Scott Adcox

Doing More With Less Since 1972

Tag: training (Page 3 of 7)

The Good, Bad, and Ugly of Brick Workouts

April 11, 2013 / / 0 Comments

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Yesterday’s post started a little bit of an interesting discussion about bricks over on Google+. At the same time, this thread over on Beginner Triathlete was going on talking about the same thing. There seems to be a wide spectrum of opinion out there about the value of bricks for 70.3 distances and beyond. I see the points on all sides, but I think I fall some place in the middle.

What I have to say on the subject is a little long for posting in either of those places. Luckily, I have this venue. Now, I’m by no means telling anyone else what they should do. I’m not a coach, and I’ve probably given out more bad advice than good over the years.

Like everyone else, I used to swear by bricks and ran a 10% run after every bike ride. Why did I swear by them and do them so religiously? Well…because everyone else did. Now I’m not so sure that was a good idea, but it fit into my general training M.O. back then–empty the tank every single time you train. If you aren’t willing to empty the tank, don’t bother training.

Needless to say, I skipped a lot of workouts back then.

Remember, these are just my observations and opinions about what seems to work for me. I’m using “I” and “me” everywhere I can. Feel free to collect your own test data.

The Good

  • For beginners. I think bricks are vital for two reasons when you are first starting out. First of all, you need to know what you’re legs are going to feel like coming off the bike. Secondly, you need to know how long it’s going to last. If you don’t know these two things before your race, you’re in for a really big shock. But really–if you’ve been doing this for a few years, does that feeling freak you out any longer? It’s like a horror movie–really scary the first time, but when you already know what’s coming and have watched it over and over…meh.
  • For sprint training. I get the upside of “learning to run on tired legs” if you are going to need to go hard for the whole race. It kind of goes back to the first point of knowing how long the feeling is going to last and being able to mentally push on through that and keep going hard until it’s gone.
  • For testing a nutrition plan. A run of a few miles after a long bike ride will let you know pretty early on if you ate enough and hydrated right while riding. This can be pretty hard to figure out, and it may take a few sessions to dial it in. I actually think this is a HUGE upside to doing VERY EASY bricks for long distance training. But I don’t do any more of these than I have to.
  • For squeezing in a couple of workouts on limited time. Sometimes I have only one chance to workout on a day, but I need to get two in. This is an effective way to squeeze it in without having to prepare twice. Might as well make it a transition practice while you’re at it.
  • A race rehearsal. Not the entire race, just what you plan on doing out of T2. For me, that means thinking about cadence, form, and keeping the pace down. Yeah…I said keeping the pace down. A one mile run is more than enough distance for me to do this.

The Bad

  • For building aerobic endurance. Maybe there’s no detriment here either, but I don’t see any real value. If that’s the goal of the workout, why not get in the pool and swim instead? I’ll get all the benefits of the aerobic work without any of the pounding I get while running. Not that I recommend that either–swimming after cycling is probably begging for your technique to be destroyed. On second thought, that’s probably a benefit in my case. Aerobic and Anaerobic aren’t the same thing, and that’s important to remember for the second point.
  • “Learning to run on tired legs” for anything longer than an Olympic distance race makes no sense to me. For 70.3 races and up, why not  “learn to ride a bike for a few hours without tearing my legs up” instead? That means staying aerobic on the bike instead of deliberately trashing myself so I can go out and run a bunch of *ahem* shitty miles with bad form and throwing myself into anaerobic zones just to maintain some pre-determined pace I think I ought to do. Not casting stones if you do this. I’ve done it. A lot. I just don’t think it paid off for me.
  • Trashed isn’t just for today. I pay the price for a few days. I have to think of what a long hard brick does to me going forward. If I go out and do a 60m/10m brick on a Sunday and intentionally trash my legs during this workout, I’m sacrificing Monday completely, and probably at least part of my Tuesday, and maybe Wednesday as well. And what do I get out of it really? Maybe I prove to myself that I could do it? I’ve already done that. Again, I do try to get in a couple of long bricks in the middle of my training plan to test my nutrition plan, but I make sure the run is super easy–like “holy crap, I’m embarrassed by this pace and don’t really want to post it to DailyMile”  easy.

