Pizza delivery man shoots, kills attempted robbery suspect – I had a friend back in the day who was robbed and shot while delivering pizza. Thankfully, he made a full recovery, but it was a long hard road. This outcome would have preferable to me. Word to the 321.
ZenTri Podcast 536 – What is Zen? – If you only listen to one podcast today about how Eastern philosophy can influence your training, make sure this is the one.
And…even if you aren't a triathlete but you'd to hear some plain talk ideas on how to get a little more clarity in general, you may dig this episode.
4 Reasons To Love Your Work – I'm batting .750 here. I'll take it. That part where you "actually like meetings" is a tall order.
Should Non-Celiac Endurance Athletes Go Gluten-Free? – I'm realizing that diet is the hardest piece of the endurance puzzle to figure out. Race-time nutrition isn't the concern for me as much as every day living.
Macca’s Musings: The Soul Of Triathlon – A great read. How cool would it be to look up and see Macca racking his bike next to yours? I wonder if he made the podium. 🙂
The 25-Hour Work Week, And Other Radical Ideas For Better Employee Productivity | Fast Company | Business + Innovation – Not saying this would work for everyone, but it works for me. Start with two assumptions: 1) I'm a responsible adult who can effectively manage my time to get the work done 2) I take pride in my work and actually want to do a good job. The result is someone who feels valued and that they can make a difference where they are. People like that don't go looking for some other place to be.
I’m getting ready to gear up for another heavy period of training, and I’ve got plans coming out my ears. The interesting thing is that I’m going to be going from a relatively short (Olympic distance) triathlon to a marathon about 10 weeks later. How do you plan for that? I really liked training on feel for the spring, and I’ve let that carry over into the summer.
What I like most about training on feel is the feedback loop that doesn’t exist in a training plan. When I’m tired, I rest. When I know I have more, I give it. Scheduled plans don’t account for this, and it can get you (or at least me) all out of whack.
Or course, the logical solution is a coach. But that’s pricey…doesn’t fit into my budget.
I’ve noticed something about the way people choose coaches that’s seems a little strange to me. I see a lot of posts containing comments about the great results their coaches have posted–not for their clients, but for themselves. I’m sure a fast athlete has a ton of insight and knowledge that can help the average age-grouper improve, but I think I’d choose a coach based on the results they’ve achieved for their clients.
Looks like a ton of people took my advice and registered for the Space Coast Marathon/Half this year because both races are completely full–nice to get some affirmation that this blog has so much influence! 😉
I’m registered and running the full in support of Miles of Love, which is my favorite local charity. Seriously thinking of trying something new this year. Considering running with no watch and no HRM. I’ll just run on feel and I’ll get what I get time wise. The only thing giving me pause is a nutrition plan, but I can probably base that on mileage instead of time. There’s no way to avoid knowing how deep into the race you are on such a well-marked course.
Testing this out at Battle of the Bridges Triathlon in September. I should be able to manage 2.5 hours of racing without electronic feedback. I don’t ever know where I am time/HR wish in the swim anyway. And I’m doing a lot of biking in the 1-1.5 hour range, so I should be used to doing that on feel too. For the run, I’ll just have to let it all go when I feel like I can do so and still hang on.
This is all part of the giant scheme of “untraining” I”ve been experimenting with. I don’t do anything according to schedules other than following what Trainerroad says to do when I decide to bike.
I swim when I feel like I should. That means not much.
I run when I feel like I should, for as much as I feel like I should).
I bike when I feel like I should.
I do intervals when I feel like I should, probably not often enough.
Most importantly, I rest when I feel like I should.
Volume for everything is up in general. I think I’m a volume guy in general, and I think training plans hold me back. The important thing is that I’m having fun…my chances of setting world records are diminishing.
Of course, this will once again be my last marathon. Unless I have a horrible race and don’t PR…then I’ll consider it again.
The 10 Fittest Cities In America – Would like to see a similar article on the 10 "fightest" cities in America. Real fighting…not gun fighting. Sorry Chicago.
Men Over 40 Should Think Twice Before Running Triathlons – I usually think about triathlon at least twice while making coffee in the morning. I didn't know I could consider that part of my morning training routine, but it's nice to have one more item to check off the list.
Looking at the results from Rocketman, I was in 26th place coming off the bike in my age group. I finished 17th in my age group overall.
I passed nine people in my age group during T2+Run. Four of those people were already ahead of me after the swim, and the other five passed me on the bike.
I’m happy about catching 9 people. But I’m happier about this–nobody in my age group passed me on T2+Run. I’m not a tremendous runner or anything. This is just because of having a thought out race plan and sticking to it.
Here’s something more telling that should prove it.
For all males, I picked up 42 spots overall in T2+Run (from 136 to 94).
One guy passed me. I passed 43.
So by holding back on the swim and bike, I put myself in the position to catch a lot of people on the run.
Not that I’m racing anyone…seriously I’m not. But this confirms that holding back on the bike got me my best possible time overall. It’s interesting to look at the run splits compared to bike splits of other athletes. You can totally tell who blew up.
I feel bad for them. I’ve been there, and it’s no fun.
70.3 is a running race. I’m more convinced now than I ever was.
A big part of what goes on in a triathlon is mental. The longer the distance, the more mental it becomes. Maybe “mental” isn’t even the right word. “Psychological” probably fits better.
I totally get obsessing about the details of a long distance event. But I try to keep the obsession part limited to things I can control. Those are the things that will ultimately have the greatest impact on my performance.
My training into the race.
My diet and nutrition.
My taper.
My sleep in the days leading up.
My bike maintenance. Ok…I don’t obsess about everything.
