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!!

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.

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.

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.