddest thing happened, my finger tips started to get numb. Then the swim started to suck. Not because my fingers were numb, but because I stopped a few times to look around and didn’t see anyone, or anything. No swim caps, no boats, no buoy’s. I looked to the shore and could see 3 hotels but with the glare couldn’t tell which one to swim to. Only one thing to do, swim more. A few minutes later a guy came zooming up on his jetski and yelled that I was way off course, and to swim more to my right. So that’s what I did, until he came back again and told me I was off course again. This happened 2 more times and it didn’t seem like I was getting any closer to shore. I was still calm but I was pissed because I was having such a good swim and now the rip current was taking me away from the swim exit.

By the time I got out of the surf I was about 1/3 of a mile down the beach – and not the only one. So I trucked it up the beach and into the swim exit chute to record a 44:59 time. I firmly believe that I had a 35 minute 1.2 mile swim if I hadn’t gone off course. Later on I found out most people complained about a 8-10 minute deficit because they went off course. That was frustrating but I just went right into transition and put my stuff on for the bike. Final thoughts on the swim: Perfect. Calm, easy, relaxed. It couldn’t have gone better.

I started on the bike in the small chain ring, nice and easy. I didn’t put it into the big ring until about 15 minutes into it, after I downed a bar and some Gatorade. Then the plan was to just push until I had a nice mild burn in my legs, and keep that pace. At first I got passed by a few people, and I didn’t really see many people on the road, but about 5 miles into it I started to see the pro’s coming back and after I put it into the big ring I started to pass tons of people. My wave was the 2nd to last wave, so I had the whole field in front of me. I would have to say I didn’t experience any blatant drafters and very few blockers. I saw at least 4 people go down, not sure how, but suck none the less. The bike was pretty much uneventful, without my speedometer I didn’t know how far I was until I hit the aid stations, but I had a general idea since I had ridden the course a month or so ago. It was nice, I just focused on my body and my breathing and let it tell me the pace. At the turn around Carl was right there and took some great pictures, he managed to drive his car out there in time!

After the turn around I decided to pick up the pace just a little bit. I felt good and figured I could push it a bit more. One thing that sucked though, I had a hard time positioning myself to work my quads. My hamstrings did a lot of the work and I really felt it on the run later. By the time transition rolled around, my crotch was hurting as it usually does, I think I need a different seat. So I was glad to be off my bike, and without knowing my time (I did guesstimate I did under 3 hours), I had no expectations for the run, no time to make up or whatever…no pressure. So far the day was going wonderfully. I remembered hearing that there were people with sun block going out of transition, so I kept yelling, “where’s the sun block?!” and the first three people said, “Right out of transition…”, but when I got to the exit, I said, is there sunblockers here? They volunteers didn’t have a clue what I was talking about. Oh well, a little sun never hurt anyone right?

Onto the run my legs were stiff and my hams were talking, but nothing unusual. What sucked was the aid stations were set not on the mile markers, but a little after them. Not only that but there were painted numbers for mile markers on the roads, but they weren’t accurate, you had to look for white signs that marked the miles. This was ok in the beginning, but when you’re borderline delirious at the end of the race, you can’t differentiate from painted, aid station, and white sign. Got a bit confusing in the final miles.

Here was the plan: Take the run 1 mile at a time. Use each aid station as a walking point, and just concentrate on getting to the next aid station. That worked immensely wonderfully in the beginning. The first 8 miles went by so well, the first two I was running too fast as I started to chat it up with faster runners and trying to keep up with them. I realized this and backed off to a very easy run. Things turned very comfortable, all my heat training paid off as I was completely comfortable in the 102 heat indexed weather. Going out there was a nice ocean breeze, but that didn’t stop me from getting ice sponges and such and putting them on my head. Each aid station I downed a gel with caffeine and some water.

I kept thinking, “My what a beautiful day! It’s so nice to be out here!” that’s how awesome this race was going for me. Some of the course runs through the neighborhoods and people were out spraying athletes, I welcomed the temporary spray each time…and would prove to be my downfall. I forgot that at my last half marathon I let people spray me, and my shoes got wet, which caused massive blisters, which ruined my race. It’s been awhile since I raced so I forgot, I won’t forget this time though. Mile 9 was when they started to become a problem. I also started to get a side stitch, but I would breath in really deep to stretch my diaphragm and it would go away, then come back periodically. Mile 9 was the deadzone though. Once my blisters started to really bother me, the side stitch joined the party and didn’t go away until I finished the race. Every breath out was pain. Every foot fall (blisters on both feet) was pain.

