It is all that

We did the much discussed and celebrated "Great Western Ride" today. And even with all of the hype, it delivered. We did the "clockwise" version which has long continuous climbs. Nothing too brutal but very solid and pretty darn long.

We got lost after the country store and added some time and miles to the ride but made it back to the car in one piece and in good spirits. This is now my new favorite ride!

The only downer was my stupid garmin. For $700 I expected a bit more navigational help. Just a few miles before we got lost it completely locked up. It wasn't until after Kebby pulled out her i-phone and pulled up the map function that it started working again. Suspicious. Very suspicious! Then as if to make up for its mistake it started giving way to much information on the way home. Instead of beeping and telling me to turn just a street intersections, it started beeping and telling me when turns in the road were coming up. Great! Thanks for that useless information you incompetent paperweight! Never mind that I had no choice but to turn since it was just a bend in the freakin road with no side road, intersection or even driveway to choose from!

Ahh but I digress. Couldn't be happier with the weather, the ride and the day. Run tomorrow. I'll be interested in seeing how I feel.

Friday or is it Fry Day???

Not a stellar day with respect to training. Got up at 5:00 and slogged through an abbreviated swim. Busy at work and went through lunch with just an energy bar. Got home starving and ate a bag of some kind of Chinese or oriental fried things. I remember picking up the bag at Trader Joe's but I can't really tell you why I bought it or with certainty what it contained. It had crunchy little stick things, peas covered with wasabi paste and some kind of edible star.

Oh well, I'm hoping to do the Great Western ride tomorrow so maybe I'll stop the skid before it gets out of control.

Happy Training Everyone!

How much is enough

Just finished my morning "skill" workout on the treadmill.  Sergio claims that these are the most important of all the workouts.   On the run, he has me doing a 20 minute easy warm-up followed by 10 x 30 second all out sprints where I'm supposed to hold a high cadence and perfect form.

In theory I'm training my muscles to "fire" at a faster rate.

That all makes sense but I'm concerned about not getting enough volume.  I don't know about you but I think an Ironman is a reeaally long event, so maybe to train properly, one should do some reeaally long workouts.  On the other hand, he's done about a zillion half and full IM's so I have to give him the benefit of the doubt.  I'd still feel better with a couple of centuries under my belt.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I've found a new food and drink that seems to be doing some great things.  The ingredient is called Quinoa but it's pronounced "Keen Whaw".  I've been eating some for lunch lately and have noticed a marked increase in energy.  Not the energy drink kind of crackling energy, it's more of a steady glow.  It's out in a drink form now and you can get it at Whole Foods.  If anyone tries it and has a similar experience, please let me know.

Keep on Keepin on

Pretty good trend over the last couple of weeks. I'm hitting most of the workouts (13 per week scheduled) and doing the full workout most of the time. I'm sure there will be bumps in the road but it's like the great Crash Davis once said..."a player on a streak has to respect the streak...cause they don't happen that often".

And the beat goes on

Workout, work, eat sleep, workout. Repeat. Seems like I'm always working out, getting back from a workout or going to workout.

Good swim Monday morning with core work in the evening. Did the bike run brick with Sergio on Tuesday. Core and 2,500 yards of swimming Wednesday. And I just got back from a run on the treadmill this morning.

Off to work now and before you know it....yeah. Time to workout again.

But you know what....I kind of like it.

Sun Day

I'd guess that San Diego weather nets one a good 50 to 60 more "A" workouts compared to my old home town of Atlanta.

It's sunny, clear and almost 75 degrees today. Consequently, I had very few excuses when it was time to go do my swim. Went over to the YMCA and knocked out my 2,000 yard recovery swim without too much commentary from the "excuse monster". About a quarter of the way through, I stopped, looked at the palm trees and really took a moment to appreciate the fact that I was swimming outside in January. Crazy. Absolutely Crazy!

The swim came after a 90 minute run on the treadmill. I would have preferred to run outside but the plan from Sergio clearly stated that I needed to do this one on the the hamster wheel. Afterwards, it was clear as to why he mandated the treadmill. My muscles were worked but the knees, ankles etc. felt good.

All in all, not a bad end to the weekend.

Ups and Downs

Long hours at work this week meant mojo go bye bye. Tried to keep the momentum by getting up Wednesday morning for the swim workout. Got to the pool at 5:30 and managed to get into the water but that was about it. 500 meters later and it was back to the cocoon. Thursday and Friday were complete losses.

Fortunately, I had a ride Saturday with Brit and Steph and may have gotten back on the horse so to speak. We rode for 2 hours and 40 minutes in the hills around Romona. Good effort and I'm pleased. Legs are worked but not sore or injured. I guess it's inevitable that I'll have peaks and valleys during the training. The key is to not let a losing streak continue on too long.

Having friends to train with certainly helps on that front. I also think that training camps and weekends away for training will help too.

Not to get to philosophical but I'm of the opinion that the Ironman isn't one event. In reality, it's thousands of little events (and decisions) strung together over the course of six or eight months followed by one long day culminating (hopefully) with a finisher's medal.

Plan calls for 90 minutes on the treadmill tomorrow. Let's see if I can keep the new streak alive.

Driver's Ed.

