A Triathlete's Journal

reality bites

2010-03-28T20:02:00.002-05:00

The past 2.5 months have consisted of 1 week of solid training followed by 2-3 weeks of minimal training coupled with a not so great diet. Well, this pattern has caught up with me. My bike, swim and run fitness are probably at the lowest they've been since I did my first half ironman. Right now, not sure if I could finish an Olympic distance race. The good news is my mind feels refreshed and I don't feel the resentment/burnout that I did when I pulled out of Ironman Florida back in September. In fact, it's quite the opposite. I feel inspired much like I did when I was training for IM Arizona. The IM journey is appealing to me again. Not saying I'm going to sign up for IM anytime soon but it's on my mind an not out of the question.

Today, I drove up to Melissa, Tx to ride the 75 Access Route from Melissa to Howe. It's a 36 mile loop of rolling hills and FULL EXPOSURE to the wind. Today was quite windy and the first 18 miles of the ride were straight into the wind. Mentally the wind is always tough for long stretches but I was really surprised at how physically tough the ride was. I was wiped out when I got to the turnaround point. I think at this point REALITY hit. I've got a long way to go to even attempt a 1/2 ironman. I had a nice tailwind on the way back so I tried to ride hard but the fatigue was there and I never was really able to get in a good groove. When I got back to my truck I was surprisingly upbeat. I was tired, the weather sucked but all I could think about was my rides for this upcoming week and some of the targets I was going to set for each ride. Which is a good sign because if there is anything I have learned about IM & 1/2 IM's it's all about consistency and the fire/desire has to burn strong if you are going to succeed. I really hope my fire is starting to burn and this morning's ride was not a fluke.

So what's next. I'm just trying to get in some level of shape. I'm going to follow a base fitness plan for approximately 8-10 weeks to try and establish some level of cycling/running base and then from there I'll hopefully be able to get on a more aggressive/advanced training plan for some late season races. Right now, my race schedule looks like:

Hotter than Hell - August
Prairieman (Aquabike) - September
Stonebridge Triathlon - September
Lonestar 1/2 Ironman - October ??

Why am I waiting so long to do a race? Honestly I think it will take me that long to get back in some decent level of shape to where I can at least have a decent showing at these races.

While I'm thinking about it, like to congratulate my good friend Pablo and his wife on the birth of their new baby girl. Welcome to parenthood my friend!!

That's it for now, I'll update soon.

back on the bike

2010-01-03T17:03:00.002-06:00

I spent about 2.5 hours on my bike on Friday and then another 1.5 on Saturday. The 2.5 hour bike ride on Friday was the longest I have ridden in about 4 months. It was a little bit challenging. My nutrition, pacing/hr is all off from what I am accustomed to. I have noticed a slight improvement from a few weeks ago but I'm anxious to get back to where I was this past summer.

Winter cycling is tough. I'm on the trainer quite a bit but nothing replaces cycling outdoors. The biggest challenge I find with cycling in the winter is keeping my fingers and feet warm. If anyone has any good suggestions please send them my way.

My Achilles was acting up this past week, so I laid off of running to let it rest. I should be ready to go next week. According to my chiropractor I have some type of alignment issue with my hips that aggravates/causes the Achilles issue so I guess it's time to get realigned.

Holidays are officially over and it's back to the grind for everyone tomorrow. I'm heading to San Jose, California for most of the week and am anxious to try out some of the running trails in the area.

One other note, My oldest son and I were watching Hawaii Ironman 2002 yesterday and I asked my oldest son if he wanted his Daddy to do another Ironman and he told me "yes" because he wants me to be strong but then he said "no" because he doesn't want me to be gone on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Kids always have a way of helping their Daddy's stay focused on what's important. :)...

trying...

2009-12-20T21:27:00.003-06:00

I got in some decent workouts this week. Hit the bike 3 times, ran 3 times, swam twice and lifted weights 4 times. The main issue with the workouts right now is the bike. It's too cold to get up at 5am and ride, so most of my rides are on the trainer and I can't tolerate the trainer for much more than an hour. We have two "warm" weather days here in Dallas on Tuesday & Wednesday so I'm hoping to get in maybe a 2-3 hour ride on one of those days.

Regardless of the cold weather, I'm enjoying the training and right now it's all about having fun and trying to stay motivated. Looks like there will be a 1/2 ironman in the Dallas in May and I'm thinking about signing up. This would be a no pressure race (ie no time goal) just get out and compete type of thing.

My goals for next week:

Bike - 5 hours (3 sessions, with one session in the 2.5-3 hour range)
Run - 3.5 hours (3 sessions)
Swim - 2 hours (2 sessions)
Weights - 3 sessions

Not much else to report. I hope everyone has a great Christmas.

busy week

2009-12-13T19:31:00.002-06:00

It's been very busy on the workfront the past 2 weeks so training hasn't gone so well. I haven't ran more than 10 miles the past two weeks and I've mainly been on the trainer which I hate :). I made it to the pool twice this past week but the workouts have been very low key.

Up until now, I've kept the workouts very unstructured. I think I'm ready to tie some structure to the workouts and pick up the pace a little bit. I need to enter some type of race to give me something to work towards. It's very easy right now to skip workouts :).

Not too much to report this week hopefully I'll get in some decent workouts this week..

trying to get back in the game

2009-11-29T14:09:00.004-06:00

I actually made some progress this week on the training front. I ran 3 times, biked twice and swam twice. The bike is pretty ugly right now. No power, no speed and no tolerance for the wind. The swim was interesting to say the least. First day back in the water was slow. During my training cycle for Florida my base pase per 100 meters was around 1:35, first day back the base pace was around 1:44. I blamed the slow swim time on all the hair I grew back on my arms and legs so I promptly shaved as soon as I got back home and the next day in the pool was much better :)... (yeah right)

Yes, I have a lot of work to do to get back in tri shape. I'm having fun and hoping to get back in touch with the old seabiscuit gang so we can train together. I enjoy training with these guys and listening to all the BS during the long bike rides.

Like to take this opportunity to brag on my wife and kids. Jennifer placed 4th in the Believe 10k in downtown Mckinney and Ben & Reed, ages 7 and 4, both ran the 1 mile fun run and ran the whole thing!!! I was real proud of all of them and hoping I have some future triathletes in Ben and Reed.

For this week, I'm hoping to bike 3 times, swim 2 times and run 3 times. No hard time goals or distances just look for consistency at this stage and getting in some solid base work.

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving...

new moon

2009-11-20T22:26:00.004-06:00

After 3 months off from triathlon, I think I'm finally ready to start back up. To say I was burned out from triathlons is a complete understatement. I didn't read, write or watch anything even remotely related to triathlons for most of the 3 months. I was so burned out that I almost sold my bike. I listed the bike on Craigslist, had a buyer lined up and I backed out at the last minute. Just couldn't do it. I couldn't sell the bike because I knew once I did that would be it. It would be years before I could talk my wife into letting me drop a couple of grand on a new bike.

What have I done for the last 3 months? Nothing too structured just tried to stay in decent shape. I lifted weights a lot and ran anywhere from 10-30 miles a week. I've probably worked out 5-7 hours a week and honestly it's been enjoyable to not have to schedule my life around workouts.

So what's next. IM is still out of the question at least for the next few years. Just don't have the time plus I think my wife would file for divorce if I signed up for an IM right now. I think for 2010 I'm just going to focus on Sprint & Olympic distance racing and just having fun.

I'm glad to be back. It's going to take me awhile to rebuild on the swim and the bike but I'm looking forward to the challenge and looking forward to getting back in touch with some of my tri buddies.

The End.... of Ironman

2009-09-07T15:42:00.003-05:00

I did a lot of soul searching this past weekend and after a painful run on Sunday, I made the decision to pull of of IM Florida. It's still quite painful when I run and the Achilles needs some dedicated time off to heal up and unfortunately I'm out of "slack" time in my training schedule. So, it is what it is and I have to be smart and listen to my body and back off. Initially, I thought I could just tough it out and truth be told if this would have happened last year prior to AZ I probably would have toughed it out but I'm in a different place right now and with 3 kids the last thing my wife needs right now is a 4th kid that's hobbling around on crutches because he let his ego make all of his critical decisions. It's funny, because 3 weeks ago when I saw the podiatrist and he told me I would be out 2-3 weeks I was crushed but now I almost feel relieved. It's going to be strange not waking up at 4am on Saturday and Sunday to ride all morning.

So what's next? This was my last opportunity (at least for a few years) to do another Ironman. For whatever reason, perhaps the injury, I'm feeling a tremendous amount of burnout on the whole triathlon thing so I'll probably take a few weeks off/possibly a month and switch back over to lifting weights and possibly just focus on non competitive marathon training to stay in shape. I'm also planning on enrolling at a local Takewondo school with the goal of getting a black belt. I'll need something to fill the hole of IM :)...

Anyway, the purpose of this blog was to track my training for IM Florida so since I'm not doing that anymore this will be my last blog entry. I appreciate everyone's support during my IM Journey.

Thanks,

Put me in coach, I can do it....

2009-09-01T20:33:00.002-05:00

I went back to the podiatrist late last week and he gave me the green light to continue training. Since then I've had a pretty large training load (making up for lost time) and the Achilles is holding up okay. It still gets sore after running and long bike rides, so I don't think I'm quite out of the woods yet. I think this is going to be a nagging injury all the way through Florida and its going to require a lot of preventative maintenance type of stuff, like constant icing, etc which I SUCK at... My wife's chiropractor is an IM guy and he told her that he could help me so I'm going to go and see him later this week to see what voodoo magic he can do.

Other than that, things are going well. I've been like a caged tiger for the past few weeks so my motivation is high and I'm ready and willing to train, I just need my body to hold up for 11 more weeks. Wish me luck...

Achilles tendonosis

2009-08-19T19:58:00.004-05:00

Went to the podiatrist today and apparently I have "Achilles tendonosis". My Achilles has just not healed up the way I had expected/hoped. I've laid off from running but have continued cycling and swimming. Well, today I received some bad news of no running/cycling for at least one week and possibly more. The doctor thinks it will take 2-3 weeks of no activity to heal but I'm being optimistic and hoping it's better one week from now. So, I'm waddling around in an aircast for at least the next week.

This is new territory for me. I've been pretty fortunate the last 3 years in the sense that I haven't had any significant injuries/sicknesses that have resulted in significant time off from "tri" training. I've always at least been able to Run or Bike.

Not sure what this does for Florida. When he initially told me 2-3 weeks I was pretty upset because there is no way I can go for 4 weeks of not running and expect to meet my goals at IM Florida and that's the thing, I'm not willing to go to Florida knowing my fitness level will just get me across the finish line. I've done that with Arizona and I want more this go around. I want to push and see what I'm capable of and just crossing the finish line is not going to cut it this time around.