I can tell you what caffeine did for me. It didn’t make me run faster, but it kept my mind going very strong and fast, which kept me from having lots of negative thoughts. When I get tired I tend to get negative, so even though my body was breaking down, my mind was working for me. My traps and lats and shoulders were also starting to lock up, but I kept using positive reinforcement:

I’m a machine
I’m an animal
There is no pain
I’m nearly there

I just tried to focus on other things. Now let me tell you, when the race was a mile per mile breakdown, when I was just going for each aid station, I was really enjoying myself. But when the pain started my subconscious started to work against me:

You have FOUR miles to go! FOUR MILES!
That aid station took longer to get to then the last 8
The red number says mile 10!
That white sign says Mile 10! (4 minutes later)
You still have 3 miles to go. Over a half hour!
You need to walk more

At this point I started to break down mentally. Oh how I wanted to walk. My mind finally won over as I saw more and more people walking…so I started walking longer through the aid stations, and usually about half way to the next one I’d walk for a minute or two. Thing is, my mind kept telling me, ‘Faster you get done, the less pain you have to go through” and I’d start running again.

Survival, I’d gone through the whole race, and had 1.1 miles left to go, and I had to prove to myself that I had what it took. I looked at my watch and it read 6:18. I had 12 minutes to beat 6:30. I would not walk that last 1.1 miles. So I started to jog – I would not jog that last 1.1 miles. So I started to run. The pain in my feet went away pretty quickly because there was just too much of it to register. I knew I had crossed the line: If I stopped now, I wouldn’t be able to get back up. My body screamed for me to stop, but I just kept saying, “F$%k you, F$%k you, I’m going to do this and finish it strong!”

As I neared the half way mark, people started lining the streets and yelling that I was almost there. This was the most painful part of it. I knew I wasn’t that close, I still have a 4-5 minutes to go, but they’re ‘almost there’ comments worked against me as my mind started telling my body to stop. When I rounded the corner and had less then ¼ of a mile to go, I was crying a bit because I knew I was going to finish, but my breathing and pain kept me from really sticking to any one emotion for a fraction of a second. It was just a cycle. Happy, elated, painful, tired, push on.

Carl was waiting at that corner and he started to run with me. By this time I was wheezing with some sticky drool coming out of my nose and mouth. He knew I was in bad shape but I was so close! He just kept talking to me and I kept looking for the finish line. I was numb by then. My seconds were numbered. I don’t know when Carl stopped running with me, he pointed out the finish line and when I saw it I kicked the last amount of strength I had. I was breathing so hard and wheezing so loud people were turning around from conversations to watch me go by.

Jerry announced my name and told the crowd I had just finished my first Half Ironman (I know Jerry), and the next thing I remember is looking at my watch: 6:35, I missed it by 5 minutes…which meant that when I thought I was running fast, I was actually running about a 14 minute mile. There were two volunteers to hold me up…I didn’t think I needed them but I felt myself putting more and more weight on them. They stuck a water in my face, and I downed the whole thing, one of them asked if I wanted to go to medical and I nodded my head. As they started to take me there, I noticed the guy with the finishers medals….I stopped and they looked at me. I still couldn’t really talk so I just pointed to the guy, and they both laughed. “You definitely gotta get that!” They put one over my head and lead me to the Med Tent.

I was in there for about 5 minutes and a lady came over and asked to take my HR, she asked me what my resting was and I said about 58. My HR was still 120 when she took it, so she put an IV in me. I looked to my right and a lady named Carolyn was sitting there with an IV, looking totally out of it. She was totally sluggish and non responsive. I took off my sneakers, socks…and laid there while the juice went into my veins. After 4 IV bags, Carolyn was starting to get back to normal, what an amazing transformation! She walked out before I did, my walk to my hotel room was very painful, I was bold legged, my feet were killing me…but I was a happy camper. I went back to the room, showered and took a nap in preparation for the post race party in which I ate 4 racks of ribs. mmMMMmmm good!

I would like to thank all of the med tent people, the awesome volunteers, the race directors and everyone that had a hand in creating a day that was available for me to torture myself for six and a half hours. I thoroughly enjoyed this race and will definitely do it again next year.

Things learned:
I think I might enjoy racing Olympic distance competitively. Some of you may know that my quest for the past 2 years was to do all the distances and figure out which one was most suited for me to compete in. My Olympic last year sucked because I was under prepared and my error on the run cost me big time. But the way I felt on race day this time was like I could have done an Olympic with no problem.
I couldn’t do an Ironman right now and finish it. Simple as that. I thought I might be able to a few weeks ago, but no way now. Nice wake up call.

Don’t get your shoes wet. In the Ironman I’m going to bring a pair of dry socks with me on the run and change them after the first 13.1 loop.

Since the swim will be the same thing at my Ironman, I’m going to do what the pros did after the second turn, and aim my body for the swim START, so the current will take me to the swim FINISH instead of 1/3 of a mile down the beach.

The focusing, visualizing…it all helped tremendously. I’m going to do this more frequently to aid in race and training performance.

No broccoli before a race.

That’s all I can think of major right now. I’ll add to this list of things learned in a few days.

Thanks everyone for reading, it was an amazing day and I’m very happy with it. Today (2 days later) I’m like a diesel truck…takes me awhile to get going, but once I start walking I’m ok.

Jed

I havn't quite left yet as you can see. Shortly though:

I spoke with Christy and she was busy before the concert and wouldn't be able to do anything after because she's got homework, i told her i couldn't make it (sadly so) but it all seemed to work out. I told her i'd call her on Saturday after the race. Gotta call mom too, it's mothers day!

