Training is going well lately. I recovered from my bronchitis a few weeks ago with the help of a short course of steroids and antibiotics, and was pretty quickly back in the groove of my training plan, which was a relief. The worst part of being sick i…

Hmmmmmm..So, I just sort of have been operating under the assumption that this baby will be late. Because, let’s be honest–it’s me we’re talking about here. I’m late EVERYWHERE I go. Chronically 5 minutes late and frantically racing everywhere. Ma…

I was going to swim this morning, but my swollen eyes and fatigued body kept me in bed. I am going to take my much deserved recovery day and allow myself to rest….emotionally and physically. I want to crawl under and rock and never leave.

This pathetic bear needed another hit.Day 6- I had a rough go of it today as I resisted adding sugar to anything but I broke and had a chocolate bar covered in peanut butter. Phenomenal but counter productive. Then Caitlin made pudding. I had that smot…

The problem with a game like 30/30 is that my competitive side wants to take over and win. Unfortunately, my goal for 2010 is not this game and therein lies the rub. That said, I feel like I played the game wisely.

My strategy for the game was to run each day at an easy pace. Basically, I walked out the door, started running and whatever pace my body wanted to run was what I ran. On most days that pace was somewhere around an 8:30 minute/mile.

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This morning I woke up with the theme music to Hawaii 5-0 running through my head. If you’re not as old as I am, you might not remember this show, one of the longest running cop dramas on TV (12 years I think). Chances are though you know the theme son…

Randy Starkman’s Olympics Blog (http://thestar.blogs.com/olympics)  February 24, 2009New WADA “whereabouts” testing system – WADA joke! PHOTO COURTESY OF SIMON WHITFIELD Simon Whitfield walking with his daughter: “Hey, is there someo…

Well I have been neglecting my blog lately. Things have not felt normal since the begining of the year and a lot has happened in terms of training, work, family, etc. I was hoping to chronicle my Ironman training weekly but here I am in week 6 and not …

….and one that ties in with a movement that I will be announcing my partnership with shortly… “Life’s most urgent question is, what are you doing for others?”-Doctor Martin Luther KingAs seen on the video here…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53xa5…

A recent study from the Journal of Applied Physiology demonstrates the importance of eating after exercise.  The results from this study, entitled “Energy deficit after exercise augments lipid mobilization but does not contribute to the exercise-induced increase in insulin sensitivity”, shows that consuming adequate carbohydrate and protein post training do more than prevent muscle fatigue and […]

I found mine and its alias is love. Years I had a wall up, how could I have ever be so dumb to let it come down?Why does this hurt more than any training, race or injury I’ve ever experienced?How could I be so f***ing stupid?The boy who cries wolf ends…

These are workouts I have done and/or doing. I’m NOT a Crossfit expert. Just a guy who believes in the system and I’m a Firefighter.Warm-Up: Get warm for this one. You would hate to pull a hammy.Work:Do as many Sets as possible in 20 min:Bear Crawl: 50…

Two seasons ago I decided I was going to hit it hard, have a good year and if it were the “year to end all years” I would have that to savor as a great finish. Now as I pause in reflection contemplating the coming year, I find myself again wanting th…

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Current song: The Logical Song by Scooter. One of my favorites to help the bus ride along. Great for interval work too.Made it on the bike last night - finally! Didn’t want to go hard so I did Spinervals 18 “Aero Base Builder III” which is a great …

Every year that I’ve been blogging I write a recap of the previous year, and then a post on what lies in the year ahead.  Normally I do this late-January, but things got kinda busy, so I’m a little behind.  But no worries, I’m giving yo…

Today was “supposed” to be a recovery day. I was “supposed” to be flying out of town. Then life throws you lemons…. When you think something is too good to be true….9 times out of 10 it’s is. True love is a facade.It’s amazing the “power” I was abl…

We had all kinds of good times in Jasper on the weekend. I have a few photos to post but I am too tired to go get the camera and upload them. I ran 6 days in a row last week and broke through the 100km mark for the week. I felt great. Monday I ran and …

Here is the Air Foil in Race trim. Minus HydroTail.Kinda crap Pic from my phone, but still I am happy with how it looks.

