The only consistency is my inconsistency.Last week’s workouts sucked. This week I’m on a roll. I’ve done all my workouts this week, morning bike trainer rides and runs at lunch. If…no, when, I hit tomorrow’s workouts, I’ll have done 100% of my schedule. That doesn’t happen often. I don’t think it has ever happened. So I’m on a roll there, and I think I’ll hit 20 miles running, too.USMC

This past week was not so great. The only workout I got was a three mile run. No bike at all. Wow…what happened? Still not sure, but I know I was really tired and needed sleep, so I wasn’t getting up in the morning. Tera and Paul were both sick all week, so I think that was affecting me, and my body must have been successfully fighting it off. I didn’t get sick, but I got really tired for

This past week became a bit of a recovery with a test week. I got in only three trainer rides and no training runs. I was quite tired all week…maybe it’s something in the house because both Tera and Paul are a bit sick, and they’re both really tired and sleeping alot. On Saturday, I did my Physical Fitness Test (PFT) for the Marine Corps. It turned out to be a nice day. With a 1000 start, it

What happened this week?1. Goal was to ride for 60 minutes each day Monday through Friday. I did it Monday through Thursday, then had to watch Paul Friday morning when he woke up early. I did the ride on Saturday morning, so I met that goal.2. Run 15 miles. I got in 14 miles. Missed the Saturday run when Paul woke up early (again!) and couldn’t run after the bike. Was going to run during a

I’ve made a few changes to incorporate into this base period and see what happens.1. Moved bike cleat positions to all the way back. I’ve read a few things about cleat position, and being a relative newbie (only two seasons in the books), I still have a lot to learn about the bike leg in tri. I moved my cleats all the way back, thus moving my foot further forward on the pedal, which is where I

A review of the week:I biked each day of the week except Monday morning, when the alarm volume was down. I got in 45 minutes easy (Zone 2, Average Heart Rate 120), and it feels really good.I didn’t get in any runs because I was working through lunch. Lots going on as we do final preps for vaccination clinics for H1N1.Saturday I spent the day on the Madison River in Yellowstone National Park

I occassionally read Joe Friel’s blog (he wrote the Triathlete’s Training Bible). He provides some season summary questions at http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblog/blog.html in the Sept 27 post. Here are the questions and my answers:1. What was the high point of your season? Why does this stand out for you? Was it what you thought it would be at the start of the season?High point was probably

Below is my updated training plan for the 2010 season, starting Monday, Oct 6. This is the overall plan that doesn’t address details. I have a more detailed list of objectives and “how to meet the objectives” that I won’t be posting because it’s pretty long and requires alot of reformatting to go into this blog and be readable. I do think that the schedule supports the objectives and tasks to

This is officially the end of the 2009 season. More on that later…..First, let’s talk about food.Nutrition is a key element of triathlon. How do you get your kids to eat healthy? Put them by some fresh apples! Paul loves helping us collect the apples off our tree. He samples each as he crawls along. He also loves to inspect each and every apple by picking them up off the ground or taking them

Looks like I changed my training plan just in time. The weather turned from really nice fall days to snow today. No accumulation here in the valley, but the local mountains are white. Yeehaw! (I think).This is the first week of my winter training plan. Well, October through December, anyway, beginning this last week of Sept and first week of October. I’m simply scheduling a morning bike trainer

So, summer is officially over. Yesterday I came back from the annual late summer fishing trip in Yellowstone National Park. That trip is my “recovery” period, although it is usually lots of walking and quite physical because of the rock hopping, water-wading, and fighting all the fish(!). So now it’s MTB season. I recently got my front crank replaced after a few of the teeth on the small and

My race season has come to an early end. With so many trips in the past few weeks and more coming up along with a busy time at work, my wife and I decided I shouldn’t be doing the Bear Lake race. I agreed, but it is a serious bummer because that’s the race I could use to gauge my improvements this year because it’s the only Olympic distance I did last year. Consider: leave late Friday Sept 11 to

Back from Portland on Monday. The family time was great, and the race was fun. Here’s a quick rundown:9 of 30 in age group49 of 168 in men’s olympic2hrs 33minutes overall versus goal of 2:27 (90% of the difference is from the bike, and I missed my goal of 23 minutes on the swim by 34 seconds).Pre-race: went as expected. Up early and got a good transition spot. It’s so nice to have both T1 and T2

I’m ready for the Portland Triathlon. Packed and ready to go. Leaving tomorrow at 0615, any earlier and we hit morning traffic in Boise. Plan is solid. Training is ok (more consistency would make it great). Did a short bike last night. 20k in 40.5 minutes very easy. If time was an issue, I’d be happy with it. Stopped to see if a guy walking his bike was good…”Wife’s on the way,” he said. Gotta

Swam at lunch: 2×500 (7:22 and 7:28 @ 80%). I know I can do a 23:00 in Portland if I swim hard the entire time instead of worrying about using too much energy and not doing well on the bike and run. Was going to bike easy after work, but realized that I no longer had my race package with instructions and planning because of the computer crash. So, did the planning thing again, and I’m all set.