I just went to the Cozy Cat Cafe and got a quadrulple shot of espresso mixed with enough coffee to fill a water bottle. That'll be my morning fix the day of the race.

Also did a bunch of visualization, listened to some good tunes...building the confidence. Thats what this whole past two weeks has been, feeding the confidence that i can ocmplete this race strong.

Tomorrow's swim should top it off.

The plan on Friday night:

9 pm, bed

3:30 am breakfast, back to bed

5:30 am, shower, shave, get ready

6:30 am transition set up, focus, visualize

7:30 race.

Breakfast consists of 1.5 cups of oatmeal with 1 teaspoon of brown sugar, 2 bananas, 1 bottle water.

Then between 5:30 am and 7:30 go through 2 more botltles of water and 1 gel

or course once the day gets rolling theres no telling how well i'll be able to stick to teh plan.

Change in plan: We're leaving tonight. Which means i'm going to miss Christy's concert. sheizer! I hopefully will get to see her for an hour before i leave though.

Ok, mind on teh race, mind on the race!

I leave at 5:45 pm to head up to Panama City. I'll be out and about tomorrow and will hopefully be connected to report and to check email. Till then, see ya at the finishline!

Signs of excitability:

Yawning constantly
the need to stretch every 4 minutes
sweating
unableness to stay in one spot for 3 minutes
total lack of focus
irritability

Well i found out i'm not dead last last year! i came in 437 out of 468 athletes! lol. M 20-24 age group according to the USAT rankings. not bad for only 3 races i guess.

Am i nervous? Nah. I'm i excited as hell? yea. I'm sweating like a cup of ice in a hot room. No matter how much Degree i have on, my shirt is just soaked. heh. I was supposed to take today off but i think i still might go hit the pool just to test out the Swedes one more time, and also my new skinsuit i had ordered. My old one is ratty.

Today i wanted to hit the pool to put my stroke into concrete, also to have Christophe takea look at my stroke one final time. But alas, life intervened, and osmoene fell into the pool and bled into it, so they had to shock it and close it till tomorrow afternoon. Instead i bought some Swedes (swedish goggles that don't use rubber but finely crafted plastic to make a perfect seal over your eye. Very simple, inexpensive, very comfy and cool too), went to the lake and started swimming. The Swedes worked like a charm, and my stroke was good. ANother thing was in the dark open water i didn't get ANY anxiety, iw as comfortabel right from the first stroke. More confidence for the race.

On the down side, i went for a 15 minute tempo run after in my flats and my left calf got tweaked. So that made the decision for me, going to use the trainers for the race. Tomorrow i don't do anything, then friday i'll do another open water swim after i arrive in Panama City, and maybe a short run.

Tomorrow night i'm going to see Christy perform at a concert, that'll be cool, then afterward we'll hang out before i have to go to bed...then get up at 6 am to start the drive to panama city.

I don't feel that nervous, but my sense of what day it is, is all messed up. I keep thinking it's thursday...and i'm also starting to get zits, a clear sign of nervousness considering i have a great complexion to start out with. So far i've got 2 painful ones on my forehead and upper lip. Who knows how many more i'll get before race day. heheh. Pretty soon i'll look like Acne Annie from the Garbage Pail kids (anyone remember them?)

Hit the pool yesterday, practiced the new improved stroke. It came pretty naturally, and i practiced different speeds. I think i found a comfortable speed...the only thing i'm worried about is my bike fit. My current set up uses my lats to hold up my upper body, if i come out of the water with sore lats, and then further tax them on the bike, then my run will be horrid.

I'm actually considering riding without shades. I've found that the shades i have...they make my head go up because the top part of the shades get in the way of my vision. With my head down, my body relaxes, and it takes a lot of pressure off my lats. Unless of course i find a pair of sunglasses that has no top cross piece.

I don't feel like being here today. I'm a bit tired, and my lats are pretty tweaked from my new swim stroke. I'm going to use my old oen in the race, but it's nice to know i'm going to start improving again once the Half IM is done.

I decided the ride this morning would be to hard and fast to be so close to the race, so i didn't do it. I may not get my ride in today either because the truck to go up to Panama is being packed tonight and my bike has to go with it. I will hit the pool however, and maybe do another short run.

I talked with Christy yesterday and found out she's performing in a concert at her school on Thursday, so i'm going to go and watch. Plus Thursday night is the last night i'll get to see her until monday, so it'll be good to go and watch, hang out a bit afterward, then sleep.

Today was a good day: I ran 3.2 miles, i was going to run 6 but itw as so hot outside, it just didn't seem worth it. I'll do another semi long run later in the week at afternoon/night time when it's cooler. It's been in the high 90's here. I also biked to the training center, did a swim with Christophe who showed me a few new things i need to work on in my technique, but otherwise he said my stoke was excellent. Biked home and went to see Christy.

God, she's so great. Her face lights right up when she sees me, and vica versa. It's just really nice to see her. This week she's all booked up, but on Thursday she's got a cocnert at school i'm going to go see, and that will be the last time i see her until Sunday night or Monday.

