End of the beginning

So long 2008! You were good in some ways...in other ways...uhhm...not so much. Tore meniscus in knee - Frustrating. Finished IMAZ - Good! Got a new job - Good. Moved away from friends - Sad. Market crashed - bad.

But on a high note, i finished the workout year with a 1,000 meter swim at YMCA right before it closed. Hope that is a good omen.

Blech

Didn't feel great today. Tired and sore. Slept through Sergio's brick but did manage to come home in the afternoon and do an abbreviated version. 30 minutes on the computrainer followed by a 15 minute run. Twinge in left knee after the run.

I'd really like to take a day off from training but then I'd have to deal with the guilt factor of having "missed" a workout.

Gumby

Had an afternoon stretching session with John at Stretch to Win. Need to do this more often. He said I was tight on the left side.

Left his office and went to 24 hour fitness for a solid core, upper and lower body weight lifting session. Very tired now but satisfied with the day.

Ironman Coeur D' Alene Momentum

I feel like I'm starting to gain some momentum for Ironman Coeur D' Alene. Got up and did my swim workout this morning at 5:30 a.m. It was cool to see the sun come up during the workout. Still have a nagging feeling that I'm not doing enough but I suppose that will never go away.

Tide Pool of Misery

Rode to Point Loma Tide Pools with Kebby, Brit, Steph and their friend Kelan this morning. Did 10 good hill repeats and came home. Solid effort and I'm pleased with the workout. Total distance was 27 miles. Each climb was about 7/10 of a mile at 5 to 6 percent grade.

Would have felt even better about the workout if everyone else hadn't gone for a transition run. I just didn't have it in me, so I came in drank some recoverite and stretched.

Holiday Pounds

Well, we made it through the best of the holidays from a fun and food perspective and the worst from a workout point of view. Managed to get in a couple of short swims and a short run while we were in Atlanta but didn't get anything major accomplished. Probably just slowed the rate of loss. Too much sugar, stuffing and white bread.

On a positive note, our flights were more or less on time and uneventful. Interesting that we absolutely expect something to go wrong whenever we fly. I guess the airlines do a great job of setting a low bar. Where else would you be absolutely stunned if you actually received what you paid for. Imagine going to the wine store and buying a bottle of cab all the while expecting that when you open it you'll probably get a merlot or milk or water or nothing at all. Oh well. Good for them for getting us to lower our expectations.

Had a great time though. Will try hard to pick up the momentum from Kona again starting tomorrow.

Be Careful Out there

Missed a brick workout this morning thanks to a fun night of holiday festivities with our neighbors. Managed to get to the gym in the evening and get in a decent core and weight session.

Big scare came after Kebby and I dropped off the dogs at Snug Pet Resort. We were about to turn right at a light when a cyclist ran a red light and got hit by a car. I saw the cyclist coming and then caught sight of the car out of the corner of my eye. The car must have been going about 40 to 45 mph and hit the front wheel of the bike. The cyclist was literally launched ten feet into the air and flipped multiple times before landing on his back.

We both got out of the car and ran to the middle of the intersection. While the scene was pretty bad, the biker was very very lucky. The car hit his front wheel not his body. He probably had some fractures but looked to be in reasonably good shape all things considered. I honestly thought he was going to be dead. When I got to him, all I could remember was "don't move the spine" and ABC. The A is for airway as in make sure it is unobstructed, the B is for Breathing and for the life me I couldn't remember what C stood for. I asked him if he could breathe and he said "yes". Then I said don't move. After that, I was pretty much useless. Four or five of us tended to him until a police car arrived followed a few minutes later by an ambulance.

After giving a statement to the police we watched him get loaded into the ambulance. The police said they would impound his bike.

There is no way I can really describe how incredible (in a bad way) the sight was or how it felt to have the adrenal glands absolutely unload. About an hour or so after the accident, I was starving and had a huge headache. I'm sure this is all some type of physiological response.

While I absolutely hate to have seen the whole thing, I am now committed to being as safe as I possibly can be when I'm out riding.

Off to Atlanta tomorrow for Christmas with the family. Happy Holidays!

Google Rules!

Ok...I may have solved my training tracking issue. I was watching CNN this morning when they interviewed a cyclist that worked for Google. He was having a hard time keeping track of his training so he wrote a program called Google Calendar. Now he can sign in and log his workout from almost anywhere.

I went on-line and the application is very easy to use. I gave my coach access too. Hopefully this will stick!

On a training note, I'm fairly pleased with the week. Worked out every day since Monday and logged three swims, three bikes, three runs and two core sessions. Finished up the week with a 22 mile ride on the 101. Would have gone longer but got a massive flat at mile 10. I managed to get the tube changed but was afraid of another flat since the tire was punctured. We ended up turning around after another mile and called it a day.

Workouts

Good week so far. Monday did 1,000 meter swim before work. Tuesday brick with a 30 minute bike and a 20 minute run at 8:03 per mile.

Mahalo

Bit of a lag in posting but I hope to get back in the groove. I need to keep track of my workouts and it appears that the blog is probably the best recipe for success. I tried to create an excel file but would forget about it for a couple of days then try to remember the workouts. Since I regularly scan a couple of blogs each day, I hope I can remember to update mine when I'm done reading.

On a positive note, we just got back from a great training week in Kona today. Our friend Scott had a timeshare and set up the trip. Unfortunately, he had to back out due to work but Kebby and I still made the pilgrimage to the Mecca of triathlon. The main focus of the trip was training and we're pleased with the results considering it's still early in the season. It was great from a motivational perspective that we did the majority of our training on the Ironman course.

A couple of interesting points about the course were that (1) it is surprisingly (at least to me) hilly with rollers throughout and a five to six mile climb into Hawi that would really put a hurt on you if you pushed to hard and (2) the hills were very deceptive. At least twice on what looked like downhills, my speed dropped and I was sure that I had a flat. It was only when I stopped and checked did I realize that what looked like a decent was actually a three or four percent climb.

I'm especially sold on the concept of training camps now. We planned two or three workouts each day and scheduled everything else around the training. We did four rides of eight, 25, 50 and 60 miles during the week and got in a three and a six mile run along with four swims and four weight sessions. I'm definitely not in Ironman shape yet since the 60 miler put me out of commission for the rest of that day and half of the next. But I consider the week to be the first deposit in the bank and hope to carry the momentum into the holidays and early January.