Doctor's appointment is 1 week from now. In the meantime, I'm going to follow his direction stay off the bike, no running but I'm going to swim my butt off for the next 7 days/lift weights and keep my fingers crossed that this works out.

little banged up right now

2009-08-16T18:18:00.004-05:00

My Achilles tendon is still causing me issues. I laid off of running most of the week then tried again on Friday and it was very painful. I went to Run On today to see what types of wraps/suggestion they may have and of course I walked out of there with a very expensive new pair of shoes that are going to solve all my running problems :)...

Somehow during my bike ride on Saturday I managed to get some of the worst chaffing in some of the most uncomfortable areas you could imagine. Not sure what happened here, same shorts, same shirt, same everything but for whatever reason my skin did not like the clothing I had on that day. The chaffing was so bad that I could not even put on my cycling kit this am, thus no cycling today.

I've decided to write this past week off and pretty much treat it as a recovery week and try again next week. I missed a key run session and a secondary bike and that frustrates me to no end. I'm 12 weeks out from IM Florida and mentally I'm there. My motivation is high, I want to workout, I'm ready to do what I've got to do to meet my goals at Florida but unfortunately my body is not cooperating right now. I'm hoping I heal up quick so I can get back to it next week.

On the family side, the boys setup a lemonade stand at the end of our culdesac yesterday and within 1 hour they made $27. Not too bad for one hour of work. I'm going to talk to them about making this a daily "job" and donating their money to Dad's triathlon fund so I can pick up some race wheels prior to Florida :).

Training Update

2009-08-12T21:03:00.003-05:00

Got a little injury. My Achilles is acting up and I haven't been able to run for the past 2 days and I'm actually missing it. I've been pretty fortunate for the past 2 months in terms of injury so it was my time for an injury. I hope this injury heals up quick so I can get back to it.

Training is going pretty good. No real complaints. I'm a little concerned about the swim volume on my training plan. It's pretty low compared to what I did for IM AZ and compared to other training plan. I'm probably going to make some adjustments to crank that up within the next week or two. I feel pretty confident about the direction of the running and the cycling.

Not much else to report. Kids start back to school on August 24th and then baseball and soccer start up again so the after school activity vacation is almost over. I enjoy their practices and the games. I just have to remind myself that they are only 7 and 4 and that I'm not playing :)...

back to the grind

2009-08-02T20:12:00.004-05:00

Vacation is over and it's back to the grind tomorrow. I had a great time and so did the kids. Gulf Shores is one of my absolute favorite places to vacation. It was also a pretty good training location. Lot's of scenic rides and good places to run. The weather was pretty good. Not too hot but it was very humid and windy at times.

Last week was a recovery week on the training schedule so I had minimal running and swimming but lots of cycling. Training plan cranks back up this week and I feel good both mentally and physically. I made some pretty drastic changes to my training plan about a month ago and switched back over to the Endurance Nation training plan/methodology. Their programs and philosophy makes sense to me and they have a lot of "resources" for the self coached athlete. Anyway, the cycling workouts in EN plans are hard, much harder then anything I have done in the past. If I'm going to make any breakthroughs with my IM Time it will be on the bike so hopefully this hard cycling training will pay off.

I'm attaching a couple of pics from the Skyscraper swing at the "Track" in Gulf Shores. We initially went here to ride go-karts, etc but when we pulled up we saw the swing and I jokingly asked my oldest son (Age 7) if he wanted to do it and to my astonishment he said yes. Well, let me just say that thing was scary and I'm real proud of him for doing it. I may have a future X-Game participant on my hands.

vacation

2009-07-28T20:29:00.004-05:00

I'm on a 10 day vacation and loving life. Jennifer and I started off the vacation with a night in New Orleans at the Royal Sonesta with a balcony overlooking Bourbon Street. We enjoyed the evening and pretended like we were in college again. That night had some impact on the IM training schedule but hey you have to cut loose every now and then.

I'm currently in Gulf Shores, Alabama being a beach bum. I have stayed on track with the training and there are some great places to ride and run in this area. Very flat, humid and windy. I'm assuming very similar to the conditions at IM Florida. Kids are having a great time. We boogie boarded all day today and had some great waves in the 4'-6' range. I hope the ocean is calm on race day because I'm not convinced I could swim 2.4 miles in those type of conditions.

Not much else to report. Just enjoying the time off.

it's hot..

2009-07-12T19:56:00.004-05:00

The heat has been kicking my butt. My nutrition/hydration plan seems to be a bit off because I consistently get "tight legs" around the 60 mile mark. I'm going to do a little research this week and try and take a different approach for next week's long ride and to do a little more work on my heat acclimatization.

Training front is going okay. I've made SIGNIFICANT changes to my training plan for Florida, mainly to aid in the recovery. I'm getting older and I don't heal the way I use to :) This was my first week with the new schedule/workouts and it went well. Hopefully I'll keep things going and stay focused for Florida.

It's been a lazy summer here at the Coco house. It's been so hot that it's been hard to do anything outside that doesn't involve a swimming pool. We are going on vacation from July 22nd - 31st. We will be heading back to Louisiana for a few days and then to Gulf Shores, Alabama. While in Gulf Shores I'm going to go to "surf school". I'm really excited because it's something I've always wanted to try out. Hopefully we will have decent waves while I'm there.

Not much else to report. Just looking forward to vacation and getting out of DFW for a few days.

A little time off...

2009-06-30T19:39:00.003-05:00

This week was scheduled as a recovery week and it couldn't have come at a better time. The previous week was no so great. I was tired, legs were beat and had to call a friend to come pick me up at sonic in celina because I bonked on a bike ride. My motivation and desire have been at an all time low. The bonk was particularly disturbing because I could have finished the bike ride I just chose not to finish.

I've spoken with a few good friends, got some good advice and also some straight talk (thanks Ryan). I decided to reduce my recovery training load this week and just take some time away from triathlon to figure things out and see if I can identify the issues and make the necessary changes to right the ship. The Ironman is a huge commitment and it can be a little overwhelming at times with everything else those goes on in your life. So... I'm in the process of making changes. I should have everything finalized by next week and will hopefully be ready to get the work in and get this Ironman going.

My wife and 2 older boys are in College Station this weekend so I'm at home with the baby. No PlayTri race this weekend which is fine as I don't get to spend much alone time with the baby and I'm really enjoying our alone time. We've got a big weekend planned. Today we hit Wal Mart, did a session of P90X and we might go swimming in a bit. Tomorrow we are going to hit the carousel at the Mall and go by REI to do a little window shopping.

That's it for now, best of luck to JT at Playtri. Go Seabiscuit.....

almost grinding...

2009-06-24T19:32:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite shows, is the The Deadliest Catch. The fisherman commonly use a term called grinding as they are going through 20 hour days trying to catch crabs (that didn't sound quite right). I'm not grinding quite yet on the training plan but I'm getting closer to it. I've got a 100 mile ride scheduled this weekend and I would expect that will be the norm from this point forward. I say bring it on, this is the time where you earn it.

Health wise, body is feeling pretty good except for a head cold that kept me out of work on Tuesday. My house is like a germ factory. At any given time at least one of us is sick so it's a daily roll of the dice to see if I'm going to pick up something.

I'm starting to feel confident on the bike again. The biggest part of the confidence is just remembering how to cycle smart. Pushing the correct gears, not trying to over power everything. Pacing over long distances. I've had 2 very painful rides this month that have reminded of my capabilities and my limits....

Still waiting on approval from my life manager (jennifer) to sign up for the playtri olympic distance race. The past few Saturdays Jennifer has had to "run" late in the day because of my long bike rides. I think Jennifer is starting to dislike Ironman training again :)..

Finally, I had several friends participate in IMCDA last weekend and it always gets me pumped to see friends do well in their Ironmans. All I can say is the bar has been set high for bragging rights. Congrats to Raul, Rodney, Trent & Kevin. Great Job!!!

Crank it up

2009-06-15T20:52:00.003-05:00

My training plan is starting to crank up. I've got an 80 mile bike ride schedule this weekend and 100 next weekend, so the light volume weeks are just about over and it's time to "put in the work".

This training cycle for Florida feels so much different then the training for Arizona. I have a new coach, with new philosophies but it's also my attitude towards the race. Previously, I was sky high about the challenge of the Ironman; now I'm still excited but I also know that I've got a lot of work to do to be successful. I've read before that the second Ironman is the toughest because the "excitement" and the "challenge" are just the not the same as they were for the first, and I can say from my standpoint it's true. I'm currently not as motivated as I was for Arizona but hopefully that will change over the next couple of months.

On the family front, we are starting to settle into our summer routine. We just wrapped up baseball and currently have no extra curricular activities which is kind of nice so I'm hoping to make more of the group workouts over the next few weeks. The kids are having a good summer. We took them to Turner Falls on Sunday and they had a ball. Turner Falls is an interesting place because it's a complete throwback. They have a natural swim area with a diving board and a slide from a 10 foot cliff and a lot of slippery rocks and steep trails from the waterfall. In other words it's kind of dangerous and I'm really surprised they don't have you sign all kind of waivers prior to entry, but for 3 little boys it's an absolute playground and Dad likes it as well.

That's it for now, I'm going to sign up for PlayTri Olympic Distance race on July 5th. It's time to see where I'm at.....

Kind of Tired...

2009-06-10T20:05:00.002-05:00

Had a fun/painful ride in ardmore on Saturday. In fact the pain of the ride carried over to Sunday which in turn caused my long run for the week to be quite painful as well... So I say thanks to Team Seabiscuit for kicking my butt all over Ardmore, OK. These types of rides are always quite humbling and it's a reminder that there's a lot of work to do. We ended up climbing around 5000 feet that day which is certainly the most I had ever done. I'm hoping this can become a monthly ride....

I was in Wenatchee, WA Sunday-Tuesday and I can honestly say I love that area. It's absolutely beautiful, unspoiled/undiscovered area and they have Cajuns there. What else could you ask for, Mountains, Great Weather and Cajuns. I felt like I was back home in Louisiana. I am however quite tired. The traveling and trying to squeeze in workouts at 9pm at night, eating crap have caught up with me. I decided to take today off from working out to try and recoup. I need to become smarter with my training. I've been trying to force workouts here recently and it's caught up with me (and my coach gave me a good talking to).

I'm having a little trouble with the "breathing" again so I went back to the asthma doctor and got some new medicine, so we will give this a shot and see if helps. Apparently you have to take this medicine consistently not just when you feel like it if you want it to work.

Family is back and I'm glad. I think the kids actually missed me, especially the baby..... Looking forward to the rest of the week.

Long Week...

2009-06-05T21:24:00.004-05:00

It's been a long week and I'm anxious for the weekend. I got tied up at work and missed my tempo run and some drills on the bike but other then that I'm staying on top of the workouts. In fact, I'm obsessing again with hitting everything on the training schedule which is good and bad. When I get in that mode it's hard to listen to the body and shut things down when I need to. The volume will start to pick up over the next few weeks and I feel like I'm mentally and physically ready for it.