I'm debating whether or not to go on the 'tuesday' ride, which would be 50-60 miles at a decent pace. I'm sure i'd be recovered before saturday, just not sure if it'd be worth it. I know Christophe is going, maybe if he's going to cut it short i'll go. He also said i had really good form and control on the bike, that i was an intelligent biker (my shifting habbits). He's a pro, so i'll take that to heart. Just boosting my confidence that i'm going to have a good race this coming Saturday.

If i don't go on the 'ride' i'll ride anyway, also i'm going to hit the pool again tomorrow night.

6 Days and counting. I'm starting to get a little nervous, but nothing serious. Not nervous about the race, nervous i'll forget something. I've never raced so far from home before, and never raced out of a hotel, so i'm bringing all my fuel, breakfast foods, etc. so nothing has to change. I've got a list running so i've got a head start.

Two revalations: I'm probably NOT going to use my flats in the race. I havn't done more then 3.5 miles in them at any one time, and i'd have to go through my half marathon woes again where i ran with new shoes to mile 7, then started to get bad blisters which ruined my race (2 years ago).

Revelation number 2: No heart rate monitor, no speedometer on the bike. I'm going to put my mind inside my leg muscles and push as much as i feel comfortable, without regard to speed. Just going to race by feel. The only thing i'll have is a watch that i'll start at the beginning and stop at the end, this will allow me to generalize my splits on teh run only. And i also plan to walk every run aid station until i have fluid in me, then start running again, maybe a :30 break.

i had a long post, but of course i clicked the wrong button and messed it up. God i hate that.

The skinny:
Had a crappy morning
tuned up my bike
rode with a lady that was in town, 10/ran 2/7.5, swam. tough day, high intensity. felt great, really upped my confidence.

Friday's date: Went very well, very comfortable. Supposed to see her Sunday.

going to run 6 miles on my flats tomorrow, ran 2 today with no problems. felt good.

I havn't written in here in awhile huh? I thought i posted somethign on tuesday but i guess not.

Tuesday i went for a tempo ride, and came home early...10 minutes after i came home a massive storm rolled in and knocked a tree down in the front yard, causeieng a hole in the roof of our house. Nice. I saw the storm and thats why i came home early.

Wednesday i ran for half hour, it was humid as hell out so it was slow going.

Today i bought some new sneaks to run in, but that was it.

Tomorrow i go on a date.

Saturday is going to be a hard brick, the last one till the race. 2 hour ride, 1 hour run all at tempo hopefully.

Today i swam with a co-worker i've been trying to swim with for a coupel weeks. He's a great swimmer and gave me a couple helpful hints today, as well as told me my form is very good. We swam 2km with a mix of drills and speed work. It was a lot of fun and i can't wait till wednesday when we do it again. Tomorrow i'll ride and run. Not much else going on.

I"m in a pissy mood today. I got up late and have to go to work (where i'm at now) so i didn't get my ride in today. Add to that the fact that yesterday's run (even though i kept my HR down) was devastating to my left calf for some friggin reason, AND a girl i was supposed to go out with yesterday never called back...and you see that my weekend pretty much sucked.

I'm probably going to go for an easy 3 hour spin at 5, but i can't go very far away cause it gets dark around 7:30.

Just generally in a pissy mood. Woe is me.

Ran 10 miles this morning, i was hurting on the last couple miles, my achilles (both legs) are just totally wrecked. I did however, keep my HR below 150 the whole time with an avf of 146. I have no idea how i kept a 164 avg and 10 minute miles for 10 miles last time, because i was beat after this run. My avg mile was 11:40. Anyway i'm going to push my 5:30 Half IM goal to 6 hours. The run does concern me a little bit. Next week i'll go 11 or 12 miles as my last long run before Panama. Was going to do 12 today but at mile 5 i knew i was running out of gas.

Wednesday i went for a swim, and my neck hurt real bad, i ended up with 1800m before calling it quits for the week to let my crinked neck hav ea break. Yesterday i didn't do a damned thing, Viv was leaving and i was starving from mal nutrition that day...so i ate and just hung out at the house instead of doing my tempo ride.

Today i'm going for a run, then tomorrow an 11 mile run with heart rate monitor, also i'm supposed to go out with a girl i met at Starbucks.

Speaking of Starbucks....
.

Each day i go in there, usually the same girl makes my coffee -

Tall hot coffee, poured over ice in a Venti cup with 3 shots of vanilla

It's not that hard

1.50 total each day

Then some new idiot gets in there and they first look at me like i'm stupid, asking for a tall in a Venti, but if i just ask for a venti they charge me for teh Venti.

SO ANYWAY, after taking 5 minutes to explain this difficult surgical procedure, the girl makes it, then starts shooting the price guide with her gun like she's trying to kill a rapist.

*BEEP!*
*BEEP!*
*BEEP!*
*BEEP!*
*BEEP!**BEEP!*
*BEEP!**BEEP!**BEEP!**BEEP!**BEEP!**BEEP!*

"That'll be $6.74"

I stare at her for a second and hope that the absurd price sinks in. She's still staring at me, awaiting my money.

