Go ahead and tri--make my day!!

Ran the riverwalk again.  Went with my buddy for 25 min and then went and did 4x 800 in about 6:15-30 pace.

Ran the riverwalk and neighborhood for 6 miles.

Ran the riverwalk and neighborhood.  The first 25 minutes was a faster pace.  Then my buddy ran home and I did the 4x 800 again.  I was at 3:10-3:17s.

It was a while since I could take my shirt and wring it out and have lovely sweat come out of it.  As wrestlers, we use to get in the sauna and you had to have 100 drops of sweat come off your nose before your could take a break.  After one of the intervals, It only took me 90 seconds to have 60 drops of sweat fall from my face.  Now I don't make it habit of counting sweat, but the humity was fun to run in.  Good thing it was in the morning.

I am entering this at the airport, so I am home for another two weeks, then off of Oregon and the Spudman.

Just some observations on my trip to the South.  The people were very friendly.  I did not see racial tensions at San Antonio. 

The food in Texas is good--too good. There are so many over weight people in the South.  Food--unhealthy food--is so much a part of the culture.  They do not get it.  Beef is a staple.  Bacon is a food group.  I ordered pancakes one breakfast and the guy gave me bacon instead.  There is lots of unhealty foods being advertised.  No wonder when you look at obesity stats, the South is significantly worse off than the rest of the nation.  Then if you add smoking and drinking too that, the health is awful--and that is the tip of the iceberg--it will get worse and ruin the healthy care (affordable insurance) as we know it.

Happy Fourth of July

I biked a 40k out to West Mountain.  Going out, I was going great--23 mph with out too much effort.  I was thinking I was pretty cool and in shape.  Then I turned back and felt the wind, that was previously at my back.  I could barly see the plants move from the wind, but the bike is so sensative to wind.  I came back at 20-21 mph. 

This was a 4:30 work out, but I did ok with the heat.  It was overcast and I am working on keeping hydrated while moving.

Off to stadium of Fire and Hannah Montana--you know I will be screeming will all the girls with excitement.

Did an open water swim-run brick.

My Nebo tri club was doing an open water swim at 8 AM so I joined them at the reservoir.  I tried out my new wetsuit for the first time--merry christmas to me--in 07.  I was impressed with the gliding and bouyancy I got from it.  After I got tired, I was swimming just as bad as I always do, but I have high hopes for a faster swim at spudman.  We swam 50 minutes--I took two 5 min breaks during that time--every 15 minutes when my form started to struggle.  I do not like to practice swimming wrong. 

I decided to do a 10 race/run after.  I drove home and did my riverbottoms 10k.  I wanted to beat the stinking 7 minute guy.  I got 10 sec. behind him the first mile, as I got my legs and before I started to watch the garmin closely.  The next miles I caught up and passed him.  At mile 5 I was 15 seconds a head of him.  At mile four, my heart rate went up to 180 and a little above.  I have to slow down a bit and relax my run and got it back to mid 170s.  At mile 5 I have the up hill for the rest of the race.  I had a 7:49, 7:30, which was not too bad but it was a butt kicker.  I ended with a 44:30, but hit the half  (5k) at 21:20 so a 42 something is possible at spudman.

I practiced my nutritian.  I took a GU in my fuel belt and downed that at the one mile mark, then washed it down with my weak gatorade.  I usually do not drink on a fast run, but I pushed myself to get some more fluids, especially at miles 2-4.  It was after 10 AM and it was toasty.  I had two fuel belt bottles, one with gatorade and one with water.  I did good until I dumped the gatorade on my head thinking it was the water (I had switched the side the bottles were on).  I could have been a winning coach with gatorade on me.  The GU felt great in the tummy and the drink was fine.

Did a afterwork bike ride before friends came over for a BBQ.  I tried sockless and felt wicked fast without socks.  Last time I raced without socks I did not do well.  (socks cost you a lot of time in transition, so fast people do not do socks.)  It felt pretty good, but I could sure smell stinky feet when I got done.  I have been trying to go bare foot more to toughen up my feet.  I hate going bare foot.  But I will see how things go and decide later whether to go sockless at spudman.

I biked around copes, the golf course and down the riverbottoms and up the hill and finished on my 10K route.  Hit 23 mph for a decent part of it.

I lifted in the morning.  I have been really excited for the Tour de France to start and saw the prerace.  I have been taping some of the endings for a dreary winter day on the indoor trainer.

Swam in the morning.  Did a timed 800 in 16 and fist gloves and intervals.

I took my new bike in the shop and bought some pedals for my older touring bike.  I was wanted to know how the two bikes compared with speed and feel.  My older bike is more comfortable, but my neck was still worn out.  I think I am at least 1 mph faster on the new bike.  Kind of a weak workout, but had things to do . . . .

Started a 10K race to beat the 7 min man.  I was beating him by 45 sec at the 5 mile mark and pulled up and jogged home.  I was feeling some twitches and pains. 

