What Day is it?

I just finished taking my midterm. I think it went alright.

Watch this video. Pretty darn sweet, it gave me goosebumps.

Training is still going. Yesterdays run workout took it out of me and my last 2 swims haven't been too good. Also got dropped on the group ride last night. I was pretty much stuck in 3rd gear. Oh well, life goes on.

Day 9

Saturday afternoon I did exactly what I planned on doing- nothing. I literally spent about 6 hours sitting on the coach with my coach's husband, Jeff while she was doing important things in Canada. It was greatness!

Sunday was an off day so I went to Church with my host family, took a nap and chilled. Oh, I also ate. A LOT. Sometimes when I'm doing all these workout with high intensity I have problems with my appetite being suppressed. Well Sunday I had no issues. I would eat a giant meal and be hungry 30 minutes later. So I ate and slept and rested.

Monday was another early morning at the gym. Coach missed her alarm so Hunter and I did some stuff on our own before heading to Gecko's practice. Then it was hill repeats at TMI again. 5 of them this time instead of of 4 and after the first one, which was pretty slow I nailed the next 4 at a solid pace and all within 6 sec of each other. Consistency was my key and I accomplished that. Mason was awesome as domestique. He was on his bike and would meet us at the top of the hill with water bottles to pour on ourselves as we suffered in the sun.

The rest of the day I slept and watched tv before heading to the pool for an easy swim with a bunch of drills.

This morning was band work again. Ugh, thats a tough one. In between the 5' runs with bands around my ankles I was doing 5x :45sec @5'pace/:30 off. It was supposed to teach my body how to deal with lactic acid and right around :30-:35 sec I could feel my form just fall apart. Very tough but necessary.

A 2hr nap followed by breakfast and I was feeling much better! The maid popped in unannounced today. She's supposed to come on Fridays, what the heck? So I packed up and headed to starbucks where I'm currently studying for my midterm tomorrow in "Theoretical and Clinical Aspects of Weight Management." Fun.

Off to the pool in about 30min then group ride tonight. Hoping to crush it!

Day 6

Ouch. I'm just thankful my legs are still attached. 2 hr run this morning was not what my body felt like doing. I had the option to go to SeaWorld today but I respectfully declined. I'd rather spend the day eating, sleeping and foam rolling. Day off tomorro then its back to work on Monday. I love this life!

Day 5

The days are starting to run together now. Sort of.

Yesterday was super solid, and by solid I mean hard.

The morning saw me chillin on an 80min run on some trails just down the street from where I'm staying. Very cool and lots of lovely gravel and dirt to save my joints. I was feeling pretty lousy at the start but the deer, rain and getting lost made it quite an adventure and I was feeling much better by the end. It's always fun to finish up in a downpour, completely sodden to the bone.

At 2pm I met Hunter at the pool with Mason for a 4500yd swim set. Didn't feel great, the water is super warm at 84 degrees which makes it very tough when trying to swim fast, but I still swam well. Some fast 100's saw me pushing hunter to come in around 1:05, might be a stand alone 100 pr for me :-D. The 3x300's into a 900 swim weren't especiall enjoyable but we got it done.

That evening I met up again with Hunter for another group ride. Me and some triathlete on his DA broke away from the group and stayed clear of a chase pack with about 6 guys in it. He did most of the work but I helped out when I could. Those triathletes man, they can just sit and motor!

This morning was another gecko practice where I hit 'em hard with some run drills and strength stuff. The parents should have some sore little bodies tomorrow. :-) Then after running by the grocery store and dropping the 7 yr old off at her summer camp I hopped on the treadmill for an 8mile tempo at 6min/mile pace. I was really not looking forward to this and it was pretty painful but I was very encouraged to be able to finish it. A workout like that shows some real fitness, especially following a day like yesterday.

Well the cleaning lady should be done at the house so Mason and I are going to head back. I don't think she was expecting to see a sweaty, shirtless man with blue flames on his short running shorts walk into the house while she was cleaning. Haha, I'm sure she's seen worse in her day.

Day 3

I don't anticipate this being a very long post as I'm pretty tired. I have been swimming better than I ever have in my life and that is very encouraging, especially given the lack of focus I had been putting into the swim.

Yesterday the family I am staying with gave me a card and told me to go to the store and get "whatever I wanted." Uh oh, I should have warned them. I loaded up with M and we headed to HEB. Actually, most of what we got was a few things they wanted and then shopping for the 3 meals M had planned for a Team Gecko requirement. One of the things the kids can do to earn "stars" is plan 3 meals, shop for them and help prepare them. We worked on that quite a bit yesterday and it has been really cool to see M start taking a notice in what he points in his body.

Other than hanging out with M my life has consisted of training, eating and sleeping. Quick run down from the last few days.