Now I’m not saying I don’t want to know as many race details as I can beforehand–I still want to know as much as I can as soon as I can. And I understand being frustrated when there don’t seem to be many details as race day nears. Those details are vital to know for race day preparation, which is something I have complete control over and starts at least a week in advance, especially when traveling.
Then again, not having those details gives me less to obsess about. I can just plan for the worst and be done with it. Then if something changes for the better, the race gets easier.
But focusing on the perceived negatives of those details (wave start times, aid station locations, transition open/close times, etc.)–I don’t see any upside to that. Focusing on what I don’t like about race director decisions isn’t going to get me anywhere on race day. Those are things that can be considered after the race is completed and I’m considering whether or not to do an event again.
I’ve been one-and-done on a few races because of horribly inaccurate course measurements and the lack of officials to stop my competition from cutting a course, but those are decision I made once the race was over.
Before and during the race, you have to play the hand you are dealt. Otherwise, you are basically making a conscious decision to have a bad race.
There are already plenty of negative surprises that can crop up during a race that I’m going to have to deal with, so why add others to the list that I simply can’t control.
I hope I never have to change two flats early in the bike leg. But if I do, I’ll be glad I didn’t worry about the fact that my favorite flavor gel wasn’t served at the aid stations.
IMtx 70.3 (BETA) – If you're training for or considering a 70.3, this podcast has an unbelievable amount of good information and tips. If I could afford a coach, Coach Brett would be my guy.
A Sunny Outcome: Why Florida’s Startups Are Soaring High – The perfect place for tech startups I think. No state income tax and great weather. Plus, look at the soil around here Stuart–you can't build on it. You can't grow anything in it.
A field guide to the Meeting Troll – "The meeting troll has a neverending list of reasonable objections. It's the length of the list that makes the objections unreasonable."
This was a really fun event! Great turnout, with 80 first-time triathletes competing! How cool!!!
It’s really good to see the local scene grow like that. I know not everyone is going to get hooked and start training/racing a lot, but every little bit of growth is great. We have great weather for year-round training and a bunch of local and big-time events within a few hours of here, and that’s just the triathlons. The running and biking scenes are big too, so there’s always something to do.
If the turnout for the kids race is any indication, the sport is going to explode in about 10 years. And from what I saw, swim times are about to drop dramatically. These kids are fish…all of them. Competition at Olympic distance races is going to get tight. Hopefully that means there will be more of them soon. I love that distance.
Oh yeah…swimming. I didn’t do the whole race, but I swam on the Miles of Love relay team, and we won! I was definitely nervous because (1) I’m not a front of the pack swimmer, especially as a sprinter and (2) Everything changes when you’re on a team and the other two people are counting on your performance. It looks like the work I’ve been putting in on the swim (but I still need a lot more) is paying off. Luckily, the swim is by far the shortest leg of the event, so I didn’t have a huge impact on our time.
I picked out a kid in the same color cap (relays and 55+) I knew would beat me at the start. He was a real swimmer–wearing swimming gear instead of tri gear. He whooped me pretty good; about 40 seconds. Luckily I found the feet of the 2nd fastest swimmer in our cap at about the midpoint and followed him most of the way in. I think he beat me by about 3 seconds, so I feel good about how I executed that. It was hard hanging onto his feet, even with the draft. But it was nice to let him do the sighting and just focus on staying behind him. Side-by-side, he’s definitely more than 3 seconds faster than me.
The best part for me was that I got to swim at the front of a wave instead of the middle. I relished that opportunity–probably the only one I’ll ever get. What a difference it makes when you aren’t being pummeled from every angle! The only real difficult part was navigating through a group of swimmers from the wave before ours. That’s when I lost the guy I was following, but we didn’t have far to go at that point, so I just pulled as hard as I could.
Transitions were super-smooth for our team. It’s really nice when you don’t have to do anything except hold your foot out and let someone else move the chip. Our cyclist (Tom) KILLED it. He was wearing a Go-Pro camera–check out the video! I can’t report on his leg, but the video speaks for itself. He didn’t get passed by anyone and had one of the top bike splits over all. Pretty good for a guy jacked up on Sudafed with nasty chest congestion!
T2 was just as smooth as T1. I felt bad for our runner (Beth) having to wait for the two of us to finish before she could start. I know how anxious I was, and I got to go first. Tom and Beth are both really competitive, so there was a bunch of nervous energy going on. I’m sure she was relieved to get the chance to just run. After T2, we hung out in transition and watched the minutes on my watch tick by as we waited for other relay cyclists to come in. Tom gave us a huge cushion, and Beth brought it home strong! It’s pretty easy to report on Beth’s portion of the race: It was a 5k. 5ks hurt!
The most nerve-wracking part of the whole day was waiting results to be posted. That’s usually not something I even consider. I’m so MOP, especially since I’m not Clydesdale eligible any longer, that official results/standings just don’t have any meaning to me in individual events.
A huge thanks to the organizers, lifeguards, volunteers, and Brevard County Sherrif’s Department for keeping us safe, hydrated, and fed for this event!
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.
It’s not just about the Finisher’s T-Shirt – Man…some really good points here. The one exception to this for me is Kona. Do the pros owe it to the AGers to stick it out and finish there?
Jay Leno’s Ratings Rise as He Taunts NBC – Ummm…Stone Cold Steve Austin and Vince McMahon figured out that publicly fighting your boss generates ratings years ago. #WatchMoreRasslin
Triathlon Is What You Make Of It – While I was on the bike last night I was watching a documentary on Jon Fitch (UFC Fighter). He mentioned that one of the things he really likes about MMA is that there's some honesty in it–no shortcuts, no way to cheat the system. These are things we seen a lot in other parts of life. I think that applies to triathlon as well. From the first to cross the finish line to the last, just about everyone on race day personally gets out of it what they put into it.
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.
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.
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.
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.
