Triathlon Shower

My blogger buddy Jeff over at Dangle the Carrot recently wrote a post titled "The Triathlon Wish List..." in which he posted four triathlon toys that he daydreams about most often. His top choice was a Quarg power meter—which costs a mere $1895 equipped on a SRAM Red 53/39.

I think that when one finally makes their way from sprint triathlon to Ironman, they should register at places like Nytro, TriathleteSports.com, etc., and hold themselves a triathlon shower. You know, maybe instead of your sister throwing you a baby shower, you could get your training partner to hold you a a triathlon shower. Boxes of GU wrapped in nice wrapping paper, carbon crank arms tied up in nice little red bows.

My wife told me that this would never fly because no one in their right mind is going to support a family member who wants to spend thousands of other people's dollars to support a habit that is completely excessive. She may have a point. It was a fun thought anyway. Oh, and if any of my family members read my blog—which they avoid like the plague—and can you blame them?—feel free to at anytime surprise me with a Timex Ironman Global Trainer.

Perhaps if I sent this picture out with a note

telling everyone I wrecked my current triathlon bike

people would throw me a triathlon shower?

Keuka Lake Triathlon: My first race of the season is tomorrow and I am totally psyched and nervous at the same time. I think it is pretty normal to be nervous—no matter how prepared you are (or you think you are.) I swam yesterday and went for a short 4.1 miler. The boys road their bikes next to me on the run. I ran 31:00 flat. So, if I can survive the swim, I plan on getting on that bike and mashing it for 25 miles. The good news is that it looks as though the last few miles into the transition area are downhill on the bike. This will give me some time to soft pedal and rest my legs. The bad news is it is suppose to be raining tomorrow and the course will be wet. I always get a bit anxious about riding hard in the rain, turning, and slowing down on a fast descent. I never use to give it a second thought, until I had all these kids. Suddenly, feeling a sudden responsibility to stay alive may indeed make me just a bit slower than I would wish on a wet day, but I will survive. I will have to run faster. The other thing I am slightly nervous about is that I do not know this particular course. Adam and I are going down there together, so I am planning on at least driving the bike course tonight with my car to get a sense of the road. If I have time, I might try to ride the hill.

My New Rig: The new rig has apparently been built!  I am gong in Monday for my fitting and plan on taking several pictures of everything. I am a little nervous about the integrated seat post. Dave, who is the bike professor who built my bike assured me that "...we will measure seven times and cut once."

Update: My interview with triathlete, and Timex team member, Dr. Alex McDonald is complete and I look forward to posting the answers that he gave to my questions about training and balancing the sport with real life. I think that the interview will be insightful to novices to the sport and seasoned triathletes. Thanks to Dr. McDonald, and Timex Sports for making this fly!

Stay tuned, and train smart!

Iron Reflections: 20 Weeks In

I have come to the realization that trying to train over the course of a week with five children, and lives as insanely busy as ours, (well everyone's,) I pretty much have to take what I can get sometimes. I have to constantly remind myself that I am—despite dreams of racing Crowie towards the finish line to inch him out at the tape—not a professional triathlete, nor am I single, independently wealthy, or willing to interact with my family for only twenty minutes a day.

To be a good father and husband, I have to be around. Being around often means sacrificing the number of hours that I can train in a day, or over the course of a week. It is hard psychologically—at least for me. The first 10 weeks of training were far easier, but as they weeks progressed, and the volume increased, my body is unable to turn it around as quickly for the workout the following day. Well, let me throw a caveat in there; it would be able to turn it around if I went to bed earlier and got more rest. I do not get enough rest, for sure. Thus, the part about being a good husband/partner/significant other. You can not come home from training, have dinner, put the kids in bed and crash without the risk of divorce papers. One thing that I miss is the occasional night out to have a beer or two. Not now, not with ironman training. I have two beers and I feel terrible the next day. Case in point: Friday night, an old student came by the house to visit, stayed for dinner and we talked over a nice bottle of red (the wifey helped too.) My Saturday training session felt sluggish.

