...thoughts during the journey...: February 2008

Monday, February 25, 2008

"The Push"...week #2

Another week down in the "Push" phase...only one more to go before a "rest" week. This weekend called for rain on Saturday and clear on Sunday...so I switched up my long ride and long run days. In all, it was a nice, painful, long weekend. I'm seeing some signs of having some endurance fitness, so that is positive.

I'll continue to be overly cautious, and try to stay healthy...and as Phil Liggett says, "There is a very thin between a finely tuned athlete, and a coughing bag of bones..."

Saturday
I corralled all of my stuff together and headed out to the Baldwin Rails to Trails. This is a pretty good place to run...no cars, mile and half mile markers, and a chance to run on the grass in some spots. Since there had been a lot of rain, I was only able to run about 5-10% on the grass...it was just way too soggy. Other than that, it was a good run...and gave me another chance to test my race nutrition and pacing. The schedule was for 2 1/2 hours. My legs were already pretty fatigued and sore from the previous week's training, so I knew it was going to be a bit tough. The run went well...and really started to hurt the "old legs" during the last 4-5 miles. I finished up with 19 miles in 2:31 (~7:56/mile), and negative split the last half by a little over a minute. I kept in my heart rate zone 1 on the way out, and then it slowly crept up into zone 2 on the return trip...this workout was just about getting time on my legs without going too hard.

Sunday
This workout called for 6 1/2 hour of riding followed by 1 hour of running...at least that was the plan. I met up with Greg & Danny about 7:30 am to get started on another long non-drafting day. To change the scenery, we decided to do the long Penny Farms loop (to take in a couple rolling hills) followed by a loop in Mandarin to add more miles. This was another ride to also try and workout my nutrition plan. We rode steady 21-23 mph staying in heart rate zone 1 & 2. Today, just like yesterday, was just about getting time on the legs. During the Mandarin loop my right knee was hurting a little, but I couldn't pin point if it was the ride or the run that was the cause. Greg suggested that I cut the run a bit short to be safe, so I agreed...so I did 30 minutes easy.

Once done, I was pretty hungry...so I had a double cheeseburger and large fries from Five Guys!

Sween

Thursday, February 21, 2008

US National Team, Olympic hopeful...Brian Fleischmann

Every once in a while I check up on Jacksonville's own Brian Fleischmann. He's still in the hunt for an Olympic spot, and starting to ramp up the training. Here's an email I just received from him.

"Nothing to crazy going on here. Doing the training and getting equipment ready to go for the season. For some reason that takes up quite a bit of time. Today is an easy day for the most part and I need it with Friday through Sunday being fairly legit. Training about 25 hours this week with intensity. Not crazy hours but doing alot of LT and above LT stuff here and there..."

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Shawn Burke...wins age group in Breast Cancer Marathon

I didn't even see this until today...the last he said was that he was only going until mile 18. Well, he finished the whole thing in 3:12:36...which gave him a Boston qualifying time, and a win in the 40-44 age group. I haven't heard the details yet, but it must have been a sprint...because he only beat the guy in second place by 2 seconds!

Shawn's also doing Ironman Arizona, and seems to be on track for an incredible finish! Here's Shawn's take on the race.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Pictures of Breast Cancer 1/2 Marathon

Dan Hubert who works in the photography department at Mayo Clinic sent these to me...it pays to know people!

Thank goodness it's over...but a fun race! (I had to get out the HTFU bracelet...it's on my left wrist :-)

If sports don't work out for me, I guess I could do some modeling...in magazines for the blind!

"The Push"...week #1

The weeks to Ironman Arizona are dwindling, and now there are only eight. This last week was the first of a long-hard 3 week block. Danny "Double D/Aquaman" Domingo reminded me that The Grip (Mark Allen) used to call this block of training "The Push". The principle is to try to overload your body with three progressively longer training weeks, almost to the point of overtraining...then back it down for a week. After that I think there are two weeks of "Peak", and two weeks of "Taper"...but now it's about "The Push". Well...this week was #1...and I "pushed"...ouch...