"Um...thats a pretty high price"

"Yeah," she says.
She's still staring at me.

*sigh*

"It's TOO high, i got a regular coffee, even if i bought 3 of them, it wouldn't come to $6.74"

She looks at the register as if the numbers will explain my plight. She just hits "CASH" and starts over.

*BEEP*
*BEEP*
*BEEP*

"Woa stop!" i say. "You should only have to shoot 2 items, i get a coffee here every day."

"Well you got two shots of vanilla"

For christs sake i'm thinking, this girl doens't know that each .30 'shot' accounts for THREE squirts!

"$2.14"

I just want to get this over with.

I hand her the money and just went about my business.

Today was a pretty good day, what started out as a 'i'm tired, i dont' feel like doing anything' turned out to be a very excellent bike ride. Vivian is here from France with his girlfriend, and we decided we'd go fora ride today around 4. He's tapering for St Anthony's race, but he was a trooper today let me tell you. He arrived late for our ride appointment by about an hour, i was sitting on the couch, slowly falling asleep as my body started to hibernate. Once he arrived i didn't even want to go, but i didn't want to let him down so off we went. The plan: Go easy around the lake once, then hammer for an hour.

First off, Vivian is extremely comfortable on his bike, and has great handling skills. I asked him about it and he said he's been riding his bike since he was 15, and he went through all kinds of cycling drills as a kid, like having to pick up standing bottles while riding and weave through cones. When we were riding, and he'd pull up next to me we were almost touching elbows, and we were both perfectly comfy with that. Most of the triathletes i ride with are jittery, either they don't trust me or i don't trust them. Itw as nice to ride with a confident rider.

Also, he knew when to pull and when to let me pull. There is a stretch of road thats about 1/2 mile long and it inclines quite a bit - and there is ALWAYS a head wind coming down this part of the road. This stretch is my favorite because it really burns my legs as i try to keep over 19 mph up it. The first time around Viv was in front and he pulled the whole way up, then on the subsequent 3 loops i ended up in front because i didn't want him to burn out before the race. It was quite a challenge, and to top it off, while i was riding a red mustang pulled up beside me on the hill and yelled, "Cmon! C'mon! Show me what you've got!" so i obliged and accelerated to 28 mph before i burned out, right at the top of the hill. IT was cool, she screamed, pumped her arms like i had just won the TdF and drove off. I couldn't help but laugh. :And the best thing is, my legs recovered quickly and i didn't really feel the effects of the acceleration.

ANyway it was a great ride, we kept the pace up pretty good, and drafting after a long hard pull intot he wind was a nice relief. Makes me miss training with people, but it's rare i find someone i can actually train with who i'm confident won't kill me hehhe.

Yesterday i ran 3 miles (33 minutes) nice and easy, except for the last 1/4 mile. I tempo'd that part, but running on the track all by myself was nice. I was able to zone out pretty good and just crank out the laps.

After that i planned on a 3km swim in the pool, so i walked up and changed. As soon as i hit the water and did my 100m warm up i knew i wasn't going to make it 3k. My shoulders and upper back are still weak from the weekend, so i decided to just do my first set of 5x200 and call it a day. Something happened in the middle of the workout though that was profound.

I analyzed my stroke as i was swimming and realized my hips weren't rotating that well with my body. I kept trying to turn them but it was taking lots of strength in my shoulders to flick my hips into position.

"This can't be right, i'm using way too much energy to get myself in the hydro-dynamic 'skating' position"

Then i remembered what a good friend of mine who's a swimmer said to me a long time ago. "Turn your hips, and everything else falls into place."

So i started leading with my hips instead of my torso. What a difference. As soon as i rolled my hips, i didn't even have to use any effort, my whole torso just rolled with them. What a great feeling, suddenly i felt like i was using so much less energy but swimming the same speed. I kept this up for awhile and of course my lower back and abs began to tire from being used, so i called it a day at about 1200m to ease into the new technique.

This is really good, when i'm in the open water i'll just keep reminding myself, 'lead with the hips' and that should see me through the swim with little problem.

Now that i've had the time to reflect on this weekend, here's the full weekend report:

Friday 3pm
I left work to go pack my stuff and get ready go leave at 4. I used the race checklist from www.twothirds.com and managed to get everything i needed. I didn't forget anything. I got in the car at about 4:15 and headed south.

Before i left, i put some oil in my engine...and forgot to put the oil cap back on. Nice.

Half way to Sheldons i looked at my oil pressure and it was low...too low. Then it hit me, "Did i forget to put the oil cap back on??" I stopped on the side of the road to check. Yep, not only was it off, but it was gone, and oil was all over my whole engine. Very nice. I had some quarts of oil in my trunk so i put a quart in to get me to a rest stop.

The rest stop doesn't sell oil caps, but 30 miles to the next exit, and i'm told that there's an autozone shortly after the exit. Nothing left to do but go to the next exit, so after getting a coffee at Starbucks, i rode to the next exit and got off.

Autozone didn't have my cap, so they called Discount Autoparts which was a little bit further down the road and they had ONE.

