MY SATURDAY'S

So I thought I would give you a look into what a single, bachelor, triathlete, 40hr(ish) work week, and homeowner like myself, might do on a Saturday.

Today was one of the best weather days this year in Charlotte. Except for the wind but still really nice. Here is a time line with pictures!:)

4.15am - wake up (dog always needs to do his business at that time)

5.30am-6.45am- swim practice

7am-9am - Dog walk and coffee/breakfast/ipad fun/reading

9am-Noon - Cycling with an awesome group(look at the wind)

Noon-12.30pm - lunch/real breakfast

12.30pm- 2.30pm - Mow the yard and lay mulch down

3pm-5pm - run/gym/stretch

5pm - liquid food

5.30pm-6pm - Sox gets to play on the farm with his friend

6pm-7pm - Grill dinner/relax by the fire

7pm - write this blog

7.30pm - bake some healthy cookies

8pm - put together an Ikea table

8.30pm - go to the neighbors house to watch college basketball.

This is why I will always be single, but this is also why I absolutely love life!

The cool thing is though, as long as you dont compare your life to someone else's  you can have an exact opposite of a Saturday and yet enjoy life just as much. So cool, isnt it?? Have a good Sunday!:)

First Tri of year- Clermont FL

I like journaling on these trips daily so below is my journal from this past weekends race.

Friday Night - 3/8/13

In the hotel lobby just chillaxing! Hot tea and surfing the internet. Also, watching ESPN for the first time in forever. I must say, ESPN is the only thing I miss with cutting my Cable off. Other than that, so worth it!
Anyway- super stoked to watch an awesome race tomorrow. There are two races this weekend. One tomorrow, and another on Sunday which is mine. The one tomorrow, you get to draft off each other during the bike portion. The one on Sunday you dont. Which is the same rules for Worlds in September. So- yes- i get to watch tomorrow's race and study the course. Also, I will be training at the National Training Center here in Clermont FL before the race which is awesome.
I feel fit going into my first race. I have put in alot of work during the winter. Mostly a foundation for when the "Hard" training happens for Worlds but I think that i should be able to compete come Sunday and hopefully pull out a top 10 finish.
Last year- I had really good training blocks with really bad races . This year- I HAVE to go all in on every race. I also have to race smart. Anyway. Thats that. I had a good run this morning at 5am in the 25 degree temps. It was a good shake out run. Tomorrow will be a little more race specific workout. Then Sunday- We race!

Saturday 5.30pm - 3/9/13

Wow! Today was flipping awesome. I woke up at 6am, had oatmeal and then headed to the national training center. I did a swim workout at the 50m outdoor pool below. Then did a 3mile shake out run on the track and trails below (trails are in the grass field above the track). I felt pretty good this morning. Adrenaline is definitely kicking in.

Then- one of My best friend's Dad- George- came up and spent the day with me. We went and watched the Pro race (hard to watch knowing I can beat those guys) which was really fun and especially b/c George had no idea what my sport was really. So telling him everything was really cool.
A side note with George- Kyle who was like another Brother to me passed away 3 years ago from a freak accident. It was a death that touched many lives because of who he was. While it sucks not having Kyle around- it is refreshing knowing he is with me whenever and wherever. George and Chris (his wife) have been unbelieveable during the loss of their youngest child. They are such strong people with a faith that is unbreakable. And to have him here with me is awesome!

We went to a sports bar to watch the Gator basketball game and I had a beer. Yes, I had a beer before the race. I did this last year for a big race and I finished 2nd overall so I think it might be a good ritual. We will see.
After lunch, I napped then did a shake out bike workout. Felt really good during that. Maybe because its so flat here and im just use to all the hills in North Carolina. Anyway, time for dinner. Peace.

