Race Week

Well it is finally here.  My first triathlon of the year is Saturday.  I am super pumped.  Pumped to test the legs and lungs .Normally I don't have good luck with a race when I write about it but I will take that chance.  I get to go up and spend the night with my best friend and go over to the race site Saturday morning.  Do people still have "best" friends?  Well I do.  I have pretty much known this guy all 34 years of my life.  He raced with me last year but isn't going to be able to give it a go this year.  He hurt his knee.  You gotta watch out for those door jams.  His brother will be racing and he is who I am going after.  He got me last year but I am gunning for him this year. I thought for sure I was ahead of him last year only to pass him while he was on the back of an out and back run. 

Of course I have some goals for this race. Don't we have to? A wise man once said that if you don't aim at anything you will hit it everytime.  I don't have a true race goal.  I have a bike and run goal so to speak.  My bike goal is to average above 20 mph .  I know to some of you that isn't very lofty but baby steps first.  I averaged right at 19 mph in this race this year.  I have been pretty upset at some of my bike averages lately but only to find that my Garmin has been screwing up.  Apparently I am not the only one having this problem.  I spoke to Garmin about it and it seems that the 310xt has had it fair share.  I also don't want to get passed on the bike.  I want my run to be in the 8's.  That's it.  It could be an 8:59 average but that will work.  If I hit my run and bike goal the race will take care of itself. 

I found my way to the pool finally and didn't drown.  I am swimming at the pool at the university gym.  I have missed that place.  I can't say I went to the gym much while I was in school but just being on campus makes me miss everthing about it.  Also, swimming in that pool brings back the memories too.  I took a swim class in this pool last year and I honestly think I can still hear coach Mary yelling at me about my breathing.  She would always tell me to look out of the corner of my goggle to keep my head in the right position to breath.  I need to remember that along with long gliding strokes, catch the water, continue to kick, and everything else to remember while swimming.  I have actually been pretty happy with my swimming.  I know the week of the race is not the ideal time to start back swimming for the first time since October but it hasn't been that bad.  That has more to do with my overall fitness than anything. My plans do include to go to the pool a lot. 

Well my bike is all clean and ready, my clothes are all washed and ready and my bags are packed.  Am I ready?  Yes no make that a YES!  I am ready to push myself to achieve some results and have some fun along the way.  Having fun really does work.  If I can muster up a smile when I'm out there on the run struggling I seem to find another gear.  Hey, it seems to work for Chrissie Wellington and she seems to be doing ok.

Race report to follow after the fact. 

Back at It

There really hasn't been much working out lately with Jenn's surgery and all. But now she is much better and now I'm back at it. I did go ride the race course again on Saturday and it was somewhat better. I'm still having a problem with my heart rate jumping into overdrive within like 5 minutes of my ride but I finally think I have it figured out. I'm mashing on my pedals. I need to be working on smooth circles instead of what I have been doing. This will take some work or just me thinking about it while riding. One of the philosphies of "Chi Running" is to body sense or to be aware of what your body is doing. Well I will need to apply that to my bike and not mash on my pedals. Hey maybe I can write the book "Chi Cycling".

I was actually able to double up the workouts today. Yes I made my way to the pool today and had a good set. Now I just need to work on going back like 3 more times this week. It is in my plans. This has been my biggest struggle in preparing for my next triathlon. In my first one I stuck to my plan religiously but since I am not following a plan I have skipped out on the swim one too many times. This is all going to change (I think). I was also able to get in a 2 mile tempo run with a half mile warm up and a 3/4 mile cool down. After my walk to continue to cool down I decided to do another quarter mile speed session. I just felt like running fast. "Big Pimpin" was on my Ipod so what was I supposed to do. That is about it for me the past week.

Since that is all I have for a whole week I thought I would leave you with this poor guy.

While I can't take credit for finding this picture but what do you think was going through his mind. Where is his other shoe? With the time on the clock it couldn't have ben a long race. I just wonder what he ate or drank before his race to make him do that. Why didn't he kick off his other shoe? Caught up in the race I guess. Props to that guy!

I have been thinking alot about my triathlon lately and I am already getting nervous. Why? I don't know. I guess I'm nervous about my swim. Nervous about the bike course that I haven't mastered. Nervous about my Dad being there. I'm probably most nervous about that. Being the son of a football coach who still tries to prove himself to his Dad athletically just makes me nervous. Always has and always will. Speaking of my Dad. Happy Birthday Dad! 69 years old and still no grey hair. I'm sure lots of people are jealous.

Catching Up

It has really been a long time since my last post. I don't even remember where I left off. I do know that I had last weekend off and actually made it to the pool on Monday. I have really got to get back in there on a consistent basis. I can really tell that I haven't been. I still feel somewhat fluid in the pool but after a while my stroke starts to break down. I had a good workout and will be in there at least twice this week. Jenn and I also ran out on the Trace. To change things up we went to Epley and ran back towards Clyde. I swear before we left she said she was doing 3 miles so I head out at least to the 1.5 mile marker. She for some reason doesn't like me to run with her so I got out ahead of her. With no set plan I decided to do some strides in the middle of my run. 40 seconds normal running, 20 seconds of fast running. I did 4 minutes of those. They got to be really hard. When I turned around just past the 1.5 mile marker Jenn is nowhere to be found. She said she said 2.5 miles. Whatever. Guess I wasn't listening, again. After we ran Jenn mentioned how tough it was at the end and it is because you really don't notice it but you are going uphill heading into Epley. I think she had to make a few one minute promises to finish. I love it.