The Ugly

  • They take a really long time. I’m lucky to have the best and most supportive girlfriend* in the whole world. She gives me Saturday and Sunday mornings to do what I need to do to train. A 2-3 hour workout means that I’m usually home by 9:30 or 10:00 at the latest on both Saturday and Sunday. She’s never complained once. She’s even ok with me turning that into a 5 hour workout occasionally if it’s a nutrition test day. But I’d feel guilty about leaving her to deal with our three heathens for a whole day every single weekend. She does it all week already…weekends are when she has a chance for some help, and I don’t want to deny her that.
  • “What do you mean ‘all day’? Five hours is not all day!” Well, it would turn into all day if I went out and bricked it hard. Sure, I may be gone for only 5 hours, but I’m definitely going to need a nap that afternoon. And I’d be pretty worthless (bonked) even when I’m awake–basically one more heathen to care for. I know how I end up on the afternoons after a race–not fun for her.

So there you have it. I’ve learned this stuff (for me) mostly by experience and reading what coaches (love Coach Brett) have to say about it. Go ahead and rip it to shreds.

But before you do, consider this one little tidbit…

After tapering, you have ~2,000 calories worth of glycogen in your liver and muscles. You cannot process food fast enough to replace these calories at the rate you’re burning them while racing, no matter how much or what you eat. If you go out and “trash your legs” by going anaerobic, you’re going to be using those calories instead of using your fat stores for energy. Every notice how it seems like so many people hit the wall at mile 20 in a marathon? That’s why. Once those calories are used up, you are bonked.

For me, it’s mile 18, probably because I’m a little bit heavier and much more inefficient, so I burn the same amount of calories to go 18 miles most people do for 20. Another hard lesson (hopefully) learned.

So it makes complete sense to me to stay aerobic in most of my training (with some intense intervals thrown in here and there) and teach my body to burn the fat better. It’s just a simple math problem. In the perfect race, I’d start burning that stored up glycogen about 2,000 calories from the finish. The perfectly executed race plan would see me start my run on legs that aren’t tired and make sure they stay that way so I can finish on strong legs. So even in a brick, there’s no way I want to go hard on a bike and “learn to run on tired legs”.

The only benefit I see there is that you get to bonk. And from that, you learn that you never EVER want to bonk again if you can help it.

*Yes, we’re married, but we still like each other a lot, so I still call her my girlfriend.

[Image Credit]

Realistic 70.3 Expectations

April 10, 2013 / / 2 Comments

 

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If I learned anything from my last 70.3, it’s…well, actually I learned a lot of things.

  1. Don’t set time goals for these distances. They aren’t anything like running races. The number of variables beyond your control is almost infinite, and you can’t just power through the obstacles you are presented the way you can in a sprint tri.
  2. Managing yourself should be the real goal. It’s one of the few things in the race you do have control over, and (for me anyway) the hardest part to master. If you can control yourself by keeping HR, power, perceived effort, or whatever measurement you use in check, you have a much better chance at getting the best possible time on race day given the conditions you are presented with. We’ll see soon if I’ve actually learned this.
  3. What you can do with these sports individually is almost meaningless. I tested myself at 400 yards all-out yesterday and got a personal non-race best of 6:30. I was very happy with that, but it’s pretty meaningless considering it was in a pool, with a wall, with only one other person in the lane, and with nothing to do afterwards. If you think the time it takes you to bike 56 miles translates to what you can do on race day, you’re probably pretty close to being right. Of course, you’re going to give back all that time and more on the run because of it. Your half marathon time is pretty meaningless as well. Maybe the second half of a full marathon is a little more accurate? Maybe.
  4. Don’t set time goals for these distances. Did I say that already?

I was pretty lucky when I did my first 70.3. I was severely under-trained. My buddies I was racing with liked to joke about my 5-6 week taper. I was scared to death of the distance. I spent most of the Saturday before the race watching the weather and hoping the race would be cancelled. I spent the pre-race time that morning looking at the lightening feeling relieved that the race would be cancelled. The race went on, and I didn’t race it. I did the course, but I didn’t “race” until the last 5k. I was able to go all out for the last mile and came away feeling great and having met my original time goal.

