And heeeere weeee...go!

S - don't wanna talk about it
B - 206.8 mi
R - 49.7 mi

Time - 17.13 hours

Well, it feels like a lot happened this week.  I was sad to leave California behind.  It seems as though it has gotten harder every time.  Not only is it a gorgeous place but there's a gorgeous person there as well!  Well, there's actually a ton of gorgeous people in Santa Barbara but only one that actually finds me somewhat entertaining.  I'll take what I can get! Especially when I'm outkicking my proverbial punt coverage!

After that bit of get-points-for-myself blurb moving along; my travels back from the west were tough to deal with.  My flight out of LAX was scheduled for 12:00pm ish on Monday, which is an awkward time as I had to travel from SB to LA (~2hr drive no traffic) and needed to be there well beforehand to drop off my rental car and check-in for my flight with two bags.  So, I left at 6:40 am or so.  The drive was fine until the 405, which apparently is always miserable.  But I made it with more than enough time as I totally overestimated how long it takes to drop off a rental car (never having rented one before), breezed through check in, and waltzed to my gate.

My first flight from LAX to PHX was uneventful and I made it to the airport and had about 3 hours of layover to kill.  I walked around a lot and eventually made my way back to my gate and found out I was sharing a flight with Alex Mcdonald and Justin Park; Alex I had spent camp with and Justin was returning home after racing at California 70.3 (formerly Oceanside 70.3).  It was good to sit in between two like minded guys for the four hour flight and much was discussed.  I was able to geek out about aero stuff with Justin (who wants to make better use of the 360 watts he pumped out over the bike leg at CA 70.3!)  and discuss the Hunger Games with Alex (who was just starting book 1).  Landing was smooth and bag pickup went well.  I got back to my van at about midnight or just after.  Now, for the three hour drive home...

I didn't get to sleep until a hair after 3am and then woke up for work shortly thereafter.  While this may seem like a short term effect on training, it actually ended up having week-long consequences.  I felt like I was having to catch up on sleep all week.  Not ideal.  I mixed in some good workouts (Tuesday IOS ride, Wednesday hard run) with some bad and started riding my tri bike in anticipation of the coming week's races.

This week will have some seriously hard efforts, mostly on the bike.  The plan is for Wednesday night to feature the first Lowe's 10mile TT of the year, Saturday morning Belews International (whose competition level has been growing steadily) and Sunday not one, but two bike races here in Charlotte.

This schedule is a bit intimidating but I think it's going to be a TON of fun.  The Lowe's TT's are always incredibly painful but I *think* that I'll be better served this year than last in my quest to set a record time.  I actually have the 25-29 AG course record but it is not too impressive so I'd like to lower it.  Belews is going to be a competitive race.  Of all the names on the list, Matt Wistoff's certainly stands out the most.  There are some other names that I don't recognize and it's important to remember that there's always an unknown or 8 that can beat you.  I certainly don't expect to win; I just want to have a solid race and, more specifically, a fast run.  If Tom and/or Kenneth aren't racing I'd like to have the fastest run split of the day.  Sunday will bring even more pain but hopefully no carnage.  I'm signed up to do the Cat 3/4 crit at 2:30ish pm (45 minutes) and the 2/3 crit (50mins) at 4:00 pm or so.  Needless to say, the second race is the real humdinger.  I think I should win or close to it in the first race but will be surprised if I finish with the pack in the second.

I always find it amusing when triathletes say that they're going to do a bike race as a "workout."  As if there is any other way?? They find solace in the fact that they broke away for a lap or two and got in some "good TT work" but then blew up and had nothing for the sprint.  That is a bad way to race.  Triathletes too often approach bike racing in an entirely inappropriate way.  The goal is to win.  Plain and simple.  Expend as few matches as possible to save the power for the five to ten seconds when you REALLY need it.  It's not a good race if you blow up, even if you were AWESOME and went off the front (and showed how bad of a bike races you are).  It's important to set your triathlete self aside and approach it in an entirely different way.  Use your strengths to your advantage.  If you don't have a sprint, make a go with 1 lap.  If you have a sprint, sit in and use it!

That's what makes bike racing so much fun; it's a chess match played out at 25mph.  Nobody has any idea who is going to take the W, which is very different from triathlon.  I have a pretty idea of the top 5 for men's and women's on Saturday, but I have no idea about Sunday.  I may very well be the strongest person in the 3/4 race but if I race like a moron it's not going to get me anywhere.