Jennifer and the kids are in Baton Rouge for a few days so I'm a bachelor this weekend. I miss them, but I'm also going to enjoy my "free" time. I'm heading back to Ardmore tomorrow for a 70 mile bike ride with the Team Seabiscuit crew. These are the type of friends that 1o minutes into the workout you wished they wouldn't have shown up because they are already pushing the pace and kicking your butt!!! Should be painful but fun. Ardmore is really a great place to ride and it's a nice change of scenery from the McKinney area.

I've gotten a little lazy with the blog and I'm going to blame that on twitter. I did however promise my mother-in-law (my most loyal reader) that I would continue to update the blog.

Let me take the opportunity to congratulate my brother from another mother Ryan Brasher on completing his first triathlon. In fact in his first triathlon he placed 3rd in his age group. Who does that!!! This guy will be a beast once he gets the bike down.

That's all for now, at this time tomorrow I'll be in a lot of pain thanks to my good friends from Team Seabiscuit.....

San Antonio

2009-05-25T18:20:00.003-05:00

I took off most of last week to head down to San Antonio to see my brother graduate from Air Force Basic Training. Week was well planned out. Drive down on Wednesday, Sea World on Thursday, Graduation on Friday. During that time frame I had mapped out all of my workouts in SA area and was ready to roll and stay on track.

We made it to Sea World on Thursday and Open/Closed the place with 3 kids. Everyone had a great time no major blowups from kids or parents. We ate dinner that night at Buffalo Wild Wings and then Friday morning hit. I woke up around 4am and knew something wasn't quite right and by 5:00am I was throwing up. 645am rolled around I thought I was feeling better so I attempted to go to the graduation ceremony. We finally got on base around 7:30 and I threw up again in the parking lot. Being the Ironman that I am, I figured I could just tough it out. This will be great training for the IM Marathon. I'll save you all of the gory details but I made it to the ceremony but didn't get to see it. I was really disappointed because that's a special moment for a soldier after he completes graduation and gets to see his family but I was in no condition to talk/visit. All in all I probably saw my brother for 10-15 minutes the whole weekend but I promised him I would make it up to him this summer when we go visit him in Pensacola. My webmd degree tells me I had food poisoning.

Last week was somewhat of a wasted workout week but hopefully I'll be able to make up some ground this week and pick up where I left off. My training plan has this marked as a recovery week but I'm going to talk to Coach and see if we want to adjust based on last week since I barely did anything.

I'm feeling the itch to race in a 5K/10K/Sprint race. I'm going to check the local calendars and see what's coming up....

2009-05-18T20:58:00.002-05:00

Things are rolling and I'm getting in a pretty good routine. The workouts are fun and challenging and I'm enjoying things right now. Volume is minimal but the group workouts (track, interval bike, tempo run) are pretty intense and they are back to back to back, so by Friday I'm pretty tired but by the time the weekend rolls around I'm typically recovered and ready to roll.

This past weekend I drove up to Ardmore to ride in the Arbuckle Mountains (hills). The official ride of 70 miles was rained out but we stuck around until the rain lifted and rode about 30 miles mainly the hilly sections. The route is scenic and hilly and just all around awesome route. I'm going to go back with some of the old seabiscuit gang in early June. I'm hoping to make this a monthly ride, it's only an hour and half from McKinney and a nice little get away.

The training this week will be cut short a bit. I'm heading to San Antonio on Wednesday to take the kids to Seaworld and to see my younger brother graduate from Air Force Basic Training. Also, my sister (who I haven't seen in 2 years) is flying to Dallas tomorrow night and will drive to San Antonio with us. Coco Family Reunion, look out San Antonio....

It's way past my bedtime but I'm hooked on Michael Irving's "4th and long", I'm thinking Steven the DB is going to be the first one cut....

Inspiration

2009-05-10T21:37:00.004-05:00

Inspiration is a funny thing. Sometimes, it watching movies like Rudy, Friday Night Lights, Rocky... Last year I spent countless hours scouring youtube looking for triathlon clips. I can't even tell you how many times I've watched videos on the Hoyts and Jon Blais. Those youtube clips got me out of bed many of mornings.

I found inspiration somewhere else on Saturday. I was riding on 289 (Preston Road) up in Grayson County when I ran across another cyclist. It was relatively early because we both had our bike lights on. As he got closer I recognized the guy. He is a friend of a friend and I've ridden with him a few times. His name is Kevin and he is currently training for his first Ironman, Coeur D'lane (sp?). So we stopped and chatted for a few minutes. He is currently in the hardest part of his training plan. 6-7 hour bike rides, back to back on the weekends, type of thing. Well to complicate things further Kevin's wife is pregnant and due in 1 week. Kevin had been on the road since 4am riding all over Collin and Grayson County. When I saw him he could barely turn his head because his neck hurt so bad from being in the aero position.

I think the reason I found this so inspiring is because you meet a lot of interesting people in this sport. People at different stages of life, different time commitments, etc. But the thing that always amazes me, is the level of hardship/sacrifice that people are willing to go through to finish an Ironman. In Kevin's case, he's got so many competing priorities - kids, wife, job, ironman, but he recognizes that and does what he has to do to try and balance it (ie Cycling at 4am) so that he can be a good dad, be a good husband and at the same time chase his Ironman. I think this type of effort/dedication is what makes the Ironman so special for so many folks and allows ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things...

_________

On the training front things are going pretty good. I just got over my bi-monthly calf injury and am starting to run again. The calf is just something I've got to learn to manage better. I know I've got issues with it and I have to get in the groove of preventative maintenance with it. This includes a lot of stretching, icing, etc... My coach educated me on the compression socks and I'm going to give that a shot to see if it helps.

Other than that, cycling and swimming are coming along. I made it back to the weekly Negative Split Interval Ride and that was a beat down. I've lost a lot of "power" since last year but it will come back as my cycling gets more consistent. Swimming is going okay, I'm consistently in the pool and I can honestly say that I don't hate it. I'm heading up to Ardmore, OK on Saturday to do a 70 mile ride in the Ardmore hills. I'm really looking forward to it. The largest hill I have ever ridden on is the Windhaven Hill in Plano so this should be an interesting experience. So no complaints, I'm having fun and enjoying this initial stage of training... Ask me again in a few months and you might get a different answer.

Here we go...

2009-05-02T19:34:00.002-05:00

Got back from San Jose, CA on Friday night. I was there for work all week, so my workouts were not so great. I mainly just ran, did P90x a few times, ate and ate again... I missed my bike and San Jose/San Francisco area has so many great places to ride. We drove up to San Francisco one evening and I was amazed at all of the people on the bikes and the great places they had to ride. Bike paths, bike lanes and plenty of quad busting hills. People even cycle across the Golden Gate Bridge. I may be spending a lot of time in San Jose over the next year and if I do I'm bringing my bike.

Ironman training officially started this weekend. I'm still a little worn out from all of the travel last week but I'm motivated to get into a routine and be consistent. I'm proud to report that I skipped a crawfish boil on Saturday to get my bike ride in. For a guy who is a Louisiana native and loves crawfish that was not an easy decision. So perhaps my motivation and will is coming back.

I did a legit swim workout today. This is first decent swim workout I have done in a while. Needless to say I've got a lot of work to do in the pool.

Just checked my schedule from my coach. Looks like I've got a full week of workouts. Nothing crazy just consistent workouts. I think the biggest adjustment will just be making myself go to the pool. I need to learn to "like" the pool again. :)

I'm still on Pacific time right now. Can't seem to go to sleep at a decent time and/or wake up. That has to change tomorrow. Not much to report this week. Things should pick up this upcoming week...

Vacation is almost over....

2009-04-26T20:07:00.002-05:00

I've got 4 days before IM training officially starts. JT and I started a bike ride at 5am this morning got a few miles down the road and it started raining so we bagged the ride. It wasn't raining hard but I just didn't feel like it was necessary to be hardcore yet. Plus I had to leave the house at 10am to catch a flight and I wanted to spend a bit more time with the family, so it worked out. But after May1st that workout has to get done...

I was a little under the weather at the beginning of the week. I haven't been eating/resting as well as I should and that's something I've got to get under control. I've been sick too much over the last 2-3 weeks. My "sickness" delayed my HR test but I finally got them done towards the tail end of the week. The tests are actually pretty tough workouts. The results were interesting. As I expected my run & bike Lactate Threshold is pretty high so consequently my HR zones are very high as compared to most. I'm glad that I finally got this "professionally" done and it confirmed what my "raw" test had indicated in the past. When I first got a heart rate monitor I would do the 220- your age thing and try to establish the zones. I could barely jog before I was in zone 3. Anyway, I feel the zones will help me train smarter this year and hopefully produce better results.

I'm in San Jose this week for work so I'll mainly run and do P90x. I'm hoping to get out tomorrow and scope the area for good run routes and maybe find a pool...

Not to much on tap this week workout wise, just enjoying my last few days of triathlon vacation...

The calm before the storm...

2009-04-19T19:21:00.002-05:00

I officially start Ironman Training on May 1st. I've hired Gerald Jackson of www.negativesplitracing.com to be my coach. I'm excited about getting the training started but I'm also enjoying the "in between" time of not feeling the pressure to get out and ride my bike for 5-6 hours at a time. I stated in a previous entry that my first Ironman was just about finishing and my training plan was structured that way. Essentially, I lived on the bike and 97% of the bike rides were LSD types of rides. Just grinding miles out, trying to build an engine that could travel 140.6 miles (yes, it was a slow engine) This go around has a time goal associated with it, thus the training will be taken up a notch or two. My main focus right now, is getting my mind & body prepared for the training and getting back in the mode of organizing/streamlining the other aspects of my life. Organization is key for me, in order to put in the required training. I'm excited about the journey but not quite ready to flip the switch to IM training mode. I've got 11 days to get ready!!!

This past week, I went back to the track and did a tempo workout with the Negative Split group. Got my butt handed to me. I told Gerald that I'm not in Negative Split Shape yet. I also got in the pool 3 times, but only rode once (45 miles). I've been hitting the weights pretty hard the past 2 weeks trying to rebuild some strength/muscle that I had lost. Once I start IM training I'll probably only lift 1-2 per week and it will be very specific lifts.

This week, I've got HR test planned for both the bike and the run. This will be my first official test. I've done the LTHR method and traditionally my HR zones are VERY high so I'm curious to see how this plays out. I'll also pick up the biking and running a bit. I'm going to try and get 110-120 miles on the bike, 20-25 miles on the run and then 6-7K of swimming. Should be a fun week...