Sunday - 12.30pm
Alrighty! I love to race. That was awesome. Normally they break up races with heats. Like- An age group at 8, 8.15,8.30 and a collegiate group. Not at this race. It was a mass start. All athletes running into the water punching and kicking each other. Side note- this was the Florida Collegiate Tri Championship. That is One reason why I came to this race. I love going after competition rather than staying here locally.  Anyway- I will make this short since pics are so much better.

Swim- 9th out of the water, worked my butt off on the bike to stay up front but still lost a few spots, then gained them back on the run. I got my top 10 finish that I predicted. So nice here in Florida! Pics below of my little journey....

Road Trip

Why free coffee/hot tea/and hot chocolate all day at the hotel makes me the happiest person in the world- dont ask me!

An early swim at the NTC the day before the race

The trails are in the hills behind me and that track was awesome at the NTC!

George and I before the race. That water was chilly!

A healthy breakfast

I raced a swim meet last weekend as well. Look at the flippin Pool!

BOOK REVIEW AND TRI TRAINING UPDATE

My triathlon training update will be brief. I am feeling amazing. All 3 sports are progressing as planned. Cant wait for races to start. I will have a weekend journal on my races this weekend.

2 things to answer:

1) No, I dont have a coach. I coach myself
2) I train mostly alone. The races your alone, so why not train alone.

Ok. Now for the fun stuff! 3 more books read in February which gives me a total of 7 books for the year. 23 to go to complete my New Years Res goal.

My books were Life of Pi, Running on Joy, and Harry Potter #2.

2 really cool things have happend since my last Book blog. A really good friend who I dont see that much during the school year (he teaches and coaches) suprised me on a Sunday and dropped off 2 books for me to read. I had asked for suggestions last month knowing It will be hard to have 30 good books to read. A gesture so small, made my day. For him to reach out like that is awesome and I know he reads my blog :) Thanks JR!
The other mystery- I am still trying to find out who- A book came in the mail from Amazon.com but does not tell me who bought it. It is definitely a book I will read, so i dont think it was a mistake. Those 2 acts of kindness go along way.
Right now I have 5 books on tap (not including my Harry potter once a month). Which means... I still need help people. 13 more books. Recommendations are welcomed.

Lastly, I like to write down quotes in a journal that I really like from books so here are a few from this month:

Cross Roads
- The Holy Spirit telling Anthony who she is:
"I am she who is more than you can begin to imagine and yet anchors your deepest longings. I am she whose love for you , you are not powerful enough to change, and i am she whom you can trust. I am the voice in the wind, the smile in the moon, the refreshing of the life that is water. I am the common wind that catches you by surprise and your very breath."

Life of Pi
-Talking about swimming
"there was the deep pleasure of doing a stroke with increasing ease adn speed, over and over, until hypnosis practically, the water turning from molten lead to liqud light."

-"the presence of God is the finest of rewards"

-Talking about survival
"I will not die. I refuse it. I will make it thourgh this nightmare. I will beat the odds, as great as they are. I have survived so far, miraculously. Now I will turn miracle into routine. The amazing will be seen everyday. I will put in all the hard work necessary. yes, so long as God is with me, I will not die. Amen"


Book Review:
Life of Pi - Great until the ending. I dont do well with gruesome stuff
Running with Joy - A must read for all you marathoners out there
Harry Potter #2 - Its crazy to think Im getting obsessed with this geeky character. But- I totally am!


Books Read so far in 2013:
Harry Potter #1
Cross Roads
The Bleachers
MockingJay
Life of Pi
Running with Joy
Harry Potter #2

Have a good Wednesday. Shout out to my work. For the last 2 years -They have made Accounting the most fun occupation a man can have and they let me train at an elite level.

Also- cant flipping wait until Sunday (first race of the year)!

G

30 MINUTE TREADMILL WORKOUT

Hello my friends!

So, I have got some pretty awesome feedback about the 30min workout I gave you all to try a couple weeks back. Including one from a lady name Laura who came to me this morning at the gym saying how hard the workout was. I was ecstatic to know she tried it.