Anyway, if I ruffled your feathers, I'm not sorry.  Bike racing is totally different.  I'm no expert, but I know a LOT more about it than most triathletes.  So, I'll call myself an expert.  That's just the way it is.  Deal with it.

Sorry, I digress.  I'm just excited.  It's going to be a fast week.  I'm excited to race my first tri of the year.  I'm not nervous.  I'm going to have fun.  If I know you I'm going to try and yell at you.  If I yell at you then you had better go faster.  Or slap me in the face, depending on the context.

I am a lucky guy

S - twice
B - four or five times
R - four or five times

Time - 18ish hours

I'm approximating my training because I don't feel like opening Athleticore because it's being frustrating lately.  It's sort of amusing that going to a training camp ends up being a relatively low volume week for me.  I didn't run even close to as much as I've become accustomed to, I had a good bike ride or two and one very good track session but not a whole lot of "other" running, and a couple of very good swims.

My week began with a trip out west to California.  I left Charlotte at around 10am for the 2.5-3hr drive to Raleigh Durham International for my Southwest flight (to save on the bike check) at 3pm (I like to be early for flying).  The drive went smoothly and I arrived at the airport only to discover that my flight had been pushed back for an hour, meaning I'd miss my connection in Nashville.  The ticket agent said she had been "able" to get me on a flight that would "allow" me to arrive at LAX around 11pm.  That's great, except I'd still have a two hour drive to Santa Barbara.  Not awesome! I boarded the flight annoyed and frustrated but arrived in Nashville to discover they had held the flight for the 3-4 passengers on my flight (including myself) to make the connection! Now that was awesome and it totally made my day to that point (obviously).  The rest of my travels went well; I arrived in LAX along with both of my bags, picked up my rental car and drove to SB to arrive to a RIDICULOUSLY gorgeous house rented for the week around 10pm.  I was greeted by my favorite girl named Moose in the whole wide world and went in to meet everyone there for the FFT - PD training camp (that was still awake after a long day in the saddle).  Still up was Jay McCurdy (Rev3 series amateur winner past two seasons, also beat me at NOLA last year), Colin Riley (top 3 at BOUS and other big olympic races, beat me at BOUS last year...sensing a trend? haha), Alex McD (former pro triathlete whose legs were both broken by a truck's impact last year and is currently pursuing road cycling with a great deal of success), and probably more but I'm forgetting. Sleep came quickly after a long day.

Woke up in the morning with the joy of learning that the group would be doing a double brick workout today (warm up on bike, 20k tempo - 2k race pace run - 10k tempo - 4k race pace).  Since I generally find bricks to be disagreeable with my disposition I decided to just ride with them and not run.  It was a tough workout and everyone was riding really hard and fast.  I just kind of did my own thing but had a good time.  How could I not; I was in the prettiest place ever riding through one of its most expensive neighborhoods!! (Hope Ranch, Santa Barbara CA, look it up).  Later in the day everyone swam, but I don't remember specifics.

On Wednesday we did what is probably my favoite loop that I've yet done in Santa Barbara.  The ride starts downtown and heads north over the mountains and into Solvang (where the Tour of California's TT used to take place), which is a really cool little town (/tourist trap) and then back south along the coastline via the 101.  All in all it ended up being a hair over 80 miles and a great day for riding.  I tried to ride as much as possible with Moose, both to accumulate massive brownie points and because I generally prefer enjoying myself in gorgeous locales vs. riding hard and stressing about my watts.

Unfortunately, Moose was bricking 20 minutes off the bike and I couldn't allow myself to get chicked so I suffered through a short run with her.  Later in the day everyone headed to Prevail Conditioning to go over a lot of self-massage techniques and corrective exercises.

The next day started with a long swim, home for eating and napping, then a track workout preceded by some form drills.  It was probably the best I've run in a long time, due in no small part to being with other people for the majority of the 6x1k repeats.  It's certainly the fastest I've run in training for a while.  I've found that I tend to perform in races at a level I've been heretofore unable to match in training.  Which makes sense I suppose, since I'm usually somewhat tapered for races.  Or at least more fresh than my everyday training. More importantly, Thursday also brought with it a viewing of the Hunger Games.  Moose and I sat behind her parents so it felt very much like a high school date! Pretty awesome.

