Heading to Miami :)

I just booked my tickets today and registered for this race.....I'm in. Thanks to my mom (thanks mom), I had some plane vouchers that needed to be used up by mid April so I have been trying to figure out where to go. I was thinking about doing an early season half iron but gearing up for a half early April seemed un-motivating, especially since I don't really get outside until April on my bike. A friend told me about this race and then it became a reality. Sue and I have a place to stay in Boca (thanks Joannie). I can't wait to get in some warm weather and I'm excited to have a little early season goal. This race is chock full of pros and my Rev3 teammates, the Gollnicks will be there racing.

My fitness is in pretty good shape right now. Marty gave me a 4,000 swim workout last week and I was dreading it but once I got into a rhythm with my swimman, I just rolled along. I felt so good, I added another 500 for good measure.....that's a little over 2.5 miles. I could have kept going. I was hitting my 100's in 1:30-1:32 which is pretty good for me. My indoor cycling workouts have been going well too. My running has been average, only because I am heavy right now and I haven't added too much intensity.

I have 4 weeks until the race which is a perfect little goal to get ready for this race. My diet starts Monday and I want to lose 8 pounds by race day....2 pounds per week.....that should be doable. Bye bye sugar.....its been nice knowing you for the last few months.

Anyone want to join me in Miami? Come along and race.....its still open.

And, they have a clydesdale category so my goal is to finish top 3 in this category.

This will be a good dress rehearsal before canada for flying with my bike, taking it a part, and putting it back together.

Ciao for now!

What the Heck?

I'm in the gym yesterday running on the treadmill. I look over to my left and see a guy jump on a treadmill. He's in pretty decent shape. He's got running clothes on. He looks like a runner. He's moving along at a pretty good clip.......he's holding onto the hand rails for his entire workout. I look over and he's floating along at 8 mph. I wonder what he's going to hold onto when he runs outside....maybe a walker? I felt the need to tell him he was cheating himself but I refrained. He probably tells his friends he runs at 5:00min/mile (with his hands on the rails....DOH)

This is like swimming with fins and paddles in the pool for the whole workout.

Whatever floats your boat, I guess.

Curious Minds Want to Know......

For all of my loyal readers out there have been asking......where have you been?......what are you up to?.......how come no updates to your blog?

Well, its winter and I'm kind of in hibernation mode just hoping that spring is around the corner. I'm busy planning the Revolution 3 triathlon. This is going to be one cool race. Unfortunately its not going unnoticed as there is a thread on slowtwitch right now pitting the Rev3 race against a staple New England race on the same day, Mooseman. Keith Jordan runs the Mooseman triathlon and he is one of the best race directors out there. He runs great races. Because of all the attention and promises Rev3 is making, we need to put on a great race which adds to the stress.

Training is moving forward well. My swim, bike, and run sessions are all going well. Biking seems to be going exceptionally well with the computrainer sessions. My preference seems to be the one hour intense workout. When this ironman gig is over this year, I'm looking forward to working on my speed to see how fast I can go in the shorter distances.

My nutrition is still a struggle. Still making too many mistakes but I'm also trying to be easier on myself and remind myself that its a long season. More on this later as I had an ah-ha moment the other day with proper nutrition and training sessions.

Rev3 Planning is heating up

June 7th will be the inaugural Revolution3 Half Iron distance triathlon in Middlebury, CT at Quassy Amusement Park. Panic is beginning to set in, distress calls are flying, and calls for help are loud. Okay, so I'm exaggerating a little. The team is set to spend 3 1/2 days together this weekend to spend some quality time all getting on the same page and meeting with some key local people. We continue to look for sponsors but my role is more on the logistics of getting this race executed as close to perfection as possible. The founders of the race wanted to hit a home run first year out which puts a lot more pressure on our team to execute. They put up $100,000 professional purse so many of the sports top professionals will be vying for their share. This is one of the richer purses in our sport. I'll be in Rev3 planning mode for the next 4 months. It will be here before I know it.

10 week Computrainer Kick Off

We kicked off the 10 week program with a power test today. Marty chose a 10k dead flat course for the test. After a nice 20min. warmup, we hammered away. This is an early indicator of what my power looks like right now and on the 10th week, we'll do the same test to measure progress.

As for the test, I averaged 308 watts for the 10k session. My HR was a new sky-high 165. I even saw 178 at one point. I was happy that I stayed pretty steady for the whole effort. It will be interesting to see how much my power can improve over the next 10 weeks of riding these sessions 3 days per week. Here are a few pics from today's session:

Chilly Chili 5k

I decided to start the new year with a hard effort. I hadn't been running a whole lot leading up to this race and I certainly haven't done any speed work. To top that off I'm about 10 pounds heavier than my race weight at Ironman Florida two months ago. I haven't done a 5k in over a year I think. I was hoping I might be able to break 20 minutes but figured it would be a stretch considering the points mentioned earlier. Running and body weight have a huge factor in speed. We awoke to one of the coldest days of the winter plus we got 3-4 inches of snow the previous afternoon. It was bitter, bitter cold. The morning started with temps in the single digits with strong winds. Not a good day to run hard and fast....oh well.

I started up front and could see the leaders through the first mile and I was in the top 10-12. I ran the first 1st mile in 6:16 but it was flat to downhill but I was ahead of schedule. My 2 mile split was 13:xx so I fell behind schedule but the 2nd mile was mostly uphill. I have never seen the course so I didn't know what the third mile would bring but it had to be downhill if I was going to hit my target. Unfortunately, there was the biggest hill on the course and I hit an all-time new high heart rate trying to get up that hill. I wasn't feeling too optimistic at this point but settled into the fastest pace I could maintain. At the top of the hill I saw 18:xx on my watch an knew unless I had rocket boosters, I wasn't going to break 20 minutes. I finished in 20:48 or something, 6:43 pace. Better fitness, less body weight, and better conditions will bring me that sub 20 minute 5k before too long. I finished in 17th overall out of 284 people. The best part of the race was watching a 90 year old man run and finish the race....something to strive for.

New Bike

I just got back from picking up my new bike in Philadelphia from Elite Bicycles. If anyone is keeping track, this is my third bike from Elite in the last year. Fortunately I haven't had to pay for one of them. The owner of Elite is Dave Greenfield. Dave is the "The Man". He has the best customer service in the bike business. He pours his heart and soul into his business and goes to the extreme to make sure his customers are happy and satisfied.

My first bike was great but it developed a crack in the top tube in the Easton tubing where a cable hole was drilled out. No questions asked, Dave replaced the frame. The second new bike was great too and I raced it at Ironman Florida. I have had some problems in the past with a high speed wobble and was mentioning this to Dave. He wasn't happy that I was experiencing this with his bike. He had to make it right. He offered to make me a full custom frame to meet my needs. The changes included a beefier downtube, a beefier top tube near the head tube tapering towards the seat tube, a taller head tube, flat/aero seat stays, and a change in geometry to give me longer wheelbase. Hopefully, this machine will be rock solid. Unfortunately, its too darn cold to get outside and test it out so it will have to wait until the weather improves.

In addition, I have been chosen to be one of a few select athletes to be on the Elite Bicycles triathlon team. There will be some nice perks to go along with it so I'm excited to wear my new Elite tri kit in 2009.

Here are a few pictures: