TRAINING UPDATE

Quick Training update-

I started my 9 day training cycle instead of the traditional 7 day cycle last week. We get so caught up on a typical week that we think training should just go along with the same process. So far, I am really liking it.

A couple notes that I took from some key workouts this past cycle.

1) I am horrible at pacing myself when Running fast. I always go out too fast and die at the end. A good friend of mine who is an extremely talented runner always tells me to trust my fitness. Meaning, I dont trust my self to go slow in the beginning to where I can run fast at the end and post a good time. Instead, I want to gain time in the first half and hold on the second. Yep, never works out for me. So I shall focus on that my next couple of cycles

2) My biking is finally coming together. Biking is my weakest out of the 3, it was swimming,  but this year I finally am showing some signs of strength here. I have a couple different routes/distances that I do as Time Trials and compare from the time before. 3 weeks ago I did a 22mile TT and did the same one this past Saturday. I went 1.30min faster this time around. I was stoked, but absolutely spent since it was right after a hard swim workout.

Other than that, nothing has changed. Work, Training, yard work, cleaining the house, and reading. That is my life and takes up my life from 4am-9pm. Very blessed and thankful though!

G

FILTERSFAST

A HUGE thank you to Filtersfast. They have supported me this year in a way I thought was not possible. If you need filters, literally any filter that exists (pool, air, water, car, pets), you can find it on their website at a crazy inexpensive price and have it delivered to your house in no time. My favorite product of theirs is the humidifier. Great for your office space at work and in your bed room at home.

Plus, they have this awesome charity going on right now. Free for you, all you have to do is log your walking/running miles on this website. Pretty cool!  http://www.filtersfast.com/w3/

HAMMER NUTRITION

     A big Thanks to Hammer Nutrition for giving me the energy I need each day for every training session. Their gels/bars/and drinks-preferably Heed-are all I need for my training.
     I also read one of their books, basically a nutrition guide, and the best advice I learned was that you always wake up hungry but your body trains better without anything in your system when you wake up but a gel 10-15min in the middle of your workout is ideal and this has helped me tremendously. Check them out, and save 15% on your first order online :)

TRAINING UPDATE

Good day everyone! Today is the 4th of July and it is rainy and dark. Which it has been this way for the last 7 days. I like it actually. When I went to Seattle Washington last year for a race, I had the pleasure to stay with locals there for a week and fell in love with the weather. Then again, I love our weather here in NC. All four seasons. Growing up in FL for 18 years, the one season atmosphere just was too boring for me and the heat was brutal sometimes.

Also, today- my bro is alone out on the boat on Duty(his fiance is a trooper and is at home doing her thing), my mom is alone, and my dad is alone. Definitely hurts when your so used to Holidays being all about family and doing whatever it was just as long as we were together. I look back and think about some arguments here and there but at the end of the day, I would take those any day over this feeling of knowing my family is all alone. But, thats life and you can only accept it. Plus, God is right next to me! :)

The last week or so of training, I have really dialed in on race specific workouts. Any race you enter in, make sure you do race specific training days. You never want to go into a race with any doubts. 

So I have been doing some swim/run workouts. Its definitely a different feel than your tradional swim/bike or bike/run. I also am implementing alot of speedwork. Im not doing a half marathon or marathon after the swim or the bike. Im doing a 10k and a 5k. Therefore, speed is crucial. Most of my training is 10k speed. If I do 5k speed training, then I might have a good 6-7k in the 10k portion of the race but the last 3k I will probably bonk since I wont have the endurance part. Same goes with the 1500m swim and 750m swim. Most of my swim training will be for the 1500m so I know i can maintain a good pace for the entire distance rather than just 1k of it. 

For instance, today- July 4th, I woke up at 4.30am- swam a 4k set with SwimMac Masters who are awesome and our coach is amazing. Then went to a local 5k to race in the middle of a 8mile run. I also wanted to cheer on one of the kids I coach who is 11 in which he did a 23min 5k... Then after 3 hours of yardwork, I did hard 1 hour bike session with a 3x8min workout in the middle and the goal was to hold a certain wattage. Which surprisingly went really well. So, today was one of those race specific days. Tomorrow i will run an easy 4miles and do some strength training so I can prep for my Saturday workout ;)

Here are some pics for you!