I have another one for you. Today- in Charlotte- its cold and rainy so a 30min Treadmill workout sounds really good. :)

5min Warm up

2x (4x .25mi) at your 5k pace. The 1st round- your recovery is as follows: 1st one- recovery is 1min, 2nd-.45secs, 3rd-30secs,4th-15secs.  Go immediately into the 2nd round. Recovery is the same. However, change your speed to .2 faster (keep it that pace for all 4)

Remaining time is your cool down time.

Note- jog very easy on your recovery. But when it gets to the 15secs only- just hop off and let the treadmill run- then jump back on to start #5.

Have fun! and let me know how it goes.

G

RUNNING TRAINING CAMP

Below is my Journal for the last 2 days of which was a Training camp with 2 really good friends at Uwharrie National Forest.

Saturday - Feb 16th 2013 - Uwharrie National Forest

Today has already been awesome and it is only 10:20am. Ryan F. and CL have joined me on what we call a Training Camp and Spiritual healing camp all in one. We all arrived last night around 8pm and just talked. They got to know each other and of course got along b/c they are such great people. While I am use to waking up at 4.20am and going to bed at 9pm - I pumped to know I got to sleep in for once on a Saturday morning. I wanted to come here with not a worry in the world and not care about time. Even better was that all our phones did not work. No TV. Just books and us talking.
I woke up at 5am (mental alarm I guess) only to hear the rain falling extremely hard on the roof. I also knew the temps were around 25 degrees so I went back to bed not feeling so enthusiastic. Cold temps and rain = miserable running weather.
Again, I woke up at 6.45 and felt restless so I "casually" walked over to the coffee maker to brew some coffee and to my surprise they both woke up ;). They then heard what I heard. The rain coming down. Not cool! We have a Long run, and hill workout run, and then an easy run all on this day. 3 Runs in this miserable weather. What could we do. Go back to bed and waste this trip away. I think not. I am in the same room with a 2.36 marathoner and a 15.27 5k guy who just averaged 5.24 per mile in a 14k race. And I, well- I like to think I am elite in the tri world.
Anyway- we put on our winter running clothes and started our first run at 7.30am. To our surprise- 6min into the run,the rain turned into Snow! A light floating, beautiful snow. As we are running in this National Forrest I could not help but thank God aloud. I was telling them how I think God saw 3 guys who have been stressed with the real world- One getting married in 3 months, another a single teacher who has the troubles of owning a home and the other an Accountant who for the last 2 weeks at work had to put in OT and the single home living as well. Its safe to say we all needed this trip, and God knew that. He turned a miserable weather day into a day that is indefinable. The snow was sticking, the wind was non existent, the only expression on our faces were smiles and the only noise coming from our mouthes was laughter. We just wanted to keep running but knew our legs would be gone on our mid day run. So we put in a 1.15hr run.

Got back to the cabin and I volunteered to cook. We had eggs/bacon/apples/bannanas/blueberries/and my Mom's specialty fruit bars that are all gone already. We decided to make our next run at 11.30am. This would give us around 2 hours of doing whatever. Ryan- read, Chris- slept, I- blogged and read.

Second Run - 1.02 hrs - 10x35sec hill sprints, 5x35sec hill skips
This one felt colder than the first. Not sure how, maybe because we mentally were prepared for cold weather in the morning and not so much for the 2nd run. We did a 20min warmup and got to an awesome trail with no rocks or roots- just dirt with a great hill. This is where we did our hill repeats with, of course, the 2 guys making it look easy and me not so much. After that, we did our cool down and were going to call it quits when we were at 45min in, but Chris said he was feeling good and wanted to add on a little so Ryan and I pleasantly agreed. The first 45min was in rain/snow type conditions. Then the last 15min, the same 15min that we were going to skip, ended up being the most fun we had of the day when it came to running. The sleet turned into snow, but not just any snow. Snow that was moving extremely fast but sticking. Our eyes were seeing white of everything. It was unbelieveable to be quite honest. Here we are, 2.15 hrs into our running for the day and we were on cloud 9. We swore the weather was going to be horrible. We swore our runs would not be fun. We did not swear God was going to be with us the whole time and that is where we went wrong!

