Wetsuits and the debate

Finally got a wetsuit on ebay. Quintana Roo Superfull from a couple years ago. Looks to be in good shape can't wait to get out in it.

Don't forget to watch the debate tonight. This should be a continuation of the end of Kerry's campaign. Can't wait for that either!

Also, I'm getting ready to undergo a redesign as I'm getting sick of these drab colors and the electoral process has me in the spirit maybe some red,white and blue. Therefore I may not post for a couple weeks. Probably not until after TriAmerica Miami.

I've also just moved the site to a new server so if you experience any issues please send me an email so I can fix them.

Eating - What is going on here?

I've not entirely lost control but my eating in the last month has been slipping. A lot. I'll get two meals in a row on track and next thing you know hacienda here I come. I know this is a struggle many people have but I've been losing discipline. Today I had chicken Parmesan for lunch. For breakfast I had a piece of marble cake at Starbucks.

Have I lost my mind? My clothes all still fit the same but I don't even want to see a scale because I'm almost sure I'm about 3-5 pounds heavier. My goal this week is going to be taking control back. Getting back to the plan and making the right choices. Too many times I get caught up in going out to lunch with everybody then I convince myself its okay since I'll be working out later. Its not okay. Never has been never will be.

Clothes fitting and being healthy are two different things. I think I'm going to get out from behind the desk and start doing sit-ups at any moment.

Got me an indoor trainer

Life does not always allow enough light of day to get it all in. Sometimes my wife is out of town which leaves me in the house with the little one. So how do you add more hours to the day for $159.99? Workout at night! I purchased the Travel Trac Fluid Plus indoor trainer and a Spinervals "No Slackers" DVD from Performance Bike for just that reason. Holy crap is that hard on the legs. I did literally 30 minutes of a 45 minute DVD before I could do no more. Hardest bike workout I've had yet and flat told me I'm not working hard enough outside.

If you don't have one...Get One!

I love it!

Swim Whine

I read recently that over the course of a long distance race a 5% improvement of your swim time amounts to shaving 8 minutes from the total. When compared to the same 5% on the bike in which the gain would be roughly 18 minutes its easy to see why so much focus is put on the bike and run.

I've been having a lot of problems lately getting my complete swims in. When I do get them in the Training Bible has me scheduled for distances that with breaks and kicks take more time than I have at the pool. My current pool setup really sucks because it doesn't open until 7 a.m. This only gives me about an hour and fifteen minutes in the morning. What this means is I have to swim about 4 times a week. With the 3-4 hour sessions I do get I haven't seen any improvement in my swim speed in at least 3 months. My aerobic capacity is fine I'm just not getting any faster. Im still at about 18:30-20:00 per 1000.

I picked up the Total Immersion (TI) book by Terry Laughlin that a lot of triathletes clamor about. TI is a method of swimming in which you "change the shape of the vessel". I had intended on waiting to start TI until October this way I wouldn't be doing drills right in the middle of the season but I've decided to start a little earlier. I can't seem to get through the book I swear I've read the first 5 pages of chapter 8 at least 15 times. I just can't seem to convince myself to start the first drill because this all seems like a big undertaking that may not accomplish what I'm hoping it will.

It seems to me the only way to truly learn TI is to spend $500 on a TI instructor. Without the instructor you'll never know whether or not your technique is correct. So you'll spend endless hours teaching your nervous system to forget its old bad stroke and learn a new bad stroke. This is not to TI's detriment. I have no doubt that the one on one instruction is of considerable value. Its just out of my price range. If we were socialist I could just get the government to 'provide' it. Of course if we were socialist it would have been discovered at the age of 5 I'm not an outstanding swimmer and I would never be allowed to swim again. Yeah capitalism!

I'm not going to write TI off until I've tried it because I have to get better at this. I'm going to have to try joining the masters group at the YMCA in Ormond at least one day a week. That'll be a 5 a.m. morning. Whine Whine Whine.

Biltmore. Challenging? Ha!

Somehow I convinced myself that doing a tri in the mountains could be done ... Easily. I knew it would be harder but I've put my time in and had it set in my pea brain that I can do whatever it is I've set it to do. No matter the challenge. I mean come on I'm a big boy I can handle some "challenging" hills.

The race brochure for the Biltmore Lake Triathlon clearly read a few "challenging hills with no heartbreaking climbs". I know this because I can remember that little turn in my stomach wondering exactly what it was "challenging" meant. This caused that whole fight or flight reflex to rear its head that essentially double dog dared me to sign up. So I did.

Knowing we were coming this weekend and with Hurricane Frances fast approaching we elected to leave a day early to try and avoid the mass exodus of traffic which worked out great. This left me an extra day in Asheville in which to get a little 'hill' riding into my legs just to see if I could even accomplish what I'd come here to do. This did not in any way fill me with confidence. It felt like everything was up hill. After this we went and picked up the packet and drove the course. Let me just say I slept really poorly the night before the race. For the first time I was genuinely nervous I wouldn't be able to finish the race.

Took the swim nice and easy and did my best to conserve as much as possible for the bike. Still adjusting to the clipless pedals I fell on the mount which was not a boost to my confidence. Left a few nice bruises on the old legs.

I will say for a guy from Florida with no hill riding experience my heart didn't break. But I'm sure there were a few hair line cracks along the way. When I looked down and saw that I was only peddling about 5mph with at least a hundred feet or more to go I didn't think there was any way I would make it. In fact I had myself convinced at least twice that I could not possibly continue without walking the bike to the top of the hill. This didn't happen on just one hill but I would say probably 3 maybe more.

Physically this was the hardest thing I've done in my triathlon life. But every time I felt like I couldn't possibly push those pedals another time my foolish pride somehow convinced my legs to not let the hill get the better of us. And this was ONLY 12 miles. I can only dream to one day have the cycling strength to ride courses like this in greater distances. I mean there were obviously racers who felt the hills were speed bumps.

The decline. This is as close to flying as I will ever come outside of an airplane. Near 40 mph downhill with fast approaching corners is just as nerve wracking as going up is hard on the legs. There were several moments I was hitting the brakes and had no signs of stopping. This was just damned fun. Whirrrr!

The run was a mostly off-road trail run with some little rollie pollie hills on a hiking trail great scenery nice cool day. Not much more I can say.

The scenery was great. Race was well organized although the bike racks could have used numbers. Classy tee-shirt.

Overall this was hands down my favorite race yet but there is no way I would ever do it again without at least a few weeks of hill work or at least some strength training. My legs have been giving me grief all day just to let me know how stupid this was. And I have a new found respect for the guys and gals who can ride these climbs with ease. I'll post the race splits as soon as I get them.