But that was just dumb luck as a result of respecting the distance and knowing I wasn’t trained to go at it hard.

My approach to training has changed quite a bit since then.

My last time out, I was pretty well trained, but not very confident in my run. I hadn’t done much running distance for a few years. I trained for months at a HR that was WAAAAAAAY too high–I practically lived in Zone 3. On race day, I was a little disappointed in my swim, soI took it out on the bike course. I came out of T2 “grinnin’ like a possum eatin’ saw brar”.

But the run course had the last laugh.

The plan was to PR by 15 minutes. The result was missing a PR by 15 seconds.

So there are no time goals this year. I have goals, but they are very different.

Swim: For the first time, I’ve put in good work on the swim. My easy pace is a touch slower than my hard pace, but I’m happy with how the easy pace feels, and form doesn’t fall apart. All I want to do is comfortably complete the course breathing every 3 strokes. If I have to speed up for a bit and breathe every other stroke, that should only go on for 10 breaths. Focus on exhaling and thinking “PULL!”

Bike: Keep the heart rate at ~125 for the first half of the course and ~130 for the second half. Last time out I averaged 145, and I thought that was a good thing. What?!?!?! Take splits every 30 minutes to check the average and be mindful of how it is increasing. The bike computer will not ever display current speed or average speed. Only elapsed time. That’s all. If I feel like doing math, that will give me something to pass the time.

Run: Keep the heart rate below 142 for the first 7 miles, keeping the 30 minute split checks going. At 7 miles, I’ll assess how I’m feeling and possibly let it go up to 150. If still feeling ok at 1o miles, let it rip.

We’ll see how this plays out and what I learn from it. Mistakes will be made…a perfect race is next to impossible. The key will be to realize the mistakes in the moment and try to come up with a work around.

 

 

Daily Reading List — March 29th

March 29, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Bike Trainer Workouts for Every Distance – Been kinda going on my own so far this season. Race in a few weeks, then going to focus on Sprint for a while before ramping up to another 70.3 in the Fall.

Unfit for Work: The startling rise of disability in America | Planet Money – A person on welfare costs a state money. That same resident on disability doesn't cost the state a cent, because the federal government covers the entire bill for people on disability. So states can save money by shifting people from welfare to disability. And the Public Consulting Group is glad to help.

Higher Ed bubble in two charts – Lots of graveyard whistling going on around this topic.

HBO Mulls Making HBO Go Available to Non-Cable Subscribers – Sign us up.

Some Random Training Notes

March 26, 2013 / / 0 Comments

I went to a running form clinic last night put on by Running Zone and New Balance, and I was both encouraged and surprised. Encouraged because I came away with one thing I can do to help my running immediately–increase cadence. Surprised because I found out my foot strike is actually pretty good. I’m guessing my supination is the culprit for my heel wear?  I mean, my strike definitely is not perfectly mid-foot (working on it), but it’s not too bad.

Cadence is the big thing I can change.

Purchased this month: Loving the Ninja BL660 Blender we bought this month. The best feature is the single serving cup…you can blend right into the cup you’re going to drink out of. Smoothie consumption is at an all-time high in our house, and I’m getting a much bigger daily dose of green veggies because of it. Oh yeah…much cheaper than the Vitamix too!

Planned purchase for next month: Roku 3. We already own a first generation Roku that’s still going strong. So why upgrade now? One really cool feature–the remote has a headphone jack. I’ve been using the tablet to watch movies while I’m on the spin bike because I ride at night a lot while everyone else is asleep. I can’t really use the TV because I’d have to turn it up so loud to overcome the noise of the bike. Roku 3 will let me watch the TV while I train, keep things quiet for everyone else, and not have to worry about keeping the tablet charged or plugged in.