Ironman Florida -

2009-04-13T19:47:00.006-05:00

I had a nice recovery week. Didn't do to much. I swam once, biked once and ran once and they were all low key efforts. I mainly focused on recovery and recharging the batteries. As a result I'm feeling pretty good right now and ready to start planning/training for my next A priority race (Ironman Florida).

After much negotiation, my wife has signed off on me hiring a coach. I was initially going to fly solo but I think my best opportunity for success at this stage in my triathlon career involves a coach. I should have that complete later this week. My official training for Florida will probably start around May 1st. In the meantime, I'm going to do some group workouts with the negative split racing group for the next few weeks and ride with Tidwell on the weekends.

This next dance with the Ironman is going to be a bit different. Ironman Arizona was all about finishing. Florida is of course about finishing but it will also have a time goal attached to it. It should be a lot of fun. I'll have a lot of family there and we can hopefully turn it into a mini-vacation after the race.

So, I think I'm ready. I've got 2 weeks to find the Eye of the Tiger....

Pics from New Orleans....

IM New Orleans 70.3 - Race Report

2009-04-06T19:03:00.003-05:00

I have had 7 hours in the car with 3 kids to think about this so here goes...

The venue itself was great. It was exciting to be in New Orleans and the course covered interesting parts of the city. You could definitely see the effects of Katrina throughout the city. Abandoned homes, boats in trees, jacked up streets but at the same time you saw progress. I talked to several native New Orleanians and the tri community in that area was very excited to have a 70.3 race in their backyard. In fact this was the first race that was held on UNO side of the lake since Katrina. The locals indicated that people were coming out of the woodwork for this race which explains why this was one of the largest 70.3's ever. So I'm glad I was part of the inaugural race and I made a nice financial contribution to the city over the past weekend :)

As far as my race goes, I would sum it up as plenty of effort but poor execution of loose race plan.

The swim was interesting. I was anxious before the start of the swim because quite frankly I haven't swam a lot in the past 3 months and the swim was in Lake Pontchartrain which is not exactly the cleanest lake to swim in. (I should probably be on antibiotics right now) The swim was okay but I was a bit tired towards the end and I swallowed a lot of the water and all I could think of the whole time is I'm going to get sick, I'm going to get sick... but I didn't and I came out of the water around 34 minutes.

When I started the bike my HR was sky high... I should have backed off and let it get back to normal but I just kept going and it took a good 30-35 minutes before my HR got to where I wanted it to be. The bike was pancake flat except a few overpasses but it was windy. Not unbearable windy but around the 15-17 mph mark so it was a factor. The route went around the lake and then it crossed over into some marshland. I made 2 significant mistakes on the bike. First I never really followed my nutrition/hydration plan and I made a tactical error around mile 35. I knew there would be a strong head wind from mile 35-45 but I thought there would be a nice tailwind from 45 on so I decided that I would push from 35-45 and then rest from 45 on so I would be nice and refreshed for the run. Well mile 45-47 did have a tailwind but 47-56 had a nice headwind and I continued to push because I wanted a decent bike split. This 47-56 section of the bike sealed my fate on the run. I ended up with a 2:41 bike split.

The run sucked from the very beginning. I was hurting from the start and I never really got my running legs. I was on about a 9:00 pace up until mile 10 and then I really started to hurt and had to slow down significantly. Despite the fact that I was in pain, the run course was my favorite part. It went through some great parts of New Orleans and it was very scenic and quite shady except for the first 6 miles on the lake. The actual running part sucked and I ended with a 2:04 run split.

Before the race I predicted a 5:20-5:30 time and I ended up with a 5:27. I think I could have hit 5:15-5:17 if I had executed correctly. Could of, should of, would of...

This was my first significant race in a year and it was a good measuring stick to determine my current fitness levels and it was a painful reminder of why nutrition and pacing are so important but I had a great time and this is really a great race. I'll definitely be back for 2010 race.

Let me take this opportunity to thank my in-laws (Ron & Martha) and sister-in-law (Julie) for coming out to the race and helping Jennifer with the kids and cheering me on. It was great having you there and I appreciate your hospitality and patience over the past 3 days... Looking forward to Gulf Shores :)

it's almost here..

2009-03-31T21:15:00.003-05:00

Weekend is right around the corner and I'm ready to just get things going and get this party started. I really have no clue how I'll perform this weekend. My training plan has been pretty low key the past 1.5 weeks and I'm feeling pretty healthy. Breathing is good right now, calf is little tight but very manageable so we will shall see. I just looked at the weather for New Orleans area and it is currently calling for 70% chance of rain. That would suck....

I'm a little concerned right now because I am without my bike. It's currently at a bike shop getting ready for the show; however, my bike is not at my normal shop (plano cycle) because they were all booked up so I brought it to performance bike. I've bought a lot of nutritional products at performance over the years but have never used their service department so I'm a little anxious. Probably should have planned for this.

I'm currently working through my race strategy for Sunday. I'm not in good enough shape to just go for it, so I'll probably hold back most of the race until about mile 6 of the run and then I'll just let it fly. I have a history of blowing it out on the bike and then severely suffering on the run so hopefully I'll keep it together during the race and not get caught up trying to beat/keep up with others around me. Keep the ego in check on the bike. That's my motto for the day.

Got a few last minute things to pick up tomorrow and then pack and then we head to God's country on Thursday morning...

weather

2009-03-27T21:39:00.003-05:00

Just looked at the weather forecast for tomorrow morning. Temps should be right around 32 with 25 mph winds and a chance of snow. I think I'll be on my trainer tomorrow. Only in Texas can you be in shorts one day and snow clothes the next...

Week has been pretty low key. The workouts have been easier and not as long, and I'm not complaining. For some reason I've been paranoid about my lack of swimming so I've been in the pool for 3 days straight. I guess that will make up for all my missed swim sessions over the last 4 months.

Tomorrow is Ben's birthday (turning 7) and I'm taking him, 2 friends and Reed to the Great Wolfe Lodge for his birthday party. Kids are growing up so fast. Couple of more years and they won't have time for Dad anymore. Gotta enjoy the time while Dad is still an okay dude.

Still very excited about next weekend. Looking forward to going back to God's country (Louisiana)... Might have to eat some Crawfish after the race.

things are getting better...

2009-03-22T18:24:00.003-05:00

Week started out rough, but it gradually got better. I ended the week with 4 solid days of workouts. I did a larger brick on Saturday (56 mile bike, 6 mile run) and I felt really good. My training plan, is slowing down and the hours (specifically the running) are reducing. For the week I ended up with:

Cycling - 6:05
Running - 2:49
Swimming - 2:00
Weights - 00:30

I hit all of my "plan" workouts for the week but I feel as though I should be doing so much more to catch up on all of the "missed" work over the past couple of weeks...

Lot of family stuff going on this past week (Six Flags on Wednesday, Camping on Saturday) Six Flags was nuts and that's a workout in itself fighting the crowd and hauling the kids around the park but it was fun and I'm happy to report that we conquered the shockwave. Camping was also a lot of fun but that wore me out. I got a total of 3 hours of sleep last night which included Reed throwing up on me at 1:00am in the morning. Reed ate an entire bag of cheetos (big bag) by himself and that's what he threw up. :) Super Dad should probably regulate the snacks next time we go camping. I'm always amazed at how much fun the kids have when we do simple things like camping. I forget how much fun it is for little boys to play with worms, try to catch fish and to tell ghost stories.

I'm officially 2 weeks out from New Orleans and I'm getting excited to head home and see family and to actually "compete" in something. It will also be interesting to see how New Orleans is recovering from the hurricane.

It's 7:15pm in McKinney, Tx and I'm going to bed. The kids have officially beat Dad down this weekend :)

My good friends at E-Care

2009-03-17T11:57:00.002-05:00

Well, you know you've been to the Dr. to much when you walk into E-Care and they know your name. E-Care has turned into my personal physician over the past month, mainly because its convenient, don't have to have an appointment and I can go at odd hours. I went last night to get an XRAY on my ribs to see if my WEBMD skills are still solid. Fortunately, I do not have have any cracked ribs but the Dr. did say I have a bad contusion (swelling, bruising) and based upon the location it could impact my breathing particularly on deep breaths and because of the location (and the constant movement of this area) that it will take some time to heal. So, I must be patient and quit worrying... Not one of my strong points.

Anyway, I'm off to Six Flags tomorrow with the kids. They are pumped. We spent last night mapping out all of the rides to figure out which ones we are going to ride. I'm trying to talk Ben & Reed into the shockwave...

http://www.sixflags.com/overTexas/rides/ShockWave.aspx

Pretty intimidating for a 4 & 6 year old... Not sure who is more excited me or the kids.

Breathing - still an issue

2009-03-16T12:27:00.005-05:00

I rode for about 3.5 hours yesterday and the ride was well... okay. I ran quite a bit leading up to Sunday so my legs were tired but the issue was not necessarily my legs but my breathing. I'm still having issues with deep breaths which just kills me once I get on hills and yesterday's ride had a lot of rolling hills.

My right upper back still hurts from the fall I took while playing broom ball a few weeks ago. It mainly hurts when I try and take a deep breath and when I sneeze. I'm going to go and get an Xray this afternoon to see if everything looks okay. WebMD tells me it could be a cracked rib which can also cause pain/issue with deep breaths so we will find out.

So who knows maybe I don't EIA maybe I just have a cracked rib. Or maybe I don't have anything and I'm just going crazy...

On the family side, Coco Boy#3 (aka Gage) had his first birthday yesterday. We had a great time and Gage just loved his birthday cake as you can tell from the picture.

Weather/Spring Break

2009-03-13T20:50:00.003-05:00

Weather is not so good in the DFW area right now. We are on our 3rd day of rain and it's cold by my standards. I've been stuck on the treadmill & the trainer for the last couple of days and I'm tired of it. I'm going to get out tomorrow and do my long run in the am and hopefully get in a trainer ride & swim in the afternoon and then I'll probably ride for 3.5-4 hours on Sunday. The weather is supposed to be much nicer on Sunday and I'm really looking forward to that.

Spring Break is upon us and the kids are pumped!!!! So no baseball, no school for one week. I'm going to take off on Wednesday and take the kids to Six Flags and then we are going camping at Lake Ray Roberts next Saturday. I love to go camping and so do the boys. Jennifer and Gage will come out there with us and then head home at night. Gage is not quite ready for tent camping. Speaking of Gage, his 1 year birthday is on Sunday. We have a small birthday party planned with a few friends and Jennifer is going to make her world famous gumbo.

This weather makes me lazy. I had to quilt myself into running today and the run was not so great. Note to self, don't drink V8 juice before attempting a 1:30 run on a treadmill. I was able to get in an hour before my stomach said "No Mas"..

I'm starting to plan for New Orleans. I'll pick up some new running shoes tomorrow, possibly new tri shorts and I'm going to schedule a "bike bath" at one of the area shops. My bike is filthy.