I tried to think what the reason my wife and I stay up too late and feel tired the next day. I think I've figured it out:


Our life constantly revolves around little people. All day... "mommy this, daddy that...." There are times when we are driving in the car and three of our children will be arguing over one toy. It would seem as if the fate of the human race depended on this one particular plastic toy—manufactured in China for pennies—lied in the hands of each one of them from how adamantly they argue over it. Meanwhile, our baby is crying because she wants to listen to "princess music," and one of the twins is whining because she forgot her picture she colored at the Y (which get set down outside in the mulch in our landscaping, or on the grass, or in a stack of a million other pictures that they colored from the Y as soon as they get home to be shortly forgotten and never heard from again.) But to them, these issues are current and larger than keeping oil from hemorrhaging into the Gulf of Mexico. The wifey and I will look at each other in the car sometime, and realize that our only recourse when this kind of thing happens late at night—which it often does—is to announce the bedtime rituals (shower/bath, teeth brushing, jammies, books,) will commence immediately upon arrival at our home.

My great week of training capped off with a mediocre Saturday ride. The plan called for a 3:25 ride, followed by a 50 minute run, but we were all resigned to the fact that was not going to happen. I feel bad, but my training partners know that I can not be gone from the house for six hours (length of time it would take with loading gear and the drive) on a weekend. Not going to happen. I spent my morning at the diamond with the boys, then we ran to the bike shop to talk about my new rig (more on that later.) We were about 10 miles in when I started pulling way from Manuel and Adam on the bike. Every once minute or so I would look back to see where they were. I did not feel particularly strong on Saturday. I felt really tired—even before I got out there. It's the sleep thing! About five minutes later I heard my cell ring and it was Manuel—his chain had broke. To make matters worse, I had to bike two miles back to them to learn none of us had an extra link or chain tool. Here are Adam and I making fun of Manuel—not for breaking his chain—but for not showing up with the required Crankskins gear. This gear makes us at least .0001% faster.

Sunday's workout was a bit crazy. I was suppose to run a race in the morning. A 5k followed by a 10K. There was a deal in which you could run both races for $27. I was going to run the 5k to warm up my legs, and then race the 10k. I had forgotten that my wife had a 10 a.m. rehearsal and I was not going anywhere. Good thing too, my body was still in rest mode. I did get out for a run though, 8.5 miles during the hottest part of the day. It got up to 84 with about 600% humidity. Seriously, I was sweating like crazy before I even left my driveway. I could not be happier with my respectable 8:14's. I took a few endurolytes before I took off and a couple on the run every half hour to stave off the cramping. I had all four bottles in my fuel belt loaded up with liquid, but my drink turned out to be a wee bit too sugary and I only brought one bottle of water. I drank half the water and poured the other four ounces over my head and back and chest.

Speaking of the diamond, I took the boys there Saturday morning to practice their game and have some fun. They never want to leave once they are there, especially Luca, and it shows. He went six for six in his game the other day, caught five pop-ups, and switch hit for two doubles. He certainly does not get his coordination from me! Julian and I played some football alla rest of the world in the field next to the diamond while Luca had his game. Here is Luca batting lefty, just before he connected for his first double.

Here I am with the boys during the game. I love Little League. I mean, when am I ever going to be able to pull my son aside again anytime during his sports career, give him a hug and take a picture again in the middle of a game? Hey... technically, I guess I could do that anytime I desire. I think that is one of the spoils of parenthood we enjoy. Whenever my kids ask me "why?" in response to something my wife and I tell them to do, I say ".. because I use to change all your stinky diapers, and this is your way of paying me back."

I capped off my weekend with a trip to our favorite ice cream joint. Here is Stella letting me try some of her Superman ice cream. Our family does not go out for ice cream often (and it's a good thing—$18 for seven "baby" ice creams!) but when we do, we throughly enjoy it!

More on the new rig later this week.

Train Smart!

