DO WORK

Some times.....Things just don't go the way you plan. It's funny that way. I had big goals for CATS Half Ironman and I was 2/3's the way there when I drew the conclusion that today just wasn't going to work out the way I wanted.

The issue today was an ingrown toe-nail. Yep, never had one of those and had no idea what it was when I had it. After 2 miles and pain that felt like I had a knife in my big toe....I decided it was in my best interest to call it a day. The pain started yesterday afternoon around 4. I remember because I was laying in bed around that time trying to catch some shut-eye and I bumped my toe. I remember thinking....what the heck. Why does my freaking toe hurt? I've been battling pain from a a plantar's wart on the other foot for a couple weeks now and finally have it under control.....thanks to those little medicated disk you buy at the store....but now another foot issue. I went into the bathroom and looked down at my toe and didn't see anything weird. No redness, no cut....I was clueless. I figured some Neosporin and some rest and things would be fine. This morning was about the same and by the time I hit the run....my shoes and trying to run with proper form weren't making things any easier. Forced to slow down and run with an ackward gait I decided.....that's it, I pulled out and headed back to transition. Crappy thing was that I had to hoof it back down the hill.

As I headed back a couple athletes were kind enough to offer up some moral support or try and get me going again. Letting people know why I was walking in the opposite direction was just not something I was in the mood to do at this point. I just smiled and tried to offer some words of encouragement to everyone who went by. About halfway back to down the hill a 4-wheeler came out of nowhere and gave me ride back to the lake. I asked the guys in the medical tent what they thought and they assured me it was an ingrown toe-nail. Remedies: have it surgically removed (2-3 weeks without running and cycling....at least thats what they told me) or a do-it-yourself cut it out home remedy. Not sure how to go about this. I started trying to fix it but I'm not having any luck.

On the lighter side of the day: I PR'd my swim on the same course by 3 minutes 40 seconds (32:47). If that's not progress, I don't know what is. I was also able to PR my HIM bike by 2 minutes to go 2:29. Maybe next time I'll get the chance to run.....you know.....bring it all together. The good thing is that IM Florida's only 76 days away and I'll get my shot sooner rather than later.

After hanging out with Dave and making sure I saw and was there to congratulate a few athletes on a hard fought day, I grabbed a Gatorade and decided to head back to Dallas. I had about a 4 hour drive and wanted to get a head start on the journey.

As for now, I'll be day to day until I know what this things going to do....

Mg

Can I please say that training in the Texas heat is one hard thing to do! I spent the entire season last year training at high noon, and nearly half of this year doing the same thing. After speaking with Dave and getting the scoop on training quality and recovery, I knew it was time to reset my alarm clock and get the workouts done before noon. What does that mean to me, it means 98 hours worth of high quality training in the last 5 weeks.

The craziest thing about the past 5 weeks was that about 3 weeks ago, I was on the phone with Dave and Adam W. talking about moving my entry from IM Florida to an earlier race in order to get the training done and over with as soon as possible. I mean the heat was just getting to me. Completely screwing with my head and my energy levels, I literally broke down one night and lost it. Dave gave me a couple scenarios when he lived in Arkansas training for Kona and Lake Placid during the summer. "Unfortunately there's just no way around training in the morning", Dave said. "The biggest key is you have to get many of those sessions done FIRST THING in the a.m. or they are gone and worthless". The words "worthless" stood out more than any other. If you wake up and get out the door at 10 am for your 6 hour bike...that puts you deep into the sun and into 105 degree temperature around 3 pm and you still have an hour left to go. You might get this workout finished but how's your transition run going end? Quality...highly unlikely. What about tomorrow or the next day's workouts? Never mind the intenisty or duration of the ride, chances are your body will need double to triple the recovery time just from the sun alone.

The stress from the heat is an amazing toll that your body completely rejects. It's much easier for you body to adapt, recover, and excel in cooler weather training vs. the hot, humid and nauseating weather we see here every day. I can now see the reason most elites and top performing athletes move to colder weather climates vs. staying in the south during the worst part of the year. Utah, California, Colorado are all wonderful places to train, especially Southern California where the climate fluctuates very little. I can count on 20 fingers and toes athletes I know off the top of my head who have moved to colder weather climates from Texas in order to maintain strict training schedules and recover faster. What does this mean for them...train more and excel faster?

As for now, I feel good. Not wonderful, just good. The training has been really solid and I couldn't have made it through the last 5 weeks without Dave's help. He has truly been an amazing mentor and coach. I am one lucky person to have him around.

In a couple weeks I'll be headed to Arkansas for CATS Half Ironman. This is a race I've done the past 2 years and I can honestly say it's one of the best races I've ever done. An amazing course and an awesome race crew make this race come together quit nicely. The weather on the other hand can be pretty unpredictable. The past two years have been pretty bizarre to say the least, with temperatures in 2004 settling into a mere 70 degree. The morning water temperature was warmer than the outside air and the bike couldn't have gotten above 65. Let's just say the course times reflected that wonderful cool weather. Last year was just the opposite with temperatures reaching 105 and once again...course times reflected the horrible conditions. I don't know what this year will bring and I really don't care. What I do care about is bringing all 3 disciplines together for a solid day. This race brings some extra motivation as Dave is flying down to help with the race organization and it's announcing. It will be good to have his support there and look forward to the long overdue visit.

