Friday, August 29, 2008

09 Plan

The past few weeks I have been doing some research and allot of reading about IM training. Due to budget constraints for next year. I have had to make the decision that I cannot use a coach in 09. Which is unfortunate because I did find having a coach to be quite helpful in dealing with plan changes due to my occasionally hectic business travel.

But all is not lost!

I still have the training plan that was developed for me by John Hirsch last year in preparation for IM Wisconsin that as you know I never was able to compete in due to my accident.

So using that as a starting point along with all I did learn from John and my own experiences thus far. I figure that I can put together a pretty good plan for tackling IM Lake Placid.

To help out with the planning I have also been reading Going Long: Training for Ironman-Distance Triathlons (Ultrafit Multisport Training Series), as well as my other resources from my reference library ( I like using that word it sound important!): Triathlete Magazine's Essential Week-by-Week Training Guide, and The Triathlete's Training Bible (2nd Edition).

Overall planning is looking pretty good. And its also looking like my formal training will be starting in October. Looking forward to it. With all of this Learnin' that I'm doing I should be OK to handle any emergency plan changes that come up due to Business travel.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Forced Politics

OK at the risk of sounding like an idiot...Don't say it...I have a question:

Who decided that we ALL have to see the Democratic National Convention on TV? I mean its on all the major networks?

Seriously, what is there to learn from this. Obama is not even there at the moment, its just a bunch of folks there doing the Ra Ra Shish Boom Ba type of thing. I understand when Obama is there maybe as the future president we should hear what he has to say. But who cares about Senator Pork-barrel from Omaha, telling us from a 3rd person how Obama is going to change things.

Personally, put the greatest American dog back on, its a more thought provoking show

Monday, August 25, 2008

Recovery meal

Well I just finished a 45 minute EASY workout on the indoor trainer. No HR, no speed or pace, just easy spinning. Its just an exercise to get me off my sorry ass. I tried doing crunches the other day and felt a slight pain in my collarbone afterwards, so I decided to skip those until I done some more quality healing. ( no really, its true, this is not an excuse to get out of core work!)

Anyhow, I was able to progress on my reading of "Going Long" So it was a pretty efficient ride in getting two things done at once.

Anyhow now I am having what is maybe my favorite recovery meal, Black bean soup. LUV it! Being Cuban born eating Black beans is basically a standard thing. Yet as much as I do eat them I never get tired of them. They have protein, and carbs. To keep things simple I just get the Goya Brand Black bean soup, the one that are ready to eat. Throw in a dash of garlic powder and Adobo ( mix of different seasonings) And presto! recovery meal.

I also find this to be a great pre-race meal, one of the better known side effects helps keep people from Drafting during the race ;)

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Going Long

Reading "Going long" by Joe Friel and Gordon Byrn. I figured I would get some more pointers that I could use to improve my Ironman training. I have to say, the book is chock full of training information. I am just through the Training Overview section, where the book described training periodization, HR, Power and RPE training etc. If you are looking for an easy to read "How to" book, this is not it.




Not a book I would recommend for a beginner. You really have to be interested in the subject matter, and training specific information. However, if you are an experienced athlete, past your initial triathlons and are now looking to expand your knowledge, this is an awesome source of information. So far alot seems to be similar info as what is found in The Triathlete's Training Bible (2nd Edition) only that it is geared towards athletes who are focusing on training for a half or full ironman race.

Life Simplified

Well, all of this time sitting on the sidelines has given me an opportunity to see my life from a third person perspective. Its scary!

My god I was involved in so many things that I realized I could not focus on anything really well, but since I was in the middle of it I did not realize it because I was on auto pilot going from one event to the next. Here is a summary of my ADD like haze:

-IM Training, need I say more?
-Race with Purpose, I am a beginners tri coach there post daily, then plotting future training sessions etc
-Blogging
-Starting businesses, multiple... thinking up strategies for each
-Home remodeling projects- specifically making the tri-cave a reality
-Busy surfing the net for deals on Tri stuff I want
-Training SImba to be the next Great American Dog ( never applied but who cares?)
-The internet in general takes up at least 2 hours of my day
-JOB, The biggest distraction of all. Wish I could get rid of the need to work lol
-Then the latest and greatest distraction from life, TWITTER. Nothing better for an ADD type personality. Imagine being able to stop whatever you are doing and send a message to all of your friends that you are about to go to the bathroom! Better yet, they expect this! You are guaranteed to NEVER be fully focussed on anything ever again!