As in, WEEKS.Work has been KEEEEELING me lately. This baby has dropped fo’ sho’, so I spend my time waddling like there’s a watermelon lodged squarely in my pelvis and trying not to pee my pants. It’s pretty much awesome.I did have a few good laughs …

Not sure why but I just couldn’t get on my sexy bike last night. For some reason I just wasn’t up for it. Ah well! It is still the off season. Two more weeks and I will have to be much more diligent.I did however do something else. Once again I ju…

It’s still really early in the season (if there’s going to be any kind of “season”), so right now I’m mostly logging time, trying to get some things straightened out while keeping/building some speed. Since commuting makes up the bulk of my base bike miles, the weather has kept me from my biggest miles. I’m still getting two solid rides on the trainer every week, with lots of threshold work. Add

I don’t have a coach. I don’t have a power meter. I don’t have a GPS device. I don’t run in Newtons, don’t ride on Zipps, and don’t own a swim skin.

I’ve considered purchasing all of those things. I’ve thought about spending money I didn’t really have on things I don’t really need, because they might (in most cases, will) make me faster. And in terms of improving speed, all of these tools are reasonable investments. I’m on the fence about Newtons (seems to me that they could go either way), but all the others, I firmly believe that they will make you faster.

But I’m not going to spend money on them.

Why? Because at this point in my training, they’re not necessary. Sure, I could probably ride faster with a pair of Zipps. And I could probably get more speed out of myself with a GPS device, a power meter, a coach. But the truth is that I can still get so much out of myself just by swimming, biking, and running, that the improvements I would see with a monetary investment aren’t necessary right now.

Hard work in the workouts is (right now) the most necessary thing for me.

Same goes for the workouts themselves. This year, I think I can drop 20-30 seconds off my mile pace in the 5k just by continuing the pattern of training I’ve been doing: long run, tempo run, intervals. There’s still plenty of room for improvement for me with getting all my runs done, too. So I probably won’t consider adding in additional workouts (hills, for example) on any regular basis until I see the current performance gains I’m making level off.

Chances are good that in a couple years I’ll start to see my improvements plateau; my times won’t get faster, my results won’t improve. That’s when I’ll consider hiring a coach, purchasing new training tools, upgrading my equipment. And that’s when I might start looking for new training methods, concentrating more on strength and plyometrics, re-evaluating my plan.

But for right now, consistency in working hard is my most necessary thing.

What’s yours?

Fear not my dear friend! I’m not gone mad (I mean more mad than b4)! or at least I won’t admit to that It’s just that I need to come up with a killer business plan before March 10 so I can win Venture Cup! That’s why at least for the next week or so …

AM Run - 60 mins10 min warm up16 min barefoot run5 min easy/back in shoes20 min hill repeats 10 min cool downPM SwimWarm up 1 x 500Drills2 x 50 - DPS; 102 x 50 - one arm stroke, 6-R, 6-L, 6 bothrepeat 3 xMain Set8 x 100; 00:20 rest - landed on 136-1:37…

Triathletes are always looking for the next best thing in terms of sports and general nutrition. A little sugar now and then never hurts though, right? 
Our very own Mary Ellen Bingham of the Trismarter.com Eat2Win Triathlon Nutrition team was called upon recently by Men’s Fitness for an article about the variety of sweeteners available. Say Mary Ellen, “Research […]

At the gym tonight I was forced to read Muscle and Performance Magazine…everything else worth reading (such as publications with factual information) was already taken.
In the article, entitled “TriHarder”, Lisa Palmer provides some tips for first-time triathletes on the swim, bike, run and, of course, in the gym (what else do you expect from a […]

thanks to my “old”er brother GB for the music recommendation.MGMT - time to pretend

Bad news: Had to skip the run today because of last minute work efforts. We’re on a looming deadline.Good news: All of my deliverables are done and provisioned on-site!Bad news: I finished at 1:30 so I didn’t need to skip my run.Ah well such is lif…