Saturday
I met up with my training buddies Greg "Gills" Carr, Kevin "5 Ironman's in one year" Neil, Casey "Exterra Champ" Fannin, and Lyndon "Doctor Pain" Box. The ride was our infamous "Lacey's Place" Georgia ride. The entire ride was non-drafting and we threw in a 3 hour block at race intensity for good measure. Of course it was a head wind the whole way home. The ride was 110-115 miles depending on who you ask. Lyndon's computer is set to only record time when we are moving, so you exclude stop lights, bathroom breaks, etc. He ended up in the range of 5:30-5:45...my computer includes stops in the timing and was close to 6 hours. Once back to Lyndon's condo, He, Kevin and I did a quick change for a T-Run of 58 minutes using a loop over 2 of the bridges in downtown Jacksonville. All in all it was a 7 hour day of training...needless to say, my legs were cooked.

Sunday
Lyndon and I had a long day planned to create an Epic weekend. First up we did the Breast Cancer 1/2 marathon leaving from where I work, Mayo Clinic. I thought seriously about doing the full marathon to try and obtain a Boston Marathon qualifying time, but it is way too close to IM Arizona...and would wreck my training for the next few weeks. I awoke to some tired and slightly sore legs...but, it would be good to see how I responded to running on fatigued legs.

We parked a short distance away from the start so that we could add a few miles to get in around 16-17 miles total. We timed it pretty well, and met up with Kevin and Lyndon's wife, Lesleigh, and had about 5 minutes before the gun went off. I started out with the pace group doing a 3:10 marathon...and figured that would give me a 1:35 half marathon (7:15/mile). I wasn't sure if this was doable, especially with 2 bridges to cross and part of the course on the beach...oh, and the trashed legs :-) Anyhow, I felt ok and I met up with Greg, James Cordoza (doing the whole marathon), and Shawn Burke. After about mile 2, Greg and James decided to pick it up a bit...and we started to leave the 3:10 pace group behind...this was NOT my idea (Greg is very persuading), but decided to run with them for a while. Needless to say it hurt, and I ended up with 1:30:43 (6:56/mile). Lesleigh ran a 1:36:37 and qualified for the New York City Marathon and James Cardoza finished the full marathon in 3:10:34 securing a start at the Boston Marathon for him...awesome! We then ran back to the car to get ready for the rest of the day...which next included stopping for some lunch at Tijuana Flats..."Smack My Ass and Call Me Sally."

Next, Lyndon and I drove out to Kingsley lake and spaced out some buoy markers. We then changed into wetsuits and swam some laps. Doctor Pain (Lyndon) lived up to his name and punished me with impunity in the open water swim. There was some chop that got annoying after a while, but wasn't super bad. As Lyndon swam circles around me, I tried to get used to swimming in a straight line towards each turn around point. After an hour of swimming we ran out and made a quick transition to the bike and went out for a about a 1 1/2 hour ride at an easy pace. Even "easy" hurt after this weekend.

We ended another long day to make it an Epic weekend...and hopefully gain some valuable fitness. Lyndon's going to do Ironman Brazil at the end of May, so he's ahead of the game on his training...and should do really well. The volume continues to ramp up this next week...so we'll see how the old body reacts.

Sween

Friday, February 15, 2008

Some of "my" action shots

Proper Visualization
I thought it would be good to have some professional race pictures for my resume, so below are a couple I had done recently. This should help with potential sponsors and other types of promotions. I caught some flack by a guy named "Chris Liet-who"...never heard of him, but through proper visualization and a lot of hard work, he can achieve what I have in these photos.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

My favorite Lance commercial

...so, I'm out in the dark Tuesday finishing up a brick workout, and running in the pouring rain. You know the kind...that comes down in sheets...sideways. I just start laughing...yes, I may be losing it, but I'm not the only one...Domingo was doing the same thing over at his house...and it reminded me of my favorite Armstrong commercial. He was "hard" before anyone said HTFU...I guess that's makes him "old school HTFU".

