Where there is a big enough WHY there is a HOW...

the why:



stolen from conrad stoltz, xterra world champion...



S'More...

And Now...For Something Completely Different.

As of this week, I have decided not to do Ironman Canada/Kona this year. Too much dough. I realized that it would cost me around $5,000 to do both Canada and Kona, plus a couple weeks of vacation to do it right. Instead, I will do several other races, including a return to the Dirt...still working out details. It is actually a relief to save money and allow myself to focus on One key race and a few Benchmark races along the way. I'm excited about it! There are several races in California that I have not done yet and look forward to experiencing this year.

Instead of training for a 112 mile time trial and a marathon, I can focus on getting faster and building on my aerobic base that I have been developing my late start in February.

I will try to peak for Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Clearwater, Florida in November as my "A" race for this fall.

I have signed up for the Santa Barbara Long Course Triathlon on August 22nd, and will enter a few more races to fill the new gaps in my schedule.

Getting up early in the morning for one of my favorite rides: Swami's Ride plus an out and back to Mt. Soledad. This ride is a good benchmark that Slater, Keevin, Kurt and I use to gauge our dreamcrushing abilities...or lack thereof!

Thanks for stopping by!

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Monster Weekend on Tap...

On Saturday I am joining my nuun/feedthemachine.com teammate Cyril Jay Rayon for an epic ride in the San Gabriel mountains. We will start at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and climb up to Wrightwood, which unfortunately is about 66 miles away. All in all, the ride should be around 135 miles long, with over 13,000 feet of climbing. With 7 weeks until Ironman Canada, this will be one of my longest rides of the year. These are the types of rides that separate the men from the boys. Most people training for Ironman triathlons will do several rides in the 100-120 mile range, but few will go over 130, and even fewer will do those miles at a steady pace in the mountains, climbing around 2.5 vertical miles.

Cyril and I have logged hundreds of hours together over the past couple winters, mostly in the Santa Monica mountains. While training for adventure races we typically would knock out 5-7 hour rides with 20 mile brick runs in the mountains. That makes Ironman training much more palatable and exciting. It's all relative!

We are both peaking for our "A" races. Cyril is getting ready for Primal Quest, where he hopes to improve on last year's 4th place finish. Cyril recently won the 24 Hours of Laguna Seca mountain bike race, setting a new record. It was his 2nd mountain bike race in about 6 years. A month prior he did the 24 Hours of Hurkey Creek, but crashed badly and finished 2nd with his injury. Nice!

If I am motivated and lucid enough I will get off the bike and knock out my standard transition run before making the hour-long drive home to Huntington Beach. Rides like this take all day, over 7 hours ride time, so I will barely make it home before dinner.

Sunday's Torture du Jour is a 20 mile run at MAF Pace, which I believe is around 6:49/mile right now. In the 2 weeks post-Ironman, it is difficult to determine your true aerobic pace, as you are carrying fatigue that artificially lowers your heart rate. So while I may think I have a "jump in fitness" while running 6:30 pace at a heart rate of 149, it is more likely that I am not recovered yet.

After the long run I plan on a long Ocean Swim near San Clemente with HotWheels. If I am still alive we will do an easy spin together after the swim. Easy as in EASY!

All systems are go for a fast race at Ironman Canada.

I picked up some great information today on a Webinar held by Gordo Byrn/Endurance Corner (www.endurancecorner.com) Today's topic was Mental Conditioning for Ironman triathlon. I will share what I learned in my next post!

Stay Moist,

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Team nuun-feedthemachine.com

Batteries: Recharged

It has been 2 weeks since Ironman Coeur d'Alene. I feel that I am ahead of the recovery curve and there are a couple contributing factors worth mentioning. If you have any ideas that you'd like to share PLEASE COMMENT below!

In the first week post-race, I wore Zoot compression socks daily and kept up on my elevating and icing regimen of knees/hips/calves/quads. In addition, although I was not training beyond Active Recovery walking and swimming, I kept my protein intake around 140g/day.

Most of that came from whey/banana/Rice Dream shakes with additional Glutamine and BCAA pills thrown in the mix. I consumed "reckless" amounts of antioxidant-rich blueberries and raspberries as well as daily steak and/or salmon and supplemented with 10g/day of Omega 3. Anti-inflammatory/recovery diet!

Most importantly though, was not rushing back into "training" while my body was still on the mend, both musculoskeletal as well as endocrine. People underestimate how ultra-endurance training wreaks havoc on our hormone balance. Nobody wants to talk about it...

The second week post-race is tricky because you want to get back to "training", and you feel like you can, but your body is still recovering. I am glad I had the discipline to at least make it through 2 weeks of a solid recovery protocol and feel that I am ready to resume my normal frequency this coming 3rd week. According to Mark Allen, I should wait until the end of week 3 to get back into "Ironman Training" but I will ramp it up starting tomorrow, focusing on frequency above all else.

After analyzing what I did right/wrong in my leadup to CDA, I found that many workouts were "bagged" due to my move from Irvine to Huntington Beach, and HotWheels' move from Redondo Beach to our new place...double-trouble!

Finding a place, packing, moving (refrigerators in and out of U-Hauls and up flights of stairs a couple hours after a 20 mile long run!?), and unpacking takes more than just a few days, and the stress is certainly a compounding factor.

In my next post I will get into more detail about my training plan for IM Canada, but suffice it to say that I will roughly Double my swim training (if my shoulder allows it!), as well as increase my cycling by about 30% and my running by about 20%.
I'm excited about racing, but also the process of getting to the next level. With 8 weeks to go until Ironman Canada, I have some of the most epic sessions of the year planned to get me into much better shape that what I brought to Ironman CDA.



Quote of the day that I stole from a Tweet by Tony Robbins:

Everybody want to be somebody: nobody wants to grow."
-Goethe

So true isn't it?

Push yourself through a limit today

Independence Day!