So, we finally showered- ate some lunch. Fruit/protein bars/snacks. And sadly sent Chris off. His fiance was gracious enough to lend him to us for 1 night and 2 runs.

Ryan and I then had 3 hours to relax. We really couldnt sleep so I read some more as did he.

Third Run- 16min - Easy recovery run
We did this run at 4.30pm. The first 3min felt like our legs were cemented in the ground. Then, surprisingly, we both admitted how amazing we felt.

After that we quickly mad ourselves a fire outside. It took us 15min to start, but we were so determined to create a fire. However, once started- we were starving and went inside to make dinner and watched the fire burn from inside. On tap was chicken, peppers,carrots, and sweet potatoes. For desert cookies and brownies.

8pm rolled around and we were spent. Lights were off at 9pm.

Sunday
No alarm again was heavenly. I slept in until 6.30am today so that was nice. Ryan and I decided to just go out the door and get our last run done with rather than sit aorund and drink coffee and let the temps warm up.

4th Run - 1.25hrs - Easy Long run
Ryan and I were extrmely sore (More me than him). For the first half of this run I said the rosary to myself as I do this every Sunday run and he prayed as well to himself. The Sun was rising, the sky was the stereotypical color of Carolina Blue and we were just 2 little peons in this Enormous National Forest. Our last 20min we started moving at a good clip; I think because we were ecstatic that we made it through agrueling 24 hours of running.

8:30am we finished, brewed some coffee, made breakfast and relaxed once more.


It is amazing how Life stands still when you have no internet, no cell phones, and no TV. We all admitted that 2 nights is a good number. Anything more would be pushing it (sorry to admitt that, but I need my Twitter :).

Below is a pic of each of us with the cabin.

In the end- 4 hours of running (4 runs) in a 25 hour span (7.30am was the first run on Saturday and we finished the 4th run on Sunday at 8.30am).

Tri season is about to get under way for me and I CANT WAIT!!! For Ryan, he is hoping to break 2.40 hrs at the Boston Marathon. And Chris, a 2.32 marthon is in his cards within the next 3 years.Just a couple of guys who love the endurance life brought together and be apart of an unbelieveable weekend.

Just know- God is not good, God is Great. Never give up on him for He NEVER gives up on you.

Cheers Mates!

G

WHAT'S YOUR TREE?

I know I am not the only one that gets a little stressed here and there at the work place. However, I have done something for the last 2.5 years that has really helped me live a balance and stress-free (most of the time) life. Every time I leave work and head home to go do my next training block of the day, I touch this tree branch and by doing so- I release all my negative energy/stress/and work on that tree. It reminds me that all those feelings/emotions needs to stay at work and does not need to come home with me.

I read this 2.5 years ago in an article and have implemented it every work day since. I highly recommend you find your own "Stressed Tree" to release all those bad vibes on before you enter your car to go home from work. Your family, children, and in my case the dog and my mind will be very thankful.

30 MINTUTE TREADMILL WORKOUT

Top of the morning to you!

Its winter, its cold, and its rainy. You want to run outside but can't and you DONT want to run on the treadmill because it is soooo boring. So, you avoid your exercise. NOT TODAY!

Here is simple, but hard 30min workout on the treadmill that will or should go by fast for you. 


10min - Warm up - Incline at 0, Speed at your pace for your easy Long Run.

The next 14min - Increase the Incline by 1 and your speed by .1 every 2min. When you hit 20min, decrease speed by .1 and increase incline by 1 again. Do that at 22min as well. Start your cool down when the treadmill time is at 24min.

6min - Cool down - Incline at 0 and speed the same as your warm up.

Note: No stopping the treadmill.

I hope this makes sense to you, and I hope some of you try it.

Let me know how it goes if you do.

G