Tips and Tricks

So an amigo of mine told me that he was hoping for some insight on my blog about how I train, workouts, etc.



Boy is this going to be boring.



I am a "consistentcy first" kind of guy. I had been leaning that way a few years back and then I started reading Gordo's blog (link at bottom of page.) Without blah, blah, blahing you to death, basically he said to write up a week you could repeat 40 out of 52 weeks and do it. That's the catch though, you have to actually execute. For me, now that I am cycling almost exclusively, that is about 10 hours per week. Tues, Wed, Th, Sat, Sun. 45-90 minutes in week per ride, 2-5 hours on the weekends per ride. Sure, I rest before/after races and try to mimic the conditions of a certain race, but honestly I just try to take as little time off as possible.



I honestly believe that gives the self-coached average Joe Lunchpail (Got a job, a wife and a kid or two) about a 95% chance to reach 95% of his or her potential. Sure, some people are high or low responders, more or less genetically gifted, more or less mentally tough, and so on and so forth (the list could get quite long.)



You want 100% so you can crack a certain hour barrier in an Ironman or podium in an important race? You better either (a) get real disciplined and objective about your abilities, goals, and time available and write out a periodized program or (b) pay a coach to do that/help you do (a.) I chose (b) (this guy - www.brandonmarsh.com) when I was still a tri-geek.



Gadgets that help:

A HR monitor that you actually take the time to set up zones on and heed when it beeps at you (gasp!) isn't a bad idea. A powermeter is handy but expensive (wish I had one.) Computrainers are nice when the weather is bad or you want to do a really specific workout. Powercranks are my (not-so) secret weapon. They are unfortunately quite pricey as well, but I feel they are worth the $$$ for the return you get on that training investment. That's it, most other stuff is bogus.



Para me amigos inury: http://www.nismat.org/ptcor/eccentric_achilles/index.html

That protocol healed me of a multi-year battle with achilles tendonitis that almost caused me to completely quit running.



Asleep yet? I warned you.



We need a picture. How about this one. It's Twin Lakes near Leadville, CO. I believe I ride right by it during the race. Hopefully I'll still be lucent enough to enjoy it.

I'm baaaack....

Feeling better today. Had the post race funk up until today.

Could of had something to do with this climb:



Rode $%^#&* today with TB (this trail's name has been changed to protect the innocent.) Made some stuff I had never made before. TB of course brought the noise on the unsuspended single speed. I've ridden with him enough that I'm not embarrased anymore when he drops me on every climb or goes off some log or ledge that scares the doodoo out of me. That boy needs to race. Supposedly he's going to give the world some thoughts on racing on his blog, but haven't seen them yet.

Gratuitos "that's just funny" pic:

Terlingua Race

Here's my short version.
Good start, 3 guys in our class were off the front. I was in a fast pack including Esper, Dustin and Sergio.
We hit the climb and it split up a little, I was climping pretty well. When we got to the beginning of the fast descent, I cut my rear tire's sidewall. Took forever to boot it and get it back on. There was quite a parade of folks whizzing by as I am wrestling with my tire.
Got to the pit to start the second lap and my boot was bulging out of the sidewall. Hmmm, that's not giong to make another lap. Went over to our trailer and had to search to find where my buddy had hidden the keys, 'cause I had an extra rear wheel in there. After looking in every possibley cubbyhole and not finding them, I decided to look more closely and found them. Got inside, got the wheel, swapped it out.
Rode the 2nd lap all solo. I knew if I could stay on the gas, eventually I would catch some folks. I got a couple right before the climb and then 2-3 more on the climb.
Ended up 20th out of 50. Bummed about my flat, but that's part of MB racing. I still owe that race one.

I'm not 21 anymore and pics of a cutie...

I live in the 'burbs, so my street is always packed with kids riding bikes, shooting hoops, throwing the football, etc. So last night as we pass by a house with 3 boys shooting some hoops. We know each other, so they pass me the ball and I fire up a 15 footer - nothing but air! Yikes, how many baskets have I shot in my life? Conservative estimates would be around 1 million, but only about 200 in the last 8-10 years.





Well, it took a few to get rolling, and then I swished a few in a row. OK, time to go. How high can I jump these days?





Flashback: I used to be able to do most of this: http://youtube.com/watch?v=n9drNlclSzE





Fast forward to last night and it looked slightly worse than this: http://youtube.com/watch?v=PI5rO8-LJXA



Too add injury to insult, I tweaked my back while being unspectacular.

I'm getting old for sure.





Now, the good part of getting old is that I get to see a lot of this around my house:

Brrrrr!

Lovely weather lately, don't you think?

Just checked the forecast for Terlingua the next few days and it's great! Well, except for the day where we race in tight little spandex, that is. Gonna be something like 34 degrees at the start. I'll be taking the full complement of bike wear for this one.

On another note, your prayers are appreciated for my niece. The short version is that she has been through way too much in her short life thus far and her parents are looking at making a big decision soon on which direction to take her treatment. If you want to know more about her, read here: http://hollydgray.blogspot.com/

In the meantime, Asher says "Hello"

Stumbling out of the gate

I'm off to a roaring start. I emailed a bunch of friends and family about this blog....and forgot to send them the link. Doh!

Then my buddy Jax tried to convince me that I was running some Defcon 4 security risk. I was already paranoid enough about doing this. Tech dork. He was giving me way to much credit thinking I was going to do some kind of hosting from my own computer. He can't help it, that's what he does for a living.

Long day today, Do it to it

Sign up now...

...accepting new clients of all ages for my training program.

Let's get this sucker started

So I've been considering this for a while. Blogs are still a bit weird to me. I'm not that old, but I have been accused of being and old man inside a young man's body (Jen Little.)

Seems like all my friends and younger family have one, so why not me? I even got an iPod at the beginning of the year which upped my hip factor by about 1,000x. Blogging is the natural progression of me selling out on my simplicity.

Really I just want an excuse to blab on and post some cool pictures when I get around to uploading them, that is.

So what got me thinking about blogging? Well, besides the above, I got accepted into this race: http://leadvilletrail100.com/merchant.ihtml?id=1425&step=2

Big events make me want to journal for some reason. I got started on one before Ironman a few years back, but never really followed through.

Anyhow, here's what I'm doing this weekend: http://www.desertsportstx.com/momcourse.php

Peace out