About Me

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Texas, United States
Welcome to my blog. What is a triathlon? It's a swim, bike and run usually in that order. My goal is to give exposure and insight to triathlons along with encouraging living a healthy life style. My post will also contain my collective thoughts pertaining to my training experiences. Feel free to send an email to ej@trilifeblog.com with any feedback or questions you may have. facebook: www.facebook.com/TriLifeBlog

Sunday, August 28, 2011

"To Hotter'N Hell and Back" Recap....

Put a fork in it, the “To Hotter’N Hell and Back” weekend is done. I’d like to throw a huge thank you to Lisa, Alexander, Eric, Ron, Ryan, Keith and Steph of the Tri Junkie triathlon club, Bicycles Inc. and Patterson RV of Wichita Falls. The support of my fellow club members and sponsors made this a successful trip. Each member had their own personal goals for this venture and I’m certain we all walked away with our goals met.

I treated this three day experience as a training weekend. My goal was to use the hours on the bike to help me prepare for IM Florida. I wanted to gain the mental and nutrition preparation needed for my IM event. I was very pleased with the turn out of the training session.

Here are the stats and a brief summary of the three day ride. Below the stats are some pictures of the ride.      

08-26-2011 Friday Day 1 – Springtown to Wichita Falls
Distance: 85.58 miles
Time: 4 hours 19 minutes
Pace: 19.7 mph
Elevation Gain: 2,225 feet
Calories Burned: 5,668

Ride Summary: Hilly and maybe 20 miles of chip seal made for a pretty rough ride. We had a break about every 20 miles. Towards the end of the ride the road was pretty smooth but, by then the temperature was hot as was the air that hit us while we road. I made sure to take in a recovery drink, consume a lot of calories and get a leg massage to recover for next day’s ride.

08-27-2011 Saturday Day 2 – Hotter’N Hell
Distance: 101.51 miles
Time: 4 hours 34 minutes
Pace: 22.2 mph
Elevation Gain: 1,090 feet
Calories Burned: 7,201

Ride Summary: I meet up with my fellow tri Junkies for the early morning start of the 100 mile ride. There were thousands lined up on the street waiting for the early gun. I was glad that I was able to ride with fellow Tri Junkie Joe. He is also training for IM Florida and I knew our cycling level was pretty even. We took it easy the first 10 miles and averaged 18.5 mph. The crowd was very thick and we did not want to risk an accident. When the crowed finally thinned out we were able to push a solid pace averaging 23.4 mph for the rest of the 91 miles. It was just the two of us for the duration of the ride we helped pull each other through the route. This ride was fast and flat. I repeated the same recover drink and calorie recovery along with another leg massage to prep for the last ride of the weekend.


08-27-2011 Sunday Day 3 – Wichita Falls to Mineral Wells
Distance: 100 miles
Time: 5 hours 3 minutes
Pace: 19.8 mph
Elevation Gain: 1,915 feet
Calories Burned: 6,723

Ride Summary: The final day. My quads were a bit sore when I woke up. I hit them with some Bio Freeze before we headed out. We elected to take a different route back. I had no idea what to expect. The route had not been scouted. Personally I felt that this ride was the toughest one out of the three days. I could place some of it on my fatigue however there was a constant head wind and several long gradual hills. Day one had the largest of the three day’s elevation gain however the head wind was not that bad.


Totals and averages for the three day ride:
Distance: 287.09 Miles
Time: 13 hours 56 minutes
Average Pace: 20.6 mph
Elevation Gain: 5,230
Calories Burned: 19,592








Put a fork in it the “To Hotter’N Hell and Back” weekend is done. I’d like to throw a huge thank you to Lisa, Alexander, Eric, Ron, Ryan, Keith and Steph of the Tri Junkie triathlon club, Bicycles Inc. and Patterson RV of Wichita Falls. The support of my fellow club members and sponsors made this a successful trip. Each member had their own personal goals for this venture and I’m certain we all walked away with our goals met.

I treated this three day experience as a training weekend. My goal was to use the hours on the bike to help me prepare for IM Florida. I wanted to gain the mental and nutrition preparation needed for my IM event. I was very pleased with the turn out of the training session.

Here are the stats and a brief summary of the three day ride. Below the stats are some pictures of the ride.      