I went and bought it, got back on the road and ended up at Sheldon's at 8 pm. When i got there i was greeted like i was the president of the US, and treated as such too. Let me tell you if Sheldon and his wife Lucy ever opened up a hotel, it'd be a 5 star hotel where celebreties would rave about. They were the greatest hosts ever!

I ate a bunch of rice and bread, and headed to bed. I've already written about the details of the swim and bike and run but there's some stuff i left out.

Sheldon got Sea Lice on the swim, and that's why our swim was cut short. He was swimming in shallower water and iw as deeper, so i was lucky not to get any. Later the next day he would be all swollen and red under both arms and on the back of his neck. Poor guy.

BUT there is some very good revalation for the swim. I'm confident now, and know to take it nice and easy till my HR (from anxiety) slows down, and then i can push it pretty good. It's all about finding that rhythm first and foremost, THEN i'll be ok to do what i need to do to get a good swim time.

The bike was flat and uneventful, i don't need much confidence there, though it was flat as usual and my hamstrings were very tight on the run. And i can't wait to get out of this aggressive aero position, it kills my neck. After the race i'm going to get professionally fit at the training center, something much more comfy for the ironman.

Oh yeah, and i almost forgot, on my way home i stopped at a rest stop to gas up and get something to eat. While i was eating some deuche hit my car and smashed in the whole rear driver quarter panel. No car next to me when i came back, no note, nothing. if it was a new car i'd have flipped out, but my old beater...still pisses me off a bit. It's not like parking is that hard, how do you ram into someones ass end like that?

Anyway i know where i wnat to be for the race, so i think i'll do well. I'm going to run every day this week as well as swim and bike. I havn't posted a new banner in a couple weeks but i'll post one tonight if i get the chance.

What a day. When i get more time i'll give details, but here's teh skinny:
Total Time 4:40

Swim .9 miles in the ocean. This was terrific. I started to get my anxiety but after about 5 minutes i was fine. I even sped up a bit. But it was tough...my first ocean swim and we swam with the shore. I was rocked like a cradle the whole time, and towards the end , being rocked left, watching the sand on the bottom go right: I started to get sea sick. Also i swallowed a bunch of seawater. BLECH! Overall i was comfy though, and had a great swim.

Bike 47 miles

Ran 7.5 miles

On the bike i started out fast, HR > 160. But i knew that would be a mistake and backed it off, keeping it at around 150 the rest of the ride. Met up with Mark and Juan on the way, got to talk to them a bit. The roads down here are nice and flat, and the view of the ocean is just breathtaking. All the blue's and greens....a great day.

On the run i started out at 166 HR and had a hard time dropping it to 150. But i slowed till i was at 150 and cruised slowly into a new world of pain. At first i was hurting, that first mile you know? But then i got comfy. Well i didn't bring enough hydration for the planned 8.5 mile run, and ran out after about an hour and fifteen minutes. That sucked because i got hungry and couldn't down a gel with no liquid. I was hating life and knew i had about 3 miles to go, but the sun came out (after it rained) and the humidity shot up, and with it my HR shot up too. I had to start taking walk breaks when my HR creeped passed 160. My hamstrings were also very tight...i was getting tired. Without hydration or gels my condition was deteriorating fast. Finally i gave in and called Sheldon on his cell (He'd already finished because he's a beast. He was already in his car looking for me and picked me up about 1.3 miles from the house. I downed a whole bottle of water and we later ate a huge chicken and potatoe dinner. MMmMMM good.

The facts:
How do i know i was depleting, and my performance rested on dehydration? I lost 9 pounds in 4 hours and 40 minutes. Yep, i was in sad shape. I gained 4 of it back already, but shit. You can't put yourself ona diet that loses 9 pounds in 5 hours! heheheh. I should sell triathlon as a weight loss 'product'

"Come with me on a tour of Boynton Beach, and if you survive, you'll lose 10 pounds, GUARANTEED!"

Anyway, it was a tough day, but i'm recovering well, my back was tight during the run, but i think if i have a good 45 minute swim, 19mph avg on the bike and 11 minute miles on the course, i can get what i want to get done at the Half in a few weeks. For the next couple weeks i'm going to run every day, some ez some tempo. And that ocean swim was what i needed for my swim confidence. I'm ready to go!

I think since the swim is a reverse triangle where you go out passed the breakers and then swim with the shore then back in, i'll have a better swim because most of it will be in slightly calmer water, where i can really do some pulling and focus on my form. when you're getting beat up by waves it's hard to focus on your form.

Just when i thought i'd go for a ride today, i went otu to get subway for lunch and when i got back my sinuses were moving mass amount of liquid through my head at such a pace that i had to shut myeyes and let them water for a minute before i could open them again. I swear 500 pounds of snot is moving around my skull right now. :( :( :(

I feel like total crap. What i thought was the flu a few days ago, has turned into a nice head cold. I'm hot, sweating, nose wont' stop running. Ugh. I'm going home soon to rest. So much for my swim/run today but i want to be rested up for the "mock" Half IM this weekend with Sheldon.