Racing in the heat suggestions. Thanks to Coach Brett and the ZenTri podcast for these tips:

  1. Try to train in the hottest weather you can. Avoid cold conditions. CHECK
  2. Lose as much weight as you can to minimize your insulation. CHECK
  3. Baseball-style cap instead of visor for the run. You can put ice in the hat–can’t do that with a visor. Learned this one last year.
  4. Arm Coolers–put ice sponges from the aid stations into the tops. Need to get arm coolers Picked up some of these…wow, they work GREAT!
  5. If you’re coming from a cooler climate, assume you are going to need a lot more water than you’re used to. Not a problem for me.

 

Full Taper Mode

March 18, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Received this email from a friend who’s coming to do Rocketman 70.3.

He isn’t training…he’s just going to show up and do the race.

I am in full taper and playing with a very cutting edge technique….I imagine my full workouts and “trick” my body into feeling as though it has properly trained. This takes a very strong mind to be effective and an even stronger imagination.  Real JEDI shit, not for beginners!  I fully expect to be in top form come race day….my results will talk for me.
Good luck, Suckuz!

As I explained to him, when he can only beat me by 30-45 minutes, he’s going to wish he’d taken this more seriously.

A Reason To Race – Annabelle’s Dad – Eleonore Rocks

March 8, 2013 / / 0 Comments

I have some friends coming in to race Rocketman 70.3 with me–one from California, one from Tennessee, and two from North Carolina. Actually, I’ve never met one of the guys from NC, Adam.

Adam is coming down with Dirty Matt. And a friend of Dirty Matt’s is a friend of mine.

Just to stir the pot, I sent out an email asking how everyone’s training was going and where everyone logged/shared their workouts. Obviously, my only intention here was to get some trash talk and good-natured insults started.

Adam was the first to respond. Like just about every other triathlete, he has a blog.

But his blog is different. A lot different.

On October 31st, 2010 my beautiful wife and I became parents for the first time. That’s the day I became Annabelle’s dad. Annabelle was a beautiful, delicate, incredibly tough little girl. She was born with a neural tube defect called anencephaly, cutting her short life to a beautiful 41 minutes.

I had to stop right there the first time I read it. I’ve re-read it several times since, and it gets me every time.

Annabelle

That’s simply unfathomable.

Now Adam races to honor the memory of Annabelle. The charity he supports, Eleonore Rocks, provides rocking chairs to parents of terminally ill children. They aren’t engaged in a multi-year effort to cure anything. They just want to bring a little bit of comfort to families who have limited time with their kids.

Adam isn’t raising money for a free race entry or to win a new bike. His goal is to raise $4,100–$1 for each of Annabelle’s heartbeats he and his wife got to share with her.

Please consider sponsoring “One Minute” to honor Annabelle’s memory–more if you can. Adam is committing hours and hours of blood, sweat, and tears.

I know not everyone has the means to make a contribution. But you can still help:

  • Share Adam’s story with your friends and family using Facebook, Twitter, Google+, email, fax machine, whatever
  • If you have healthy children of your own, never forget how fortunate you are.
  • If you are physically active, take a minute during your next swim/bike/run to appreciate your own health.
  • If you aren’t physically active but have been thinking about getting started, do it. Today.

 

Facts

March 4, 2013 / / 0 Comments
  1. The number of showers I take a week is directly proportional to the number of non-swim training sessions I complete.
  2. The Missus has at least one reason to encourage me to train. Obviously.
  3. The number of disgusting items abandoned in the laundry room and various showers to be worn again before washing is directly proportional to the number of non-swim training sessions I complete.
  4. I don’t care how bad it stinks–I’m just going to stink it up again. So unless it runs away when I try to pick it up and wear it, I’ll wear it again.
  5. The Missus has at least one reason to discourage me from training. Obviously.
  6. When The Missus informs me that I have fresh, clean gear, it is more beneficial politically to simply say, “Thank You!” instead of “Well, I’ll enjoy that for a half mile or so until it’s just as disgusting as it was.”

Training Ups and Downs

February 13, 2013 / / 0 Comments

These are happening right in the heart of the time in a program when I get a little bored and take my foot off the gas. Luckily, I’m not using a training plan this time around.

I was travelling last week and have a cold this week, but in between I was able to squeeze in a brick over the weekend–two hours on the bike followed by an hour run. Got in a recovery rid the next day too.

