Sometimes You Have Setbacks

This haa been a slow start to the training season. I am once again sick. I wish that I could tell you that I partied really hard on New Years Eve, but I was in Detroit on an overnight asleep by 9 PM so that I could get up in time to eat breakfast before the last day of a four day trip I was on for Southwest airlines.

I start every day of the year drinking an Emergen-C pack, an ELECTRO MIX pack, 1000 mg of Omega 3 Fish Oil and a Kirkland Premium Performance Multi Vitamin with minerals. I go out of my way to get at least 8 hours of sleep on the road during my trips so that the impact of changing time zones and working up to 14 hour days is not as substantial. I did not work out, or train over the last week and a half over the holidays, or over strain my body. Regardless I am sick right now and got bad enough to lose my voice.

While flying the friendly sky's 137 patrons at a time sharing recirculated air I have enjoyed the sickest year of my life. I workout regularly and try to give my body what it needs to fight off these issues, but find myself sick almost every other month. I can't seem to stay on track. This makes me very proud of how well things have gone in my training with a recovery period built in so often throughout my training. I feel very strongly that after a year I am close to an immune system on steroids. I am coming into contact with germs from all over the country and many cities that I had never been to before this year.

I am taking this in stride trying my best to make the most of it. If it was not sickness it could have been shin splints, or some other physical issue. In periods several months long of intense training there are always set backs. I'm just taking this one in stride with the rest. I hope that this is my last, but something tells me my immune system is still building up a defense against a nation of new germs.

My New Triathlete in the Making

This is a view with fingers pointing at the camera

A profile view of the whole body

You'll notice quickly that the pictures I've posted are ultrasounds. Yes, I am excited to say that my beautiful bride is 13 weeks pregnant. I have a child the size of a lime incubating in my wife's belly.

A forward view with fingers from right hand pointing at the camera

 This wonderful blessing will be showing up June 27th. I can't wait to meet this little person who will be at the center of our lives from that date forwards. I like to think that these photos illustrate perfectly that I have a future Ironman in the making. Look at how aerodynamic that head is, though hopefully over the next six months the legs will be a little more proportional.

close up profile of the upper body

profile of the whole body

Right now I hope that these photos do a good job of pointing out that at 13 weeks we have a healthy little baby growing and God willing it will stay that way. This will make some of my future training a little more interesting, but with strong support of family and friends I'm sure there will be enough time for a swim, bike, or run now and again.

If this doesn't work, I have pictured below my plans to start the training of my new protege as soon around the time crawling is achieved. As you can see, instead of a race belt I just attach the bib as an actual bib. Crawling is so close to free style that it will be effortless. I can have six more months to work out the running and cycling. I truly couldn't be more happy and will continue to post more pictures as my little Ironman to be develops.

TORTOISE & HARE SPORTS JINGLE BELL RUN 5km Run/Walk

I needed one more event this year to meet my requirements for the Wheaties Fuel Ambassadorship and the year is drawing to an end. This is only a 5k put on by 4 Peaks racing and not really intended to be competitive with people dressed up in all sorts of holiday outfits. I thought this could be a fun event to do with my wonderful wife and offered it to her. She happily accepted my offer and it was on.

There really was a Santa Running.

We woke up this morning at 6 am and had a normal start to the day. We wanted to get out there by 7:30 so that we could have an opportunity to hand out some Wheaties Fuel Samples. The run was located near our house by 43rd Ave and Pinnacle Peak Rd at the Victory Lane Sports Park. We were lead in to park in a dirt lot and met by smiling volunteers. They were still getting set up when we got there at 7:30 am which was the beginning of packet pick up. I had registered through Active.com and only had to walk up to the M-P sign and tell the volunteer our names to get our bibs and goodie bag. For such a small race they had a very high quality timing chip set up with race bands and real chips intended to be attached to your ankle via a velcro band.