Monday: Previously mentioned workouts plus 3200m swim w/ MS of 6x100 on 2' These were a mix of pace, sprint and the last one was easy. This workout was my first clue that I might have made a breakthrough in my swimming.

Tuesday:
6am run @ the gym on tm. This was a band workout where Hunter and I had exercise bands tied around our ankles then tied to an elliptical behind us. This keeps you from overstriding and is actually a killer workout. We did 4x5' of that with (5x:30 on/:30 off) in between each band set.. "on" was at 5'/mile pace for me.

Swim @ 2pm with mainset of 500, 3x100 drill, 400, 3x100 on 1:30, 300, 3x100 on 1:25, 200, 2x100 on 1:20. Pretty tough and it doesn't help that the pool is about 85 degrees. 3800m total.

Group ride around 6pm. I thought this was going to be ugly but my legs actually felt ok and I broke away with 3 other guys. About 22 miles of the ride I was just hammering and I'm sure my hr was in the 170's. Felt good to take some pulls and apply some pressure though.

Wednesday: Only a tough swim today. MS was 3x(5x100 on 1:25, 4x100 on :20) straight into a 600 pull for time. Thankfully my arms were still attached after this one, even if only by a thread. 3500m total.

I made granola with the 7yr old daughter today and spent the rest of the time laying around being tired. I'm currently waiting around until 8pm when I have given myself permission to go to bed. Tomorrow's a big day.

Day 1

It's the first real day of training here in San Antonio and I'm pretty whupped. Spirits are still high but the body is tired. Maybe it was the 5:30 am wake up this morning that jolted my system a little.

I arrived yesterday afternoon at my host family's house. I knew them before I came down here from other races and their affiliation with are team but I was reminded again about how nice these people are. I have my own room with it's own entrance to the house. They have given me free reign of the pantry and fridge (uh oh, beware), my own bathroom and even a truck to drive!! In return I will be hanging out with their 2 kids, son who is 12 and does tri's and daughter, 7 who is working on getting the training wheels off her bike. :-)

Last night we went to a barbacue at the uncle's house which just happened to be right next to Tony Parker's place. Needless to say it was super nice.

This morning kicked off at 6am when I hit the gym with my coach and teammate, Hunter for some strength work. I need some work, it was mostly upper body stuff and I can tell I'll be sore tomorrow. I rushed home from that to to pick up the son and get to team gecko practice. This is the kids triathlon team I will be one of the head coach's for this summer. They meet 7:30-8:30 and it's quite a hoot.

After gecko's it was home to eat some breakfast then I met up with Hunter again for a tough run workout of 4x1mile hill repeats. We did not descend the set, we definitely ascended.

The rest of the day was spent napping and hanging with son, (who we shall call M from this point forward.)

The kids are at a swim meet right now so I am at a starbucks getting some studying done with Shelly's intern. The intern, Katie, is one of the other coach's, has no triathlon experience but is an exercise phys major and eager to learn.

Off to the pool now to get in a good swim with Hunter before bed and an early morning tomorrow. I'm going to try and keep this blog updated regularly so everyone can keep up with my goings on this summer.

Ciao

Bleh

This post is being hammered out on my grandparents computer as I sit at their ranch house outside of Austin, Tx. I am currently en route to San Antonio where I will arrive tomorrow for 5 weeks of training and coaching. I am super excited as I will be getting to experience both ends of the spectrum during my stay. I will be working closely with my coach on workouts and training even as I learn from her and get to help coach other kids in the sport. It should be an exciting time and I am looking forward to learning a lot.

As far as training I am hoping San Antonio will be just the thing I need to really kick myself into gear. I still have been struggling with getting out the door for workouts. I'll have a few really good sessions then just not feel like training for a day or two. I'm not sure if I just need a change of scenery or what. I was thinking about it the other day and realized that I've been running the same routes around my neighborhood for 7 years now! I've always been a guy who enjoys change. I like new challenges and experiences, to explore and seek the unknown. One of my favorite things to do when I go somewhere new is it to lace up my shoes and just take off, not knowing where but just... running. Turning down streets, looking for cool roads or paths, dodging cars or animals. Whatever.

Here's to hoping I get my act together soon.

Ups and Downs

Training has been weird lately. I've been slowly building up my mileage and swimming meterage (is that a word?) while also often struggling to get out the door, especially for the runs. I think evening running has been part of the problem and I switched to running in the morning today. I should get about 50 miles this week if I nail my goal of running about 6 hours.

This morning's workout was especially interesting. It was kind of a strength/run combo where'd I do squats, lunges, calf raises then take off for 2-10min in z4 running. Pretty tough actually.

The really interesting part was at noon today as I was leaving work and just threw up in the bushes. I had started feeling a little sick during the last class and well... I came home and slept for 1.5 hours and feel pretty good now. I've eaten and my stomach still feels kind of weird but other then that I feel great. About to head out to work then try and swim. We'll see how it goes...