Tuesday I went out the Trek the Trace put on by the Pine Belt Pacers. This week was a 2 man team total time contest. Jenn wasn't feeling well so I didn't have a partner. I was given a partner, Vicky Copeland. We were talking and she asked me if I wanted to pace at 8 minute miles. I told sure she could but she would have to wait for me at the finish line. We decided on 9 minute miles or 18 minutes for the race. We started out good and I thought we were pacing just fine but I could feel us fading just a bit at the end. It was good to see her double stride for my one stride but I am not saying anything bad because she is a much better runner than I am. I thought we might need to pick it up some but didn't say anything. Anyway, we finished at 18:18. Not too bad. I am just glad that 9 minute miles is now somewhat of a comfortable pace for me. I will take it.



Wednesday I decided to ride my bike. It had been almost 3 weeks since I have ridden. I have been having a problem with my heartrate going sky high on the bike so I decided to not to take a heart rate monitor or watch. No goal in place but to just ride. I rode out to Epley and made my way back. Also, guess who I saw just as I was getting started. Yep. The old man in sunglasses. Every time. While on the bike I was actually thinking about running. Normally this would never happen. I guess my somewhat recent success running has me wanting to do it.



My new shoes came in on Thursday. I love them. They are so light. Only 9 oz. Not bad for not being a racing flat. I ran on the treadmill for 2.5 miles trying out the new shoes. Good as advertised.

I had my brick on Saturday. My goal was to warm up all the way to Clyde Station and then on to Sumrall and back to Jackson Rd for a transition run. Hopefully this way my heartrate won't get sky high with the longer warm up. So I set out and again guess who I see. Yep the old man. Anywas I logged 23 miles on the bike and a 2 mile transtition run. With the weather getting cooler I expected to see a ton of people out on the Trace. I didn't see as many as I thought I would. I saw a good bit of the normal people not it wasn't as busy as I thought it would be. I did see a deer too. It let me get almost right up to it before it ran off. I also saw my running partner from Tuesday but I don't think she noticed me. She looked at me like I had 2 heads. She was probably thinking who is that guy struggling so bad waving at me and why is sweating so much.


Sunday I had planned to ride out to my parents house on my bike. I decided against it and headed to the trace for a run. I wanted to get in 6 miles. I ran 6 miles right at 60 minutes. I didn't try any speed or anything out of the ordinary. I just wanted to run consistently. At the end I was really struggling though. I ran in my new shoes and I haven't broken them in all of the way so my lower legs were starting to hurt. It was a nice run even though it was really hot at that time of the day.

Also, my main man Jacob got a bike. Jenn went ahead and got his Christmas present in August so we had to hide it in the attic. I will have pics of it up on my next post. It won't be too long and he and I will be riding out on the trace. I can't wait!!

Out of town

So last week I was in Atlanta for most of the week and I didn't have any time to work out while there so I just took the whole week off. Meetings starting and 7 am and ending at 6pm it is pretty hard to find the time and on top of that dinner with the "team" every night. I haven't done this in a while and I have to say it was nice. The best thing about it is even with no working out and not watching what I ate I actually lost some weight. Also, I have to report that Jenn won the weight loss challenge. I did lose more weight but not as much of a percentage. Oh well, I hate admitting defeat but she won. I did lose weight which is good. I just need to continue to up until my triathlon in October. I am doing the Eagleman here in Hattiesburg put on by one of our local triathletes, Ben. I volunteered last year at this race and even though I didn't know what I was looking for it seemed to be a good race. I'm sure it will be good again this year. Ben wouldn't have it any other way. The good thing about this race is that it is a hometown race actually not too far from my parents house. I plan to do a lot of riding out there before the race and some running in the neighborhood. My neighborhood put in a 25 yard pool recently. How lucky is that. Not that they put in a pool but that they put in a 25 yarder. That gives me no excuse to not swim. The wellness center's pool is the same length. I will just miss out on all of the old ladies doing water aerobics. I hate that. Just kidding. I'm glad they are exercising. They do more than most.



I guess I don't have any exercise to report except for my last brick before I left. I didn't decide to even work out until 11 pm on Friday night. I'm glad I did. I had every reason not to go but I decided to tough it out and "harden" up. I got out there early and hit the road. From the beginning I knew this wasn't going to be a good bike. I was warming up and my heart rate was already sky high. That was probably due to the lack of sleep. I got through it and finished with about 20 miles on the bike. Pulling back into Jackson Road I had decided to not even try to run. The bike was so bad I knew that the run would be bad too. Knowing that I probably would not have time to exercise the upcoming week I decided to give it a go. When I started I made up my mind that I was going to make up the bad bike with a good run. Mental people it is all mental. What I seem to struggle with most in this sport of triathlon is the mental aspect. I have a hard time pushing myself. I was going to change this all in one day. I told myself at least 4 miles. The longest I had ever run off of the bike before this day was 3 miles. I know that is nothing to alot of people but it is alot to me. I know baby steps first. I read alot of these triathlon blogs and forums and I read about people starting triathlon with a running or biking background. I don't have that luxury. I guess my background could be golf or playstation but nothing to do with endurance. In no way am I saying that golf is easy but it definitely doesn't have anything to do with endurance. Also, I did play 3 sports in high school but triathlon uses a different kind of athleticism. I would say that it is more mental than athleticism anyway. Ok back to the run. I knocked out 4.5 miles in 38:30. I actually could have run more but had to go. I actually wanted to run more but just couldn't. I toughed it out mentally and physically. This is what people call in the endurance sports world a breakthrough. I call it a little bit of confidence and run with it. I know I live in awesome world.