Pretty good mid week workout.  I am keeping speed up so I should not cramp at Spudman.  I am looking at a several min improvement from last year.  I am consistantly swimming 1:20 faster on the 800 than a year ago, plus I have the wick fast wet suit that should be good for another 30-40 seconds.  If I can just pick the right line and stay on it on the swim . . .

I have the new bike and it should be faster.  I sandbagged it a little last year by getting in a peloton, and ended up with a bad bike split.  I felt good for the run though.  I had to watch my hamstrings last year on the run, so I think I can pull some more off the run.  If I hit a hard bike, I might not.  But I am in the best running shape since college.  I am 10 pounds lighter and have had a better year of practice.

Did my second open water swim with my tri club . . . except no one else showed.  So I swam the res by myself.  Had to get a big Poly to help me zip up my wet suit.  I like the feel of the wet suit.  It is a little tight in my chest . . . the joys of being a tight wad and buying online, instead of supporting the speciality shop.

It was an evening workout.

Uneventful flat recovery run.

Did a bike/swim brick.  Had breakfast and went out at 10:30 so I could hit the pool after it opened at noon.

Felt about as good as I ever had on the bike.  I did the Utah Lake/Lincoln beach route.  I always fly down, but coming back is always much more difficult.  On the Garmin I averaged 21 MPH, with the heart rate of 163.  I went about full speed--which is my typical bike training speed.  I do not get over 25 miles in, and even over 18 for that matter so I am trying to train to not bonk after 18.  I need to conserve my legs the first half of the bike, so I can be more aggressive on the second half.  I just feel so good and start going fast.  GU after 30 min on the bike will help too

Getting in the water to swim was weird.  The water felt thick.  I have never felt that before.  After swimming open water and in a wet suit--or perhaps after biking (I have never swam tired). My time was OK of the 800 (15:52).  I did set a record today on my 50m.  I hit 45.10.  I did not breath as much.  I think my fastest time before was 46.  I remember when my fastest was 75 sec.  I do not even do 75s using the fist gloves now. 

Bought some new googles that were a piece of crap, so I went to the speciality swim shop and bought the cool socket rocket type goggle.  Hopefully they will not leak.

Ran a difficult 6 miles today.  I wanted to hit 7 min but it was not going to happen after a 1.3 mile warm up.  I ran at 12:30 and it was desceptively hot.  The sun was not out, but it was pretty warm.  I had a light snack before going out, but I was still out of sorts.  I ran 7:30s for most of it with the heart rate in the mid to high 160s.  That is a high zone 4 training run (not adjusted to my personal max heart rate)  and zone 5 is racing speed.  I think I have a typically high heart rate.  I can roll out of bed in the morning at be at 120 bpm.

In the morning I was pretty still so I lifted a bit and ran after getting warmed up from the day.

Swam a timed 800 in 15:27. That is down from last weeks 16:00 after I had not swam too much. I am trying to go three times a week right before spudman to get a micro peak out of it. I usually get better after a layoff then I get worse. So I am trying to time it right. I watched a swim video with a swimmer who did a great job with the arm reach and "reach around the barrel" catch. I tried to do that more. I was a little more winded than I should have been. New goggles were ok . . . .

Had to do an evening run since I had a class in the morning to teach.  It was even a wellness class.

I biked the west mountain route.  I tried to not go out so hard and I think it helped me to do better coming back.  Perhaps it just meant I went slower all around, but I enjoy the second half better.  It looked like it was going to rain, but it did not, so it was gusty and overcast.

I have bought a lot of stuff online for my triathlons, and most of the stuff does not fit really confortable.  I might I have to go to the local tri shop and give them my $$$ from now on.

I have a good workout to do Thursday morning and then it is hitting the road for Oregon for a week and then Spudman on the way back.

Swam a timed 800 in 15:43.  I  was thinking I could swim a 15:20 after the 15:27 earlier in the week.  I just could not figure out how to go faster.  Swimming is a weird science.

Ran with Tom and Kim for a good three mile warm up.  It was fun to talk to them.  Then I hit 4x 800 in 3:15 or so.  It was enough to get my body use to going that fast.

Had a nice hilly Oregon bike ride.  It ended up a little short since I hit the end of the paved road and did not want to go up more hills.

Stopped with some energy left so I could go ride the Waver runner.  We rode on the Columbia River for several hours and I was tired after that.  I don't think I will be sore though.

Ran along the Columbia River on a trail.  It was right next to the interstate so it was not as pleasant of run as it could have been.

It took a while to warm up.  Did a 10 min warm up slow.  15 min run a little faster and then finished with 3x 3:00 min with 90 second jog. 

Taper week--so not too hard but intense enough to keep the body use to something.

Swam a timed 800 meters in a windy outdoor pool at The Dalles.

It was a 50 meter pool. I thought 50 meter pools were faster than 25 meters but this was not the case. I did a 16:30 or so. One way had a pretty good headwind. It was cold, until I got doing the laps then it was not too bad.

Rode a windy windy up hill and down hill roads. Did not push it very hard. Just enough to check out my gear and keep use to working a little.

I will blog on Thursday, which is going to be a rest day.