Motivation shouldn’t be a problem though. I have a bunch of friends doing Rocketman. Three of them are guys I’ve known for 20 years, all better athletes than me, and are coming into town just to do the 70.3 and hang out for the weekend. Pissing contest in 3,2,1…

Of course, they say they aren’t training, planning to “just finish”.

Right. That’s exactly the kind of guys they are.

Rocketman 70.3 – A Man Without A Plan

January 26, 2013 / / 0 Comments

You’re supposed to do something every day that scares you, right?

Every day from now to May 5, I’m going to scare the crap out of myself by training for the inaugural Rocketman 70.3 with absolutely no training plan. When I feel like I need to train hard, I will. And when I feel like I need to rest, I will. I’m training purely on feel.

The genesis of this was that every plan I’ve looked at (the free ones anyway) have much lower volumes for swim and run than I’m looking to do in training. I want to show up on race day thinking those distances are short. I don’t want to use the plan as an excuse to be lazy, either. I think I have a tendency to do that, sometimes rationalizing it by thinking, “well, that’s what the training plan says to do.”

So I started off the first couple of weeks of training just throwing my own workouts together, and I kind of like it. In fact, I’ve stopped looking for a program.

I also like being able to stir the pot and mix things up. For instance, last night I just Googled “3000 yard swim workout” and used the first one that came up with a little bit of variation. I like not necessarily knowing what’s coming next.

We’ll see how it goes. I wanted to really shake things up from the past year, starting with a different marathon plan in the fall. Having no plan at all is definitely different. But my run and swim volumes are up from last year, and I’m not bored or exhausted yet.

Having some swim coaching has definitely helped the motivation there because the stroke is changing and I know I’ll need a lot more yards than I’ve every done previously to be able to put that on auto-pilot.

I’m still looking for some gold star non-training plan workouts to throw myself as surprises here and there. Suggestions are welcomed!

Daily Reading List — January 23rd

January 23, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Actual Facebook Graph Searches – This is loaded with awsum. FB unlike avalanche in 3,2,1…

Small Expenses Add Up – When you start tracking where every penny goes, it can be a rude awakening. Adding up my Cool Beans budget changed my life. Sorry Howie.

A Recovery Program for Homeschool Split Personality Disorder – Sometimes it's less like Jeckyll and Hyde–more like Gollum and Smeagol. Must educate Precious.

Fear Not The Swim – Some good stuff here. I always dismiss fears of the swim with, "ah…that's the easy part". Probably should point them to stuff like this instead.

Modified Half Murph – New World Record

January 17, 2013 / / 0 Comments

My favorite thing about coming up with my own timed workouts is that I get to hold all the world records.

There’s a Crossfit workout I really like called “Murph”: For time–run a mile, 100 pullups/200 pushups/300 squats, run a mile.

I did a workout today that’s sort of a modified half-Murph. The exercises are halved, but the run distances are doubled. So it’s run 2 miles, 50 pullups/100 pushups/150 squats, run 2 miles.

The idea, obviously, is to put more focus on running endurance and less on strength. I still think it’s a really good strength workout though because it hits the lats and pecs for swimming, and it burns your thighs up pretty good too, which lets you get a taste of what it feels like to get off the bike and run. Forgot my HRM, but I think this is pretty good practice for controlling pace after T2 and getting the heart rate under control before trying to press a run. That’s something I need lositz work on.

Today’s results

Miles 1-2: 20:19

Pullups/Pushups/Squats: 17:03

Miles 3-4: 21:13

I Need A Pissing Contest – Why I’m Going To Get Coaching

January 4, 2013 / / 0 Comments

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I’m pulling the trigger and getting some coaching this year.

I’ve been quasi-diagnosed with ODD by some lesser-known psychologists, but I’m actually pretty coachable. The way I look at it, if I’m paying someone (or committing my time even) for coaching, I’m going to be all-in and do what they ask of me. Even if that’s at odds with the way I’m used to doing things.

People who know me may read that and think I’m delusional for saying it, but I’m a slave to a training schedule. I do what it says. Most of the time anyway. And I trust it–sometimes to a fault. That’s what it means to be coachable–trusting the coach and doing what they say to do. No questions.