I'm not in the shape I was hoping to be in, but regardless I'm looking forward to going home and racing in front of friends and family and I'll have a new shirt to add to my rotation of triathlon shirts that according to my wife I wear every day :)

Weekly Review

2009-03-08T20:45:00.003-05:00

As stated in previous post, I'm feeling much better. I can breathe again and train to my current fitness level. I had some very intense bike rides over the weekend. Not a tremendous of volume but the intensity was very high and it felt great. I feel like my cycling legs are finally coming back. I'm actually pretty tired right now, but it's a good kind of tired.

Running is also going pretty good. Nothing too fast/too far just good solid runs. Now that I can breathe again I'll probably go back to track workouts this week and train with a local group in the Plano area to try and build some speed...

Swimming is going okay. I got in 2.5 workouts this week. The .5 was basically a 1500 meter flop as I liked to call it. Nothing to structured just trying to loosen up. I've been swimming at lunch and this kind of sucks because the maximum time I can spend in the pool is 45-50 minutes. I'm going to try and go back to swimming in the AM again so I can spend more time in the pool. (I'm pulling too much right now)

For the week I ended up with:

Cycling - 6:05
Running - 4:17
Swimming - 2:25
Weights - 1:25

Looking forward to this upcoming week. Volume will be about the same but I'm planning on cranking up the intensity.

Feeling Better -

2009-03-05T21:11:00.002-06:00

The asthma medicine appears to be working. I'm feeling better each day during my workouts. My HR is still a bit high on the runs but it's also been a bit warmer this week. All in all I'm very happy I decided to go and see a specialist. Should have done this a long time ago. Apparently you are not supposed to have more than 1 cortisone shot for asthma related symptoms in a given year. I've had 5 this past year.... Live and learn and time to find a new family doctor that won't let me prescribe my own medicine.

I've decided I am going to do New Orleans. Fitness wise, I'm not where I want to be but it is what it is. New Orleans probably won't be some all time PR like I was hoping when I signed up 6 months ago but I have no one to blame but myself. I've had some nagging health issues but the work ethic has not been there. No eye of the tiger, etc. I've talked myself out of workouts more times than I care to mention. Thinking back a year ago, I was 1 month out from IM AZ, my wife was fixing to have our 3rd son and work was absolutely nuts trying to build a new product for a new market in the Pacific Northwest. I can honestly say that it was one of the busiest times of my life but somehow I managed to workout, go to work and be dad/husband. I was so scared of failure at AZ that I wouldn't miss a workout. (maybe that's why my wife hates Ironman). Looking back I bet I hit 98% of every workout that was prescribed. Hasn't been that way so far in 2009 but I'm hoping it comes back when I start training for IM Florida in early June.

One thing I know I won't do again is sign up for an early season "A" priority race. I'm too much of a wimp to cycle outdoors in the winter and I refuse to do the trainer for more than an hour. For the folks up north that sit on a trainer for 4-5 hours at a time, my hat is off to you. I was I had that kind of mental toughness.

Just looked at the weather for the weekend and the temp looks great for the weekend rides but it's going to be windy again. I had a dream the other day that I walked outside to ride and it was 70 degrees and no wind. That would be cycling heaven for me...

I'm still trying to incorporate P90x into my weekly workouts. Each workout video is approximately 1 hour long and there is basically a video for each day. I can't spend 7 hours a week on P90 right now so I'll probably focus on:

Core
Chest/Shoulders/ABS
Back/Biceps/ABS

Looking forward to the weekend and being able to "breathe" when I'm cycling....

EIA

2009-03-02T21:22:00.003-06:00

I guess my Internet MD skills are pretty good. My self diagnosis was right. I went and saw a specialist today and he confirmed I have EIA - Exercise Induced Asthma. As of right now, the treatment plan involves a few daily medications for approximately 1 month. At the end of the month we will re-evaluate and see how I'm responding and then decide where to go from there.

At this stage, I'm free to exercise as much as I can stand. I went and ran 5.5 miles tonight after taking my "inhaler" and I can't say that it helped but at the same time I was able to finish the run at a decent pace with a decent heart rate which was not the case last week. So I'll give it a week or so before I decide if this is working or not. I'll also make a decision on New Orleans by the end of the week.

I am glad that I went ahead and saw a specialist. I at least feel like I'm on the right path now and the proper action can now be taken to get me back in the game.

something is wrong...

2009-03-01T18:30:00.002-06:00

Things were going pretty good last weekend and the beginning of the week started off pretty good. Got in some solid workouts on Monday & Tuesday (Bike Intervals, Track Workout and Hard Swim) and then Wednesday things went south again. Over the last few weeks I have had a consistent shortness of breath and "tight chest" during my workouts. I had attributed my breathing issues to the fact that I was sick and it was just a symptom of the sinus infection, cold, SARS whatever I had. But this week, my body felt fine and during my workouts, I consistently had this breathing issue. I fought through it on Wednesday, and then on Thursday (my long run) I almost slowed down to a walk to make it back it the office. Friday was pretty low key, just a swim and weights but I noticed that I was really winded in the pool. Then on Saturday, 10 minutes into my ride I noticed again that I was winded. I was supposed to ride for 3.5 hours on Saturday but barely made it 2 hours.

Not quite sure what is going on. My body feels pretty good. At this stage, I think it is important that I take a step back and see a doctor. to figure out what's going on. My self diagnosis (with WebMD's help) suggest that I have EIA - Exercise Induced Asthma. So we shall see how accurate my Internet degree in medicine is... I'm going to try and get an appointment as soon as possible with a specialist.

In the meantime, I'll probably just do short bike & runs (< 1 hour, low intensity) and shorter swims ( < 40 minutes). If I can get this breathing issue resolved soon, within the week, then I'll probably still do New Orleans. Except for the fact that I can't breathe, I'm feeling pretty good right now.

On the flip side, I picked up the P90X workout videos this past week on Craigs List. I've been wanting a home based workout that I can do because my schedule is getting tighter and weights at the gym are typically the first thing I cut and I really didn't want to do that. (I'm already too skinny according to everyone I work with) . Anyway, I have to give P90 some props. These video workouts are for real. It's kicked my butt the last 3 days.

Hopefully, I'll get this breathing issue resolved soon. I'm trying to keep my head up and be positive and tell myself it's just part of it, but it really sucks and this roller coaster of health issues is taking its toll. I feel like if I could get 3 solid weeks of training before IM NO that I would be fine and could put in a solid early season race. Just have to see how it goes.

My goal for the rest of the month.... get through one week of training without any health issues.

Weekly Review

2009-02-22T19:51:00.002-06:00

Finally, over my illness. I went to the Dr. on Thursday and got a steroid shot and this seemed to do the trick. I often wonder if I'm the only person who actually goes to the Dr and asks for shots. My wife thinks I'm nuts. Funny story, I had told the Dr. I had a competition coming up, etc and at first she was concerned on giving me the shot because she thought I might get disqualified for a positive steroid test. I had to laugh at this, because when you finish where I finish at in half ironmans and ironmans its pretty obvious you are not on steroids.... :)

The week started off bad, but was able to finish pretty strong on Saturday & Sunday. Saturday may have been one of the all time windiest days I have ever ridden in. I rode about 20 miles straight into a headwind at sustained winds of 25 mph with gust of 30-35+.. On a day like this, I would typically ride East to West (wind was out of the north) but I wanted the mental strain of the wind to see if I could just focus and ride through it and it was okay.

I purposely stayed out of the pool this past week because I didn't know if I had a sinus infection or what and the pool at lifetime causes me issues from time to time. My plan moving forward will be to swim a minimum of 3 times per week.

For the week I ended up with:

Cycling - 6:00
Running - 3:57
Swimming - 1:00
Weights - 1:15

I'm over my sickness but I did manage to injure my back/neck today. I went to a broom ball birthday party with my oldest son (Ben) and got talked into playing broom ball. Broom ball was great until old Dad got a little too aggressive and decided to sprint after the ball and then try to make a hard stop. Let's just say it was a Charlie Brown moment and I ended up a couple of feet in the air landing on my head and back and then I got to lie there in pain with the wind knocked out of me for approximately 5 minutes while the entire STONEBRIAR MALL watched!!! Certainly not one of my better moments. Not sure how this is going to impact the week but right now I'm hurting.

The 5:00-5:15 half ironman is out of the question at this point. The only way I would have hit this time was to have an incredible bike split (by my standards) and I just don't see that happening for this race. Not enough time between now and IM NO Race. I played around too much this winter making excuses about the cold, the trainer etc. I think a more realistic time is going to be around 5:20-5:30.

I've got about 4 solid training weeks before New Orleans. Assuming I can get and stay healthy I plan to push hard over the next 4 weeks and then let the cards fall where they may.

Cycling Camp - Day 1

2009-02-19T13:20:00.002-06:00

Well Day 1 officially sucked. I bagged the ride after 2 hours. No energy, no power, cycling jersey covered in SNOT and just plain old feeling like crap. I guess I'm still not over the coco family sickness. This is so frustrating. I guess I'll go to plan B and just rest until I get better. I should have done this 2 weeks ago, but sometimes the "desire", "fear of failure", etc... get in the way and cause us to make really stupid decisions.

I've set 2/27 as my deadline to make a decision regarding the New Orleans Race. If I'm not feeling better by then and back in full training mode I'll probably back out of the New Orleans race and sign up for a later 1/2 Ironman, maybe Buffalo Springs. Not what I want to do, but I need to feel confident & strong going into New Orleans race and right now, I'm not confident and I don't feel strong....

Team Seabiscuit Cycling Camp

2009-02-18T20:30:00.003-06:00

I'm not 100% but I'm good enough to get back to training. I'm avoiding the pool as the pool seems to really affect my sinuses and that's my primary issue right now. My nose is basically a snot factory... I'm taking off work the next 2 days to participate in the 1st official Team Seabiscuit Cycling Camp. I'm meeting my partner in crime Pablo down at WR the next two days and then I'm going to try and talk him into coming up to McKinney on Saturday. Over the next 3 days I'm hoping to put in 4-5 hours a day of some "base miles" around WR and in northern Collin County. This is a desperate attempt by me to get my cycling legs back and give my fitness a shot in the arm so that I can hopefully get back on track for New Orleans.

Should be interesting to see how this turns out.

Can't shake whatever I've got...

2009-02-14T19:54:00.002-06:00

I've had some type of illness since Monday. Flu like symptoms earlier in the week, sinus infection mid week and then bad sore throat yesterday and today. I just can't seem to shake this round of illness. Everyone at my house with the exception of Jennifer has had some type of issue this week.

It's become very frustrating because I know I still have a lot of work to do to get ready for New Orleans. The 5-5:15 half ironman is slipping away. I'm not quite ready to restate my target goal for the race, but I'm getting close. If I'm better by tomorrow, then my plan will be to take a few days off next week towards the end of the week and simulate a "cycling camp" for 2-3 days. Big mileage at slow to moderate pace. I've got to get my bike legs back.