I'll post up again after the race. Time to play the waiting game.....

I recently headed out west for the Marble Falls triathlon. While I didn't have much energy to do this race, I was coerced by my good friend A. Wilk. I'm currently getting ready for CATS Half Ironman and IM Florida so the volume is coming up and the desire to race smaller, shorter distance races is becoming less attractive by the minute. After a long talk with Mr. Humble himself, I drew on a couple conclusions.....the race would have some serious competition, a challenging bike, and because it was a Grand Prix SMW Championship Race....I could snag some solid points for overall ranking at both the USAT level and local USAT-SMW level. Even if I was off my mark, I would still get an amazing workout, some good points, racing experience, and see a bunch of friends I hadn't seen in a while.

So here I am driving down to Marble Falls the day before the race. I'm sitting in the car thinking to myself, "what the heck was I doing". Not only was my volume up pretty big this week but I woke up and rode 50+ miles with a transition run this morning. This was no way to get ready for a race like this. Not only falling asleep at the wheel but I was headed south to a race with no race wheels. Whoohooo, at least I'll know what its like to race on tired legs.

I showed up to the race venue and headed straight over to Adam's camper where he and Laura were entertaining the two little girls. It was good to see AW as we hadn't hooked up since BSLT. Oh yeah, I needed to get some race wheels. Good ol' Adam leant me his 909 set and after a couple minutes chatting I was off to take care of business. Check into the hotel, drive the bike course, register, eat, and get the bike setup for a test ride that evening were some of the nice little jobs I had waiting for me. Wow, that took a lot out of me to even write. Ok, so all that's done and I'm off to bed.

I woke up race morning feeling pretty good. Headed over to transition...racked the bike...walked down to the lake....came back to transition and my rear tire was flat, NICE. Oh well, no disk today. Looked at the front wheel and it too had a problem...a nice little cut to make things interesting. Crap.... Not my morning. I quickly ran back to the hotel and changed both wheels to a Zero 050 front and a rear crappy Mavic training wheel. After all that, I had just enough time to grab my chip and lineup. Only 45 seconds was left before we entered the water.

Race was descent. For the swim, I just stayed relaxed and swam a steady pace. With all the commotion earlier I wasn't really in the mood to push the envelope. Got out of the water with a sub par time and hopped on the bike.

With a rear training wheel and a bearing shot, I knew I'd have to put a lot of stock into the bike just to stay close to the leaders. I rode hard, and when I say hard...I mean hard, a lot harder than I usually ride. Even though I rode my heart out, I wasn't very happy with my bike. With no race wheels, I felt as if my bike could have been better.

Here is reminder for next time you go to a race Mr. Mark. A disk, Blackwell 100, Zipp 808, HED3, or any rear aero wheel, not only gives an aero advantage, but all require less energy at higher speeds. There worth every single cent you can spend on them. Some of coarse better than others....but all in all, they provide an aerodynamic advantage otherwise not found in your everyday training wheels. The watts/energy it took to spin that 32 spoke wheel was far greater than I was accustomed to doing, that is....at the speed I was moving at. Man was I missing the aero high! Next race, no matter how insignificant....I'll be there with race wheels.

The run was fun. I left T-2 feeling great despite going so hard on the bike. All the Ironman training is started to pay off big. Going into mile one was pretty nice. Cleared mile 1, 2, and 3 in around 6:35 and decided to speed up and make a couple passes before the finish line. At mile 3 I left the person I was running with and cleared the 4th mile in 5:55. Not sure what the final .4 miles came out to, but all and all I was a fun race....especially the run. I enjoyed the solid effort I gave and always look forward to running as it has nothing to do with equipment or aerodynamics, just mano-a-mano.....you against the person your chasing....or who's chasing you.

In the end, I finished up 11th overall and 3rd in my age-group. After the race, I took off to Austin to hang out with an old friend.

See you at CATS...

RACETIME: 3hrs till race start:

• Alarm went off and I felt great. I slept alright; probably fell asleep around 11:00 p.m. after tossing and turning for 3 hours. It wasn't too bad as I took a 2 hour nap after lunch. After shaking of some sleep with half a can of Diet Coke, I ate 1 banana and a peanut butter and banana sandwich. After breakfast I felt pretty solid, a little full, but solid. Once I took a shower, shaved and got dressed I loaded the car and was off to the lake. At 5:20 we walked out the door (1hr 20min till race start). Grabbed some EAS Catapult for the drive over and was good to go.