behind me is the toys for tots table

I didn't realize that the event was sponsored by Wheaties Fuel already so this made it harder to hand out product being that everyone already had a box of it in their bag along with a coupon. The registration area also had a place for same day registration that was well run. There was a tent accepting non wrapped toys in return for a raffle ticket. The toys were part of a toys for tots program and the raffle was for various items from sponsors of the race. There was a local women's workout clothing company with cute running shirts my wife looked at and a tent offering free massages pre, or post race. A late arrival was a 5 hour energy tent giving out free samples of 5 hours energy. There were plenty of porta potties and lots of holiday cheer with Christmas music being played over large speakers the whole time.

they are small, but you can see the bells safety pinned to my laces and the corners of my bib

When picking up your bib at the registration tent there were jingle bells to attach to your shoes and bib for the race. This seemed like a wonderful way to do a jingle bell run so both my wife and I participated. I thought before I left that some jingle bells and a santa hat would be good along with all my Wheaties Fuel gear to represent my ambassadorship, but there were some very festive people. I saw several Santas, more elves, a couple abominable snowmen from Rudolph and even a walking Christmas tree. I liked that it was a race more about the spirit of it then the competition. I was also really impressed to see several people wearing couch to 5K shirts. I applaud anyone making the jump to an active lifestyle.

You can see the registration tent in the back ground while I hand out cereal to people

Handing out more product and giving out coupons to festive participants before our grueling 5K

I walked to each participant that left the registration tables holding their bag and offered samples of Wheaties Fuel as well as a coupon. I had a good reception from most and probably handed out samples to half the participants in the race. It is always great to spread the word about a product I eat every day and have already converted most of my immediate family into eating. After handing out everything we went back to the car to drop off everything before the big race. This was a great time to take a picture with our shirt from the event before things started.

The race itself was over trail like terrain as well as gravelly areas. There was almost always at least a person width of well groomed area, but with the amount of people doing this race I ended up in bad areas most of the race. The bad areas had uneven terrain, lots of bigger rocks that would make it easy to twist an ankle and even limbs from plants and trees crossing your path. At the half way point there was one aid station with water, even Santa was helping out with the water distribution. This was enough since 3.1 miles really isn't much of a run anyways.

Taste the Win!!! Wheaties Fuel

The spirit of this race was evident more then anything in the amount of children and families involved. It was awesome to see so many kids dressed up of all ages. The after race provisions were what I would expect for such a short race, water, bananas, oranges and pretzels. 4 Peaks puts on a good race and for them to do such a good job on a race of such a small size was very impressive to me. I left telling my wonderful wife that I would love to do the race again dressing up silly, and even take our kids one day to participate in this kind of event. I would never recommend it for anyone trying to set a new personal record, or meet high levels of competition. On the other hand I would be happy to have my own family run the Jingle Bell Run with me any year.

It's Ok for Guys to Run Together Wearing the Same Shirt

I met the Firefighter this morning for a workout. I have to start this by stating that I am a better swimmer then him. When I got there he had already warmed up since I was running late. I started out with 3 laps of a warm up, he joined me on a couple of them. After that the workout was on. The swim workout was 4 sets of 5 laps each with a 30 second break between each. A normal swim workout for me consists of holding a pace that I can keep for an Ironman (as in 2.4 miles straight). This is not much faster then a minute per lap. I am changing all the rules now and since I am not thirty pounds overweight and already have enough endurance for the race, I've been pushing my limits a little.

this is me in the 200 pound range, where I normally am when I start training... 20 less pounds helps a lot

If you read about our last swim together it was an epic battle with neither of us relenting to the other. This time I started out strong feeling confident after a strong race. I hadn't been in the water in a month after hurting my wrist. Looking to my left there was a 6'4 guy sharing the lane with me, but I didn't worry about him knowing this was only the first set of 4. After the fifth lap of the first set I looked at him (I didn't have a watch on) and asked how we did. 4:10 he tells me, this is ten seconds per lap faster then either of us would normally swim. I was breathing hard, hadn't warmed up quite enough and next thing I know I hear 3, 2, 1 and here goes set two. I started out well, I was finally warmed up and just kept looking to my left (we had to share a lane, it was really busy) seeing someone half a body length behind me. At the end of the set he tells me 4:08 for the set.