This is Just a few, there are more....so many more. But notice what is NOT on that list. Being home and enjoy my family.

I have a great wife and I do enjoy my home. She has not said anything to me but I know she would like me to maybe give my home a little more focus. I agree. Its not enough to come home to sleep. My wife is too good to just focus on her when there is an emergency.

I am a multi-tasker by nature, so I will always have several things in the air, but I need to modify the focus of those things a little. Keep things simple, and enjoy life. Did you know I have a HUGE deck with some lovely untouched woods out back. This weekend was the first time we went to get some outdoor furniture and actually enjoyed our deck. ( LOVE my new contained firepit!)

AT first sight my accident really was a bad thing, but there was a very good side benefit, I was forced to see my life from a different perspective. Like forced to be home lol

Now I better go and twitter everyone about what a waste of time Twitter is ;)

Friday, August 22, 2008

Sit back and enjoy

Today I decided I was actually going to use a vacation day, well for vacation. The weather looked great, low to mid 80's, sunny. What else can you ask for?

Lately all of my vacation time went to dr's visits and X-rays. So I took a real decisive move and chose to take a day off "just because".

So far I have done very well at it. I woke up at 10am! OK with a few little breaks from sleep that started at around 6AM, but none the less I did manage to mostly sleep between 6 and 10. Thats a record for me.

It is very new to me to get up and have nothing that I absolutely have to do. SInce I cannot train much I cant do that either. I mean I have some workouts I can do but they are 30 minutes, in my Ironman world where most workouts take at least 90 minutes and a pint of blood, that doesn't count as a workout. 30 minutes at a very slow pace is just goofing off.

So taking a day like this is pretty refreshing, I really needed it, there is allot going on at work, and in my life in general, so I kind of felt I needed to take a day to veg. I personally think that most people do not take enough time like this. I know I do not. My friend Erin recently wrote about the benefits of living a while with out her laptop or an internet connection, in her life unplugged post. It seems far too radical for me, but I can definitely see what she is talking about. How often do we take time to just enjoy doing nothing? I know that I do not do it enough. If I have a spare moment I just try to fill it up with something. I literally have 3 or 4 major projects sitting on the back burner for those days I get restless. Thats not counting my active ones (this does not count home maintenance because that is a given).

In about a month or so I will be given the greenlight to begin training more rigorously. To include swimming, regular cycling, and running. Although I do look forward to that day, especially for the cycling. I do realize that I have been missing something in my life a bit, I have been missing the sitting back and enjoy it aspects. I need to make it a point to arrange days like this a little more in the future.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

First Run in weeks

My last run was a short transition run on July 13. Today was my first run after my cycling accident that resulted in my broken collarbone. Per doctors orders, it was extremely slow with little arm movement. It was basically a shuffle for 20 minutes. It was great to get out and run in the sun. Get the cobwebs out.

Tomorrows I star a very easy training program, based on what the doc told me I could do. Its basically 30 minutes each day of cycling and running. Doing each on alternating days. Doesn't sound like much but , after todays run my shoulder was sore. So it tells me I am not going to be back to my usual work load in a while.

But it sure is nice to see a training plan stretching out before me.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Mossman Triathlon

Last Sunday I accompanied my Pal Christine (AKA Holistic Guru) to a Olympic distance triathlon being held in Connecticut called the Park City Mossman. Anyhow nice race but the tide was low at the swim start. Look at the results of THAT

I'm BACK Baby!

Ok Not completely, but after my last visit to the Doc I have received the Greenlight to slowly start running and doing Indoor cycling ( trainer or stationary Bike) workouts. SO I am already up on my Buckeye outdoors account working on a training plan (of course).

It will be a month before I can fully begin to run without care, and another month after that before swimming can come in but its something at least. makes me feel sooo much better. I just felt like a slug not being able to workout.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

I thought I had a problem with Dog poop

Flying piece of art causes museum chaos in Switzerland

Mon Aug 11, 3:26 PM ET

A giant inflatable dog turd by American artist Paul McCarthy blew away from an exhibition in the garden of a Swiss museum, bringing down a power line and breaking a greenhouse window before it landed again, the museum said Monday.