Maintaing It On The Hamster Wheel Of Life

I had two fairly lengthy swim workouts on Monday and Wednesday of last week. One was in my "home"pool YMCA, which often approaches temperatures resembling the sun. My swim on Wednesday was at  another  YMCA pool, and the water temperature was a good 10 degrees cooler. I honestly could have swam for hours in that pool. Well, except for the fact that I find going back and forth in a pool analogous to a hamster spinning on a wheel going nowhere—no offense swimphiles. Seriously, what a huge difference a pool can have on your performance. I think the best swim workouts I have had while training this pre-season were when I did that little residency down in North Carolina at Appalachian State University. The pool was amazingly fast, cool, and relatively quiet at all hours of the day. That is exactly the type of atmosphere I need to get through a grueling swim workout. Of course, we are now into May, and I barely have a month left before my first triathlon of the season—6 June—at Keuka Lake. I am racing an Olympic distance that day. The difference between the air and water temperature that day could be about 30 degrees! I have had friends tell me that they could not even feel their extremities until they started the run course. Oh joy!

I ran a 47 minute 10K on Friday—a vast improvement for me from a few weeks ago. I had done a short 25 mile bike ride on Thursday and went I went out Friday for my 10K, my legs felt really strong. However, I really do have to get in the gym following my semester to do some weight training. I feel like I have lost a lot of muscle from all the endurance training. More, with my schedule still crazy for another week, I feel like I am barely maintaining my cardiovascular fitness, let alone strengthening it.

The good news is that I followed my week with a 56 mile bike ride on Saturday with Scott. The ride was hot, hilly, and windy!  It got up to about 82 degrees. I know what you southerners are thinking—"you wimp—82 degrees?!  I'd be wearing my winter jacket." Keep in mind that western New York is a bit different than say, anywhere south of the Monogahela line. Spring fluctuates between  40 to 80 in the span of 24 hours. I took another work induced off day today, but it is okay. I still have a lot of stuff on the burner. I am going to try and get in a ten mile run tomorrow afternoon between classes.

Okay, some of you might know that I have been compiling some questions for Dr. Alex McDonald, a professional triathlete, and member of the Timex Multisport Team. Hey, any time I have a chance to pick the brain of a Kona-qualifying MD, I seize the opportunity. Carpe Diem friends. So, the following questions are in no particular order, but they are all questions that I have had over the years, or I have heard friends ask about training. If any of you can think of any other pertinent questions—feel free to add any thoughts or questions you have.

Questions for Dr Alex McDonald:

1) One of my biggest fears about training for triathlons is that I will get sick days leading up to a race—or worse—feel ill on the day I am suppose to race. How do you  negotiate a race that you've spent time, energy—not to mention some serious dough in the case of Ironman—but know that you are not operating at 100%. Has this happened to you, and what have you done?

2) There is a lot of talk about proper nutrition, leading up to, and during the race. I find a lot of contrary information. Is the best rule, just to use plans as a template, and determine your  nutritional needs on your own by how you feel during training?

3) I have a love/hate relationship with swimming. When I have the time to do the volume consistently, I can not wait to get in the pool. When I miss a workout or two, I feel like I am learning how to swim all over again.

4) We all have busy lives. When some of us are not busy with our part-time jobs training for Ironman, we like to put some "valuable time in the bank" at home with the people that matter. Have you learned any skills through the years to balancing family life with a high volume of training that you could share?

5) I've noticed that my workouts are stronger at certain parts of the day than they are at others. Perhaps—like Superman—I am in constant need of vitamin D from the sun for power—but I really have a problem feeling fast when the sun is not out. Should I train when my body feels the strongest?

6) How much of a difference will a triathlon specific bike make on the bike and run portion for the age-group triathlete?

7) How do you do negotiate your season when you sustain an injury that is going to keep you from training for a prolonged period of time?

8) We all know that you have to invest a lot of time in the physical component of triathlon, but do you have any suggestions for the first time half, or full ironman about any mental preparedness that you can do to get ready. Do you do any visualization with regard to running or swim form?

9) For an amateur. deep wheeled rims might shave a whole minute off of an ironman distance course—maybe. What one piece of gear DO you think would make a significant difference for the age-group triathlete that they might be overlooking?

10) What was your introduction into the sport and how long do you think you will continue to race triathlon?

Okay, that is all I have, for now. Of course, answers bring up new questions. When I get responses to all of these, I will post the questions again along with the answers. Finding more time here in the next few weeks! Miss writing as much as I want.

Finally, congratulations are in order for my blogger friend Bob over at ironbob-ironbob.blogspot.com for a amazing performance at Ironman St. George. Way to go hombre! Can not wait to hear the full race report.

Until next time, train smart!