The next day brought with it another ascent of Gibraltar on an absolutely stunning day; albeit only above 1000' or so.  It was a bit overcast and cloudy at the start but at a certain point we rode through the clouds and into glorious sunshine.  It. was. awesome.  I have some great videos of the descent but it's going to take a while to assemble them into anything remotely watchable (not that that has ever stopped me before...).  Later on everyone went to swim (very short) and I deemed it not worth getting cold for and watched/videoed on deck.

Saturday morning everyone else raced the sprint while Alex and I watched and cheered.  My cheering skills are admittedly terrible so I feel it necessary to train as much as possible and get better.  If that means I have to skip a sprint race in 55 degree water with 60 degree air temps, so be it.  I'll manage... Later in the day we all went for a ride and that ride deserves a paragraph unto itself.

We started late in the afternoon and although the forecast had - earlier in the day - called for rain most of the afternoon, it had until that point held off and the forecast updated to only a 10% chance of rain.  Most of us headed out - it was slightly chilly - with the intention of doing Gibraltar again (~2.5hr ride).  Moose and I decided to turn around about 5 minutes into the climb and do something slightly less taxing.  So we headed off to do our own thing and were really just cruising around on some of her favorite roads.  At a certain point, maybe an hour+ in to the ride she said "why don't we go to do a Gub loop?" I said "sure, whatever you want," which would prove to be a faithful moment.  This would end up adding on about an hour to the ride.  It had been drizzling a bit on and off but nothing that would keep us wet for any period of time.  The temperature kept hovering around to just under 60 degrees and as of yet there were no warning signs.  About 1.5hrs into the ride, however, it started to actually rain.  Not too hard, not too soft, but more a Goldilocks kind of amount.  Juuuust right.  By just right I really mean terrible, as we were not a bit soaked, both from the rain itself and from the standing water on the road.  California roads have terrible drainage, which causes them to have terrible roads in general... At about 2 hours into the ride I started to officially get worried.  There was only one way back to the house and I consistently underestimated how long it would take us to get there.  I was noticeably cold at this point.  As the ride progressed, I got colder and colder and wetter and wetter, at which point I stopped talking because I was afraid of what I would say.  At 2.5 hours I was constantly shivering and had decided I was the most miserable I'd ever been on my bicycle.  Everytime we stopped I looked someone other than at Moose as I didn't want her to see the look on my face.  The first time we had to stop I just told her, "You may want to ask me a question or something, my answer is just going to be 'I don't wanna talk about it.''' Just being blunt! Eventually we made it back to the house in just over 3 hours of ride-time and immediately jumped into the hot tub.  The problem was our hands and feet couldn't handle the heat so we were butt first with hands and feet sticking up out of the water; it looked pretty ridiculous but we did not care.  Warmth is amazing.  This was one of those rides where the telling of it will get more ridiculous each time and that I'll always say "well this isn't going as poorly as THAT ride!"

Anyway, Saturday ended with more food and the packing of most of the athletes.  We had to leave the house by Sunday at 10am and at that point it was just myself, Moose and Colin.  We packed up all our gear in two cars and headed into Goleta to Moose's apartment where we'd all spend the night.  Colin and I went for a 10mile run along the cliffs and through campus before returning to head out on a 2+ hour hike into the mountains.  It's rare that I let myself do "fun" stuff and I think it's really important to try and enjoy where you are as much as possible and forget about how sore it's going to make you (although it hasn't been too bad).  Sunday night Moose and I went out for dinner and that was that.  The end of the week.  The next morning I woke up and drove to LAX to fly home, leaving behind one life for another.

Needless to say, the trip was fantastic.  Santa Barbara is gorgeous and to spend a week there with some of the best triathletes in the country (if you haven't looked into who comprises the FFT-PD team, you should, because it's impressive) is truly a gift.  While I didn't get in quite as much training as I would have liked it's a-OK, because it's a longggg year.

Why do we race?

