It's only Wednesday...

Yesterday was an incredibly long day at work, we got on the road at 8 am to make the rounds visiting stores and didn't stop until dinner, which was at 9:30 pm. I hate being on other peoples schedules, especially when they're the type that doesn't need to eat that often. I'm used to eating multiple times during the day usually every 3 hours, yesterday it was more than 8 hours between lunch and dinner. Anyway it was a struggle getting up at 4:45 this morning but I got up to battle the wind on my bike. My original plan was to try and get my long ride for the week in today but with the wind blowing out of the south and my option for bike path (after nearly getting run over yesterday I'm off the streets) heading out with the wind I really didn't want to battle it for 20+ miles on the way back. I ended up finding a nice stretch about a mile long and did intervals going hard with the wind at my back and then maintaining high cadence in a low gear coming back into the wind.

Since I cut the bike short I grabbed my running shoes after dropping the bike off in my hotel room and headed out for a brick run. The run was good to start but at 2.5 miles the suffer fest started. I could feel the fatigue of a long day yesterday and not eating like I'm accustomed to taking It's toll, I had to stop and reset. Finished the last 1.5 miles at a slower pace but o finished it. Not my best effort in training today, just didn't have today but work got done and it I didn't quit or skip out.

Until next time...do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.

Running and getting run off the road

Headed out for a run this morning from the hotel, it was an absolutely perfect morning for a run cool temps light wind, perfect. Legs felt good, a little sore from lifting yesterday and riding in a carost of the day but they loosened up quickly. I debated on just adding miles to my run and skipping my short bike ride afterwards but I need to get my bike miles in since more than likely I won't get a long ride in on Sunday. Run went great, headed back to my room to change into my bike shorts and pick up my bike and get a short ride in before getting ready for work.

I made my way out to a rural road figuring not much traffic out that was, jeez was I wrong. The traffic wasn't the biggest problem it was the jerks quo don't realize their supposed to share the road with cyclist and think driving inches away from you with their vans or trucks IA an acceptable scare tactic and outlet for their contempt for you. I had a semi truck that could have easily moved over into the other than a little, there was no on coming traffic at this point, but he choose to blow right past me his truck and trailer only inches from me nearly knock me off the road and into the gravel shoulder. To add to it he blasted his horn as he passed which scared the crap out of me more than the proximity of the truck itself.

After that eventful ride I think tomorrow I'll stick to the bike trail here in town for my longer ride.

Until next time... do today what others won't so tomorrow you can do what others can't.

Ah Monday...

Once again I set my alarm but didn't actually turn it on, still woke up at 4:45 on the dot and made it to the Y by 5:02.

Swam 3000 yards this morning, normally this wouldn't have been such a big swim on a Monday but i will be out of town all week and this may be my only swim this week if i can't get to the gym on Saturday. I do have access to the Y where I'll be staying but it's not a definite that I'll be able to make it there.

After my swim hit the weights, did 4 circuits of clean and jerk, deadlifts, barbell row, shoulder shrugs, squats, bench press and crunches. I also did a few pull ups and core. When i got done the guy who was next to me came up and shook my hand and complimented me on my workout, if i ever wondered if my routine was hard enough that tells me it probably is.

Until next time...do today what others won't so tomorrow you can do what others can't.

Long ride and thunderstorms

After staying up late last night watching my boys tear it up on the dance floor, and they were seriously the talk of the reception, I was not motivated to get up for my long ride this morning. I knew there was a chance for thunderstorms this morning so i wanted to get in before they came, after finally hauling my tired butt out of bed, eating a waffle and drinking my coffee I was getting ready to go when i heard the first roll of thunder. Trainer it was going to be.

Started off really slow and legs were really sore and tired from a days worth of activities yesterday, but got in to a groove and just kept plugging away. After the first hour I felt great and actually started hammering it in a higher gear. Towards the end I debated going for another half hour but decided to head outside for a run with Lucky before the heavy rain came. Got 3 miles in at a nice easy pace, legs felt good, but my left knee started to act up at the end. Good way to end a great week of training.