I got a big evaluation at the NTC today, and i'll post the results here:

Now it's a bit worse then i thought, but it's definitely giving me somewhere to go for november.


I'll get an evaluation done every 5 weeks to see how i'm doing from now on till the Ironman. I think with the ideal weight being 206, it's pretty much guaranteed i'll be clyde all the time, and if that's so, i'll actually compete in the clyde championships next year.

I'm having a hard time uploading the image, i'll do it when i get home a bit later

NTC:
Today i managed to get Barb from work into the pool with me. Today's not a swim day, but i'm itchin to train with people, getting kinda lonely. So we went to the NTC to do 3k. I saw Sheila Taormina there, (kick ass triathlete, olympic gold medalist) who i also saw at our GCT race. She's working there i think, i know she just bought a house, but anyway thats the boring stuff. WHats cool is the fact that she's super cool. Smiley, chatty, bright. She's just an inspiration, i always thought the top was cold and lonely, she changes that view.

Sheila: "You mind if i jump in here?"
: thinking to myself...uh....uhhhhhh.mmmmm: "Jump in!"

She jumps in, laps me a few times and moves on to an open lane. Who could blame her? heheh.

Anyway, i ended up with 1.8k in the pool and 3 miles running on the new track. Kept my pace slow, i'm still recovering from Sunday believe it or not.


And i had this big old moving dramatic writing i was going to put here about how 85% of society repulses me completely. When i see shows like "Married by America" and the new one "Mr. Personality" i just find that i have nothing in common with people who watch those shows. I have better things to do then drone on and make pretend...live vicariously through characters on TV and use my godlike powers to 'vote' them off a show. Ever notice that 90% of each one of those shows is not about advancing, but about LOSING? WHO"S VOTED OFF? WHO"S THE LOSER? WHO SUCKS? WHO GOES HOME?

Why is this girl so lonely? WHy do these dudes wear masks that make them look like the joker? it's a fuckin farce! Can you believe it? These guys have these multi colored masks and actually went through with the show! All i can think of is the movie "The Mask" but it's real! Thats what makes my dinner turn in my stomach and make me want to puke all over the creators of such shows. Lets make money humiliating people. "Oh," you say, "but they chose to be on the show in the first place!"

Yer right, they're fools too. Married by America?

Christ, i'm no fan of marriage, but it's supposed to be sacred and i just cringe at anyone who says they need to be married by 30, have kids by 30...etc...putting a time limit on such MONUMENTAL things as kids and marriage.

You know when i'm gonna get married? When i meet a girl i feel like spending the rest of my life with. I'm not buying an almond joy here, i'm making a gigantic commitement.

You know when i'm gonna have kids? When i feel ready for that. 5 years, 10 years, never? I tell you what, i'll have kids when i can go into a bike shop, prepare to buy some new zipp wheels for my bike, gget a call from the wife saying "Billy" needs some new sneakers and school clothes...and have NOT ONE DOUBT in my mind. SImply put the zipps back and use the money for my child. NO DOUBT. Thats when i'm ready for father hood. If eveyrone thought like me, the world would populate 1/4 as much as it does.

Anyway....shit. These shows piss me off. The only show worth glimpsing at is American Idol, and thats only because these young people are putting their hearts out in a competition. This married showbiz crap is just a steaming pile of dung waiting to be shoveled into a hole. Bachelorette, Joe Millionare....farce. Nothing was accomplished by airing those shows, except a bunch of relatively intelligent people made tons of cash from ratings.

I don't think the Matrix was that far off when one of the characters said, "Humans are like a virus. We consume everything in our grasp."

We consume land and sky
We consume natural resources
We consume each other

All in the name of entertainment. How pathetic.

Well i'm done ranting for tonight, it just makes me feel lonely that so much of the country i live in (which i love dearly) i have very little in common with (when it comes to entertainment)

I don't like lipstick
I hate makeup
I love girls in baseball caps

And under no circumstances will i have a priest or church anywhere near my wedding.

Print that on a ticket, put it out there for single women to see........and just wait around, because there aren't that many people in the eddy's, they're too caught up in the stream.

First Post "From the NTC"

Blogger introduced a neat tool a few months ago called AudioBlogger. I've been keenly interested in this but didn't really see how it would be fun, until now.

Here's how it works: I call my blog on the phone, i talk into my phone and it records 2 minutes. When i hang up the phone it turns it into an mp3 and posts it immediately on my blog so you can click on it. I think this will be really cool for teh Ironman, i'll be able to 'check' in with you all on my progress throughout the race. I definitely want to have it for the finish, hold it up and soak in 2 minutes worth of celebration. It'll definitely be unique. I'm in the free trial right now and will be doing my first call tonight.

How cool would that be? Not only could my readers follow my progress on Ironmanlive.com but they can refresh my blog and get audio of me on the course? i think it'll be more likely that i'd make the calls on the run instead of the bike but we'll see.

Well i wanted to know what a 10 mile run at 160 HR meant...and i found out today. It means W A L L.