S - 11,900 yards
B - 247.1 miles
R - 43.8 miles

Time - 21.69 hours

On a more-important-than-training note I've watched a couple of episodes in the last two weeks of "Full Metal Jousting on the History channel, which is awesome.  There are few competitions that are quite as simple as "get on your horse, grab a big stick, ride at someone and try to knock them off (kill them in the olden days, of course)."  Obviously modern liability laws and insurance issues make this current iteration a little less deadly than it used to be...but, it's still pretty epic.  For example

Sorry for the poor quality; it's all I could find.  Needless to say, I'm not sure I'd be very good at this as I weigh 150 pounds, I'm weak, I have no idea how to ride a horse...etc.  Still, it'd feel completely bada** to strap on some armor, climb aboard your steed and go hit someone like a Mack truck.  I also don't want to damage the moneymaker:

Sometimes I wish triathlons were so simple.  There is so much going on during competition (and before, during, after...) that it's easy to lose track of what you're doing there.  Back in the day all you needed was your speedo, your bike, some shoes and maybe some other people to race.  Add a little fire in your belly and the bellies of some closest friends and voila, you have a great competition.

Speaking of fire in the belly, sometimes it's really hard to maintain motivation.  It's easy to forget why we are all doing what we are doing.  I've struggled a lot more this year, especially with swimming.  I'll have a good workout, a bad workout, another bad one, a good one, a short one.  Last year it was week after week and month after month of great, consistent volume in the pool.

I know people that have a bad race and suddenly feel like their purpose is lost.  Do they belong at the level on which they've established themselves as being (sorry for that horribly complicated sentence, I tried different ways and this is what I've come up with, I apologize)? Do the splits for SBR suddenly invalidate all the work they've done to get there?  Does one race determine who we are as athletes? Of course not! It's incredibly important for all of us to realize that this should be about the journey; not the destination.  If I allowed myself to be discouraged by bad races or workouts (I guess I do, but I mean EVERY bad workout and/or race) then I'd be chasing a dream that has no meaning.  I train because I like being fit.  I like being fit because I like to go fast.  I like to go fast because my friends are fast and I have to go fast to keep up with them.  I like to keep up with them because I like my friends.  I like my friends because relationships are important.  I like relationships because they make me a more complete person (and hopefully them as well...).  I like being a more complete person because it would suck to be a quarter person.  (I took that a lot further than I planned...)

I also like beating my friends at races.

If I ever, EVER, lose sight of why I'm training and racing you have permission to slap me in the face.  While this may be a selfish sport on one hand, it's one of the most sociable, community driven, and awesome sports on the other.  We can all help each other love what we're doing even more as long as we keep that in mind.

This one isn't interesting

Swim: 14.5k yards
Bike: 248.5 miles
Run: 41.4 miles

Time: 22.04 hours

Well, I honestly feel as though I worked out very little this week.  With the way my schedule now works, it's typically a morning workout prior to 8-9am and a late afternoon workout around 5-6pm.  That kind of spacing makes morning workouts feel like yesterday's workouts.  It's pretty awesome.  I'm also now going to bed at a reasonable hour and waking up at what was a heretofore unreasonable hour.  I like the regularity.  The consistency.  The predictability.  I haven't been watching much TV.  I've been playing zero video games.  It may sound crazy, but it's been fun!

This was my first attempt at making a sports-related video and I definitely learned a lot.  The clips were too long, the music transitions too abrupt, not enough change of views, etc.  Next time will be better.

I'd also like to direct any readers to the lady girl's blog as she does a great job of recounting our trip together in Tucson.  My redirect serves several purposes

1) It makes me look awesome...look at that picture of me! I'm so good looking.
2) It makes me look patient (specifically on Mt Lemmon), which I obviously am, of course
3) It's a better told story than any of mine
4) It's a girl.  People always prefer reading girls' blogs.  They're way less threatening.  I know that I'm intimidating to all of you; you don't have to tell me!

A longing and an addiction

I've been struggling with my thoughts on this subject for quite some time.  I went to Arizona and experienced something that I have not dealt with in many years and came back an (unintentionally) changed man.  It's hard for me to express my true thoughts because it's something I've yet to deal with in my heretofore innocent lifetime.  When a man experiences something for the first time: a longing and then an absence and then a renewed experience with object of said longing; it can be tough to talk about it to other people.  I'm going to try though as part of my renewed desire to face my fears and expound on my experiences.

I didn't drink coffee for almost a month.  I know, I know...not what you expected to hear.  That being said, it's what you needed to hear.  Now, upon hearing that, you may think it implies that I'm a habitual coffee drinker.  That is certainly not the case. I did drink coffee several times a week, however.  Sometimes I made my own and sometimes (most of the time, actually) I purchased coffee from the esteemed beanery of Dunkin Donuts.  Standard issue is medium coffee with cream and sugar.  Now that is delicious.