Wow, I’m still trying to figure out what happened yesterday, and already I have to think about what I’m doing on Sunday in Portland. Lesson learned: no back-to-back races next year.And my computer is crashing (BSODs!) after Windows SP2 update….damn it. That means all my planning thoughts and notes are gone for now. It should be an easy fix, but it’s beyond me right now. I’ve tried everything

Results from today’s race at Rexburg, “The Rush Tri.” I don’t have the official results, and I didn’t hang out for awards because I was pretty sure I didn’t get any hardware. Also, “results” implies placing and all that, but for me it’s just how I do against my goals….everything else is secondary. Below is a quick review of the whole thing, some splits, and a “goals vs reality” section to see

Happy guy after the finish. Don’t know results yet, but I don’t think I placed in AG. Lots of tough competition at this race that is basically a premier event.Paul missed the big finish. Too tired from cheering at T1 and T2.

Finishing my best race swim yet…gettin’ better every time. Don’t have official split yet, but my swim + T1 was 28:11, with a very slow T1 cuz I couldn’t find my bike even after practicing the entrace to the bike rack TWICE. After I left for the swim, all the sprint racers came in and filled up the racks, making it look differently.Going into T2. Feet were frozen at this point. Chilly Idaho

Wide World of Andrew: In Defense of FoodThis is a great article that was posted by Andrew Hodges and cross linked by Marky V.It echoes a lot of what I’ve been reading about lately and am now trying to avoid doing.Since learning, let’s correct that, bec…

Tomorrow I go to Yellowstone for a week of fishing (and hopefully catching!). I wanted to completely wear myself down this week, kind of like a crash week that I’ve read about, I guess. I got close. Had I been able to do a 40k bike followed by 5k run tonight as planned, I would be there. However, with 50mph gusts from a crazy front coming through, I decided I didn’t want to chance getting blown

Unlike the rest of the country, this is the worst time of the year in southern Arizona. The sun barely peaks over the horizon, and the heat is slamming you into the ground. It’s regularly been at 90 degrees or above at dawn for the past couple of days….

At lunch I swam a 1×1500 in 24:01. Time was slow, but I realized that I finally “found” the “feel” of a “good stroke.” Before all the open waters swims in May, I pulled through my freestyle mostly with arms and pecs, always wondering why I didn’t feel my shoulder roll and using my lats more…like I read about all the time. Back into the pool after five or so open water swims, I felt a change in

Big day today. Finally got my butt out of bed this morning and swam 1×1000 with 500s at 8:16 and 8:24. Water is still hot. My pace is way off of what it was last year, when I was swimming 7:40s and sometimes 7:30s, which were at lunch when I swim better because I’ve had a chance to wake up but still significantly faster than where I’m at now.Bike the Barton hill at lunch, but only twice because I

I did my Portland simulation route tonight on the bike. Tonight it was after dinner because of some errands. I didn’t run at lunch either because of errands.The bike workout had some strange results. I was full from dinner and it was quite windy, so I wasn’t expecting anything spectacular tonight….it was another case of “consistent workouts of any quality are better than inconsistent workouts

More yardwork on a hot Sunday afternoon. This time putting in some pavers where the sprinklers don’t reach and the grass is dead and there are weeds and some erosion. I got the pavers from a friend, who recently took them out of an area in his yard, of a house built in the 30’s. So I’m thinking the pavers are pretty old because they were about 10 pounds each (12″x12″!). These are not the cheapo

Today I competed in my first Ironman 70.3 in Calgary Alberta, which was a great experience. The pre-race, race and post-race breakdown is as follows:Pre Race - VancouverAbout 2 weeks ago, I started my vacation and the plan originally was to use the fir…

Sooner is thankful to be home from the kennel, although they love her there and call her “the Princess.”Paul’s workout machine, the Johnny Jump-Up. He can jump for an hour and not be tired!Paul in the swing. He’s “Mr. Safety” because he hangs on all the time.Our out of control grape vine is about ten feet from side to side. This photo was taken after we pruned it a bit. Lots of buds on it this

Thursday and Friday were brick days. Thursday was a long lunch with a 20k bike and 5k run…it went pretty well. I just set up a quick transition area in the parking lot of work, using the bike rack on my vehicle as the center. Shoes and water by the tires. After the bike, switch shoes, lock everything in the car, and grab a drink….it works great. The bike was faster than I expected, and

Back in January right before I started getting serious about getting in shape a friend of mine had told me she’d run a certain distance in a certain amount of time, which was a new best for her and was indeed a pretty good time - let’s say 5 km in 25 m…