I have made a lot of preparations for the race.  perhaps more than I ever have.  This is my first race since leaning about tri-talk podcast.  He suggested a top 20 pieces of equipment that will save time.  I purchased many of them, and some I am just getting around to using. 

Last year I took 56 in the spudman and 48 the year before.  With my extension on my house, I did not get a good year of training.

I hope to break top 40 this year.  I think I can cut off at least 3 min.  I want to break 18 on the swim (on milliseconds) low 17s on my watch.  I was at low 19s last year.  Last year I did not compete in the bike well.  With the new bike, I can cut at least 2 min.

I have found two in my age group that are unbeatable.  There is a third that was two min faster than me last year.  There are others that will show.  The 40-44 age group has some extremely good athletes, but not as many.  Spudman usually has 95 35-39.  So I should be close to top 5 in AG.

The run will be just a tab bit faster.  I sandbagged on the bike last year which helped my run and had a great run at 43 min.  If I could break 43, I will be happy.

I have installed a GU flask, fixed my Profile water bottle, put on my spare tube and CO2.  I bought a big bottle of Hammer Gel to go in my flask.  I just about have my new goggles broken in. 

Just a quick run and some accelerations.  Felt good.

I completed my 6th time going to the Burley Idaho Spudman.  The race featured 1500 athletes.  The event is extremely popular, selling 2000 slots in 20 min.

I improved my time by four minutes from last year.  I accomplished 3 of my 4 goals and felt good coming away from the race.

At the event, there was a drowning of a 60 year old man from Provo.  I suspect it was heart problems, in as much as it was at the first of the race and he did not fight much.  He went down and it took 30 min for the divers to find him.  I hope all is well with his family.  Nation wide, 33% of Americans will die of heart disease and that does not get put on the news.

Back to the race.  My swim goal was to come out around 17 min.  My previous swims were 23, 21, 18, 19:20 and I swam a 16:16 this year.  Having a good wet suit helped alot and I rode the current better.  The start was not as hectic and I only hit  a few people.  Many stayed closer to the shore, which helped me.  I had the 89th fastest swim and 13th in my AG.  Last year I was 357 and 54.  I had a better swim than bike--that was unheard of when I started to tri.

I hit T1 about as good as expected.  Got on the bike and knew I had to not blow my legs the first half of the race.  I felt pretty good and competed well except the last part, I slowed down.  I was only passed by 3 or 4 on the bike and only one was from my AG that I did not pass later.  I did the same on the bike as last year.  I was hoping to magically go faster.  I had a new bike and areo helmet, but I had not done anything else for training.  I need a much better base (more miles) to take my bike to the next level.  For the first time, I felt I needed to work harder instead of spend more money.  I only did 5 or 6 25 mile rides.  I need some 30-50 rides.  I was 15 in my AG and 126 overall.  15th is actually my best AG finish in the bike--I was 26 last year with the same time. 1:02.  I think there was more drafting last year in my AG. 

T2 went well and I hit the run feeling good.  I took in a little too much hammer gel on my bike so I had to work a left side side ache out at mile two.  I went Garmin less and had to rely on the incorrect mile markers.  My first mile was 6:46 and I think I kept it right around that.  It was a proper 10K.  I got a 42:20.  Last year I was at 43:06.  I was passed by two people.  The splits come out to 6:49, which seem right.  I was 44 overall in the run, which is the same as last year--meaning the field was faster. 

Felt good about the season and now I have to find another race.

Ran a really easy Jr. High warm up and then around Abbie Court.  Pretty uneventful, except Kim trying to knock down Kellie P door to get her out of bed.  Funny thing, she could not hear from Disneyland.

Added up my miles on my shoes--260.  When you only go 18 miles per week, I get a few monthes out of them.  April 5th purchase date.

I am switching to some base/build workouts, especially for the bike.  I had a stressful morning so I only go my lifting in.  I got out of work early and hit the bike.  I used my road bike, hoping that I could put some COMFORTABLE miles in on that without my head falling off.  I moved the seat up and that felt pretty good.  I went on all my favorite routes in one ride (I don't get too creative on picking new routes--and I don't need too).  Around the golf course, to the base of Harry's hill, over to Goosenest, down Utah ave in Payson, out to Benjamin and back up by the new ball parks.

I averaged 157 beats per min at 18.4 mph.  I was surprized my heart rate was as high as it was with trying to go easy.  It could have been the fact it was hotter than blaze outside (4-6 PM).  I limped home on tired legs, but healthy legs.  That was great my knees felt good and my neck does not feel too tired.  It is nice to enjoy a bike ride again. 

Could not get out of bed this morning.  Still dragged myself to the pool.  Swam an easy mile in 33:27.  Felt good afterwards.

Biked after lunch to and from work.  The swamp cooler has the water turned off.  It was a pleasant 93 in my office when I left (then I biked home at 5 to cool down).

Yes that is a 9.8 miles for the tri guy. I planned on a long run and got one. Ran a 1.4 warm up and then a big loop at the riverbottoms and the tree road. I hope my knee is ok. I ran between 7:50s and 8:30 miles.