08-26-2011 Friday Day 1 – Springtown to Wichita Falls
Distance: 85.58 miles
Time: 4 hours 19 minutes
Pace: 19.7 mph
Elevation Gain: 2,225 feet
Calories Burned: 5,668

Ride Summary: Hilly and maybe 20 miles of chip seal made for a pretty rough ride. We had a break about every 20 miles. Towards the end of the ride the road was pretty smooth but, by then the temperature was hot as was the air that hit us while we road. I made sure to take in a recovery drink, consume a lot of calories and get a leg massage to recover for next day’s ride.

08-27-2011 Saturday Day 2 – Hotter’N Hell
Distance: 101.51 miles
Time: 4 hours 34 minutes
Pace: 22.2 mph
Elevation Gain: 1,090 feet
Calories Burned: 7,201

Ride Summary: I meet up with my fellow tri Junkies for the early morning start of the 100 mile ride. There were thousands lined up on the street waiting for the early gun. I was glad that I was able to ride with fellow Tri Junkie Joe. He is also training for IM Florida and I knew our cycling level was pretty even. We took it easy the first 10 miles and averaged 18.5 mph. The crowd was very thick and we did not want to risk an accident. When the crowed finally thinned out we were able to push a solid pace averaging 23.4 mph for the rest of the 91 miles. It was just the two of us for the duration of the ride we helped pull each other through the route. This ride was fast and flat. I repeated the same recover drink and calorie recovery along with another leg massage to prep for the last ride of the weekend.


08-27-2011 Sunday Day 3 – Wichita Falls to Mineral Wells
Distance: 100 miles
Time: 5 hours 3 minutes
Pace: 19.8 mph
Elevation Gain: 1,915 feet
Calories Burned: 6,723

Ride Summary: The final day. My quads were a bit sore when I woke up. I hit them with some Bio Freeze before we headed out. We elected to take a different route back. I had no idea what to expect. The route had not been scouted. Personally I felt that this ride was the toughest one out of the three days. I could place some of it on my fatigue however there was a constant head wind and several long gradual hills. Day one had the largest of the three day’s elevation gain however the head wind was not that bad.


Totals and averages for the three day ride:
Distance: 287.09 Miles
Time: 13 hours 56 minutes
Average Pace: 20.6 mph
Elevation Gain: 5,230
Calories Burned: 19,592

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

To Hotter'N Hell and back

I remember completing my first 100 mile ride back in August 2009. It was Hotter'N Hell. A good friend of mine talked me into doing the event. I had 7 months of cycling under my belt and I was a bit skeptical about being able to complete the 100 miles. For a newbie it seemed like a daunting task. My friend and I went a head and got the ride done. I remember being pretty sore and tired for a couple days after the ride. I was happy about the accomplishment. We had a moving pace of about 20 mph. I thought we did a good job considering our experience.

I missed HNH in 2010. I tried to sign up too late and was not able to secure a place to stay for that weekend. That year a friend of mine and her cycling team set out to do a Hotter'N Hell ride and back. I thought those guys were nuts and I could not ever see myself doing that type of three day ride.

Well here we are August 2011 and I'm about to embark on a To Hell and Back ride with 6 other fellow TriJunkie members. We are going to start in Azle on Friday and ride our bikes to Witchita Falls. We'll do the 100 mile HNH ride on Saturday and ride back to Azle on Sunday. If we complete the three day tour we'll put in about 300 miles. The route we scouted had 20 miles of chip seal on it. I'm not looking forward to that. I'll have a blog entry on Sunday to recap our ride.

Best of luck to all my friends and fellow cyclist riding this weekend. Be safe and have a fun ride! My advice for this weekend is to listen to your body it knows you best. :)

..ej

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Week in review – Working out with a Pro

It was a productive week. I was coming off an injury from the previous week so it felt good to get through this week injured free.

A couple weeks ago I was fortunate to have met local triathlon pro, Brent Poulsen. He has a great personality and brings a positive mentality to his workouts. He’s a seasoned pro and I enjoy picking his brain about the sport.