For those of you who don't know what the wall is, the only way to describe it is muscular shut down, on all levels. I hit it once last year while on a group ride and had tos top, and i just hit it today, with 15 miles to go till home. It all started when i got about 20 miles out, and the water/bar/gel thing wasn't working and i vomited some of it up at 20 mph. I didn't feel bad, it just came up and i let it go. Got some on my shoulder. But anyway i think it had something to do with the tap water iw as using, instead of filtered water.

Then my shoulders/lats started to feel weak, with 15 miles to go straight home (i planned a few trips around the lake) i just hit the wall...and hard. My stomach felt like crap, my lats wouldn't support my weight on the aerobars, and i couldn't keep a constant cadence, my legs just turned to rubber. That was it, i was done...but i still had to continue on. I thought about calling Dave to come pick me up but i might as well bask in my misery, so i don't ever forget this:

Doing a long run at AT pace, is not what you do before a long ride at AT pace. I was going fast ont he bike, i can't help it. My avg was 18 mph on the way out, and faster on the way back before i hit the wall. I needed to keep it much slower then that, but it's hard for me on the bike to go slow. I need to concentrate on my pacing more. Both on the run and bike.

Now i'm sitting in front of my computer and i feel like passing out and sleeping for a day. My legs and shoudlers are totally trashed.

Lesson learned.

What're you doing still reading my blog? Go rent it! then email me what you think.

I'm considreing this another off week...i didn't really do much this past week, but starting today things are changing. I did a 10 mile long run today, which is about 2.5 miles longer then i've been...i knew i could do it. I averaged about 10:35 per mile which is fine with me. I didn't really have any problems until the end, the last 3 miles were tough because most of it is inclined and my hip started hurting. Also the top iw as wearing i'm apparently allergic to because my back and chest started to itch real bad. Really annoying when you've still got 35 minutes to go. I"m happy with it though, makes me think i'll do 11 minute miles at the tri, also, i went out a bit to hard and slowed down some at the end, when i really want to start slow and do negative splits at the end ideally.

One hting though, my avg HR was 160 for 1:50 minutes! I'm just comfortable at that heart rate, not sure if thats bad or not. I'm thinking for my long run it should be more like 145 HR. ANother thing, after long bikes and runs, the top of my lungs feel raw, and makes me cough. I can't take a deep breath without coughing for at least 2 hours. I'm wondering if it's a form of exercise induced asthma (had it as a kid, then went away) or if my lungs are just soft and need some toughening.

Only time will tell. Tomorrow i'm going to do 70 hilly miles on my bike. Looking forward to it! Also i suggest anyone who knows anything about artistic film making, go and rent Moulin Rouge immediately. I"m going to watch it again for the 5th time tonight with a friend. No i'm not gay. But this movie is an amazing piece of artwork.

Yesterday i ran a very nice 5 miles in 52 minutes. I'm no longer worried about my run. Now the only thing left is confidence in the swim, and Sheldon and i are probably going to do a mock 1/2 IM at his place so i can get some open water swimming in. The mock tri should help me overall, and i'll be ready for this panama race! The fort DeSoto tri fell through, but no big deal. Today was cold and rainy so i didn't do anything, but tomorrow i should run. Then satuday i'm going for 10 miles. and 65-70 on the bike sunday.

Also, i found out i don't have to pay for a membership at the NTC because i work for CFT! So on monday i get my free membership and don't have to pay anything, thats 60 bucks a month! Sweet! one less bill i have to worry about, and an extra 60 a month i can put on getting myself out of debt.

I've uploaded last weeks training. Pretty pathetic, but i ahve an excuse. IT was an off week so i'm not too worried about it. Interesting to note that i did 28 hours total in february, and 42 in march. Hoping to hit 60 or so this month...

Also, Fred said he can get me into a sprint tri this weekend that's sold out. I want to do it to do the open water swim, get some confidence for my Half. Right now my confidence is pretty low. That'll be fun to do...i have good vibes if i do tihs race this weekend.

1:15 interval ride this afternoon. Pretty beat up from it. I did a 15 minute warm up, then

2 minute interval
5 rest
2 minute interval
5 rest
3 minute interval
5 rest
4 minute interval
5 rest
15 minute tempo
5 cool down.

THen tomorrow its 5 miles and a 1 hour semi tempo ride.

Oh yeah, i'm also not finding time to coach myself and i want to be really prepared for IMFL so i'm going to get coaching from www.ironcoach.com (jay crooker) who was living iwth me for a month. He's a cool guy and i'll see about having him coach me through IMFL.

I'm already geting nervous for my Half IM. it's 5 weeks out and i'm thinking "Will i have my nutrition dialed in?" "Will i be prepared for this race aerobically?" "Will i be in good enough shape to enjoy this race and push the pace?" "Should i drop my time goal and just go to finish?"

I know i can finish the thing.

Maybe i'm thinking this way because last week i didn't do much. My mental confidence is lacking. I went for a short run (2.2 in 20 minutes) as a warm up to my interval ride later today. i hope after the interval ride my confidence comes back. Not feeling dreaded, just unsure. I want to post a good time, i feel that i can push the pace and do well for myself, i can envision it...just not sure if that vision is accurate.

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.