Until next time...do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.

Swim, bike, run and a wedding

Had to get my swim in early today before running since we have a wedding to go to this afternoon. Warm up 600 yd 3x200 @ 3:18, 3:20, 3:17 Cool down 300. I've started wearing a watch during swims to keep better track of my progress. Was very happy with my times for the 200's.

After changing I headed over to the BHS trek to meet the Leadville guys who are doing their 24 hour run today. John O had been out there since before 5 and John B. Rick and the rest started at 7. Running 10 miles on a track was not nearly as monotonous as I thought, having good folks to run with helped, and watching the high school football team run stairs and do plyo's for summer conditioning was fun and reminded me how much I don't miss those days.

After I got home I got a 30 minute ride in that skipped from last night. Originally was going to do it this morning before my swim but i didn't think it was a good idea to swim and bike before my long run. Legs felt surprisingly strong, went at a race pace effort. Now it's time to grub down some food and get ready to go to a wedding.

Until next time...do today what others won't so tomorrow you can do what others can't.

QC Tri Race Report

Wow I've been really horrible about updating my blog, I wish I was a little better about it because I know some day I will enjoy reviewing these later in life, and let's be honest besides the 4 or 5 other people that bless me by reading these posts I'm really doing this for myself. Anyway as the title of this post says this is my QCT race report.

The day started off pretty good, woke up early, enjoyed a cup of coffee and a waffle with peanut butter (pretty much my new favorite pre race/workout food) and then packed up all my gear and made my way out to West Lake. I opted to park at the Church down the road and ride my bike in to avoid the crowds and traffic which turns out wasn't really all that bad, but it served as a little warm up.

Got my timing chip and as I was getting my transition area all set up it started to sprinkle which turned into a steady rain, it wasn't looking so good at that point. The swim and run would be fine, but I was nervous about riding the bike in the rain. I will run in just about any weather shy of a tornado or thunderstorms, but it doesn't take much to get me off the bike and rain is definitely on that list. I did go for a little bit of a warm up ride with Jen Paul who was doing her first Tri and she totally rocked it, ended up taking 3rd overall for the women even though she has done almost no training on the bike or swim, I guess that is what you can do when you are an elite level runner. After the ride I ran a mile warm up with Chad and then it was quickly getting time to put on the wet suit and head down to the beach for the start. Let me tell you what, putting on a wet suit is difficult enough, putting it on when it's wet and your wet is even more difficult. Luckily the rain had all but let up at this point and it was GO TIME!

Swim
The swim was a time trial start, 2 swimmers entered the water every 3 seconds, and we were lined up according to estimated swim time. I put myself in a conservative area of 10-11 min for the swim and lined up accordingly but I'm fairly certain there were more than a few people in front of me that may have over estimated their swim time as I passed quite a few people in the water and even crawled over the backs of some. At the very end I caught up with Jen who had started up front, I didn't even realize she was in front of me until I went over the back of the guy swimming next to her and then dropped my arm right on her head. I realized it was her immediately since she wasn't wearing a wet suit and I could see her Live Uncommon racing top. I actually apologized to her after we got out of the water. All in all the swim went really well, I didn't go out to fast and definitely did not push as hard as I could have, which was my intention but I did end up with the 71st fastest swim for the day.

Bike
My transition to the bike wasn't smooth, I had a difficult time getting out of my wet suit and with the rain I didn't have everything laid out like I would have liked, I had my shoes under my towel which was soaked. I easily could have saved 20-30 seconds but it wasn't a big deal in the end. I knew going into the race I wanted to have a much better bike than I did in Bluff Creek, I was willing to push harder and sacrifice a little on the run later. This ultimately paid off for me as I improved my time on the bike by nearly 3.5 minutes. The course was pretty flat, a couple of small hills.