But I can read the research and follow a schedule on my own. That’s part of the reason I’ve never sought out any coaching for triathlon. Well, that, and I’m cheap.

I don’t need a coach to motivate me to do something I love, right? And I’m pretty hard on myself during training. I know how to dig down deep and get more from my body than it wants to give.

I’m a “pusher”.

At least I thought I was before last year. But 2012’s results have me a little worried that is no longer the case.

Let me back up…

When I first started training to run distance in 2003, I’d been playing rugby pretty much continually for 10 years. A lot of rugby training translates to endurance sports, so it was really easy transition for me. I already had pretty good endurance and strength base, with an especially strong core.

Yes,there are muscles under there.

In that 10 years, I’d never let my fitness go either, and I was used to a rigorous training schedule. There were off-seasons in rugby, but that was a lot like recovery periods for endurance training, and I always kept up my maintenance training during those times as well.

I’m not claiming I was ever the fittest guy on the team, but I was often the fittest guy over 200 pounds.

But more importantly, I had built up a gritty mentality. All of our squad training and most of my training outside was done with the same group of guys or a subset of them. That meant you always had someone watching, even if there wasn’t a coach around. There was always someone there to see you quit. There was always someone who would know if you were bagging it during a sprint. There was always a guy in the weight room who could lift more and would push you to lift more. Everyone had little injuries and hurts at all times, and there was always someone hurt worse than you who was still playing.

It made for a very testosterone driven atmosphere. That was a good thing. I’m not saying that it motivated everyone to push themselves to their limits, and I’m not claiming I always did either. I had my share of lazy days. But that atmosphere and the fact that not everyone was lazy on the same days kept the bar set at a pretty high level at all times. You knew the days you didn’t reach that expectation, just like you knew which guys didn’t care if they ever reached it.

And some of us never wanted to be “that guy”.

So you pushed. You didn’t have a choice.

That was the mentality I had when I started training for endurance sports, and for the next 3 years. Even when I went through periods of what I like to call “taper-training“, where I was really lazy, I could always show up on race day and find some push.

Fast-forward to January 2012. I decided to get back into training for long distances. I decided to kick it off with a 70.3, but I wasn’t really happy with those results. So I decided to do a marathon to try to fix what was ailing my run. And I wasn’t happy with those results either.

I stuck with the schedule for both of these events, and I was really happy with my effort level during training. So why didn’t I get the results I wanted?

I’m not one to beat myself up over that kind of stuff for long. But I have realized there’s a problem that goes beyond the fact that I’m getting older. Injuries and heat aren’t going to cut it for long term excuses either–those are just a fact of racing that everyone has to deal with. So the last few weeks I’ve been doing some reflection, and I think I know what may have happened. It all began at the beginning.

Here’s what my starting point looked like in 2012:

I hadn’t done anything more than an Olympic distance tri since 2006. 10k was the furthest I’d run. I was living in a house with 4 women. Granted, three of them were under 5 years old, but still, it’s pretty much a testosterone-free zone.

I was living in a new town, not actively playing rugby. So I didn’t have an expectation there to meet, and I didn’t even have the peer pressure of being around guys I used to train with and the pissing contests that were involved in everything they do (rugby, running, lifting, eating, drinking, skirt-chasing, etc.).

That, I think, is the real problem in a nutshell...I haven’t been living in a perpetual pissing contest.

And I like pissing contests. I need pissing contests.

I wasn’t coming into training in couch-potato shape or anything like that. I don’t think fitness is the problem at all. I think I may have forgotten what it’s like to push. I mean really push. I think it’s something I may have unlearned. I mean, I think I’m pushing during training, but how can I tell if I really am?

So that’s where coaching comes in. A coach can see what you’re doing from the outside and test you, make you run that one extra interval. A coach can throw you a surprise workout that an 18 week schedule can’t. A coach can disrupt everything. A good coach will do all of these things.

Hopefully, a coach can help me reset my definition of what “push” means.