After a hard 23mile Time Trial bike, I had to stop and take this pic...

Long run with some awesome people, plus- that female is ranked in the top 15 in USA in the Half Marathon distance and can run a sub 2.33 marathon!

During this time of training, i read alot. No TV, just read.. However, Sox gets restless and looks at me like this, b/c he wants to play

After a swim workout on the 4th, in compression tights recovering with coffee and watching videos to get ready for my 8mile run w/ the 5k race in the middle

Our "That was painful" expression, and our "Lets Do it again!" expression. One of the kids I coach who I absolutely Love!

My front yard is getting there. Again, no tv means reading and yardwork to keep me busy!

My new backyard project. Love coffee out here, and Sox loves it too!

Thanks FiltersFast/Hammer Nutrition/Lululemon

12 Weeks to London

First let me explain my 2 races im training for. 1) Aquathon World Championship (1500m Swim/10k Run) - I qualified for this at Aquathon National Championships last year in Seattle  2) Sprint Triathlon World Championship (750m Swim/20k Bike/5k Run) - I qualified for this at Sprint National Championships last year in Vermont

The Aquathon falls on a Wednesday and the Triathlon is 48hrs later on the Friday.Oh, both races are at Hyde Park- London, England. So my training and preparation is crucial and it is imperative to get my muscles ready for that type of turnaround in these next 12 weeks.

Training began to intensify the last couple weeks. I raced our local track series 2 Tuesdays ago (2 days after our training camp that destroyed our muscles-see post below). I didnt know what to expect, I just wanted to push my body in the 1600,800,400, and 200. I got there 10min before the mile started so that was unfortunate. I ran the mile horribly and thought about dropping out after the 3rd lap but finished at 5.06 (last week I went 4.59). I told myself, that pushing my body when its tired is a good thing (sometimes). So, I finished with the 400 @ .58/59secs , the 800 @ 2.20min, and the 200 @ .25/.26secs. Then decided to pull a friend in the 5000 for 2200m at 6.25pace. So all and all, a great workout occurred and when I left the track I felt spent. Then this Tuesday, due to weather, i took my mile repeat workouts to the Treadmill. 2x1mile and I went 4.53, 4.55. While its on a treadmill, which makes it easier, I still was pumped with the workout.

I got back with my swimming group the last 2 weeks and plan on riding with them for the next 12(I swim with the masters team here who are blazing- Sub 11min for a 1000yds.. Thats fast!) Anyway- I was a little nervous to see how much swim fitness I lost. After a couple of 100m repeats,  I realized I didnt lose that much and after one more week I should be back in good form. Swimming is going to be crucial come race week. 

I have full confidence with the coaching team that I have surrounded my self with. A great runner in Chris Lamperski, the fast swim time I mentioned above is from my swim Coach Bill Davis, and a great strength Coach in Chris Shore who is a Certified Crossfit Coach. My chiropractor Dr. Greenapple is the best in the business. This is huge, to have a good core of people surrounding you wanting to help you acheive your goals.

This journey will be fun!

SC TRIATHLON TRAINING CAMP

Training Camp - June 2013

Thursday - June 7th 2013

7.32 am - I am sitting on the porch with a run done and sipping some coffee. I am with some pretty awesome Company. Chris - 2.36 marathoner, Kent - 25.29 8k, Daniel - 1.09 Half Marathon and 10k - 31.12, Billy - 2.38 marathon and 16.09 for 5k, and Glenn- great at smiling. I am the young one, of course. But luckily they accept my energetic, OCD, ADD, way too wired in the morning self. We are about to embark on our first workout together. I got my warm up done with already :) - they just woke up. But I did have coffee made for them.

 Anyway- I am feeling very thankful right now and just so excited to get in some unbelievable training. Alright. Over and out- time to go run!

9.52am - 2nd run done. This one with the guys. First 30min were extremely hilly and definitely a "wake the legs up" type feel for the guys. The next 30, not so much. The competitiveness with everyone already kicked in and 3 of us made a move to drop the others and succeeded. We were running sub 6 for the last mile and half and this was on steep climbs and the first workout of the camp. This weekend is going to be fun. 

I just made the 2nd round of coffee and cleaned the kitchen some. I am too much of a neat freak, and they went down to shower in the lake. Which I will be swimming a 3k loop in about 2 hours. Cheers- time to go eat!