On the third set I lost count because though I felt comfortable with our pace being a little faster then normal, every time I took a breath on the right during the return portion of the lap his splash kept hitting me in the mouth. I stopped after the fourth lap of the set just long enough to ask him if we were done and find out we had one more to go. We still finished in 4:07, our fastest set yet. He pretty much told me I was killing him and since I had one more set to go, I contemplated am I pushing too hard, but thought to myself that if I'm tired, then he's exhausted. We had a 6 mile run planned after this and he is a better runner then me. I figured I could run tired, but if I kill him he might not go too fast for me so it was on like Donkey Kong.

Our last set I came and right off the bat I picked it up. I could feel my heart rate increase and my arms begin to tire, wondering once again if this was a good idea. I pushed past all of it and decided the benefits outweighed the negatives. Our last lap I picked it up and he picked it up. This built until he actually got ahead of me on the last length of the pool. I had to at that time go into highschool sprinter mode just to finish first. I know this is petty, but he just smoked me by like 15 minutes a month ago in the Ironman and I am better then him at swimming. Regardless we were both exhausted and had the best swim workout for either of us probably ever finishing the last set in under 4 minutes (even if it was due to being over competitive).

I don't think the fact it's a Disney shirt helped our cause much

The run was no where near as interesting. The highlight was when he told me he wore his long sleeve shirt from the Goofy Challenge at Disney World and I followed by unzipping my jacket to reveal the same shirt. We did look like a same sex couple, but a really fast one. We got a couple weird looks from other people out running. The run was less competitive starting at a 8:40 pace and building to a 7:40 pace all while talking about the movie Forks over Knives. This was just another great reminder why training with a partner can push you to your limits.

Apparently this is a life changing movie, made for good conversation during the run

Where as I was fine during the swim, he was at top speed. He qualified for the Boston marathon, so during the run I don't know if I could of gone much faster, but because I had someone holding me accountable we just kept pushing it. It's great to have those solo workouts, but I rarely walk away with stories that are any where near as interesting as some how choosing the exact same workout shirt to go running together in through the canal. I am happy to be two workouts farther into training then I have ever been in the past half way through December.

Second Ride back, Bouya!!!

It was a cold morning waking up to my wonderful wife about to go to work. I made my way downstairs to feed my wonderful dogs Sweetums the english bulldog and Skittles the cairn terrier. I then took steps to set up my bike for my first ride over an hour and a half in it's whole one month of life on the road. This included adding my aero bottle to the front, putting 2 bottles for ironman perform in my back bottle cages, putting the Garmin 310 XT on it and putting a few powerbar gels in my bento box.

she has gained another 10 pounds, I love it

This is really not that much to accomplish, it was more about the nutrition leading up to my first real workout since the Ironman. I had a decent dinner the night before and a good breakfast. I also wrapped a couple presents for my wife waiting for the Firefighter to get ready. The ride was awesome, 51 miles and it felt like mid season for my usual training instead of the first real workout. I was supposed to meet my usual partner in crime and as we had pre discussed when I got to our meeting location early I continued on. He was discreetly dressed with a long sleeved jersey and dark bike shorts to below his knee's that matched his bike making him mostly invisible. It was a shame I didn't see him because I was 3 miles away when I heard his ringtone (Ironman by Black Sabbath). I pulled over and answered the phone hearing the question where are you? I answered with the same question to find out that I had just ridden down hill with a tail wind away from him and would now be playing catch up into a head wind up hill.

not Toto from Wizard of Ozz, it's our little girl

When I finally caught up to him he set a usual Firefighter I have to stay in shape for a living pace. I am months away from any race though, so instead of slowing down to my pace and making him match I just stepped it up. It was awesome, except for the part where even though neither of us was congested somehow unheard of amounts of snot kept running out of our noses. This is a part of science I will never understand, where does all the snot come from, I even blew my nose before I left. I new we were serious when we pushed harder just to make it to a huge hill that we could go over twice, and I took a different route home just to hit an extra hill.We were both in mid season form. We have intended to do these kinds of workouts during the winter in past years but instead waited 5 months and in my case 30 pounds of extra weight to get started. It was awesome to actually follow through for once, but hopefully this year it won't be the only workout since we're supposed to train again tomorrow.