The art work, titled "Complex S(expletive..)", is the size of a house. The wind carried it 200 metres (yards) from the Paul Klee Centre in Berne before it fell back to Earth in the grounds of a children's home, said museum director Juri Steiner.

The inflatable turd broke the window at the children's home when it blew away on the night of July 31, Steiner said. The art work has a safety system which normally makes it deflate when there is a storm, but this did not work when it blew away.

Steiner said McCarthy had not yet been contacted and the museum was not sure if the piece would be put back on display.

********
The above story was copied from Yahoo news



Sunday, August 10, 2008

An evening at the Animal ER

So I am up blogging because I am awake. Too pumped up due to this evenings activities which I will spell out shortly.

In just an hour I have to go and pick up Guru to take her to the Park City Mossman Oly in Connecticut. This is her first season doing Tri's and I have been coaching her since May. This is Probably her last tri of teh season. She has been her A race. So I was planning on going to bed around 10:30 so I could get up at 4AM, to go pick her Up at Adams house in Scarsdale.

Then Life happened. The timeline below is an estimation. I only know for sure the time we initially left for the ER, because we looked the time to determine if it would still be open, before we remembered it was a 24 hour place. and the time we got there because I know I had blown speed records ( I of course had to log the speed and pace info ;)

9:00 in late from Home Depot played with Dogs out back. We feed them. Nothing unusual

10:00 Simba acting odd in that she is sleeping instead of annoying us with a tennis ball. This is worrisome. Check her out she has a small bump on her mouth, like a mosquito bite. Nothing else.

10:15 My wife calls out that something is really wrong with Simba! I walk over casually (while sounding alarmed) because unfortunately My wife is very picky about the dogs and considers svere fur tangles as emergencies. However, when I get to the living room, Simba's eyes were bloodshot, puffy and nearly closed shut.

SO we decide we better get to the ER because we have never seen this and it could end up affecting her breathing. I Try to stay cool and collected , but frankly this is freaking me out at how fast this is happening. I Forget my broken Collarbone, I picked that dog up and threw her into the back of the car. We are in shorts and ragged T-shirts, and fucken flip flops that really do "Flip and Flop" when you try and go fast. NOTE: Not recommended to use flip flops for racing or escaping murderers and any other such emergency

10:20 Her right eye is swollen Shut and she cannot seem to open it.

10:30 after racing at 80-90 MPH on Rte 684 we get to the ER in record time, with my Wife giving me a play-by-play "Simba is foaming!" , "She passed out!!!.... No wait she is awake!", along with a large volume of "Get out of the way you Fuckers!!!, MOVE IT!!" Retno( Wife) suffers from passenger road rage at times of duress. OK I was yelling "YOU SHIT-HEAD!!" a few times as well.

Once we entered the ER they took her right in and injected liquid benadryl and a fast acting steroid directly into her bloodstream, to counteract her allergic reaction. An hour later she comes hopping out of the treatment room all peppy except that she looks like she just went 10 rounds with the heavyweight champ.

12AM we get home and she runs off to the back and comes back with a tennis ball.

All is well

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Spaniards continue world Dominance

In the Cycling sports that is :)

Cycling Olympic Gold

Vote for Coach Adam!

The guy founded Race with Purpose which is a grass roots fundraising organization dedicated to helping childrens health and welfare causes. He has given tons of energy and effort to the community, So what does he ask for in return?....He wants to win a Rudy Project aero helmet.

Its all part of the Bfit challenge. which requires:

Take your age and in any order:

1) Swim the number of miles in the first number,
2) Run the number of miles in the second number,
3) Bike the number of miles in the combined number.

So Adama 43-year-old athlete did:
1) Swim 4 miles
2) Run 3 miles
3) Bike 43 miles

So the site is having a competition on who can garner more votes.

So Hey if this is all he asks for after all he has done well I can easily do my part...Vote for Coach Adam!!

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Cheat the system

OK so I have been thinking that a bike upgrade to do next year is to go more aero. However I want to do it on the cheap. So I will be getting an aero helmet ( no brainer at 100+ bucks) they say it may reduce drag as much as a set of disc wheels.

Finally I am considering purchasing Wheel covers. Wheel covers go over the spokes on the wheel same as disc wheels. In fact they look like disc wheels. my understanding is they reduce drag, just not as much as true disc wheels. But here is the beauty, they cost 75$. For 75$ I can try them out.