2:25pm- Open water swim 1.5mile swim done. CL and Billy joined me which was nice since I was petrified of swimming on my own. The other 3 got on the boat and met us at the"The Cliff". I do not cliff jump, but when you have 5 other guys who do it and will talk about it all weekend- you have no choice.

Then wake boarding and water skiing went down. Yes- we ran/swam/and then wake boarded! God let the tropical storm miss us so we can train an absurdly amount this weekend. Next up biking...

6.50pm - This is my last check in for today. Holy Toledo! We just biked a crazy hilly route. Im not exaggerating. A total of 3,000 ft of climbing in a 25mile span. We were toast after it. 1.30 hrs of climbing on the bike. But of course, we decided to race off the bike with a hard run for 2miles. OH, then we did a 3 on 3 basketball game. We are not right!

Stats for the day

1.30 hour Run total

32min Open Water Swim

1.30 hour bike

3 on 3 Basketball

PIng Pong Tourny (this hasnt happend yet but it will :)

Good Night!

Saturday - June 8th

1:36 PM - Took me awhile to get to blogging. Definitely took us a little longer to get going this morning. I woke up around 6.30am and did a 2mile shake out like yesterday. But this felt like a 10mile run. I knew today was going to be a tough one. The guys woke up around 7.15am and we ate a hefty breakfast since our plan today was to ride long and then do a run right after. Thats just the AM workout. 

It was absolutely beautiful out for this ride. We rode 50miles (felt like 60 with all the climbing), and then dropped 2miles at 6.40pace right after. After that, I jumped in the lake and did a .5mile swim. We then just hung out in the lake for a little and now are grilling. 

Let me just say- we have put in some serious training already. We might be tired, but we are still rolling. I think right now we all can drop a fast 5k tonight if we wanted. Why? because you have 6 talented endurance athletes together all trying to one up each other and bringing out the best. Even better, after our workouts- we go back to just enjoying each others company and having a good time. 

Life is good my friends!

Sunday June 9th

11.38am - ok. we are officially dead. Every stair feels like a mountain to climb. Every step seems impossible. But- we still just nailed a hilly 10mile run at 7min pace with a couple of miles sub 6. Not that fast but after our last couple workouts- not too bad. The Sun greeted us again this morning. The lake is calling our name right now to go relax again. These guys are awesome! I just cant believe they were nailing sub 5.30 pace at the end of the run today. I held on for a little and then let the 3 speed demons go. 

This stuff is just fun. Simple as that. 6 guys, all with 40 hr plus jobs- most married or engaged (not me :)  and yet they all are up to anything. The motto for them is "Its training camp- its suppose to hurt!" Gotta love it!

3:15pm - Training camp has come to an end. We are all packed up. We just went out on the boat to have some more fun. But we are all pretty beat. However, we are also pretty sad. This was paradise! The 6 of us really jelled too. I cant wait to see what these guys have in store for the rest of 2013. For me, Tunnel Vision towards the World Championships in London. I cant wait and this was definitely a wake up call. To my muscles that is.

The best thing is most of us will be racing on the Track Tuesday night just to punish our bodies more. 3 guys will be going for a fast 5000m and I will be shooting for a fast 1600m. 

Shout out to Hammer Nutrition, Filtersfast.com , Lululemon, and Inov8. You all have made this year so enjoyable for me.

POISON IVY NIGHTMARE

Ok. The post below hopefully helps anyone that owns a dog. This post, hopefully helps anyone that gets poison ivy in the future.

First off, let me tell you one thing. Dont be stubborn and think its just a spider bite and itch away. This is when you are suppose to treat it. Not 5 days later :( - Like me. I got it when I was out in my yard last Saturday chopping away at branches with out a shirt on. Anyway- it spread like a wild fire on me. Pretty graphic so i wont post pics. So- I of course googled and went to twitter. I tried Calamine Lotion, Oatmeal Bath, Ice Cubes, and some Ivy Lotion. All great options and I am sure they knock it out right away if you Treat it right away. But if you dont and wait like me- you might experience what I have for the last 6 days. Extreme pain, No sleep and wanting to itch your entire body.

If you have had it for longer than 5 days, I hate to tell you but you are going to be in some pain for the next 10 days. :(

G