This week has been so sorry that I probably won't even bother posting my workout stats for the week. Hopefully, I'll heal up tomorrow so I can get back to training next week.

The Flu has hit the Coco house

2009-02-09T19:24:00.003-06:00

Coco Boy #1 (Ben) officially has the flu and I think I may have a touch of it as well. Perhaps that explains my fatigue on Sunday morning or that's what I'll continue to tell myself to keep my confidence high. I'm sure this round of sickness will take a few weeks to clear the house. It really sucks because we all had flu shots this year. We can always tell when Ben gets the flu because it tends to cause pain in his calves. Poor little guy has to walk around on his tip toes because his calves bother him so much.

Hopefully this won't linger too long and we can get back to our routine....

Weekly Review

2009-02-08T19:19:00.006-06:00

Had a pretty good week. This is probably the best weather we have had in DFW in at least a month. All my bike rides and runs were outside this week which was nice. For the week I ended up with:

Cycling - 5:57
Running - 3:51
Swimming - 2:00
Weights - 1:52

I'm hitting all my marks for running & cycling but I'm still slacking in the swimming department. My swims are solid I just haven't been able to coordinate that 3rd swim. I'll probably start cranking up the swimming in mid to late February.

This morning I did experience some fatigue on the bike. Not sure if it's lack of sleep or just tired from the training...

Today was my middle son Reed's birthday (He turned 4). He woke up as I was getting ready to leave for my bike ride at 5:15am and declared to everyone in the house that "IT'S MY BIRTHDAY" and he constantly reminded us of that today, specifically if we were doing something he didn't want to do. We had his birthday at The Little Gym with a Power Ranger Theme. Everyone is worn out and the kids went to bed at 7pm and Daddy plans to be asleep by 8pm.

Here's some pics from the party....

it's very difficult to get 3 boys to "pose" for pictures :)

the birthday boy...

Feeling Better

2009-02-03T20:30:00.003-06:00

Starting feeling better on Sunday and got in a solid bike ride. I'm getting back into a good groove on the bike and enjoying myself. I'm starting to bump up the intensity a bit to see how I respond. It's too early to tell how hard I can push the bike at New Orleans but right now I feel behind where I was in the early fall on the bike. I think I can make this up, but I've got about 7 weeks to really dial in the bike. I think I can, but there's no BS time left. I've used it all up :)

Just got through looking at the weather in DFW for the week and I'm pumped... Lows mid 50's High's Low 70's for the rest of the week. I may actually be able to ride my bike this week without putting on every item of cycling clothing that I own.

Interesting workout for people with kids. Today, I took my two older boys to a track near our house. The workout was essentially 800m repeats with a twist. The boys and I would line up at the 50 yard line on the football field and then I would take off on the track. The boys would run across the football field trying to get to the other side of the track. I would stay on the track and try to beat them to the other side of the football field. This would continue until the 800M was complete. We did this around 6 times. Kicked my butt and the boys. They were worn out afterwards but they enjoyed it. They told me it's fun to do triathlons with daddy....

Let me take this opportunity to tell my good friend Ryan Brasher congratulations on his finish at the Mardi Gras Marathon in New Orleans. He had a solid day and at the rate he is progressing will be qualifying for Boston soon. Ryan and I grew up together in Alexandria, La. We use to ride our bikes all over town, through the zoo, through the mall... We rode those bikes everywhere. Ryan had a CW and I had a Redline and we were the raddest dudes in the neighborhood or so we thought. There wasn't a ramp we wouldn't jump and we both have the SCARS to prove it.... I often wonder if kids still ride their bikes like that. Back then that's just what we did. Maybe that's why I like cycling so much now. Ryan and his wife Lesilie recently bought a tri bike so I'm hoping Ryan joins me on the Ironman quest soon. With his "drive" and pure hatred to lose to me in anything we do, I know he would do well...

Bring on the week... I'm ready to enjoy this weather!!!

Sick...

2009-01-31T09:00:00.002-06:00

I guess I'm officially sick today. I was feeling pretty bad yesterday but I went ahead and did a 12 mile run which was probably not a great idea. Anyway, I'm paying the price today. Luckily this is a rest week, but I really didn't plan on resting this much.

Anyway, New Orleans is creeping up and I've still got a lot of work to do if I'm going to make my goal. Oh by the way, in the Dallas Area the high is projected at 70 degrees with winds 10 mph. Could it be any better for cycling??? I'm sure by the time I heal up, that winter will be back...

Consistency... Getting There

2009-01-26T20:45:00.002-06:00

Crazy week at work but I was able to get most of my workouts in. My primary goal for the week was to hit my cycling workouts, as this has been my most inconsistent sport this winter. I think I've finally got my cycling motivation back this morning at WR Lake at 4:30 in the morning with 38 degrees temperature and light rain....

My wife's birthday was yesterday and she made it very clear early Sunday morning that I was not going to go and ride my bike for 3.5 hours, even though it was an absolute perfect day. Fair enough, she puts up with my Ironman Crap throughout the year, so after a few tantrums, I finally gave in, took the day off and said I'll make up the bike ride on Monday morning. (extend the workout week by 1 day)

I woke up this morning at 3:15am because I had to get to WR early to finish the ride before a 9am meeting. Well I woke up got dressed and one of our dogs had crapped in the house and I stepped right in, keep in mind this is about 3:45am. I'm not a happy camper. Get outside, it's freezing, raining, downright miserable, so the whole time I driving to WR I'm thinking this is ridiculous. Is this really worth it??? I finally get down to WR and start the ride. I almost quit after 15 minutes and then finally it hit me.... What the hell am I complaining about? I'm doing something I love. So what if it's cold, so what if it's raining, so what if I stepped in dog crap at 3:30 in the morning. I love to train regardless of the weather. Weather is a mindset. Put things in perspective and appreciate the fact that you found something in your life (besides your family) that truly makes you happy. So that was it... For the remainder of the ride I just enjoyed it. I WAS JUST HAPPY TO BE THERE!!!!

For the week I ended up with:

Cycling - 6:30
Running - 3:45
Swimming - 2:00
Weights - 1:00

I'm going to take a day or two off this week and just try and absorb some of the training over
the past few weeks. I'll probably also do a swim time trial on Friday to see if I'm improving.

I think I'm having fun again!!!!!

Consistency... Not Yet.

2009-01-18T19:18:00.005-06:00

This week mirrored last week, in the sense that I cut one ride short by an hour and I missed a swim. I'm not overly concerned about the swim as I feel like I can build this up pretty quick but the consistency on the bike is really beginning to be a concern. It's hard this time of year to get outside and ride and I've clearly demonstrated that I do not posses the mental toughness to go over an hour on the trainer... So as expected my bike feels WEAK!!! True to form, I think today I officially entered "Fear of Failure" mode. My fear is that I won't hit my goal time for New Orleans. So hopefully, this is the kick in the pants that I need to man up and get my butt out of bed when it's cold and put some miles on the bike.

Running/Swimming are going pretty good. I'm seeing improvements in both and right now I'm running @ about 95%. Calf is still delicate but I think I've learned how to manage it and maintain it.

For the week, I ended up with:

Cycling - 5:08
Running - 3:48
Swimming - 2:00
Weights - 1:30

Work is still pretty crazy so this week will be a challenge workout wise. This was initially going to be a "rest" week but I think I'm going to delay this by one week so that I can coordinate some personal life items a little better. My goal for this week is to hit all of my bike workouts outside and on the prescribed time. (Bike Goal Time: 6:30)

On the personal front. I taught my middle son (Reed - Age 3.5) to ride a bike today. He was quite a trooper today and WOULDN'T QUIT until he was able to ride the bike about 30 feet. I was very happy for him....

Weekly Review

2009-01-11T18:37:00.003-06:00

Crazy week at work... And the craziness will continue for at least a month. I missed working out on Tuesday because of work but hey that's just how it goes sometimes. I'm a slave to training plans and it puts me in a very foul, irritated mood when I don't hit my plans for the week.

For the week I ended up with:

Cycling - 5:03:
Run - 3:38
Swimming - 2:00
Weights - 1:35

I was off about an hour on my cycling and swimming goals for the week. One thing I have noticed is that I don't have the same "Whatever it Takes" attitude that I had last year at this time when preparing for IM AZ. Last year, I routinely left my house at 4:30-5am and would ride in 25 degrees weather for 4-5 hours at a time. Now, if it's any colder then 50 degrees I'm bagging the ride and jumping on the trainer. I keep telling myself that it is going to be a long year with both New Orleans and Florida on tap for the year and that I need to pace myself and not flame out to quickly. However, my "bike" is not quite where I would like for it to be at this stage so I'm hoping my "fear of failure" mode kicks in soon.

On a happier note, I finally joined a master's swim group. Smartest thing I have done since I started training for triathlons 2.5 years ago. I joined the lifetime master's group in Garland. Small group 3-4 people which means plenty of 1 on 1 time with the instructor. I've learned a lot this past week. My stroke isn't terrible but it definitely needed some tweaks.

That's it for now... One more 12-14 hour training week then I'll back off for a week, do some testing and rest a bit.

Just Relaxing...

2009-01-09T20:10:00.004-06:00

I'm currently sitting on the couch watching a Mickey Mouse Show with the two older boys. I've seen every episode of Sponge Bob - multiple times, each episode of Star Wars at least 10 times, Kung Fu Panda - 4 times and the list could go on and on. I guess I should be happy the kids still want me to watch TV with them.

I met up with JT and Kevin this morning at White Rock. We left McKinney @ 4:15am so that we could be there for 5am. We rode for 2.5 hours and then ran for about 30 minutes. It's hell getting up a 3:45am for this workout. The first 20 minutes of these early morning rides are the worst. It takes me forever to get loose and warmed up. I usually catch myself trying to think of an excuse to turnaround and go home and/or get get in the truck and go back to sleep but that's why we train with other people to keep us motivated. Anyway, the ride was enjoyable and the company was good. There's a lot of BS flying around the lake when we all ride together.

I think I can recite every word of this show....

Jennifer and I are celebrating our 13 year anniversary tomorrow. Time flies, it seems like just the other day she was asking me out or should I say, I was begging her to go out with me :)

I missed Tuesday because of work so I've got a little bit of making up to do on my workouts. I'm going to do a long run tomorrow and hit the weights. Then I'm planning on swimming and cycling on Sunday.

Let the good times roll....

Weekly Review

2009-01-04T16:12:00.003-06:00

I'm highly motivated on the bike and the run and making progress on both. However, swimming right now SUCKS.... I dread getting in the pool. Part of the reason for this, is I don't have a good feel for the water and my stroke feels inefficient. Well, something has to give this week, as tomorrow is my self imposed deadline to join a master's swim group. I'm going to try out the master's program at Lifetime either tomorrow or Wednesday. Hopefully this will help and the group environment will hopefully keep me motivated.