RACETIME: 50 min till race start:

• Almost to transition but a long line of cars has got us backed up pretty good. It was a perfect time to dig in the bag and grab some EAS Muscle Armor and EAS V02 Peak. Now I was good to go, just need to get to transition and drop the bike off with time to get in the water. As I walked down the hill with Julie, the dogs and my bike, I noticed the clock said 6:10...30 minutes to go...gotta hurry. I got body marked, dropped the bike off, took a gel, made one last restroom stop and was off to the Lake. I managed to get in about 200 meters of warm-up before I needed to get out of the water and cross the matt to register my chip. Line-up time and I had two minutes to collect my thoughts before we went off.

RACETIME: 00:00

• The horn went off and we charged the water hard. I lined up at the front of the wave as I never like starting behind anyone. I didn't disappoint anyone since the guy next to me and I broke the hole open for everyone to follow. It didn't take but about a minute for 7 guys to swim by and give me a nice kick in the eyeball. Nice, that felt really good. At least it wasn't worse. What was worse was the bath water we were swimming in. There was no way that water was below 78 degrees. Maybe at the spring where the temperature was taken, it's always cold there. I was hot and when I say hot, I mean scorching. I felt like I was going to pass out. Next time I need to find myself into a sleeveless wetsuit. The swim wasn't near as bad as California as I would much rather deal with overheating than hypothermia. Cold water is just too hard for me to cope with. There were probably 4 or 5 times I wanted to quit. My head wasn't right during the swim. I had a hard time breathing because of the heat, and my body was starting to tingle. I really wish this swim went perfect as I've been putting in a lot of time in the water and would have really enjoyed a perfect day in the water. Just lessons along the way I need to learn. The swim wasn't all that bad as I got out of the water in 28:36. Finally that part of the race was over.

RACETIME: 00:30

• Bike time and a nice hill to start things off. After several conversations with my coach I took his advice and decided to roll with an 11/23 rear cassette. It was a perfect choice. I never stood once during any of the climbs and I mean never. I stayed controlled and enjoyed the climbing process instead of struggling to get to the top. Once I hit the top it was smooth sailing as I never felt the need to recover from pushing a hard gear, just right back into rhythm. I opted to go with no heart rate monitor for this race, straight perceived exertion. After 10 miles on the bike my Garmin Edge 205 bike computer went out. It lost the satellite link and I was now without any speed data. That pissed me off since I wanted to see my speed average throughout the bike. Oh well, at least I had a watch on and could do the math every 10 miles at the markers. During the bike, I never felt like I was riding the edge, I felt smooth and fluid. For this race, it was about putting together a solid day and not just an amazing bike split. At about mile 45 my legs started moving pretty good, I felt really strong so I went with it. I just enjoyed the ride home and eased up once we got back into the park. I rode my own race, never chasing anyone, never letting anyone influence the way I rode, never swaying from what I wanted to do for the entire day. I jumped off the bike in 2:37. It wasn't the fastest bike split by a long shot, nor was it a PR, but it was completely controlled.

RACETIME: 03:09

• I wasn't sure how this run was going to turn out. It's an extremely hard run and I just don't have enough experience to know whether or not my legs will do what there supposed to. I decided to leave transition with one of the water bottles off my bike. Stay controlled was the thought running through my mind as I started the run. Stay hydrated, drink some fluids and get your legs together. Funny thing was, my legs were just fine. I never struggled to find my legs off the bike. I ran through mile 1 in 6:49. Way too fast is what I told myself, but don't run off pace...run on feel. So that's what I did and went through mile 2 in 6:40. Well this changed as I turned the corner and ran up the first hill, next mile came in 7:11. Oh my gosh did I struggle to keep running up that first hill. I kept telling myself to stay controlled and focus on getting to the top. The top came and I settled back down to a controlled pace. I cleared mile 4 in 7:37 after a flat section and downhill. Mile 5 was going to be tough as it was one of the hardest hills on the course. 7:54 was my pace and I was starting to get tired. Now came a long out and back false flat section. This stretch of road is in the middle of nowhere and it feels like it goes on for ever. Mile 6 came in 7:22, 7 came in 7:56, 8 came in 7:37, 9 came in 7:03 which was down the big hill at mile 4. Mile10 was up the last big hill of the day and it slowed me down to 8:10. After that I was pretty consistent with 7:30 min miles on the way home. At mile 11 my legs were starting to really feel like lead. I never stopped during the run and wasn't about to start. I focused on the two remaining miles and treated them like they were training runs I'd done so many times before. I finished the run in 1:38:31.

I came across the line in 4:47:45.

I was pleased with the day. I didn't make the trip to Lubbock for any other reason but to give the race everything I had. After the day was done, I did just that. I was very happy with the way I executed the race. My wife was there with our two little puppies which made the trip even more enjoyable. I'm very lucky to have her in my life, and I'm even more blessed that she enjoys watching me do what I love so much. On a side note, I want to say thank you to my amazing sponsors; EAS, Orca, Javelin, and Fuel Belt for all the support you give me on a day to day basis. A very important thank you goes out to Coach Dave Latourette who has been not only a coach but a mentor along the way.

This week I'll be taking a much needed easy week and will start my build process for Ironman Florida next week. My next couple races should be Marble Falls and then off the Arkansas for the CATS Half Ironman.

Talk to you soon....