 When I got back I cleaned my new Cannondale Slice 4 and made my way inside to greet the same two ladies that I started my day with (Sweetums and Skittles). If you are wondering at all where the name Sweetums came from, the name was inspired by a Muppet that she will look like when full grown.

see the connection?

Sweetums the Muppet

Training During the Holidays

The Holidays come just once a year. This is what I'm telling myself as my plans to go for a run today turned into going to a Christmas party and overeating on sweets. I have still put in my time on the bike and running, but with my next race almost six months away it is important to remember to have fun. I would not have changed anything about today.

It is a wonderful idea to take my fitness level from finishing Ironman Arizona in the best shape I've ever been in and expanding that immediately, but not vital. It is December and a time of year where you get to see friends and family. A chance to drink eggnog, give gifts and eat all the holiday treats that are bad for you. I'll take this time of year over Halloween any day of the week for the sweets involved. If I were a sponsored athlete, or one of the many local residents in peak training time for the upcoming PF Changs Marathon here in Phoenix it might be different, but I'm not.

All the literature says the same thing. It is important to let your body rest, giving weeks to build into normal workout shape. I also think it is not a bad time of year to put on a few pounds knowing swimsuit season is far away. I bailed on my training today, but for a good cause. The cause of enjoying the blessing of friends and family. I sacrificed my workout on the alter of correct priorities to help make some good memories. I will sadly be doing the same thing the next couple of weekends.

The important moral of the story is that I have all year to train, but only see some of the people at these gatherings once a year. I'll have the next twelve months to get up in the morning, eat my Wheaties Fuel cereal, get in a strong workout and taste the win. For the next few weeks though, I hope everyone cherishes their time with loved ones and enjoys the Christmas season.

Goals for 2012

2011 Was a good year for Triathlons for me, I only did one and set a new PR by over an hour. I had my fastest swim, transition 1, bike, transition 2, and run I've ever had. This is why I have to set goals for 2012. With 2 Ironmans and a Half Ironman in the upcoming year I want a way to hold myself accountable.

The first thing I am doing for this year is attempting to hold to a schedule. I have set my training for my first Ironman of the year into base, build and taper sections. I also have milestone workouts prepared months ahead of time to accomplish. I used the Triathlon Training Bible to come up with the amounts of hours and what workouts to do. I would love to defeat the FireFighter in Idaho, but just as in our last race together I have to just run my race. If it is good enough to beat him then great, but I can't get caught up in letting one person throw me off when I'm only finishing near 700th place overall.

Their will be other events throughout the year, and training goals that can be seen. The actual goals that I strive to meet though are listed below. I want to keep a focus on improving my bike and swim. I will try to improve my run with lots of speed, but do not have any intention of exercising it on race day. After knowing I could run a marathon in 4:00 for AZ 2011, but only getting a 4:40 I am now taking a more cautious approach to the run portion. I would love to put defeat the Firefighter, but if he can dwarf these times then he will win the day just like Ironman Arizona 2011. If he can't then maybe I'll achieve that goal too.

Ironman Coeur D'Alene
Weight of 175 for the race
A total time of 11:20
Run Split of 4:00 (9:09 per mile)

Ironman Arizona
Weight of 170 for the race
 A total time of 10:30
 Swim of 1:00
 Bike of 5:15 (21.33 mph)
Run of 4:00 (9:09 per mile)

Side note of preparing to do PF Chang Rock N'Roll Marathon
Weight of 170 for the race
3:00 (6:52 per mile)