Fall is in the air

                 It's the end of September and fall is in the air. The days are still warm (low 80's high 70's), but the nights are getting chilly, running into the 40's. This means that the early morning runs are getting colder. I haven't had to bust out the long sleeve Zoot top yet, but I've had to switch to my Adidas running pants and a base layer shirt under a t-shirt. The other morning it was maybe low 50's when I got out on the run. A little chilly to start the 10k, but I quickly warmed up. Then during the run, it started to rain and cooled me off. Not a down pour, but just a light rain. I wouldn't have even noticed it if it wasn't for the smell of wet asphalt or the occasional puddle that showed the rain drops.
                   But with the season starting to change, the colors are also starting to turn to fall. Leaves haven't really started to fall yet, but the colors are starting to change and it's beautiful. It's funny the things that you notice while you're running. I didn't notice that the trees were starting to change colors before the run, but when I'm not zipping past those trees at 35+ while behind the wheel you start to notice the little things like that. It's the same way on the bike too. I've noticed different smells while being outside. The smell of the mint fields or onion fields as I ride past. The smell of the cows, or of the freshly cut hay. The smells that you don't normally notice while in the car. You also notice temperature and humidity changes as well. You don't realize how much cooler the air can be in the shade until you are roasting in the sun and hit a shady spot to go through. The humidity of a freshly watered corn field totally through me for a loop the first time I rode through it. All of a sudden, the humidity hit me like a while. I've experienced humidity while running when someone has their sprinkler's on, but the corn field was another thickness all together.
                   With the fall, the days are getting shorter, and that means that I'll have less and less of a chance to get out and ride. Even if I can get a ride or run in outside, the smells will be gone while old man winter comes resting his big cold butt over my corner of the world.

                     I've continued to get at least one, if not 2 swims in a week. I'm still just working on keeping good form, and building the muscle memory to allow it to be natural for me. It's frustrating at times, because I want to just dive in and do a 500 or 800 and call it good. But I know that doing that won't be beneficial for me at this time. I need to be patient and continue on my 50yd repeats and occasional 100yds. Instead of focusing on the long stuff, I need to worry about the right stuff. Swimming is such a technical sport where form is crucial and speed comes from strength and form. I have a friend who was a collegiate swimmer and former SEAL. He describes the proper swim form as the sensation of swimming down hill. I didn't know what he was talking about until the other day. The other day something clicked for just a couple of the repeats and I felt like I was swimming down hill. I felt effortless and speedy. Like I said, it only happened for a couple of the repeats, but it was awesome! Now I'm trying to get that feeling back. This morning in the pool there was a guy in the next lane over who looked painful. You could tell that he was working very hard, but not moving very fast. His hips were dragging below the water with his legs sinking down, he had very little rotation and pulled his head up to breath, with his arms constantly crossing over the midline. I didn't get a chance to talk to him much, but all I know is that he was swimming just for health and not for competition. He left before I could even offer some friendly advice.
                   All my cycling lately has been on the trainer, and all of that trainer time is at work. I've still been doing lots of Spinervals videos just to keep me entertained and doing something creative instead of the steady state rides for an hour. I've been averaging 3 rides a week with 2 of them just cardio/base rides, and the other a strength ride. Tomorrow will be the one year anniversary of having my bike, and while I haven't checked the numbers yet, I'm pretty sure I've logged over 1500miles in this first year. Not too bad I don't think for my first year of actual cycling. But that's nothing compared to my Capt who will have logged 6000miles before the end of November. I'm still reading the Time Crunched Cyclist book. I'm now at the chapter that actually talks about the programming and what it entails, but I think that I'll give it a go in January (maybe) and use that as my base for the cycling training.
Running is still about a twice a week occurrence for me right now. I'm trying to get a long run (10k) and some intervals done each week. Nothing too hard or pushing the limits right now, but enough to keep the blood flowing and the muscles reminded of what to do. I'm also trying to keep the strength and conditioning up, but there are good days and bad days of getting that accomplished. Ideally, I'd like to get 3 of the S&C days a week in, but that's pushing it I know.
                  Tomorrow is the REI garage sale, and I'm hoping to score some good stuff. Last year when I went, I got my Cycleops trainer for $52 and the Yakima luggage pod for $150. I hope to get some other great deals, but at the same time we don't have a lot of extra cash to spend on the deals. The big thing that I'm hoping to score is a Garmin GPS. I've been using my buddy Gabe's and it's worked ok, but I'd like to get one of my own and give his back to him. Ideally, I've I could score a Garmin 310, then I'd be stoked! It's a mutlisport GPS that can read a heart rate monitor and a cadence sensor for use on the bike

Back to training

               It's been a month since my last triathlon and it's time to get back into some sort of training routine. I haven't been lazy and not worked out at all, but I have been un-structured and just doing whatever. Last week I went for the group ride with some guys from work and it was awesome. We had 9 guys total join the ride. Everything from super serious guys like my captain, to guys just getting into riding. Guys on $4k bikes, and one guy on an old steel Schwinn bike. Just riding with the guys was great. We went on the loop known as Cartright loop and it's almost a 20mi loop with 3 good hills to climb. The first hill was long, but not terribly steep. It forced me into my small chain ring and large cog (25) but I was able to keep my cadence over 80 for the entire hill. So while I was winded at the end, it wasn't terrible. The last two hills though, were brutal! Very steep and a huge nut buster. I knew that we had the one hill, but was completely unprepared for the second hill. Both had inclines greater than 12%, and rocked me. I struggled in the same gearing as the earlier hill, having to get out of my saddle and mash the gears. I never looked at my cadence sensor through the misery, but I'd guess that I was in the 60's maybe. Maybe. After the ride we stopped for lunch and beers and hung out for a little bit before going our separate ways.