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

The road time forgot...slow down!!

I made the trip to Gainesville this past weekend to the annual race put on by the University of Florida students. You can find the race report on our Lindner Capital blog.

To make the trip I went down US 301 that runs though the middle of our state. I think it used to be a main route before I95 & I75 were completed. It's sort of the road time forgot. It's filled with run down or abandoned motels and cities that make their living off of speeders going 1 mph over the limit. If I remember correctly, I think I heard that there are only 2 places in the country that AAA still labels as speed traps, and they are both on US 301 and only a few miles apart...Get R Dun...

Here are a few pictures I took along the way...

Oh good, there's still vacancy...

Fixer upper, cheap...

The first "trap" you hit heading South on US 301...

...the second...

Chris Lieto...and Baseperformance.com

So...Jeff Kopp tells us that he has this buddy of his from high school who is a pretty good triathlete, and he's going to have him come in and speak at the Trek Store. Turns out, it's one of our sponsors...and 4 time Ironman Champion...Chris Lieto! I'm not sure what they've put in the drinking water around Jeff's high school, but I want some...it seems that most of Jeff's old buddies have turned Pro in some sport.

Now Jeff tells me that we need to help Chris find a place to do a little training while he's here. Hmmm, well cycling we have covered (Jeff took care of that)...running, he's on his own...now a place to swim. Danny "Aquaman" Domingo volunteered to take him to the YMCA at Ponte Vedra. Danny does a great job putting me in the hurt box every time we dip a toe in the water, so it was nice to see him get some of his own medicine for once. Below is Danny's brief report after I asked him if he showed Chris who was boss:

"NO HE SHOWED ME.. nice fellow - tell Jeff thanks a bunch.. nice to swim with the guy who led Hawaii till mile 16 on the run. It was a hard swim – i need some fitness - 18x100s as follows:

5x 100s on 1:20 – holding 9-10s – swim5x100s on 1:15 holding 7s - Chris was 5s -swim5x100s on 1:20 had to take a 50 break – and put on paddles to keep up- 1:10s3x100s swim on 1:15 – 6-7s Chris was 5s. swim

We were gonna do 20 but the pool was closing. . He is fit..."

Later that day Chris went at the Trek Store to give a presentation. A lot of athletes, especially those who are world class like Chris, talk about their results and how they've done in their races...but, he spoke about how to set and accomplish goals. It was more of a motivational speech that was highly entertaining, informative, and got the whole crowd involved. When it was over he hung out and answered questions and posed for pictures with anyone who wanted them. Not only an incredible athlete, but a great speaker and very personable guy. Everyone really enjoyed themselves.

He's also spent a lot of time developing a nutritional line that should be coming out this month. It's part of a venture called Base Performance Nutrition, and will have products to be used before, during, and after a race for recovery...keep an eye out for those products in both of Jeff's stores soon.

Jeff introducing Chris Lieto

Chris Lieto asking for another Salmon wrap from Native Sun

Setting goals and how to achieve them

Chris and Jeff...two Pro multisport athletes, between the two of them they have running, cycling, swimming, triathlons, water polo, football, and bull riding covered...did I miss anything??

Me telling Chris his days of having the fastest bike split in triathlons are numbered...he looks worried!

Here's another account of Lieto's presentation.

Friday, February 8, 2008

State of Mind Triathlon #2 pictures

All of these pictures were "borrowed" from the State of Mind Sports website, so thanks to those folks for taking them.

This is Ashley Carusone and she directs the race along with other members of her family. She recently graduated from University of Florida where she was a swimmer. Also, she's been doing triathlons for a while, and was close to turning pro until she had a bad wreck this last year. The wreck happened in a race where she was either 1st or 3rd out of the water (overall...including men!) and was running 3rd on the bike amongst the women. I think Danny knows her and Carusone family, we all wish here a speady recovery so that she can get back to racing.

Danny & Greg trying to fix my wetsuit after the "breakaway" feature of my wetsuit prematurely brokeaway before the start...maybe I'm too fat for the suit!