Run
I got off the bike knowing that if I was going to make up some ground on my division it was going to be in the run my legs felt like jelly at first but after a half mile when we got on to pavement I was ready to roll and I set out trying to find and pass every "C" (for Clydesdale Division) that I could find. As far as big guys go I'm fairly fast, not as fast as my buddy Aaron Maurer who took first in the Clydesdale division and 11th overall, but much faster than most and I ended up passing at least a half dozen guys in my division which helped me move up to 6 out of 28 in the Clydesdale division and 89 out of 583 overall. Even though I didn't finish in the top 3 in my division like at Bluff Creek I am much happier with this finish, first off there was much stiffer competition with only one distance racing and secondly I ran a much better race and finished over a minute faster than Bluff Creek

Thanks to Phil Pancrazio, who actually may have gotten the only photo in history of me running where my feet are off the ground.

.Live Uncommon was well represented at the race with Jeff Paul taking the overall title, Jen Paul taking 3rd in the womens division, Aaron Maurer took the Clydesdale and 11th overall, Jay Gates won his age division and a whole bunch of others where out there doing their thing and representing this great cause. There is still plenty of time to make a donation to the Revolution by clicking here and checking out my fundraising page. Some truly worthing causes like Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, Ouch wound research and a whole bunch of others, next race is the Moonlight Chase on July 14th which is also the same day as my next Tri and my first Olympic Distance, yup going for the double that day now that's living uncommon...
Until next time...Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.

Tuesday June 5th

Been a couple days since my last blog post so here's a quick update of what's been going on in my world.

Had an awesome weekend, got in a pretty decent run on Saturday morning with the LU Crew, ran mostly with John O. and we (ok mostly John) shared some interesting stories from past training days. It was a smaller group with lots of people busy with races, life and various other things. Afterwards I headed home picked up Lucky and headed back out for a quick jog around the neighborhood, I've been neglecting my buddy with running lately and I wanted to get a couple more miles in to hit my goal for the day so it was a good chance. Later on played some catch with the football out in the yard with the boys, before jumping on the trainer while they ate lunch. Caden had a t-ball game @ 1:00 and Deanna was shooting pictures at a wedding so it was a busy afternoon, we had dinner with Grandma Marilyn, it would have been her and Grandpa's 61st anniversary on Saturday and I think she really enjoyed the company (and the distraction) that 2 of her favorite great grandson's can provide. I ended up missing out on the LU Torchlight Parade but spending time with Grandma seemed like the right choice and I'm glad we go over there.

Sunday I got out early for a bike ride before Church, service this week was outstanding. The message was about living a life of Integrity and one of the biggest take aways for me was the comment/definition that Integrity is when your actions match your beliefs. This is something I have really been struggling with over the last year or so, I have felt a change in my life in the last few years, more so than just the physical transformation that I've gone through but also a mental and spiritual one as well. One of the reasons I am so passionate about my involvement with Live Uncommon is the "Give Back" and how our Race Team is helping some truly worthy causes. This has been one step of a journey for me to live a life of integrity and so far it has been an awesome one. The message from Church really identified and put a label to what I feel like I have been missing in my life, and then more I learn and understand hopefully the better person I can become, and the best example to my sons of what they should aspire to be as well.

Had a great swim Monday morning, one of those where I just didn't want to get out of the water and could have just kept going, but I needed to lift weights and I had already completed my workout. I have a big swim on Wednesday and I hope I have that same feeling then too. After work it was so nice out (it had stormed earlier in the day) when I got home a wrangled up the boys and Lucky and headed out for a jog around the neighborhood. The boys rode their bikes for the first 2 miles with me and then they wanted to run a bit so we ran up and down the block for awhile before heading back inside for dinner. After dinner we played Xbox Connect, Deanna got a fitness game through work that is a blast to play. Speaking of my lovely wife she and some co-workers have just started a fitness challenge at work and she got up early Monday and did a work out plus walked nearly 2 miles at lunch, I am proud of her and I hope she sticks with it, so far she is doing great she also joined me early this morning to walk on the treadmill while I rode the bike trainer, 2 days in a row plus I think she is planning on walking again at work today, AWESOME!

That is pretty much all for now, Caden has T-ball tonight then I'm heading out of town tomorrow for 2 days for work...

Until next time...Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.