For the week I ended up with:

Cycling - 5:00
Running - 3:30
Swimming - 2:20
Weights - 1:10

I was off about an hour on the cycling and this was mainly due to the fact that I was supposed to do a 2 hour bike ride today. It was too cold in the DFW area (at least for me) so I did an hour on the trainer instead. These days my max time on a trainer is about an hour. After that I just totally break down and lose focus on the ride. I've tried watching movies, listening to music, etc but no luck with the trainer monotony. It amazes me how some people spend 4-5 hours on those things. So, since I've now figured out my trainer load, I'm going to have to start scheduling my bike workouts around the weather.

My typical workout week looks like:

Monday - Swim, Weights
Tuesday - Bike Intervals, Brick Run
Wednesday - Swim, Tempo Run
Thursday - Long Run
Friday - Swim, Weights
Saturday - Long Bike, Brick Run
Sunday - Long Bike, Brick Run (Sometimes)

All of the kid activities (school, karate, basketball, etc) start back up this week. I'm going to start coaching my oldest son's basketball team this week. This should be interesting. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to take the Bobby Knight approach with 6&7 year olds. Basketball is my favorite sport and the one I actually know something about so this should be fun and hopefully I won't make too many kids cry on the first day of practice :)

New Year's Eve

2008-12-31T22:30:00.002-06:00

I just watched my LSU Tigers destroy Georgia Tech. For those of us that bleed purple and gold it's been a tough year. Hopefully this win will be a sign of good things to come. Great way to start out 2009. Also, I set a personal record by eating 35 chicken wings during a football game. I'm going to feel those wings when I wake up at 5am to get in my long run for the week.

I guess my way of getting crazy these days is eating chicken wings. Man, I'm getting old :)

Geaux Tigers!!!!

Weekly Review

2008-12-28T18:43:00.002-06:00

Took some time off this week to spend some time with the family. We had my wife's family in from Baton Rouge for the week. We all had a good time and a great Christmas. In addition, I watched 4 boys (ages 9 months - 9 years old) for 3 days straight so my wife and sister-in-law could go shopping (your welcome Julie!!!). Jon Coco is not "programmed" to be a stay at home dad. My hat is off to all of the stay at home moms/dads out there.

For the week I ended up with:

Cycling - 3:30
Running - 1:50
Swimming - 1:45
Weights - 1:15

I did a LTHR test on the bike this past week and the results came back where I thought they would. The protocol I use is a 20 minute warmup, then 40 minute time trial as hard as I can go and then I take the average hr of the 40 minute time trial. The run protocol I use is essentially the same thing.

I was supposed to do a LTHR test today on my run but I re-injured my calf trying to throw down a tomahawk dunk (8 foot goal) on my nephew on Thursday. This calf issue is really becoming annoying. Essentially, anytime I do any type of hard effort (sprint, jump, etc) on the run I tweak my calf and then I can't run for 3-4 days. I'm wondering if I have a slight tear or something along those lines. I'll probably go see a doctor at some point in January if things don't get any better.

I'm going to crank it back up for the next few weeks. I'll probably be in the 13-16 hour range over the next 3 weeks and then I'll back off for a week and recover a bit. This will be the pattern I will follow leading up to New Orleans.

I'm still trying to plan my training schedule for 2009. My two "A" races are New Orleans and Florida but I would like to strategically schedule several smaller sprints and possibly a half ironman leading up to Florida as training events. I only raced in 2 races last year (Arizona & Stonebridge) and that's just not enough. I should have asked for race entry fees for Christmas.

On a lighter note, my training partner, JT, is back from Marathon world and we are working on some strategies to try and talk his wife into letting him do Ironman Florida....

Weekly Review / Holidays

2008-12-21T18:37:00.003-06:00

Had a pretty good week workout wise. I'm finally getting back in the groove and getting accustomed to planning my work week so I can fit in all of the workouts. I can also tell I'm "training" again because I can't eat enough right now. I'm constantly hungry. I guess this appetite will settle down in a few weeks.

For the week I hit all of the scheduled workouts although I did cut one of the bike rides short by about 10 minutes.

Cycling - 6
Running - 3:35
Swimming - 2:45
Weights - 1:15

I'm trying to hit the weights twice a week after swims and try to rebuild some of the muscle I burned off in the fall. I enjoy the weight room and wish I could fit in 3-4 sessions per week but it's just not doable at this time. I typically focus on total body and will super set several exercises due to time constraints. I can tell my strength is slowly coming back... In my younger years I lifted weights quite a bit and at one time I could bench around 315. I was also 45lbs heavier then and could barely run a mile. I now weigh 165 and can probably bench 245 once. Man how times have changed!!! I will say I'm much happier and much more full filled with triathlons then I ever was with weightlifting.

I did a 1000 yard time trial in the pool this morning. My plan here is to establish an initial marker in the pool and then I'll retest every couple of weeks to see if I'm improving. My New Year's resolution is to join a master's group. I'll probably join the Lifetime Master's Group in Garland (close to work). I'm at a stage where I've taught myself all that I can in regards to swimming so it's time for a coach.

Next week I plan on cutting back a little on the time, spending time with family and doing some testing on the bike and the run. I'm going to do a LTHR test on the bike on Tuesday or Wednesday (depending on the weather) and then do the LTHR test on the run on Sunday. I'll use these scores to re-establish heart rate zones for training as I believe they have changed from last year. As you can tell I'm too cheap to pay $150.00 at Lifetime or to local coaches and have this test done. I'll eventually get it done professionally (perhaps before I start training for IM Florida) but right now I've got better things to spend $150.00 on.

We've got family coming in on Tuesday so it's pretty hectic around our house right now, getting things clean, wrapping presents, last minute shopping. I tried to explain to my wife that as a triathlete it's important that I conserve my energy for the next workout and that I get in my proper rest. She didn't see things my way and quickly assigned me to toilet duty..... (Team Seabiscuit Members - I even gave her two choices!!!!) Oh well, that's a battle I wasn't going to win today.

Things are exciting around the house right now. The kids are out of school for two weeks and are counting down the days to Santa's arrival. Their "wish list" changes daily. The latest is a jet pack and a robot that will do their chores for them. Sometimes they drive me crazy but I know that I'll blink one day and they will be grown and have families of their own and Jennifer and I will be begging them to come home or let us come to their house for the holidays :)

Gotta enjoy the moment!!! Merry Christmas.

Weekly Review

2008-12-14T19:37:00.002-06:00

This is my first official week of IM training for New Orleans. Okay week. I missed a swim and had to cut this morning ride short because of the White Rock Marathon. For the week I ended up with:

Cycling - 4.5 hours

Running - 3.5 hours

Swimming - 2 hours

Weights - 45 minutes

Motivation is pretty good right now and I'm ready to put in the work. I spent too much time on the trainer this past week. Trainer has it's purpose but nothing compares to being on the road. I've had a hard time getting out the door on the bike when it's cold but it's time to man up and just do it and quit complaining.

My wife did the White Rock Marathon this morning (her first ever marathon) and all I can say is my wife ROCKS!!!! For those of you that don't know my wife had our 3rd child just 9 short months ago. She looks great and I'm very proud of her. The conditions at the marathon were absolutely terrible. Consistent 20-30 mph winds and it was somewhat warm. We followed her around the course and saw her at miles 5, 15 and 21. We tried to get to the finish line in time to see her cross but unfortunately we didn't make it in time. She's a little beat up right now but I know this has been a very fulfilling accomplishment for her and me and the boys are very proud of her.

Let me take this opportunity to congratulate JT, Chris, Gerald, Rick and Ben on their finishes in the Half & Full Marathons. I can honestly say I'm really GLAD I wasn't out there with you today. Great job in some tough conditions.

Good Trainer Workout

2008-12-09T11:42:00.003-06:00

I was supposed to wake up this morning @ 4:45am to start my bike ride at 5am but I overslept by 45 minutes. This presented a challenge because I typically won't "start" a ride M-F any later then 5am because traffic really picks up around 5:45-6am south bound out of McKinney which of course is the direction I head for the start of my route. Anyway, with the outside ride canned because of my laziness I decided to try a new trainer workout that I picked up off of Chuckie V's website:

http://chuckiev.blogspot.com/

The details of the workout are:

Ride (1:30) … Indoor ride focusing on "big gear" work, along with a set of Tabata Sprints, like this...

a) Begin with a 15-minute warm-up, steadily elevating your heart rate (HR) to 80% of max HR levels or thereabouts.

b) Continued warm-up: do 12 x 1-minute efforts alternating standing in a bigger gear at 65RPM; seated in your aero-bars in a bigger gear at 60RPM; seated spinning at 100RPM, all at a maintainable, submaximal (90% of LT) heart rate. No rest between or after each minute.

c) Now for the fun, the Tabata Sprints. After spinning lightly for a minute or two, sprint ALL-OUT for 20-seconds, recording your maximal power (if you have a power meter…and you should!). This is followed by 10-seconds recovery and ONLY 10-seconds recovery. Repeat this 8 times. Wipe puke from chin.

d) After spinning lightly for a few minutes, start with the strength focus. This is entirely dependent upon your current bike fitness but in general you'll want to start out VERY conservatively. I suggest beginning with 3 sets of 6-minutes as 2 minutes of standing in a big gear at 60RPM; 2-minutes seated "grinding" in a big gear (in your aero-bars) at 60RPM; and 2-minutes seated aero-bar spinning at 110+RPM, all done at a Zone 3 type of HR (or 90% of your lactate threshold HR). Each 6-minute "set" is then followed by 4 minutes of easy upright-seated spinning at a low HR. Increase this each week if your knees allow for it. Eventually you'll want to aim for close to an hour's worth of strength-related efforts. Again, these are sub-maximal and not all-out. Think of it as weight-lifting on the bike with a easily-maintainable weight

.e) Ride the remainder of this 90-minute workout at a high Zone 2-low Zone 3 HR (or 85-90% of LTHR) and record power in relationship to that HR, spinning at 90+RPM in your aero-bars.

f) Finally, be sure to do at least a 3-4 minute cool-down in an easy gear at a moderate cadence (80-85) with a low HR.

I personally hate the trainer and typically do everything I can to avoid it but I can honestly say that this was a really tough workout that I enjoyed. ChuckieV is also offering a free offseason triathlon plan that can be found at:

http://chuckiev.blogspot.com/2008/12/free-triathlon-training-program.html

Weekly Review - IM New Orleans

2008-12-07T15:56:00.003-06:00

I got through a very busy week at work. As I mentioned in my previous post this was User Conference week and it was pretty crazy. The conference went great but I was physically and mentally exhausted on Friday.

I ended up with a light workout week but I was happy with what I got in considering work.

