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...

Training

I am preparing another blog ranting about America's poor health and nutrition but I thought I should hammer out an update on training and racing first.

Track is over. (Thank goodness) I had a dismal conference meet and was just thankful to be done with running for a while. 

After track I took 2 weeks off completely, doing nothing but swimming a few times a week.

Then I started building my running back up and am now on my 3rd week doing that and on track to hit 40 miles this week. My focus has shifted this summer and my plan is to swim and run a lot so that I can have a good cross country season this fall. I'm hoping to hold about 60 miles a week running for most of the summer and be swimming a good 5-6 days a week. I'll try to limit my biking to 3 times a week or less.

I raced the Capitol of Texas triathlon this last Monday and did alright. Considering the fact that I'd done less than 10 bike workouts all year and ran 10 miles the Saturday before the race I guess it was alright. I probably wouldn't have done it if I wasn't already signed up for it but it was fun to hang out with friends and teammates.

My plan for this summer is to race very little and just get back to training, building a base and having fun. I'll jump in some crits here and there probably a local tri or two but none of that will be a focus or events I'm keying off of. I am racing Age group nationals in August, my plan there is to pr my swim and run with the bike being whatever it is.

To all you out there training and racing have a great 09 season!!

When Did Working Out Become Work?

Taking a break from studying here. While most of UT Tyler is done with finals or finishing up I am just getting started. My first real final actually wasn't until today and I have three more before I'm done with the semester.

In my preparation for my 9:30 final tomorrow in motor development I was reading about the importance of maintaining an active and healthy lifestyle in older adults and how it prevents many of the common side effects associated with aging. In fact, much research has shown that older adults who remain physically active often resemble their younger counterparts more closely then their peers in terms of performance and reaction time. Study after study has shown that exercise will improve life expectancy and drastically increase the quality of living as people age.

I think most people would agree that this is fairly common knowledge. We all know that exercise is good right? But putting it into practice is much more difficult. And why is that? I believe one of the main reasons is that people often associate "exercise" with "work" or something you have to "go do." How many times do you hear people say they "have to go to the gym?" This attitude presents exercise as a distasteful task that must be performed to keep oneself from falling into too much of a state of slothfullness.

It doesn't have to be this way. At least that's what I believe. I believe a major change in the common viewpoint we take on exercise is due. What if, we didn't think of it as "exercise" but instead as "play?" Everyone loves to play right? Have you ever watched a child scurry around burning who knows how many calories as they randomly jump from one activity to the other? I know I get exhausted just trying to watch my 8 year old brother.

We all have different likes and dislikes and I believe people should find something they enjoy doing and then go do it! If you love to play soccer then go find an adult league or grab a couple friends. If it's golf then walk the course instead of riding a cart. Racquetball, tennis, frisbee, hiking, basketball, swimming, rock climbing, biking, swimming. Just find something you love doing and go do it. If you enjoy grinding out a 30min session on the elliptical then by all means go for it. But by any means don't feel confined to a gym to get your (hopefully) daily workout in. 

Sure, I know people have crazy schedules. Mom's have kids, dad's have job, students have school and work, people have lives. But trust me, if it is something you enjoy doing and look forward to you WILL find time to do it. Even better, get your friends involved. What better way to "play" then with a group of buddies who like doing the same active things you do. Look for fun ways to get a workout in. Soon exercise will no longer be a chore but instead an integral part of your lifestyle that you couldn't imagine doing without.

 That is my message. Exercise and working out isn't something that has to be a burden. It should be fun and enjoyable. So don't feel confined by the social norms of 1 hr workouts with a 10 minute warm up followed by 45 minutes of the standard lats, chest, quads, biceps, hamstrings, triceps, calves and chest circuit and a 5 minute cooldown. Get out there and enjoy life. Enjoy exercise, enjoy the outdoors and have fun!