So I’m starting a triathlon specific swim clinic at the gym on Tuesday. I’m hoping everything about my swim gets torn apart and rebuilt. I’m in a good situation to do that–my cardio is fine, so I can handle long workouts, but I haven’t been swimming enough lately to have my horrible habits burned into my muscle memory in the way they would have been if I was coming off a training plan.

I’m planning on a running coach for February and beyond too. I’m hoping to maybe fix some mechanics, and definitely fix my head.

If I’m completely wrong, and I don’t get pushed that much, at least I’ll get some information I didn’t have before, meet some training partners, get some new workouts, and a new source of accountability.

But I’m pretty sure I’m right about the pushing thing.

Haven’t Link Dumped In A While

December 28, 2012 / / 0 Comments

The Age Of Data Wars Dawns

Cool Ironman Kona Infographic – Check out the decrease in bike/run splits. And the fairly level swim splits.

The Future Of Working From Home – Things are definitely moving this way. I’m pretty sure if I had to go back to a normal office situation, I’d struggle with it.

Chrissie Wellington: The Mind Over Body Battle – And you think you suffer? Love hearing how this affects even the super-humans.

Easily Monitor and Manage all of your WordPress Sites with WP Remote – Thanks to @mwender for this one. Great time saver

Google Turns Turtle and Takes Street View Underwater – Coming soon to iPhone5!

Alternative ways to ride The Downward Spiral – I created a Spotify playlist based on this. A couple of the songs weren’t in Spotify, but I found some good substitutes. Just reading this makes me afeared.

Whoa, Dude, Are We Inside a Computer Right Now? – Is it wrong that this seems completely reasonable (and likely) to me?

Solo or Group? Train Your Way – I’ve been opting for the solo route a lot lately. It’s quiet.

How To Determine Your Long Run Training For Any Triathlon Distance – Some really good info here. It’s hard to train for a distance event and fill like you got enough running in. The truth is, you really just can’t, but you can get the optimal amount.

Accessing SharePoint Lists with SQL Server Integration Services SSIS 2005 –

Raising Children To Become Productive Adults – In short, walk it like you talk it. Applies to pretty much everything in life.

Simple Tips to Help Your Grocery Budget – As always, thanks to @couponkatie for all the amazing tips and deals she points us to!

A Glass All Empty – When your S.O. gets on the wagon. Both of us are for the most part…one due to pregnancy and nursing, the other due to choosing brownie calories over beer calories. Must to get faster, and those calories slows me down.

An Unexpected Ass Kicking | Blog Of Impossible Things

My Hatred Of The Marathon

November 27, 2012 / / 0 Comments

If I had a DeLorean equipped with a flux capacitor, I’d rev that thang up to 88 mph, take it back to ancient Greece, and wait behind a tree for Phidippides about 10 miles outside of Athens. I’d tackle him and make sure he never completed his 26.2 mile journey. But I’d be sure to spread the story of his valiant effort and encourage everyone to run 16 miles as the gold standard race distance to commemorate his failed quest.

Sixteen miles is far enough.

Ok, that’s a little extreme, but I really don’t like the marathon. I don’t think it has fond feelings for me either. My life’s plan was to run one marathon, run it under 4 hours, and never even consider that kind of distance again (Ironman aside). I achieved the first two goals.

Inexplicably, I’ve now run 2 more marathons than I ever wanted to run.

I just don’t enjoy these races the way other people do. That’s not the marathon’s fault. I know some people really love them. To each his own, right? But as I told The Missus just a couple of hours after my most recent experience at this distance, “I think I’ve realized that rugby is my sport–and I’m 5 years past playing that one.”

I’m not a natural runner. I’m not built to be a runner. But I do enjoy running. And I really like training for marathons. But the next time I think of signing up for one I need to be reminded of the deflated feeling I had after the very first one when I realized there was nothing on the schedule for the next Tuesday.

For some reason, I have a mental deficiency that forces me to put an actual race out there to train for instead of just training for training’s sake.

I need to fix that.

The money I pay to enter one of these races would be better spent on a few months at Masters’ Swimming. Or some Sufferfest videos to watch on the bike. Or a bike tune up.

Or some chicken wings.

Never again. For real this time.

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