Couldn't sleep last night. Lot of stuff on my mind. Nothing major but among other things, I had to get my CA driver's liscense. I passed but the test was harder than my GMAT.

For instance, As a non-smoker, I'm not too up to speed on the in-car smoking laws. And I didn't see a single question about smoking on the practice test. So one of my missed questions was about smoking with children in the car. Can't do it. Good! But how was I supposed to know? Also didn't know the DUI blood alcohol content level. Turns out it is .08. I guessed .05. Oh...and did you know that a DUI will net you six months in the pokey? Anyway, three hours, one eye test, one written test and $28 later, I'm legal. Yeah! Let's go get a drink!!!

As for workouts, I got a small brick in on Tuesday. 30 minute bike with a 20 minute run. Also got a very sad short swim in this morning.

What is epic anyway?

So, solid couple of days. Brit, Steph and I headed up to a ride near Ramona that Steph created. We started with a nice descent then turned for a very challenging 40 minutes of climbing. According to my garmin, some of the sections were up to 15% in grade. Fortunately, I never quite reached the "tipping (over) point" which for me is around 3 mph but there were sections that ended just in time.

After the tough climb, we had a nice descent then the ride flattened out nicely. We were able to get down in the aero bars and ride on some flats for a good while. Finished the ride in 2 1/2 hours and felt tired but not dead.

After a short rest, Kebby and I headed over to the YMCA and got in 1,600 yards of easy to moderate pace swimming.

So, while no single part of the three days (Fri, Sat & Sun) met the suffering threshold that would classify it as "Epic", I have to say that in total (3,400 meters of swimming, 10 mile run and a 35 mile bike with climbs), it came close.

And probably best of all, I'm not so destroyed that I'll have to miss my next workout. Who knows, maybe the "Method" method of training makes sense after all.

Sometimes the sun shines

Good one today. Stayed out later than usual last night at dinner and thought that I'd have a bad workout day. Fortunately, I was able to sleep in and head out for my workout after lunch. Plan called for 90 minutes easy running. I went out to Fiesta Island and started a slow trot. I was able to speed up and get into an easy rhythm of about 8:45 per mile. Felt great through mile seven then the pace started to drop and the knees got a bit sore. Nothing to bad and I ended up with a 10 mile run.

Thinking back to IMAZ, my first 10 miler came about three months prior to the race. I'm really pleased that we still have a good five months of training before Coeur d' Alene.

Just need to keep the momentum and stay injury free.

When does the fear kick in???

Amazingly I managed to get up yesterday and today at 5:20 a.m. to get in my workouts. While I'm pleased to have completed a decent week, I have no confidence that I'll be able to replicate my success.

On every occasion this week, I could have been easily persuaded to stay in bed. Raining out would have equaled "no workout". Cold morning - "negativo workouto". Having a good dream would have meant the workout is a dream. Just so happened that I was more or less awake every time the alarm went off and I couldn't really think of anything better to do.

The only light at the end of the tunnel is the knowledge that eventually fear will take over. At some point, the race will seem close enough that I'll start to panic. Then the workouts will be easy. I'm just hoping that the panic comes far enough out to get into shape.

Until then, get those sheep out of here and leave the t.v. on.

Morning Work Out

Got up this morning and did a brick. 30 minutes on computrainer followed by a 20 minute run.  Not a barn burner but hey...I got up and did something.  Check the box baby. Check the box. 

Laguna is Spanish for "F'ing Cold"

The plan for today...park in sunny pine valley (temperature 55 degrees) and climb mount laguna. Turn around...descend. Get in car. Come home.

Sounds simple. When we were leaving the car, I debated as to whether or not I should wear my wind breaker. Since I had long sleeves on, I elected not to add another layer. Besides, once you start climbing you heat up. We started the climb and after about four miles, I thought I had made a good decision on the jacket. At mile five, I started seeing the snow! At mile six, I saw the people on sleighs!!! By mile ten...a full winter wonderland. By then, it was too late. What goes up must come down.

I was riding with Brit and Steph and at the top of the mountain we all knew that the descent was going to be a big problem. We just didn't know how big of a problem. I suspect that the wind chill on the way down must have been about five degrees. Maybe zero! We started down and after about a mile, I had the full body shakes and had to pull over. The cold was terrible but the real problem was handling the bike when I was shaking so badly. We had to go a mile or two and pull over to recover all the way down. A little of half way, it started sleeting! Are you serious???

Eventually we made it to the car and called it a day. Next time let's try the desert!

Steel sharpens steel

The great thing about training in a group is the ability to build on each other's motivation. Went down to the strand which is a flat and windy stretch on Coronado with Kebby, Brit, Steph and their friend Kellan.

What could have been a very weak workout grew into a strong day. We did a couple of six mile race pace trips up and down the strand to start. After about 25 miles of riding rather than head to the taco shop, we decided to do a one mile transition run. About a quarter of the way into the run, I realized we were popping along at a good clip. We were going up hill and hit the turn around at 3:47. Since it was down hill on the way back to the car, we decided to up the pace. Finished the mile at 7:03.

When we got home, Kebby, Steph and I did a good ab session. I'm hoping I can ad abs to the end of every workout now.

Decent start to the new year!