           The following day I got up early and did a 10k. I took the Garmin with me just to monitor my pace, but wasn't going to push it. I was mostly out on the road just enjoying myself and trying to not get hit by any cars that were making there way to work. I took a different route than I normally do, and must say that the new route wasn't very pleasant. No real shoulder to run on, and the spots that had the shoulder were up against some farm land and there were decent size rocks that I had to watch out for. My pace was decent, with my only goal was to stay below an 8min/mile. I kept a 7:40 pace for the first 4 miles, and then I hit my stride and busted out 7:05 miles for the last 2 miles. I got into a groove, and it didn't even feel like I was working any harder to get that speed. It was a beautiful morning, and I made sure that I wave a hi and thank you to those drivers who were paying attention and moved over for me.

               I finally got back into the water too. I say finally because I was missing the swim, although I wasn't missing the early mornings needed to get the swims in before work. My swimming now is consisting of pure form work. I'm not worrying about speed, only my form. Keeping a good high elbow catch and pull through the water is all I'm concerned about right now. I am starting with a kick board drill designed to encourage that kind of pull. After a few laps with the board I then move onto swimming at an easy pace with the focus being the stroke portion. Again, not worrying about my speed, or about my total distance in the pool. Next month I plan on buying a swim halo and that will further encourage the high elbow catch and pull and help build and reinforce the muscle memory that I will need to continue the good form through the water. I did end up timing my only 100yd swim at the end of my first form session just to get an idea of where I was speed wise. I did the 100yd at roughly the same easy pace that I was feeling throughout the morning. Nothing hard, just a steady pace that was moving through the water with my form being the most important part. If I had to guess my pace, I'd of guessed that I finished in the mid 1:50's range, that's how slow I felt and how little effort I thought that I was really putting out. Instead my watch revealed a much different story. To my surprise, I finished at a 1:31. This, I felt was huge. My cruising 100yd earlier this year, before the Boise Ironman was a 1:43, and here I did a 1:31 and it felt slower. I'm very encouraged about how it went. Here's a video of the kick board drill that I was talking about. The drill starts at the 3:05 mark and then the coach talks and shows the high elbow catch and pull that I'm trying to describe.

                Lastly, I was given a cycling book to read by my Capt, GT. It's called the Time Crunched Cyclist, and it's written by Lance Armstrong's cycling coach, Chris Carmichael. So far it's pretty good, and I think that I'm going to use it as the base of my cycling training leading up to the season next year. I've already started to spit ball my training, but this program will consist of 6hrs/week on the bike in high intensity intervals designed to build strength and power for rides up to 3hrs. A 56 mile bike for a half Iron should by right at that 3hr mark or less depending on how good my speed is. If I decide to go with this as my cycling program, I will then program my running around it, and try to keep the running <25% of the cycling volume (that 25% seems fairly standard for endurance training). The swim will be probably 2x week, with a third day on the swim halo. Then there will be 3x week of Crossfit with the emphasis being on strength and conditioning. That's the basis of where I'm at in the planning stages for next years training. But for now, I'm just trying to have some fun and work on some of the basics while I have the time.

11 years later

11 years ago the twin towers fell. I can still remember where I was that day. I woke up to my step-mom yelling at me to wake up from sleeping in the loft of their house. I stumbled down stairs and saw the towers fall. I grabbed my pager from work, and sure enough, there was a ton of pages asking everyone to come in and man the ambulances just in case. I decided not to go into work that day. I lived in the Los Angeles area and worked in San Bernardino county. My thinking was that if anything else was going to happen, it'd be in the city and not out where I worked. I had friends in LA City fire and Burbank fire, and thought that I could probably jump on with one of them if it really got bad.
11 years later and we are still remembering. I will continue to remember. My helmet has a sticker on the back that has the Fighting 343 for the 343 FDNY firefighters that were killed that day. We must not forget the fact that we still have troops on the ground fighting and dying to help prevent another Sept 11th. So long as there are those that are "down range" we must never forget them. We can not forget the sacrifices that their brother's in arms have made either. Thank you to those who have fought, and continue to fight for our freedom. Freedom is never free, and we will never forget you!

Happy birthday buddy

Happy Birthday! Not to me, but to my oldest boy, the one that I refer to as boy #1. The big man turned 6 yesterday and had a pretty good day. It was a day filled with a mini-mm's covered doughnut for breakfast. Happy meal lunch, and his dinner of choice, BBQ hot dogs and brats. Normally I would never feed him that much crap in one day, but it was his birthday and I let him get after it and enjoy it. The only thing he didn't have a choice in was going to church. After church we hit up McDonald's for him, boy #2 and their friend who was along for the birthday ride. After lunch was the family fun center where they played in the indoor climber, video games and then some mini-golf, followed by more climbing before heading home. Family came over for cake and ice cream after dinner and we had a nice night. Obviously no training was done yesterday, and I was totally fine with that. I'll update you more on the training in another post, but I wanted this one to be just all about him. Happy birthday buddy, mommy and daddy love you soo much!!!