Fast forward (or rewind I guess) to February.  I fly to Tucson and am no longer in close contact with my beloved Dunkin Donuts!! Ahhh the horror.  I am, however, with someone that drinks coffee every single morning.  She even grinds it up and drinks it black! I think we all can guess who is the pants-wearer in this relationship.  Pathetic on my part. :(

She always offered to make enough for me but I always declined saying that I didn't have any half and half.  Fast forward a little bit more and I'm with this guy who abhors coffee and says that - despite never drinking it - he believes it tastes like burnt ass.  He prefers his caffeine intake to be through the tea medium.  And by tea, I mean a lot of tea.  He'd usually drink 3-4 cups by the time I woke up and then he'd be off to work.  He suggested I give it a try, which I did, and lo and behold I actually really liked it!  Tea is a much more subtle drink than coffee.  Coffee kind of says "Hey you! Wake the F*** up!" While tea, in a delicate English accent, says "The hour of awakening is upon us...please rise at your leisure whilst I prepare thine shower."  Or something like that.  I definitely dug it.

So for almost a month I had practically zero coffee.  My taste buds had forgotten the rich and creamy dunkin donuts delicious dreamy delectable drink (boom goes the dynamite with alliteration) and I came home a new man.  (Boy is more accurate, I am not a man).

I knew I had to get my hands on some medium with cream and sugar so my first morning back I head into my favorite location and grab my standard only to take my first sip in over three weeks and my first thought was "Wow, that's pretty gross."  I pushed it aside as a fluke and the next morning decided to give it another shot; same thing.  It tasted terrible! What. the. heck.  My favorite drink was now no longer acceptable in my mouth.  On the third day I noticed that it was a little better.  I was purchasing from the same store so I assumed that the quality and overall flavor profile of the coffee was remaining the same, but who really knows.

FINALLY after about a week Dunkin Donuts coffee has returned to its delicious state.  I am a firm believer that coffee is an acquired, addictive taste and my N=1 experiences verifies that to be true.  That is all.

Hottest Female Triathletes 2012

Training was a bit pathetic this week so I don't really want to discuss it too much.  Suffice it to say I got in less than half of the volume of two weeks ago.  I think this was in part due to traveling across most of the country on Monday, having trouble sleeping, and adjusting to a new schedule during the week.  Sunday was the first day I felt "good" all week.  I was "dragging ass" as Brian would say (and did say).

All that being said, I was excited to race Corporate Cup 5k this Saturday.  I thought the course was pretty fast (and maybe it is for faster people!) so I was hoping to get in 5:15s and come in somewhere in the 16:30 range or just below.  I did not, however, achieve those goals.  My official time of 17:14 left much to be desired, although second place was 17:5x so there wasn't too much competition. I don't think my goals were totally out of line; I'm in very good running shape right now (I may not be really FAST but I am certainly fitter than this time last year) but hoped to perform well.  Last year in the opening 5k of the May Day Biathlon I ran a 16:32 on a flat course (garmin said it was accurate distance-wise) and the next month a 16:35 on the track (with a 50+ mile ride in my legs from earlier in the day) so I know I'm capable of sub 16:30.  I'll have to wait until the June time frame to put my money where my mouth is, however.

The race recap for the 5k goes something like this:

Sprint to front at start and set a torrid pace (I just wanted to use that word); one guy came with me but after about 1/2 mile I couldn't hear him anymore (he was probably doing the half).  Continue pressing on downhill-ish to mile 1 (race clock said 4:45 but they must have started late as Garmin chirped at 5:05 or so).  Keep going until right turn on West and another right on Mint which began the uphill/headwind section.  Nobody was within sight after turn.  Pace slows to 5:30 second mile.  Keep running, pace slows again third mile (which included a steep short climb to get back to uptown height).  Turn right and run slight downhill to finish. Drink a powerade, run to Inside Out to meet up for group ride.

Needless to say, the ride didn't feel stellar.

That being said, I got to ride my gorgeous new S5 for the first time this weekend.  It's such a better bike than the Klein that it's hard to really compare.  I love bikes; they are awesome.

2012 Charlotte Triathletes Ranking

Haha, just kidding.  Instead of talking about training I'm going to post pictures of some recent awesomeness.

Boom goes the dynamite

First new road bike since 2003.  Wheels ain't mine :(

BBright is where it is at

Zipp "beyond black" stem + hbar looks awesome!