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

DOG SWALLOWED A BASEBALL?!?!?

In the last 3 weeks I most definitely have been tested. But first let me say how Google is one of my main life supports. That and Twitter. Its amazing how many people on twitter came to my rescue when I asked for advice.

Anyway- i thought I can give my little piece of knowledge when it comes to your Dog either having a Stomachache (which I thought) or a large ball in his stomach. 

My dog is a Black Lab/Boardie Collie mix (see pic below), and is 75lbs. It started on a friday when he Threw up for the first time. I went my marry way and cleaned it up and praised him for not doing it on a carpet. The next day, 2 more vomits. The following 3 more. The 4 more days after that he was averaging 3-4 vomits aday. This is when I started to worry and thought he had a stomach virus. So- after research and twitter friends advice- I gave him pepto bismal, benedryl, fed him rice, and wet food. All of those are great things if your dog has a stomach ached. However, mine did not and threw up everything that was going in his mouth. 

10days later I took him to the vet (dont be like me and wait), the vet did his thing and thought that he had Rip Worms so gave me medicine for it. 3 days later, the same results occurred but even more frightening - he threw up 7 times on that Thursday. He kept me up all night as i might have mentioned this a little in my last blog. But yes- 2 weeks of very little sleep taking care of my buddy. 

First thing Friday morning, I took him into the vet and said- nothing is working, I desparately need you to find out whats wrong. After weighing him again, he lost 15lbs in 2 weeks. The doctor then said lets do an xray. I think he waited so long with this for 2 reasons. Most people try to avoid an xray due to the Fee, and when he felt his stomach 4 days ago- he didnt feel anything in there. 

So- right before the X-Ray,  i told him how much I need somehting to pop up on there or else we really have no idea whats wrong with him and he strongly agreed with me witch was a little scary. Anyway- this is what the X-Ray Showed.

Yes- thats a Flipping Hard Baseball. I dont even own a Baseball! 2 weeks in his stomach. Im pretty impressed with him to be honest. The fact that he swallowed it is impressive, and the fact that he kept pushing through for 2 weeks. Anyway- I hope this helps if you came across this on your google search of whether your dog has a stomachache or something else.

G

Racing and LIFE Updates

Good Happy Friday Morning To you!

Today, I will make a road trip to Maryland for my "A" race of the Spring/Summer season. This will be my 5th race in 2 months and 4th race in 6 weekends. While I am ecstatic that I am injury free and ready for an "off" week next week- Im more stoked that my body is feeling Fit! This is the race that I am treating like its the World Champs in September. What I mean is, after the race i will look at my training, my taper, my eating, and overall health and see if it was a good combo/formula leading up to race day. If so, then i will do the same when it comes to the leading days to the big race in September.

I have a 10th, 1st, 1st, and 4th overall finish so far in the 4 triathlons I have done this year. This one is going to be extremely competitive so to round out the top 10 again would be awesome, and if i feel really good- then who knows what place i will come in :)

This journey has been awesome. Even better is the road bumps along the way that really toughen you (or weaken you- but i think thats up to the person on what route they want to choose when it comes to these road bumps) . For instance, this week- my 5yr old dog has thrown up 24 times in 5 days. I have slept out side with him at night when he didn't want to come in (he always wants to come in- he hates being outside alone), I have had him throw up on me, I have picked him up to get in my car (he's 70lbs). I am not one to clean up messy/disgusting "stuff" but this past week- i have TOUCHED so much throw up that I think I can handle anything now (still- no way i can handle a kid). 

My good Retired friend who i have had coffee with for the last 5 years every Thursday, had to miss our coffee date the last 2 weeks because He will be starting Radiation soon on his Brain to stop a "disease" from spreading throughout the whole Brain. 

I dont have it bad, i know that! I actually feel that I have it Great! But these are just little things that have happened recently in my life that I didnt expect especially during a week where I just wanted to give my legs a rest for the race along with my mind. We all have that-ya know? You just assume life will be a normal day when you wake up and then BAM! Something unexpected hits you. Thats when you have to be strong, be adaptable, be willing and able, slow down, and be thankful that you are prepared to calm the storm rather than run away from it.  Embrace it! What the "It" is, just embrace it.. 

Life is Good my friends- You better believe it! I cant wait to race this Sunday! I will have a Picture blog next week of the first half of 2013 and all the journeys it brought with it.

SPRINT TRIATHLON WORKOUT

Hey friends!

I dont post many of my workouts into detail but I will break down a workout I made on the fly today since I will not be racing in Knoxville TN tomorrow. I was planning on doing this 3 races/3weekend stretch in the beginning of the year but mother nature had different plans. Any way, since i was well rested going into this weekend thinking I was going to race, I wanted to put my body through immense amount of pain :)

So here it is...

500yds swim all out
1mile run all out
500yds swim all out
1mile run all out
500yds swim all out
1mile run all out

Then later in the day- a Power test for as long as I can stand on my bike with a power avg. 50 more watts than normal (most of you i have lost now :)

Anyway- The people at in the pool thought i was a lunatic, and the people on the treadmills (1.0 incline) thought i was a lunatic b/c i kept on getting on and then leaving.

My fastest swim 500 was 6.14min and my fastest mile was 5.25min (avg. 5.30 for all 3 mi). This is a great workout I can build off of later on this year prepping for the World Champs and hopefully/should be alot faster.
I was absolutely Spent. Like Dead. I finished the last 1mile all out and wanted to fall over and just lie on the ground.

The other important thing was that I rushed from the pool to run,run to the pool all 5 times.

Anyone training for a race longer than a sprint, these workout would not be good since the muscle memory is for your short term muscle twitches. Basically, after an hour race- i would need some better than this workout.

Tomorrow- I run up a mountain! Twice! In the rain! Epicness!

Nutrition: One Hammer power gel, and too much coffee before hand.
Running Shoes: Inov8 (not just for Crossfit peeps :)

Later Gators,
G

FAITH TESTED TODAY - FAILED

Well- earlier this morning, an athlete confronted me poolside. He started throwing some words my way about my blog and God (see my blog yesterday) and my character. In return, I .................. jabbed back at him. Right away- I did the wrong thing. I should have let him get his anger out and accept the words that he wanted to express. But no, I had to yell back and throw more negative/nasty words his way.

No matter what one says to you, you should never let them bring out your worse self. In this case we both lost the argument because in the end no one wins these type of disputes. Even if he came at me wanting to fight- I needed to turn the other cheek. A good female friend was there witnessing this, and I felt so bad that she saw this come out of me.

AGAIN- if someone attacks you with harsh words, you should never return the favor. Building character is not easy, and even though there are setbacks like this- i can just hope i learn from them.

Greg