Cycling - 2 hours
Running - 2 hours
Swimming - 40 minutes
Weights - 1.5 hours

My training for IM New Orleans officially starts tomorrow. I'm going to use a base half ironman plan from http://www.endurancenation.us/ and then modify the plan slightly to incorporate more running. The endurance nation plans are typically pretty heavy on the bike (which I like) but I feel like I need to run more this year to have a solid race at IM Florida. New Orleans is a very important race to me as several of my family members are going to the race and this will be the first time for them to see me in a triathlon so I have to put on a good show :).

On a side note, Jennifer's marathon is on Dec 14th and she is ready. I'm looking forward to going to the race and supporting her. She's done a great job hauling the kids to all of my races over the years so now it's her turn and me and the boys are up for the challenge. We are going to do our best to follow her around the course and keep her motivated.

Let the countdown to New Orleans begin......

Weekly Review - Officially Sick...

2008-11-30T20:03:00.008-06:00

Took the Louisiana Family Tour this past week and we had a great time. We stopped and visited my folks in Alexandria on Monday & Tuesday and then headed down to Baton Rouge to visit Jennifer's folks. We drove back on Saturday. 8 hours in the car with 3 kids is a long freaking time. But all in all the kids did great and we made it without too much screaming.

On the workout front, things started off great. I had a great ride/run on Wednesday in Baton Rouge along River Road, Alligator Bayou and the Miss. River. (No, I did not see any alligators in alligator bayou) and then Jennifer I ran for 2 hours around the LSU Lakes and Campus on Thursday. The campus has changed quite a bit since Jennifer and I were in school there but it is the most beautiful college campus I have ever been too. Everything was going great until Friday when the Coco Family Sickness finally caught up with me. Sickness in my family tends to take several weeks to clear the house as we gradually pass it around. Gage has had a cold for about a week now, Reed got it and now I've got it. Stuffed up head, sore throat, runny nose, achy muscles, etc... (Jennifer & Ben are next) I didn't work out on Friday or Saturday and I did a very basic weight routine at the gym this morning so needless to say I'm behind on my weekly goals. I'm trying to be smart and let the sickness pass so it doesn't linger for a few weeks but I'm not very good at "resting"... Totals for the week:

Cycling - 3.5 hours
Running - 2. 5 hours
Weights - 1.5 hours
Swimming - 0 hours

This upcoming week is typically my busiest week of the year at work (annual user's conference) so I'm not setting any specific workout goals. If I can get in 2 runs, 2 bikes and a swim I'll be happy. I officially start training for IM New Orleans on 12/8 so technically I'm still in offseason, I'm hoping by 12/8 that I am highly motivated to get back to structured training.

Here are some pics from the trip:

Luke #25 - (My Nephew), Ben, Reed & Myself at LSU in front of Mike the Tiger's Cage and the PMAC

Jennifer, Luke, Reed & Ben in front of Mike the Tiger's Cage...

Gage getting ready to take Christmas Pictures....

Ben, Reed and my Dad hanging out in the clubhouse that they built...

2008-11-23T14:38:00.002-06:00

Past week has gone okay. I had some "bike" issues at the beginning of the week and I didn't get it resolved until Wednesday thus I missed my "Tuesday" bike ride and today's ride was about 30 minutes off of the goal time. The run(s) went pretty good. I had 4 solid sessions. The calf is still bothering me but as I mentioned yesterday I can work around the calf issue. I can't run as fast as I would like but I'm getting in some solid miles which is my primary focus right now. As far as the swim goes, my stroke feels okay but it's hard to stay motivated in the pool without a race in the near future.

For the week I ended up with the following:

Cycling - 3 hours (1.5 sessions, the .5 session was a crappy trainer ride at home. I hate the trainer!!!)
Running - 5 hours (4 sessions)
Swimming - 40 minutes (1 session)
Weights - 1.5 hour (2 sessions)

We (the coco family) are doing our Louisiana Family tour next week. We are visiting my folks in Alexandria, La the first half of the week and then heading down to Baton Rouge, La the second half of the week to see Jennifer's parents. This will certainly impact next week's training as we will be traveling for 2 solid days. I do plan on doing a lot of cycling in Baton Rouge. I'm hoping I can get in a 2.5-3 hour ride and a 4 hour ride while I'm there.

For this upcoming week, my goals will be:

Cycling - 6-7 hours
Running - 3 hours
Swimming - 1 hour
Weights - 30 minutes

Happy Thanksgiving,
Jon

Much better then last week

2008-11-22T13:30:00.003-06:00

Did my long run this morning and it was 10 times better than last week. I ran about 16.25 miles and I felt really good. Had something left in the tank afterwards and my HR stayed steady throughout the run. It's always interesting to see how your body reacts to exercise. For me, it seems like it's been a crap shoot recently. Calf is still causing me some problems but it's not preventing me from running which is good. As I've gotten older I've noticed that preventative maintenance (stretching, icing, etc) has become very important....

I'm going to put in a short ride (1 hour) on the trainer this afternoon and then take the older boys (Ben & Reed) to see the movie Bolt. Tomorrow, I'm going to ride for 3-3.5 hours in the morning. I'm behind on my training goals for the week but I still have a day and a half to make it up. This blog has really served it's purpose as I'm actually feeling the pressure to workout so I can have a "positive" blog update tomorrow telling everyone how I achieved my goals for the week.

Weekly Review/Sunday Ride

2008-11-16T20:39:00.002-06:00

Got a hallpass from Mrs. Coco today and met up with an old friend at White Rock that I haven't seen in 6+ months. We had a great time cycling around WR and catching up. We hammered it for right around 2 hours, our original plan was 2.5-3 but I ended up getting 2 flats so we had to cut the ride short.

This past week went okay, I missed a few workouts but the ones I missed were not what I considered key workouts. For the week I ended up with the following

Cycling - 4.5 hours (3 sessions)
Running - 3.5 hours (3 sessions)
Swimming - 1 hour (1 session)
Weights - 1.5 hour (2 sessions)

For this upcoming week, my goal will be:

Cycling - 4.5 hours
Running - 4.5 hours
Swimming - 1 hour
Weights - 1.5 hours

I had initially planned to swim twice a week during this time of year but I'm going to drop this down to one session for the next few weeks so I can focus on running.

Baseball & Soccer just ended so it's going to feel strange not rushing off to practice and games this week. I'm sure we will adjust quickly to the additional freetime :)

One of those days....

2008-11-15T13:23:00.002-06:00

My calf was finally feeling good enough to put in a long run on the "road". I woke up this morning and was excited; ready to start getting back into the swing of things with running. I have a 15 mile route in McKinney. It's a great route, 97% sidewalk, some hills, nice mix of terrain. I ran this route about 3 weeks ago and felt great, and I felt like I had plenty left in the tank after I completed the route.

Well after the first mile, I knew it was going to be a long day. HR was high, legs were tight and my stomach was not too happy with me. Needless to say, it was pretty miserable. My Avg HR was 15 beats higher then it was 3 weeks ago and my pace was about 20 seconds off from what it was 3 weeks ago. The whole time I was thinking... Have I lost this much run fitness in a 2.5 week layoff or am I getting sick. One thing I've learned from the IM training, is that some days you just kind of suck no matter how much you prepare, rest, etc. So I'm assuming today I just sucked but I do feel that "SOMETIMES" it is important to complete these types of workouts regardless of how bad you feel. Gotta work through the pain because you know it will be there in some shape or form on race day and I feel that it is important to know what you can and cannot handle.

On a positive note, my wife is in the final stretch of training for White Rock and she is doing great. She's got that "Eye of the Tiger" look these days and it is inspiring to watch someone put their heart and soul into achieving their goals. (She's also making me feel like a slacker on my running which is good motivation for me)

Offseason/Injury Update

2008-11-10T19:26:00.000-06:00

Well I'm officially in offseason mode right now. I'm trying to do 2-3 rides per week, 2 swims per week, 3-4 runs per week and lift weights 1-2 times per week. The rides haven't been over 3 hours and the swims are right around the 2K mark. My primary focus on the swim is technique and just keeping a "feel for the water". I need to join a master's program so I can get some coaching but just haven't done it yet.

My primary focus this winter/offseason is going to be the run. I'm traditionally a weak runner and of the 3 disciplines this is by far my limiter. My original plan was to train for a marathon this winter but only compete in half marathons. However, I injured my calf about 2 weeks ago and haven't run until this morning. This morning I ran about 3 miles on the treadmill and the calf felt okay but still not 100%. I'm going to stick to the treadmill this week and then hopefully get back on track running wise next week. Assuming everything goes okay, I'll probably target a half marathon in Jan/Feb and try and meet some time goal. Haven't determined that time goal yet, but my initial thought is around 1:40.

Ironman New Orleans 70.3 is April 5th, so I'll officially start training for that race the week of 12/8. I'll execute a 17-18 week training plan and see where it takes me. The toughest part of an early season race is cycling in the winter. With young kids it's important that I'm home at a decent time on the weekends for family time so I typically leave by 5am on Saturday/Sunday. This time of year it's tolerable, but December-February it's downright miserable to cycle in 30-40 degree weather. Last year, I had my IM AZ traning partner JT to accompany me on these days but JT is trying to qualify for Boston right now and is focused on running. (JT if your reading this, give up that running stuff and come back to Triathlons remember it's all about the bike my friend) JT is really kicking some serious tail right now and I feel confident that he will nail that Boston qualifying time at White Rock in a few weeks.

One thing I will say, is this lay off from running has really made me miss it, so I'm motivated to get back to running.....

Introduction - Purpose of Blog

2008-11-07T21:33:00.000-06:00

As my profile states, I'm a triathlete wanna be. I completed my first triathlon in April 2006 and ever since then I've been hooked. I completed my first Ironman in April 2008 (Ironman Arizona) and I can honestly say this was one of the proudest moments of my life.

I'm trying to achieve the delicate balance of being a competitive triathlete and at the same time being a good father and husband. Sometimes these can be conflicting goals, but I do my best to always put my family first.

The purpose of this blog is to provide some level of accountability for IM training in 2009. I'm signed up for Ironman New Orleans 70.3 (April 2009) and Ironman Florida (November 2009). I'm going to coach myself and my plan is to divide up the 2009 season into two halves. The first half will be base work and preparing for New Orleans, the second half of the season will be preparing for Florida. I would love to sit here and tell you that my goal is to qualify for 70.3 World Championship or the Ironman World Championship but I know that I'm not there yet and in fact I feel like I need 2-3 more years of solid training before I can compete at that level. But regardless my time goals for these two races are 5-5:15 for the 70.3 and 11-12 hours for the Ironman. At this stage I feel like these are achievable goals based on my current fitness levels and the amount of training I will do in 2009.

So for the next year, I plan on documenting my training, how I physically feel, mental state etc as I try and achieve my tri-goals for 2009. Hopefully, this blog will serve as my conscience and keep me on track!!!