The only bad thing is they do not do the cool woosh noise that you get from the real thing. It sort of announces you to the folks up ahead. Maybe I can tape record that and play it as I ride ;) or stick playing cards in my spokes to make a different yet very cool rapid fire sound.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Time for a new start

Well now that I have been sitting around for a few weeks recovering from my croken collarbone, I feel a moment of clarity. Its odd, up until this morning I think I was still too heavily invested in the current season to really let it go. Or shall I say I was in the process of letting it go. Mentally I was geared up to do IM Wisconsin. Possibly a marathon in the Fall.

What I was not ready for was several months not able to do anything at all. So I think it has taken me a few weeks to truly adapt to that. Logically I was able almost instantly to shift over and say I am injured and cannot do the IM this year. And so I was able to do what needed to be done to shift all my races over to next year. However I was not able to shift my planning over. Although I had all the time in the world I simply could not sit down to make decisions about it. Instead I just vegged. Which perhaps is the best thing I could have done for myself.

Aside from my training I am also going through potential career changes. Good changes. But changes none the less. So it was good to have an opportunity to clear the plate and reorganize so to speak.

This morning I feel ready to plan for next year.

Next year I already know I am doing the IM Lake Placid. So really my planning involves identifying when I can start training for it. I also have budget considerations to make. I have the money to continue as is with my training, the question is do I want to?

By that I mean, each year I have upped my game a little. Last year was the year of getting a carbon tri Bike, and a coach

Next year? I would like to upgrade, and I have a budget to add somethings but I do not have enough to upgrade everything. For example do I shoot for aero wheels? Or do I take the same money and get a Garmin, aero helmet and maybe wheel covers that would simulate aero wheels? How many races should I do? etc Cost is a factor what with every half ironman now costing about $300

I have to balance all of this out with the fact that I have a house and family obligations. We have allot of upgrades to do for the house. So I would actually like to set a budget for next years tri goals so that I know Thats what I have to work with and that my other parts of my life will not be suffering because of it. So these are the decisions I need to make. Finally I feel a little clear headed about these. In a way I needed to simply my life a bit, my broken collarbone in a unplanned and brutal fashion accomplished that lol

SO as far at training time goes, here are the facts the Doc says that I will require 3 months before I can fully get back to triathlon training. Meaning he does not recommend swimming or any exercises that use the shoulder until then. So that leaves out Swimming. My plan is to give myself the full amount of time needed. So I will not be doing any Tri training until November.

That still leaves me with 9 months in order to prepare for IM Lake Placid which is plenty of time. So I am not really worried. Between now and November I should be able to gradually get back to cycling and running, so that I can slowly begin to build a base again. In a way I will be starting over as if I have not done a thing all year. I remember reading somewhere that it takes only two weeks of inactivity to begin to lose fitness. So in three months I will have lost alot of fitness. Oddly enough thats OK. I'll look at it as a fresh start.

I'll keep you guys posted as to what happens from here.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Surgery

Well yesterday I had the surgery to fix my broken Clavicle. Entered the Ambulatory Surgery center at 6:30 AM and out by 11AM. It went pretty smooth from what I can tell. The procedures was done to put a metal plate across the broken clavicle in order to keep it in place. I had asked the doc if they could use a Carbon Fiber plate so as to be sure that the weight was kept to a minumum ;) No luck .....its stainless steel. I just hope he at least shaped my shoulder to be more Aerodynamic in the water like I asked.

So anyhow, I will be spending this weekend in recovery mode. The pain from the surgery is quite bad. Bad enough that it actually stops me from doing anything, which for me is saying allot. I am generally quite good at ignoring pain. But this is pretty intense. They gave me a generic form a percosett(sp) to manage the pain, but it really just dulls it a bit and makes me sleepy.

If anything this injury has provided me a real example and plenty of evidence about how the body does employ many muscles throughout the body for performing even the simplest of acts. Basically anything that requires the tensing of the core, affects my neck and shoulder, ths causes pain getting up out bed for example, even if I do not prop my self with my right arm, I still have to prop up my head because the strain on my neck is unbearable. So although I knew this from reading and yes training, there really is no clearer demonstration than some shooting pain whenever I forget to support the correct muscles when doing something.

The only plus I get out of this is a chance to sleep like never before and also time to plan for my conquest of the triathlon world next year. Also I get pampered hand and foot :) My wife, she's a good kid.