Every now and then I have a humbling experience. I enjoy them as they allow me to reflect and refocus on my goals. On Saturday Brent, Madison and I put in a 45 minute run after completing a 4 hour CompuTrainer ride. Brent had two by 12 minute intervals to do. I figure I would go and hang with him as long as I could. I lost him after the first mile of the run. Back at Mad Dog’s training facility we all gave each other the good run acknowledgment. Brent hit his run interval goal of a 5:30 pace. And that my friend is the all mighty humbling moment.

Brent and Madison did push me faster than I would have normally gone out if I was running alone. I was very grateful for that experience and can only set my bar hire to hopefully someday to move up to the next level.

Tomorrow is a big rest day for me. This upcoming week is going to be a bit different as I will move my workouts around to accommodate the “To Hotter N Hell ride and back” ride. I’ll drop a post about that ride in the next day or so.

Work out totals for this week.
3 hours swim
7 hours 15 minutes bike
4 hours 30 minutes run
14 hours 15 minutes total workout time

As always any questions or comments are more than welcome.

Train hard and smart..!

..ej

Saturday, August 20, 2011

IM Florida Catch up


Here’s a little write up to bring everyone up to speed on when I got started and where I stand with my Ironman (IM) Florida training.

For my first IM I decided to self coach. What does that mean? Well when training for triathlons you may either elect to self coach or higher a coach. I made the decision to self coach because I felt I had the discipline and motivation it took to follow a training program.

I found a 36 week training program online which I thought would get through the 140.6 mile IM race. It was broken up into two parts, a 26 week pre-season cycle and a 12 week competitive season section. My training began one week after I ran the Cowtown Marathon back in February. I’m wrapping up week 3 of the competitive season this Sunday. This puts me at week 25 of 36.

I approached this season differently than my previous two seasons. This year I strayed from tapering before my events. To taper is to take it easy or take a day off or two before an event. I had 18 events this year leading up to IM Florida. Last year I would have tapered before each of those events. This year I did not taper plus I included my workouts into the events. I treated them as training sessions. If I had a sprint tri on Sunday but, had a long run or bike to do I would take the time to complete the sprint tri and deduct it from my workout session. If there was a difference in time I would complete the time difference after my event.

I’ve been pretty fortunate to not have had many injuries this season. I’ve had to lay my bike down a couple of times during training. Thankfully it wasn’t serious. Three and a half months out from the IM event I made a decision to reduce the injury risk factor by moving most of my training rides indoors and onto a Computrainer. I get that grunt work done at the Mad Dog Coaching facility.

Keep any eye out on my blog as I slowly fill the gaps. I’m going to discuss my thoughts on swimming, running and cycling in separate pages. I’ll go into more detail on the Computrainer and what a great tool it is.

Thank you for reading my blog. If you have any questions please feel free to shoot me an email or leave a comment.

Train hard and smart..!

..ej

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Team Wheaties Fuel Sponsorship

I'm excited to have been selected to represent the inaugural 2011 Wheaties Fuel team. I've been given some race gear and plenty of Wheaties Fuel cereal. This product was released in 2009 and was created for the active athlete. Co-Creation team consisted of Hunter Kemper, Peyton Manning, Kevin Grnett, Albert Pujols and Bryan Clay (gold medal decathlete). I plan on handing out samples to all my fellow triathletes and friends to allow you to sample this great product.

I've enjoyed Wheaties Fuel since it came out in 2009. This sponsorship is a great fit for me.

Train hard and smart,

..ej

Just about there..

I think I have my blog about 90% complete. Here is my first training log entry. I had a 1 hour run this morning which was really rough. Not sure why but, it took me 20 minutes to get warmed up. I had a 20 minute tempo and 4 by 250 stride work as my main set. I ended up finishing and feeling strong. My body was pretty tired through out the day and I had no idea how it would impact my after work ride.

I put 1 hr 30 minutes in on a computrainer. I was pretty pleased with the end result. I'm going on week 4 of using a computrainer. I decided to do the majority of my cycling on it for the last three months of my Ironman training. I hope it pays off.

I have plenty more to come on daily training thoughts an experiences. If you read one of my posts and have a question. Please don't hesitate to ask. I'll try and get back to you or post a response so all can see. It may be a common question. I may just create another page and name it "Questions and Answers"

..ej

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

My first blog entry

This is all new to me. Please bear with me as I become familiar with the ins and outs of this application. I'm looking forward to posting my daily training activity and thoughts.

..ej